Sarah Sutton’s Tips on SAVING TIME October 28, 2008

Sarah Sutton,

Natural Solutions,

sarahsutton54@yahoo.com

I find myself thinking about Steven Covey. His quadrant concept rings true for me these days. I am sure many of you are familiar with this. Picture an axis with “urgent/not urgent” as the x axis and “important/not important” as the y axis. You end up with the following quadrants:

I. Urgent/Important

II. Not Urgent/Important

III. Urgent/Not Important

IV. Not Urgent/Not Important

The most effective quadrant is II and includes all of the tips everyone has shared. Planning ahead, realistic time management, not over committing yourself and taking care of maintenance activities to avoid the crisis, whether your health or your car. Not paying attention to quadrant II activities on a routine basis will result on landing squarely in quadrant I. (Unpreventable crises, like family illness and injury do happen, but you can’t control those) Quadrant III includes all those pesky interruptions (email, phone, etc) that are not urgent and can usually be limited to set times. Quadrant IV includes activities that are not urgent and do not serve your goals. TV watching could be in IV or II, depending upon how the activity fits with your life’s priorities and needs. Nothing wrong with deciding to kick back and get some much-needed R&R (which is a quadrant II activity), but random channel hopping on a regular basis could also land you into quadrant I. Balance, priorities and clear goals. Now to apply this concept and keep out of quandrant I.

Marguerite Nuccio’s Tips on SAVING TIME October 28, 2008

Marguerite Nuccio, Marguerite’s Healing Center, marguerite@mnhealer.com

Since I organized my house & office, I find I can keep it that way so I have more time. I guess this is just my problem with paper, but not saving any now. Next step is filing. HELP!

I tend to wake up either too early or in the middle of the night. Instead of tossing & turning & because I cannot shut off my thoughts, I have been catching up on all the reading I need to do. A brief chapter & thought provoking ideas allows me to go back to sleep easily & awaken with continued excitement with my new goals. It really helps my vision & the ideas can be explored at a deeper level.

Gale Mitchell’s Tips on SAVING TIME October 28, 2008

Gail Mitchell, MFT

gale@alamedanet.net

Books I have to lend:

1. Never Check E-Mail in the Morning by Julia Morgenstern
2. Organizing from the Inside Out
3. Time Management for the Inside Out
4 Getting Things Done by David Allen
5. Ready for Anything

Save time by using Tivo or downloading TV shows so you don’t have the
commercials. OR, watch with the commercials and do stuff during the
commercials or even during the show. Things like dusting the room
you’re in, decluttering, menu planning, going through mail, going
through in-box, filling out forms for school, etc., scrapbooking,
knitting, etc.

Also . . .

1. Use a timer (works for kids, too).

2. You can do anything for 15 min. Then, if you’re really into it, go
up to 45 min. in 15 min. intervals, then do something else (including
a break) for 15 min. Then, you can go back to the big task if
necessary.

3. Have a morning routine. This really works for me.

4. Have an evening routine that includes getting ready for tomorrow.
This is my biggest challenge.

Allison Bliss’ Tips on SAVING TIME October 24, 2008

Allison Bliss,

Allison Bliss Consulting,

www.allisonbliss.com

1. print out all emails over 1 paragraph, that are not urgent or collect a pile of any correspondence you get througout the day. Read the entire stack at night while on your excercycle. You’ll be more alert getting your heart rate up and be able to sift through all those important documents at the same time. That way, you can focus on getting work done while at work, hmmm, what a concept! That alone saves me 1/2 hr. a day

2. read “Making Work Work” by Julia Morgenstern. My fave lesson in that book is to start your day with your most difficult task, while you’re most creative and fresh. Do NOT start by reacting to hte zillion emails in your mailbox. Email is addicting so turn off those alerts that signal you each time a new email appears… it’s a time waster.

3. read the “One Minute Manager” and learn to handle a piece of paper only ONCE. If you keep moving it from pile to pile, rather than dealing with it, you’re sucking time.

4. don’t watch or listen to the news before coming to work. It’s often too depressing or fear-inducing (oy, the economy, etc.). And fear tends to affect people by making them freeze up from taking action.

5. download podcasts to learn your craft and take your ipod

Rebecca Stees’ Tips on SAVING TIME October 24, 2008

Rebecca Stees

Art Yowza:

www.artyowza.com

I wanted more bold, creative, fun time. This is what worked for me:

1. Hire experts
This year I realized I can’t do it all and expand my life purpose without more trusted help.
So I hired, an assistant, a coach, a tax guy, etc.

