This weeks
Article....
Five
Keys to Controlling Time
Simple yet challenging Time
Management
Yep, its 11pm and your still
working on the stuff you brought home.
The kids are in bed and so is the spouse.
By the
way, the spouse is not happy about this
either.
This is not an isolated
situation, rather it is happening more
often than not to more
people.
With company downsizing and the need for
getting more from less the pressure is
on. The
forty-hour week now is stretched to
50-60-70 hours. If you’re an owner, you
already know about the 60 hours, but 90
plus hour weeks!
The sad thing about all this is
how it affects our quality of life,
family and personal esteem. When these
areas of life become negative, work
performance is also declining!
So how do you stop this runaway
train that consumes our time!
Here are five simple, yet
challenging keys that can change your
life!
Either these core issues put
people in control of their lives or lack
of these put them out of
control!
1.
Focus: It
has been proven time and again that we
are most efficient when we focus on one
task or item at a time. I do not care
what they say about "multi-tasking", its
BS! Our brain works like a car. If all
four wheels are turning in the same
direction, we reach our destination in
the most efficient way and on
time.
Now consider that same car with
each of its four wheels going in
different directions! Is this going to be
a fun drive? A productive drive? How
about efficient?
In the second example we use up
a tremendous amount of energy and time
with very little results! Thus,
more hours and exhaustion are the real
results.
Dave Lakhani in his book "Power
of an Hour" talks about power hours. We
can apply "fearsome focus" on a given
project for an hour and accomplish more
than multi-tasking all day!
2.
Priorities: This ties into Focus but many
will say, "I have so many priorities and
demands!" Yes, we all do, the difference
is not all are top priorities, they only
seem to be.
Gene was a mentor of mine in the
80's and had a unique way of prioritizing
things. He had three locations in his
office where he put things.
a.
A do it today place for those
items he needed to do today and they had
importance and impact on the outcomes he
needed.
b.
A do it this week place for
those items he needed to do but had time
or needed to get information or input on.
Again, these had an impact on his
required outcomes.
c.
A drawer that was very large
where he put things that were interesting
or he thought might have value but did
not have an immediate impact on his
outcomes.
Each day he first grabbed the A
location and put them in order of
importance and then went to work. When he
was done with that pile, he went to the B
group, prioritized them, and got to work
until the day ended or he completed all
the tasks. As to the large drawer, on the
30th of the month he pulled
the drawer out and dumped it in the
garbage without looking through it.
Whatever was in the drawer had not become
important and had no immediate
value.
The results of Gene's system, he
had time to be creative, always seem to
have time for his employees and friends
and attended most of his children's
activities. By the way, he was running
six companies at this same
time.
Can you set up some type of
system to help you prioritize what is the
most important in accomplishing your
outcomes! Of course, you have to define
those outcomes or goals and give them
focus.
3.
Clutter:
This is one of the deadliest of time
management sins. It is distracting,
overwhelming and
self-defeating!
An old saying goes; "If a
cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered
mind, then what does a clean desk
indicate? An empty mind? NO a clear
mind!"
Test; if you have stuff on your
desk or your brief case or car is
cluttered up, simply remove everything. I
don't care what you do with it; just get
it out of the way! Now take the most
important priority and have only that in
front of you! Work on it for 55 minutes.
How did it feel? How productive were you?
What about distractions?
I'll bet it felt different and
once you got past the different feeling,
your productivity went up.
My friend Vince Harris has a
unique way of approaching this. He walks
in to a client's office with a large
garbage bag and anything that is not of
immediate importance is put in the bag.
The client now is never allowed to have
anything that is not a priority visible
at any time. As they gain time, they take
one item out of the bag in the closet and
complete it. Vince gets nothing but very
positive feedback on this
approach!
4.
Do It
Now:
in
the Time Management field, these are the
most powerful three words. Yes, you and I
are tired, have others demands right now
and just do not feel like
it.
The ability to focus for that
extra 30 minutes and get it dealt with
now is the single biggest factor between
people who control their time and those
that have no time.
This includes those nasty things
we all have to do. Deal with that
negative person or situation, that issue
or task you just hate to do. By doing it
now you have eliminated an internal
distraction and cleared your mind to
focus on the next priority.
The old saying of "Start
everyday by swallowing a frog" is really
about the do it now aspect. When those
challenges come up, take a deep breath,
smile broadly and go after it. You are
now in control rather than the fear being
in control.
5.
Schedule
Dates:
If
there is one thing I hear from almost
everyone, it is more time for family or
self. The guilt associated with not being
with family or having self-time is a
strong internal distraction.
So how do you combat this
distraction and
guilt?
A
psychologist I knew took a calendar and put
all the family activities on including dates
with her spouse and friends. Then she put in
all the projects and business appointments
she had to do in the open spaces. There were
some compromises and yes, she did some
evening and weekend work.
What she found out is she easily
got her 40-50 hours of work in and the
majority of her family events as well.
She also found she was far more
productive during her work time and far
more relaxed during family
events. When
asked what changed, the response was "no
guilt"! She had eliminated the internal
guilt and distraction.
Now you may not have the
flexibility the psychologist has, but
setting "dates" with those important to
you can go a long way to eliminating the
guilt feelings that can occur and
distract us.
There you are, five key areas
that can help you take control of your
time and effectiveness. Be creative and
apply them to your work and life. See
what happens!
Harlan Goerger
© Harlan Goerger 4-09
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