Review Your Priorities and Supporting Goals.
In this time and age, it would be wise to keep only a few priorities. Too many priorities would be hard to manage and, moreover, would be paradoxical only few concerns can be of priority.
Address your priorities by setting goals for them.
Goals are statements that are specific to what you intend to accomplish. Keep in mind that your goals have to be concrete and measurable.
They must have specifics and target dates.
Claim Ownership of a Task or Goal.
Tasks or goals do not necessarily have to be set by you for yourself in order for the entire process to work.
What is essential is that you claim ownership of the goal; adopt it as your own. By doing so, you are able to organize yourself in ways that support the goal and eliminate the need for external motivators.
Get Organized.
Filing definitely has an impact on a person’s life and career.
The simple act of organizing materials represents a good, pre-emptive move in the battle against procrastination.
When you are in control of your surroundings, you have a better chance of staying focused, efficient and effective. For each item that crosses your desk ask these fundamental questions:
- What’s the issue behind the document?
- What does it represent?
- Why did I receive it?
- Why keep this? (Is it important? If it will be replaced soon, I don’t need it.)
- Should I have received this?
- How else can this be handled?
- Can I delegate it?
- Can I file it under “Review in six months”?
- Can I shed it with glee?
- What will happen if I don’t handle this?
Next, temporarily house all the files you want out of sight in a drawer and keep it closed. The idea here is that you are not postponing dealing with the surplus you’re just reviewing it at a better time. By the time you go through these files again, you’d know better whether to keep them or ditch them.
Arrange Your Desk for Action.
“The quality and ambiance of your workspace is at its best when it demonstrates the quality and ambiance of your life, or how you would like your life to be.”
So arrange or rearrange your desk in ways that bring out your best work, keep it clear of distractions, and, as Joe Sugarman, author of Success Forces, suggests: clear your desk in the evening so you are able to choose what to work on the next day.
Align Your Desk for Decision.
Set up your office to enable you to focus on the task at hand. This is basically just taking the previous tip a step further:
See to it that there isn’t too much on your visual field (pun unintended). The mere sight of too much of anything is already an impediment to beginning a task.
All that should be left in front of you is the issue at hand. This will dramatically increase your odds of maintaining clarity and focus.
Inspired by
Jeffrey P. Davidson