In order to create a successful day, you must plan and prepare for one. Imagine getting into your car and driving without a defined destination. How would you know when you have arrived? Sounds pretty silly, doesn’t it? However we often start our day without a clear destination or plan of what needs to be done. How often have you started your work day with whatever projects that are currently on your desk or spent the day reacting to so called emergencies from an email, employee or memo and ended your day not accomplishing what really needed to be done? So you leave the office annoyed, stressed and feeling very unproductive. If you do not plan your day, this vicious cycle will continue.
You must utilize a planning tool: a calendar, notebook, electronic hand held device, or blackberry. It doesn’t matter the planning tool used, what matters more importantly is the use of one tool to document your appointments, meetings, tasks and deadlines. You must plan your day the night before or make it your first task every morning. Once you began to create a daily map of your tasks, you will begin to create a successful day and discover the art of productivity and you will have the habit of planning your day.
As a Business Coach & Time Management Strategist, I teach female small biz owners to get it all done daily, by using quick & simple time management tips & tools and by developing the art of planning.
© 2008 Bridgette Boudreaux
Bridgette Boudreaux is a Time Management Strategist to female small biz owners & independent professionals. Get a copy of her FREE report called “39 Quick & Simple Time Saving Tips” at http://www.yourtime2soar.com
Showing posts with label time management tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time management tips. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
My Interview on Building You Up Radio Talk Show
Interview with Christina Wiley: Building You Up
3 Ways To Transition From Procrastinator To Action Taker
3 Ways To Transition From Procrastinator To Action Taker
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Five Organizational Myths
You Must Have A Personal Planner
A personal planner is used to organize your personal/business appointments & activities. It is very organized to have all your information documented in one place for a reminder, planning your day or to prevent double scheduling. However, you can use a tablet, a 3 ring binder, online calendar or a desk calendar to document your information. Just make sure to document your information in one place and house it in the same place each time within arms reach to prevent losing it and allows easy accessibility.
You Must Operate With A List
This works like a gem for some but if you do not like list, especially the “to-do” list, because it seems to get longer daily, don’t create a list. Write down your goal or intended outcome, and then make appointments with yourself to complete the action.
You Must Follow A One Size Fits All Time Management System
Time Management is self management, managing you around time. We are all given the same amount of time, 24 hours in a day, but we differ with peak performance levels. You may be a morning person and find that you tend to focus and accomplish tasks well in the morning; someone else is better focus during the noon time hours. We each manage our time differently therefore this is no one solution to time management that will fit everyone. You must learn the tools, change any negative mindsets regarding time (ex. there just isn’t enough time in the day for me to get it all done), work efficiently, prioritize and make it all work for you.
You Must Always Maintain A Clean Office Desk
A spotless desk with no clutter is wonderful for any business owner; however, there are times when the cluttered office desk happens. During those times, make sure projects do not get mixed together, put loose papers in files and label the files, so if it needs to be on your desk it is an orderly pile. If possible, designate an organized cluttered space a distance away from your everyday space, for example, do not have it near the telephone so that you are not tempted to read over information while speaking with a customer/client.
You Must Have A Digital Organizer
Everyone is not techie compatible, so it is okay to have an offline organizer. I love my Blackberry, but I also love my Franklin planner. Electronic hand held devices are handy and offer many features, however use an organizing system that works best for you. If you do decide on a digital organizer, always have a backup system just in case you have any technical difficulties.
© 2007 Bridgette Boudreaux
Visit: www.yourtime2soar.com
A personal planner is used to organize your personal/business appointments & activities. It is very organized to have all your information documented in one place for a reminder, planning your day or to prevent double scheduling. However, you can use a tablet, a 3 ring binder, online calendar or a desk calendar to document your information. Just make sure to document your information in one place and house it in the same place each time within arms reach to prevent losing it and allows easy accessibility.
You Must Operate With A List
This works like a gem for some but if you do not like list, especially the “to-do” list, because it seems to get longer daily, don’t create a list. Write down your goal or intended outcome, and then make appointments with yourself to complete the action.
You Must Follow A One Size Fits All Time Management System
Time Management is self management, managing you around time. We are all given the same amount of time, 24 hours in a day, but we differ with peak performance levels. You may be a morning person and find that you tend to focus and accomplish tasks well in the morning; someone else is better focus during the noon time hours. We each manage our time differently therefore this is no one solution to time management that will fit everyone. You must learn the tools, change any negative mindsets regarding time (ex. there just isn’t enough time in the day for me to get it all done), work efficiently, prioritize and make it all work for you.
You Must Always Maintain A Clean Office Desk
A spotless desk with no clutter is wonderful for any business owner; however, there are times when the cluttered office desk happens. During those times, make sure projects do not get mixed together, put loose papers in files and label the files, so if it needs to be on your desk it is an orderly pile. If possible, designate an organized cluttered space a distance away from your everyday space, for example, do not have it near the telephone so that you are not tempted to read over information while speaking with a customer/client.
You Must Have A Digital Organizer
Everyone is not techie compatible, so it is okay to have an offline organizer. I love my Blackberry, but I also love my Franklin planner. Electronic hand held devices are handy and offer many features, however use an organizing system that works best for you. If you do decide on a digital organizer, always have a backup system just in case you have any technical difficulties.
