The Success Report

According to a report that I was reading recently, one in every three adults suffers from moderate to high levels of personal stress. With so much bad news in the papers and on television, uncertainty about the economy and the pressure of daily life, is it any wonder more of us are feeling stressed.

• Every year nearly something close to 50,000 Australians are admitted to hospital due to stress-related disorders.
• Stress requires more people to take time off work than any other health condition or disease.
• The total cost of Australian workplace stress is more than $1.2 billion per year.

Most of us experience some level of stress in our lives, especially from our work. The stress of urgent deadlines, demanding clients, meetings, families and bills all add to stress levels There doesn’t seem to be any end to the modern day disease of personal stress. So, what can you do to overcome stress?

Simple strategies for reducing your stress

1.0 Take a 3 minute holiday
Learn to ‘chill’ for a few minutes when you’re feeling under pressure. Find somewhere quite to sit, close your eyes and just relax. It sounds like a simplistic idea, but it does work!

2.  Drink plenty of water
Your body is 80% water - so keeping it hydrated is essential. You’ll notice that when you haven’t been drinking enough water your attention starts to wander. Keep a drink bottle on your desk and drink at least a litre of water every day, more if you are exercising.

3. Take a lunch break
Getting away from your desk for thirty minutes can reduce your levels of stress and change your outlook. Don’t say that you don’t have time for lunch; that is a cop-out!

4. Get up every 50 minutes and stretch
It can be so easy to get caught up in what you’re doing that all of a sudden you’ve been at work for 3 hours and the only muscles you’ve moved are in your fingers. Stretching will get the blood flowing around your body again - you’ll feel invigorated, awake and your quality of work will noticeably improve.

5. Relax your eyes (and wrists)
Constantly staring at a computer screen will give you eye strain. Every 15 minutes or so look away from the screen, or close your eyes briefly.
Allow your eyes to have a power nap. While you’re doing this, face your palms away from you, grab your fingers and pull them back towards you very gently. This is a great stretch for your wrists and will help to battle carpel tunnel syndrome and other conditions caused by the overuse of your wrists.

6. Breath slowly and deeply
If you’re feeling tired, grumpy or frustrated it could simply be that you’re not getting enough oxygen to your brain. Most people don’t breathe correctly. A few times a day (perhaps when you’re having your 3 minute holiday or getting up to stretch), take the time to breath deeply and slowly in through your nose, into your diaphragm (the lower part of your abdomen) and then out through your mouth. Each breath should take you about 6 seconds. Breath in, hold for a second or two and then let it out.

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Whether you’re the CEO of a multi-million dollar business, a manager of a large team, a supervisor or a hard working employee, chances are there’s someone in your working life who will try to load extra things onto you. These ‘extra tasks’ are often called the ‘monkey on our back’.

Even in your family or personal friendships you can probably think of people who are good at trying to throw monkeys onto your back!

Meet the monkey!
Monkeys can often seem harmless enough. But in reality they are distractions and occurrences where extra work or additional tasks are given to you by someone else. These distractions, or monkeys, if not managed will stop you from achieving your own important goals or objectives.

A ‘monkey’ is transferred to us the moment that we accept the responsibility for its care. The monkey could come in the form of a crashed computer, an angry customer, a document that needs to copied or a seemingly simple request for help from a friend.

Individually, each monkey thrown onto your back might seem harmless enough, but imagine the results if you were to take on a couple of new monkeys every day… that’s a lot of bananas!

Here is a simple monkey test to see if you could be inadvertently attracting  monkeys from other people.

1. Do people often drop things on your desk and ask you to do them?
2. Do you find it hard to say “no” to other people?
3. By the end of the week, do you realise that you have overcommitted your time?
4. Do you feel like you are a magnet for ‘things to do’ from your manager?
5. Do you find yourself volunteering for things only to regret it later?
6. Do you know that you are just too nice to people?

If you have answered “yes” to 3 or more of these questions then you are in serious jeopardy of damaging your back by carrying too many monkeys. In all seriousness, you need to find a way to get rid of them.

