How do you manage your time?

Not having enough time has become a very common complaint both at home and at work. The essence of good time management is prioritizing what is most important to you and then disciplining yourself to accomplish those highest priorities first.

Time management is not so much about checklists, calendars, and scheduling as it is knowing what is most important in your life and making sure that the activities of your life are aligned with your values and priorities. 

Stephen Covey developed a Time Management Matrix to prioritize the activities of our lives.  There are two dimensions to the matrix:  urgent and important. 

• Urgent matters are those that demand immediate attention, such as the telephone call from an irate customer, the report the boss asked for right away, etc.  We are reactive to the urgent.
• Important matters are those that are aligned with long-term values, priorities, and goals, such as learning new skills, developing new products, or getting a college degree.  Important issues require us to be more thoughtful and proactive.

The way we get more time for those things that are most important to us is to stop doing the not urgent and not important:  time wasters such as idle chat, busywork, junk emails, mindless TV shows. Minimize the time allowed for the urgent but not important:  some meetings, some phone calls, some emails.  Successful people do this by saying “no” frequently.  Learn to say “no” to unimportant activities.

Time management is up to you.  Take some time and think about exactly what your true priorities are.  Spend more time on those things that are truly important to you.

If you are interested in learning more visit our website for information on our Time Management webinar.

Until next time...






Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/

The Most Effective Use Of Time Right Now Part 2

Proactive vs. Reactive Work

Proactive work - concentrates on making things happen

• Developing plans and schedules
• Focusing on key tasks
• Achieving deadlines & targets
• Managing projects

Reactive work is based on dealing with the immediate and urgent issues that arrive usually in an uncontrolled manner.  The short-term focus leads to a perpetuation of the requirement for reactive work.

Procrastination

Why do we put things off instead of doing them?

• A response to stress that accompanies difficult or challenging tasks
• A habit that has formed over time
• Poor or no prioritization
• Poor or no planning 

The results of procrastination can be stated as:

• Stress
• Pressure
• Crises
• Continuous fire-fighting
• Reduction in quality  

These are all excellent reasons for stopping procrastination, so when faced with a task, decide to deal with it according to one of the following actions:

• Do it
• Delegate it
• Dump it
• Deadline it
• Dissect it  

If procrastination is having a negative impact on your personal productivity - take the following action points:

• Take ownership of your own procrastination
• Do something to get things moving
• Remove the fear of failure from standing in the way of your effectiveness
• Start today - right now!

Until next time...






Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/