2. Once you have created your monthly (and this is ongoing) goal, put the action in
your diary. Personal goals such as family life need to be included. In other words,
keep time free.
CREATING PLANNERS
Review activities to ensure they are in line with your mission statement. If they are
not, either your mission statement is meaningless or you should dump the activity.
Monthly Plan
At the beginning of the month, write down your goals and objectives for the month.
Put a monthly plan of what you need to achieve in place. At the end of the month,
review this plan to see if you have achieved your goals.
Weekly Plan
At the beginning of the week, create a high level plan for the week. What do you
need to achieve during the week? This is a not a daily calendar entry, just a plan of
what must be achieved by the end of the week. This includes your small, medium
and large activities. This weekly planner is updated each day as you progress through
tasks. By having a weekly plan, it allows you schedule the important activities, it
allows you to add in new activities that may come in and it allows you to plan each
day.
Daily Plan
On a daily basis, plan your day and then update your weekly plan. Allow time each
day for normal activities (managing emails, lunch, commuting to work, etc.).
MANAGING E-MAILS
Social media and email are probably the bane of your life.
Rule number 1: Do not be a slave to email. Let email be a slave to you.
Change the notification settings on your email in box. Remove notifications. As with
all habits, create a habit of when to check emails. This should be no more than three
times a day, depending on your role and the expectations from you.
When you do read your mail, plan what to do about each mail and only touch it once
in the planning stage.
1. DUMP IT NOW – but do be well mannered enough to let the sender know
where relevant
2. DELEGATE IT – your best option so look for someone to delegate to
3. DO IT NOW – if it is really a short reply which won’t have any impact or
repercussions simply reply or action
3. 4. DECIDE WHEN TO DO IT – this is what you should be aiming for, being able to
PLAN when to take the action required
URGENT vs. IMPORTANT
We need to learn to deal with IMPORTANT tasks before they become URGENT. All
too often we spend our days ‘fighting fires’.
Use this matrix to review your tasks:
1. DUMP IT NOW – I am sure there are many actions that have been around
forever and if you were to dump them. Another reason to consider dumping
activities is when they do not tie back to your mission statement.
2. DELEGATE IT – most of us are loath to delegate, or maybe we don’t know
how to delegate. If you have a task you feel only you can do, consider letting
someone with less skill at least get it 80% done and you can then spend
(much less) a little time finalizing and perfecting it. Often is also because we
don’t know how to delegate. It is all in the planning! Or maybe there is no
one to delegate to? Somehow you will often find there is actually someone,
you have just not considered options out of the box.
3. DO IT NOW – because it is important but you have also allowed it to become
urgent
4. DECIDE WHEN TO DO IT – when you have reached the stage when you are
able to plan rather than fight fires, you are in a good place, this is where you
Urgency is me related
Importance is value related AND should include work / life balance
Yet we respond to urgency rather than importance
Urgent AND Important
DO IT NOW
Important BUT Not Urgent
Decide when to do
Urgent BUT Not Important
Delegate it
Not Important Not Urgent
DUMP IT NOW
Urgency
Importance
4. want to be. Being able to PLAN when to do activities. These are also likely to
be the activities that are in line with your mission statement.
HABITS
One of the better known gurus on habits, Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People:
Private
Be proactive Take initiative
Respond proactively
Be responsibleand accountable
Identify what can be controlled and influenced
Have a positiveinfluenceon results,their environment and
others
Begin with the end in
min
Define vision and values
Create a mission statement
Set measurableteam and personal goals
Start projects successfully
Align goals to priorities
Focus on desired outcomes
Put firstthings first Balancekey priorities
Eliminatelow prioritiesand time-wasters
Execute strategy
Use planning tools effectively
Apply effective delegation skills
Use effective time-management skills
Public
Think win / win Build high-trustrelationships
Build effective teams
Identify wins for all parties and createeffective collaboration
Use effective collaboration
Strategize to the long-term
Seek firstto be
understand then to be
understood
Apply effective listeningskills
Deeply and accurately understand others
Apply effective interpersonal communication skills
Overcome communication pitfalls
Give and receive inputand feedback productively
Apply effective communication skills to the digital world
Synergize Leverage and build on diversestrengths
Apply effective problem solving
Apply collaborativedecision-making
Collaboratecreatively to identify innovativeand effective
solutions
Embrace and leverage innovation.
