Jacqui d'Eon - Blog #time managementJacqui d'Eon - Blog #time managementhttps://www.jacquideon.com/blog/tag/time-managementWed, 06 May 2026 18:27:26 -0700http://zoho.com/sites/<![CDATA[Leaders Lead More than People]]>https://www.jacquideon.com/blog/post/leaders-lead-more-than-peopleStrong leaders don’t just manage people; they also ensure that systems run smoothly. Understanding and optimizing your organizational processes is an essential practice of effective leadership.]]>
AI-generated image of binders on a desk.
AI-generated image

Strong leaders don’t just manage people; they also ensure that systems run smoothly. Understanding and optimizing your organizational processes is an essential practice of effective leadership.


Here are five key steps to strengthen your workplace processes:


1. Engage with Direct Reports

Ask each direct report to walk you through their workflow. By listening and observing, you gain real insight into daily challenges, spot inefficiencies, and offer more targeted support.


2. Facilitate Collaboration

Bring together employees with similar tasks to analyze their workflows collectively. Combining best practices into a shared process not only improves efficiency but also builds ownership and teamwork.


3. Document with SOPs

Turn the optimized workflow into a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). A clear, step-by-step guide ensures consistency and quality, and saves time onboarding new team members.


4. Build Accountability

Hold staff accountable for following the SOP. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions reinforce consistency while creating space to address challenges early.


5. Review and Refine

Spend time observing the new process in action, gather feedback after 30 days, and make adjustments. Updating SOPs regularly keeps processes aligned with reality and supports continuous improvement.


Healthy leadership means treating process improvement as an ongoing habit, not a one-off exercise.


By engaging your team, fostering collaboration, documenting clearly, ensuring accountability, and reviewing progress, you create a culture of both efficiency and empowerment where people and processes thrive together.

]]>Thu, 02 Oct 2025 12:34:44 -0400<![CDATA[Four Questions to Calm]]>https://www.jacquideon.com/blog/post/four-questions-to-calm2While there are many causes of workplace stress, digital overload can scramble our ability to focus, make decisions, and feel in control.]]>
Ai-generated image of woman exec in a seated yoga pose
AI-generated image

Feeling buried in notifications, emails, and endless to-do lists? If constant digital distractions leave you anxious and frazzled by 3 p.m., you’re not alone – 60% of Canadian employees suffer from workplace-related stress. 


While there are many causes of workplace stress, digital overload can scramble our ability to focus, make decisions, and feel in control.


Why does this happen? Our brains are wired to handle occasional stress, but ongoing interruptions trigger a survival response – fight, flight, or freeze – that shuts down the part of the brain responsible for clear thinking and problem solving.


The result: frustration, black-and-white thinking, and poor decisions.


The key isn’t working harder; it’s slowing down and using these four questions whenever overwhelm strikes:


1. What am I thinking about right now?

 Pause and check in with your thoughts. Naming them helps regain focus.


2. How do I feel?

Notice and accept your feelings without judgment. Acknowledgment diffuses anxiety’s power.


3. What else could be true?

Challenge your assumptions. Is your workload impossible, or just a lot today? Could talking to your boss help?


4. What action will I take?

Decide on one next step, even if it’s simply resting for the day and tackling the issue anew tomorrow.


Want to know if it’s working? Check if you’re clear on your next step, confident in your plan, and feeling calm. Write these four questions somewhere visible in your workspace.


Use them often. They’ll help you break the cycle of stress, regain clarity, and work with more calm and control, even as technology’s demands keep growing.

]]>Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:13:07 -0400<![CDATA[Is Work Draining Your Energy?]]>https://www.jacquideon.com/blog/post/is-work-draining-your-energyFeeling like your schedule is packed to the brim? Your calendar's almost entirely booked, your to-do list keeps growing, and your smartwatch keeps nudging you to stand up…yet, somehow, you still feel behind?]]>
AI-generated image of a frustrated businesswoman at a desk piled with papers.
AI-generated image

Feeling like your schedule is packed to the brim? Your calendar's almost entirely booked, your to-do list keeps growing, and your smartwatch keeps nudging you to stand up…yet, somehow, you still feel behind?

If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. Many executives find themselves caught in a cycle of unproductive meetings and energy-draining interactions.

The good news is that by managing your time more effectively, along with your team’s, you can boost productivity and improve your overall well-being.

Here are some practical tips to help you take control of your calendar...and your life.

1. Focus on Your Top Priorities


Start by identifying up to five key goals or projects you want to accomplish this year. Aim to dedicate about 95% of your time to these priorities.

Why just five? Because focusing on a small, manageable number helps you stay sharp and avoids spreading yourself too thin. If you try to juggle 10 priorities, your attention gets divided, and important things start to slip through the cracks.

2. Audit Your Collaborative Interactions


Take a close look at how you're spending time collaborating with others. Categorize your interactions into three main types:
  • Decision-making: This includes complex or uncertain decisions (like investments) and routine but cross-cutting decisions (such as quarterly reviews).
  • Creative solutions and coordination: Think innovation sessions (like developing new products) and daily check-ins.
  • Information sharing: This involves one-way communication (like videos) and two-way exchanges (like town halls with Q&A).

Once you’ve categorized these, consider making adjustments to ensure each interaction serves a clear purpose and adds value.

