The Success Report
Information, insights and ideas to enhance your personal and professional performance.
Tag >> work smarts
Organising yourself can be a very overwhelming thought at first. Many
people who have desks, work areas or a head full of clutter might want to get organised but simply don’t know where to start. The first step for getting organised might seem daunting – but it doesn’t need to be. The secret to beating the feeling of being overwhelmed is to learn to break down seemingly unmanageable activities into smaller steps, then to tackle those steps one at a time. One way to do this is by using what I call the 6 D method.
You should set aside anywhere from ten minutes to sixty minutes to start this process. The time you need will depend on how much of a back-log you’ve got to sort out. The 6 D method can be used with paper, or electronic information. Here’s how it works.
D1 = Delete/ Dump
This is the ‘round filing cabinet’ that sits on the floor into which you should place anything that you won’t need ever again. Many people are hoarders and can’t bear the thought of throwing things away. The fact is, the only way you’ll clear a cluttered desk, overloaded in-tray, or email in-box is to bite the bullet and get rid of anything you will never read or look at again. In the case of hard copy files – if this junk includes anything with your name, address or other personal details on it, you should shred it.
D2 = D-Box
A D-Box is either a physical box or a folder in your email program that is used to place things in that you might possibly want again, but in all probability you won’t. It’s a temporary holding place for things that could come in handy in the near future. If you have a piece of information that you think you won’t need, drop in (or move it) to your D-Box. After several months of items being in your D-Box, you can safely presume that they won’t be needed again. In that case, press ‘delete’ or place these papers in the recycling bin.
D3 = Delegate
If you are a supervisor, delegate any email or paperwork that can be done by someone else. Never do anything yourself that one of your team members can do. Remember, delegation is the skill of a leader - it’s not a cop out.
D4 = Divide
When you have a large project or file that requires hours or weeks of work, take the project or tasks and divide it into manageable sub-tasks. A good way to do this is to first of all place all of the related documents into a single manila folder. Then on top of the papers take a piece of A4 paper and draw 3 columns on it. In the first column, write down all of the things that need doing to complete the task. In the second column, number the tasks in chronological order. Finally, in the third column, write an approximate time frame for completing the task. The secret to achieving any task which is overwhelming is to break it down into smaller chunks.
D5 = Delay
Don’t sweat the small stuff or get concerned with things that can be put off until later. Place any files, folders or documents that can be done later into a ‘Delay’ folder. They may be things that need worked on later in the month. Review the ‘Delay’ file weekly to ensure that you haven’t forgotten anything. It may even be a good idea to put a piece of paper on the front of the file with a list of documents and when they are due for review.
D6 = Do it!
Create a folder that has all of your daily and weekly tasks in it. The journey of a thousands miles begins with a simple step, so by focusing on each step and not thinking about how overwhelming all of this paperwork or email is, you can start to take back control or your time, your office, your email and your life!
“I know there was something I had to do today… What was it?” Why not save yourself the time and effort of constantly asking that question and get into the habit of writing a Daily Action List. Start off by purchasing a spiral notepad. Spiral notebooks are great because they keep your information all together. There’s no loose bits of paper flying around and you can always refer back to your previous lists if you need to. Write up your list after you arrive at work in the morning and use the power of Triage to prioritise your work. If you’re not familiar with Triage, it’s a battlefield term, referring to the sorting and allocating of medical treatment, food and aid on a needs basis.  How do you decide? Use the A, B, C, D, E framework A=Action it now
Place an ‘A’ next to any tasks that need to be done today. These are the keepers - the things you’ll do first. Considering the Pareto Principle they are most likely the 20% of your tasks that will produce 80% of your results.
B= Better do It
These are the tasks you need to look at more closely. If you’re not sure you need to do them there’s a very good chance that these tasks are not urgent. You better do these tasks, but only after you have completed your ‘A’ tasks. Your ‘B’ items may become tomorrow’s ‘A’ items - so you’ll need to spend sometime looking at them before you can decide if that’s the case. C= Could do it
Mark with a ‘C’ anything you could do if you get time. These are the tasks that may become ‘A’s later down the track, but for today and tomorrow they are low priority. In the short term, these are the 80% of things that will give you just 20% of your results. The ‘C’s will probably make up on the most tasks on your list - and will be the things you are tempted to get started on straight away. Don’t! These tasks are easy and quick, but remember that they are not urgent and are low-value work.
