By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
We all have "too much to do." As a professional speaker, I hear that all the
time from my audiences. And that says a lot of good things about you, if you
have "too much to do" because, obviously, a lot of people have entrusted
many things to your care and have confidence in you.
Every priority claims itself as the most urgent and crucial thing in the
world screaming for your immediate attention. The problem is, we can only do
one thing at a time. So, here are four nifty ideas to help you to Manage
Multiple Priorities.
- Keep the focus on personal balance first. Our lives are made up of Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial,
Intellectual, Social, Professional, and Spiritual. We will not necessarily
spend time every day in each area or equal amounts of time in each area.
But, if, in the long run, we spend a sufficient quantity and quality of time
in each area, our lives will be in balance. But if we neglect any one area,
never mind two or three, we will eventually sabotage our success. Much like
a table, if one leg is longer than the rest, it will make the entire table
wobbly. If we don't take time for health, our family life and social life
are hurt. If our financial area is out of balance, we will not be able to
focus adequately on our professional goals, etc. As in the medical
profession, it is said that you cannot be sick and make other people well.
In Time Management, then, we have to keep ourselves healthy first, in
balance first, or it won't matter how many or how important our priorities
are, we will not be able to properly handle them.
- Schedule Daily Planning. I set aside at least 30 minutes each night for Daily Planning, a time to
have a Board of Directors meeting in the most important corporation in the
world, Me, Inc. I make up a list of things for the next day that includes
not only all the items I "have to" do, but, more importantly, the items I
"want to" do. Putting it all down in writing is vital because if you want to
manage it, you have to measure it. This will tend to overload your next day,
which is useful because it permits us to take advantage of Parkinson's Law,
which says, in part, that a project tends to take as long as the time
allocated for it. If you give yourself one thing to do, it will take all day
to do it. If you give yourself three things to do, you get them all done. If
you give yourself twelve things to do, you may not get all twelve done, but
may well accomplish nine. Having a lot to do, being a bit overloaded,
creates a healthy sense of pressure on us to get through our list.
- Review each item and ask, "Is this the best use of my time?" There is a lot of difference between "I do it" and "It gets done." Which is
more important? "It gets done." Sure, it's great to accomplish things
ourselves but we only have 168 hours per week to accomplish results. (And if
we take away 56 hours per week for sleep, that only leaves 112 hours!) So,
each night during Daily Planning, I review each item on my list and ask, "Is
this the best use of my time?". If it is, I will plan to work on it and if
it is not, I will try to find a way to delegate it to someone so that it
gets done.
- Prioritize the list. Typically, our "To Do" lists will contain "crucial" and "not crucial" items.
Some items will be more important, some not so important. Typically, the
"not crucial" items are quicker and often more fun than the "crucial" items,
which tend to take longer and are generally less fun. So what happens for
many is that without prioritizing our list, we have a tendency to do the
"not crucial" items first, substituting the quantity for the quality.
Identify the most important "crucial" item on your list, the one you would
want to tackle if you could only work on one item tomorrow and then label
that as "#1". Next, identify the second item you would work on, if time
permits, and label that as "#2". Continue prioritizing the entire list in
that fashion and tomorrow start with #1.
These four steps will help you to more effectively Manage Multiple
Priorities and increase your daily results and that a good thing.
Dr. Donald E. Wetmore has been a full-time Professional Speaker for the last
20 years having made over 5,000 presentations to audiences from around the
Globe. He is available to conduct his dynamic Time Management Seminars at
your location helping your people get more done in less time, with less
stress. Don's programs are entertaining, fast paced, and filed with
practical, common sense ideas. His seminars are typically rated as "the best
I have ever attended". For more information, contact Don via email at
ctsem@msn.com or call him at (203) 929-9902.
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welcome you aboard!
Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
60 Huntington St., P.O. Box 2126
Shelton, CT 06484
(800) 969-3773 (203) 929-9902 Fax: (203) 929-8151
ctsem@msn.com
http://www.balancetime.com
Professional Member-National Speakers Association
Copyright 2000 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in
your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please
email your request for "reprint" to
ctsem@msn.com
