Set Priorities
Stress management requires that you take complete control over the activities of your daily life. This means that you plan your day, set priorities and work on high-value tasks. The indispensable key to time management is concentration, the ability to focus single-mindedly on one thing–the most important thing–and to stay with it until it is 100 percent complete.
Create Chunks of Time
This is the hardest challenge a manager faces. The ability to concentrate single-mindedly is probably the rarest single ability in the workplace. Most of our important tasks take large chunks of time. We need to plan and organize our days in such a way that we allocate these chunks of time so that we can do the jobs upon which our success depends.
A Burst of Energy
The wonderful thing about setting priorities and concentrating single-mindedly is that, the very minute you do these two things, you will begin to feel a tremendous sense of control and well-being. As you work progressively toward the accomplishment of your most important tasks, you will feel a flow of energy and enthusiasm. As you finish something that is relevant and significant to your company and to yourself, you get a burst of energy. Your self-esteem improves. You feel good about yourself. You have a wonderful sense of making measurable progress toward greater success in your career. You feel like you are making a difference.
Action Exercises
Here are two ideas you can use immediately to concentrate single-mindedly on the highest-value use of your time.
Before you begin, analyze your work and then ask yourself, “What one thing, if I did it quickly and well, would have the greatest impact on my work?” Whatever it is, go to work on that one item immediately.
Once you have begun on a high-value task, discipline yourself by repeating over and over, “Back to work, back to work, back to work!” This will keep you focused and on track until you finish the job.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 10:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “The Key to Taking Control”
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May 19th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Excellent post! Very good reading!!
May 20th, 2008 at 10:02 am
A great strategy to set daily goals is:
1. The evening before take a sheet of paper.
2. Write down 6 goals.
3. Put them in order of importance.
Next day: do them in order of importance!