Life is often what happens to you along the way when you have planned
otherwise because there are time wasters out there to throw you off the
track. Your performance may not always match your intentions. To help
you to increase your productivity each and every day, both on and off
the job, here are five easy tips to overcome the major time wasters to
help you to stop wasting time.
Plan your day.
Set aside time each night for daily planning, a time
for you to take control of your most important asset, the next
twenty-four hours. Create a to-do list with all the things you “have to”
do and, more importantly, all the things you “want to” do.
Don’t be
afraid of putting down too much. A project tends to expand with the time
available for it. If you give yourself one thing to do, it will take you
all day. If you give yourself two things to do, you will get them both
done. If you give yourself twelve things to do, you may not get all
twelve done, but you’ll get eight or nine done. Having a lot to do
creates a healthy sense of pressure on us to get things done. Prioritize
this list. Put the number “1” next to the most important item, “2”
beside the next most important item, the number “3” beside the third
most important item, etc. People ask me a lot, “Do you do daily planning
every day?” I reply, ”Only if I want to have a good day.”
Control procrastination.
The easiest way to avoid procrastination in
your day is to do the daily planning each day. Without a plan of action
to direct you, you are often drawn to the things that are easier or to
the most urgent items that may not be the most important use of your
time. You can easily get caught up in “stuff”, wasting time majoring in
the minor things, spending your day wheel spinning in the unimportant
areas while the important things get put off.
Avoid interruptions.
A problem that is well defined is mostly solved.
To define your interruptions situation to permit you to take some
preventive actions, run an Interruptions Log. On a pad of paper, log in
interruptions as they occur over a few days. Put down who brings them to
you, how long each interruption lasts, and whether or not they were
valuable or of no value. Once you accumulate your data, get the most
frequent interrupters who bring the interruptions with no value to
change their actions and agree to not bring as many low value
interruptions to you in the future.
Delegate it.
If you had unlimited amounts of time, you could do
everything yourself, but you don’t. Each week has but 168 hours to get
all you need and want to do. I review every item on my to-do list each
night in daily planning and ask, “Is this the best use of my time?” If
it is, I will plan to do it myself and if it’s not, I will try to find a
way to delegate it to free up my time for something more valuable. There
is a lot of difference between, “I do it”, and “It gets done”. Sure,
it’s great to do a variety of things but you have to be sure that your
scarce resource is always being spent in the most productive way.
Manage meetings.
Before you commit to attend a meeting with another
or with a group, ask yourself two questions. First, “Is it necessary?”
Sometimes we go to a meeting solely because we have been invited or
because we have always gone out of habit without ascertaining whether or
not it truly is necessary. Second, ask yourself, “Am I necessary?”
Perhaps the meeting is important but if you don’t contribute anything to
it or if you don’t get anything from it, try to find a way to excuse
yourself from attending all or a portion of the meeting.
Published: July 29, 2002
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