Time Management – Best Back to Work Strategies After Easter

We hope you had a fantastic Easter holiday, and are now feeling wonderfully relaxed and refreshed.

The break you have just had away from the office may have seen a lot of change happening, particularly if you work in a fast-paced industry. With this in mind, it’s important to get yourself back up to speed when you return.

Schedule a meeting with your manager or your team members to find out what has been going on while you have been away. What do you need to deal with urgently? What useful information do you need to know?

When you decide to tackle the behemoth that is an unmonitored inbox, remember to employ the 4 Ds:

• Do it
• Delete it
• Delegate it
• Defer it

Read our blogs on spending less time your inbox to learn more about effective email management.

Revisit your plans and objectives for the rest of the year. How is progress?  Are the goals still relevant? If not, now is a great time to update them. Make sure everything you do has value when it comes to achieving these objectives and furthering yourself.

Book your next holiday!

Yes I know we’re talking about catching up after your last one but having something to look forward to is an unbeatable motivational tool, so make sure to use it on yourself. Whether you want to plan a special night out, a short city break or a mammoth road-trip, get in touch, we’ll make sure you have something worth working incredibly hard for.

Start as you mean to go on – create a to-do list and stick to it. Don’t let your time management skills slide because you’ve been away for a while. Make it a fresh start, a new beginning and the next step to becoming the best you can be!

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!

 

Time Management: You’ve Heard of the To-Do List – Here’s The Have-Done List

You’ve heard us mention to-do lists countless times in our time management and productivity blogs and emails, and you know exactly what a to-do list is and what it entails; we’ve certainly banged on about it enough and you do hang on our every word, don’t you!

Anyway…

Productivity and great time management don’t start and end with a to-do list (although it is a fantastic basis for an efficient day); it is also important to remind yourself of what you have done.

Don’t get bogged down by what is left to do; motivate yourself by detailing everything you have done.

How to create a Have-Done List

The best way to go about creating a Have-Done List is to keep a notepad next to you all day (or at least for as much of the day as you are at your desk or working with paper). Every time you finish something which you feel was a valuable use of your time, add it to the list.

At the end of each working day, read over your completed list and congratulate yourself on what you have achieved. You may think it sounds cheesy but, if you don’t value yourself, who else will? Why not keep previous Have-Done Lists to remind yourself of how fabulous and productive you are when the going gets tough.

When writing your Have-Done List, consider the following points:

• What did I get done today?
• What was good about today?
• What can I do to make tomorrow better?
• What moved me closer to my goals?

Remember  to include your small achievements too – they all add up and every one of them counts!

Using a Have-Done List is also an excellent way to monitor your usage of to-do lists. Have a look at what you have achieved – was all of it on your to-do list? Are you being distracted by off-list tasks and colleagues’ requests?

How can you use this information to make yourself more productive and use your energy in the best way possible?

Need more help?

Call in the productivity experts!

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!

 

Time Management – Top 5 Tips for Avoiding Pre-Holiday Stress

With Susan having spent the past few days getting work in order before the schools break up for the summer, we thought now was a great time to re-visit this blog from June 2013.

It’s almost time for the schools to break up and thousands of us to take off on our annual summer holiday. Is the anticipation of the holiday you have been planning for months matched by panic about not getting everything done at work, forgetting to pack something essential or turning up at the airport on the wrong day? When you have as much as this on your mind, it is easy to slip into panic mode and we all know very little is achieved when that happens.

Of course, there are some people who don’t seem to experience pre-holiday stress but, in our experience, most people suffer from it to some degree. What you worry about will vary from person to person but the tactics for banishing the worry are applicable to all.

Our five top tips for avoiding pre-holiday stress should help to make the days leading up to your holiday a far less painful time. Our regular time management blogs and newsletters can help you keep on top of things too, sign up here.

Prioritise

No matter how fantastic your time management and organisational skills are, you are likely to find it difficult to get everything done before you turn on your out of office message and set off on your travels.

This is fine.

You don’t need to do everything on your lengthy to-do list, but you need to do the important tasks.

Prioritising your work will let you see what absolutely must get done, what can wait until you get back, or be delegated to a colleague or virtual/personal assistant or lifestyle manager (who might that be?!).

Be strict with yourself – what really must get done before you leave?

Delegate

That prioritisation activity leads nicely on to your next stress-avoidance technique – delegation.

Nobody is a super-hero and there is no shame in passing tasks to someone else, sometimes someone who is better suited to dealing with the tasks. Once you have decided what is most important, sort them into those you must do yourself and those which can be delegated.

Next, for each task, decide who can help you, who would benefit from helping you and who would appreciate more experience? Either ask someone in your office or delegate to an outside organisation (we hear there’s a great company called cushion the impact which can help!).

Go Easy on Yourself

You might find it tempting to work straight through in an attempt to get everything done before you leave but it doesn’t help. Working too many hours will leave you tired, unmotivated and unproductive. Take regular short breaks to refresh your mind and renew your energy, even five minutes to grab a cup of tea or walk around the office can make a considerable difference. 

Avoid Distractions

If you’re like the majority of our clients, you are torn on your last day of work before a holiday. On one hand, you want to finish as much work as possible but, on the other, you (and hands up, we can be like that here too!) are already mentally on holiday and don’t feel like focusing on work.

Sadly, as you are still at work, you do need to get things done. While you are in that pre-holiday mood, you will be more easily distracted than normal so make sure to remove anything which could be used as a procrastination tool.

