Being organized and the efficient use of time is a critical element to success. Just being brilliant, having incredible ideas, being "driven", working hard, having amazing energy...all those things are like unharnessed energy unless that power is directed. And the channeling of power comes from being organized and consistently, I mean consistently, making efficient use of a limited supply of TIME. In his book "The Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People", Stephen Covey divides how we spend our time on work into four quadrants: 1) Work that is imporant and urgent, 2) Work that is Urgent but not important, 3) Work that is Important but not Urgent and 4) Work that is not urgent and not important. Mr. Covey makes the point that we are under such stress to perform by attacking the work that is urgent and important, that we default to handling all work that is urgent but not important and that as a relief we default to things that are not urgent and not important and the things that are often the Most Important get shuffled to the bottom of the pile on our desk.......day after day after day. Its important that we make a priority of the things that are Important, but not as urgent as some other things.
Being organized and time management is a critical learned skill. Learning to organize ones day, even if the office is hectic and the phones are ringing is essential. Taking time to pre-think and plan ones day the night before or the morning of, may only take a few minutes yet will reap big rewards. Using reminder lists, to do lists, task lists and the ranking of tasks from highest to lowest priority can give us a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction as we work through the issues and opportunities of the day. There is work that needs to be scheduled for "peak time" and work that can be scheduled for "non-peak" time. For instance an expense report done at 10 AM takes up selling time that might be more productive. Better to do that at the end of the day, at night or during the lunch hour when calling customers may not be as rewarding. Also research may be best left for non-peak hours, unless your sole task is research.
For sales people I recommend a very simple mantra as the key to sales success. Broken down to it simplest most sales success is the result of making calls and seeing people. The personal interaction is key and is what differentiates most great sales people. I make it even simpler "Make calls - see people"......When I ask myself what the most important thing I can do each day it is "Make calls - see people";.. Every transaction, relationship, opportunity begins with a people to people interaction and I am the beginning and the end of those initatives.
In summary......get organized, get prioritized, schedule your time with actions that are slotted to be a high impact "peak time" activity or a less critical "non-peak time" action.
Being organized and time management is a critical learned skill. Learning to organize ones day, even if the office is hectic and the phones are ringing is essential. Taking time to pre-think and plan ones day the night before or the morning of, may only take a few minutes yet will reap big rewards. Using reminder lists, to do lists, task lists and the ranking of tasks from highest to lowest priority can give us a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction as we work through the issues and opportunities of the day. There is work that needs to be scheduled for "peak time" and work that can be scheduled for "non-peak" time. For instance an expense report done at 10 AM takes up selling time that might be more productive. Better to do that at the end of the day, at night or during the lunch hour when calling customers may not be as rewarding. Also research may be best left for non-peak hours, unless your sole task is research.
For sales people I recommend a very simple mantra as the key to sales success. Broken down to it simplest most sales success is the result of making calls and seeing people. The personal interaction is key and is what differentiates most great sales people. I make it even simpler "Make calls - see people"......When I ask myself what the most important thing I can do each day it is "Make calls - see people";.. Every transaction, relationship, opportunity begins with a people to people interaction and I am the beginning and the end of those initatives.
In summary......get organized, get prioritized, schedule your time with actions that are slotted to be a high impact "peak time" activity or a less critical "non-peak time" action.
1 comment:
Yes, it’s good to keep it simple as your summary at the end demonstrates so aptly. This is excellent advice as, if a process is too complicated, people soon lose interest. I am still trying to absorb the 4 different quadrants… so no pop quiz!
The efficient use of our time is a fascinating topic, especially to oneself. Time is truly a valuable commodity but we fritter it away so stupidly at times. How many reruns of “Law & Order” have I watched - and I consider myself an intelligent user of time. Furthermore, as I power through life with my set of priorities, a principal requirement of mine for a suitable companion is someone who won’t slow me down.
Actually, it might be a good thing to give ourselves some slack if we are prone, as I am, to be a “to do list” person extraordinaire. What I learned from all places - attending Weight Watchers meetings – is observing countless times how people obsess about getting off track. Rather, I’d like to suggest that it is human nature to get side-tracked as life often interferes with our best intentions. What is more critical is to get back on track and to the road to our success. We will need to do this again and again in our lifetime.
As you state, critical time management is a learned skill implying that we all can learn it. I think that some don’t have the necessary desire to learn and embrace it fully. I do know that the mindful use of our time can contribute to our feeling of success or the potential thereof. I recently came to the realization that I might not be able to accomplish everything that I wanted to in what might be left of my lifetime. The need to prioritize the important to me became an inevitable exercise. Let’s admit that drawing up lists is the easy part; to keep on our road is more the challenge.
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