Concentrate on results, not on being busy
Calculating how much your time is worth
helps you to work out how whether it is worth doing particular jobs. If you have to spend much of your time doing low-yield jobs, then you can make a good case for employing an assistant.
Activity logs
are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day. By analyzing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-wasting or low-yield jobs. You will also know the times of day at which you are most effective, so that you can carry out your most important tasks during these times.
An Action Plan
is a list of things that you need to do to achieve a goal. To use it, simply carry out each task in the list!
Prioritized To-Do Lists
are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use To-Do Lists, you will ensure that:
You remember to carry out all necessary tasks
You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks.
You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs.
To draw up a Prioritized To-Do List, list all the tasks you must carry out. Mark the importance of the task next to it, with a priority from A (very important) to F (unimportant). Redraft the list into this order of importance.
Now carry out the jobs at the top of the list first. These are the most important, most beneficial tasks to complete.
Goal setting
is an important method of:
Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your life
Separating what is important from what is irrelevant
Motivating yourself to achievement
Building your self-confidence based on measured achievement of goals
You should allow yourself to enjoy the achievement of goals and reward yourself appropriately. Draw lessons where appropriate, and feed these back into future performance.
Scheduling
is the process by which you plan your use of time. By scheduling effectively, you can both reduce stress and maximize your effectiveness.Before you can schedule efficiently, you need an effective scheduling system. This can be a diary, calendar, paper-based organizer, PDA or a software package like MS Outlook or GoalPro 6. The best solution depends entirely on your circumstances.
Scheduling is then a five-step process:
1Identify the time you have available.
2Block in the essential tasks you must carry out to succeed in your job.
3Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and vital "house-keeping" activities.
4Block in appropriate contingency time to handle unpredictable interruptions.
5In the time that remains, schedule the activities that address your priorities and personal goals.
If you have little or no discretionary time left by the time you reach step five, then revisit the assumptions you have made in steps one to four.
Job analysis is a five-step technique for:
1. Review formal job documentation:
Look at your job description. Identify the key objectives and priorities within it.
Look at the forms for the periodic performance reviews. These show precisely the behaviors that will be rewarded and, by implication, show those that will be punished.Find out what training is available for the role. Ensure that you attend appropriate training so that you know as much as possible about what you need to know. Look at incentive schemes to understand the behaviors that these reward.
2. Understand the organization’s strategy and culture:
Your job exists for a reason – this will ultimately be determined by the strategy of the organizational unit you work for. This strategy is often expressed in a mission statement. In some way, what you do should help the organization achieve its mission (if it does not, you have to ask yourself how secure the job is!). Make sure you understand and perform well the tasks that contribute to the strategy.
Similarly, every organization has its own culture – its own, historically developed values, rights and wrongs, and things that it considers to be important. If you are new to an organization, talk through with established, respected members of staff to understand these values.
Make sure that you understand this culture. Make sure that your actions reinforce the company’s culture, or at least do not go against it. Looked at through the lens of culture, will the company value what you do? Check that your priorities are consistent with this mission statement and the company culture.
3. Find out who the top achievers are, and understand why they are successful:
Inside or outside the organization, there may be people in a similar role to you who are seen as highly successful. Find out how they work, and what they do to generate this success. Look at what they do, and learn from them. Understand what skills make them successful, and learn those skills.
4. Check that you have the people and resources to do the job:
The next step is to check that you have the staff support, resources and training needed to do an excellent job. If you do not, start work on obtaining them.
5. Confirm priorities with your boss:
By this stage, you should have a thorough understanding of what your job entails, and what your key objectives are. You should also have a good idea of the resources that you need, and any additional training you may need to do the best you can.
This is the time to talk the job through with your boss, and confirm that you share an understanding of what constitutes good performance in the role.
It is also worth talking through serious inconsistencies, and agreeing how these can be managed.
6. Take Action:
You should now know what you have to do to be successful in your job. You should have a good idea of the most important things that you have to do, and also the least important. Where you can drop the less-important tasks, do so. Where you can de-prioritize them, do so.
