Plan your time « An Extra Hour Every Day

Oct

27

Plan fixed time for networking

by Nicolas

In business it is very important that you maintain a good network with people inside and outside your company. Day to day operations is very busy and it sometime can be very difficult to maintain contact with certain people. I therefore suggest that you create a fixed time slot in your calendar where you just focus on refreshing relationships.

During this time you make phone calls, write emails or letters to people whom you don’t see often but whom you want to keep in touch with. You might also plan one evening per week (or more) to go meet such people for a drink or a dinner.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (1)

Oct

24

Start with the most important things

by Nicolas

Start with the most important things. Assuming that the Pareto Principle can be applied, 20% of your actions probably account for 80% of your results. This is why it is so important to prioritize by the importance of your tasks and then start with the most important ones.

If you have difficulties setting priorities you might not be clear about your goals. In this case I recommend thinking about your goals for life first. After completion of this exercise it will be much easier for you to identify what is important to you.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (2)

Oct

20

Set reminders for tasks due far ahead in future

by Nicolas

Everybody has commitments or tasks that are not due immediately but far ahead in the future. Although there is enough time for preparation, they later often seem to come up on the last minute creating unnecessary stress. Because they take place in the future people often do not have these activities on their screen and only get aware shortly before due date.

A good way avoiding such unnecessary stress is to set early reminders for activities in the future such as:

Vaccinations, annual health checks, dentist checks, etc.
End of contracts, due dates for cancelation, etc.
Important meetings, reviews, etc.
Dates to refresh personal relations
Maintenance due dates
etc.

You can set the reminder in your calendar and you can also be supported by websites sending reminders.

Memo To Me:

Website that allows to send free reminders to yourself as well as family members or coworkers. You can upgrade your membership to send reminders to your pager or mobile phone. It works for one time or recurring events.

Free-minder.com

Email reminder service that reminds you of activities 14 days, 7 days, 3 days and 1 day in advance. It allows adding specific notes making the reminders more meaningful as well as a second mail address (e.g. home and work).

These are only two services out of many, but it seemed to me that they are within the most commonly used ones.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (0)

Oct

16

use multiple alerts over the day

by Nicolas

Many mobile phones have the capability to set more than one alarm. In the morning you can set all alarms for the day in your phone, to remind you of things like:

Going to a meeting
15 minutes to the end of a meeting
Time to leave for somewhere
etc.

Related articles:

Most important minutes of the day

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (0)

Oct

15

There is enough time for all important matters

by Nicolas

When talking about time management I hear many people claim that they do not have enough time. At first you have to realize that you have enough time for all important matters - if you want.

Think on how much time you might loose per day watching stupid TV programs, surfing the Internet without a clear purpose, spending hours on computer games, etc.

Try to identify those activities that are typically wasting your time. You can use a diary and make notes of it for a week or a month. After adding up these hours you will realize that you have enough time, but that you have to change your habits on setting priorities.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (1)

Oct

13

Do things once only

by Nicolas

When you start a new task, try to complete it without any interruption. Take sufficient time to deliver a good quality job, which does not require time consuming corrections. When you plan your week or day make sure that requests to others necessary to complete the task are made early so that you will have everything available.

To make it simple: Do things once - but once for all.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (0)

Oct

08

Work according to your biorhythm

by Nicolas

Every person has a different biorhythm which determines your daily performance peaks and downs. Although the theory of biorhythm is questionned from a pure scientific point of view, I still believe that we all can trace certain regularities in the ups and downs in our performance.

Understanding these differences leads to a different allocation of priorities and tasks over your working day. You will schedule difficult tasks or things you tend to procrastinate at your peak energy times and easy tasks such as filing to periods your energy level is at the bottom (e.g. after lunch).

Related articles:

Most important minutes of the day

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (0)

Oct

07

Question deadlines imposed to you

by Nicolas

When other people impose dealines to you it sometimes is worth questionning these deadlines during very busy times. Especially when you have a reputation of delivering on time, you might get more time since the buffer for those who are always late does not apply to you.

If you have a boss or peers who come to you frequently with requests without delay, I recommend to take an appointment to discuss this pattern. Such behavior creates permanent interruptions to you and makes it impossible to plan your time.

Where this is a frequent pattern a weekly meeting with those people might lead to significant improvements. During this meeting you will review the upcoming tasks and you can also agree on realistic schedules.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (0)

Sep

30

Don’t overbook your schedule

by Nicolas

Don’t pack your entire day full with meetings and tasks. Things don’t always go as planned and you need some buffer. You can assume that in average only 50% of the things you plan on doing a day will actually get done. As you result you will not be able to complete your agenda and many important things might remain uncompleted.

I recommend to keep 30% percent buffer in your day and to ideally also plan some short relaxation breaks. As a result you will be less exhausted, be more productive and - in the end - achieve more.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy:

Comments: (0)

Sep

29

Avoid planning work on weekends

by Nicolas

A special form of procrastination is to postpone work on week-ends. “I will not do it know, because I can do it on week-end where I have more time etc.)”. On week-end it then often is hard getting started and kept postponing tasks from Saturday to Sunday and ended up completing things Sunday evening or even Monday morning. The remaining time of the week-end I always had a bad conscious and I could not enjoy my recreation time.

As a general principle you therefore better don’t even think of work during week-end unless you are in an exceptionally busy period. You also avoid the danger of making it a habit, which results in working all the time and consequently increasing the risk of a burn-out.

On a Friday I rather work late without limit to complete all tasks for the week and prepare for the next week. Once all is finished I can really enjoy my free time and don’t have to bother about unfinished tasks. When I feel the sensation of postponing something to the week-end I motivate myself by imagining what I will all do in my free time.

Related articles:

Share and Enjoy: