Time Management Proven Techniques for Making Every Minute Count – Richard Walsh

Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter 1: IS TIME OUT OF CONTROL?, 1
Riding the Adrenaline High. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Simple Symptoms and Scary Consequences of Hurry Sickness. . 7
Reports of the “Death of Work” Premature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
We Have Seen the Enemy, and It Is Us. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Just What Is Time, Anyway?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 2: ARE YOU REALLY AS BUSY AS YOU THINK?, 13
How We’re Really Spending Our Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Super-Size My Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Logging Your Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chapter 3: BUSY OR PRODUCTIVE?, 23
The Need for Busywork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Are You Guilty?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Avoiding Busywork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 4: CAN YOU REALLY MANAGE TIME?, 31
Can You Change?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Just What Can You Do about the Time Crunch?. . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Limits to the Traditional Time Management Approach. . . . . . . 35
So That’s Where the Time Really Goes!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Some Initial Changes to Get Control of Your Time. . . . . . . . . . 38
Chapter 5: USE THE TO-DO LIST EFFECTIVELY, 39
The To-Do List from Hell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
The Day as You Really Live It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Suggestions for Creating a Healthy To-Do List. . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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Chapter 6: GET STARTED, 53
Jump-Start Each Work Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Eight Ways to Get a Fast Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 7: IS YOUR LIFE A CONSTANT COME-FROM-BEHIND RALLY?, 61
Call a Time Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Taking Mini-Vacations Every Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Seven Ways to Go on Vacation Without Leaving Your Desk. . . 64
Why the Two-Minute Break Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Free 21-Day Satisfaction-Guaranteed Tension Trial. . . . . . . . . . 68
Chapter 8: GET ORGANIZED, 69
Recognize the Reality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Capture the Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Define. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Prioritize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Chapter 9: IS IT REALLY IMPORTANT—OR MERELY URGENT?, 81
The Dilemma of the Ringing Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Is It Important or Merely Urgent?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The Secret of Time Management Revealed: Why We Waste Time
on Trivia and Don’t Spend Enough Time on Essentials. . . . . . . 87
Asking the “Want To/Have To” Question. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Knowing When Time Isn’t Really the Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Why You’ll Never Be Able to “Find” Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 10: WAYS TO AVOID TIME TRAPS, 91
The One-on-One Meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
What’s Wrong with “Buzz Off”?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
What about That Old Standby, “No”?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
The Golden Rule Applied to Three Little Words. . . . . . . . . . . . 95
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The Group Meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Maximize Your Meeting Productivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chapter 11: SEVEN TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR MANAGERS, 101
1. Never Waste Their Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
2. Make Sure the Time Savers Are Really Saving Time. . . . . 103
3. Separate the Important from the Merely Urgent for
Your Staff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4. Tell Them Why. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5. Allow Them Enough Time for the Task. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6. Encourage Them to Do One Thing Well—at a Time. . . . . . 106
7. Have Productive Staff Meetings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Chapter 12: LEARNING TO SAY “NO”, 109
Why We May Have Trouble Saying “No”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Why All That “Yes” Sneaks Up on You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
How Many Jobs Do You Have?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
A Qualitative Method for Computing the Cost of Your
Commitments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Another Subjective Method for Trimming the Activity List. . . 116
The “Something’s Got to Give” Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Heartless or Practical?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
How to Say “No”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Chapter 13: Communications, 121
Tips for Writing It Right—and Fast—the First Time. . . . . . . . 123
A Cautionary Note about Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
A Few Cautions About Instant Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Chapter 14: HOW TO CONTROL PAPER FLOW, 131
10 Ways to Reduce, Control, and Eliminate Paper. . . . . . . . . . 133
Chapter 15: Turn Downtime into Productive Time, 139
Why Don’t Adults Get Bored?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
The Wrong Way to Do Away with Waiting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
One Way to Eliminate Some of the Waiting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Make the Wait Matter Less. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
You’ll Always Have to Wait. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
How to Use the Wait Time: Three Steps That Will Make You
More Productive and Less Stressed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Results of Turning the Wait into a Rest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Chapter 16: PROCRASTINATION, 149
Six Reasons Why We Procrastinate and Six Strategies to
Put Off Putting Off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
The Magic Bullet for Procrastination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Chapter 17: TIME MANAGEMENT FOR STUDENTS, 159
Principles of Time Management for Students. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Chapter 18: TIME MANAGEMENT FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT, 165
Where to Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Building a Project Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Task Allocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Time Estimating. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Managing the Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Quality Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Chapter 19: TIME MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE, 173
The Future Is Here. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Project Management Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Information Capture, Sharing, and Development Software. . . 178
Collaboration Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Personal Organization Software and To-Do List Managers. . . 179
Chapter 20: JUST DON’T DO IT!, 181
How to Eliminate Unnecessary Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
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Two More Forms of Unnecessary Work—Busy Work and
Work Avoidance Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
The “Not-To-Do” List and the “Let Others Do It” List. . . . . . . 185
Delegating, Swapping, and Letting Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Do It Now, Do It Later, or Do It Never. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Peeling Off the Layers of Perfection: The “Good Enough”
Tenet of Time Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chapter 21: WHOSE DRUM DO YOU MARCH TO?, 191
Learn to Keep Time to Your Own Rhythms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
What Would You Do if You Could Do Whatever
You Wanted To?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
So, What Can You Do about It?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
How to Find Your Rhythm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Chapter 22: ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP?, 201
How Much Sleep Is Enough, Anyway?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
The “Normal” Sleep Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
So, What Should You Do about Sleeping?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Six Steps for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
If Sleeplessness Persists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Is It a Problem or Just a Pattern?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Chapter 23: THE WAR ON STRESS, 213
The Parable of the Mice in the Refrigerator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
The Fun Stuff Is Also Stressful. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
The Bozo Factor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Stress Happens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Being Blessedly Stressed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Three Great Lies of Our Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
The Fundamental Truth about Stress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
How You Can Reduce Your Stress Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Chapter 24: DON’T LET WORRY ROB YOU OF TIME AND ENERGY, 229
Three Ways to Worry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Measuring the Worth of Worry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Ten Ways to Get Rid of Your Worries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
The Five Faces of Worry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
What to Do When It’s More Than Worry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Chapter 25: MAKE TIME TO THINK, 241
Why You Shut Yourself Off from Your Good Ideas. . . . . . . . . 243
Welcoming the Ah-Ha!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Creating the Ah-Ha on Demand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
New Age? Nonsense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Chapter 26: CREATE A VALUES-BASED TIME MANAGEMENT PLAN, 251
Does the Way You Spend Your Time Truly Reflect
Your Values?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Are You Mistaken about Your Priorities?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Why Aren’t You Spending Time on the Important Stuff?. . . . 256
Live a Values-Centered Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263