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Management
How to Be Less Reactive and More Proactive
If you’ve ever reached the end of the workday only to realise that you haven’t done anything on your original to-do list, here’s what you can do about it.
‘I have no time to think strategically.’
‘I feel like I don’t have space to breathe.’
‘I’m totally overwhelmed.’
Even if we aren’t saying it out loud, these are statements that every manager can relate to. Startups are non-stop. Every closet is full of skeletons, waiting to jump out and surprise you.
While we might be tempted to shrug this off as par for the course, the reactive pattern of continuous fire-fighting poses a number of risks for leaders:
- Among the barrage of other people’s priorities, important issues can go unnoticed.
- The overwhelm, stress, and cognitive load has a massive impact on performance.
- Short-term decisions are taken when a long-term solution would be better for the business.
Given the immense challenges involved in starting a new business, how are founders and managers supposed to find time to be more proactive?
Reactive Time vs. Proactive Time
To become less reactive, you have to understand the difference between reactive and proactive time.
Reactive time is spent working on other people’s priorities. Here are some examples:
- Answering emails — your inbox is a long list of other people’s priorities.
- Dealing with inbound issues — when staff, investors and customers come to you with their challenges.
- Attending operational meetings — weekly catch-ups, sales meetings, and other meetings with a fixed agenda.
- Giving one-on-ones — coaching team members to go through their agenda.
- Reviewing work — providing feedback on work and testing new features.
Proactive time is spent working on your own priorities, such as:
- Prioritising your tasks — the process of writing out…
