Self-care is an important focus as you address daily tasks. Accomplishment, while important, is best addressed with a balanced approach.
1. Schedule Breaks Everyone needs to take breaks throughout the day, so make sure to account for them when scheduling your tasks for the day.
2. Schedule Time for Email and Social Media Email and social media can be enormous time wasters. Don’t respond to every email as it comes in and don’t leave Facebook or Twitter open all day. Instead, schedule a short block or two throughout the day to accomplish these tasks.
3. Avoid Distractions Aside from social media and email, there are a number of other distractions that can cause you to waste time throughout the day. If you work at home, turn off the TV. If you work in an office, take a different route to the water cooler to avoid chatty co-workers.
4. Stick to One Task at a Time Multi-tasking sounds like a time saver, but it isn’t. Serial tasking is most effective. Focus on one task, complete it and then move on to then next item on your list.
5. Batch Tasks It can be helpful to do similar tasks consecutively. For example, make all your phone calls for the day back-to-back.
6. Incentivize Tasks When you have a really difficult task to complete, give yourself a reward for completing it. Something as simple as taking a break makes a difference.
7. Focus on Results You should have an idea about why you are doing each task on your list. Ask yourself how each item will impact your company and focus on results.
8. Don’t Stress Over Unimportant Details If something doesn’t have a big impact on your business, don’t stress about it. Perfectionism can be a big time waster.
9. Create Good Habits Create a habit of sorting files regularly, responding to emails in a timely manner and quickly accomplishing any other tasks that show up on your to-do list so that it quickly becomes routine.
10. Eliminate the Non-Essentials Remove items that no longer serve a purpose to your mission, both physically and electronically . ©MWeisner2017
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