Recover More Time for Yourself
Posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 At
7:20 AM
Chief among these obstacles is a lack of time; after all, investing in your career certainly takes time as well as effort. So how can you create more time for yourself? There are countless tools that ‘expert’ time management consultants will try to sell you – organizers, computer programs, indexing systems and the like. But your brain is the best time management system you will ever come across.
Simply apply the following rules to claw back some more personal time:
Ask ‘why?’ first
If you are faced with a task, ask yourself why you need to do it. Is it something that really needs doing? Will it make a real difference to you or your colleagues or your organization? If the answer is ‘no’, perhaps the memo or request could just slip into the bin unnoticed!
Distinguish between importance and urgency
At work, we often find ourselves bombarded with ‘urgent’ requests – messages asking you to call people back straightaway and colleagues wanting to ask you questions. All of these urgent requests can disrupt our thinking processes, meaning it takes twice as long to get something done. But what’s the worst that will happen if you don’t do it right now? In most cases, the ‘worst’ will often be inconsequential – which means you can leave it till later to handle at your own speed.
Plan before you begin
Before embarking on a piece of work that you really do think is important and needs doing, take just a few minutes to think about how you’re going to do it. What steps will you take? Do you need to consult anyone else or get their help? What materials, information or resources do you need to do the job? Are there lead times on any of the resources that you need – and if so, do you need to try to get those first?
Simply apply the following rules to claw back some more personal time:
Ask ‘why?’ first
If you are faced with a task, ask yourself why you need to do it. Is it something that really needs doing? Will it make a real difference to you or your colleagues or your organization? If the answer is ‘no’, perhaps the memo or request could just slip into the bin unnoticed!
Distinguish between importance and urgency
At work, we often find ourselves bombarded with ‘urgent’ requests – messages asking you to call people back straightaway and colleagues wanting to ask you questions. All of these urgent requests can disrupt our thinking processes, meaning it takes twice as long to get something done. But what’s the worst that will happen if you don’t do it right now? In most cases, the ‘worst’ will often be inconsequential – which means you can leave it till later to handle at your own speed.
Plan before you begin
Before embarking on a piece of work that you really do think is important and needs doing, take just a few minutes to think about how you’re going to do it. What steps will you take? Do you need to consult anyone else or get their help? What materials, information or resources do you need to do the job? Are there lead times on any of the resources that you need – and if so, do you need to try to get those first?