Maximizing Your Potential!

If you get stuck on an item… Ask yourself:
1. What’s the next action?
2. How long will it take?
3. Can it be delegated?

If you are the type of person who gets lots of filing in your area you can handle it by setting an additional basket in your area labeled filing then be sure to schedule time, say on Friday afternoon at 2 PM to actually get everything filed.

Hire a secretary or assistant and have them perform the following tasks for you (this may only require a part-time person at first):
1. Sort the ‘In’ basket into categories
2. Follow-up on all assignments which were delegated the previous week
3. Screen calls and visitors according to the executive’s wishes so that important tasks are NOT interrupted
4. Require that, wherever possible, communications are put in writing
5. Keep track of future projects using a tickler system

Question: What do you do when a person interrupts you???
Answer: Request that they put it in writing

How to supervise juniors quickly and efficiently???
Have them bring you all their pending folders with a summary in each. Review the lists and help them sort out the vital actions needed to complete the task in a timely manner.

Problem: A big project sticks in ‘Pending’
Solution: Break it down in to smaller projects and focus on one at a time, to completion

For a Boss: Don’t hesitate to delegate! It has been found that the heaviest workload is always at the top. You will be amazed at how excited a junior staff member will become when responsibility is delegated to him/her.

How to save time in Meetings:

1. DON’T have them (Put it in writing!)
2. If the meeting is absolutely necessary:
a) Write down exactly what you want to accomplish in the meeting
b) Gather the facts and figures you will need to accomplish the above
c) Insist that the other people in attendance do the same
3. Stick to the subject of the meeting

Good Luck!

Technorati Tags: Attendance, Boss, Focus, Folders, Friday Afternoon, Good Luck, Junior Staff Member, Juniors, Part Time, People, Tickler System, Time Management, Time Person, Timely Manner, Workload

Probably the single greatest frustration for people is the pending basket. It never seems to get emptied!

We all love a clean work area and empty baskets but that is not always possible.

Here are a few suggestions on how to make it more manageable.

One thing you can do is sort every thing in your pending basket into different areas or zones. Let’s say you have ‘office maintenance’, ’sales’, ‘finance’, ‘marketing’, within your zone of responsibility.

You would get out 4 manila folders and label each one with one of the zones above. then place thos actions in the folder to be reviewed daily to see what actions can be taken each day to move these items out of pending and into the ‘out’ basket.

You most look in your pending baskets or folders every day and see what can be done. I recommend that you do this every morning, first thing so that you can get as much off your plate as possible before things get really busy.

You also MUST put everything in writing. Many people are guilty of having lots of things in their head that they are remembering to do but which they may forget. This is very bad because that ties up those attention units you have which may be needed in a crisis.

Take a minute to list out all the things you are remembering in each category. Place these in their specific folders and block time in your schedule to actually get them done.

When you are focused on these tasks be sure to have a do not disturb sign on your door or let every one know that when the door is closed not to interrupt unless it is absolutely an emergency.

I was able to do this very effectively at Advanced Polymer Systems and about 11:30 each day I would pop my head out of my office; find out when and where my buddies were going for lunch and then go in and hunker down for another 15-20 minutes worth of calls before we left.

I was very productive and very focused.

You can be, too. Remember, if you are having trouble doing this on your own that you may need to hire a professional to help you form these ‘habits!’

Technorati Tags: Advanced Polymer Systems, Block Time, Buddies, Empty Baskets, Few Suggestions, Finance, Frustration, Love, Lunch, Manila Folders, Many People, Marketing, Office Maintenance, One Thing, Ties

I know, I got what you’re saying.

It’s one thing to apply this to your self and have a totally beautiful desk that is now polished to a high sheen thanks to Pledge. How the heck do I get those around me to help me keep my desk uncluttered???

First off, let them admire that beautiful, uncluttered desk. Maybe you can even share the posts that helped you do it, if you are feeling particularly generous. But, seriously, what do you do?!?

It’s really quite simple. Get them to put things in writing. Sounds simple, right? Have a little basket mounted right outside your door with 2 slots. Have a sign posted that says, “Got a question or problem??? Put it in writing. Take a minute to fill out one of these forms and put it in the top basket. I will review all requests at 11:45 AM and 4:30 PM and get back to you the same day in most cases.”

Just think about it. The toughest thing for any person to handle is the interruption. You lose you train of thought with the task you are dealing with. As a result, you probably go down the emotional tone scale into antagonism or anger and you are not at 100% in terms of brain power for solving the persons problem when you get it.

I guarantee that this simple little tool will save you oodles of upset and lost production.

If you are the manager in your office or wind up being a problem solver for those around you you can have another section on that same form which says, “State the Problem.” Then a section below that, “Possible solution.” And then one more section for you which says, “Comment.” This is where you can say, “Great solution, go for it.” or “I don’t think that will work. I recommend you do ‘X’.”

The bottom line is that you have now established a protocol for how to deal with interruptions and problems and it will make you and those around you much more effective.

Next time we will cover how to handle your pending basket!

Technorati Tags: Anger, Antagonism, Beautiful, Bottom Line, Brain Power, Desk, Emotional Tone, Great Solution, Heck, Interruption, Interruptions, Little Basket, Pledge, Possible Solution, Problem Solver, Protocol, Sheen, Slots, Tone Scale, Tool, Toughest Thing

Last time, we reviewed a little bit about what time management is. I think we all agree that good time management is a very valuable thing.

