Actionable Time Management Tips-2

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Your Work Book

In our busy working lives today, we are bombarded with so many different distractions that it is sometimes difficult to keep track of everything that’s going on, particularly if you work in an open-plan office. Instead of recording on scraps better-time-management1of paper or sticky notes all the actionable thoughts that pass through your mind during these stressful periods, use an inexpensive spiral note book. Anything of importance that you write down can then be found again at a later date. Use it as an adjunct, or a companion, to your diary and as a great memory jogger.

The first step in becoming a good time manager is to observe the ways you currently spend your time. If you do it, write it down. Take notice of where your time goes, and where and with whom you spend it. Once you are aware of where your time goes, it’s much easier to make different choices. The second step is to make better choices. It takes a lot of character to try something new, but if you don’t change what you’re doing, then you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. 

Get Organized

Documentation is one thing. Documentation retrieval is another. Establish a place for everything, and then put everything in its place. You lose, on average, an hour a day looking for things. If you want more time, spend less of it looking for what you need. (Start by buying a label maker, file cabinet and computer. Create a retrieval system using these tools, and you will never regret the time and money you invest.)

Taming the Telephone

Murphy’s Law of Telephones and Deadlines means that when you are really pressed trying to complete a project on time, the telephone will ring constantly. In this case use the answering machine to your advantage. take off, with a mind of its own.

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | Back – Create a TO-DO list | Next – Learn to say NO

 

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See Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management – (Get some popcorn, it is 75 minutes long)

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