Daily Inspiration: April 20, 2012

Never be afraid to ask or help.

Prioritizing and getting yourself straight.

Prioritizing is putting down on paper how you can logically get through your day, week, and month and beyond.  It’s about logically thinking spending your time wisely and efficiently so that you can make your time count.

It won’t always work that way, but it gives you a roadmap of where you want to be and to go.  You may be ready to tackle that day full of vigor and optimism, however, distractions do happen.  Phone calls you didn’t plan for (which can be a good or bad thing), additional last minute meetings, people popping in and out of your office, the list goes on. 

Prioritizing your tasks can make you much more efficient at handling issues that come your way.  By putting things in the proper order of what is important to you to move ahead, you are able to assess the importance of what is in front of you and what needs to get done.

It helps when you prioritize projects that need to be completed along with your daily tasks that need to get done.

When it comes to your To Do List: Categorize what you are hoping to accomplish.

     1.    Urgent and Important

     2.    Urgent, but not important

     3.    Important, but not urgenet

     4.    Things that need to get done eventually

Always start at the top and do the urgent and important things first.  They are often the most difficult to do as well, but if you concentrate on them first and start to get them done, not only will you feel a great sense of accomplishment, but others around you will see that you are someone who gets things done and not just busy work.

When it comes to calls and especially emails, these can be some of your greatest distractions.  Set some time in your day to devote to these things, not just as they pop up because you will find yourself being sucked down a rabbit hole where one thing will lead to another and it will have nothing to do with what you are trying to accomplish.

Each time you answer email or pick up the phone, you lose valuable time and availability that you need to focus on what is in front of you.

Never be afraid to delegate many of the tasks that you have to do in order for you to stay on track.  I am sure there are people around you that are willing to do some of the things that you need to do and most likely (though you don’t want to admit it), they can probably do it better than you! 

It helps if you can journal what you do throughout the day.  I know that you are probably saying to yourself that you have so much to do now, however, the few moments it takes for you to keep track of your day for the next month can prove invaluable to you and those around you so that you know what you’re strong in and where you can use the help.

Remember, not to schedule too many things for you to do as this will ultimately put you behind and you’ll wind up not doing much while you sit and ponder.  This becomes diminishing returns where you put too much of yourself in one thing and everything else suffers for it.

Never be afraid to ask for help.