Distraction from the telephone

Tools: The Action Plan

Summary

At the heart of good time management is the shift of focus of concentrating on results, not on being busy.

We started looking at your use of time management by:

• Using an activity log to evaluate your use of time, and your energy levels at different times of the day.
• Knowing how much your time is worth, and hence which tasks should be avoided, dropped or delegated.
• Determining and agreeing what is important for success in your job, and what constitutes exceptional performance
• Setting the goals and plans that will lead you to that success

We then looked at ways in which you could use your time most effectively by:

• Doing important work in quality time,
• Eating properly and resting effectively so that you spend more time performing well,
• Running and attending meetings effectively,
• Using time spent waiting,
• Using travelling time effectively,
• Improving reading skills,
• Dropping unwanted tasks, and
• Using delay effectively.

We saw how we could create more time by:

• Delegating Effectively,
• and Getting up early!

And then looked at controlling the distractions that interfere with effective work by:

• Getting rid of unwanted jobs,
• Blocking unwanted visitors
• Letting people know when you do not want to be disturbed, and
• Handling phone calls effectively

By effective use of these basic skills, you can ensure that:

• you are successful in your job, as you know exactly what is expected of you, and concentrate explicitly on those things
• you can become more in control of what you do
• you are productive and therefore secure in your job
• you can plan and move into job areas that you enjoy
• and that you can avoid staying late at work, giving yourself more quality time to relax and enjoy life outside work.