Personal leadership and mastery definitely speaks to work ethic, integrity, consistency, initiative and discipline. I often hear people talk endlessly about how they would love to earn more. But I always tell them “You will never make more until you are worth more”.
Ultimately what you do becomes who you are. This really is a perpetual cycle of becoming and if you do not manage it, it will manage you. The most successful people are also the most productive ones. And if there is one thing they all have in common it is ‘focus’. This people have learnt what it means to be extremely focused on the actions that produce results and they are decisive on where to invest their time. As an individual if you desire to achieve more, become more valuable to your organization, and enjoy your work more you simply must strive to become an expert time manager.
Today, I’m sharing with you as a smart girl, ten awesome strategies to maximize your time.
1. STICK TO YOUR PLAN
Once you have a plan, stick to it, protect it. Have you ever woken up, started your day with a foolproof plan and you get to work and like one million other plans are staring down at you? Well I have, and you can either let it ruin your day or focus on your preset plans by making them your top priority for the day. In order to effectively do this, you must learn to say ‘NO’. Believe me there are a lot of people who derive pleasure in handing a junk of their workload to others, be sure of one thing; they will bring the loads and you must say no or ask them if they are ok with you only helping out when you have successfully completed you own workload.
2. DIAGNOSE YOUR DAY
Consciously create a log of what you do consecutively daily for a week. Find out what takes the majority of your time and if they are in line with what you originally planned to be doing for that week. This way you can decide if your are required to work on your plan, develop a new plan, take time to focus more on those things that make your day more productive.
3. DAILY APPOINTMENT WITH YOURSELF
Just as you would make an appointment with your boss and keep it, develop a daily appointment time with yourself to work on every project and complete them ahead of every deadline. Don’t just create these appointments, strive to keep them.
4. INVEST IN A TIME MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
It may be just a basic/traditional organizer or a very techy one, remember to choose the one that works for you. Use it efficiently and input every of your schedules in it ahead of everyday and make sure to have them with you at all time.
5. BE CAREFUL WITH FUTURE COMMITMENTS
It very easy for us to make commitments, especially when they are in the future. But the problem all arose when we end up with too much on our plates and running all crazy from one project to the other without doing anyone of them accurately. So it is important to be very careful with future commitments. It’s okay to tell someone you would check your calendar and get back to them, but again it is better to actually say ‘NO’ than to say yes and not deliver.
6. BEAT PROCRASTINATION
Isn’t this something we are all guilty of, and some are outright exceptional at the procrastination game. One of the best ways to beat procrastination by working ahead of all deadlines. Daily Strive to spend between 20-30 minutes on projects that are not close to their deadlines. By the time the deadlines show up, you would be surprised how much you have gotten done.
7. DEVELOP THREE PRIORITIES EVERYDAY
It can be very cumbersome having a list of one hundred things to get done daily, you might not be able to get everything do. So, everyday create three priority lists and consciously work towards getting everyone of it done.
8. CREATE A ‘MAXIMISE’ ROOM
Start your day in the room called maximize. This is where you set your goals, plan and prepare. In this room is where you place all of the things that makes you better. You know all the actions you can strive to take to be more prepared, informed, knowledgeable, effective and valuable. Spending time in this room allows you to spend little to no time in other rooms. Such as a room full of all those things that causes you to react, a room of all other things that steals your time and of course the interruption room.
9. ONLY TEN TASK LIST
Earlier on the list I wrote about the need to develop priorities, these priority list will ultimately be on your daily task list. Creating a list that exceeds ten can appear unrealistic and ends up being demotivating.
10. TURN INTERRUPTIONS INTO APPOINTMENTS
Just because your phones are ringing, someone is screaming or demanding your attention does not make it a top priority. Plug interruptions into the flex time you’ve built into your day.
Hope you have an awesome week as you set out to incorporate this strategy into your daily work life. Until you do, you might find yourself struggling at a level of performance that does not reflect your true potential. You really can not manage time, believe me that just outright crazy. Time marches on with or without your permission. Our only hope is to manage ourselves in time.
