My top 26 time tips:
| Ahead of the game | Success is a box 3 person in a box 3 company (Box 3 is important but not urgent) |
| Block out time for yourself | Half an hour a day is my suggestion |
| Crisis and Causes | Crisis = failure. Find the cause = fixed for next time |
| Delegate | The biggest way a manager can save time |
| Enjoy and Achieve | Best use of time = the Meaning of Life |
| Follow-up date | Always obtained and put in diary |
| Goals | Enjoy and achieve, at home and at work |
| Home and work the same | One diary, same lists, goals, promises etc |
| Interruptions | Have strategies: signals, limits, agreements. |
| Jobs to do list every day | Max 10 items, written last thing. |
| Keep 25% free | Space in your diary for the things that will crop up |
| Life is only time, and it’s half gone already! | Make the most of every day / every week |
| Master list of everything | All in one place, everything you have agreed to do |
| No | Say no to anything that’s not near the top of your list. ….Or at least negotiate |
| Objective of time management: | Maximum time spent on important things |
| Putting things off / Procrastination | Have 3 strategies to fool your inner child. |
| Question – if I had 6 months…… | Your life WILL be series of 6m chunks like this one |
| Repeating problems and repeating tasks: | Need systems to prevent or to deal with quicker |
| Stress – mainly comes from poor Time Management | Aim for 4 to 6 on the pressure-o-meter |
| Time wasters | All come from self (lack of Assertiveness!) or others (lack of Self Discipline!) |
| Urgent does not equal Important | Fit some important tasks into every day and every list |
| Visualise the future – good and bad | Good as a goal, bad to prevent procrastination |
| Write everything down | Everything into master list, daily list, or diary |
| Extra hours at work = bad habit | Regular long hours achieve nothing extra, except stress |
| You only get 800 months | … and 850 weekend from 55. Make them count! |
| Zero inbox | Clear your emails every day, at least onto your jobs to do list. |
Some of the above need a bit more explaining – you’ll have to come on my course for that! But I hope you can work them out so that you find them useful.
More info here:
Open time management course – spend a day learning about time, with me
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Pocket book on kindle
Ten day e-course – info here
I don’t understand Ahead of the game
the objective is to be ahead of the game by doing things that re important but not urgent – planning and doing things before they are needed. I’m going to write an explanation of each line at some point, either as a blog post or, in more detail, as a book