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MANAGERIAL

Learn to Prioritize, Delegate Tasks

How to Achieve a More Productive Workday?

Reader Question: I have more to do with fewer resources. I keep falling behind, my stress level is increasing, and I feel out of balance. Are there tools and techniques that will help?

Expert Comment: We all seem to have too much to do and, while there’s never enough time for everything, there’s always enough for the important things.

The first step is to plan your day in advance and make a “To Do” list with all that you want to do. Then prioritize the list: “1” for the most important item, “2” for the second most important, etc. Complete your items in order of their priority and, while you may not get all of them done, you’ll find that you will complete more of the most important items.

Next, arrest and remove some of the “time thieves” in your day. The easiest way to do this is with a Time Log. Nothing fancy. Get a pad of paper and head it up with four columns: Date, Time of Day, Event and Rating (Crucial, Important, Little Value or No Value). Periodically throughout the day, stop and log in how the previous time interval was spent.

For example, on Tuesday, April 6, from 9:00 to 9:45, you attended a meeting that was “Important.” Then from 9:45 to 10:00 you had a telephone interruption from an old vendor, which had “No Value.” Be sure to log in the data throughout the day as your time is being spent. Don’t wait until the end of the day or you may forget some things.

Then take aim at reducing some of those chronic time-wasters in your day, the unwanted interruptions, unproductive meeting time, and the things you work on that could be better delegated to a staff member, co-worker, friend, or family member. As you begin to eliminate some of these time thieves, you will recapture that time to handle more of the productive items in your day, reducing your stress and creating more balance in your day — and your life.

Comments by Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, JD, president of the Productivity Institute in Stratford, Conn., which has provided time management and personal productivity training for 20 years through monthly public seminars and in-house seminars at clients’ locations.

Tune in to his audio conference April 29 at 1 p.m. on “Making Every Minute Count.” Visit www.principalinvestigators.org for dial-in details. Only two days left to register!

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