There are days when I feel overwhelmed with my “to do list”. Many business owners and business professionals have shared similar experiences with me. All of us would like to be more effective during our day and with the time we have available.
Recently I took some time to develop actions to help myself become more effective, and I think some will apply to each of us. So here is my list of six areas I am working to improve:
1. Become more organized. Most of my organization struggles is with information. I process a lot of information in many forms such as emails, books, magazines, web pages, photos, videos, and my own notes. I have become adept at storing and recalling certain types of information, but I have many opportunities for improvement. Being organized takes effort and time. The goal is to offset the time spent organizing with time saved in finding information when you need it. I also think organization is a process that never stops. Every time I can’t find something, I know I need to work on this area.
2. Improve daily routines. Everyone has daily routines. The most visible are the motions we go through after we wake up in the morning and prepare ourselves for the day. These actions are efficient because we have practiced them every day. We may have different routines for different days of the week, or different routines based on the time we have available. Strive to make minor improvements in your daily habits and routines, and include the actions you want to improve on a daily basis.
3. Know your current priority. Getting and keeping focus on your priority will add tremendously to your effectiveness. There are so many distractions that interfere with our normal day, that sometimes distractions become the norm. Every day know your priority for the day. Stay focused on that priority until it is complete. Handle interruptions by putting them aside until your primary task is complete. Each day can become highly productive in this manner.
4. Use all your available resources. We tend to keep our tasks to ourselves, when we could achieve more by proper delegation. If someone else can do a job eighty percent as well as you, delegate it and help them become better at that task. When evaluating resources that you can use, include family members, friends, co-workers, organizations, and service providers. Write a list of your common tasks using two columns. The first includes things that only you could or should do. The other list are the tasks that others could do. Then see how many of the second list you can recruit others to help with.
5. Evaluate what you will give up. This is a tough concept to consider. To do more of something, you need to do less of something else. That is how it works. You have no ability to create time. From time to time, I evaluate my list of projects. I keep two lists: current projects, and someday projects. If I have too many current projects, then I am not effective. So I keep the someday list of things I wish to do, but are not a priority. This is similar to a bucket list. During these reviews I sometimes have to give up some projects, because there are better options. The second benefit of these reviews is that I discover projects that I have been maintaining as part of my regular schedule that I should not be doing anymore. Things that I can stop. Things that I can give up. Those decisions allow me to tackle new projects.
6. Relax, enjoy, and have fun. This is the best part of becoming effective. I admire people that find their strength zone, and align their life to work within it. They become experts at what they do, and they enjoy doing it. Even if you don’t have perfect alignment, you should be very aware of how you can spend time in the activities you enjoy. Saving part of each day for these activities will keep you motivated and refreshed which will help you maintain your effectiveness.
Thomas Jefferson said, “Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.”
It is hard to measure your effectiveness. But it is usually easy to tell when you are not being effective. Benjamin Franklin said, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” The best use of time has been a challenge for all of mankind, and we will always struggle to improve.