by Robert
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: most of your problems aren’t going to just disappear. Even if you address them, take care of them, and find a solution that seems to make a noticeable improvement, they’re likely to stick around. Why? Because the root causes of many of your problems are beyond your control, whether in your professional or personal life. This is why the promise that many advisors, coaches, and so on make is simply wrong: “Here, I’ll give you a simple tool (think Pomodoro, Eisenhower matrix, or something similar), and after that, you’ll never have a time management problem again.” The truth is, your time management problem will still be there. What you’ve found is a temporary fix. But as soon as you stop using these shiny new tools your problem will resurface, just as it was before.
Let me give you a few more examples:
- Take mail management.
At some point, you probably decided to get your overflowing inbox under control with a new method—maybe by processing emails in bulk and only touching each one once. For a while, it feels like you’ve hit the jackpot. You’re in control, your inbox is manageable, and you’re no longer buried under a mountain of unread messages. But then life happens. Deadlines take priority, and you start slipping on your email rules, falling back into old habits. Before you know it, your inbox is back to its chaotic state. The relief was only temporary because the problem—too many emails—never really went away. You just managed it well for a while.
- The same thing goes for team meetings.
Let’s say you’ve realized that your meetings are unproductive, with vague agendas, poor time management, and little follow-up. So, you introduce a fixed agenda, insist on everyone being prepared, and stick to a strict schedule. At first, the results are great: meetings are shorter, more focused, and the outcomes are clear. But give it a few weeks, and people start getting lax. The strict adherence to these new rules fades, and the meetings gradually revert to their old, inefficient state. You’re back at square one, wondering why nothing seems to have really changed.
- And as a last example: trying to maintain work-life balance, especially in academia.
I saw a tweet last week that said, “This is what work-life balance looks like pre-tenure. Work! That’s it. Nothing else.” So, what do you do? You set boundaries, decline additional commitments, and carve out time for yourself and your family. At first, the change feels great. You feel more balanced, less stressed, and like you have more control. But then the pressure of grant applications, paper submissions, and teaching responsibilities creeps back in. You start taking on more than you should, and soon enough, those boundaries blur again. And then you’re back to the same plan: set boundaries, decline additional commitments, and carve out time for yourself and your family. The cycle starts over because the underlying problem—”Work!” (see above), meaning an unsustainable workload—was never fully addressed.
So, after all this talk of problems that never truly go away, let’s not lose hope. There’s still room to improve our situation and make lasting changes. Here’s how:
- Some problems can actually be fundamentally solved
It’s true, and it usually starts with the small, everyday issues. Machine broken? Call a technician, get it repaired, problem solved. Then there are the bigger issues, and while their solutions may be more challenging, they’re often still obvious. For instance, your lab or office space is bursting at the seams because your team has grown. The solution? Get a larger workspace for your team. Implementing this might be tough, but it’s fundamentally doable, and once you’ve done it, the problem is solved for good. Then there’s another category of problems that might be solvable in principle, but the solution isn’t immediately clear or not feasible.
- Find the root causes and root solutions of your problems.
The systems we talked about earlier can definitely improve your day-to-day situation, and that’s great. But as I mentioned before, they don’t solve the real problem. As soon as you stop using these systems, for whatever reason, the old problem comes right back. So wouldn’t it make more sense to tackle the real issue head-on? Take email, for example. You could cancel all your newsletters once a year. Let people know it’s better to call you instead of playing email ping-pong. Block senders of unsolicited emails right away. There are probably a thousand other things you could do to address the root problem of too many emails.
- Create systems that help you maintain your systems.
Like I said earlier, most of the changes you introduce or have already introduced to your team can help improve your situation. But the question is, how do you make sure these systems stick in your everyday life? My answer: with systems! And I mean systems that help you and your team stick to the new rules. Let’s revisit the team meeting example. You’ve set up a system that ensures an effective meeting. To make sure this system lasts, you should always take a moment at the end of each meeting to reflect on how well everyone followed the rules and where things might have slipped. This keeps the pressure on to stick with the plan. We used to have a rule that whoever was late had to bring a cake next time. You could also agree that if you finish early, you all go out for ice cream. Get creative. Ask yourself: What will help me maintain good habits and prevent slipping back into bad ones?
- Automation is your friend. Think about automating your systems.
The beauty of automation is that your new habits won’t disappear on their own; you’d have to actively stop them. For example, if you automatically move certain emails into a folder to keep your inbox clear for urgent matters, you’re not likely to abandon this system—as long as it works for you. Similarly, if you automate the transfer of data from one system to another, you’re not going to give it up easily because it’s just so much more convenient and efficient.
So, always keep in mind that you should:
- Try to understand the root causes of the problem and find solutions for them.
- If no solution exists, if implementing it is beyond your control (like trying to improve your institution’s HR or procurement processes) or too expensive (like a new $100k machine), then reinforce your systems to mitigate the problem. Just remember, to anchor such systems sustainably, you need to recognize that this is a contract with eternity. If you drop the system, the problem will come right back.
To help you with this, we’ve developed the Change Workshop. It’s happening on August 27 from 1 pm to 5 pm ET. In this workshop, we’ll work with you to identify root causes and design bulletproof systems. This isn’t just training; it’s a hands-on workshop that you’ll leave with tangible results. Plus, you’ll learn our process, the Change Momentum Method, which will help you replicate these results in the future. Register here
Learn more here: https://stefanie.kartra.com/page/changeworkshop
– Robert