How to manage your monkeys
One of the first things you will need to learn about training monkeys is to use the word “no”. If you feel like you are a monkey magnet then you should start to be more assertive. When someone asks you to do something, rather than just accept their request, ask them to explain a little bit more about the task or what’s involved. If you feel that you can do the job without being overwhelmed then give them a timeline that suits you.

Rather than say, “Sure leave it to  me”, say something like “I have a lot on at the moment, so I can have this done for you by Friday afternoon.”

Final thoughts
Don’t flinch even if you feel you want to. Hold your ground. If it’s your manager asking, you might also want to explain what you are already doing. There are many other techniques that you can learn to master your monkeys. Just remember that being assertive is not only the first rule of monkey management, it is also the most important.

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Do you ever sit in traffic on the way to work listening to the radio, only to be bored by a over-the-top DJ rambling on about something stupid? Or maybe you find yourself staring out of the window of a train or bus wishing it would hurry up so that you can get to the million and one things you need to do today?

According to some interesting statistics that I was reading recently, the average worker spends at least an hour a day travelling to and from work, with some people spending more than 8 hours a week commuting. That’s an entire work day every week! Believe it or not, commuting on public transport or travelling to and from work can actually be one of the most productive times of your day.

Listen to podcasts on your mp3 player
The rise in popularity of podcasts and audio books makes it easy to learn just about any topic while commuting. You can now get a great deal of career-building information on almost any topic for free, by simply subscribing to any number of podcasts. iTunes is a great place to download free podcasts. For a few dollars a month you can purchase any number of audio books from websites like www.audible.com. Listening to professional development material while you travel won’t just get you through your transit time, you’ll also find yourself hours ahead of your competitors and perhaps your colleagues who might be sitting on a train staring off into space.

Read industry magazines
Travelling on public transport (not while you are driving) is also a great opportunity to catch up with what’s going on in your industry. Subscribe to the most important magazines in your industry (or borrow them from work) and read regularly. If you want to do something a bit left-of-centre, try subscribing to a magazine in an industry you know nothing about as well. You may be surprised with the new ideas you’ll get when you read about an industry that is completely different to yours.

Send text and email messages
If you don’t want to learn a language, or listen to professional learning materials, then your Blackberry or iPhone can be an effective mobile office. If you have a backlog of emails, try respond or checking emails, texting your colleagues or clients, or generally prepare for the work day ahead before you even step foot in the office.

Do you fly or travel interstate or overseas?
While there is a limited amount of time on a plane, you can use your computer to catch up on work. If you can’t be bothered pulling out our laptop there is nothing to stop you from reading memos or proofing printed documents.

When you know you’re going to be flying, spend some time the day or evening before leaving printing off any documents that need reviewing or work that can be done by hand. By managing your time effectively, you’ll save time either side of your trip.

There’s always a book or newspaper
Yes, when all else fails you can always read a book or catch up with the news (if there’s room on the tram, bus or train).

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Do you ever find it hard saying “no” to colleagues? Sometimes saying “yes” seems like the easier option, however by saying “yes” to extra work, you could be setting yourself up for added stress and possible failure. There are only so many hours in your day and you can only get so much work done. Saying “yes” when you mean “no” can be dangerous. Who would have thought that “yes”, that little three-letter word could cause such trouble?

Learn to ignore the guilt

Guilt is a huge part of why many people say “yes” to colleagues or clients when they really want to say “no”. Guilt is not a pleasant feeling so we all try and avoid it as much as possible.

Perhaps you think that if you say “no” to someone else will have to do the work and that may make you feel guilty. Did you ever stop to think that other people might not have as much to do as you? Maybe you are the best person for the job, but are you the best person for the job when you don’t have the time or energy to put 100% effort into it?

Maybe you’ll feel like you’ve let someone down, but you’ll let them down even more if you say “yes” and then fail to deliver the task or project on time. According to the famous Mayo Medical Clinic, it’s important to let go of the guilt and not let it influence your decisions. Their medical research suggests you “Do what you’ve set out to do and don’t veer off that path because of feelings of guilt or obligation, as it will only lead to additional stress”.

