From Training's Productivity Coach's Corner
By Jason W. Womack
Think of an important project you want to get done. Are you putting off working on it on purpose? Are you missing key resources? Are you waiting for someone to get back to you before you can make the next decision? Or, are you procrastinating? Begin by exploring your own daily routines.
Write down the approximate time you arrived and left the office each day for the last week. This represents your "workweek." For each single hour you were working, you made choices about what to focus on as "priority." You also chose what did not get done. Here are three ways to get going and sustain an action-orientation to your own productivity:
1. Chunk your objectives into smaller markers along your path to success. Recently, I worked with a managing partner of a Fortune 500 company who realized that more important than managing time is his need to more effectively direct his focus within the small chunks of time he has to work.
2. Do things differently. In less than five hours, my client realized that much of his success was going to come down to appropriately disengaging his focus on the urgent but not important tasks. He said it is critical to stop focusing on some of the things he'd grown accustomed to doing, such as checking his e-mail every 10 to 15 minutes and saying yes to every meeting he was invited to.
3. Acknowledge the accomplishment. Regularly throughout the day (before lunch and before you go home), take a moment and mentally check off what you've completed. This is your chance to recharge—acknowledging completion is a quick way to get back on track. (Have you ever made a list of to-dos…after you've already done them?!) Too often, long-range goals fall into the "important but not urgent" category of day-to-day workflow management. We put off doing the most important things while making start-and-stop progress. When this happens, the urgent—latest and loudest—clamors for our attention. Make a list, focus on your to-dos, and mark something as completeýýit's the best way to beat procrastination.
Jason W. Womack, M.A., M. Ed., a master teacher, speaks and consults on the topics of maximizing productivity and achieving a balanced lifestyle. Visit his Website at www.jasonwomack.com and share your questions and comments via e-mail: Jason@jasonwomack.com.
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