FSS Newsletter :: September/October 2003

Top Five Time Management Mistakes We Should All Avoid

1. Start your day without a plan of action. You will begin your day by
responding to the loudest voice and spend it in a defensive mode,
responding to other people's and events' demands. The tail will wag the
dog. If there is a void of leadership in your time management life, someone
will fill that void, not that others are bad people, but others will take
all of your time if you let them. You will have worked hard but may not
have done enough of right things. Time Management is not doing the wrong
things quicker. That just gets us nowhere faster. Time Management is doing
the right things.

2. Get out of balance in your life. Our lives are made up of Seven Vital
Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual, Social, Professional, and
Spiritual. We will not necessarily spend time every day in each area or
equal amounts of time in each area. But if in the long run, we spend a
sufficient quantity and quality of time in each area, our lives will be in
balance. But if we neglect any one area, never mind two or three, we will
eventually sabotage our success. Much like a table, if one leg is longer
than the rest, it will make the entire table wobbly. If we don't take time
for health, our family life and social life are hurt. If our financial area
is out of balance, we will not be able to focus adequately on our
professional goals, etc.

3. Work with a messy desk or work area. Studies have shown that the person
who works with a messy desk spends, on average, one and a half hours per
day looking for things or being distracted by things. That's seven and a
half hours per week. ("Out of sight-out of mind." And the reverse of that
is true too, "In sight, in mind"). And, it's not a solid block of an hour
and a half, but a minute here and a minute there, and like a leaky hot
water faucet, drip, drip, drip, it doesn't seem like a major loss, but at
the end the day, we're dumping gallons of hot water down the drain that we
are paying to heat. If you have ever visited the office of a top manager,
typically, that person is working with a clean desk environment. Many would
attribute this practice to that person's access to other staff members.
While there may be some truth in that conclusion, in most cases, if we went
back some years in that person's career, they probably were working with a
clean desk back then which gave them the focus they needed to become
promoted to where they are today.

4. Don't get enough sleep. Studies show that nearly 75% of us complain on a
regular basis, all throughout our days, that we are flat-out tired. For
most people, they get the quantity of sleep, but they lack the quality of
sleep. Their days are filled with so much stress, they are out of control,
working harder but maybe not smarter, that it's difficult to get a full
night's sleep. (For some, they simply do not allow for a sufficient
quantity of sleep.) If you will plan your day, then work your plan, you
will get more done, feel a higher sense of accomplishment, and experience
less stress and enjoy a more restful night's sleep.

5. Don't take a lunch break. Many do not take a lunch break, working
through that time period in the hope that it will give them more time to
produce results. Studies have shown it may work just the opposite. After
doing what we do for several hours, we start to "dull out". Sure, we can
work through lunch and be productive, but that is not the issue. The issue
is "how much more" productive we can be. A lunch break, even a short
fifteen minute break, gives us a chance to get our batteries all charged up
again to more effectively handle the afternoon's challenges.