7 Ways to Help Make Your Time More Efficient |
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| By Charles Schuler |
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| Many people allow time to just happen - in their lives and
in their work. The the fact is people spend more time
planning the blow-by-blow of their vacation than they do on
the things that matter most. Have you ever noticed how you
manage to get all of your tasks completed just prior to
going on vacation? You make lists, you ignore telephone
calls and e-mail, you avoid surfing the net, and you send
those visiting to BS on their way. You´re a magnate of time
efficiency and focus! Todd Duncan (@toddmduncan,
@toddstweets) wrote in his masterful book 'Time Traps', 'The
understanding of time managementrepresents a flawed
understanding of time that affects how we reactthe fact [is]
that we cannot manage the clock; we can only manage our
thoughts and actions.' When you´re near a deadline of some
sort, you become laser focused on your thoughts and actions
in order to meet your deadline. The secret is to find how to
harness that focus on a regular basis. As a leader and a
entrepreneur, I´ve thought a great deal about time and how
to make better use of it. I´ve read Napoleon Hill, Todd
Duncan, Tony Schwartz, and Chet Holmes (@chetholmes) to
mention a few. I see the value of time and I´ve reduced what
I´ve learned into my Time Management Techniques - 7 Tips to
Make Your Time More Effective: Tip #1: Increase Your Focus by Disabling Your Email Alerts and Phone Ringer. We´re a society of constant distraction, as covered brilliantly in Tony Schwartz´s book, 'The Way We´re Working Isn´t Working'. Email alerts pop-up on our screens, our phones ring and/or vibrate whenever we receive a call, email, or text. It all leads to focus schizophrenia. Mastering your time and becoming more effective requires laser focus and the removal of all distractions. It will feel uncomfortable and the question you´ll want to think about is, 'Am I in control of my time or is someone else?' We´ll plan time for email and phone calls below. Tip #2: Compose a list. I knowit sounds simple. We all have lists. The the fact is that with no list, regardless of how good your memory is, you´ll forget tasks that you shouldn´t and you´ll move from one task to another haphazardly. A list lets you organize your ideas and actions in one succinct location. The key is to jot down everything, no matter how small. That includes responding to e-mails and returning phone calls. If you´re in sales, be sure Prospecting makes it onto your list. If you´re a manager, be sure ad-hoc meetings make it onto your list. Tip #3: Prioritize the List. Here´s where you control that feeling of being overwhelmed because not every tasks are created equal. Without prioritizing your list, as the day careens out of control you´ll start taking care of the quick, low-priority tasks in order to feel a feeling of accomplishment. You can prevent this by prioritizing your tasks. Tip #4: Choose Your Top 6 Tasks and Allocate Time. I picked up this very refined tip by reading Chet Holmes´s outstanding book, 'The Ultimate Sales Machine', and have even created a Time Management Worksheet that you can download to help you in this process. Although we´ve created and prioritized a list of activities, we still haven´t proactively taken charge of the timeuntil now. This simple technique has allowed me to clearly focus on the most pressing tasks and control the time I devote to them. For large tasks that need a lot of time, even an hour or two will get you nearer to completion. A good rule of thumb is that your top six tasks should take about six hours [Holmes]. If it takes longer than that, you need to break the large tasks up into smaller time chunks. Tip #5: Put Your Top 6 Tasks on a Schedule and Plan Every day All the Top 6 tasks need to be allotted to a specific time slot as well as time to respond to e-mail, return phone calls, and miscellaneous time. The miscellaneous time is the buffer in your schedule for those reactive things that come up that are unavoidable. The key is to return to your schedule when you´ve completed handling the reactive tasks that pop-up in your day. Tip #6: As Pressing Tasks Arise, Add Them to Your To-Do List and Move On. I recognize that pressing tasks arise that need your attention. Very few of them need to happen at that specific instant in time. Most people can be appeased by just stating to them specifically when you´ll get to their issue. Add the new to-do item to your larger list and go back to your schedule. If it´s important, then it´s an item that´s to be handled in the miscellaneous time that´s on your schedule. Tip #7: The Best Time to Plan Your Day Is the Day Before. I´ve developed the habit of preparing my day at the conclusion of the previous day. This has a few benefits. First, it allows me to re-write my to-do list while everything is fresh in my mind and I´m still in 'work' mode. Second, preparing my tasks the day before allows me to subconsciously work on many of the items on my list. Third, it allows me to hit the ground running each and every day, making effective use of each and every minute. |
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| Article Source: http://interpret.zar.vg | ||||
| About The Author If you would love some creative ways to accomplish your leadership goals and personal goals please visit the Margin of Excellence blog. |
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