Information Overload
Prioritise your work – everything can’t be top priority.
Eliminate Reading material.
Reduce bulk – tear or copy.
Remove yourself from the mailing list of any material you do not read.
Keep intray focussed remove or recycle all you can
anything you are not working on this week should be filed
The Urgent / Important Matrix
| Urgent | Non Urgent | |
| Important |
Do it Now!And do it well.
|
Specify a time to do it later. They need sufficient time to do them properly. They deserve time and effort.
|
| Unimportant |
Delegate or do it later. Don’t need to spend too long on them.
|
Don’t do it. |
Top Ten Tips (Polly Bird)
- Do it Now
- Know exactly what you need to do.
- Prioritise your tasks.
- Divide tasks into smaller steps.
- Decide Deadlines.
- Eliminate Interuptions.
- Allow time for checking.
- Don’t try to be perfect.
- Don’t be late.
- Allow for delays.
Meetings
- Eliminate unnecessary meetings
- If meetings are the only chance people have to meet informally, allow a 20 min ’social break’. Put it on the agenda and call time promptly.
- Make sure everyone is aware of the Purpose of the meeting
- Have an agenda – everything on the agenda should contribute to the purpose of the meeting.
- Set a time limit.
- Ensure Actions to be carried out are known to all participants.
- Set time limits on followup action.
Planning
- Create a To Do list
- Plan from your To Do list
- For each item, decide on Important v Urgent.
- Use your Prime Time for important tasks (the time when you work best. For some people it may be morning, others afternoon).
- Set goals
If you don’t like the words Important and Urgent, use others such as Essential Tasks, Important tasks and Low value tasks. It is just a method of reminding you what you should be working on.
You can decide which tasks fall into these categories by asking:
l Which task is most valuable to this Project and the Company / Client?
l Which task does the Project team think is most important?
l If I cannot complete all the tasks, which should I complete?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Time management
use the functions provided in outlook:
tasks – can be assigned a priority and reminders can be set
use follow-up flags on emails both received and sent, this neatly puts them in their own folder so you can see which emails you need to respond to
set emails to expire so you don’t overload others with information they don’t need
turn email off – only check first thing, lunchtime and before you leave – you’ll be amazed at how much more you can achieve
If you have a corporate system which everyone files into one tip is to use the SAFE rule – Sender Always Files Emails!
Some extra tips on records management and especially emails and naming conventions can be found below
http://www.pasa.nhs.uk/PASAWeb/NHSprocurement/About+NHS+PASA/Electronicrecordsmanagement/Staffguidance.htm