Calculating how much your time is worth
helps you to work out how whether it is worth doing particular jobs. If you have to spend much of your time doing low-yield jobs, then you can make a good case for employing an assistant.
Activity logs
are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day. By analyzing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-wasting or low-yield jobs. You will also know the times of day at which you are most effective, so that you can carry out your most important tasks during these times.
An Action Plan
is a list of things that you need to do to achieve a goal. To use it, simply carry out each task in the list!
Prioritized To-Do Lists
are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use To-Do Lists, you will ensure that:
You remember to carry out all necessary tasks
You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks.
You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs.
To draw up a Prioritized To-Do List, list all the tasks you must carry out. Mark the importance of the task next to it, with a priority from A (very important) to F (unimportant). Redraft the list into this order of importance.
Now carry out the jobs at the top of the list first. These are the most important, most beneficial tasks to complete.
Goal setting
is an important method of:
Deciding what is important for you to achieve in your life
Separating what is important from what is irrelevant
Motivating yourself to achievement
Building your self-confidence based on measured achievement of goals
You should allow yourself to enjoy the achievement of goals and reward yourself appropriately. Draw lessons where appropriate, and feed these back into future performance.
Scheduling
is the process by which you plan your use of time. By scheduling effectively, you can both reduce stress and maximize your effectiveness.Before you can schedule efficiently, you need an effective scheduling system. This can be a diary, calendar, paper-based organizer, PDA or a software package like MS Outlook or GoalPro 6. The best solution depends entirely on your circumstances.
Scheduling is then a five-step process:
1Identify the time you have available.
2Block in the essential tasks you must carry out to succeed in your job.
3Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and vital "house-keeping" activities.
4Block in appropriate contingency time to handle unpredictable interruptions.
5In the time that remains, schedule the activities that address your priorities and personal goals.
If you have little or no discretionary time left by the time you reach step five, then revisit the assumptions you have made in steps one to four.
Job analysis is a five-step technique for:
1. Review formal job documentation:
Look at your job description. Identify the key objectives and priorities within it.
Look at the forms for the periodic performance reviews. These show precisely the behaviors that will be rewarded and, by implication, show those that will be punished.Find out what training is available for the role. Ensure that you attend appropriate training so that you know as much as possible about what you need to know. Look at incentive schemes to understand the behaviors that these reward.
2. Understand the organization’s strategy and culture:
Your job exists for a reason – this will ultimately be determined by the strategy of the organizational unit you work for. This strategy is often expressed in a mission statement. In some way, what you do should help the organization achieve its mission (if it does not, you have to ask yourself how secure the job is!). Make sure you understand and perform well the tasks that contribute to the strategy.
Similarly, every organization has its own culture – its own, historically developed values, rights and wrongs, and things that it considers to be important. If you are new to an organization, talk through with established, respected members of staff to understand these values.
Make sure that you understand this culture. Make sure that your actions reinforce the company’s culture, or at least do not go against it. Looked at through the lens of culture, will the company value what you do? Check that your priorities are consistent with this mission statement and the company culture.
3. Find out who the top achievers are, and understand why they are successful:
Inside or outside the organization, there may be people in a similar role to you who are seen as highly successful. Find out how they work, and what they do to generate this success. Look at what they do, and learn from them. Understand what skills make them successful, and learn those skills.
4. Check that you have the people and resources to do the job:
The next step is to check that you have the staff support, resources and training needed to do an excellent job. If you do not, start work on obtaining them.
5. Confirm priorities with your boss:
By this stage, you should have a thorough understanding of what your job entails, and what your key objectives are. You should also have a good idea of the resources that you need, and any additional training you may need to do the best you can.
This is the time to talk the job through with your boss, and confirm that you share an understanding of what constitutes good performance in the role.
It is also worth talking through serious inconsistencies, and agreeing how these can be managed.
6. Take Action:
You should now know what you have to do to be successful in your job. You should have a good idea of the most important things that you have to do, and also the least important. Where you can drop the less-important tasks, do so. Where you can de-prioritize them, do so.
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