The question becomes – where to start? That is relatively simple to answer. We MUST start with a CLEAN slate. That clean slate is our work area.

I recommend that you set aside a block of time when you won’t be disturbed. Turn off the cell phone, the pager, the home phone if you are there. Shut off  your email alerter, Twitter, or any other potential interruption as all of these are a distraction from this very important task.

Ideally you have a partner there to help you sort out which one of the 4 “D’s” to apply. Get three baskets and set them on a corner of your desk.

Mark the first or top one ‘IN‘. This basket is ONLY to contain those items or dispatches you have just received. The middle basket is labeled ‘PENDING‘ and will contain those items which have been reviewed but do NOT have an immediate solution. And the lowest basket is labeled ‘OUT‘ and contains all the items which have been completed and are now ready to be filed, mailed or otherwise moved to another person’s work area.

Once you have labeled your baskets you should gather everything that is sitting on your desk and put it in your ‘IN’ basket. Or if there is too much stuff, place it in the center of your desk. One time when I did this with a gentleman, we had to get a 55 gallon trash can and place everything in there and pull things out one at a time until they were ALL sorted out. It took 2 days but it was worth it!

OK. Now you are ready. You pick up the first item in the pile. Read it fully and then decide which of the 4 actions you need to take to complete this task:

1. DO it - complete all the actions necessary to the completion of this task.

2. DELEGATE it – realize that it does not pertain to your work and pass it on to the correct person. *Note:  You must pass it on with enough information so that the person you have passed it on to can actually complete the actions necessary to fully deal with it.

3. DELAY it – Place the item in your pending basket to complete later. *Note: You must make a note on the item specifying the exact steps needed to bring the task to completion later on AND you must also estimate how long that action will take and block the time in your schedule to actually complete the task.

4. DUMP it - Throw it away. This is one of the HARDEST things for most people to do. They feel that if they don’t keep the information they will be caught flat footed someday without this ‘vital’ data. I recently had someone who needed the info on lottery rules in California and was able to find the information, thanks to Google in about 5 minutes. Piece of cake. There is NOTHING which can not be found on the internet in a very short period of time.

So, away you go. You just start getting things done. A very simple rule of thumb on keepsakes or news articles, etc. if it is not going to help you make money or bring you pleasure, let it go.

I guarantee that if you do this and do it fully, you will allow new pure clean energy to move into your life. A cluttered area actually sticks your work and energy flows. It’s a fact of life which has been demonstrated hundreds, if not thousands, of times throughout the last 15 years. (can you believe I have been doing this for 15 years?!?)

Anyway, Stick with it! Don’t give up. Pick up one item at a time, sort out what is needed then apply the appropriate D to the situation.

You’ll be glad you did!

Technorati Tags: Baskets, Cell Phone, Clean Slate, Corner Desk, Correct Person, Delegate, Desk Top, Dispatches, Distraction, Disturbed, Email, Gentleman, Good Time Management, Interruption, Last Time, Little Bit, Pager, Paperwork Management, Trash, Twitter

All of us have some concept of ‘Good’ time management.

Make a list of things to do, block out the time required to do it and then take the steps necessary to achieve the desired result. Right????

So, why, oh why are people spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to become better time managers???

Let’s face it, opinions vary on exactly why people do not actually DO the above mentioned steps but the fact of the matter is that this is a HUGE problem for some people and they can never seem to get a handle on it no matter how much money they spend.

I’m going to take a few minutes to very quickly educate you on what Time Management IS and then how to apply these principles to your life.

First, let’s define the words…

Time -  ‘Any specified or defined period.’ From World Book Dictionary

Management -  ‘The process of dealing with or controlling things or people.’ From Oxford American Dictionary

What is Control?

It is defined as, ‘The power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.’ Again from Oxford American Dictionary

Control could further be defined as the ability to start, change or stop people or things related to life.

OK. So, how do we use this to help us to be better time managers.

Each of us has 24 hours in the day and 7 days in a week. How is it that I could help one gentleman go from doing 44 deals per year as a Realtor to 110 and still have more time off?  I did not wave a magic wand and make all his paperwork disappear. Nor did he hire ten additional staff to help him get everything done.

The God’s honest truth, we removed all the distractions from his life. We handled anything and everything that was preventing him from getting the job done and then we focused on getting the job done. Simple, right???

The biggest drain on a person’s ability to stay focused and get stuff done is all the backlogged and incomplete projects hanging around the person.

I’ll never forget working with another gentleman. He was in a very cramped office and he had tons of clutter and incomplete projects around him. I spent a full day and helped him clean it ALL up. He was so thrilled that he raced home and cleaned up his office and the garage. His wife called to thank me. Needless to say, he was twice as productive that year and made more money in that one year than he had in the previous three years.

Of course, you can do this on your own but most people that I know are too easily distracted and fail to handle every thing. It really helps to have someone there to help you sort out what you should do with each and every thing you come across.

Next I’ll teach you about the 4 D’s of good time management!

Have a productive day!

Technorati Tags: Better Time, Dictionary Management, Distractions, Fact Of The Matter, Few Minutes, Gentleman, Good Time Management, Honest Truth, How Much Money, Job, Magic Wand, Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford Dictionary, Paperwork, Realtor, Time Managers, Time Off, What The Heck, Why Are People, World Book Dictionary, World Dictionary