It’s okay to go off-line for an hour or two if it means you are going to achieve a task more quickly. You do not have to be reachable every minute of the day. That small sense of completion, of achievement even, gives you a confidence boost that helps you tackle harder tasks. If it’s going to take two minutes to copy over the contents of a folder, or add a new name to Contacts – do it. In between these three categories you can slip in a little extra something in the form of a two-minute quickie. Think of ‘C’ tasks as rewards to look forward to later in the day. Instead of things getting easier as time passes, you will have the spectre of that unpleasant ‘A’ task hanging over your head. Tempted to start with a ‘C’ task? Think about what that means for your day. It doesn’t need to be the most important task of the day, it just needs to be substantial enough to qualify as top ranking. Instead, she prioritised and got the job done.Īs a general principle, you should prioritise your day into A, B and C grade tasks, then start with an ‘A’ no matter how unappealing it may be.
It took my friend 40 minutes to instruct him over the phone, because he was too embarrassed to ask someone in head office. The reason for the phone conference turned out to be that the minor management figure, who was new, wanted the company’s project management system explained to him. Let’s say my friend had agreed to the conference call instead of sticking to her plan to write the article. Only you can decide if it needs doing now It’s about deciding what’s important right now, and what can wait until later. It’s a story that reveals something key about time management – it’s about setting limits, not only time limits, but limits on the kinds of interactions you have with colleagues, and limits on your responses to daily stimuli like email and smartphones.
I thought he’d be ticked off, but he seemed grateful that I’d called back and apologised for springing the phone conference on me.” “I thought it would take an hour to write that article, but I did it in half an hour then called him back. So instead of putting her needs on hold, she told her colleague she was working on something and could she call him back in 30 minutes? He was surprised, even shocked, but he agreed. But she had just got herself in the right frame of mind to write an article, she was in the zone. My friend has a reputation for going with the flow, to the point where she’s often taken for granted. After a brief hello, this minor management figure told her he was about to invite someone else into the call – without asking her if she had time for a conference or what it was about. A journalist friend of mine who works from home recently received an unexpected call from a colleague at head office.
0 kommentar(er)
