Dr. Ron Arndt
(1)
Take time to get organized. How is your workspace? Is it crowded, sloppy, piled high with yesterday?s business? Get rid of everything that is extraneous in your workplace or office and have an assigned place for everything. It takes time to get organized, but, once accomplished, it pays off in less wasted moments.
(2)
Begin the night before. Don?t wait until Monday morning to decide what you?re going to do for each day of the week. Set aside time on Sunday to: (a) decide what you want to do and accomplish for the week, and (b) schedule your next day (Monday). Select a time when you are relaxed and not rushed.
(3)
Prioritize your plan. Not all tasks are of equal importance, effort or duration. Some are more important than others. Divide your objectives and tasks in terms of what is most important, then second in importance, and so on.
(4)
Honor your personal work style. When are you most creative? When is the best time to: Do routine chores? Exercise? Study? Nap? Each person has an ideal work style that operates as a function of being a certain body and personality style. Determine which is right for you.
(5)
Cat nap. If you?re a Type A, you may have trouble with this one! The fact is, nearly everyone encounters a low point in energy, usually about 1:00 PM every day, depending, of course, on how much sleep they have had, the time of day they arise, etc. You can train yourself, using a simple 1 to 10 countdown method, to sleep for five, 10 or 15 minutes. With practice, you will wake up within a few seconds of the time you have chosen AND be refreshed and ready to go.
(6)
Schedule time by blocks rather than tasks. Have you ever allotted an hour to complete a task and then found that it took two hours, thereby messing up the rest of your day and schedule? To remove this stress, allot a given amount of time to a task, say an hour, and then move on to the next task. This practice ensures that you will make measurable progress on each task without getting bogged down.
(7)
Make the first touch the deciding one.
(8)
Follow the WIFO principle, selectively. WIIFO stands for OWorst In, First Out.O Have you ever kept postponing a project because you just didn?t want to do it? Many of us spend as much time worrying and rescheduling as actually doing it! There is a way around this ? simply do it either on a task or time basis.
(9)
Schedule a clean-up day or half-day weekly. No matter how good you are at scheduling, there always will be times when your desk is piled high and your plan/schedule gets crowded with extra tasks. Pick a time each week (perhaps Saturday mornings) as a clean-up period. It will be your time to dispose of all those little things that have built up during the week and a time to mentally review your priorities.
(10)
Enlist the support of others. Let them know what you are doing, and how they and others will benefit from the results you want to produce. Invite them to lend their support in whatever way they can.
