Time Management Self Improvement

As a professional organizer, consultant and trainer, I have come to recognize that unless there is a focused effort to keep vigilance over priority busters, our best time management efforts will go unrealized. Our day-to-day lives demand more to resolving this than just practicing better time management principles.

The cost of a minute
Jim Miller of U.S. West tells us we experience eight interruptions an hour. American Demographics magazine says us we receive 23 paper and electronic messages an houreach one its own type of interruption. Regardless of the type or number, remember that every time someone stands at the door and asks if you’ve ‘got a minute?’ they invite you to climb out of your priority and into theirs. Politely moving them to an alternative time enables you to remain focused on your priorities.

‘Yes’ is an acceptable word
Learning to say no and meaning it is difficult. Let’s face itno can sound like ‘yes’ and no and sound like ‘maybe’. Saying it to supervisors or customers comes with its own cautionary reminder. But identifying and being committed to your priorities is what keeps us focused on when and if we should be saying ‘yes’.

Fight against procrastination
A difficult habit to break. When delaying decisions is how we handle matters, we permeate our time management practices with ineffective and frustrating scenarios. Not only for ourselves, but for others as well. Making decisions to move things forward is the only way to fight procrastination. One mindful step at a time.

Today’s business climate creates pressure to produce more workwith fewer peoplesoonerfor less money. It demands more of us. But there’s major productivity gains to be realized by proactively handling interruptions, keeping commitments tethered to priorities and actively making decisions. That is when we will realize productivity gains and less stress as individuals and as an organization.

There are only 24 hours a day. It’s how you use them that determines your level of satisfaction with work and life.

Copyright 2001 Cynthia Kyriazis. All rights reserved.

Cynthia Kyriazis is a Professional Organizer, trainer, consultant, speaker, coach and author with over 20 years management experience in multi-unit corporations. She is President of Organize it, Inc., an organizational consulting firm serving Fortune 500 clients since 1995. Cynthia has worked with over 150 companies and hundreds of professionals to help improve performance in the areas of time, information, space and electronic file management.

Cynthia has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star and the Legal Intelligencer. She currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), member of International Society for Performance Improvement - Kansas City chapter (ISPI-KC) and consultant to the American Coaching Association.

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Have you ever noticed that the things that matter most often get pushed aside by less important concerns? At times, it seems like everyone and everything conspires against us and prevents us from accomplishing what we really want to. Events we never anticipated catch us blind side, demand our attention, and distract us from what matters most. These events control us, and when that happens, our productivity drops and so does our self-esteem. Because these events deflect us from what we really ought to be doing, they are very costly.

This following list of time robbers is not exhaustive, but perhaps it will help you guard against influences that can steal your most precious commodity, time. Not all of these time robbers are avoidable. Some, like equipment failure and meetings, may be beyond our control. But most of them simply creep into our lives and steal from us without our awareness. Suddenly, our time is gone, we’ve spent our daily allotment, and we don’t know where it went. We could easily say that the opportunity cost of these time robbers is very high - especially in terms of event control, personal productivity, and self-esteem. As you read through the list, identify the time robbers that give you the greatest difficulty. Give them a ranking, from one to ten, and then carefully consider how you might eliminate them.

Time Robbers Imposed on Us

_____ Interruptions

_____ Waiting for answers

_____ Unclear job definition

_____ Too much work

_____ Poor communication

_____ Shifting priorities

_____ Equipment failure

_____ Red tape

_____ Conflicting Priorities

_____ Low company morale

_____ Untrained staff

_____ Peer / staff demands

_____ Lack of authority

_____ Mistake of others

_____ Revised deadlines

Time Robbers Self-inflicted

_____ Failure to delegate

_____ Meetings

_____ Personal disorganization

_____ Absentmindedness

_____ Failure to listen

_____ Indecision

_____ Socializing

_____ Fatigue

_____ Lack of self-discipline

_____ Leaving tasks unfinished

_____ Paper shuffling

_____ Procrastination

_____ Cultural workplace

_____ Unclear personal goals

_____ Perfectionism

_____ Poor planning

PJ Germain

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You’re trying too much aren’t you? Trying to accomplish too many projects and tasks at once; too many ideas and directions to go. You’re like the runner at the start line trying to run in all directions at once. It’s exhausting you mentally and physically and the frustration builds daily as you look at one more idea on the Internet, one more product that might be “the thing” you’re in need of.

You know what you need to do. In fact, you know hundreds of things you need to do. That’s not the problem. Deep down you know what you need to be doing and not doing in order to succeed, but somehow you are still sitting there going around in circles and feeling more and more frustrated by the day. Why is this? Why the lack of action and progress even when realizing full well that this type of behavior will not get you to where you want to be.

There are many reasons of course, and if you were to stop and think for a bit and were to type out your answers, you’d quickly uncover enough reasons to get you started back on the course of progress. Actually, I suggest you do take time out from your currently entrenched routine and consciously focus on this for a few minutes. If you prefer typing, you can do this while typing in your word processor, or if you prefer pen and paper, you could take a notebook out to somewhere where you could think and focus; perhaps somewhere where you don’t often go so that the experience will be refreshing.

Maintaining perspective is one of the most important things you can do to ensure overall long term progress toward the success goals you’ve set for yourself. This perspective is easily lost when we maintain the same routine and visit the same places, people, and things. Have you ever noticed how energized you feel after getting away for a few days from home? You come back perhaps tired from the trip, but you feel exhilarated and not bound by your typical surroundings. In fact, you probably feel like your typical environs are somewhat stagnant and stale and in need of a refresh.

This is a positive sign that your excursion was beneficial to your perspective and necessary to reenergize you and bring back your emotional “buy-in” to your long term goals. If you had merely sat in place in your usual spot doing the same thing, you probably would have spent many more hours there and not progressed much if at all. But having gotten away for a bit helped you to reset and reengage your end vision while temporarily forgetting the intermediate tasks; thereby letting you come back to the table fresh and able to immediately see the next steps you must take. This is what makes it possible for you to then make quick progress; quicker than if you had not taken that perspective break.

Once refreshed and having gained some perspective you can then begin consciously deciding on what you will focus on. You must come to a couple of mental decisions at this point:

1. You can only go as fast as YOU can go. E.g. you can only do so many things at once and in a finite period of time. If you try to exceed your personal capabilities you will only end up with a few predictable results. More than likely you’ll end up with many or all tasks being completed in a poor manner. You’ll be frustrated and tired. Or worst of all possible outcomes, you’ll be out of balance in life and burned out. These are not the desired end results you desire.

2. Decide now that trying to do too much is the recipe for substandard results and failure and that a conscious decision to select only those goals and activities that matter most and can be done best are what you will personally handle. If there are other necessary tasks required that you are not best at or that would burn you out trying to accomplish, that you will outsource them so you can focus on your core strengths.

Once you’ve narrowed down to these few tasks and set these decisions in your mind, reinforce the decision with the belief that “less is more”. E.g. quality of results is much more important than quantity of results. Focusing on a few key tasks and doing them well is much more rewarding and inspiring than spreading yourself thin and taking too many actions that bear results close to zero. Build deep as they say not wide.

Trying to do it all will ensure you have none.

© Copyright 2006 David Marcotte all rights reserved

Dave Marcotte runs http://www.fastresponsemarketing.com , a marketing company designed to uncover and share the most efficient and effective methods to market and profit online. Be sure to stop by and share your insights while he shares with you new and insightful strategies related to Internet and viral marketing. Results are what count!

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