Do You Have More on Your List at the End of the Day? Successful People Feel More in Control!
In my 30 years in Corporate America and as a successful entrepreneur, these are tried and proven ways I use to take control of my day and get more of what matters most done. These 30 ways will produce immediate results for you:
30 Ways to Take Control of Your Day
1. Plan for tomorrow at the end of each day. Create mental separation between work and home. (Leave work at work) It’s all about creating quality time!
2. Get up earlier. Even 15 minutes earlier will make a difference.
3. Meditate first and identity two things you are grateful for in your life.
4. Start work at least 15 minutes before you normally do.
5. Identify two tasks each day and commit to getting them done.
6. Control email first thing each day. Check for time sensitive tasks, answer two, then close.
7. Turn off the audible email notification and check/respond to email once per hour.
8. Make your first hour more powerful and be in a more commanding position by lunch.
9. Communicate with others when you’re least and most available.
10. If you work from home, set-up ground rules with your family for handling interruptions.
11. Learn to negotiate requests (interruptions). Try to defer and batch requests so they fit better in your day.
12. Commit to under promise – over deliver.
13. Adjust others’ expectations. Give others (and leader) more realistic expectations!
14. Accept fewer meetings. If you didn’t get an agenda, why did you accept?
15. Use your Master List to become a “Master Blender”. Balance getting your work done, helping others, and getting some personal life tasks completed.
16. Stop jumping from task to task. Batch similar tasks on your list (like email)
17. Use one Master List (either paper or electronic. One is an easiest number to manage.
18. Make sure you know the specific deadline and importance of each request you receive, which will make prioritizing easier and more accurate.
19. Control and manage your inbox. Set-up the correct files and use “Rules” to file for you.
20. Cut down on the paper you keep. Save important papers digitally.
21. Set-up digital (files/docs) correctly and set-up time each day to organize.
22. Look for tasks you could teach others to do and delegate them.
23. Go to bed and wake up the same time daily to establish an effective routine.
24. Get at least seven hours of sleep each night to become more effective and focused.
25. Be sure you know what matters most to your leader to increase your focus.
26. Never say no! Offer a time that works better for you and still works for the requestor.
27. Set-up times to manage interruptions and requests (suggest the afternoon.)
28. Know your three energy cycles and protect when you are best each day.
29. At the end of every day, make sure you have a good reason for everything you checked off and everything you didn’t.
30. Before you leave work consider what you did well that day and what you can do better tomorrow.
Try Keeping Our Interruption Log for a Week
If you would like to become the Ringmaster instead of the Beast and take control of your life, the first step is to track your interruptions and distractions, What and who are causing them?
Just email me at kzeigler@kztraining.com, provide your email address, and I'll send you this form without cost or obligation. Then try the 30 Ways to Control Your Day (above). I invite you to leave a question of comment. Click on the Link below to Get our Digital Interruption Log.
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