It is one of those moments wherein i was thinking...
How often do you confront a situation wherein you start your day with all enthusiasm and intention of making it one of the most productive days and accomplishing tasks which have long been procrastinated but end up realizing not one got done and yet you were as busy as a bee? Or for that matter how many of you work for most of your morning and afternoon and realize that nothing that was important has been done, you are still sitting on a pile of pending tasks and time has gone by. Frustrating, isn't it? Leaves you with lot of dissatisfaction and discontent.
What happened? Where did your time go? What kept you so occupied and engaged throughout the day? Lets see - probably, you spent morning time clearing your inbox - glancing the forward jokes, messages and other junk mails, or went for a refreshing cup of coffee with one of your colleagues. In the meantime you realized that there is loads of work staring at your desk and just when you were about to commence your work, someone called you for schmoozing and the next hour went. Around this time you realized you have wasted a lot of time and unexpectedly you are beleaguered by hornets' nest and your entire day went in putting out that fire. At the end of the day you wonder - where the heck did my time go? These are certainly not the symptoms of a productive individual because a productive individual plans his/her day well and is in a position to comprehend where his/her time goes. Its no convoluted tax structure that needs unusual competency to apprehend. Its mere common sense, which all of us are cognizant of but only few put it to practice where as the rest forget, postpone or resist to act on them as it is disquieting.
Some such facile strategies are:
Start your day early:
Start your day half-an hour early than usual. At the end of each day, make a list of 10 most important things that you will accomplish the next day. This will give you some time to make a mental outline of how to exercise control over your time being spent rather than how others want your time to be spent. When you have some inevitable and inescapable tasks at hand that need a closure immediately, it is expedient to commit some time for yourself by blocking the calendar. Make sure you keep your commitment.
Prioritize:
Prioritizing tasks enlisted on your to-do list is essential and can be done by categorizing them based on their criticality viz. have-to-do, need-to-do and nice-to-do. Start your day with have-to-do's and then work your way down. Keep in mind the 80/20 rule the intent of which is that 20% of your efforts will account for 80% of your results. So the key is to identify the tasks that fall into the upper 20% and focus your efforts on them. Thus, in a day when you have tons of tasks to be accomplished choose to do those 20% which will get you closer to your goals.
Work Smart not hard:
How often do you confront a situation wherein you start your day with all enthusiasm and intention of making it one of the most productive days and accomplishing tasks which have long been procrastinated but end up realizing not one got done and yet you were as busy as a bee? Or for that matter how many of you work for most of your morning and afternoon and realize that nothing that was important has been done, you are still sitting on a pile of pending tasks and time has gone by. Frustrating, isn't it? Leaves you with lot of dissatisfaction and discontent.
What happened? Where did your time go? What kept you so occupied and engaged throughout the day? Lets see - probably, you spent morning time clearing your inbox - glancing the forward jokes, messages and other junk mails, or went for a refreshing cup of coffee with one of your colleagues. In the meantime you realized that there is loads of work staring at your desk and just when you were about to commence your work, someone called you for schmoozing and the next hour went. Around this time you realized you have wasted a lot of time and unexpectedly you are beleaguered by hornets' nest and your entire day went in putting out that fire. At the end of the day you wonder - where the heck did my time go? These are certainly not the symptoms of a productive individual because a productive individual plans his/her day well and is in a position to comprehend where his/her time goes. Its no convoluted tax structure that needs unusual competency to apprehend. Its mere common sense, which all of us are cognizant of but only few put it to practice where as the rest forget, postpone or resist to act on them as it is disquieting.
Some such facile strategies are:
Start your day early:
Start your day half-an hour early than usual. At the end of each day, make a list of 10 most important things that you will accomplish the next day. This will give you some time to make a mental outline of how to exercise control over your time being spent rather than how others want your time to be spent. When you have some inevitable and inescapable tasks at hand that need a closure immediately, it is expedient to commit some time for yourself by blocking the calendar. Make sure you keep your commitment.
Prioritize:
Prioritizing tasks enlisted on your to-do list is essential and can be done by categorizing them based on their criticality viz. have-to-do, need-to-do and nice-to-do. Start your day with have-to-do's and then work your way down. Keep in mind the 80/20 rule the intent of which is that 20% of your efforts will account for 80% of your results. So the key is to identify the tasks that fall into the upper 20% and focus your efforts on them. Thus, in a day when you have tons of tasks to be accomplished choose to do those 20% which will get you closer to your goals.
