SCHEDULING TASKS IN YOUR PLANNER

SCHEDULING TASKS IN YOUR PLANNER

The farther in the future you schedule ongoing projects, the more chance there will be of having to change them. Only schedule far enough into the future to keep ahead of other people. Most people ask you what you're doing next week, not next month. So two weeks is usually adequate. Failing to schedule your priorities in your planner leaves your planner available for other people's priorities.

HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY A PRIORITY?

A priority is an activity that will help you achieve corporate or personal goals.

Even if the company does not communicate goals, and the boss offers no guidelines, it is still possible to ask yourself the question, "What would be the impact on this company or my job if this task is not completed?" If the answer is "nothing", perhaps that task is not one that should be given top priority or scheduled into your planner.

TACKLING COMPLEXITY

Michael L. George and Stephen A. Wilson, in their book, Conquering Complexity in your Business (McGraw-Hill, 2004) offer three rules of complexity for business:

1. Eliminate complexity that customers will not pay for.
2. Exploit the complexity customers will pay for.
3. Minimize the costs of the complexity you offer.

DON'T BE A PACKRAT

There is a direct relationship between the number of things you own and the amount of time they consume. Whenever you buy a replacement, get rid of the thing it replaces.

 

FOCUS IS THE KEY

According to research, one unit of focused time is equal to four units of broken focus. You can accomplish the same amount of work in ten minutes of focused time as you can in forty minutes if you're not focused. ( Article source: http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20030500/82forg.html )