Time Wasters and Solutions

Problem: Interruptions
Solutions: Create blocks of time with no calls or visitors. Position your desk away from the door. Set a time limit on meetings. Cue ending (”Before I get back to this project, is there anything else I can help you with?”) Schedule a meeting at a better time. Going to the other person’s office gives you more control over leaving. Stand up to keep meetings short. Find a place where you can work uninterrupted.

Problem: Distractions
Solutions: Focus and follow through. Once a task is begun, momentum can keep you going. With each interruption time is lost. If you must leave a job in the middle, leave it at a point where it will be easy to pick up again. Concentration is the ability to focus our attention on the task at hand. Eliminate all distractions and interruptions as much as possible. Take breaks when fatigue interferes. Turn boring tasks into challenges by setting goals and determining rewards. Vary routine tasks.

Problem: The Telephone
Solutions: Batch phone calls. Call at a time you are likely to catch the person at their desk, but right before lunch or quitting time will keep it quick. Stick to the point. Set a time limit and a timer. Have simple tasks available to work on while on the phone such as clipping articles or scanning catalogs.

Problem: Taking on too many projects
Solution: Learn how to say no.

Problem: Lost papers or items
Solutions: Learn paper management and use organizational tools.

Problem: Procrastination
Solutions: Break down large projects into smaller steps. Overcome perfectionism. Overcome inertia by taking baby steps. Have routine opening moves for regular tasks. Apply self-discipline to overcome the tendency to avoid unpleasant tasks. Realize that ignored problems usually do not resolve themselves.

Problem: Waiting
Solutions: Be prepared with paper and pen and reading material. More handy items–envelopes and stamps, highlighter and sticky notes, a calculator. Make lists, review a report, plan.

Problem: Ineffective time use/crisis mode
Solutions: Plan daily, set goals, and assign priorities. Think proactively, anticipating possible problems. Allow for emergencies. Use small chunks of time. Things you can do in five minutes: make an appointment, water plants, write a short note. In ten minutes: sort mail, scan an article, straighten your desk, make a brief phone call, clean out a file.

Problem: Overwork
Solutions: Delegation. Utilize peak time. Take breaks and time for self, balancing work and play. Make conscious decisions about the best use of your time.

Problem: Re-inventing the wheel
Solutions: Use checklists for repeating tasks, an outline of the steps that need to be accomplished. Set up a tickler system for follow-up.

See also: Email management & Sticky Wiki Time Wasters

Get Organized with Home Helpers

Time management resources usually fall into one of two categories: Work Wonders or Home Helpers. Here are a few Home Helper Resources I’ve discovered.

I’ve been reading the book, “1000 Best Quick and Easy Organizing Secrets.”by Jamie Novak. She is the resident organizing expert at the Real Organizing for Real People message board at IVillage. There’s lots of great ideas, and at the back are Simple Sevens for Success: 7 favorite tools, 7 ways to start small…

Blogs
I read organizer Monica Ricci’s blog regularly. Also the Productivity Pro whom I’ve mentioned previously.

Websites
Messie’s Anonymous by founder Sandra Felton, and Flylady.net are both helpful sites.  Real Simple magazine is great, and also has a website with lots of neat information. Organized Home is a wonderful website too.

Articles

Organizing A to Z at Getorganizednow.com

Books
“The Organizing Sourcebook” by Kathy Waddill-nine strategies for organizing your life with real life examples from a professional organizer.

“Best Organizing Tips” by Stephanie Winston-great overall guide.

“Get Your Act Together” by Pam Young and Peggy Jones-a card system for keeping track of keeping house for sidetracked home executives. Also check out “The Messies Manual” by Sandra Felton. Fight Household Clutter is an HGTV article by Deniece Schofield, author of “Confessions of a Happily Organized Family.”

“Ready, Set, Organize” by Pipi Campbell Peterson-has helpful information about filing and storage.

“Let Go of Clutter” by Harriet Schecter-ideas to simplify. There are two articles by her at Soulful Living: From Chaos to Comfort and Shedding Sentimental Clutter.

Household Records File

Adventures in Home Ownership

The good news is I am on a clutter busting roll! The bad news is I’m exhausted…whew. I have just enough energy to share my mistakes that you may learn from them. It all started when a VCR of fairly recent origin ate a tape. I wasn’t sure where I had put the book for it, let alone the receipt. I had one huge file labeled “warranties” that I’ve been throwing things into (when I remembered to) for awhile. Others had made their way to various locations around the house. I was inspired to make separate hanging files for all major appliances and label them: dishwasher, refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer, air conditioner, etc. Then I made a list with the information: date purchased, where, price, brand, etc. Next I will make more files divided by location: small appliances-kitchen, electronics and so on.

So from now on, here’s the plan every time I purchase something over $20.

• Right away, make a file for the book.
• Write the date & where purchased on the front cover and staple the receipt inside the back cover.
• When something breaks, or is otherwise no longer around, remember to take out the book and discard it.
• Less expensive versions of some things can be more inclined to break sooner. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
• When gifts are received that have a book, make a file for them too.
• Some books may contain pages with information you may need for maintenance or operation. Make a copy of those to add to a Household Notebook (Printables from OrganizedHome.com.) For example, instructions for a thermostat or for telephone functions.
• Include a seasonal maintenance checklist in the Household Notebook.
• Keep track of home repairs and improvements (EHow.)

Further Resources
File It, Find It Home Filing System

Home Maintenance and Repair A-Z

KState Organizing Household Records

LifeOrganizers Article

Quiet Leadership

Booknotes on “Quiet Leadership” by David Rock.

Pathways in our brains are formed as connections are made through our experiences. Attempts to change those pathways are difficult and often ineffective. A more effective way to improve performance is to create new connections. The best way to learn is to make connections yourself. To form new connections, focus on thinking and solutions. When new connections are made, we are excited by the possibilities in the aha moment. Grab onto that energy and follow-up with concrete ideas for actions.

