Regardless how you accomplish them, there are some basics in planning your work day. Let’s discover some basic rules tips and suggestions that can help you truly spend your time wisely. Remember, our days are like bank accounts. Rather than being filled with Trade margin calculation dollars they columbiakayakadventures.com are filled with hours and they are refilled to capacity each day. Perhaps we should use this asset as efficiently as we can. Here are some tips:
1. Planning and Working are separate activities. We sweetcrumbsonline.com should not really mix the two actions. It is best to Plan and then Do. It is also best to plan early (either the morning of or the evening before).
2. We don’t work 24/7. So it’s important to establish our duties hours. This can be our work period on the job, or even extend beyond our standard sweetcrumbsonline office time. For work-at-home folks this period may begin early and end late. We should establish a specific start time and an end time.
3. Determine your overhead actions (we call them “Placeholders”). These are routine actions including meals that fall within duty hours, routine errands (like picking up the kids), exercise, etc. Overhead actions are part of life but do not move you towards your goals. Estimate the time to FINISH each action. Write each task and its duration on a Daily Planning Sheet. Overhead Tasks are placed separately from your Goal Oriented Tasks (see next tip).
4. Next establish which Goal-Oriented Tasks you want to finish this day. Each must be specific. These can be complete tasks or milestones which are part of a larger program. Estimate the time it will take to FINISH each action. As you do this, write each task and its duration on a Daily Planning Sheet.
5. A well-managed day must be realistic. There are always unexpected actions. You Daily Plan should set aside a definite amount of time (30, 60 or more minutes) for the UNEXPECTED. This will also give you the awareness so you can control these events.
6. Sort the goal-oriented actions into the order you wish to do them. Set the most important, most remunerative and most difficult nearest the beginning.
7. There is nothing quite as effective as a countdown timer to keep you focused. When you begin a task, set the timer for the duration and hit start. While it is counting down to its alarm you vow to do nothing else but that action. You will be amazed how this will increase your effectiveness.
You can do all this with a Daily Planning Sheet (you may have to create one), a pen, a timer, a calculator and a decision. It is best to do this on a computer and there is no more ideal tool than a Spreadsheet like Excel. You can work up a template (simple or complicated) that will allow you to do all the above points in just a few minutes (literally less than 5). Ideally the template will keep track of where you are in the day, all incomplete tasks, and keep you posted, at a glance, on how you are doing. Regardless how you do this, with some cleverness you will find a way. The key point is to make sure the above 7 tips are implemented. You will be amazed how much you can get done and how much ease of mind you’ll have, as you work, knowing you are working with a plan.
