Page 75 - Time Management

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Time Management
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tion—you should make a list of at least three personal and three
professional long-term goals, indicating how each will be meas-
ured and a deadline for achievement. Prioritize these goals,
deciding which is your A goal, your B goal, and your C goal.
Then put this list in a prominent place—someplace where its
presence will motivate you to continued action.
Leave Me Alone!
Usually, both workplace and home are environments of near-
constant interaction. An employee requires clearer direction for
an upcoming meeting. Kids need help with homework. The
phone rings. The doorbell rings. A fax spews out something that
demands action. The dog barks. It’s one thing after another.
Yet certain responsibilities require solitude. Interruptions are
like so many logs on a railroad track. Each creates big bumps
in the ride; one might derail the whole train. To detour around
this problem, consider the following:
• Identify a time each week when you’re least likely to have
vital interactions. Block off that time (at least two hours)
on your calendar or weekly organizer for uninterrupted
work. You need not even know what you’ll do during that
period: there will always be something. (If not, though,
you can always work on those D priorities.)
• If you’re at work, make sure that everyone knows about

Public and Private Time
Time management expert Stephanie Winston suggests divid-
ing your time according to activities that you designate either
as “private” or “public.” Public activities might include anything in which
others are involved—either scheduled meetings or unanticipated
intrusions. Private activities include such items as paperwork, corre-
spondence, reading, research, and planning.Then, she suggests, create
blocks of time that are devoted to either public or private tasks.
It’s a good idea, as well, to alternate public and private time.That
way, those who want to meet with you will know that they don’t have
long to wait before you’ll be available to them.