Catalyst

Posts Tagged ‘time management’

Friday comes every seven days–and that’s a good thing.

Fridays are the end of the work week for most. (If it not yours, please adjust this post to fit your situation.) It launches us into rest, relaxation, and family time.

But not everyone likes Fridays. The specter of anxiety hangs as a pall over many Fridays. Jobs are not complete. Tasks procrastinated all week smell like dead fish. So some fill a briefcase and see if they can get to it over the weekend.

One of my goals each week is to get to Friday “clean.” It doesn’t always happen as I get last minute things on Thursday night or Friday. But the goal is to “clear the decks” so I can indeed re-create over Saturday.

I have learned that to have a great Friday afternoon experience, I have to do several things.

I have to plan my week. I need a blueprint of what is coming toward me. What’s on my calendar that needs attention? Is my task list reasonable? What tasks do I do on which day? These questions (usually on Sunday night or Monday morning) are my compass and sextant for the week’s journey. In a sense, Friday starts on Monday.

I work diligently to get work done in a timely manner. Procrastination is like a neck massage. It feels better to let it woo you into the sense of “it will get done. Just relax.” Yet tasks postponed muscle themselves into the times I really don’t want to work. My aim is to have it done by Friday morning. I cannot do a week’s worth of work in 4 hours. It takes a week.

I do a quick sweep on Friday. Friday morning is time for last minute checks. If I’ve done my work through the week, Friday becomes a calm day. I make a few last phone calls that have come in, clean up my email inbox, empty my voicemail on my phone. I feel confident that nothing is left hanging.

I enjoy Saturday. While I have plenty of household tasks to do on Saturday, they are enjoyable because my mind doesn’t flit toward the unfinished. I can let things “settle to earth.”

Friday afternoon should feel like Atlas taking your world onto his shoulders. If it’s not like that for you, examine your life and time. Where’s the leak? No one should come to Friday dreading the end of the week.

Enjoy the Friday afternoon experience.

What’s on your “to do” list for today?

I like to listen to comedy. A favorite comic is a woman named Jeanne Robertson. She has a wonderful skit on the “to do” list. On her to-do list is a daily, repeated item that reads “Find the Humor.” She refuses to check it off as complete until she has found something humorous.

She relates an instance when looking for laughing made a difference. While waiting in an airport line, she had her humor radar scanning in high gear. People in the line were agitated, irritated, and surly. Then it dawned on her. She was so intent on finding the humor that she had forgotten to get mad.

Every circumstance has hidden giggles, chuckles,  and snickers. If you can find them, life takes on the joy it was intended to have.

How do you find the humor in life?

Hang about humorous people. They have an outlook on life that will rub off as you spend time with them. I have friends whose stories make me turn life on its head so I can see a different perspective.

Laugh at yourself. Someone has noticed, “you might as well laugh at yourself since others are doing it secretly.” One of the lessons of maturity is not to take life too seriously.

Reflect humorously. Recently, I fell out of the shower door (while taking a shower). While I won’t go into all the details, I wasn’t hurt. The only thing that was damage was my ego. (For self-protection, I won’t go into any further detail.) But my wife’s sides hurt from laughing all day long. The more I think about it, the funnier the scene gets.

Take Jeanne Robertson’s advice. Make sure you put “find the humor” on your to-do list today.

The email read, “We need to meet about…” The issue was neither new nor urgent. Other things are pressing that must rise to the top of the schedule. In fact, the issue had laid on the table for at least 2 years without any action by the leaders in charge.

Would you meet? I chose not to meet…at least not yet.

Meetings are the bane of most people for good reasons.

• Many are unorganized without agenda or purpose.
• Many are too long (usually a function of the first problem).
• Most have people who don’t need to attend.
• Many are nothing but “let’s talk it out” sessions that don’t accomplish anything.

I decided I would not meet with those requesting the meeting until one condition was met. They needed think ahead  and bring solutions to the table, not just the problem. Then, we can refine the proposal.

It has been said that any idiot can find a problem. It takes a real genius to solve one. I’d rather a group start with something to finish than trying to find the starting line.

Before agreeing to meet, ask questions of those requesting a meeting.

• What is this meeting about?
• What do you hope to accomplish?
• Do you have a concrete proposal? (Can I see it ahead of time?)
• How long have you had this problem? (Many times, people are just trying to clear their decks.)
• What do you need from me in this process? (I don’t want to leave the meeting with the monkey on my back.)

Second, ask yourself some questions.

• Does this fit with my responsibilities?
• Does this fit with current priorities? (If we did not meet, would it really make any difference?)
• What will suffer if I meet about this issue?

I go to many meetings, but they must meet one basic criterion–do you have solutions to bring to the table? If not I will not meet until…

Twenty-five years ago, computers turned my world upside down. The possibilities for easier, more efficient work were endless. Spreadsheets crunched numbers. Desktop publishers (as they were called) made preparing newsletters and flyers a snap (and fun). Word processors allowed words to flow and let me change on a fly. One of my great joys was writing a macro that would compress as many keystrokes into one as possible.

I keep a task list on an IPhone synced to the web so it is available on a laptop, a business center computer, or my desktop. I’m very efficient.

Then why, when you go to my desk, do you find a paper time log? It’s all about the purpose.

While some professions use time logging to determine billable hours for various clients, my use is more mundane–to find out I use my time. I could use a spreadsheet where categories are color-coded and a macro could produce an automated report. It would be easy, efficient . . . and irrelevant.

In my church, our elders want to see a monthly report. It helps them see my work better. It’s an accountability tool.

For that process, I use paper. A few times a day, I take a paper week-at-a-glance planner, enter what I did in the appropriate time block, and repeat as needed. It’s done with a cheap ink pen on paper. On the first day of the month I take a legal pad, write down all the things I did in various categories and then transfer the information to a pre-designed report in my word processor.

Why not let a computer do that? It’s because of what I would lose. They key to using time logs effectively is not the historical archiving of dozens of daily tasks. It’s reflecting on what’s happening in your life.

If I let the computer do the work, I get a pretty report that won’t change my thinking. I need the mental processing, the seeing of tasks, the “ouch” of bad time use.

Imagine the learning lost if I did not have to confront questions such as:

•    Where did I use my time? Was it on important things or did I squander it?
•    What did I neglect?
•    What needs to be eliminated or delegated?
•    What time-wasters grab me by my mental lapels and demand attention?

Einstein observed, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” When you take reflection out of life, you learn nothing.

I still use my computer for so many things. But I don’t want it to do my thinking for me.

Are you reflecting on your time? What does it tell you about your life?

Read the rest of this entry »