How to Get More (Time) with Less (Part 2 of 2)

Welcome back! For starters, you’ll need your notes from the last two days. My goal here is to help you get more out your day. To do this, I need to know what went south for you the last two days. Keep in mind, it doesn’t matter why you fell short; it just matters that you know the reasons. Look at the list for day one. What stopped you from doing more? Here is my list:

• Kept processing (what seemed like) endless emails
• Urgent issue with a manager needed time to resolve
• Had too much to do for one day
• I forgot
• I’m waiting for someone else
• I was too tired and needed to call it a day

I could probably go one with more excuses, but I’m going to stop with the main culprits. Now look at day two. Pick up any trends? Did you maybe get a little more efficient? I noticed I was paying attention to possible excuses on the second day. On the day two, I was distracted by noise in the office. Instead of being a victim, I decided to hold myself accountable. I immediately grabbed my headphones to help me get back on track. I’ve learned you can never go wrong carrying around extra headphones.

Do you notice any excuse themes between day one and two? At first glance, mine look like endless time spent on email and working unplanned demand. If I dig deeper, then I could say I failed to stick with my game plan. Continuously processing email is not a good thing (more to come in a future post). When you find themes, I want you to come up with a personal action plan to not let them hold you back during the next seven days. This is very important. These themes kept you out of the end zone the last two days, so you have to address them. Get a new piece of paper and track your failure points each of the next seven days. To help you remember to do this, schedule a 15 minute appointment with yourself on your calendar each day. This is not magic; it’s going to require work.

Side note: If you found that you missed capturing your items at the end of the work day because you’re not sure when work ended and personal time began, then there are other issues. I’ve got an entire blog post on that topic.