by Denise Landers
http://www.keyorganization.com
© 2006
Myth: You can save time.
There is no way you can bank unused hours. Each
hour gets spent. Time is the most democratic of resources. Everyone
is given the same amount every day. Since every minute is nonrenewable,
all that matters is how you are using your time this minute.
You might recognize these two colleagues who
started work in the same department at the same time.
Meet John:
He is the last one to turn in work on a group
project.
He can take days to respond to messages.
He surrounds himself with stacks of papers on every available
surface.
He stays late at least three days a week.
His family has not had dinner with him in the last month.
He complains about the amount of work he is expected to get done.
He is too tired to do anything extra on weekends, so ends up watching
TV.
He is bitter about not being given a job with more responsibility.
Meet Tom:
He has never missed a deadline.
He leaves his desk cleared at the end of each day.
He holds board positions on 3 community associations.
He coaches his son’s baseball team
He takes his full allotment of vacations each year.
He has been promoted several times within the company.
Truth: You can manage time.
Where do you begin when you are trying to change
your spending habits? It is so easy to succumb to the tyranny
of the urgent.
You are pumped with adrenaline all day as you respond to multiple
demands and constant crises. Being so busy, you never stop to
evaluate how you could limit the demands with some basic time
management tactics. By analysis and planning you could also decrease
the number of urgent matter that arise due to setting things aside
for too long.
If you are acting like John but want to live
like Tom, start by deciding what your priorities are, both long-term
and short-term. Every activity you perform should be measured
against those priorities to ensure that the most important ones
get done first.
Once you know where you are headed, create daily
systems to deal with all the incoming items. The proverbial "Handle
a piece of paper one time only" does not work. However the
underlying meaning for that has validity. You need to make a decision
the first time on every item coming into your office and into
your life.
To make the decision, use my RAFT method to navigate
through the stacks and keep you from getting swamped:
R -READ
A - ACT
F - FILE
T - TOSS
Every item and every task will fit into one
of those categories. The most difficult one for most people
is the ACT section.
To determine where to place an action file, ask
yourself two questions:
What is my next step?
When will I have a reasonable chance of doing this?
With your priorities defined and your daily actions
set up, you are free to focus on one thing at a time. You are
now managing your time instead of letting others manage it for
you.
For more information on how to cope with the
work overload, refer to Denise Landers’ book, Destination:
Organization.
©2006, Key Organization Systems, Inc., All
Rights Reserved
