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By Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
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.
1. 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."
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute-Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St., Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
fax: (203) 386-8064
email: ctsem@msn.com
Free Timely Time Management Tips:
Visit our Time Management Supersite:
http://www.balancetime.com/
Professional Member-National Speakers Association
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