D= Delegate it
‘D’ is for delegate. If you are a manager or supervisor ‘D’ should become your favourite letter of the alphabet! As much as possible try and delegate all low-value work. Yes, in the short term it’s probably quicker to do it by yourself, but training other people is a much better idea in the long run. E= Eliminate it
Any tasks that are taken care of by someone else or are just no longer necessary should be labelled ‘E’ and crossed off your list immediately. You get all the satisfaction of drawing a big red line through it and without having to do it yourself. Watching your list get shorter as your day goes on will give you a great sense of accomplishment.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"-Alice
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."-Cheshire Cat
"I don't much care where –"-Alice
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go."-Cheshire Cat"
(Alice in Wonderland) It would be lovely if we all lived in Wonderland and had nothing to do but attend mad tea parties and play croquet all day. However the reality of daily deadlines, ongoing projects and personal commitments are far from this fairytale. So how do you cope with an ever growing to-do list, multiple emails, many meetings, and must-finish projects? The answer is to make sure that you start every day by creating a daily action plan.
When I ask people in my Time Track© seminars if they plan their day, every day, the majority say “no”. For the majority of managers and staff they simply come in to work and get on with whatever think they have to do. Very little planning or prioritising takes place. Is it any wonder so many people get caught up in problems, emergencies and find themselves juggling two, three or four different things at once within the first hour or two of the day.
THE 5 STEP PLANNING PROCESS
1. Review yesterday
Start your day by looking back through your diary, calendar and spiral notebook. Was there any undone things on the previous day that you need to get done today? If so, write it up on your ‘to-do’ list, to be done today.
2. Preview tomorrow
Next, go through your calendar and look at the two or three days ahead. Are there any deadlines coming up that you need to meet? Are there project milestones due? Do you have meetings to attend? Is there anything in your personal life you need to take care of? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then you write these items on your ‘to-do’ list, to be done today.
3. Check your diary/calendar for ‘today’
Look through your calendar at what you are supposed to be doing today. Is anything that you need to do in preparation your for today’s activities? If so, write them down on your ‘to-do’ list.
4. Projects, KPIs, big stuff
What KPIs do you need to meet this week? Are any major projects, milestones or big-picture activities that you need to be working towards? If so, have you allocated and blocked off a good amount of time in your calendar to work on them today?
5. Triage your ‘to-do’ list
Finally, after you have written up your daily ‘to-do’ list, apply the ‘Triage’ process to each of your tasks. Use the *A,B,C,D & E tagging next to each task. This way, you can start your day by working on the things that are most important and not just activities that are easy or quick.
Do you sometimes find yourself spending the first hour of your day making coffee, chatting to co-workers and checking through your huge inbox while answering a few emails? Do you sometimes find it hard to get started in the morning? If you answered “yes”, you’re not alone. Many professional people tend to write off the first hour of their day as unproductive preparation time – but this can be a disastrous mistake.
The first hour of your day does not only set the tone and the focus for the rest of your day but it’s also likely to be the only chance you’ll have throughout the day to stop, think and plan while everyone else is chatting, reading and trying to confront what has to be done.
Can you get to work earlier than your colleagues? Arriving at work a bit earlier means you’ll miss the traffic or crush on public transport, you’ll have some ‘quiet’ time to yourself before anyone else comes in (and it could also carry the added benefit of impressing your managers).
6 suggestions to make your first hour more productive
1. Get a healthy start to the day
The first thing is to start the day in a healthy way. Research shows a third of all workers skip breakfast. This can reduce concentration levels, increase stress and create a negative mood. Having a healthy breakfast really does give you the energy to get through a busy day. Coffee (or a caffeine soft drink alone is generally not considered a healthy breakfast! 2. Get organised
Use the first hour of your day to sort out everything you will need throughout the day. Create a plan for your day, get your files and folder ready to be actioned, confirm any appointments by sending a quick confirmation email and take care of anything that should have been done last night before. Block off ten to twenty minutes during the first hour of your day to organise yourself. If you don’t, you may get caught up with busy-work and never have any real control of your time.
