Take Control and Create More Time

Arrive early for appointments

* Relieve unnecessary stress
* Use this time to plan and strategize
* Increase the likelihood that you will get what you need from meeting
* Increase respect from clients, peers and management

When you regularly arrive early for appointments, you appear more organized and professional and also automatically become more organized and professional. The time you spend waiting before a meeting begins can be very valuable. Use this time to determine in advance, what you wish to accomplish during that meeting. Jot a few notes with questions to ask and outcomes to aspire towards. Your meetings will then become shorter, more effective and require less energy for all parties concerned.

Create ‘To Do’ Lists
Prioritize your ‘to do’s’ every week and record them consistently into one place.

* Palm /Blackberry
* Day Timer
* Outlook

Complete the 3 most important tasks first each day and you will be on your way to fulfilling your dreams and reaching your goals!

Control Your Email

* Avoid the time vortex
o Never check email or voicemail first thing in the morning
* Schedule regular times to check emails
* Read it, respond to it, folder it or delete it
* Read most recent emails first
* Create email signature

Manage Your Voice Mail

* Do not check voicemail before you plan your day
* Check voicemail at regular times, not every time it beeps
* When responding, state your response clearly along with the best time and venue for response
* Keep your voicemail box updated
o best times to reach you
o request specific information from caller

Learn to say NO

* Pause before you make a new commitment
* If new task is mandated
o Make sure the person knows how much time you will spend on it
o If anything else will loose it’s priority on your schedule
* Do not let someone else’s mistake become your fire alarm

Manage Your Paper Flow

* Develop a system for paper flowing
* in and out of your office
* A System = A Structured Protocol
* Designated areas for:
o Incoming In-Process Outbound
Control the Paper Deluge

* Check it to determine action needed
* Move it into the appropriate place to wait for action
* Handle it only once before you work on it.
* Get rid of it! Toss, file or forward

Create an Exit Strategy

* Create a consistent holding area for all things that need to leave your office
* Use an area on your desk or credenza that is positioned towards the door
* Place articles there as you find or finish them
* Do not get up to take only 1 item away

Keys To Mastering Your Time

* Knowing what you want to accomplish and why
* Sticking to the timelines you create
Thought, Word, Deed, think it, speak it, do it

* Set your intention for each week before you begin that week
* Schedule your appointments and tasks in advance, not as you go
* Tell others about your time management strategy if interrupted
o Reality Check: The average employee is interrupted every 10 minutes or 6 times per hour. Keep your focus and don’t let this happen to you!
* Stick to the schedule you have created, don’t let it create you
by Kathi Burns - addSpace To Your Life!^TM,
a Professional Organizing and Image Consulting Agency
Want to get better organized and look your best?
Get more quick tips by visiting the addSpace To Your Life!^TM website.
Request Free addSpace eTips by clicking on the top right button.
http://www.addSpaceToYourLife.com

Please direct a courtesy copy of your publication to:
advice@addspacetoyourlife.com or snail mail it to:
Kathi Burns
AddSpace To Your Life!^TM
259 B Hillcrest Drive
Encinitas, CA 92024

Abe Lincoln’s Philosophy:
“One hour of preparation saves me eight hours of perspiration.”
Abraham Lincoln

• Preparation involves Planning - short and long term
• Planning involves Time Management
• Time Management requires being Organized

Preparation

Being prepared means that you have spare tools on hand and quickly accessible. To be prepared, store frequently used back-up supplies in your office and close to your desk. Take a look around your work area. Do you have these items available without having to get up from your desk to retrieve them?
• Extra paper
• Stapler refills
• Paperclips
• Blank file folders
• Pens / highlighters
• Ink Cartridges

The average person that leaves their workspace in a corporate work environment is gone 8 1/2 minutes. In a home-based office, that number can easily triple to over 20 minutes. After all, you might have to pet Fido, check the mailbox or make a pit stop at the coffee pot!

Planning

Plan your schedule before it plans you! Preplan & then plan again. Use Friday afternoon and/or Monday morning to decide what you will accomplish that week. In order to keep your eye on the big picture, it is critical to block time in advance of your workweek for setting your intentions. The most influential business people take time every week to plan their agenda. Most do this as a wrap at the end of the week and again before they begin work on Monday.

On Friday, before you end the day, make notes about what you were not able to finish on your tasks/goals list and move those items forward onto the next week’s schedule.

On Monday, before the day begins, which means literally before checking emails, voice mails and attending meetings, take the time to schedule your unfinished tasks. Compile your new list of tasks to accomplish that week. Set your schedule as much as possible during this critical planning time. Create umbrellas or intentions of activities planned for each day that week.