“Yes” or “No”?
A good idea to limit the stress and challenge of taking on too much work or committing yourself to additional projects is to “Weigh up the ‘yes’ to stress factor”. Take time to think about what you’ve been asked to do and what impact it will have on you if you do say “yes”. Is it going to cause you extra pressure? If it is, the answer is simple. Politely say “no”…

Ask yourself a few simple questions before you say “yes”:

• Do I have the time for this extra work?
• Will it affect my other work?
• Could it affect my personal life because I will be working late?
• Will I regret saying “yes” later?
• Is there anyone else who could do this task better than me?

4 steps for getting your “yes” under control

Step #1 – recognise that you have just as much right to say “no” as anyone.

Step #2 – be polite but very clear about your answer. Say, “I’m sorry, I’d love to help but I need to focus on what I’m doing right now. Perhaps I can help you towards the end of the week?”

Step #3 – if you can, consider offering an alternative. For example you could say, “I can’t do it today, but I can work on this later this week. Would that be alright?”

Step #4 – do you know someone who could help instead? Offering an
alternative solution will help allay any guilty feelings. Remember, you should never just say no. Always offer a reason and a possible solution.

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You are on the phone talking to a customer when your manager walks into your work area. He needs you to do something for him. Now the fun starts as you desperately start searching for a piece of paper to start scratching down notes. In my travels I am always amazed when I observe so many managers and employees still using paper scraps and sticky notes to write down important information.

I suspect the ‘hunting and pecking’ for something to write on is a common scene in so many workplaces. Jotting notes on loose pads of paper, using sticky notes for phone numbers and scrawling a customer reference on the back of an envelope or business card are all symptoms of poor personal organisation.

The cost of not being able to find information quickly is high and very stressful. How will you explain to your manager that you forgot to write down the critical information from the recent phone call? H

ow will you explain to the client that you need them to repeat that request they wanted to you follow up? Surely there must be a better way to keep track of all the things you need to do? Of course there is!

The powerful spiral notebook

Keeping an A4 or the smaller Quarto size spiral notebook with you at all times gives you a central repository for your information. By keeping it open on your desk and using it as a day book, you can keep all of your To-Do lists, meeting notes, requests, ideas and thoughts in one place. Your spiral notebook is something you can easily refer back to when you need to access the information.

How to get the most out of a spiral notebook

Idea #1: Start each day with a new page. Draw a horizontal line through the middle of the page. At the top of the page write the date and day. You can use the top half as a to-do list and the bottom half for your notes and other information. Remember, you can use any many pages as you like for each day. Just start every new day with a new page.

Idea #2: Carry your notebooks with you… almost everywhere. Meetings, catch-ups with colleagues or your manager. It’s something that comes in very handy when your mobile rings and you need to write down some information from a customer.

Idea #3: Finally, don’t begin using a new spiral notebook until you have completed the first. It’s a good idea to write the start and finish date of the book on the front cover - that way, when you are searching for information later on, you won’t need to search through the entire book to determine what’s in there and what isn’t.

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“A meeting is an event where minutes
are taken and hours wasted.”
James T. Kirk

Somebody recently said to me, “I used to dread every second Thursday at work. That’s because it signalled the torture of our staff progress meetings”. They went on to say, “Those two hours each fortnight were physically challenging and mentally draining. If I wasn’t nodding off , I would be pinching my own skin under the desk in an effort to look alert”.

This person when on; “At least I wasn’t as bad as one of my co-workers John. He had the habit of continuously looking at his watch during the meetings, impervious to the stares of the manager”. Is this a sort of meeting that you are used to? Have you ever been to a meeting that started late, finished late or failed to accomplish anything of substance? This question I have to ask is, are these types of meetings really effective? Who is getting the most out of this sort of meeting, or are you and your colleagues wasting your time even having a meeting?

While many workplace meetings are productive and useful, some are a complete waste of resources and time. I believe that’s possible to slash hundreds of hours a year from your organisation’s meeting time by thinking differently about your meetings.

Poorly organised and ill-prepared meetings can bring out the yawns in the best of us. In addition to this, they are costly in both monetary and time terms. If you really think you need a meeting, or you have been invited to attend a meeting then ask yourself (or the person requesting the meeting) a couple of questions first.

