Tips for Controlling the Clock
Listed below is a compilation of time management goals. They have been organised into 10 categories to help in your planning.
You are encouraged to select from this list 8 or 10 goals that will be of the greatest help to you. Prioritise the list, ie vital, important, some value and complete waste of time, and write them on a piece of paper that is kept in your diary and/or office so that you can refer to it frequently.
As you prepare each daily action list, include at least one of the time management goals on your list.
Preoccupation ‐ Alertness/Energising
. Cultivate observation.
. Think with a pencil in hand
. Periodically remind yourself - think alertly.
. Do a job right the first time.
. Reduce preoccupation time.
. Locate energy losses.
. Release natural drives by doing what you enjoy.
. Establish and maintain a balanced exercise program.
. Be highly selective in what you read.
. Set up a systematic program for reading.
. Double your speed of reading.
. Read a book like a newspaper.
. Do one thing at a time.
. Use blank spaces in your time.
. Keep a writing pad directly accessible. Draw pictures and diagrams as you explain a point to visitors.
. Replace writing letters longhand with a dictating machine.
. Give letters into a dictating machine instead of directly to a secretary.
. Move your home closer to work, or work closer to home to reduce commuting time if applicable.
. Instead of bringing 2 or 3 individuals in from different parts of the country for a brief meeting, use the "conference call."
. When explaining an unfamiliar point, make comparisons.
. Be aware of when you are tapering off from peak levels of performance. At that point, shift to another vital priority.
. Be on time to meetings, appointments and scheduled events.
. Reduce the overlong visitor stay, ie explain to unscheduled visitors that you are available only for a limited time.
. Limit the length of telephone calls.
. Accumulate return telephone calls and contact them at a time when the chance of their going through is most likely.
. If you have a secretary, use her/him to screen incoming telephone calls and drop-in visitors.
. Establish a practice of having a colleague interrupt an excessively-long visit
. Establish an appropriate balance between vocational work and management work.
. Retire early and rise early.
. Get the necessary sleep each night, but no more than is necessary.
. Be sensitive to the vital priorities of others around you.
. Simplify, ie KISS principle (Keep it simple, stupid!!!!!)
Communication and Attitude
. Take 100% responsibility when sending or receiving messages to see that communication is secured.
. Ask others, "What can I do to help you make better use of your time?"
. Consistently use sincere positive reinforcers on others.
. Use positive reinforcers on yourself.
. Reduce the use of negative reinforcers on other people.
. Reduce the use of negative reinforcers on yourself.
Delegation ‐ Boss/Staff Relationship
. Earn the support of your boss.
. Enlarge your discretionary time by reducing the time that is imposed by staff and others.
. Instead of staff bringing you problems, have them bring you answers/suggestion/solutions.
. Analyse your performance by considering:
- what am I doing now that doesn't need to be done by me or anyone else?
- what am I doing that others can do?
Meetings
. Hold meetings standing up to make them shorter.
. Double preparation time for meetings and cut meeting times in half.
. Have only those people in the meeting who need to be there.
. Maintain a strict contract agreement as to when a meeting will start and end. End the meeting on or before the agreed time.
. Avoid holding a regularly scheduled meeting and see if it makes a difference.
. Use a carefully prepared agenda in all meetings.
. When in a meeting where your time is being wasted, ask the leader, "Is there any other contribution I can make to this meeting?"
. Discuss with the meeting leader in advance where you will be on the agenda and have them move you up if possible.
Physical Work Area, Organising
. Organise your office
. Organise papers into "vital, important, some value and complete waste of time" stacks.
. Clear your desk each afternoon before you leave work.
. Keep the desk completely clear of clutter. (Have on your desk only what you are working on)
. If possible, handle papers only once.
Planning, Daily
. Take more time for systematic planning each day.
. Prioritise an action list for each day, ie vital, important, some value and complete waste of time
. Keep long-range prioritised written goals in your diary and refer to them each time a daily action list or unassigned action list is prepared. There are 3 types:
- time-management goals
- personal goals with the company
- personal life goals
. Make a list of the comfort ideas, people, physical locations, reading, actions, food to which you gravitate that are inappropriate.
. Do at least 3 things daily which force you out of your comfort zone.
Planning, Long-Range
. By a specified date, write, refine and prioritise your unifying principles. Evaluate your personal performance in the context of these principles.
. Review the mission and goals of the company and department at designated times.
. Write, refine and prioritise personal goals with the company by a date.
. Refine your goals against a defined standard of excellent performance.
. Refine all written goals, making them achievable, specific and measurable.
. Specify long-range goals as far into the future as you can anticipate.
. Write personal goals with a balanced perspective so that they include professional, financial, physical/recreational, social, intellectual-cultural and spiritual needs and interests. Refine and prioritise these goals.
. Write sub-goals to the life goals by raising the question, "How can I cause each of these goals to eventuate?"
. Build continuity in goal planning by preparing monthly and weekly goals from long-range goals and the daily action list from all of these.
. Occasionally ask, "What is the greatest threat to my survival professionally, socially, spiritually, financially, intellectually and physically?"
How to Avoid Procrastination
. Write a prioritised daily action list under "to be done today"
. Refer to longer range goals when preparing the prioritised daily action list
. Break-up overwhelming "As" (top priorities) into workable chunks
. Make sure the "A1" task is accessible
. Chain yourself to the task until "A" is done
. Anticipate interruptions that divert you from "As"
. Turn the difficult task into a game
. Select the best time of the day for the type of work required
. Allow flexibility
. Commit to a deadline
. Use a personalised reward system
Set a deadline for each task.
. Prioritise an action list every day, seven days a week, in your diary.
. Chain yourself to the desk until the overwhelming vital priority is finished.
. Do the most vital tasks now!
. Use your secretary or others to reinforce your vital priorities.
. Turn the difficult task into a game.
. Select the best time of day for the type of work required.
. Allow some open space daily for flexibility.
. When you bog down, leave the project until your energies are renewed.
. Do the most difficult of the vital tasks first.
. Stay with the vital task until it is done.
. Don't sit on projects.
. Institute a personal quiet hour.
Results, Achieving with Goals
. Accept what you cannot change as a fact of life.
. Carry out goals that are achievable.
Time Wasters and Triviality, Reducing
. Say "no" when a request is not vital.
. Note and determine what routines might be changed to advantage.
. Reduce socialising time.
. Limit TV viewing to the "vital few."