Time Management Tips A to Z

A) Everyday something unexpected is going to happen. Count on it – Don’t let last minute emergencies throw off your day – count on them to happen.

B) Key to paper management – keep it moving. Move it to your in basket, your file, your “to read” folder or to the trash. Don’t let paper just sit.

C) NEVER say yes without considering the time investment. Have the courage to say no to requests that are unnecessary.

D) Don’t try to solve everyone else’s problems –

E) If you cannot eliminate an interruption – make the interruption as short as possible.

F) Try standing up when your on the phone – A USC study discovered that the brains information processing speed increases 5% to 20% while standing. Think it looks goofy? You’d be in the company of Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemingway and Winston Churchill – who all stood while working.

G) If a meeting doesn’t start on time – Take the responsibility to say “hey, it’s 9:00, Let’s get going”

H) Want to attack procrastination? Write down your goals twice daily. You’ll become more focused on getting important things done.

I) Are you tempted to constantly check your e-mail? DON”T DO IT! Once or twice daily is usually enough.

J) Create a short task list – things that could be done in 5 minutes or less. Hint – sometimes you can complete the entire list while on hold.

K) Check yourself and discover how you are using your time. Do you spend time doing the right things or the wrong things? Well, How well are you doing them? You may be doing the right things wrong or the wrong things right. Focus your energy on doing the right things right.

L) Reward yourself when you complete a task you wanted to delay. It will give you incentive to knock out other unpleasant tasks.

M) Learn how to separate the majors from the minors. A lot of people don’t do well simply because the major in minor things. – Jim Rohn

N) Fill up your car with gas on the way home from work. Don’t waste your prime morning time at the pump.

O) Listen to audiotapes on your way to work. Pick one-day every day to learn something new. (I have plenty of tapes - just ask!)

P) Talking while looking at your computer screen robs you of the focused listening needed to effectively communicate. DON’T SURF and SPEAK at the same time.

Q) Drop in visitors. The five deadliest words that rob your time are "Have you got a minute". Everyone's the culprit-colleagues., the boss, your peers. Knowing how to deal with interruptions is one of the best skills you can learn .

R) Always define your objectives as clearly as possible.
Do you find you are not doing what you want because your goals have not been set. One of the factors that mark out successful people is their ability to work out what they want to achieve and have written goals, which they can review them constantly. Your long term goals should impact on your daily activities and be included on your "to do" list. Without a goal or objective people tend to just drift personally and professionally

S) Try to fix definite times when you would not like to be disturbed, and make the system work except for genuine emergencies.

T) Plan some time for discussing routine matters with your colleagues. Then you avoid interrupting each other all the time.

U) Stress and fatigue are rarely caused by the things you have done, but by the thought of what you haven’t done!

V) Don't exhaust your attention span:
Attention spans vary considerably, and our ability to concentrate on one task can range from an hour and a half down to twenty minutes. If you find yourself gazing out of the window or trying to balance your ruler on your pencil sharpener, this is probably your brain screaming for mercy. To avoid this, try to 'reset' your brain by varying the activity, i.e. an hour on one project and then an hour on another. Alternatively, take a five minute break every hour or so. This will help you to concentrate on the job in hand.

W) When you are deciding whether or not to take a task on, think about this value - are you wasting your or your organization's resources on a low yield task?

X) Goal setting is a standard technique used by top-level athletes, business-people and achievers in all fields. It gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge and helps you to organize your resources.

Y) Lack of priorities/objectives. This is probably the biggest/ most important time waster. It affects all we do both professionally and personally. Those who accomplish the most in a day know exactly what they want to accomplish. Unfortunately too many of us think that goals and objectives are yearly things and not daily considerations. This results in too much time spent on the minor things and not on the things that are important to our work/lives

Z) The cluttered desk. When you have finished reading this e-mail look at your desk. If you can see less than 80% of it then you are probably suffering from 'desk stress'. The most effective people work from clear desks.
Have a great day!

-Jim

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