How to get things done

February 12, 2007 by Matt Eve
Filed under: Irish Business Tips 

One thing that can make you more efficient is to make a to do list for the next day the night before, that way everything that needs to be done is fresh in your mind. You can hit the ground running the next morning. If you leave your to do list until first thing the next morning you can lose valuable time trying to remember what you needed to get done.


Another suggestion is to make yourself unavailable and turn off your mobile and email and skype. In these times of instant communication and making ourselves accessible to everyone and anyone it can be difficult to actually find a block of time to get things done.I recommend turning off phones and email for set periods of time during the day and making your staff know that you are not available. You might also consider hiring an assistant or telephone answering service to take messages from callers. You can then assign a block of time during the day when you call people back.
 
Try and determine which time of day is your most productive and then plan your do not disturb time around that. Likewise then try and determine when you find it harder to concentrate on written work and use this time to return calls and meet with clients.


Set yourself realistic goals and targets. For example if you are writing a new brochure or book then set yourself a target of a certain amount of words per day. This way it will seem less daunting to try and write say 400 words per day rather than trying to find time to write 2800 words during a week.
One suggestion that works for me is to keep a daily to do list on a 125mm x 200mm spiral bound pad and tick off the daily tasks as you complete them. This will give you a feeling of accomplishment as you cross items off and allow you to see at a glance what needs to be done. This is far more effective than trying to keep a to do list in your head. My final tip is to try and complete unpleasant tasks as early in the day as you can. It is human nature to try and put unpleasant things off and this can affect our performance throughout the day as we subconsciously keep thinking that we have this unpleasant task to deal with. You are far better to get the unpleasant things out of the way as soon as possible and then they are done and out of the way.

Remember successful people and unsuccessful people all have the same amount of hours in a day. What separates the two groups is what you choose to do with your time. We all have a finite resource of time, it is up to you to spend it wisely.

 

 

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