Assertive management lends itself to today's healthy attitudes. We all know that today's consumers are better educated, more aware, and certainly more sophisticated than ever before. At no other time have they had more rights, or more champions in their corners. They want quality and they want service, the first time. And they deserve it. Assertive people are adult in their dealings and they are not prejudiced by people's tantrums or machinations. They are usually in control and have self-esteem. By being themselves they will inspire confidence.
Assertive managers are not afraid to give. They will coach, counsel and motivate because they know by doing this they will create a better system. This system will produce more with less problems and tensions, and this in turn will reflect back on them in an extremely positive light. It is a win-win all the way around, because their employees will be excited and will want to do a better job because they are being rewarded and recognized. This is reflected in attitude and performance, and then profits. You can't ask for much more than that.
Enjoy this aspect of management. It will definitely spiral you up the ladder of success. You will achieve just about everything you want. Just remember, respect yourself, your peers, your coworkers, your superiors and all your contemporaries, and good management and lifestyle will be yours.
Start to keep track of the individuals and people who are causing you stress. Is it because they are disagreeing with you; do you feel as if you are losing control? Are other people putting you on the defensive? Take a look at your diet, too. Is there any time in your day scheduled for something other than work and personal duties?
Reduce Stress by Making More Time
I feel that time management can lead to greater productivity, less stress and pressure, and more creativity. In addition, knowing one is more organized and in control adds to confidence, enthusiasm and flexibility.
Remember, if you only pick up 30 minutes a day, that represents 22 more eight-hour days. In the working world, that is an entire month.
You can read all you want about time management. But unless you are willing to go through a behavior modification to replace bad habits with good, nothing will happen.
The first thing you need to do is make a time log. I suggest you do the log in 15 or 30 minute increments, for two reasons. During that time write down exactly what you have accomplished, and if you were interrupted by the phone five times of six people came into your office, note that. After two weeks, you will notice a pattern forming, and you will be able to determine whether you have quiet time available, slower periods when traffic through your office or department is less, or whether you need more control over what you do. Regardless, you will learn something from it and you will be able to start scheduling in time for you.
The time log should be discontinued after two weeks, and repeated quarterly just to be sure you are on track and don't begin slipping.
Plan your day the night before. This allows you to walk through your day and have a good idea what it contains. You must have your priorities and objectives set before you get to the office. If the first working hour of your day is not a productive one, your entire day will go poorly. I am sure you have said more than once, "It looks like it is going to be one of those days." Usually that happens because your priorities were not clear, objectives not set, and someone else has interrupted and controlled your time. You also need to know your biological time clock. Are you a night person or a day person? Some people are up at 6 a.m. and jogging. Others need fourteen cups of coffee to get them going. Other function extremely well at night, and like taking work home with them.
Use Your Prime Time
The idea is to do your most difficult project during your prime hours. If you try to tackle them during your worst times, you will find yourself procrastinating. You must also learn to prioritize.
Most management books talk about A, B and C priorities. I term A priorities those which are both urgent and important.
Handling Stress and Time
They must be done within this 24 hour period. B's are either important but not urgent, or urgent but not important. They can be put off until tomorrow. C's hopefully will go away all by themselves.
Once your determine what the priority is, you must rank order it, such as A-1, A-2, A-3 and so forth. You must not veer from this determination once it is made, because this ensures that you always work on the most important project first. You may never get to a 2 priority because of interruptions or your job functions, but at least you will have worked on your primary target. Most of us get sidetracked by working on the easiest things first, or we move from one chore to the other with no clear plan. We figure it is simpler to get the little things out of the way. The problem with this is we never get to our important items; we become busy with activities rather than results. We can always keep ourselves busy, but are we accomplishing anything?
