16. Schedule Interruptions   

   Interruptions are usually not a surprise.  

If you are in the same work environment on a regular basis, you will notice that the same interruptions happen again and again. The same people doing the same things, usually at the same time. Why not schedule some C time around the time when you expect the interruptions. If they don’t come fine, you can still get some low priority housekeeping tasks out of the way.  

By scheduling these time slots, throughout the day, you can get rid of some minor disruptions and still get some work done. I’ve found the best time to slot these C activity/ interruption breaks is first thing in the morning, before after lunch and close to closing .  

Interruptions; people just coming into your zone, are more likely to happen during the times when people are coming and going through your office area. The same situations occur if you are working from home.  

This does not mean that you will not be working with the people you work with to respect your time and space through an active campaign to work with you on reducing and eliminating interruptions into you schedule 

17. Out of Your Head, Into the System, Onto the Paper 

I will remember is the beginning of the end as far as organizing your time and schedule is concerned. There are so many things wrong with that it is hard to write them all down. I will address only a few here.  

First and foremost, unless you are the one in a thousand people with a flawless memory, you will forget. Secondly, unless what you want to do is not recorded, written down, there will be no way to prioritize this activity in relationship to everything else you want to do.  

 If you can’t prioritize something, how will you will be able to Time Activate it?  

If it’s not Time Activated, then it won’t get done, at least not done when it should be done. 

One of the cornerstones of the PTS is our procedure to get things done, get the right things done at the right time.  

You will fail in your attempt to gain control of your time if you don’t use this part of the system.  

I’m very open about the other systems out there; we have them listed on our web page. There are systems that claim you will be better organized, get more out of life if you just spend xx dollars on a simple computer program, the computer will do all the work. I don’t agree.  

There is work, thought and physical effort required to get on track.  

Part of that process is getting your thoughts out of your head and down in a written form where you can manipulate and work with them. There is no free lunch. 

18. Start A  Reading File. 

We are inundated with written material, magazines, memos, emails, actual mail, the list goes on.  

There are a number of ways to deal with this avalanche of material, but for know lets at least put all of it a place that allows us to control it, at least a little bit.  

Let’s reserve this bit for the papers, magazines, actual mail, anything that is in a hard form. Start a reading file.  

Depending upon the size of this material, it can be a file folder, or a tray, a box, whatever size of receptacle is needed to encase this material.  

You may want to have a few sections in here, separate business from home, hobby from finance's; the divisions don’t matter as long as everything is in one spot.  

At least now, you know where to put this material when it comes into you, and you know where to look for this material when you need it.  

I find this file handy when I want to kill a few minutes between tasks; this is where I find that paper I wanted to look at. 

I also use this file when I know I’m forced to go to someone else’s office and will inevitably have to wait, fills in the dead time with some productive activity. 

   19. To Do List, it’s a Start  

This idea has taken a real beating over the years. It used to be the rage, then it fell out of favor, it’s been back and forth over the years. 

My position is very simple, no to do list; you are dead in the water, pure and simple. Without a to do list, your are absolutely fly blind in the fog of Time Management. Rudderless in a storm, a leaf in a stream, you get the picture.  

Everything and I mean everything you will need to give your chance at getting control of your time and gaining the maximum value from your efforts starts from some sort of mechanism for putting everything you want to do and achieve in one place. It’s from this small to huge pile of information you will attempt to prioritize it and then to put some time parameters on it.  

      There has to be a start point to you trying to do things differently than you did them before. Why else are you reading this then?    Putting together a to do list, as we outline in the PTS is that start point. 

<< Previous    1...   3  4  [5]  6  7  ...21    Next >>