Your Manager Workflow System:  The Daily Routine that Protects Deep Work

Deep work can be a challenge to maintain within a manager workflow system. Professionals and leaders in any field can struggle in this area, but for those overseeing teams and deliverables, another dimension of responsibility and work volume is introduced. 

Focused, deep work requires a calm environment, free of distractions so you can think and do the “producing” associated with your job, but managers are often torn between multiple tasks and unable to carve out this space effectively.

Without a system of organization to protect essential “quiet time”, bottlenecks and goal pacing will begin to run off course for an entire team, or operation. This is why workflow as a skill is an important process to master to remain productive, and yet, it is difficult to refine our habits as managers with so much going on.

The daily workflow challenge for leaders

The reason managers have such a difficult time finding space for deep work is due to being constantly pulled in different directions to fully support their teams and / or clientele.  No matter your specific title – entrepreneur, COO, VP, Director – helping others and having items that need space and concentration to complete can create a struggle between the “quick work” and “deep work” sides of your workflow. 

The negative effects of losing deep-work-time will ripple if left unchecked, but with best practices and organization, you can create long-lasting systems that move with volume surges and challenges, rather than being derailed by the atypical.

How do I stop my task list from growing out of control as a manager?

Say you are doing a weekly brain-dump routine list to outline everything you have pending, but this time, your list is out of control. The more you write down and think through, the more you realize how many tasks are in progress and need attention, as well as deliverables that are around the corner. You wonder how the hell you are doing to get it all done…and by the time you need it…

A growing task-list for a manager is a sure-sign of a workflow bottleneck that is on its way, if not already manifesting its ugly head.  As a business owner, “bottleneck” is my least favorite type of scary-monster that keeps you up at night, and I’ve battled him more than once.

My workflow breakthrough: slaying the “Bottleneck Monster”

Don’t feel bad for me quite yet, though: the issue came from a good (and of course, conflicting) place.  We were having a lot of success as a school, even though we were at the max of what the school could hold, so there was an element of “not wanting to miss out on the opportunity” that was driving us forward and creating so much work we just had to do. 

It was a war of wills at that point with maintaining what was there and progressing forward, but also meeting my human limitations. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of the churn cycle, and there were no solutions at the ready.

But if you know me and the AstroCat brand, you know that we push through, and we finally got it under control through a systematic plan of action.  It did not roll out overnight, but within 7 months, we were finally back on track…and in a sustainable way, even still.

What was the game-changer?  A two-part workflow solution that evolved the entire management infrastructure of my business

Part I:  I realized the number of tasks I had to complete on my end in a day were too dense for any human to accomplish in a week.  Though I needed to get everything done on my list, I had to be realistic and pick what was most crucial out of the pile. 

Accepting that there can only be 3-5 important items in any day – and those will need space to complete – was a big mental shift for me.  It also forced me to really consider “what actually matters in my business?” 

• What makes money? 
• What creates a better product and community? 
• What is essential, and what is a must-have?

Part II:  I accepted that I needed additional administrative support on a full-time level to expand my capacity and that this would take me making an investment in my business.  This person would need to be able to do everything I could do in my role to be flexible and the greatest asset to my workflow.  So I created a W-2 position for a full-time assistant, which became an Assistant Director role within 2 years.

I realized early-on in scaling my admin infrastructure that keeping my assistants moving with their tasks and free of bottlenecks gave the me the flexibility to receive more support when tasks started to pile up on my end.  The addition of this role gave me an outlet for effective delegation of important, but not urgent items.  I maintained the risk of bottle-necking on my end, but with the assurance that now, someone could step in to help me out of it when communication volume surged.

With these two solutions, I experienced a sustainable change.  I was able to clear my business’s backlog systematically with my newly-formed team and not lose a beat on our sign ups (see best practices below for techniques).

Even more importantly, though, my own schedule was down to a neat 40-45 hour work-week, and I felt like each day was productive at the end.  I had space for deep work in my schedule, as well as the daily work that needed immediate attention.

How do I plan my week so urgent work doesn’t destroy my deep work schedule?

The reason my solution for both the bottlenecks and deep work succeeded back in 2023 is due to one feature of my plan:  Flexibility.

Flexibility is needed in a manager workflow system to fully serve a team, or organization, because businesses are dynamic.  They are like a living organism that needs sensitivity and care.  You should be able to jump in when you are needed without it completely delaying a month of your progress, or sending you into a tailspin. 

