1. Multi-tasking leads to mistakes and miscommunication. Wile talking on the phone, do you find yourself reading emails? Do you really think you retained both forms of communication? Did you catch all the details? I'm sure you didn't. While on the phone, pay attention to the other person on the line. That sounds like common sense and politeness, but I know too many of us are not doing this on a regular basis.
2. Use your calendar to block out your day in small bits or larger chunks of time. Don't just make a to-do list, but schedule time to do each thing on it. Julie Morgenstern in her book "Time Management from the Inside Out", states the bottom line: "A to-do not connected to a when rarely gets done." Be truthful with yourself on how long you'll need to complete a project and give it that full time. If it's a big project, then break it up into multiple segments throughout the day or week. If you find your attention wondering then work in smaller bits of time. Creative projects need longer portions of your day. And if you have the type of job where you must answer the phone as soon as it rings, then you will need to block out your time with bigger gaps, because you will take longer to complete tasks.
3. Use the morning or your most energetic time to get the most important things done. Big projects, writing, creative projects, anything that needs your undivided attention do first thing. Because if you are pre-occupied with a major project and worrying over it, you can't really focus on anything else.
4. Now for the really big challenge: Don't read your emails throughout the day as they pop into your inbox! Emails have become junk food or even heroin to many of us. They are addicting and make us feel super busy and important. But I really want to strongly suggest that you schedule specific times to read your emails maybe every other hour, and especially not while you are working on something else. For example, while I've been writing this article, I have received 5 emails, but I have not clicked onto my inbox. Not even just to see who they are from. I know that if I go to my mailbox it will take longer to regain my focus and get back in the blogging zone. By scheduling time to focus on emails I'll have enough time to read, respond or mark for follow up, and delete or file. I think this is where many of you get in trouble with emails: You read the email in a hurry and leave it in their inbox to deal with later. But then fifty or a hundred more emails come on top of that one and all is forgotten. Maybe you'll remember something about it but think it's been taken care of. Scheduling sufficient time and focusing solely on one task at at time while minimizing interruptions is essential to working efficiently and getting your to-do list DONE!!
5. So this brings me to my biggest suggestion FOCUS! Focus on one thing at a time. Do it. Complete it. Wrap it up and put it away. File the paper work. And check it off your list. Don't move on to the next thing until you have completely finished the one you are working on. This is how so many of you have piles of paperwork on your desk. You didn't really finish the one thing before moving onto another.
So start by making a list of tasks and projects. Guestimate the time it will take you to complete. Break large projects into smaller bite-size projects. Now block out time throughout your day for each task. Be sure to schedule time for phone calls and emails. The more things you schedule - the more you will get DONE!!
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