Work Smart not hard:
Its not always about hard work or the number of hours that you put doing a task, instead about achieving the targets. Focus should be on outcomes rather than activities. Not every task requires or deserves the same degree of attention or intensity. Perfection can often be a waste of time. It's not worth the effort to try for perfection on inconsequential jobs. Productivity leaders advise giving each task the effort it warrants--nothing more, nothing less as this way you get lot more done.
Exercise email will-power; tame your phone and minimize meetings:
Emails, phones and meetings though have their respective set of advantages but they are the biggest dissipaters of time and exercising discipline in this area is important. When in midst of some significant activity there is absolutely no need to take all the incoming calls until and unless urgent. You can respond to them at your convenience. Phones are meant for your convenience, not for others’.
Similar discipline holds true for emails. Checking mails can get extremely addictive and can stop you from getting your real work done. The trick here is to process your inbox after every 3 to 4 hours depending on your job requirement rather than being so inquisitive that you check each and every mail the moment it arrives. Also while processing your inbox keep your exchanges very short, to the point and specific, for instance "Pls. confirm our meeting at 10 am tomorrow."
In the age of virtual and globally distributed work teams, it is much more beneficial to accomplish as many tasks as possible through conference calls as this saves both time and energy. Lot of time is wasted in going to and fro to the meeting place and some avoidable conversations and social pleasantries that are exchanged while you meet. Thus, its always advisable to finish most of the tasks over the phone as this way you save time which can later be put to a more productive use.
Protect your productive time:
We often hear people complaining that i am not able to work in the office hours as there are people who come and interrupt for something or the other. The best solution is to form a practice of talking to people only on prior slotted time or else learn to say "not now please" and refer them to another time. This way your productive time at the office is put to best use.
Multitasking:
Multitasking works best when you have two tasks not conflicting with each other for the same areas of brain and it helps save a lot of time in a day. Tasks which are not very critical and do not require your 100% concentration can be clubbed together. For instance, while on call, you can respond to routine mails. This helps you in saving time which can be later used to complete other tasks on to-do list.
The suggestions discussed above are something that all of us know but the only difference between people who achieve more than the others is that they put this knowledge to use. Try and see for yourself how this help you in getting more done in a day – at home and at work making each day much more enjoyable.
Exercise email will-power; tame your phone and minimize meetings:
Emails, phones and meetings though have their respective set of advantages but they are the biggest dissipaters of time and exercising discipline in this area is important. When in midst of some significant activity there is absolutely no need to take all the incoming calls until and unless urgent. You can respond to them at your convenience. Phones are meant for your convenience, not for others’.
Similar discipline holds true for emails. Checking mails can get extremely addictive and can stop you from getting your real work done. The trick here is to process your inbox after every 3 to 4 hours depending on your job requirement rather than being so inquisitive that you check each and every mail the moment it arrives. Also while processing your inbox keep your exchanges very short, to the point and specific, for instance "Pls. confirm our meeting at 10 am tomorrow."
In the age of virtual and globally distributed work teams, it is much more beneficial to accomplish as many tasks as possible through conference calls as this saves both time and energy. Lot of time is wasted in going to and fro to the meeting place and some avoidable conversations and social pleasantries that are exchanged while you meet. Thus, its always advisable to finish most of the tasks over the phone as this way you save time which can later be put to a more productive use.
Protect your productive time:
We often hear people complaining that i am not able to work in the office hours as there are people who come and interrupt for something or the other. The best solution is to form a practice of talking to people only on prior slotted time or else learn to say "not now please" and refer them to another time. This way your productive time at the office is put to best use.
Multitasking:
Multitasking works best when you have two tasks not conflicting with each other for the same areas of brain and it helps save a lot of time in a day. Tasks which are not very critical and do not require your 100% concentration can be clubbed together. For instance, while on call, you can respond to routine mails. This helps you in saving time which can be later used to complete other tasks on to-do list.
The suggestions discussed above are something that all of us know but the only difference between people who achieve more than the others is that they put this knowledge to use. Try and see for yourself how this help you in getting more done in a day – at home and at work making each day much more enjoyable.
1 comment:
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