© 2007 Bridgette Boudreaux
Visit: www.yourtime2soar.com
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The 3 P's of Successful Performance
The 3 P’s of Successful Performance
By: Bridgette Boudreaux
Here’s a quick formula to maximize your performance:
Pressure
We all experience having an enormous amount of obligations, responsibilities & tasks on a daily basis with little time to accomplish them all. Do you ever feel like you are an octopus with skates on, constantly moving but not going anywhere? If that’s the case, use pressure to your advantage. Think about it, I bet at some point in your business or career you had a deadline or an unexpected project that needed to be completed yesterday and somehow with all your other obligations you pulled it off! It was completed and you wondered, how did I do it? Have you ever realized that a project can be completed in the time allowed?
For example, it’s a given that you typically have 12 months to prepare for your taxes and you just have not found time to accumulate, print, file receipts, track mileage or document business expenses in an orderly fashion for your accountant in 12 months; now it is 3 days before “the big tax day” & miraculously you have prepared & sent all documents required to your accountant in just two days to meet the three day deadline. Remember this is a task that had been on your “to-do” list for 12 months!
Why? How?
Because when we are pressured to complete a task, project, or meet a deadline, we become focused, avoid interruptions, use our time wisely, have a clear vision on what needs to be accomplished and prioritize tasks. We kick up our success performance about 10 notches!
Don’t feel overwhelmed or stressed out when pressured, welcome the opportunity to operate from your highest performance level and adopt those traits to your daily routine.
Prioritize
Among the life of numerous tasks, projects, to-do list, family responsibilities & other obligations, take a step out of overwhelm by simply setting priorities. You will never be able to do everything at once, so quit trying! You must decide which task, project or responsibility needs your immediate attention or has the soonest deadline and that is the task that gets worked on first, put the others in a tickler file according to priority.
But what if there are projects that share the same deadlines?
Get started with the most difficult ones first. For example: a business owner needs to prepare for an upcoming federal contract audit, a speaking engagement and an advisory board meeting: all scheduled for the same day.
Which is priority?
The audit will require the gathering of specific information from the past year, a financial fiscal report with supporting documents and the audit will determine if the business owner will receive additional funding. The speaking engagement speech will be 20 min. in length and can be recycled from a previous speaking engagement or article, just a little rehearsal is needed. The advisory board meeting will require an agenda, previous meeting minutes, and a meeting place to hold a meeting of 10 members.
The audit is the most difficult and will require a little more time than the others, so the business owner should start with the audit and give it the most blocked time during the day, the other projects can be worked on throughout the day as well, but priority is the audit.
Prioritizing brings clarity, gives direction and streamlines your process for completing tasks and projects. When you are juggling multiple tasks, prioritize them from most to least difficult and get the difficult out of the way. Establish a hierarchy for completing tasks and take action.
Stay tune to next “Time 2 Get It Done” newsletter to find out the third and finale P of successful performance.
By: Bridgette Boudreaux
Here’s a quick formula to maximize your performance:
Pressure
We all experience having an enormous amount of obligations, responsibilities & tasks on a daily basis with little time to accomplish them all. Do you ever feel like you are an octopus with skates on, constantly moving but not going anywhere? If that’s the case, use pressure to your advantage. Think about it, I bet at some point in your business or career you had a deadline or an unexpected project that needed to be completed yesterday and somehow with all your other obligations you pulled it off! It was completed and you wondered, how did I do it? Have you ever realized that a project can be completed in the time allowed?
For example, it’s a given that you typically have 12 months to prepare for your taxes and you just have not found time to accumulate, print, file receipts, track mileage or document business expenses in an orderly fashion for your accountant in 12 months; now it is 3 days before “the big tax day” & miraculously you have prepared & sent all documents required to your accountant in just two days to meet the three day deadline. Remember this is a task that had been on your “to-do” list for 12 months!
Why? How?
Because when we are pressured to complete a task, project, or meet a deadline, we become focused, avoid interruptions, use our time wisely, have a clear vision on what needs to be accomplished and prioritize tasks. We kick up our success performance about 10 notches!
Don’t feel overwhelmed or stressed out when pressured, welcome the opportunity to operate from your highest performance level and adopt those traits to your daily routine.
Prioritize
Among the life of numerous tasks, projects, to-do list, family responsibilities & other obligations, take a step out of overwhelm by simply setting priorities. You will never be able to do everything at once, so quit trying! You must decide which task, project or responsibility needs your immediate attention or has the soonest deadline and that is the task that gets worked on first, put the others in a tickler file according to priority.
But what if there are projects that share the same deadlines?
Get started with the most difficult ones first. For example: a business owner needs to prepare for an upcoming federal contract audit, a speaking engagement and an advisory board meeting: all scheduled for the same day.
Which is priority?
The audit will require the gathering of specific information from the past year, a financial fiscal report with supporting documents and the audit will determine if the business owner will receive additional funding. The speaking engagement speech will be 20 min. in length and can be recycled from a previous speaking engagement or article, just a little rehearsal is needed. The advisory board meeting will require an agenda, previous meeting minutes, and a meeting place to hold a meeting of 10 members.
The audit is the most difficult and will require a little more time than the others, so the business owner should start with the audit and give it the most blocked time during the day, the other projects can be worked on throughout the day as well, but priority is the audit.
Prioritizing brings clarity, gives direction and streamlines your process for completing tasks and projects. When you are juggling multiple tasks, prioritize them from most to least difficult and get the difficult out of the way. Establish a hierarchy for completing tasks and take action.
Stay tune to next “Time 2 Get It Done” newsletter to find out the third and finale P of successful performance.
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