An age old time-management rule is to do right now, anything that takes less than a minute to do. Why? Partly because psychologically you can remove ten things from your to do list in ten minutes or less and that is bound to be good for your energy levels.
Clear out your cellphone: At the end of a busy year or quarter, or even a month, you are bound to have a load of cellphone number, saved SMSes and other junk you your phone that were only ever intended to be temporary. Get rid of them. They are the digital equivalent of piles of paper that you never get around to using again and won’t miss for a second if you don’t have them. And if you make good use of a decent contact database, you really don’t need immediate access to a phone number you haven’t called for six months or more.
Clear out your e-mail: There are some correspondence chains you want to keep forever and your company’s e-mail policy may mandate that you keep every business mail sent and received for years. But there is no reason for a full inbox. Create folders and get those mails out of your way as soon as they are dealt with. Only allow the things that need your attention to remain in your inbox and make a point of dealing with them so that you can file them elsewhere.
Clear your desk: Almost guarenteed, if you aren’t a neat desk kind of person, somewhere under the clutter that surrounds you, there is a phone number you need, a message you have forgotten to return or a task reminder that has slipped you memory. Not keeping an orderly workspace is asking for mistakes to happen and inviting missed opportunities to pull up a perch and sneer at you.
Salesguru – Sept 2008
October 13, 2008
Personal Empowerment