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Jumpstart Monday | Get your week off to a great start with the Day-Timer blog. Each Monday we feature a new tip to help you gain a more productive week at work and at home. |
| Today’s tip: Avoid schedule overload | |
Tired of feeling like you need to be everywhere at once? Unfortunately, it’s a recipe for a challenging week. Here are a few smart ways to protect yourself from having schedule overload…
Try This:
Each morning, spend 5 minutes planning your daily schedule and protect your time for getting priorities done. Use these ways to keep your commitments to meetings and outside activities to a minimum:
- Keep set of goals written in your planner, and make sure all new appointments and meeting requests fit these priorities
- Delegate to a co-worker or friend who may have more time or resources — promise to do the same for them another week
- Follow the 80/20 rule – focus on top-producing activities and set time limits on low value tasks that eat up time and offer few paybacks (example: 30 min. per day on email)
- Say no: reschedule new requests you don’t have time for today — give yourself a reality check by writing down anticipated task times in your planner
Here’s Why:
It’s easy to find yourself with a day full of wall-to-wall meetings, but you’re not being responsible to yourself and your own priorities. The above methods help you take a stand for your time and protect what’s important each day.
Make it a point to protect your schedule this week, and please comment and let me know how well it works!
Note: Have an overloaded schedule at home? Use HomeLife to keep your family’s schedule running like clockwork.
[photo by Infusionsoft]
| Day-Timer Spokesperson Jeff Doubek can be reached at jeff.doubek@daytimer.com |
