Make the most of your day - change the way you work and play
Plan your day
  • To focus on your priorities, it's important to use a day planner to list all the things you want to get done.
  • To really get a head-start, consider filling in your day-planner the night before, or schedule a time for it early each morning
  • As you move through the day, remember to continually keep your day planner 'live' and updated by ticking things off as you do them – it can be very satisfying - and can help you see your progress at a glance.
» Get a day-planner template «

Prepare for meetings
  • Plan ahead and think about what you want to discuss with your boss or team before the meeting.
  • Try using meeting minutes before the meeting, by filling in the section headings with the items you want to address.
  • Take the sheet into the meeting with you to fill with the details - points that seemed obvious at the time can be quickly forgotten during a busy day.
  • Using a meeting minutes template is a great way to remember what was discussed, and importantly, who was going to follow up.
» Get a meeting minutes template «



Make the best use of your time

Here are three relevant questions to clarify if the item you're working on is, in fact, the best use of your time:

  1. Is it going to help you achieve your goals?
  2. Is it the item with the highest value to you, your customers or your company?
  3. Could someone else be working on it?
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Focus on the Start - Not the Finish
  • Rather than focusing on when you need to finish something, focus on when you should be starting it.
  • One reason projects and tasks don't get finished on time is that we think we have plenty of time, so we put off the important work in favour of the more urgent items - until the important work becomes really urgent (1).

Recognise when you work Best
  • Schedule your most important work for the time of day when your energy is the highest.
  • Don't let your day control you.
  • Take control yourself and don't put off doing those things you don't like doing but which are necessary (2).

Three principles of time management
  1. 'Planning takes time - not planning takes more time'.
  2. 'It takes a lot less time to prevent a crisis than it takes to solve it.
  3. 'We manage interruptions - we don't stop them'.
(1,2,3) James DeSena MBA, CSP