Time Management - Umbrella Your Day

You save countless hours by grouping related tasks together in to the same time frame. For instance, making all of your follow up calls together, researching in long uninterrupted blocks of time. To umbrella your tasks, you first need to list the tasks that you need to perform every week onto a sheet of paper. Then you can begin to allocate time in your schedule for these recurring tasks. Block tasks into similar types of activities, for instance, phone calls, paperwork, outside meetings. • Divide your main job activities into 5 days

* Planning Day (Friday or Monday)
o Set goals/intentions- line up the week
* Current Large Project
* Outside Appointments, Client Meetings
* Client Follow-up and Research
* Administrative, Reports & Paperwork

• Create chunks of time for related activities, if possible by day. Inotherwords, if you need to research client files every week, schedule your research for the same day each week. The benefit of this is that when a client calls for information, you can safely tell them tat you will be working on it on a specific day. I know what you are thinking at this point, “but they want it now!”Trust me when I say this, clients care more about the quality of your work and whether you meet your promised delivery date more than they care about instant gratification. Good things take time. As an entrepreneur for the past twenty years, my clients have taught me this over and over again. You can offer price, service or quality - choose two of these because you can never offer all three consistently. I have always chosen service and quality. Lower pricing always involves speed because of low margins, which, in turn, sacrifices quality and service. Okay, enough Sales 101 training… The same rule applies for outside meetings, filing, phone calls and whatever else you need to do to be successful in your career. If you know when you will be able to make phone calls, you can easily tell your clients when you will be getting back to them. Filing on a regular basis will relieve you of paper maladies that also block your productivity.

This tactic not only helps you increase productivity, it also gives you a solid structure to provide amazing service to your clients. This method allows you to tell your clients exactly when you will work on their project and helps you set future appointments with ease. For instance, if you know that you are on outside appointments every Thursday, you know that this is the time to book the appointment time when a client requests a meeting.

Granted, things happen and there is never a perfect and consistent schedule. Some clients might insist that you see them on a different day than your designated “client meeting day”. The upside to umbrella planning is that if you decide to honor their request, you are fully aware of what will get bumped in order to accommodate them. Knowing this, you can make a very informed decision about whether to bend to their scheduling needs. Sometimes it is advantageous, sometimes not. More often then not, clients are more flexible than they acknowledge, especially if they know that you are organized and professional with your schedule.

Check back for the continuation of this article…
by Kathi Burns - addSpace To Your Life!^TM,
a Professional Organizing and Image Consulting Agency
Want to get better organized and look your best?
Get more quick tips by visiting the addSpace To Your Life!^TM website.
Request Free addSpace eTips by clicking on the top right button.
http://www.addSpaceToYourLife.com

Please direct a courtesy copy of your publication to:
advice@addspacetoyourlife.com or snail mail it to:
Kathi Burns
AddSpace To Your Life!^TM
259 B Hillcrest Drive
Encinitas, CA 92024

Dear Kathi,

I really need to find a way to manage my schedule more effectively. I am working in a constant run to catch up and I am exhausted. At the end of the day, I often haven’t accomplished the most important items on my “to do” list. Sometimes my “to-do’s” get completely lost because I never get to them. What can I do to gain control?
Susan, Encinitas

Susan,

Effective time management is something that is attained with careful thought and never on the run. Follow these guidelines and your schedule will be back on track. Before you begin thinking about prioritizing your schedule, make an inventory of your work environment. Is it conducive to the way you work most effectively? Music/ background sounds/ no music etc. What atmosphere is the right one for you? Take the time to create an environment where you can work in peace and harmony and you will always accomplish more in less time. Is your workspace set up so that all of the supplies you need are within reach? Keep the tools of your trade close to your desk/work area. Know where everything is and you won’t waste precious time on a wild goose chase or shopping for duplicate items.

Once your workspace is optimized, think about your daily energy peaks and surges. Use your biological rhythms to your advantage. Identify the times of day when your energy levels are at their highest and schedule your most important work at those times. For example, if you don’t function well in the morning, plan your important meetings for late afternoon and use the morning for busy work or follow-up phone calls. Now that you have determined your most productive hours and your workplace is optimized, you can begin to tackle your scheduling issues. Develop a running list of every task that you normally complete in a week. It helps to use all seven days and start with Sunday. This list should include personal and business tasks. Think about each day and list the tasks that you typically need to accomplish.

Every job has required redundant tasks. List all of them and don’t forget your personal life in this schedule. Certain activities if neglected, will throw your life out of balance and undermine your high priority efforts (i.e., activities such as sleeping, eating, socializing, exercising, doing the laundry, etc.). Include them in your planning. If you have trouble developing your weekly list, look at your past calendar or schedule and mark down recurring tasks. When you feel sure that you’ve listed everything, mark each item on your list with an A, B, or C. A will represent the highest priority and C, the lowest. When this step is completed group all of the A’s together, B’s and C’s respectively.

What are the most important tasks to complete throughout the week? Can you see your personal work pattern? Take this pattern and begin to schedule in each activity. At the beginning of each day and week, review your timetable. New, unexpected items will come up and you will need to adjust your plans accordingly. Plan extra time between tasks and meetings. Be prepared to adjust your schedule while still keeping your high priority goals in mind.

List your highest priorities for the week on a separate sheet. Keep this list posted to the front of your weekly schedule. This will ensure that you will keep your focus throughout the week. You will also feel a sense of satisfaction as you cross off each task and your list begins to shrink. This list will also make it very easy to decide how you should spend your time on Thursday and Friday. Keep extra time slots open at the end of the week to complete your major goals and finish the week with huge sense of accomplishment.

Remember to keep constant attention and focus on where you spend your time each day. Devote your energy according to your highest priorities and avoid getting bogged down by low priority tasks. If you get off track, smile because you realized it, pat yourself on the back, and return to controlling your schedule like a pro!

Kathi is a professional organizer, image consultant and event planner based in San Diego California.

Please submit your questions to: advice@addspacetoyourlife.com

San Diego Professional Organizer