There do not seem to be enough hours in the day! Piles of papers, endless e-mails, file folders that cannot be located, meetings, customer complaints, and deadlines! Your stress level goes up and your motivation goes down. Instead of digging your way out, you are drowning in a sea of responsibilities. It seems that no rescue is in sight because everyone around you is drowning! Is there any hope? The answer is yes, and it is within your own mind and within your own reach! Being overwhelmed is common in today’s fast paced world of every increasing demand. The technology age has created greater expectations from others that we should be able to get everything now! So, what are the steps to make sense out of an “out of control world?”
It starts with priorities. If we really take the time to analyze things, we can divide our responsibilities into categories. Here are the top categories and some suggestions on how to attack them:
- Urgent and goal related- These are the tasks that will help us reach our goals and at the same time must be done immediately. In the workplace these are the assigned goals of the company. All sales goals should fall into this category, so sales related activities would be major priorities.
- Urgent and not goal related- These are the tasks that have to be done even though they do not directly relate to our main goals. These tasks fall into two categories, the ones created for us by the demands of others and the ones we create ourselves through procrastination. The ones created by others to a degree can be controlled. How? Decide if the task is within your realm of responsibility. If it is just do it! If not learn to negotiate with the person who is bringing the task by asking for a deadline and specific guidance on how they want the task done. In some cases see if you can “trade off.” This is a negotiating tactic where they take some of your tasks if you are willing to help them.
- Long term projects- Most people put these off until the last minute because they are in the future and we are currently overwhelmed! People who work efficiently approach long term projects differently. They take these projects and dissect them or “baby step” them. The long term project is divided into small parts and each week time is put aside to work on only that part. Time is also spent finding others who can take pieces of the project and assist you.
- Stuff- What is stuff? It is the thousand little things each day that eat your time from “water cooler talk” to co-worker interruptions. Here is the law of stuff; “Stuff will expand in direct proportion to the time allotted for stuff.” There will always be stuff and unfortunately most people spend the day getting stuff done first because in most cases it is easy. Unfortunately at the end of the day we feel as if we have not accomplished anything.
Here are simple steps to take the categories above and put them in an order that allows you to not only survive but thrive!
- The night before, make a list of your major tasks that have to be done the next day. Divide them into the categories above and assign a time to each one. Example: If I know that it will take 45 minutes to complete a task without interruption, schedule that task early before the day starts. It might mean coming in 45 minutes early that day.
- Try and do your urgent goal and non-goal related tasks first! Divide them into the least time consuming to the most time consuming and do the one’s that can be done the quickest first.
- Do a check of your list three times during the day. First start the day with a quick review of the night before list, check again before lunch and try to squeeze one task before lunch, and finally check with about 30 minutes left in your work day so you can attempt to do one more urgent task.
- Delegate what you can or decide what can carry over to the next day.
- Do not put your “to do” list on a sheet of paper or sticky notes. Get a small 9” X 6” spiral notebook where every day is in one place. If you have a Daytimer or similar planner use it for your “to do” list.
- Avoid sticky notes at all cost for phone numbers, etc. In fact put all calls to return in your spiral notebook so everything is in one place.
After a few weeks you will start feeling in control again and maybe, just maybe you will actually feel proud, less stressed, and enjoy your new found efficiency!
Source: Ken Taylor