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The Everyday Leader Monthly Tip, Issue #004 -- Simple Time Management Tips
September 02, 2008




from www.Better-Leadership.com

This Month's Tip: 

          12 Tips to Time Management


SITUATION - Daily events are driving YOU, rather than the other way around.


TRY THIS -

The 12 Tricks of Time Management

  1. Schedule time in your planner to plan. 
  2. Schedule time in your planner to purge.  (about once a month)
  3. Schedule time in your planner for personal productivity.   (see Morning Kickstart)
  4. If you have an assistant: jot down all the attributes of a terrific assistant, then use that as a conversation piece for using her more effectively.
  5. Know the difference between important and urgent. Be willing to get interrupted for urgent and important, but not for urgent and unimportant.
  6. Use a time management tool because it works for you, not because it looks like a cool gadget.
  7. Know what works for you. 
  8. Define 3 zones in your workplace. (see 3 Zones) 
  9. Use a method for keeping others out of your office (red flag or "in conference") during selected time slots (and be largely available the rest of the time).
  10. Remember that the key to your management of time is discipline and how you schedule. (Coming in next month's tip)
  11. Know how to protect your plan by saying "no" when appropriate.
  12. Acccept that your plan will be upheaved occasionally.

Website News

New additions to the website

Time Management Tips

        Social Interactions At Work

        Katie's Bio (by request, I swear)

Lastly ----

        Reinventing Your Leadership: Workshop filling up!

        First Session September 20, price includes 3 coaching sessions

        Share Newsletter with a Friend

Short Story 

The Unravelling of a Schedule   by Katie K. Snapp

Here is a sample of what you might shoot for in planning a productive day. Adapt accordingly - we are all different.

You will find that the simple vision of an ideal schedule is a powerful tool for focusing, whether the schedule sticks or not.

The Ideal Day: (a la Katie)

7:30 am       Working emails & calendar
(Allow more for some of your situations but look to diminish email time. See managing emails for tips from a corporate client who regularly received over 200 per day.)

8:00             Morning Kickstart: PPT
                    (Personal Productivity Time - protected and non-interrupted!)
        Material development for clients and website
        Writing and being creative
        Library or bookstore for research

9:30            Marketing
        Phone calls
        Set up appointments
 
10:00          Face-to-face’s with prospects and present clients

11:30          Lunch & personal errands
        Start planning dinner
        Dry cleaners, bank, post office, etc.

12:00 pm    Exercise (pre-empted until later if there is a lunch meeting)
                    Usually a bike ride where I merrily greet passers-by.

1:00            Coaching Calls with Clients

4:00            Working emails & calendar

4:30            Administrative, billing

4:45            Write plan and actions for next day, must-do’s

5:00            Make dinner


Reality:

7:30 am      Working emails & calendar
Location changed for morning meeting, spend time getting directions, another client suddenly needs a proposal by noon, reset SPAM filters which self-righteously rejected everything overnight     

8:15            Personal Productivity Time (started 15 minutes late)
Material development for clients, a little slow on creativity, probably because it was a bad-hair day, got distracted and checked into airfares for Thanksgiving trip, got tempted by the new iPhone and researched online blogs for switching from Verizon, wandered for a while into the garden to get back on track. Nevertheless, still made good progress on some new material for next month’s workshop. 

9:30            Marketing
Phone calls, some of them dreaded, wrote a proposal which was a painstaking process

9:50            Answered Phone Calls
Phone calls from clients and ended up leaving late for 10:15 appt across town, return several phone calls en route

10:20          5 minutes late to a project meeting

11:30          Lunch
Quick bite, swing by drug store to get more Advil (stiff neck from holding up bad hair)

12:00 pm    Exercise
Took a bike ride, several people did not acknowledge my hospitable greeting, swerved avoiding a lazy lizard and skidded on some gravel, bike fell over (dang toe clips), scraped myself in the exact location where I had already hit myself with the tennis racquet the day before (clearly, my follow-through needs some work)

1:00            Coaching calls start
Ahhh. Nice, quiet concentration
   
3:00            One coaching call re-scheduled (client has the flu)
Ran over to Kinkos to check a proof for a workbook, spent $47 at Office Depot on ink cartridges, then spent nearly that much on a latte at Starbuck’s
   
4:00            Project-related work
Tried to organize my notes from the morning meeting & entered the action items on my calendar, build an itinerary for a trip next month

4:25            Work emails

4:45            Admin stuff
pay online bills, client billing, balance checkbook, put in new ink cartridges, took call from Accountant and learned that California wants income tax from me (NM Tax & Rev is NOT going to like that)

5:15            Declare MYO night for family dinner (Make-Your-Own)

   
All-in-all, not too bad. Most days are nowhere near the ideal state but that goes with the territory. 

The key? Self-discipline and mental state of mind. One leads to the other, and back again.  Next month’s newsletter will focus on mastering states of mind to achieve discipline.
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