It is so easy to be DISTRACTED in this day and age. With so many things vying for our ATTENTION. Email, Phones, Employees, Customers, Facebook, Twitter, the Internet in general, must have gadgets and the list goes on.
We WANT it ALL
The unfortunate REALITY is that we still only have 24 hours in a day and there is only so much we can do with it.
Our CHALLENGE is to differentiate between the must do whilst still leaving some time for ourselves, family and general well-being.
Here’s a few SIMPLE things I do to help me FOCUS:
- I prioritise the MUST do’s at the beginning of the day and do my BEST to get to them QUICKLY and efficiently. I am realistic with what I can get done so as NOT to disappoint myself.
- If I come across something during the day and am TEMPTED to do it there and then, I STOP and send myself an email or put it in my diary to check get back to it later.
- I set aside SOME time each day to PLAY, whether that be with my new gadget, surfing the Internet or updating my Facebook. I leave it till the end of the day and think of it as REWARD time for the work I have achieved.
Each day I have set aside time for WORK, ME, FAMILY (not necessarily in that order or evenly split in time) but it does ensure I get to each.
The old ABC123 from Steve Covey helps me get done what needs to be done. The balance component is important. I colour code my Outlook Calendar and try to schedule time for tasks and appointments. This also prevents colleagues booking me into endless meetings because they see my calendar is somewhat full. I also use Calendar to keep track of the past. So I adjust the calendar to reflect what I actually did for the day. The colour coding helps me easily see how much client work, how much company work, personal time and also travel time, which can be a chunk sometimes.
Thanks Derek for sharing. I too use the colour coding technique and I also go back and ensure my diary is accurate so I can go back and see where I was (and for how long) at any point in time.
The key I found, was to reflect on where my time goes from time to time to ensure I have the balance right. The colour coding is the first part of the puzzle, the strength is in the analysis and adjustments.
Cheers and thanks.