Time Management Self Improvement

Taking charge of your time is easier than you think. If you put any of these ten easy, but powerful, time management tips into action, you’ll see an improvement in your productivity. And in your peace of mind.

=> One: Revamp your self-image: see it and believe it

What’s your image of yourself? If it’s of someone who’s terminally frazzled, that image will affect what you experience throughout the day. To take control of your time, your self image needs to be of someone who is relaxed and calm and getting everything done.

Close your eyes for a moment. Picture yourself at your best. You’re calm and you effortlessly handle whatever challenges come up for you during the day.

You may feel some resistance to this image of yourself. If you do, you need to revise your self-talk. Self-talk is the internal chatter we all carry on within ourselves. Silently say “Let go” to yourself, or “Relax”.

The above visualisation technique is simple, but very effective. Use it as often as you like during the day.

=> Two: Make lists

The most effective time managers are the people who use lists the most. When something is on a list, we no longer need to keep it in our mind. The best way to develop the list-making habit is to carry a notebook and pen, or an electronic organiser. (See below).

You have a choice of how to make your lists. You can have one enormous list, into which you dump all your tasks, or you can make several lists. Try out both methods, and see how they feel to you.

If you keep an all-in-one list, use a legal pad rather than a small pad, and leave a couple of lines between each task, so that you can add notes. The benefits of using a large pad are that you can add notes and sketches.

=> Three: Carry a notebook and pen, or an electronic organizer

Carry pen and paper, or an electronic organiser, whichever is easier for you. Some people prefer to use a microcassette recorder and if this is you, be sure than you transcribe your notes at the end of the day, or at the end of each week.

Using a PDA like a Palm Pilot is effective, because you can make notes wherever you happen to be. This means that you can get a head start on some of your work. You can nut out the basics of a proposal to a new client over lunch; you can even do it while the meeting is still going on.

=> Four: Take time out for yourself every day

The time you take for yourself should be spent on doing something solely for yourself. You can listen to music, play a sport, go for a walk, or lie down and take a nap.

This is your time to indulge yourself. Many women interpret the instruction to take time for themselves as a hint that they should spend that time exercising at the gym, or doing something else “worthwhile”.

Nonsense. Spend it eating chocolate if you want. Life’s short, so enjoy.

=> Five: Give the day a mental run-through before you get out of bed in the morning

When you wake up in the morning, think about the day ahead. Imagine everything going smoothly and well. Know that if anything unforeseen comes up, you will handle it. A mental rehearsal sets your attitude for the day. See yourself getting compliments and kudos, so you can start the day with a smile.

=> Six: Before you start your day, get excited

Enthusiasm is infectious, and so is gloom. Tell yourself you’re excited about the day ahead. This might be the day you get a raise: anything could happen. Be determined that something good will happen to you today and nine times out of ten, it will.

=> Seven: At the end of the day, review and plan for the next day

Take five minutes to go over what you’ve accomplished at the end of the day. Take another five minutes to rough out a plan for tomorrow.

=> Eight: Learn to say No

Most of us hate rejecting others. However, you’re not doing anyone a favour if you agree to do something, and then do it resentfully. Sometimes we even get in the habit of agreeing to do tasks, and then make excuses. If you know you won’t have the time to do a task, don’t take the task on.

=> Nine: Get a routine

Discipline has gone out of fashion. However, the secret to productivity is to have a routine, and to keep to it. If you know that Thursday morning is given over to doing an update on your Web site, you can block out that time each week.

=> Ten: Don’t aim for perfection: just show up

Someone said that 80% of job is just showing up. In other words, just do the job, whatever it is. Unless you’re doing surgery, close enough is good enough.

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Almost everyone in business knows the balancing act between the weekly work schedule and business development time is almost as challenging as walking on a tight rope. I suggest breaking your work week into focus days to work in your business and buffer days to work on your business. For many people, there is a strong desire to skip preparation and just tackle everything on the to “do list” at once. As an alternative to this method, I told the following story at the workshop to create a model for scheduling your time to be more productive in your workweek.

This past summer, the city in which I work started a major reconstruction project on Main Street where my office is located. The project called for new lighting, the addition of traffic islands with green space, new pavement and attractive new sidewalks.

