Shift from Not Valuing to Valuing ur Time
This is an important change to make and when it happen u will never waste another minute! In a dollar sense - this means u are comfortable charging for ur lifetime of knowledge and experience - dont allow clients to take this for granted. U have invested a lot of time and energy. In life, we only get one chance with our time - we cant go back and use the last 10 seconds!
Get the most out of ur day
Every now and then ask urself: Am i making the best use of my time? If not, stop what u are doing and begin working on a project that will allow u better use of ur time. If u are 'bagged down' with a specific situation, get up and go for a walk and then come back and tackle it.
Work with goals in mind
Its amazing how differently we work when u have goals to work towards. If u dont know what ur goals are, spend sometime working out what they may be. Use them as a road map! Examples may be professional (project deadline, sales quotas, career advancement, etc) and personal (health, fitness, family relationship, financial, etc)
Handle every piece of paper or email only once
With paper use the "3 D rule of Do it, Dump it or Delegate it". Never handle a piece of paper twice. Dont even think of placing it in ur 'to get to' pile - Handle it NOW! As for emails the same rule can apply so u either action it, delete it or forward it to some one else. If u print a copy then use the "3 D" rule.
Ask an efficient person his or her secret
Ask the most efficient person u know what their secret is and how did they develop these habits. Then see if it will work for u.
Dont allow anyone to take ur time from u
Set up boundaries around time. If u are stopped in the hall for a conversation, ask for this person to arrange a meeting with u (if appropriate); dont allow co-workers to infringe on ur home time; if someone is late for an appointment and havent contacted u - give them 15 minutes past the appointed time and then move on. It is up to u as to how u allow other people to use ur time!
Build family and personal time into ur day
We all need to have the support of our family or friends - so make sure u build them into ur daily habits. U dont want to finish ur career and realise that u missed out on the closeness and development of ur family.
Ur health is important
Maintain ur health and fitness because this is what will help u through in the long run. There are three things that i feel are valuable to us all - they are time [which we are talking about]; knowledge and energy. Take care of ur energy and its levels. At the end of the day being overworked and stressed is only going to hamper ur health. So take extra care of this - go for a walk, have a massage, spend time with ur family, stop and smell roses or book in for ur yearly medical check up.
Dry clean the clutter from ur office and home
Take some time to remove the clutter from ur life. Clutter zaps ur energy and allows u to waste time on non-valuable tasks. So plug the holes today.
Work during ur peak performance times
Schedule demanding tasks to the part of the day that u work best, where energy levels are at their highest. It maybe first thing in the morning or early afternoon - work out when it is and then see urself moving ahead.
~ Article courtesy of the NPC P&Q Digest vol. 94 Sept 2006
