This is an activity used most effectively toward the end of a time management program when it is necessary for the participants to consolidate their learning and consider in concrete terms what they are going to do upon their return to work. Ensure that you plan for enough time to allow completion and discussion.

The objective of this activity is to give you the opportunity to write a time action plan so that you will be committed to the implementation of the time management ideas you find most useful.

109 Good Ideas

The ideas on the following pages, though simple, are powerful ideas that will help you get more control of your job and your life. Use this activity as a basis for new time management strategies.

1.Go through the ideas for the first time and mark those that seem particularly meaningful or interesting to you and those that you think you may be able to apply immediately.

2.Go through the list once; then go back and look at the marked items and put an A to the left of those that appear to be the most important to you.

3.Go back and look at the A’s and select the three most important ones for you. Mark them A-1, A-2, and A-3.

4.Next follow the instructions given later on how to apply these ideas.

Organization

1.Decide your life/career mission.

2.Specify this mission statement in more specific terms (i.e., aims).

3.Break down your aims into accessible objectives.

4.Write down items 1 through 3 and keep them always at hand.

5.Review 1 through 4 at regular intervals; don’t just write them down and then forget them.

6.Everything you do should contribute to your self-improvement.

7.Review your mission, aims, and objectives at regular intervals and assess how much you have achieved.

Planning

8.Plan your time; don’t let it control you.

9.Assess your work—projects, tasks, in-tray, mail, etc.—and allocate priorities.

10.Arrange and allocate your priorities into categories A, B, C, and D.

11.Throw away the Ds.

12.Keep the Cs to be read during non-priority time.

13.Date/time check the Bs—they are usually important, but not urgent.

14.Subdivide your As—A1, A2, A3, etc.

15.Do the A1 now, then your other As—not those attractive Cs!

16.Make appointments with yourself in your diary—this is the personal time you must have during the day.

17.Stick to your plan. Make it and do it now.

18.Select your “best’ personal and work times to get things done, and plan to do your most important work then.

19.Are you a “lark” or a “nightingale”?

20.Chop a big task down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

21.Estimate the end time for a task, not just the starting time.

22.Always ask the questions: What? Who? Why? Where? When? How?

Operating

23.Use the “To-Do” system.

24.Have a daily “To-Do” list, particularly for your A items.

25.Review the daily list each day (first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening) and plan your priorities.

26.Keep your daily “To-Do” list always in sight.

27.As you complete each item, cross it out in brilliant red. Just looking at a list of completed tasks makes you feel even better.

28.Don’t include too many items on your “To-Do” list. Remember the jobs that always crop up unexpectedly.

29.Maintain a second “To-Do” list for longer-term tasks or those to which a date cannot yet be given.

30.Transfer items from the second list to the daily list whenever relevant.

31.Make a note of essential items to cover on your telephone “To-Do” list.

32.Use the “To-Do” lists; don’t ignore them—they are probably your most powerful time management tools.

33.Write it down. Don’t try to keep your “To-Do” lists in your head; keep that free to actually do them!

34.Leave some time for the unexpected.

35.Have the things you need constantly together in one place, close at hand.

36.Identify and concentrate on the high-yield tasks if you have the choice.

Delegating

37.Delegate whenever possible: down, sideways, up.

38.Delegate tasks, but do not abdicate them; if it is your task, you still have the final responsibility.

39.Agree to the reviews that are part of the delegation process.

40.Don’t keep poking your nose in at times when you haven’t agreed to do so.

41.Always make the instructions complete and clear, and ensure that they have been understood for the tasks you delegate.

42.Always give or agree on a final completion date.

43.Concentrate personally on those tasks whose success depends on you.

44.Find new tasks and new ways to delegate; this saves you time and develops your staff.

45.Arrange for decisions to be made at the lowest realistic level.

Meetings

46.Conduct effective meetings.

47.Allocate both starting times and finishing times whenever possible and stick to them.

48.Always ask yourself questions: Is the meeting necessary? Is this the most effective way?

