There never seems to be enough time. Things keep coming at us - and those things have more channels than ever to travel through. Deadlines loom and are sometimes forgotten. Many of us are close to panic mode most of the time.
Many of us sacrifice our own time to make our work projects successful. There's a constant flow of incoming information, tasks, catastrophes, complaints, and need-it-nows. Is it any wonder we work so many hours and still have more work to do?
The three things that you can do to gain control RIGHT NOW are incredibly easy and straightforward:
Before you leave for the day, make a list of what you plan to do tomorrow. A simple task list.
- Prioritize that task list using something simple that speaks to you. A/B/C, Urgent/Important, or the one I find most helpful for task lists, MoSCoW (Must/Should/Could/Won't)
- When you start work in the morning, the very FIRST thing you do is to review the task list you made last night. Before opening a single email, IM, text, or voicemail.
Having that list means that every incoming request or piece of information can be compared to your planned list to see if it is really important enough to bump everything on the list. Priorities make those decisions fast and easy. It keeps you out of the heat of the moment and gives you a solid reason for telling someone to get on your calendar, send you the information in an email, or otherwise moving along. You can add less urgent incoming to tomorrow's list.
Without a task list we tend to get caught up in whoever is the loudest, most upset, or the most present (read: in your face). With a list we can actually evaluate incoming to see whether it can wait or be delegated.
I do teach a class to corporate clients on time management, but if there's one thing I've learned from teaching the class it's that very busy, time-challenged people don't feel they can take that four hours for themselves. So…I put together an eLearning module with all the same information. It lets you build your own system for time management - one that works specifically for you - a piece at a time, as you have time.
If that sounds useful to you, you can find the class here.
In the meantime - do any of your days look like this? :-)