2. Call for Connection.
It’s fun. Two heads are better than one. Connection helps.

3. Focus
I have three focus periods a day during my off-season.

Linda Tripp’s Tips for SAVING TIME October 24, 2008

Linda Tripp:

Five Star Health,

www.5pillars.com/tripp

The one thing that I do is top prioritize my top three agenda items in a given day – but only 3, no more. I do them FIRST. Top of the list is defined by importance, not by desire.

There are two tasks: “demand and batch”. The tele or email is not a demand, but gets in line after your top three agenda items are completed. Something to shoot for.

Look at your inbox. Anything that’s been in the basket longer than 30 days, just throw out. Chances are, if you haven’t needed it or had an inquiry about it, who cares? Of course that is assuming you have done the first thing Ali said: don’t move a piece of paper twice.

Renee Bornstein’s Tips on SAVING TIME October 24, 2008

Renee Bornstein,

Oneness Astrology with Ki,

http://www.onenessastrologywithki.com/

Focus your attention on one thing, completely, and then move onto the next thing, completely. I learned this from studying Ki Aikido. We have an exercise called 8 Directions. We turn, focus all of our energy and attention in one direction, then turn and do it again. This trained us to deal with multiple, simultaneous attacks (called rondori). Since the whole purpose of training martial arts was to help with my daily life, I use “8 Directions” in dealing with my very busy “million things at once” lifestyle. Computers, by the way, do the same thing, only they split the tasks into microseconds of attention. We have to spend just a bit more time than that on each thing to make progress, but it’s the same principle.

And here’s another, related one:
Even if you don’t have time to finish a project, you can still make progress on it. I used to pass up working on anything that I couldn’t finish right then and there. I’d leave it until I had the requisite time. I thought that was being efficient, but actually, it wasn’t. There’s a psychological component to watching tasks pile up, especially if there’s physical evidence of them not getting done (think of the dishes piling up in your sink). Things begin to get overwhelming, and the time necessary to tackle that put-off problem is now much greater. It doesn’t take long to get into avoidance habits, and to feel stressed and unsuccessful. It actually saves time, and a certain amount of self-esteem, to do even part of a task. Do it with full attention, for as much time as you have. Then move on to the next thing. Those dishes? Do 3 or 4 of them, even if you have to leave the rest in order to go to the office, pick up the kids, etc. When you get home, there’ll only be a few dishes in the sink, and you’ll have the time to do just those few. You’ll also get a feeling of progress, which helps you tackle the rest of the jobs in your day.

Put things away as they need to be, rather than piling them up. Why walk past the coat closet to throw your coat on the dining room chair? Why move that stack of books back and forth from the kitchen table to your desk in order to have enough room to eat or work? Just put them in the bookcase. It’s hard to be disciplined enough to do this, but it does save time. And piles.

Diana Simon’s Tips on SAVING TIME October 24, 2008

Diana Simon,

Simon Says,

Simonsaysd1@yahoo.com

I can be a procrastinator, so I have created a method for myself to get things accomplished in spite of myself.

For whatever tasks or chores I have, I also have a number of things I’d rather do instead.

I make a list of the tasks in order of importance. I don’t need a list of the “rather-do’s” since I know what they are. Then I make a deal with myself: I have to get one of the tasks completed, then I get a time – out to do a “rather-do” (As long as it doesn’t take too long–going on a vacation doesn’t count.)

Then I have to do another task, then another “rather-do”, etc.
It really is a trick, too, because I often find myself in task mode and completing the tasks all at once. I think the real trick is getting started!

Jessi Brandt’s Tips on SAVING TIME October 24, 2008

Jessi Brandt,

Yes! I consult:

jessi@yesiconsult.com

1. Do not do email first thing in the morning.
2. Do not answer social calls while working.

Louise Goeckel’s Tips on SAVING TIME October 24, 2008

Louise Goeckel,

Let’s Go Forward:

www.LetsGoForward.biz

1. I like opening my mail standing over the shredder and recycling bins...so I can throw away or shred the 80% of the mail that deserves such. The other 20% gets immediately separated into folders for bills to be paid, reading material for the bathroom, other pending, etc…..

2. Making the following regular monthly appointments at the time of the service, like the next haircut appointment as I leave the current one.

3. I also like answering all business phone call voice messages before the day is over, no matter what.

4. Always having two extras on hand of office supply essentials, like printer ink cartridges, reams of paper, shipments of blank checks, etc.

5. Before leaving the office, making a list of what needs to be done the next day.

6. Having ONE calendar.