Write everything down. Since we only remember 40 percent of what we want to on time, it is imperative that we commit things to paper. Fortunately, people do this, but on little pieces of paper which get scattered, are distracting and sometimes even get thrown in the trash. The worst thing that has happened to us are the yellow sticky pieces of paper which have found their way into our lives. You find them stuck to everything: desks, lamps, drawers, walls—even ourselves. They are great when sending a memo to someone which is attached to an object; this way the message doesn't get lost. But when they are all over your work area, they will boggle your mind.
You need to commit your thoughts, "to do's," reminders and projects to a single sheet of paper. It is much easier to keep track of a single sheet than several small pieces of paper, and far less distracting. I strongly recommend this for telephone messages as well. It is absolutely the most horrible feeling to come back from lunch and see forty-two pink slips waiting for you. It is all right to return the messages from the pink slips if you are going to do it right there. But if you are going to wait, or once you've made the initial attempt to return the calls, they must be placed on a single sheet of paper. Believe me, you will come to a great realization that this is best once you find it relieves you of stress and tension, and you are able to see things at a glance. It gives you more control, and that is what you are looking for.
Set Realistic Deadlines, and Stick to Them
Learn to set realistic deadlines and honor them. Every project or task needs to have one; it gives you a framework in which to work. It also allows you to budget the time in small increments to reach that deadline. The average administrator is interrupted every six minutes. It is therefore important to divide projects into five, ten and fifteen-minute segments. It relieves procrastination, and will create more productivity. If you find yourself simply overloaded continually, you have three basic choices: delegate, come in early, leave late and skip lunch, or change your priorities from A to B. There are no other ways. You must make a value choice as to what works for you.
Most time management gurus tell you to touch a piece of paper only once. I don't believe that can happen. But I do believe that a decision can be made on every piece of paper that comes into your life. Don't put it to one side or it will be the first of a pile, and before you know it will have grown and taken over. Your paper goes to three places: the trash, a file, or you route it to someone else. It should never create a new, visible distraction. Ninety percent of filed paper is never referred to again. It may need to be stored for legal or record-keeping processes, but it should be out of the way.
Keep Goals Handy
One piece of paper you don't want to file away is your goals statement. Everyone needs written goals. Having them run around in your head with no plan of action will do you no good. You must have them clearly visible, so that when people come by to distract you, you can look at your list and see if it has anything to do with what you have planned for the day. If you honestly evaluate how your day is used, you will find that 80 percent of it has nothing to do with where you want to go in life. Your activities must be linked to your goals, but results are what's important.
Try to set one major objective a day, and reach it. Remember, you are the one who puts the importance on the objective, no one else.
Negative thinking will produce negative results. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich said, "What the mind can conceive, the mind will believe." Thank about how you can improve five minutes a day, then ten, then fifteen.
Today's etiquette allows for some timesavers. For example, you can now reply to a letter with a handwritten note on the original. You can save space in your files by putting a copy of the types reply on the back of the original letter sent to you, thereby having one sheet of paper instead of two. You can color-code files to go by subjects, divisions and so forth. None of these things are major, but they all save time. And those minutes add up at the end of the day.
If you are supervising people, I strongly suggest you start off each day with a 15-minute meeting so that you can track, so that they can give you feedback on their personal dilemmas, and everyone will be operating on the same wavelength. Unfortunately, priorities change from one day to the next.
Interestingly, most interruptions are within the company, so they are controllable. If I know I can call you at any time and get an answer, I will continue to do it.
Log Interruptions, Too
Keep an interruption log, so you will know the time of day they are the heaviest, and who the most bothersome culprit is. Wouldn't it be interesting to find your boss is coming in to see you ten or fifteen times a day, and then wants to know why you aren't more productive? Or, perhaps your secretary keeps running in for little things that she should be making the decision on-if you have given her the authority, that is. Knowing how insidious interruptions are may make you more courteous. For sure, it will give you a way to document the people and the problems that are breaking up your day.
