Time Management
To to handle interruptions at work
With the economic realities we have been living with since 2008, companies are forcing employees to do more with less. Not only are companies asking employees to be more creative and use less resources, they are also asking less employees to do more work. An interruption is anything that distracts you from the primary task at hand. Common workplace distractions are emails, phone calls, drop-in meetings, etc This means that most people you talk to, working in a corporate environment, have too much to do and not enough time.
The Getting Things Done (GTD) Weekly Review Process
As a GTD fan, I have read the book, listened to the 10CD audio seminar, read the articles on GTD Times and subscribed to David Allen’s audio blog. In all of these mediums, one of the key messages that seems to come up over and over, is the requirement to do the weekly review. What would happen to your car if you never changed the oil? The car would get sluggish and eventually the engine would die. Same thing for GTD.
The four truths about Getting Things Done (GTD)
Like I have said over and over, I love Getting Things Done. It has allowed me to stay on top of things and I try to teach it to as many of my colleagues as possible. Having worked with dozens of people, I realize that there are some misconceptions about GTD, so I decided to write this article to talk about them. 1. GTD is simple and difficult Whether you read the book, listen to an audio training program or participate to a live training class, you will realize that the core concepts of GTD are simple and based on common sense.
Getting Things Done may be the most important business skill
From a very young age, I realized that if I really wanted to succeed, I had to be smarter, faster and better than everyone else in my field. I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on training products and seminars. When working with younger professionals, the question I get asked most often is this : “What do I consider the one most critical skill required for success in business”. This is a great question and the answer is simple, learning a technique that allows you to GET CONTROL of your to dos.
Creating the paperfree work environment with Evernote
The Brilliant Idea The fine folks at Evernote came up with a brilliant idea. They created a hybrid cloud-based solution to store all your personal digital information, making it available everywhere, on any platform and completely searchable. I call their solution a hybrid-cloud solution because it is based on an offline-online model. All of your data is downloaded and available offline on their Windows, Mac and Linux clients. At the same time, it is available via their web interface or dozens of other mobile devices like Android, Iphone, Ipad, Nokia, RIM, etc.
An end to multitasking?
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1200”]Image by John Ragai used under Creative Commons License [/caption] Many years ago, I got to the point where I felt overwhelmed by my jobs and all the tasks I had to perform. After a long search, I learned and implemented the concept of Getting Things Done promoted by David Allen. One of his beliefs is that a person cannot multi-task and he built his entire system around this one concept. He preaches undertaking tasks one at a time sequentially.
Rule 2 of delegation
QuickTip - Setting the right expectations Early on in my career, I was committed to perfection. Everything had to be done perfectly and methodically. Although the idea of perfection is admirable, you quickly realize that waiting for perfection often means you miss incredible opportunities. It is often better to get started on the right foot and get it done rather than aim for perfection and miss the bus. How does this apply to delegation? Simple, if you expect perfection from yourself, you will expect it from others.
Rule 1 of delegation
An important tenet of efficient and effective time management is the art of delegation. Anytime I talk about delegation with an executive, they either support it or avoid it like the plague. Their reaction is predicated on past experience. When delegating a task, executives often forget the first golden rule of delegation: training and communication. In order for the work to be performed to your satisfaction, you need to ensure that you communicate your requirements and expectations to the other person clearly and concisely.
Tickle your way to better organization
We live in an era of information and often times it may feel like we are being overwhelmed by information. Many years ago, I reached an inflection point in my career. I had reached a point where I was constantly overwhelmed with my tasks and information. I did not know what to do, how to handle it and often felt like my work life was out of control. I decided that I needed to find better ways of doing things and so I embarked on a multi year journey to study and learn as many time management, work management and information frameworks as I can.