Mountain Climbing Time Management
Avoiding Altitude Sickness
Entrepreneurial and mid-level leaders derive great satisfaction and energy from jumping between tasks, but often don’t really consider the operating level at which they lead. Over time, this constant flexing from Earth View (big picture) to Street View (operational tasks) can leave a CEO, Founder, or leader-manager completely depleted by the end of the day, week, or quarter.
Moving into the next phase of your leadership will require you to be more proactive and attentive to the way you transition from one mode to the other. Each of the three levels of focus—Earth View, City View, and Street View—requires a different degree of consideration and taps into a different part of your brain. Shifting from one gear to another takes gas and uses up critical mental energy reserves.
I liken this constant in-and-out zooming to running up and down a mountain several times a day, or even several times an hour. I don’t know if you are a mountain climber, but I am not. Even if you aren’t, you’ve likely heard of altitude sickness. There is less oxygen at the top of the mountain than at the bottom. Altitude sickness occurs when a climber escalates too quickly and does not give their body time to acclimate. To safely reach the peak, climbers need to pace themselves and take the time to adapt to the new environment.
This same phenomenon happens in your leadership brain when you jump from a big picture lens to an operations lens within a short period, for example, during the same meeting. Your mind cannot adjust that quickly to a move from strategy to functions. This leads to poor energy management and greater attention and output required to perform relatively simple tasks.
If you are sick of feeling drained and out of focus, it is time to become a mountain climber!
Key Takeaways
- Begin to recognize when you are operating at each level of leadership (Street View, City View, or Earth View)
- Reflect on your meeting habits with your team. Are you good at separating operational meetings and strategic thinking meetings?
- If not, schedule a quarterly strategy meeting to provide a place for all strategic conversations
- Start thinking about grouping similar activities. I schedule all of my one-on-ones on Fridays and do them back-to-back
- Begin to think about how you are managing your transition times from one level to another
