Time Management
by Craig Lock
"Live your life, don't spend
it."
- A. Lakein
"Know the true value of time
--
snatch, seize and enjoy every moment of it."
- Lord Chesterfield (1694-1733)
GET MORE FROM LIFE EACH DAY
- Focus on one day at a time.
- Live the moment.
- Forget yesterday and look forward to tomorrow. If you feel guilty
about what happened yesterday, or are anxious about what might happen
tomorrow, your energy will be dissipated.
- Plan your work, then work your plan.
- What good and bad habits have you developed? Reinforce the good
daily patterns and break the bad.
- Be an "early bird".
Habits start as consciously made decisions, e.g., what
time to get up. Once established, good habits become second nature.
Success is the result of habit. It depends not so much
on doing the unusual, but on doing the commonplace unusually well.
DON'T PROCRASTINATE - DO IT NOW
Don't confuse being busy with working efficiently -- activities
can be tension-relieving, not goal achieving. By concentrating on fewer
priorities regularly on a fixed schedule, you can achieve a lot more
in less time.
IS TIME THE PROBLEM OR ARE YOU?
Draw up a daily "to do" list. Rank priority tasks (the
important few), as well as the trivial many. This allows you to focus
on fewer things and achieve more. Sort into A's, B's & C's:
- A's are important and urgent. Must do today.
- B's are important and not urgent. Want to do today.
- C's are not important. Today only if possible, or delegate.
Use this system to cover work, personal and family items.
This allows you to strike a balance in your daily living. In addition,
you can schedule the daily activities required to achieve your objectives.
By giving high visibility to your major goal, you can keep your mental
energies concentrated.
Remember the 20/80 principle: 20% of your key activities
will give you 80% of your results or payoff and 80% of your work (or
clients) will produce 20% of your profits.
Don't hog all the work. Delegate what you can, as this
encourages a sense of responsibility and a sense of teamwork in others.
It frees up your time for more important activities.
Handle each piece of paper only once. Rather than shuffling
paper, make a decision to deal with it *now*
(if important), destroy, or put into a folder for later action.
Use the concept of time blocks to do similar tasks at
one time, rather than when they arise... otherwise, trivia will swamp
what is important.
Look at your body rhythms for which times suit you best.
When do you work best (or when is your concentration at its maximum)?
Are you most alert in the morning, afternoon or evening? Plan your day
by your energy cycle. You can schedule the most important or mentally
demanding activities when you are at your peak.
"Next time you say, 'I'm wasting
time', change that to say, 'I'm wasting myself'."
-Paul J. Meyer, Success Motivation Institute
However, remember work is not everything. IT IS IMPORTANT
TO TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS:
- :
- Life Goals
- Work Goals
- Identify Short Term A's.
-
- Set A's, B's, and C's
- Don't schedule every minute of the day.
A's are 80% of everything. Make inroads into A's every chance you
get. Use the 'Swiss Cheese' approach, i.e., identify small tasks that
will poke a hole in a big one. Do these in your odd moments. Do anything
that moves A along.
Why waste time on C's if you've an A to do? Fight habits and just
filling in time.
Have a C drawer.
Decide you can do it right away.
Itemize (write it down)
Categorize
Prioritize
Crystallize
When you take control of time, you take control of your
life.
Author's Note:
Craig Lock has written extensively on the subject of time
management, as well as in the field of self help. This extract is from
his first published book, Handbook for Survival in the Nineties (which
has been updated and renamed How to Survive in the New Millennium).
These books are available at:
http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/books.html
Article courtesy of MediaPeak, http://mediapeak.com.
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