1. Has a specific purpose or goal been set for the meeting?
2. Is there an agenda and will it be distributed ahead of time?
3. Will only the people who need to be attending be there?
4. Could the same information be covered in an e-mail, memo, or telephone conference call instead?

3 Some basic meeting rules

#1: Always start a meeting on time. Unless you’re waiting for a senior manager, make sure the meeting starts at the scheduled time.

#2: A good chairperson will use the agenda to direct and guide the meeting. The role of the chairperson is to ensure that the agenda items are discussed in order of importance and that no single agenda point goes over time. This way you will guarantee your meeting will finish on time.

#3: Create a “parking lot”. Before your meeting starts, create a parking lot! A parking lot is a flipchart placed in the corner of the room. Whenever someone raises an issue which is not part of the agenda, ‘park’ the idea for later. By parking any ideas that are not on the agenda you will guarantee the meeting will not go off on tangent or lose traction.

At the end of the meeting whatever is on the ‘parking lot’ can be used to create an agenda for the next meeting.

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Do you ever feel like your work area is being bombarded by files and folders, surrounded by sticky-notes or getting pummelled by overflowing in-boxes and in-trays?

Will you wave the white flag of defeat or are you ready to take on a messy desk in some serious hand-to-hand combat?

A recent study in the office habits of workers and the associated costs to companies conducted by the Butler Group stated that employees are suffering from both information overload and information underload. As a result, a typical worker now spends up to one-quarter of his or her day searching for the right information to complete any given task.

In other words, many professional people are finding themselves overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to deal with, yet unprepared or perhaps uneducated about how best to deal with it.

Lost time spent looking for files, contacts or the right piece of information is your enemy when trying to work productively.

Nobody is asking for perfection – but a bit of organisation and good presentation can make all the difference in how quickly you can find things on your desk, how you feel about your work and of course, the way you are perceived by others.

Here are some simple, yet effective ways to win the war over your work area and information overload.

1. Get an simple index file. Use this for important contacts, client information and notes of previous conversations.

2.  Clean your desk and work area once a week. It will not only feel and look better, but dust, dirt and germs can also effect your health.

3. Throw away those sticky-notes! A spiral notebook is all you need; it can be referred back to with ease and does away with all those bits and pieces of scrap paper!

4.  Use a paper diary. Whether you choose to use an online calendar system or a paper version, a paper diary holds information that needs to be accessed daily such as appointments, meetings, deadlines, contacts and personal details.

5.  Colour Code your projects in order of importance.  For example, red is urgent, blue is in progress, yellow is to be done later. Then keep these files within reach. By the way, the colour-code system could just as easily be replaced by numbers, letters or anything you find works for you!

6.  Get rid of any excess personal items. Junk, free promotions from companies and all that superfluous stuff covering your workspace. If you do want to keep a few personal mementos, put them away from your main work area. After all, that’s where you should be keeping your critical files and things you are working on.

7.  Finally, sort your old papers using a ‘D’ Box recycling system. File any unwanted papers in a cardboard box, which is kept under your desk. When the ‘D’ box gets full, seal it up and recycle it. This way if you do ever need a piece of paper from a week ago, you’ll know where to find it.

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Contrary to popular opinion, good time management is not about cramming every second of your day full of ‘stuff’. In fact, it is quite the opposite! Realise that even the best plans can fail and sometimes, despite your best efforts,  hings will go wrong. Be prepared to adapt and change when you need to.

The Three Rules of Adaptability

Rule # 1: The most important rule of being adaptable is deceptively simple – don’t expect everything to go right Do you ever feel frustration when you are delayed or when things don’t turn out right? Why is that? It’s because your expectations of the situation were different to the way the situation actually turned out.

Let me give you an example. Have you ever been in a situation where you’re packing up to leave on a Friday afternoon and just as you’re turning off your computer your manager comes in with an urgent job? How did it make you feel? Was there some sense of frustration?

Now, imagine how you would have felt if you had of gone to your
manager and said, “I am heading off in a few minutes, is there anything you need me to do before I go?” What’s the difference between these two situations?

Well, in the first situation your expectation was that you were going to go home. Your mind was ready to switch off and you were out of the building (mentally) even if your body hadn’t quite caught up yet.

