Being efficient does not mean working 16 hours a day to get things done.
All that you need to do is spend more time where it counts the most. Without getting too busy to have fun. Read on and I’ll explain.
24 hours a day invested badly can cause stress, exhaustion and failure. Success will be yours if you are smart about how you invest each hour or minute of the day.
First here’s a brief exercise that will help you to see the things you did in yesterdays 24 hours. You will look it over to see whether or not you spent those hours wisely.
First we’ll review the things you did yesterday using an A.B.C.D system as follows.
A. Major important tasks, these are the tasks that are connected to your life goals. (This may even get you thinking about your life goals if you don’t have any)
B. Daily tasks that you must do, but they are not related to your life goals. You do things daily that you must finish in order for you to keep moving towards your life goals.
(Example: Working for a living is ranked B, in order to provide for your family which is ranked A) These are tasks that support your life goals and make you feel good when you do them.
The more you do them the better you feel. And your attitude towards life and others becomes more positive.
C. This is the fun time, the time to relax. See a movie, go to a play. And enjoy the fruits of your hard work, this is where you relax and refresh for the things that you need to do for A and B.
D. Tasks that add very little to your success, family life or career. This may be the time spent avoiding a certain situation or task (like doing the dishes). These items can show up disguised as C’s but all they do is clutter up your life and quickly chews up your time.
Have you ever felt very busy but accomplished nothing?
This is what the D’s do to your precious time.
Exercise Step 1
Think through the details of your schedule yesterday – what you did, who you talked to, what about, etc. For example:
A. lay in for half an hour,
B. ate breakfast,
C. cleaned up kitchen,
D. read magazines,
E. dictation,
F. traveled to work,
G. rang spouse,
H. staff meeting,
I. read the paper,
J. sorted mail,
K. daydreamed,
L. wrote a proposal,
M. shopping, etc.
Be as detailed as possible in remembering the specifics of the day and list everything in the
Time Log column on the left side of a blank page. (See Step 2)
Exercise Step 2
Now estimate the time you spent on each activity from yesterday, noting it to the right of each item of your Time Log.
A. lay in for half an hour, (1/2 hour)
B. ate breakfast, (25 minutes)
C. cleaned up kitchen, (30 minutes)
D. read magazines, (15 minutes)
E. dictation, (1 hour)
F. traveled to work, (45 minutes)
G. rang spouse, (20 minutes)
H. staff meeting, (1/2 hour)
I. read the paper, (25 minutes)
J. sorted mail, (10 minutes)
K. daydreamed, (10 minutes approx)
L. wrote a proposal, (5 hours)
M. shopping, etc. (2 hours)
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Now rate each activity you did yesterday as an A, B, C or D ranking.
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Consider the following questions, and be sure to write down your answers in a notebook or diary:
Was this a typical day?
In what ways was it typical?
In what ways was it not so typical?
What time did you put to good use yesterday?
What do you think was time wasted?
What would you like to do differently?
How could you put more ‘A’ or ‘B’ time into your day?
How will you start making that happen now?
Every day, no matter how 'busy' or tired, make sure you spend at least some time working directly on a life goal. Build in time for your A's - every day! And remember most people spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning their lives.
Become a master of chaos!
One of the main stressors in our work is the number of things we need to do. All too often we put off tasks and forget them, or we do unimportant tasks and neglect more important ones.
Sometimes we do this to avoid, for example, difficult talks. Other times we have not organized our lives well enough. Or we cannot remember what we need to do in what order.
Don’t let disorder become a habit.
Without a doubt real problems show up if:
This may cause relationships problems and threaten your job. On top of this you may worry about the work that’s not done. You have to do it, but somehow you just don’t have the energy to do it.
New tasks that you have to do start piling on top of the old ones so you forget about the old tasks.
And then you receive a letter or a phone call, or the boss asks you about something, and you find out the things you had put aside before now have to be done immediately.
Panic!
Fortunately, there are some simple ideas that can help you handle your work load more easily. And help you get more joy out of your job.
