Top 10 Time Wasters – Continued
Here’s numbers 5 and 6 with specific strategies for addressing these issues:
5. Drop-in Visitors
- Remember that you teach what you allow. Stop teaching people to interrupt you.
- Remove the “bait” from your workspace (candy dishes, toys and other things that might easily attract visitors).
- Get a “Do Not Disturb” sign for use when you need time to focus and concentrate.
- Rearrange your workspace furniture to help minimize interruptions.
- Ask chronic interrupters to stop interrupting you.
6. Poor Delegation
- Investigate the psychological reasons for your reluctance or inability to delegate effectively.
- Clearly articulate the details of all delegated tasks.
- Take the time to teach others to do what you do so you can delegate the task in the future.
- Establish and maintain an appropriate follow-up system for all delegated tasks.
- Find people whose strengths are the opposite of yours and “barter” with them to swap selected tasks.
I’ll post 2 more next week!
Have a positively productive week!
Taken from the GO System training course, written by Chris Crouch.
Top 10 Time Wasters – Continued
Here’s numbers 3 and 4:
3. Poor Planning
- Implement a sound planning process.
- Do not start a project unless you have reasonable clarity about the objective of the project.
- Break the project down into specific, measurable activities and assign ownership for all activities.
- Set specific deadlines or completion dates for all critical activities.
- Document your plan in writing.
4. Attempting To Do Too Much
- Investigate why you are unable or reluctant to say no to new demands on your time and energy.
- Apply the 80/20 Principle – 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
- Learn to delegate freely and effectively.
- Schedule flexible time into your daily routine to allow for interruptions and unexpected emergencies.
- Develop a mental attitude that values quality instead of quantity.
I’ll post 2 more next week!
Have a positively productive week!
Taken from the GO System training course, written by Chris Crouch.
Top 10 Time Wasters
There are 10 issues that I consider to be huge time wasters in the work environment. For the next 5 weeks I’ll feature 2 of them and give you suggestions for addressing these issues.
1. Operating in a Crisis Mode
- Implement a sound planning process.
- Stop making new commitments and promises until you restore balance in your life.
- Address the true cause(s) of the crisis rather than only addressing the symptoms.
- Increase your knowledge and skill level related to the factors causing the crisis.
- Shut down all nonessential activities until you have solved the crisis.
2. Handling Phone Calls and E-mails
- Stop taking any phone calls or paying attention to any e-mails for at least 20% of your workday.
- Use only one voice mail system to capture messages from important people in your life.
- Use only one e-mail system to capture messages from important people in your life.
- Set up a separate e-mail address to use for filling out product applications, forms or other documents that may generate future junk mail.
- Establish a process and develop the habit of keeping your voice mail and e-mail inboxes empty.
These are just 2 issues that might be putting limitations on your ability to become more focused, organized and productive. I’ll post 2 more next week!
Taken from the GO System training course, written by Chris Crouch.
Have a positively productive week!
Speed Dump
Try this exercise:
Take 2 minutes and make a list of everything that’s on your mind of things you have to do.
How many tasks are on your list?
Now, take 20% of that number. What is it? Take that number of top priorities off your list and write them on a separate sheet in the order of most important.
Next, take the highest priority item and begin working on it. Stay focused until it’s complete. Once it’s complete or you reach a stopping point, take the next item. Do this exercise every day to make sure you are focusing on the 20% that matters.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say my list consisted of 20 items. 20% of 20 is 4. I’d select the top 4 items on my list and put them in priority order – highest priority being number 1. I’d start with that item and work my way through my top 4.
Stay focused on the things that matter and have a positively productive week!
Ideas discussed in the GO System training course, written by Chris Crouch.
