Information and Knowledge

Time management is one of the things I find which is most important. I’ll give you some tips.

(I had posted this in a forum answering someone’s questions)

First thing is, review the task list you wrote the night before. Always make a task list the night before. It should not take more than a half hour. Put a start time AND END TIME for each task.

Never check email as your first thing in the morning. It leads to too much surfing and gets you off track. If you want to be productive, look at email for no more than an hour, two times a day. If you’re not able to get through it all, then maybe you’re getting too much.

If you like to read a paper or listen to some audio books or training while you take shower, eat breakfast, etc.. then do that. If you have to drive, listen to training or relevant podcasts or books on tape. Sometimes, I am full of ideas while driving, so I bring my voice recorder and record my thoughts.

When you get to the office, whether it’s down stairs or 2 hours away, go in sit down and start working. Check your email and messages a few hours after you get started working. You could even tell people on your phone message. “Hi, I’m quite busy these days. To make sure I’m as productive as possible for you, I’ll be checking messages and returning calls a few times a day.” You could do the same thing with your email.

If you write the list of tasks the night before, your mind is free to think of more productive things. Your mind won’t be worried about, “What do I need to do today?” or “I have to make sure I do this today, it’s really important!”

The simple thing about creating a task list with start and END times the night before really helps you stay focused. I’m not one to do it, but when I started, it totally changed my thinking and I became WAY MORE PRODUCTIVE.