Tips & Tricks: October 2015

“We can no more afford to spend major time on minor things than we can to spend minor time on major things.”  Jim RohnHow many of us get side tracked on a less-than-important-task? It happens – to ALL of us. The trick is to limit the frequency that this happens, especially if the major things are not getting done. There’s something called the Pomodoro method that can help you monitor the amount of time you spend during your day. There’s even an app! The bottom line is to plan how much time a certain task will take (be honest with yourself above all else) and then allocate the time and limit distractions. Limiting distractions (another name for ‘minor things’ is another tough habit to embrace). Practice makes perfect so start practicing today!

Clutter Enemy #3 – INDECISION

The definition of clutter is delayed decision making. It seems easier to toss something to the side to deal with later rather than to risk answering or deciding something without a well thought out thorough analysis. But guess what? Most of us don’t have time for a thorough analysis of everything that crosses our path or our desks or our minds each day. The next best thing is to get in the habit of making decisions as these things come to your attention. For example, if there’s a charity event that’s coming up like a walk or a run and you’d like to do it but don’t know if anyone else would do it with you, there are a couple of ways to handle this:

 
1. Have ONE place where you put ‘things to decide’ and then deal with them DAILY – or at least WEEKLY by scheduling time to go handle each item.
 
2. Put the date on your calendar, email/text/call potentially-involved people right away and if there is no response within a day or two, take it as a no and move on.
 
3. If you can’t say YES or NO immediately, then take it as a no and forget about it.