3. Daily habits (make some or break some)
Take some time to think about what you normally do in that first hour at work. Everyone has morning habits – it may be having a coffee, reading the newspaper or going through emails. Before you know it you are already an hour into the working day and you haven’t even started on the real tasks. Do you need to change your morning routine?
4. Use Your travel time productively
If you really want to have a successful day, use your travel time between home and work to think ahead and prepare a plan for the day. Rather than listening to music or the radio maybe you could listen to audio learning material.
5. Make an ‘Action List’
Once you have the day’s objectives in mind, you can put the plan into action by writing them down on an Action List. When you sit down and think about the day ahead, write down all of your thoughts and then
Triage your list. A helpful way to see the day in full is to open up your
diary or your computer calendar.
6. Be prepared
Lastly, a major time saver is to have all of your work materials to hand. I am sure you’ve experienced that burst of panic when your manager or
client asks for a file that you just can’t seem to find quickly enough. Before you start your day and do any work, make sure you are prepared.
To thrive in both your personal and professional life you need to organise and prioritise your workload so that you’ll be able to achieve your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks and goals.
Organising your time to create the right balance between work and play will not only help you to get things done, but it will also lower your stress levels and keep you in good mental and physical health.
The truth of the matter is that if you are not managing your time properly, you are literally stealing time from your clients, colleagues, family, friends and of course most importantly, yourself.
How does that make you feel?
As you will begin to discover through the following chapters, the best way to use your time productively is to focus on the few critical and profitable tasks and goals rather than the mass of trivial ones.
The way you allocate your time will absolutely depend on what the actual tasks are and when they need to be done. Either way, the first thing you need to do is to be clear about your goals and your objectives.
Knowing what you want to achieve annually, monthly, weekly and on a daily basis will allow you to figure out what needs to be done.
Once you know your destination, it’s then a simple matter of creating a plan to help you get there.
 Here is an example of a weekly timeline in MS Outlook. If you spend most of your time in front of a computer then Outlook is a great tool to use to get organised. Initially you will need to list all of your weekly activities and the tasks that need to be completed for the week. You are the best judge of just how much you can realistically achieve. Next you need to prioritise your work and delegate (if possible), or drop, any lower-value tasks to which you are not personally adding any real value.
There will always be those daily items that crop up and need immediate attention. These tasks are the ones that yell out, “URGENT!”
These ‘urgent’ things are often unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean that you need to lose track of the day’s key objectives.
If you feel that you could be better organised, please keep reading. I’ll show you how to take much greater control of your time and your priorities on the following pages.
Just when you thought life couldn’t get any busier, consider these startling statistics. - There are over 200 billion emails sent every day.
- There are 4.2 billion email addresses across the globe.
- 15 petabytes (One quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) bytes) of new information is being generated every day.
- There are over a billion instant messaging accounts worldwide.
- There are over 12 billion mobile phones in the world – and only 6.8 billion people.
- The number of text messages sent and received every day is greater than the world’s population.
- The largest social networking site in the world has reported over 110 million users. If it were a country, it would be the 10th largest in the world.
In the age of information, things are moving faster than ever before – and if you can’t keep up, you’ll find yourself obsolete. But how do you keep up when there are hundreds of emails, text and instant messages flying your way every day?
There is a simple resolution to this feeling of being overworked and overwhelmed and you already know what it is. In fact, you’ll probably roll your eyes at how simple and seemingly “obvious” the answer is. Do you practice the discipline of personal time management? By being better organised and in control of your appointments, meetings, projects, tasks, activities and all important things in your personal life, you will ensure that you will not only survive, but thrive in this crazy-busy, all consuming, information-loaded world. Here are 3 questions to ask yourself before reading the remainder of this book. 1. What would you do with your time if you could find an extra hour a
day? 2. What are you doing now that isn’t working? What tasks and activities
cause you the greatest frustration and concern? 3. Are you open to learning some new ideas and new ways of using your
time? Are you willing to try something new?
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Most people have a love-hate relationship with company or business meetings, because they know the importance of meetings, yet find that their meetings usually tend to tie up more time than it is worth the effort to attend. This usually typical of people who often have to attend many meetings, but find that little is discussed or resolved during these meetings.
