Yes, we here at OfficeTime are continuing our Time Management Tips each week, and in the interest of posting some PERSONAL tips for this coming Friday, I wanted to post some professional tips for you today. We’d love to hear YOUR tips too, and if they’re amazing, we’ll even feature you here in our blog!
Here we go!
Tip #1. Use the 2-minute Rule. If you can take care of something in 2 minutes or less, follow Nike’s Law and Just DO It. There’s nothing worse than filling up a to do list of things that took longer to write down than they would have taken to DO them. Need to call the dentist? Just do it. Need to pay a bill? Just do it. You get the picture. Allow yourself a 30-minute window to do the quick and easy stuff and then you’ll have a clear head for the rest of it.
Tip #2. Have a Meal Plan. Okay, we all know that shopping, preparing and cooking (and cleaning) can take HOURS every day – or at the least be a total interruption (and a guilt trip if you’re getting it wrong and your family is suffering). So whether you’re just feeding yourself and your cat, or your managing meals 3 times a day for a family of six, a meal plan can save the day. It’s worth the investment once a week to know what’s on hand and easy to serve up in a flash when needed.
Tip #3. It’s okay to UNLIST something. One of my team members was going to track down a quick thing for us. (I want buttons to send a quick ReTweet for our Twitter messages when OfficeTime gets approved by the app store – hopefully next week.) This should be easy, right? She’s our social media person after all… but you know what she isn’t? Believe it our not, she’s not a techie. After waiting three weeks, I followed up today and gently took it off her list. Do you know what would have been saved if SHE had unlisted it? (Okay, obviously three weeks), but more importantly her peace of mind. She made herself distracted over something that she should have UNlisted right away. You get what I mean.
The bottom line is that sometimes we take something on and then realize it’s not a good fit. Make today a day to remove that stuff and hand it back to someone else.
Stephen Dodd