Plans are not made to be broken.
The best way to make sure your plans do not get put on the backburner is to prepare to deal with interruptions, and work out how to keep focus and on task. It is inevitable that the unexpected happens, so it’s best to take this into account!
Many people feel that there is no need to plan ahead, because the minute that they do, something will crop up to blow their plans out of the water.
Here are five great tips to help you stay on track.
Make sure you get more time to do the things you want:
- Manage interruptions that you can divert or avoid, because it can often take 3 to 5 minutes just to refocus on what you were doing before being interrupted – this steals a lot of time.For example, use voice mail to divert calls, avoid the temptation to check emails regularly and let people know that you are in the middle of something and most importantly, when you will be available, doing step 1 alone can get you back an hour.
- Batch or group work of a similar nature to do in one hit. You work faster if you are doing the same type of work. Also you waste time setting things up over and over and again.
- Save your quick jobs and tasks like emails for busy or disruptive periods of the day, because these things take little effort, and can be used to fill up some gaps in time. Leave the quiet and unbroken periods of the day for your most important work.
- Always leave space in your day to deal with things that just come up, otherwise you have to rearrange your entire schedule to accommodate or cope with it.
- Try and keep a note on what is stealing your time. Address these issues once and for all. Think about an alternative way of doing things; see if procedures have become non existent or out of date; look for ways or areas that can automate or outsource
