Ali Bytes: Bullet-sized strategies for modern living

1. Schedule your time: You don’t just need to schedule commitments to other people. Put time for yourself on the calendar - to sleep, exercise, research, write, network, etc. - so that you can be sure you’re working on your personal priorities and not just those your boss or family make for you.
2. Define the outcome before you start: Whether it’s holding a meeting or research for a project, clearly defining the outcome you need to achieve to mark it “done” will help make sure you don’t stray from the task at hand. If the “to do” is longer term, break it into smaller doable chunks.
3. Quit: You can’t do everything so pick what clubs, teams, magazine subscriptions, clients, causes, friends (sounds harsh but really) and other commitments you’re just not that into. Decide what makes you happiest or adds most value to your life (and what you’re really good at) and then cut the dead wood. Though keep in mind the idea of cross-pollinating. As Steve Pavlina puts it, “Sign up for martial arts, start a blog, or join an improv group. You’ll often encounter ideas in one field that can boost your performance in another.”
4. Get someone else to do it: Learning to give tasks away, or delegate, is a skill almost everyone needs to practice. Most of the time we feel it’s easier to just do it ourselves exactly the way we envision it rather than invest time into explaining it to someone else. Whether you’re planning a wedding or planning a conference, apply this principle: describe in clear detail what the outcome needs to be (including the deadline) and let the individual figure out how to get there. As blogger Kivi Leroux Miller puts it, figure out “What tasks can you pass off to an intern or someone you can hire for under $20/hour?”
5. Cut off your internet connection: Unplug for tasks that don’t require it. Email, Facebook, blogs, news, etc. are just too distracting.
6. Continually prioritize and write it down: Every 7 minutes, a new task gets added to your to do list. Ok, that’s a made up statistic but it sounds realistic doesn’t it? Given how often our list of tasks changes on a daily basis, we need to continually reevaluate and re-prioritize. Doing this along with writing down tasks will ensure top priorities get done on time.
7. File ideas away (another great idea from Kivi): There’s no way you can pursue all the ideas that come into your mind on a daily basis and still get done what needs to get done. There just isn’t enough time but, if you’re like me, you don’t want to lose the ideas. I have been investigating and experimenting with various idea management tools (boy does that sound geeky!) including Google Docs for blog ideas, a mini Moleskine notebook for comedy ideas, RememberTheMilk.com and have recently been using Delicious bookmarks for career knowledge building. Figure out what works for you and start tracking ideas rather than running with every one. Stay tuned for a post on these tools in the near future.
8. Be realistic about long things take: Easily my number one weakness when it comes to time management. Unfortunately pair this with a procrastination problem and it’s easy to get into a pickle. Start timing yourself - walking the dog, writing a proposal, driving to that client’s office (or the golf course) - so you can plan more realistically.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm and is filed under business, growth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.