|
|
|
Home::All
SOME TIME SAVERS #2
Author : Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
In my Time Management seminars, which I have conducted for more
than 100,000 people from around the globe, I show people how to
get more done in less time, with less stress; to help them have
more time for the things they want to do in their work and
personal lives.
If you can recapture a wasted hour here and there and redirect
it to a more productive use, you can make great increases in
your daily productivity and the quality of your life.
Here are five of the many techniques I share in our Time
Management seminars, each one of which will help you to get at
least one more hour out of your day for additional productive
time.
1. Run an Interruptions Log The average person gets 50
interruptions a day. The average interruption takes five
minutes. Some five hours each day are spent dealing with
interruptions. Many are crucial and important and are what we
are paid to do but many have little or no value. Run an
Interruptions Log to identify and eliminate the wasteful
interruptions. Just use a pad of paper and label it
"Interruptions Log" Create six columns: Date, Time, Who, What,
Length, Rating. After each interruption is dealt with, log in
the date and time it occurred, who brought it to you, a word or
two about what it related to, the length of time it took, and
finally the rating of its importance: A=crucial, B=important,
C=little value, and D=no value. Run it for a week or more to get
a good measure of what is happening in your life. Then evaluate
the results and take action to eliminate some of the C and D
interruptions that have little or no value. 2. Delegate It We
all have 168 hours each week and when you subtract 56 hours for
sleep and another 10 hours for personal care, that doesn't leave
a whole lot of time to get done what needs to be done.
Delegation permits you to leverage your time through others and
thereby increase your own results. The hardest part of
delegation though, is simply letting go. We take great pride in
doing things ourselves. "If you want a job done well, you better
do it yourself". Every night in Daily Planning, look at all that
you have to do and want to do the next day and with each item
ask yourself, "Is this the best use of my time?" If it is, do
it. If it isn't, try to arrange a way to delegate it to someone
else. There is a lot of difference between "I do it" and "It
gets done". 3. Manage Meetings A meeting is when two or more
people get together to exchange common information. What could
be simpler? Yet, it can one of the biggest time wasters we must
endure. Before a meeting ask, "Is it necessary?" and "Am I
necessary?" If the answers to either are "no", consider not
having the meeting or excusing yourself from attending. Then
prepare a written agenda for the meeting with times assigned for
each item along with a starting time and ending time. Circulate
the written agenda among those who will be attending. There is
no sense in holding a meeting by ambush. Let people know in
advance what is to be discussed. 4. Handle Paper It's easy to
get buried today in the blizzard of paperwork around us. The
average person receives around 150 communications each day via
email, telephone, hard mail, memos, circulars, faxes, etc. A lot
of time is wasted going through the same pile of paper day after
day and correcting mistakes when things slip through the cracks.
Try to handle the paper once and be done with it. If it is
something that can be done in a minute or two, do it and be
done. If it is not the best use of your time, delegate it. If it
is going to take some time to complete, schedule ahead in your
day calendar on the day you think you might get to it and then
put it away. 5. Run a Time Log If you want to manage it, you
have to measure it. A Time Log is a simple yet powerful tool to
create a photo album sort of overview of how your time is
actually being spent during the day. Simply make an ongoing
record of your time as you spend it. Record the activity, the
time spent on it, and then the rating using A, B, C, and D as
described in #1 above. Some examples of how your time might be
spent: Made telephone calls, 35 minutes, A; Answered emails, 48
minutes, B; Attended staff meeting, 55 minutes, C. Run this for
a few days to get a good picture of how your time is being
spent. Then analyze the information. Add up all the A, B, C, and
D time. Most discover a lot of their time is being spent on C
and D items that have little or no value. Finally, take action
steps to reduce the C and D items to give you more time for the
really important things in your life.
Spam emails More free articles Related articles
|
More related feeds |
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/alamoart/public_html/articlesreader.com/feeds.php on line 13
|
|
|
|
