2.
WRITE A DAILY TO DO LIST. This will be one of the greatest time
savers you can implement. It is amazing how many people do not write
a to do list. There may be a number of items they forget they needed
to do during the day by not writing them down. The best way to use
a to do list is keep a piece of paper, or a small tape recorder handy.
As you think of things you must accomplish write them down or record
them. About fifteen minutes before you are going to end your work
day organize all the items you wrote or recorded on your following
day's to do list. The next morning review your list and determine
the order of importance for each item.
3. GROUP YOUR ACTIVITIES TOGETHER. As you review your to do
list allow blocks of times for similar items. If you have several
phone calls to make do them in a block of time. If you know you will
be mailing things, mail them all at once, rather than making several
trips to the post office or the mailroom. When you have errands to
run plan out the most direct route for taking care of the tasks. What
some people do is haphazardly take care of their errands and end up
wasting time by backtracking several times.
4. HANDLING PAPERWORK. When paperwork comes across your desk,
decide immediately what you will do with it. With much of what you
get you will want to throw it out right away. Or you may want to delegate
the paperwork to someone else if they are more qualified to handle
it than you. You may want to file it away or respond to it. If there
are several pieces you must respond to what works nicely is to put
them in a folder marked "awaiting responses" and again block out a
period of time to do all your responses at once.
5. COLOR FILE FOLDERS. You will save a substantial amount of
time by blocking out categories in your file system by color. Rather
than searching through dozens, or hundreds, of manila colored folders
you have only a few to look at based on the color of the category.
For example, you may want to put all financial information in green
folders. Urgent client folders in the red category. Travel information
in the yellow folders. You decide what colors will best serve you.
6. KEEP UP ON YOUR FILING. Do not let it pile up. People who
have papers stacked on their desk waiting to be filed waste a great
deal of time. If someone requests a document that is somewhere in
the pile of papers waiting to be filed you are not being very productive
in your search. You are wasting precious time - theirs and yours.
When everything is filed in an organized fashion it will be so much
easier to find a document within moments of needing it.
7. ORGANIZE YOUR EMAIL PROCESS. Unless absolutely necessary,
resist the temptation to check your email several times a day. It
would be like calling the post office throughout the day to see if
you got another piece of mail. In most cases, checking once in the
morning and once in the afternoon should be enough. (Depending on
the nature of your business or industry it may be necessary to check
more frequently). Delete any messages you can and respond immediately
to those requiring a response. If you need to save a message you may
want to transfer it into a word processing file. That way you don't
have to keep pulling up that message when you check for new messages.
8. EMAIL DISTRIBUTION LISTS. If you have a distribution list
where you send out mass mailings via email put the addresses in alphabetical
order. That way when you get a message back indicating some addresses
are no longer deliverable you don't have to waste precious time searching
for those addresses. You simply go to it like you would any other
alphabetized address in your database. When sending out a message
to several people do a blind cc. That way you are not wasting your
readers time by them having to scroll down to get to the main part
of your message. You will also be respecting the privacy of all people
on your list and not giving others the opportunity to spam.
With some people, it will take time to develop the habit of being
truly organized. However, with good organization skills you will be
amazed at how much you can accomplish in any given day.
About the Author:
Kathleen Gage is a business advisor, keynote speaker, and trainer
working in areas of marketing, promotions and achievement for small
businesses. Call 801.466-3630 or E-mail kathleen@turningpointpresents.com
. Get Gage's free online newsletter Street Smarts Marketing and Promotions®
by visiting www.kathleengage.com
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the Forum: |
| accesskey CSS |
 With the new business site I am trying to make it 'accessible', but I am hitting a snag with Firebird. I read a tutorial that told me to put the following snippet of code in to make it work properly in browsers other that IE. Problem being, that when you mouseover it, not only does the 'title' show, but so does text showing the accesskey.
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By
Kathleen Gage