Now the clocks have changed and we have more daylight hours, how come we’re finding even less time to get on and do things and those things we need to do are now ‘URGENT’?
Here’s a simple matrix devised by Stephen Covey that looks at taking control of your time and realising where you’re spending it.
Grab an A4 sheet of paper and divide into quarters. Above the top two, write ‘URGENT’ in the left and ‘NOT URGENT’ in the right. Along the left of the top write ‘IMPORTANT, and left of the bottom, write ‘NOT IMPORTANT…
So, your quarters will be Top Left (No.1) ‘Urgent/Important’, Top Right (No.2) ‘Not Urgent/Important’, Bottom Left (No.3) ‘Urgent/Not Important’, Bottom Right (No.4) ‘Not Urgent/Not Important’, viola, your matrix.
No.1= MANAGE: Crisis, Medical emergencies, Pressing problems, Deadline driven projects etc.
No.2= FOCUS: Preparation & Planning, Prevention, Exercise, Relationship building etc.
No.3= AVOID: Interruptions, Texts, Calls, Some emails, Popular activities etc.
No.4= AVOID: Trivia, procrastination, Mindless TV, Junk Mail, idle telephone call when things need to be done etc.
Now look at where you spend your time. Ideally No.2 is where you will be most productive. Planning ahead so that items don’t suddenly find themselves in box 1!! Look at your own activities during the day or week and see what takes up your time and see where you can plan things in more efficiently.
Hopefully that will help, however, if time management is an area that either you or someone in your team or the team itself suffers from, Coaching to Success has a variety of ways to help with ‘Time Management’ so contact us for a FREE Introductory chat or send an email to neil@coachingtosuccess.co.uk where you’ll be assured a friendly and positive greeting.
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