There is also an element of practicality in any good manager workflow system.  As a leader, you know that the unexpected will happen.  An emergency will need your attention at some point.  For this reason, you will not be able to fill up every working hour with a responsibility, or project and stay on track.  Something will pull you away, so making space for that distraction will actually lead to success.

Manager workflow best practices: create daily time for deep work

We have complied a list of tips and strategies for establishing deep work time in your schedule based on the ideas that worked for us at AstroCat.  Use these suggestions to get your initiatives moving forward and start clearing space to focus. 

1. Plan large blocks of “deep work time” in your calendar in advance (by the week).  Having at least one “clear day” per week with no commitments, and two additional days with very few calls / meetings, would allow me enough time to get through larger projects and initiatives.
2. When starting the day, make your “most important items” list BEFORE opening your computer, or phone messages.  Literally write down the 3-5 most critical objectives of your day and the items you HAVE to complete, and let this short list be your guide…”If I get nothing done today except these 3 things, it will be a successful day.”
3. When you first get into your communication channels on any day, limit your “pass” and scan-through of your messages to a set amount of time (I like 30 mins as my limit). 
   • In that 30 minutes, I would clear my messages that needed just a quick answer so they were out of my way and out of my inbox.  Any responses were limited to “one tap”, or one reply before working on a larger project.  Anything urgent would be moved up in our triage of priorities, but any other items fit into planned working time on that category of tasks.
4. Work on the 3-5 items you want to finish that day BEFORE starting other tasks – including more email, social media, or phone communications!  Like in my own story with workflow, starting with a smaller list of 3-5 items to do, rather than 70+ emails staring back at me gave me the mental space to actually work through my objectives for the day and finish them. 
   • Calls and returning messages were easy to squeeze in between larger project items, and having larger tasks to fill up the day helps with time management.
5. Schedule short conversations and follow ups to avoid losing time in the moment, but still offer timely and professional assistance.  These are 10-20 min conversations that come up organically in our day when someone needs our help, or feedback on an idea.  Or even customer-service support. 
   • Of course, if you can comfortably and easily assist a team member in the moment, they often have a higher priority than the client.  This was the case with my music school, where teachers were also a point of contact for a number clients they oversaw in their groups. 
   • However, not every conversation, or question, is worth stopping your deep work to address.  Most conversations will not be urgent and should be scheduled through an interactive calendar, or via any method of communication (email, phone, etc).  The point is having a set time to work on a question together and undistracted.
6. Over-anticipate how much time you will need for “quick tasks” in your schedule.  As a leader, it is inevitable that you will need to help with putting out fires for your staff, and / or clients.  Or, you may have a large number of new sales leads coming through that will need your attention, but have not yet come through.  When you estimate high on the distracted time you will need, you are guaranteed to have enough space in your schedule to break away without getting too far off course.
7. Most importantly – set realistic goals with your workflow and cut the tasks that are not contributing to your goal.  A tough decision in refining my workflow in 2023 was revising a number of items I could work on in favor of the most essential tasks that would fit.  I also condensed items like lead follow ups down to 50% of the original process to give more priority to the contacts that were likely to sign up. 

With these best practices for a manager’s workflow and a consistent objective of creating time for deep work, businesses experience movement and success.  Leaders feel less stress and more productivity. 

How you can prioritize daily tasks and protect deep work time:  a path forward

So many times, bottlenecks and delays with reaching goals are due to the items we cannot find time to finish as leaders and managers.  The ripple effects of the delays pile up, and we get stuck, or burn out.

This leads us to a logical conclusion that leaders and managers should be the most attentive to planning for deep work time, but this isn’t the case in reality.  It’s not due to any type of failing either.  As humans, we want to help those in our care, and managers are responsible for people. 

Without good boundaries, discipline, and a plan of action to create time for deep work, it is very easy for this space to be taken over by the next-emergency-du-jour.  This is all a lot to consider when you are already overwhelmed!

The answer for ending the spin and the churn are flexible processes – like a dynamic lead follow up system – and protecting your time by scheduling out the important, but not urgent, conversations that can side-track your focus.  Together these strategies will allow you to triage your day successfully and focus in on the key items YOU would like to accomplish in the day.

The result for managers, owners, C-Levels, and any professional tasked with overseeing a team is more peace of mind, workflow ease, and progress you can feel in your organization.  Deep work is powerful and makes things happen for your business when you commit to it.

Are you struggling to find a simple task management routine to ensure deep work happens every week?  We help professionals by analyzing their current needs and developing personalized solutions for managing it all. 

Contact us to learn how you can take your leadership skills to the next level, and start moving your company forward.