In the second situation, you expected there will be more work. You actually went and asked for it. Remember that your expectations of a situation completely determine how you will react to it.

Rule #2: The second rule of adaptability is to leave yourself time
If you’ve crammed every second of your day full of stuff, you’re going to find it much more difficult and stressful to move things around.

For example, if you’ve planned 8 back-to-back meetings on Tuesday, what’s going to happen if on the way to an appointment the most important client calls you and says they’ve been delayed by an hour? The stress of shifting appointments of moving your whole day around could quite seriously cause frustration, disappointment and stress.

However, if you know that the most important thing for you to do that day is to meet that client, try leaving a couple of hours available on the off chance that the client might be running late or there could be a delay.

Rule #3: The third rule of adaptability is to be is adaptable
The things you say to yourself constantly determine the person that you will become. If you find yourself often saying things like, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. or “I don’t like change. I’m set in my ways”. Stop it! If you tell yourself your not adaptable, you’ll behave in just that way.

While being organised and in control of your time is an important skill, realising that things can go wrong and Murphy’s Law will apply to some situations, is the sign of person with a healthy level of adaptability.

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“I have a ‘carpe diem’ mug and, truthfully, at six in the morning the words do not make me want to seize the day. They make me want to slap a dead poet.” Joanne Shermani

Are you a morning lark or a night owl? Regardless of whether you wake up early or stay up late, these patterns of  waking up and sleeping are governed by your personal internal body clock; your Circadian Rhythm. What is a Circadian Rhythm? The Latin terms ‘circa’ and ‘diem’ is literally translated to mean ‘around a day’. Studies have shown that humans have a Circadian Rhythm of roughly 24 hours.

Your Circadian cycles affect your biochemical, physiological and behavioural processes. Throughout each period of day and night (ie. a 24 hour cycle), your body temperature, hormone secretion levels, bowel movements, coordination and levels of alertness are all affected by your Circadian Rhythms. By better understanding these daily rhythms and using them to your advantage, you can get more done and feel better in the process. On the following page are some useful strategies for gaining a better understanding of these daily energy patterns and for using your daily Circadian Rhythms to your advantage.

1. Keep a Personal Body Clock Journal
If you aren’t sure of your own Circadian Rhythm, keep a journal noting the times of the day when you feel most energetic, calm, stressed, productive or simply tired.

Do this for 7 days. Look for obvious trends or habits that point out whether you may be a ‘night owl’ or a ‘morning lark’.

There’s not much point trying to match your lifestyle and working life to an energy pattern that is contrary.

2. Use Your natural energy
Someone who loves staying up until the wee hours may be well suited to doing their creative work in the evening. A morning person is much better adapted getting up early and doing their creative work.

At work, if you can concentrate better on big tasks early in the morning, assign them to this time. Similarly, if mornings are a bit of a chore, why not leave the important work for later in the day. Perhaps it sounds radical, but isn’t that the main point of being productive and effective?

3. The Spanish are right!
Siesta! We’d all love to have a siesta but for most of us it isn’t always possible to go home for a few hours and come back later. Just remember that 1pm to 3pm is usually the most challenging time to keep focused. Go easy on the heavy food at lunch time and, if you can, find a patch of grass and have a rest over lunch. Just closing your eyes and relaxing for 10 minutes can do your mind and your body a world of good.

4. Get more natural light
The majority of people who work indoors are familiar with the fluorescent glow of artificial lighting. Recent research has shown that current levels of office lighting do not replicate daylight and as such can affect levels of melatonin production in our bodies. It’s melatonin (or the lack of it) that can disrupt our wake and sleep cycle.
One idea is to get out into the sun and absorb some natural sunshine each day, rather than sitting in a stuffy office.

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Procrastination. Most people learned all about it in school and perhaps you’ve let it slip back into your working habits. Many people in workplace have become so good at it that they are now procrastination experts.

No matter how you spend your time procrastinating, it always feels good… at first. You might find yourself staring at the wall for a few minutes or perhaps you go on a twenty-minute coffee break. Some people get distracted by personal emails, others by colleagues who visit their work area. Whatever your procrastination pleasure is, it comes at a cost.

