Does this sound familiar: You wake up on Monday and can’t even remember where you left off in your work on Friday. You get to the office and start recreating your to-do list. You wonder how much of it you can possibly accomplish before Friday. Then suddenly the week is over. You get home exhausted and try to find time to rest and refuel before you start all over again on Monday.

You feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to make progress on your important goals.

That’s how most of us live — reacting to requests, fire drills, distractions and our ever-expanding to-do list. It’s true for leaders and it’s true for the people on their teams. We end up spending our precious time and energy on activities that aren’t mission critical or rewarding. The personal and organizational costs are obvious: High levels of burnout, disengagement and turnover.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. We all have the power to control how we spend our time and where we direct our energy and focus. As leaders, we can play an important role in shifting people’s thinking. And we can help them develop habits and behaviors that lead to being more intentional, more effective, and ultimately more fulfilled, professionally and personally.

It starts with these four fundamentals.

Help your people define what success looks like.

Being intentional begins with one question: “Where do I want to devote my time and energy?” The problem is that most of us are not clear on what success looks like, and that should be our ultimate guide for prioritizing.

As a leader, you can give your people the gift of clarity.

• Create an inspiring vision for the team with clear, measurable goals.
• Identify the most valuable work of each role and how it leads to the bigger goals of the team.
• Have transparent conversations with each person to learn about their vision and how you can support them.

That last point is crucial. If you want people to feel in control of their time and energy, help them define what success looks like for them, in coordination with what success looks like for the team. Understanding our own higher-level commitments gives us a sense of freedom and control that helps combat burnout and overwhelm.

Get everybody comfortable saying no.

Most of us are uncomfortable saying “no” to requests for our time, energy and focus. Instead, we say yes reactively, without asking critical questions like “Does this serve my most important goals?”

How can you help people overcome a behavior that can be deeply ingrained?

• Do a two-week time or calendar audit: Have each person track how they’re actually spending their time, which is usually very different from how they think they’re spending their time. Then do the next exercise.
• Create a “say no list”: As a team, discuss the kinds of requests you get or tasks you’re doing that you’re reactively saying “yes” to and that pull you away from your most important work. Identify those that you’ll de-prioritize or start saying no to. Pay close attention to meetings that don’t produce results or that just aren’t necessary.
• Create standard language: Discuss simple, succinct, and clear language people can use to effectively say no, like: “Thank you so much for considering me for that project. Unfortunately, I’m not available to help.”
• Role model it: Let them see you saying “no” to the unimportant and “yes” to the important.

Engage in conversations about whole-life priorities.

Work-life balance is an outdated concept. It implies a hard divide between the two. Successful leaders and companies are taking a whole-life approach to the problems of burnout, disengagement, and retention. They engage their teams in conversation about the big professional and personal goals they’re playing for.

Why? Because being intentional can’t be compartmentalized. You can’t be intentional with your time and energy at work without taking your personal goals into consideration and think you’ll wind up fulfilled and happy.

It’s like the woman who told us that she wanted to take better care of her health. She felt guilty and stressed that she was letting her long workdays keep her from that goal. “When you’re intentional about devoting time and energy to your health goals, how do you feel when you wake up the next morning?” we asked. She considered the question and eventually said, “I have so much more energy. I feel more ready to face the day. I feel more excited about the things I need to tackle. I feel more confident.”

Isn’t that how you would like every member of your team to show up?

How do you get your people to open up about their personal goals, challenges and ambitions? You open up. Be willing to get vulnerable first and make it safe for them. Help your team understand where and why you’re being intentional, to know you at a deeper level, to feel more connected to you. And you them.

Follow through on your commitment.

Too often, we’ve seen leaders do the important foundation work of creating clarity and building new habits. Then, when somebody on their team says no or deprioritizes something or sets an appropriate boundary to make time for personal goals, they don’t back them up.

Helping people be more intentional is a commitment. It requires you to support them as they follow through on the hard work of shifting their mindset and behavior. Every time you let them know that you have their back and support their choice, you’re boosting their motivation and engagement.