Starved for time? Diet tips here
Everyone who contacts me needs more time in their day. Here are some tips that are helping me.
Prepare. Each week I define up to three key objectives and schedule time to complete them during Monday-Wednesday. I call these the 3strands of my "rope" to climb to the next crevice of my life's mountain. My 3Strands are derived from my clear, measurable, annual T.A.R.G.E.T. goals that I set at the beginning of this year. Each 3Strands list is defined every week sometime between late afternoon Friday and 6:00 a.m. Monday. During this time, I commit to no interruptions - it is my Sanctuary time. I focus on what is most important to achieve my goals.
I commit to completing my 3Strands Monday-Wednesday because if I wait until Thursday-Friday then they do not get done. If I have to shift my focus to other priorities early in the week then I can still complete my 3strands on Thursday-Friday.
Why do I set a maximum of three? Because 3 is realistic. It's not a long laundry list of things I would like to do. My 3Strands are tasks I intend to complete this week. I stop at 3 in order to focus my time on the activities that matter most.
Say "No." This is so simple to say, but challenging to do. The longer you are in business, even if you are not successful, the more requests there are for your time. You do not have to be rude. A simple "no" will suffice. Most of the time when you decline something right away you will save yourself the time and energy of having to say no later.
But, there are some great opportunities out there, right? Yes, there are. However, if you do not have time for an opportunity you must learn to decline, and engage at a later date. I write down ideas and organize them in lists on Word documents or iPhone notes. I also create folders on my laptop to save articles, websites, documents... anything that relates to the idea. I quickly save ideas for later, and save myself plenty of time in doing so.
If I come across a great idea or opportunity that cannot wait, I schedule it for later. "Later" could be tomorrow, or it could be in 1-2 weeks. Then I work diligently to complete my priorities so I am available to engage with the new opportunity.
Daily Task Management. I review my calendar daily to optimize my time. With all my responsibilities it is crucial for me to monitor my daily activities and move things around to free-up time, or shift a responsibility to a following day. Does it have to be daily? Only if you want to achieve maximum productivity. Self-accountability is critical to success. At the end of every day I review my calendar to confirm my productivity. This is an example of the Systematic Leadership strand of my 3strands LEADERSHIP system.
What if I do not complete the scheduled tasks on my calendar for a certain day? Welcome to reality. Occasionally that will happen. Complete as much as you can each day with excellence. Then move those uncompleted items to new dates.
What if there are no openings in my calendar? Try to keep one day as a meeting-free day. Do not schedule anything except project work without interaction with others. Ideally 25-50% of the day should be unscheduled. You can shift important work that got delayed due to "firefighting" to Friday. I guarantee the time will be well spent.
Start doing these three things well and it will positively affect everything else you do as a leader.
