Personal Development Planning Time – If you only have a limited time to tackle certain key jobs, what would help you determine what tasks to look at first?
Always look to assess any given task at the level of impact that that’s going to have on other actions that are required to be completed. It’s often that one task will have a knock-on effect to other things. And so if something can be done to involve others with their activity, that may come as a priority task.
And essentially, which task will make today the most productive. It’s not always chipping away at e-mails and smaller tasks that could wait a few more days. It’s looking at the ones which are going to really get a project moving that I would focus my attention on.
Personal development planning time ~ how do I manage my own time on a day-to-day basis?
I either use an Outlook calendar colouring system, which highlights travel time, meetings, and key actions there. Personally, I also have an alarm clock, very simple. And I have set meal times and snacks set consistently across the day, so I know what different things fit in and how much time I have between if I’m getting up in the morning to my first snack, how much time I can fit things in. So just kind of little personal nuggets, time slots that I can fit things into.
What tricks do I use to remember what to do and actually how to do them?
I use lots of bright colours to help me know what’s been done and what needs to be done, or maybe what’s paused, and a simple traffic light system- green, amber, and red. Red requires action. Orange is in the process, or has been stopped. And green is a great colour, because it means something has been achieved. I buy coloured folders to replicate the traffic light colour and I replicate this with folders on my computer labelled the same.
I would actively encourage and ensure that all your colleagues and staff use the same colour system in their Outlook calendar when they’re arranging their week. Even the addition of travel can really blow your mind if your team spends a lot of time out of the office. And it really shows how little time there is sometimes just to make sure meetings are planned effectively. But also, ensure you’ve got a good overview of where your team are and to support an activity if it’s taking place within the office, or even outside in the community.
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