The  trouble with procrastination is that there’s always a big black cloud floating above you just waiting to burst and rain all over you later

When you’re procrastinating, the real work you have to do is kind of like a hangover. You know it’s coming, you know it’s not going to be pleasant and you know it’s severity is totally dependent on your own actions.

There’s nothing worse than snapping out of your happy procrastination trance to find work piling up, deadlines approaching and your manager wanting to know why a certain project is not on his or her desk.

It may seem like a good idea at the time, but in the end procrastination just creates more work and more stress. There are a few reasons for this.
When you’re done procrastinating and finally want to get back into work mode, your brain is stuck in procrastination mode, making it very difficult to get any work completed.

While you’re busy wasting time, your real work is piling up and your deadlines are creeping up on you. You’ll find yourself feeling overwhelmed and anxious - a far cry from the procrastinator of a few minutes earlier.

No one works well under pressure so why put yourself in that position? Deep down you know it’s not a good idea to be procrastinating, so here are a few ways to beat it.

Procrastination buster #1: Get over your fear of failure
If you’re scared of failing your task or not getting it perfect, you need to keep those old clichés in mind; “Nobody is perfect” and “We all make mistakes”. If you suffer from perfectionism, you need to do something about it.

Procrastination buster #2: Be realistic
Think about what you’re actually doing during this procrastinating time. Is it something you could totally cut out of your life, like smoking? Kill two birds with one stone and quit the bad habit and embrace the work that needs to be done.

Procrastination buster #3: Manage your emotional state
Everyone experiences a time when they don’t feel like working on difficult stuff. However what separates the professional from the crowd is this person’s ability to manage their own emotional state. It’s their ability to notice the way they are feeling, analyse it and make a decision to feel a different way.

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"Your diary is like a parachute; it only works when it is open.”

Your diary is where the daily magic happens. It’s where you plan your time, develop your goals and decide on the direction of your day, your week and your personal life. In fact, the quiet time you spend with your diary (and a coffee) every morning is some of the most important planning time you have. So – how much quality time ARE you investing using your diary each day?

Think about it – how many times at the end of a year have you been given, or bought a diary, enthusiastically used it for a month and then pretty much forgot it? Then again, how many times have you missed a meeting, ompletely forgotten about a task that you set yourself or missed an important event or deadline? Diaries are crucial tools for managing the one true, non-renewable resource you have – your time.

 How to get the most out of your diary

Idea 1: Get the Right Diary for You
Just visit your local bookstore, stationary shop, or look at any online
diary store and your head will soon be spinning. There are so many
options, so which should you choose? If all you need is a simple Day-to-a-Page diary, then your local bookshop or newsagent should be able to help you. However if you’re looking for something a bit more comprehensive, like a time management planning system, there are a lot of really good options.

Whichever diary you decide on, remember that it must be easy for you to carry, have open on your desk and actually use. Some time management diary systems with ring binders and deluxe leather covers might look impressive (and cost a small fortune), but could be impractical to carry around everywhere. Choose one that suits your work and lifestyle.

Idea 2: Now… Use It!
Your diary is like a parachute… it only works when it is open! Take your diary with you to meetings and appointments. I would even suggest you take it home with you each night so you can review any appointments and activities that you could have coming up. By having your diary with you, you’ll always know what is coming up and what has to be done.

Idea 3: Set time on Sunday Night to Plan the Week Ahead.
This is one of the most powerful habits you can form. Spend some quality time every Sunday night reviewing your goals and objectives for the week and the month ahead and then plan out the week ahead to ensure that you are reaching those goals.

Idea 4: “I Use an Outlook Calendar an Not a Paper Diary!”
A dilemma facing many professional people is whether to use their email calendar or a paper diary. Basically it all boils down to how much time you spend at your desk. If you spend 80% of your time at your desk then Outlook (or Lotus Notes) should be your primary calendar/diary. If you spend a lot of time in meetings and out of the office, a paper diary will probably be a better option. Unfortunately this might mean having to manage two diary systems: a paper diary and an electronic one.

The bottom line is simply this: whatever diary system you decide to use, make sure you use it. A diary or calendar that is unused is useless!