If your advice is sought to solve problems, ask others questions about their thinking to help them come up with solutions.

• How important is this to you?
• How often have you been thinking about this?
• How do you feel about your thoughts on this?
• Do you know what you need to do?
• What are the possibilities?
• What actions can you take?
• What have you learned?

Listen to the 800-CEO-READ podcast interview with the author. For some reason, these podcasts sound like Mickey Mouse on my computer, but maybe they’ll work for you!

Click

A universal remote that actually controls life is the premise for the new Adam Sandler movie, “Click” that is now out in DVD. After going to the “beyond” department of Bed, Bath and Beyond, he thinks he’s found a wonderful tool. However, the more he attempts to control life, the more out-of-control his life becomes. There is plenty of trademark Adam Sandler humor (i.e. usually rude & crude!) and some funny moments like when he discovers he can turn down the dog’s barking. But it actually makes a serious point that if we fast-forward through the tough times, we miss a lot of important stuff. And how vital it is that our actions reflect what we say we believe.

Why We Procrastinate

I have tackled a big project: cleaning the garage. It’s so easy to find almost anything I’d rather do, because I *really* don’t want to do it. I’d even rather do exercises, and that’s saying something for me. I’m trying to focus on the vision of a beautifully organized space, and break down the job into smaller parts. Even so, this is a tough one.

The Require/Desire Grid from “The Organizing Sourcebook” by Kathy Waddill:

	Want to	Don’t want to
Have to
Don’t have to

My riff on needs vs. wants, love vs. hate:

Things that you:	NEED to do	WANT to do
LOVE doing	Family activities	Read, watch a movie
ENJOY doing	Gardening, cooking	Write a book
DISLIKE doing	Exercise, doing dishes	Learn computer program
HATE doing	Clean garage, sort clothes	Have a garage sale

These will vary for each person, and may overlap a bit. But one thing you can count on: the things you really hate to do but which need to be done are going to require healthy doses of self-discipline and hefty rewards to accomplish! They will drain your energy batteries. The ones you enjoy doing can be rewarding in themselves and will recharge your batteries. It may be a good idea to alternate between these two extremes.

Task selection factors

from the book “Manage Your Time, Your Work, Yourself” by Merrill E. and Donna N. Douglass:

· Demands of others
· Closeness of deadlines
· Amount of time available
· Degree of enjoyment
· Order of arrival
· Degree of familiarity

The authors say we tend to do first the smallest, easiest, most interesting tasks first, although they may not be the high priority tasks that contribute toward meeting goals.

Related: Choose Tasks based on deadlines, steps to results, estimated resources, and return on investment.

 

 

Discoveries of the Day

Reading Orbit Now! Troy Worman’s Weblog (don’t wait for permission to succeed) led me to…

Genuine Curiousity -Always on the lookout for new things to learn. Has some great stuff on GTD. This led to…

ToDoOrElse -yup. more great stuff on GTD.

which led to…

Bobby Anderson’s post on GTD for Emotions. Totally cool idea.

Must stop…need sleep.

Dealing with Automated Telephone Hell

“Businesses choose effectiveness over efficiency to listen to customers.”

Wouldn’t you like to see that headline?

Do businesses really believe that automated telephone systems equals effective communication with customers? Hard to imagine. Who has not experienced the telephone hell of being runaround in endless circles, the clock ticking away while listening to unhelpful machine menus with the problem no closer to being solved? It’s frustrating in the extreme. If you are stuck in this situation, think of it as the perfect opportunity to practice persistence and patience. If that fails, check the gethuman 500 database to see if the company you are dealing with is listed.

Food is a Four Letter Word

Recipe for Menu Planning

No matter how busy you are, you’ve got to eat!

1. Organize Recipes. Some of my favorite recipe websites are: AllRecipes.com, American Profile, & Taste of Home.

2. Plan meals as part of your weekly planning. Consider sales and seasonal foods, nutrition, variety, visual appeal and textures. When there is little time for cooking, use crockpots, make-ahead mixes, and quantity cookery. After planning, make a grocery list of items you need to buy.

Plan A: List some of your favorite meal plans on cards. Include a main dish, side dishes, and dessert. Make about 10-15 cards, on the other side list ingredients needed for a shopping list. See MealsForYou.com and Menus4Moms.com for ideas.
Example:

• Pork Chops
• Sour cream scalloped potatoes
• Green Beans
• Rolls
• Apple Crisp

Plan B: Make separate lists of main dishes, side dishes, and desserts, then randomly select an item from each. You could even use a dart-board for this! A healthier version could provide alternatives too.

MAIN DISH	SIDE 1	SIDE 2
Pizza	French Fries	Pudding
Hamburgers	Onion Rings	Cottage Cheese
Tacos	Curly fries	Applesauce

Plan C: Eat out! Keep a list of favorite restaurants.

Unforgettable Customer Service

When our three-hole punch at work stopped punching effectively (meaning it took super-human strength applied to a single sheet of paper for it to make a few holes) I took it for a trip to our local office supply store. I enquired whether it would be cost-effective to replace the three cutter pieces, or if it would be better to simply buy a new three-hole punch. Jerry gave me the answer. However, he also did something else. He took it to the back and applied WD-40, and made that three-hole punch good as new. Total sale=zero, customer satisfaction=priceless. That’s not the kind of customer service you forget. And when we needed a new stapler, I went back and got not just your standard stapler, but a new kind that cost a few bucks more. Okay, admittedly I’m a sucker for a new gadget, but I still think service like that ultimately leads to more sales. For those who want to know the answer: it costs less to replace the whole hole punch than to replace three cutters.