Review
Sharpen the saw Achieve lifebalance
Integrate continuous improvement and learninginto their lives
Build capacity to practicethe 7 Habits
You can train your brain; you can rewire your brain. It is simply a matter of
repetition, of doing the same thing over and over again, of reminding yourself to
create and stick to habits. All good sports people will tell you the same
thing…..habits, training the brain, creating habits. It is all about muscle memory!
5. Repetitive actions create HABITS.
- Put daily and weekly and monthly habits in place. For example, wake up at
same time, plan your day over coffee every morning, set aside regular time
on a Friday evening to review your week and to plan the following week.
Make it a habit to use the last day of the month to review your month and to
plan your following month.
- Get your health habits in place (e.g. water upon waking, yoga first thing every
morning, etc.)
COMMUNICATION
It seems the more we communicate, the less we hear.
I am talking about the minor details. How many have you been to collect an item on
a pre-arranged date, only to find it is not ready? Even in this example, don’t just call
and ask if it is ready, expand your questioning.
Or when taking an order / instruction, don’t accept the order / instruction as is. Ask
questions; ask if they are expecting any further (the obvious “o I just assumed that
would be included”). Play it back, and where possible articulate EXCLUDED items or
deliverables.
Don’t feel embarrassed because you are in ‘senior’ company. ASK questions, clarify,
confirm.
A simple phone call prior could have saved you a lot of time. COMMUNICATE. Ask
questions. And play back the response to ensure you have heard what the other
party intended you to hear. Where possible put it in writing, and of course agree on
terminology.
Amazingly enough no one has the time to do things properly the first time around,
yet most people find the time to rectify the errors they created by not planning and
by not communicating.
MULTI-TASKING
Multi-tasking does not exist. It is a fallacy. Women cannot do more than one
activity at a time any more than men can! It is a physical impossibility. When people
say they are multi-tasking, they are really just wasting time doing several activities at
half input. Nothing is being done properly and takes double the time it should.
According to Professor Kurt April, you should rather be SPLICING your time. Spend
short bursts of truly focussed time on an activity and then move on to the next task.
MANAGING YOUR TIME
6. You need to control your time. Plan your days, take control of interruptions by
ignoring them if possible, get to know your tools.
DO NOT DISTURB
Whether you work in an open plan office, need a bit of me time as a mother, or work
from home, there will be times when you do not want to be disturbed. Agree with
those around you and put something in place to let others know not to disturb you.
In an open plan office, the age old accepted DO NOT DISTURB is a red flag
somewhere on your desk.
BEING A SLAVE TO PHONE CALLS
If you are in sales, ignore this point.
If not, do not be a slave to your contact points.
Record a voicemail asking the caller to return the call at 5pm when you will be back
in the office. Put the onus on the caller, don’t add to your to do list! You will often
find the caller does not (and does not need to) call back. If you had asked the caller
to leave a message, not only would you have wasted time listening to the message,
but you would have called back. And very likely taken on a action that you were
delegated to or did not really need to perform. DELEGATE. Get the caller to call you
back.
WHERE TO START – SORTING OUT THE BACKLOG
Like most people who are reading this article, you probably have a pile electronic or
paper based backlog items awaiting attention. Set aside time; maybe a day or an
hour. Do not sort through items. Simply take each and every item and ruthlessly
action (file, phone someone, draft a document). Seek closure and start afresh.
WHERE TO START – GETTING ORGANIZED
Once you have created your monthly mission statement / goals, enter these in the
dairy in time slots.
Next enter all daily tasks such as reading emails, lunch etc.
Before you continue, review how much time is left each day….
Now allow planning time daily, weekly and monthly. And remember to add general
administration slots, training, lunch and any family commitments. Now you can start
accepting actions!
Your planning is monthly; you review this on a weekly basis and each day you re-
arrange by priority.
USE THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
7. In an article recently published by Synetec, George Toursoulopoulous made an
excellent case for using the right tools for the right job.
Use your calendar for meetings and reminders, don’t clog your mind up trying to
remember. Use Excel for finance and use Minutz for meetings. Use Reminders (the
application) for reminders. But remove and don’t use unnecessary reminders or you
will spend your days ‘snoozing’ reminders. Use something like MS Project for
project planning.
But above all, don’t use your brain capacity to remember meetings etc.
And even more importantly, get to know your tools. You WILL save time by spending
time to learn your tools!