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Is your inbox overflowing? Open it now. How many emails do you have sitting in there? 2? 12? 52? 200? 500? How many of those are still relevant and require actioning today? Interesting question isn’t it!

Controlling your email is like any other aspect of your job, you need to be really good at it and if you’re not, you need to learn some new strategies so you can become better. Letting your email get out of control is no different to having piles of paperwork spread from one end of your desk to the other. It’s messy, it’s disorganised, it causes you to lose time searching for things and it ends up causing you stress.

How long does it take to delete an email? A second, half a second maybe? Think about how quick this is compared to how long it takes to search for an email from three or even ten days ago that’s now lost in the black hole of your inbox.

5 ideas for gaining back control of your inbox

Idea# 1 - Answer your email only after you’ve planned your day
It’s important to prioritise your action list and make sure you know what you’ve got on for the rest of the day before you go spending time addressing a pile of emails. Could some of the emails sitting in your inbox be left until later in the morning or early afternoon? Many emails can wait to be answered later on that day, especially if the email is not urgent or important. Remember that if an email is really urgent, most people will call you as well.

Idea # 2 - Turn off your email notifier
Don’t you have enough beeps and buzzers in your life? Don’t let the beep of the email notifier distract you every few minutes. You need to keep control your email and not the “bing... you have new mail” control you. Check email when you are ready, not when you hear the “bing”.

Idea #3 - Use A,B,C,D,E when checking your email
In an earlier chapter of this book I described Triage. Why not apply Triage to your emails? Work on the A and B email first and leave the C email until later. Remember, D is for delegate and E for eliminate.

Idea # 4 - Clear your inbox at the end of each day
Set aside five minutes at the end of your day to clear out your inbox and organise your remaining emails.

It may seem like an annoying chore at a time, but you will be thankful for it in the morning when you have a clean slate to start with. It’s also a good way to make those last few minutes of the day go by faster.

Idea #5 - Set up folders within your email program
Make folders for everything and everyone. Give each of your clients and associates their own folder. Have a ‘To Do’ folder, a ‘Miscellaneous’ folder, an ‘Accounts’ folder and something like a ‘Travel’ folder.

Have as many folders as necessary; it will make your life a whole lot easier when you’re trying to clear your inbox at the end of the day, as well as when you’re searching for older emails.

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"The great successful men of the world have used their imagination…they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building - steadily building." Robert Collier

Do you have projects or tasks that take many hours or even weeks to complete? Do you also have to complete day-to-day activities as well? If so you might find yourself feeling overwhelmed or stressed just thinking about where to start and how to get everything done. It’s like there’s an elephant in the room and you’ve got no idea what to do with it.

The answer? It’s like the joke, “How do you eat an elephant?”
The answer, “In small bites.”

One way to accomplish bigger projects is to use some simple project management techniques. Using the following simple project management cycle as a guide will help you to eat your elephant.

Initiation
This is where you’ll decide what you are setting out to achieve from the project. Eating a whole elephant or any similar project is not going to be an easy feat, so it’s important to know exactly what you have to achieve from the outset. How many hours is this project or activity? Who is involved? What new skills will you need to learn? When is this activity expected to be completed by?

Planning and Resourcing
A well-planned activity or project will generally end as a successful project. You need to make sure that you have every aspect covered. There is surely going to be challenges and set backs during your project, so having a good plan will help you to avoid any potential roadblocks.

If the project or big activity is complex, consider learning how to draw up and use a Gantt Chart. A Gantt Chart is a chart that shows the tasks to be done and the relationship of each task to the others.

Implementation
To successfully execute your plan you need to stay on top of things at all times. Be aware of every aspect of your original plan and make sure it’s being followed each day. You made the plan for a reason so stick to it.
Try to block off time in your calendar or diary each day and use this time to work on your project.

Monitoring and controlling
You need to be constantly aware of any factors that could potentially risk the completion of the project and fix them as quickly as possible. Don’t panic, be smart and don’t be afraid to ask for help if there’s a problem you can’t solve yourself.

Consider setting aside 20 minutes at the end of each week to review what has already been achieved so far and what still needs to be done over the coming weeks.