Switch your mobile phone to silent and put it in a drawer; turn off your email notifications (do that anyway); use an application to block your access to Facebook, Twitter – whatever it takes to make you work, do it!

Create Another To-Do List

This is not one to get done during work time (and it is definitely not one to be used to procrastinate!) but making a note of everything you need to pack and do before you travel will make your preparations run more smoothly.

Whether you prefer to jot your ideas on a sheet of paper, type a note on your smart phone; a checklist makes everything easier.

If you have developed your own strategies for coping with pre-holiday stress, we would love to hear from you.  Please leave a comment below or drop us a line to let us know how you manage that dreaded last day in the office.

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance, customised lifestyle management, small business support and time management help for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  There aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life, at home or at work or both! Take a deep breath & call us today, your life will change.

 

How Not to Manage Your Business

No matter the size of your business and no matter what industry you operate in, you didn’t set up your business because you wanted it to fail. Why then do so many of us consistently make the same mistakes when it comes to running a business? As owner of the business, you will have plenty of balls to juggle and that requires excellent time management skills. Avoiding these common mistakes will put you well on the way to making your business a success.

Using ineffective to-do lists or none at all

Have you found yourself thinking about how much you have to do and wondering how you can fit it all in? When creating a to-do list, use a coding system (such as A-E or 1-5) to categorise the tasks you have lined up, then complete the tasks according to importance. Make sure to break tasks down properly; just writing that you need to start your next project isn’t enough, you need to detail each smaller task which is required (easier to delegate too). There are a number of smartphone, tablet and web applications which can help you to build an effective list. The medium you use is important – choose one which suits your personality and the way you prefer to work.

Not differentiating between urgent and important

It can be hard to know how to prioritise tasks, particularly when someone comes to you with what they deem to be an emergency, but it must be done in order to work efficiently.  Learn the difference between urgent and important and adopt that thinking into your daily life. Our online course covers this in more detail, explaining how to effectively categorise your planned and unexpected tasks each day.

Procrastinating and becoming distracted

While the internet has made all of our lives a lot easier in many ways, but it also has a lot of answer for. It was much easier to work without distraction in the days before Facebook, Twitter, newsfeeds and online gaming. They aren’t the only distractions we can face: telephone calls, email, instant messaging and colleagues popping by our desk for a chat are all equally detrimental to our productivity.  Turn off your IM notifications, forbid yourself from accessing the internet other than for work purposes (use a website blocker if necessary) and don’t be afraid to let people know if they are interrupting you too regularly. Andrea tends to wear headphones when she is particularly busy – she may not actually be listening to anything, but others working in the shared office know it means she is not to be disturbed other than in an emergency.

Taking on far too much

Although we may all like to think we are, none of us are super heroes. We don’t have an infinite number of hours in our day and we can’t always achieve absolutely everything that is asked of us. One of the most important skills in managing your time more effectively is learning how to say no.  Whether this involves politely informing someone that you cannot take on another project or learning how to stop micro-managing and start delegating, saying no when required will do a lot for your productivity.

Becoming addicted to looming deadlines

Are you one of those people who claim to work better when you are busy and have the threat of deadlines hanging over you?  In reality, meeting your deadlines by minutes, operating a full inbox and working with piles of paper constantly leads to stress not to effective working.  Slow down, create an effective schedule and, again, learn to say no. Do you recognise this particular habit in yourself? Learn how to break it.

We understand how difficult it can be not to commit all of these time management crimes when you are trying to make a success of your own business; after all, you have a lot at stake. It will be difficult to re-wire your brain and start to work in a new way but we promise it will pay dividends. You will thank us when you are on holiday next year with all that newly-gained free time and income!

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!

To Do List Or Not To Do List

With only a few days to go until the launch of our online time management course, There Is Enough Time on 10th July, here’s another taster of what is in store. According to our resident time management expert, Andrea Osborne, one of the most essential tools in the quest for productivity is the humble to-do list.

If you have used a to-do list before and didn’t feel that it had made a difference, perhaps you could give it another try. Andrea will cover this topic in depth during the online course but, for now, here are 6 easy steps to creating effective to-do lists.

Capture Everything – Gather up absolutely all of your notes before you start to build your to-do list. Now is the time to collect all of those post-it notes, old envelopes, cigarette packets and receipts you have scrawled on.  Add these all to one list and include any emails which cannot immediately be actioned.

Categorise – Once you have completed your list, split the tasks into categories. Usual categories include client, personal, admin, finance and marketing. Once you start, you will quickly realise what categories you need.

Break It Down – Now simplify the categories. Breaking each task down into bite-size chunks will make it seem more manageable and allow you to properly track your progress.

Make It Actionable – In order for your to-do list to be effective, your tasks need to be actionable. Don’t note that you want to use social media, add a task of tweeting five times a week. Remember that it must be simple and achievable.

Prioritise – You know what you need to do, now decide what needs to be done first and arrange your tasks accordingly.

Review – Remember to review your to-do list regularly and remove the tasks you have completed. There is nothing quite like the feeling of knowing you have achieved some of your goals!

For another 20 tricks and tips about prioritising, organising your to do lists and getting the most from your day, register now for our time management course, There Is Enough Time.

Act now for your bonus – the first 4 people to sign up will have a 45 minute individual session with Andrea Osborne.

There Is Enough Time!

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!