I watched the sidewalk construction crew as I traveled to and from my office. Like many crews, I saw three workers hard at work, two workers leaning on shovels and a supervisor who spent a good part of the day on a cell phone. That picture is familiar to all of us.

Old sidewalks were marked for demolition and ripped from their resting places in precision attacks by a tracked excavator and tossed into a waiting ten-wheeler for transport to the landfill. Physical labor at removing the sidewalks was kept minimal while the machines did the work with little effort.

Crews took their time spreading gravel,leveling, and building forms for the concrete for the new sidewalks. They moved forward with the task, but had ample time to check the forms for elevation and size, have coffee and conduct business on cell phones. There was time to tell jokes and stories and retie slackened bootlaces.

The workers’ attitudes changed dramatically on the days that the concrete trucks arrived early in the morning when it was time to pour concrete. The whirr of the concrete mixer and the rattle of aggregate were sounds that signaled the crew for a focus day.

Pouring concrete meant no time for jokes, coffee or a cell phone call from home. It’s an all focused business day. There was constant movement with shovels and floats, quick decisions and sweat on the brow. All mental and physical energy is directed towards the job at hand. It’s not time to call it a day until the last concrete truck is long gone and the last finishing trowel is hosed clean.

If you can set up three days of your workweeks so that you are “pouring concrete”, you’ll enjoy your best year ever. Plan, prepare and focus. It’s not a new formula but one that many resist trying. Every day can’t be a pouring concrete day, but if you schedule three days a week to have your concrete pouring attitude in place, you will become amazingly productive. Try it and let me know how it works for you.

Doug Emerson is a business trainer, consultant and coach who helps clients earn more profit in less time using 8 key stragegies. He writes a free weekly electronic newsletter called Getting to the Point. Free subscription at homepage on website http://www.douglasemerson.com

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How you spend the first sixty minutes of your day will affect your productivity and achievements - everyday.

Most people launch into the day without a second thought; we arrive at the office, unbundle our bags, grab a coffee and start responding to telephones, emails and colleagues - often all at the same time. It’s hardly surprising that most people feel like their days are out of control as they fly from one task to the next, and when there is a lull in the excitement - they wonder what to do. It’s an exhausting, unsatisfying and unproductive way to work. Even if you are in a position where you need to respond to many demands, investing in the first 60-minutes will pay dividends all day long and just ten minutes at the end of the day will set you up for the next. If you’ve ever left the office wondering where the day went or how you could be so busy without achieving anything, try this

Ignore the ringing in your ears! Switch your mobile phone off or to silent mode, and set your desk phone to voicemail. We have become far too contactable: between telephones, mobiles, SMS, voicemail and email it is possible to spend your entire day responding to other people.

Are you one of those people who cannot bear the thought of not answering a ringing phone? The phone is a tool for your convenience - use and respond to it when it suits you. Try thinking of a ringing phone as question - it’s someone asking you if you are available to speak - and it’s your choice whether it suits you to speak now, or to let the call go through to voicemail and respond later. You’ll be more productive, allowing yourself a clear head to focus on what needs to be achieved without breaking your train of thought every time the phone rings - and it’s more considerate on your caller. We’ve all had the experience when someone who is clearly busy, distracted, frustrated or in a rush answers our call - it puts both people in an uncomfortable position - it would have been fairer for them to allow us to leave a message and to respond at a more convenient time. Be sure to develop good practices for calling people back - this means determining the urgency and importance of the call-back and making sure you respond appropriately. Overtime, people will learn that you are not always available; they’ll respect the way you manage your time and trust you to get back to them.

Hang a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. If you have an actual office with a door, this one is easy. But many workplaces today are open plan and it’s difficult to alert people to the fact that you don’t wish to be interrupted - but there are ways around it. I know one workplace where each person has an item (in this case, a toy frog) which when placed on top of their computer means that they are not available - that they are trying to concentrate on something. When the frog comes down, everyone knows they are available again. With the agreement of everyone in the team, this system works particularly well for an open plan environment. Another technique is to use headphones - when people see you have headphones on they know you are not tuned-in to what’s happening around you - you don’t even have to be listening to anything if you find that too distracting - just put your headphones on to signal your ‘do not disturb’ request.

Alternatively, if you have the option, complete your first 60-minutes off-site - perhaps at home or at a local caf

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