When you consider everything as an "emergency" and make decisions based on "knee jerk" reactions, you are making the so called "emergencies" of others, your own. Rarely are they true emergencies, but the complete lack of planning by others.
"Left Side Of The Line"
1.) Take a piece of paper and draw a line straight down the middle.
2.) On the left side of the paper, write your itinerary, or goals for the day. A numerical list of what you want to get done that SPECIFIC day.
3.) After you've completed a topic, take a pen, and strike it off. This will give the feeling of accomplishment, or "Perceived Reward".
4.) Make it widely known that you have an itinerary, that is important for you to complete, and this will reduce the number of "walk ups" to your desk, as they will think before presenting you with a "crisis" that you have not created.
5.) At the end of the day, any topic you were not able to strike off, goes to the top of the list for your next day.
I know how elementary this may sound to you, but very few people have an itinerary. They just "React" as it comes, rather than being proactive, and planning ahead.
Your telephone is a huge waste of time, or your most important tool, dependant upon how you use it. You will be shocked at the time wasted on the phone, just chit chatting. If it's not relevant, get done with it already. For everytime you allow someone to disrupt your motion, you find yourself on the "Right Side Of The Line", exactly where you do not want to be. For every "emergency" on the right side, you will be unable to achieve three items on the left side.
Kind of like riding along smoothly on your bicycle, and having someone put their foot in the spokes. You go flying over the handlebars, and are in complete disarray. You MUST work in a very controlled fashion, or you will fail. There's a difference between success, and lying in the street with torn pants, and a scraped elbow.
Another exercise is to keep a simple log of your phone calls. Simple: again put a line down a paper, and simply check each time you have an "incoming" or "outgoing" call, and add up each side at the end of your day. Soon, you will realize the amount of very wasteful phone calls, that are making you nonproductive.
I'd be willing to bet that without time management, you accomplish approximately 3 hours of work, in an 8 hour day. Very common, and easily corrected.
I mentioned "Perceived Reward" earlier. It is an actual achievement, but your brain needs to be rewarded in some way to feel good, and keep going. You are literally "Rewarding" yourself when you cross a task off your itinerary. Few people wake up to an itinerary, because "It takes too much time". Well, I can tell you that 30 minutes spent on that itinerary, will wsave you 4 hours of work that would otherwise be spent living in a "Pinball Machine".
People will respect your space, and you will understand that you must respect theirs.
Nobody wants to hear a story about a big bass you caught, or the softball game. It may be interesting to you, but believe me, others don't feel as energetic about it as you do.
Okay folks, that's the topic for today, and for those of you who implement this practice, I would love to hear your results.
It's so easy "A Cave Man Can Do It"
I am deeply thankful you've chosen to visit with me today. I think we'll talk about quality roof coatings, and application tomorrow.
As always, "Reject Negativity In All Forms", and keep looking "UP".
Much respect,
Robert R. "Ron" Solomon
CCC1325620 Florida