49.Make your agenda mean something: Don’t just have a “shopping list” that doesn’t tell the members whether they are to discuss, to decide, to recommend, etc.

50.Stick to it as long as it is realistic to do so. If it isn’t realistic, why not?

51.Are the right people at the meeting?

52.Is everything necessary to the meeting there and have all relevant papers been sent our beforehand?

53.Define, state clearly, and stick to your objectives for the meeting.

54.What are the other person’s issues likely to be?

55.Suggest to the other person that he or she write you a memo.

56.Go to the other person’s room to meet him or her—you can always get up and leave.

57.If you are short on time, continue standing up when you meet somebody.

58.Can you arrange conference calls?

59.If you have an agenda spot in someone else’s meeting, try to obtain a definite entry time and do not be there before or after.

Telephone Control

60.Master your telephone techniques.

61.Plan your telephone calls. Use telephone “To-Do” lists and telephone agendas.

62.If possible, arrange a specific callback time: Don’t just say, “I’ll call you later,” or even worse, “You call me later.”

63.“Horsetrade” receiving telephone calls with a colleague when you want some uninterrupted time.

64.Have your call-interceptor briefed to record name, company, number and extension, and reason for call.

65.Give your call-interceptor authority to make certain decisions on certain subjects on your behalf.

66.Give your call-interceptor authority to state a call-back time.

67.If you are interrupted during a task by a ringing phone, before answering the call, pencil in your next thoughts; when you return to your task, you will know what you were going to do next.

68.Cross-index your telephone directory: name as one entry, organization as the other entry.

69.Quickly get to the purpose; it’s pleasant to socialize (gossip?), but it wastes a lot of time.

70.Make sure you get the call-back name and number right: it’s better to ask for the information until you’ve got it right than to lose the information.

Discipline

71.Time management is 99 percent self-discipline.

72.Recall your mission, aims, and objectives: Do you really want to achieve them?

73.Do the unpleasant task first, or as early as possible, particularly if it is your A1. (It is also most people’s experience that these jobs usually turn out to be less unpleasant than was anticipated.)

74.Use the techniques—they have been proved to work.

75.Stop being the nice guy all the time—learn to say “No.”

76.Make sure you do it right the first time. Every time you have to try again, you are wasting time.

77.How open is your “Open Door”—should it be as wide open?

78.Try that time system again. This time make it work.

79.Keep a time log at intervals and analyze it for slippage.

80.Avoid procrastination; get on with it.

81.Avoid all those time wasters.

82.Set personal deadlines for yourself for most tasks and stick to them, if at all possible.

83.Stick to the task you know must be done.

84.Do one thing at a time.

85.Always have something to do, even if it is constructive relaxation.

86.Always be on time yourself.

87.Use stress reduction techniques.

Paper

88.Handle only once, if at all possible.

89.If you can’t deal with it, use a mail analyzer for action annotation.

90.Use a dictating machine or a shorthand writer rather than hand write drafts.

Reading

91.Read only what you must: The rest can be read in your C time.

92.Increase your reading speed/comprehension rates.

93.Learn how to scan important items.

Traveling

94.Don’t leave at the last minute—allow time.

95.Don’t be a one-side-of-the-town-to-the-other traveler—plan groups of visits within easy range of each other.

96.Use car cassette or CD learning.

97.Keep a Dictaphone or recorder close at hand.

98.Use travel time as speech rehearsal time.

99.Consider having a car/cell phone, preferably outbound calls only.

100.Use train time to read, write, discuss, brainstorm ideas with yourself.

Summary

101.Consider and analyze your tasks.

102.Plan what you have to do, who is going to do it, how it is going to be done, where it is going to be done, by when it is to be done, why it has to be done.

103.Execute the task or delegate it.

104.Review the process.

105.Get everyone else thinking about time management.

106.Try to save the time of others.

107.Use “reminder” signs: on your desk, walls, etc.

108.Always have a pencil to use.

109.Have a time management system, preferably with a complete planning and management system.