Your time is yours, so claim your time. How do you find more time in the day? 1. Use your minutes. People don’t realize that 60 seconds is a lot of time. Look at all of the places where you spend “just a minute” that are taking away your time. Standing in one place on the phone, waiting in line at the grocery store, picking up a prescription, or my favorite, in an elevator. There is now news feeds in some high tech elevators to capitalize on that lost time. Use that time to sort your wallet, answer blackberry emails, update the To-Do list, drink some water or do some isometric exercises. Just use the minutes. 2. Plan the day. Not just the meetings, but also the work in the day. Do the urgent, but also take care of the important. One guy’s advice was that the first thing he did every morning was something to help his company make money. Sometimes we get caught up in the immediate and the urgent and we neglect the important. Make sure that you plan to tackle the project in the in-basket that has been there for 4 days. Carve time in the day and stick to your schedule. 3. Be kind, but keep walking. Don’t let other people throw you off your schedule. (Well, except maybe your boss….) There are people at work who are time-vacuums. They start talking, and 45 minutes later they are relaying their camping trip story from 1983 for the third time. These people will absorb your time faster than a paper towel at a child’s swimming party. So start walking. Get up from your desk and walk to the bathroom, the coffee machine, or around the building. Few people follow people who start walking. What else do you so to add time to your day? Please let me know! Mary at Productive Leaders www.ProductiveLeaders.com
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