Controlling your workload

Here’s how one of my networking colleagues, Dianne Edgar, of I-Marketing Services, saves time…..

Using the Microsoft voice recognition software has saved me at least 30 minutes a day, as well as a lot of neck ache. It only took half an hour to teach it my voice, and accent, and I now have 95% accuracy. I batch my emails two or three times a day, put on the headset, and crack through them. I have also used it for some other projects, and am delighted with the time and effort it saves.  

Thank you Dianne!

This week, I met someone who is perhaps typical of a new business owner:-

Working flat out - 7 days a week

Noone to delegate to - systems too embryonic/personalised

Tired,  not sleeping well,  medical issue(s) surfacing

How would you help such a person? Business owners tend to be determined, independent and opinionated, so telling them what to do is not often the best option - unless the situation is left to drift to a crisis!

The DeskCoach assessment put focus on throughput and the weekly routine, so we’ll see how that helps.

When I’m networking, I find people regularly tell me their time management tips, so I thought I’d post them on this blog.  I’m not saying they are necessarily exactly right for you (it will always depends on your particular needs), but I hope you find it as fascinating, as I do,  to hear what systems other people employ, whether it works for one day, one month or a lifetime!

From Tristan Webb of Aspire Insurance:

”

In order to get the most out of my days i first decide to core times that i need to be available for my clients (as for me this generates revenue and customer service) (for me this is 10:00 - 12:00 and 14:00 - 16:00 but would probably differ for other businesses). Instead of having one in-tray, for administration work as it is generated, I have three trays:-

1. The first is non urgent no time specific work.

2. The second is admin to be done within 3 working days.

3. The third is has to be done by the end of the day.

Work in these ‘time trays’ fit into the slots before 10am, then 12 - 2pm the last one at 4pm. We find the key to this is being strict with it!

”

Personally (1) would pile up for me,  but it could work for me perfectly if I only considered my ‘active’ projects!

Thank you Tristan!

I haven’t written this blog for over a year………

It all started when someone, in fact some people,  said they didn’t like  the Morris Minor picture on the right hand side of this blog!

Self doubt can stop us all in our tracks without us being aware of it!

You see, I’ve been busy, with Desk Coach clients, and doing lots of things which made the blog seem less important.

Yet, the blog is meant to offer snippets of use to  everyone, especially related to the Desk Coach service!

That can be just what happens, when someone gets buried at work!  They forget to question what’s important! Oh, it’s so good to have someone to remind you! (Even if it’s your own diary…..eventually!)

If you need someone to give you the framework of recording your intentions more regularly, start sensing what would be good for you.  Contact me about Desk Coach to find out  how it can meet your needs!

Controlling the diary is a major stumbling block for time management. I’ve seen totally blank pages apart from the odd meeting yet the owner is rushed off their feet!

Here are 5 quick tips:-

1. Assign time for all your tasks, whether appointments or not.

2. Limit the number of people who can put things in your diary.

3. Limit when other people can book meetings in your diary and keep a note of when it suits you best to block off your diary for your personal tasks and what your typical day or week looks like when it suits you best.

4. Book one enjoyable thing in your diary each week, and savour the time you spend doing it: and remember you are able to enjoy this because you’re learning to follow a plan.

5. Block out as late as possible today, time equal to the amount of time you spent yesterday (or today last week if you prefer) over and above the total time you actually wanted to work.

Perhaps you worked late for one hour. Then say you need one hour today. You need this buffer until you get better at planning (or to take your typical interruptions.) If it turns out you don’t need it, then leave early or use the time constructively e.g to review how you’ve spent your time today, or to plan tomorrow, or to catch up on something you’re behind on (e.g. reading material)

What are your experiences?

The Secret’ was quite a phenomenon during 2007, with its way of expressing the Law of Attraction (If you haven’t been touched by it yet, see its official website.)

So I’ll be trying my personal version in 2008…..how about you?

Writing down my wants for 2008 - ones which I’m willing to take action towards and believe are attainable.Then dreaming a little: how will I behave in 2009 when I have them? And getting a good sense of this; what will I see, hear and feel? How does success taste (or smell)?

Then, starting to believe I’ve achieved them already and getting the same senses and feelings now. (I do urge acting responsibly as well… e.g my values say it’s not good to spend the money I haven’t earned yet!) This is about generating the response through mind, body and behaviour, to attract the desired outcome.

(Let’s see what happens regarding doubling 2007 income!)

Of course you’ve written your goals for 2008 by now! (Haven’t you?)
New Year resolutions are typically forgotten within a very short space of time. Maybe because they’re thought about in such a short space of time. Often they’re ideals and unrealistic in a practical sense. Or they’re wishes which don’t stand up to making an effort.

Let me encourage you to think about what has gone well, and what not so well during 2007, particularly from a workload perspective. What are the lessons learned for you? Can you amalgamate all those into one overriding lesson you’ve learned this year about what you need to change about handling your personal workload. How can you turn that into a resolution (or a goal) that has more meaning for you?

If you have set goals already, how does this new goal compare in terms of meaning and priority to you?

(Yes, I’ve done this already, having been encouraged by my coach and I’ll let you know how it goes! My resolution relates to keeping things simple, following my own advice and taking action, so blogs will be shorter!)

I’s the start of a new year and time set new goals based on our experiences of the 2007! I felt this blog needed a title that indicated a higher value benefit of being read and commented on, so the title/content of this blog is changing.

It was “Understanding Your Work Style - Improve your success potential by knowing yourself better”, aimed at helping you understand your unique way of working.

It will now be more oriented toward ways to improve the management of personal workload. Some advice may not suit your particular work style, so I look forward to comments on how you adapt the ideas.

What are you changing in 2008, based on your lessons learned during 2007?

I spoke about this engineering book, The Goal, in a previous post
To really improve one’s throughput, it is essential to see which tasks cause things to ‘pile up’. People can commonly think, when something isn’t getting done, it’s down to procrastination (or some other ‘time thief’).

Some closer analysis may be helpful! If you just don’t feel right about doing the task, could the process call for you to do something against your instinct or values? Or do you need more skills? Or are you scared of something? Or are you just giving this activity too little time in your schedule?

Assuming you’ve really got your overall goal really clear, and this task that isn’t getting done is essential to your throughput, maybe it’s time you took time out to really sort out what you need to do. Your overall performance depends on it!

Who else could do this?

How else could you do it?(What tools/skills do you need?)
What alternatives do you have?

What is this bottleneck really costing you in terms of your overall performance?

If you’re thinking there’s nothing you can do, and you’re willing to put up with your current performance, what does it say about you and your work style?

How dominated is your work-life by the effects of others?

Some clients feel a lot of frustration when seeing issues get in their way and use coaching sessions to work through how to deal with the impact; actions are taken to address and remove the frustration. Communication is very positive and clear.

Other clients seem to accept the frustration as a clamp on their capabilities and tend to get bogged down well before taking a decision on what to do; actions are focused more on recognising the symptoms and causes. Communication is fuzzy and actions to reflect on events can be uninspiring. Yet directive advice maintains their position in their own decision-making.

Babies have very clear communication: they need something they scream. Their communication is also fuzzy; the specific need is not obvious, and carers offer a process of elimination to deduce the need. Not everyone has the patience to tend to fuzzy communicators.

How can we condition people for clarity? Is it the same as conditioning children to be self-confident and clear about what they want, with less and less direction?