3. Make Your Meetings More Effective


Meetings often become a series of presentations or general discussions. To improve them, start with a clear goal: what decision needs to be made?

Knowing this allows you to craft an agenda that’s focused and outcome-oriented, saving everyone’s time and energy.

4. Optimize Your Team’s Master Calendar


Creating space for your team's most important priorities requires an honest review of existing commitments.

Leaders should evaluate which meetings and activities truly support strategic goals, and which are just habit or tradition. Don’t be afraid to cut or reschedule meetings that no longer serve a purpose, freeing up time for what truly matters.

5. Prioritize Your Well-Being


Lastly, don’t forget to nurture your own resilience and happiness. Engaged and thriving leaders often have outside interests - like running clubs, book groups, or dinner gatherings - that add dimension to their lives. Maintaining these connections helps keep work in perspective and fuels your overall well-being.

Conclusion

Mastering time management isn't about doing more; it's about doing what matters most with focus and intention. By honing in on your priorities, streamlining collaboration, making meetings more purposeful, optimizing your calendar, and caring for your well-being, you’ll find yourself not only more productive but also more fulfilled.

Remember, a well-managed schedule is key to a balanced and successful life - so start taking control today!
]]>Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:48:49 -0400<![CDATA[10 Golden Rules to Accomplish More]]>https://www.jacquideon.com/blog/post/10-golden-rules-to-accomplish-moreI am a busy person. What I have learned over the years is that when I allow my calendar and busy-ness to overwhelm me and make me feel stressed, I accomplish less and get behind on projects.]]>
Image of a digital calendar on a computer
AI-generated image
I am a busy person. What I have learned over the years is that when I allow my calendar and busy-ness to overwhelm me and make me feel stressed, I accomplish less and get behind on projects.

Fortunately, the calendar is the very tool that I use to help me keep my balance. Every week, I gauge my progress on my goals and assess my balance both by looking back and looking ahead. I have learned a few tricks along the way, and I call these my 10 Golden Rules for balancing a busy life. I hope these will help you achieve your balance:
    1. If it needs to happen, put it on the calendar (and use only one!).  I have tried many scheduling options over the years. I’ve tried paper, I've tried calendar and project lists, I’ve used several online options. The one thing that works for certain is to use only one calendar. If you are part of a project team that keeps a separate calendar, put milestone dates on your personal calendar and add a note to yourself to check the team schedule regularly for changes. You can also add reminders about when your credit card statements are issued, when you need to follow-up with friends and clients, birthdays and anniversaries, etc. Schedule weekly commitments as recurring events.
    2. Commit to your calendar. If you need to attend your child’s school play or sports event, put that on your calendar complete with travel time. That way if someone asks for your time during that event, you won’t disappoint your child and you have the will to say no and negotiate a different time for the meeting. One of the tricks I use for this is to colour-code events that cannot be compromised.
    3. Carry your calendar with you at all times. If you are using an online calendar, this is easy and you can see it on your phone. If you choose paper, carry it with you – this will be an important consideration when you purchase your calendar. Why carry it? Inevitably, you will meet someone or see something while you are away from your desk, and you will be able to check your availability as well as suggest alternate dates on the spot.
    4.  Everything takes time, including travel. This commandment is important for two reasons, it can take 30 minutes to travel just a few blocks if you live in a large city, so putting travel time on your calendar for geographically dispersed commitments ensures you don’t jam yourself up. Murphy’s Law would suggest that even the simplest tasks often take longer than you expect.
    5. Allow time between appointments for “work.” This is a bit of a corollary to “everything takes time.” Even if you only need a bathroom break, it is impossible to attend one meeting until 10 AM and be at your next meeting at 10 AM! You need to end the first meeting a few minutes before 10 or start the next one a bit after 10. Keeping people waiting or leaving a meeting early is disrespectful to others. So many people go from meeting to meeting and then do their “work” at night or on weekends because there is no time in the day. If someone else is managing your calendar, make sure they protect work time for you.  Also, it is a good practice to have some flexibility to enable a meeting with someone else to run slightly overtime and for you to write your notes before you move on to the next thing.
    6. Log it and forget it. If there are recurring things you need to do, put them in your calendar.  Whether it is paying bills, remembering birthdays or vacation dates... if you put the dates in your calendar, you can forget about remembering them because you can always look them up.
    7. Focus. When the time has come to do something, try very hard to be “in the moment” and give it your full focus.  Dividing your attention or worrying about the next thing only means it takes longer to complete the task.
    8. Be flexible. If everything that needs to happen is on your calendar, it is easier to make decisions about dates/time that can be flexed to accommodate unplanned opportunities. But be careful, if you flex too much, you may lose sight of your priorities.
    9. Treat yourself for a job well done. I have a number of hobbies and, like most people, I would rather pursue them than work. So, when I have a lot to accomplish in a day, I try to treat myself with a bit of time on a hobby when a task is complete.
    10. Write a To Do list. With all the calendaring, you might wonder why this is necessary. I find a To Do list written at the end or beginning of each day helps to solidify the goals for the following day and how time will be spent. Try to identify the three things that must be done each day -- the rest of the list may reflect “should’s” or “could’s.”

 Life isn’t perfect and even the best plans can go askew, but spending a bit of time understanding your time enables you to feel more in control. And when you do that, you will accomplish the things that are important to you.
]]>Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:21:00 -0400