Completing and finishing
The job isn’t done until the paperwork is finished. Before you can say that you have successfully completed any major project make sure all of the loose ends are completed. This can include paperwork, follow-ups with clients or reports that need to be submitted.

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To help you to learn how to prioritise your time, effort and energy, I’d like to introduce you to Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto was an Italian industrialist, sociologist, economist and philosopher who conducted land surveys for local councils in Italy in the later part of the 1880s.

While surveying land for taxation purposes, he discovered that roughly about 80 percent of the land in any region he visited was owned by about 20 percent of the town or village population. Regardless of the location the ratio was about the same. This is known as the 80/20 Rule.
What use is Pareto’s 80/20 rule?

The 80/20 Rule - “80% of all results come from 20% of the effort”.

So, 20% of what you do each day yields 80% of the results you achieve.

Just think about that.  It means that in an average 8 hour work day, 1.6 hours of your work could produce about 80% of your results.

IF …

...you knew which 20% of your activities was giving you the 80% of your results. To figure this out, you need to begin tracking how you’re currently investing your time and your activities.

For one week, keep a notebook and pen beside your desk and track everything you do and note how long it takes for you to do it. You’ll quickly discover, like Vilfredo that only a small number of your daily and weekly activities produces your biggest results.

These things are your 20%. In other words, the vital few versus the trivial many.

Once you have determined which tasks and activities produce your greatest results, create a plan for the following week in which you intentionally focus your time and efforts on these things for as long as possible. Everything else should be delegated, dropped (until the end of the day or the week) or left until it becomes a higher priority (see the chapter on Triage).

Try this for just one week - and see the difference it makes to your time, your stress levels and to your overall feeling of control.

You might not always be able to get away with not going to a meeting or sending or receiving emails. However if you realise that certain meetings, phone calls, tasks or activities aren’t producing a result for you, there’s a good chance they’re not producing a result for anyone else either.

The bottom line is to remember that 20 percent of almost everything you do will create 80 percent of your results. When it comes to getting things done, remember that it’s the vital few tasks, versus the trivial many.

Always do what matters most… first!

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Some people have told me privately that they would love to be more organised and in greater control of their time but they are worried about the negative side-effects. Side effects? What could possibly be wrong or negative about having more time and better personal and professional organisation?

Here are a few myths about time management I’d like to dispel just in case you were thinking about getting organised, but were worried there could be a downside.

Myth#1: If I was organised I wouldn’t be spontaneous
The Reality: Time management doesn’t kill spontaneity, it gives you the freedom to be spontaneous! While it’s true you will be more aware of your time and priorities, you’ll also have more time! This means you’ll have time more for the things that are important to you.

Far from being restricted, you’ll enjoy a life where you have more time to be spontaneous.

Myth#2: Time management is only for people who are obsessive compulsive
The Reality: If being obsessive about better personal organisation gave you back 1, 2 or 3 hours a day – time that could be spent with your partner, playing with the kids, enjoying a hobby, shopping, going to the gym, or simply relaxing – wouldn’t it be an obsession worth developing? In reality time management is not about being compulsive, it’s about
being in control of your time and your life!

Myth#3: If I tidied my work area I wouldn’t be able to find anything
The Reality: Think of your desk as a reflection of your life. Are there pages piling up just waiting to be filed and leftover cups of coffee on your desk? Does this mess overflow into your domestic life?

Again, the opposite is true. Once you get organised you will have a place for everything and know where to find things. You will feel much better about yourself.

Myth#4: There’s too much to do, I can’t handle it all
The Reality: It can be overwhelming to be confronted by a massive workload, but you can get organised if you choose to be.

Managing your time is the only way to deal with this overwhelming situation. By chunking down your tasks into small, manageable parts and by taking small steps until the project is completed, you’ll regain a sense of control over your work.

Myth#5: It’s too late, I can’t change my habits
The Reality: Just think of where you would be now if you had
always adopted this mindset. You would never have learned to ride a bike, drive a car, or try anything new.

While its true that forming a habit when you are younger makes it easier to change, there is nothing to stop you starting a new habit at any age. It all comes down to how important you feel it is to replace a bad or disempowering habit with a better one.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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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