GA 654 | Escaping Time Poverty with Peggy Sullivan

Most people who feel overwhelmed blame their schedule. Peggy Sullivan argues the diagnosis itself is wrong. Time poverty has nothing to do with time management and everything to do with capacity, and until you start subtracting, no amount of better planning will get you out from under it.

Peggy has spent a decade researching how people reclaim time, averaging five hours back per week for the individuals she works with. Her framework, Performance by Design, connects directly to ideas Lean practitioners already know well: eliminate the low-value work first, then protect the space you have recovered.

“I was thinking to myself that it’s time that I choose meaning over mayhem.” – Peggy Sullivan

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why capacity is the real constraint, not your calendar (3:45)
• How one small change gave a senior management team three hours back (5:29)
• The three elements of the Performance by Design framework (6:48)
• Why subtraction must come before everything else (7:52)
• How to identify the low-value habits you no longer question (10:28)
• Why interruptions cost far more time than most people realize (14:12)
• What choosing meaning over mayhem looks like under the hardest circumstances (18:20)
• How values management differs from time management (23:34)
• Why human connection is the first thing to disappear when capacity runs out (26:57)

Keep Learning

If Peggy’s case for subtracting low-value work before adding anything new resonates, the School of Lean covers the same principle at the process level, from value stream mapping to identifying and eliminating waste.
Learn More About School of Lean at gembaacademy.com/school-of-lean

Podcast Resources

• Peggy on LinkedIn
• Beyond Busyness

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What Do You Think?

If you had to subtract one recurring commitment from your week right now, what would it be and what has kept you from doing it?

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