Five tips to reduce your stress: TIP #3

FranklinCovey — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:24:06 +0000

If you’re like most people, including me, your task might require its own Dewey Decimal system. Do you get a dozen new tasks every day, on top of the dozen you were handed the day before? Although it may seem impossible, there is a way to get the most important things done.

Tip #3: Plan or Perish

If you’re like me, you have multiple projects. Each with dozens of sub-tasks that need to be done “right now.” Right? To get through this jumble of projects you must do one simple thing: plan. It’s as easy as that. It’s no secret. It’s pure and simple common sense. Try out this process and you’ll see for yourself.

1. This coming Sunday night, before your work week begins, review your list of tasks.
2. Prioritize the ones that are most critical to your team’s goals.
3. Identify those tasks that you can easily delegate to others (see my previous post).
4. Identify what meetings you have during the week and find tasks that can be accomplished during those time periods.
5. Then, every morning, before anyone else comes into the office, take five minutes and review your list. Check off things you’ve done, review the day’s appointments, and adjust your tasks as necessary.

If you’re a user of Microsoft® Outlook® or IBM® Lotus® Notes® you might consider checking out some quick and simple Time Management webinars we offer. They’re only about 1 ½ hours long and will provide some amazing techniques to help teach you how to use these tools while you plan your days.

In my next post, I’ll cover tip #4: “No” is not a four-letter word.

Author: Matt Murdoch, FranklinCovey

Insights from FranklinCovey Consultants

FranklinCovey — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:17:09 +0000

Based all around the world, our FranklinCovey consultants partner with organizations and help people accomplish their most important goals and initiatives. They spend their days helping organizations identity and close performance gaps through training. They motivate and inspire.

They are busy people but luckily they take time to share their thoughts with us via blogs. Check out some of their insights:

Kory Kogon

Here’s what I know: I am able to sleep at night knowing I am putting the big rocks…the MOST important things first. …Whether it is your team, your peers, your family….don’t let the small rocks fool you. Don’t let your ego overwhelm you…take the time to consider your values and the “most important”. Don’t let the urgency of the day to day cause you to regret later on…If you need help with figuring this out….take a Focus: Achieving Your Highest Priorities class….that may be just the “big rock” you need to come to terms with what’s important in your life.

James Cathcart

One of the challenges of (life) is to not allow these stresses and strains to get the better of us, (but instead) to endure the varied seasons of life while remaining positive, even optimistic. Perhaps when difficulties and challenges strike, we should have these hopeful words of Robert Browning etched in our minds: “The best is yet to be.”

FranklinCovey Blog » Important Things

Five tips to reduce your stress: TIP #3

Insights from FranklinCovey Consultants