You've surely noticed. The speed at which we're moving at the beginning of the 21st century is rapid. If the passing lane isn't fast enough, you can always slip into the express lane. Your business is stale if you're not referred to as a "fast company." It's "snail mail" if it's not e-mail. The entire world is only a "hyperlink" away. This is life in the fast lane, baby!
That's not all. We've been downsized, right-sized, and the consultants have scrutinized and optimized. The organization chart has fewer boxes and fewer rungs so the department bureaucracy is now a "team" of one. How many balls are you juggling right now? Don't stop to think. You have another deadline to meet.
How do you keep pace and make the most efficient use of your time? Fortunately, today we are better equipped than ever to stay focused and manage our time wisely. One such tool that is available and very affordable is personal information management (PIM) software. PIM software packages allow us to effectively keep track of appointments, e-mail messages, contacts and to-do lists.
The top personal information managers (PIMs) include Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Organizer, Franklin Planner Software and ACT! For more information and reviews about each of these software packages, you can visit CNET.com on the web.
Once you've jumped into the world of PIMs, it becomes much easier to stay on top of the flow of information and juggle the endless list of tasks. Here are a few tips you can use to keep pace.
Create Task Categories
Use three simple categories on your task list to help stay focused and maintain priorities (see "The Organized Executive" by Stephanie Winston).
Break your task list down as follows:
· Daily List - This is everything you need to complete by the close of business today. This forces you to prioritize the day. Deciding what you don't need to do is in many ways more important than prioritizing tasks because it filters out the bottom 80 percent that won't add value to your mission critical roles and responsibilities.
· Master List - This is everything that you need to do sometime in the future. It includes tasks that need to be completed next week and next month.
· Follow Up Lists - Keep a list for every person that reports to you. Use these lists to keep track of items you've delegated to others.
This is how it works. Every morning review your Master List and determine what tasks or projects need to be completed today and move those items to the Daily List. Once you determine the tasks that need to be completed for the day, prioritize those tasks and begin working on the top priority items. At the end of the day, any uncompleted tasks are carried forward automatically to tomorrow's Daily List.
Just Chunk It!
In his book "The Project 50," Tom Peters refers to this process of breaking down a big project into small, manageable tasks as "chunking." Using your PIM software, you can chunk your projects by breaking everything down into smaller tasks and actually scheduling those tasks on your Daily Lists over a given period of time.
This helps ensure that you're making progress on big projects, and meeting the deadlines for completion. Additionally, it creates momentum because there's a sense of accomplishment with each task that's completed, rather than the worry of being overwhelmed by one big project that's left unfinished.
Empty Your In-Box
For years, time management experts have been telling us to handle items in our paper in-box only once. That same principle works with your e-mail in-box.
With every e-mail message you receive, there are only three choices you have to make:
· Delete It -- Whether it's junk e-mail or a tidbit of work-related information that you know you won't need in the future, the best thing you can do is click the delete button.
· Delegate It -- With e-mail, it's easy to forward a message to someone on your team. With every message, ask yourself, "Is there someone on my team who could handle this for me?" (And probably handle it better than you can!) If so, forward the message to that staff member then delete the original message from your in-box.
· Do It -- Everything you don't delete or delegate becomes an action item. Act on whatever you can handle immediately by responding to the e-mail message with the information that has been requested. For all other items, create an item for your task list to be completed later. After you've done this, delete the original message.
Just like a cluttered desk, a cluttered in-box also is a trap for not using your time wisely. Before you walk away from your office every day, make sure you have a clean in-box.
Archive Sent Messages
Contrary to the in-box rule, keep or archive every e-mail message you send in the "sent box." This creates a journal of your conversations with others. In fact, knowing that you're going to delete every message in your in-box, it may be useful to reply to incoming messages you think you may need for future reference.
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How do you keep pace and make the most efficient use of your time? Fortunately, today we are better equipped than ever to stay focused and manage our time wisely. One such tool that is available and very affordable is personal information management (PIM) software.
- Tony Morgan |
Although the vast majority of your sent messages will never be read again, the practice of keeping all these messages is useful. Every so often, a question may come up about a prior decision or direction communicated through e-mail. Using the "find" function of the PIM software, it's easy to pull up a log of all the messages on a particular topic.
These simple suggestions should help you to stay on top of your projects and manage your time more effectively. Don't let the pace of today's world overwhelm you. Take advantage of technology to manage your time and your tasks.Tony Morgan, who transitioned from a career in local government administration to church leadership, is the Pastor of Administrative Services at Granger Community Church (www.gccwired.com) near South Bend, Indiana.
In addition to his role at Granger, Tony has helped resource other churches through training and consulting experiences and is the "cheerleader" for WiredChurches.com, Granger's ministry to church leaders. You may contact him at tmorgan@gccwired.com.