Set aside some part of your day for physical fitness. Although there is no proof your life will be longer, your life will be better if you exercise. Take at least 30 minutes for some type of movement, whether it's aerobics, walking, jobbing, swimming, racquetball or whatever.
Concentrate on one important thing at a time, don't let your ideas vanish. Keep them in an idea book that you can refer back to; don't lose those important thoughts, but don't get sidetracked by them.
You must also believe you are doing an effective job, or you won't continue to perform. If you don't like a task, you will certainly find a lot of ways to get out of it.
Don't make a resolution that you will suddenly become a time expert. It won't happen. But you can begin by preparing adequately for things. You can make some headway every day. You can begin to control more of what is going on around you. Then suddenly you will have five minutes more, then ten, then fifteen.
Paperwork is usually a means to an end. Don't let it become a focal point of your life. Your desk should be fairly clear. In truth, you only need three files on your desk. One is a reading file for you to put important memos, articles and so forth into; a projects file for those important happenings and a correspondence file for answers. Since I have no secretary, I accumulate a minimum of five pieces of correspondence, and then I answer them. Believe it or not, it takes the same amount of time to respond to five as one.
The Time Bank System
Have a collection of 1 through 31 loose-leaf pages, representing the days of the month. Everything you have to do is put down on one of these pages, then prioritized A, B or C as we have discussed, and then ranked A-1, A-2, A-3. Those things not done must be either moved ahead to another day or crossed off as no longer important. Nothing is left unattended. So when someone says they will call you, or something is coming in the mail, you now have a place to put it.
Every seven days you remove the used seven days in front and add seven pages in back, so you always have 30 days at a time to work with. At the end of each day, everything must be crossed off, or put on another page of your 1-31 section. If you put everything down on these pages, you will begin to clear the clutter from your mind. Once you don't have to keep all these details in your head, your mind will become free to be creative. Any name, address or phone number that you have to look up more than once will be recorded in an A-to-Z section in that notebook. So this becomes a walking Rolodex file.
How to Save on Meetings
Meetings are another time-waster. They should not be held when there is no purpose, and especially when there is no agenda. All meetings must adhere to the agenda which should have been given to all attendees previously, so they should prepare their input and a time frame should be referenced. Meetings should start and end on time, and have a goal targeted no matter how simply stated.
Twenty Timely Tips
- Begin with a time log and discover your strengths and weaknesses
- Plan your day the night before so you get off to a good start.
- Discover your prime hours so you schedule effectively.
- Prioritize and rank your "to do" list.
- Write everything down, even the things you are sure you will never forget.
- Put all telephone messages on a single sheet of paper so they will be easier to work with.
- Set deadlines for everything.
- Make a decision on each piece of paper, and place papers in one of your three files or discard or reroute them. Don't create piles.
- Set goals for yourself and achieve them.
- Have a 15-minute daily meeting with your staff
- Think positively.
- Learn shortcuts.
- Handle interruptions effectively by knowing who, and what, they are.
- Take time for physical fitness. It will give you more energy,.
- Learn to focus and concentrate.
- Eliminate paperwork. Don't let it control you.
- Use single sheets for record-keeping on people and products.
- Use a 1-through-31 section for your "to do" list.
- File all current product, project and people sheets in your A-through-Z section.
- Keep meetings on track.
Using dead time is a skill. If you place a value on your time, you will have more of it and less stress. The result will be more confidence and competence and a richer, fuller life.
Dr. Gayle Carson is known throughout the world as an expert on turning quality and excellence into increased profits. Her successful record as a business leader, educator, entrepreneur and multi-million dollar real estate investor, shows she knows and understands small and large businesses and helps them profit from emerging trends in the business arena throughout the world. An acknowledged expert on business trends of the nineties and beyond, she is your best background source for TQM, customer service, leadership and excellence. Gayle's vast experience as a business leader gives her "real world" knowledge; a CSP (certified speaking professional) and CPCM (certified consultant to management). For more information, please feel free to contact her.
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