Hi ,
Hello again to you all, and a special welcome to all you new members!
Wow! Another week has gone by already. It seems quite a few people are beginning
to scale down their marketing (and other) activities. Maybe it’s the lack of daylight here in the northern hemisphere,
but days really DO seem shorter and the energy level for actually getting things done is smaller as well.
Got me to thinking about time management. Martin Avis http://www.kickstartdaily.com I came
up with a good mini piece on this very thing recently. It’s called GUTS.
Think you might enjoy it. 8>}
Have you got the guts to deal with your paperwork?
All those mountains of files can be pretty scary, but
I'm not talking about that kind of guts!
Paper is one of those hidden time thieves in our lives
- not so much because of what is on it, but because of
how we handle it.
In theory, every piece of paper should be handled only
once - and dealt with. But in reality we tend to do a
bit here, a bit there, and end up with a growing mound
of papers that have all been handled over and over
again before finally being cleared away.
GUTS is a simple mnemonic to
remind you of the four
steps you should take to determine the fate of each
item of paperwork that falls on your desk:
G is
for Give it away. Your first thought should always
be 'is my time best spent dealing with this?' If not,
then do your best to delegate it down the line (or, if
possible, up the line!)
U is for Use it. If you can't
give it away then YOU
have to deal with it. Do it right away, or schedule a
time when you will use it. This step is vital - if you
don't get into the habit of dealing with every new task
immediately (even if the immediate use is 'just' to
write an entry into your to-do list) you will never
crack this time lark!
T is for Throw it away. Trash
it. If you can't delegate
it and if it has no specific action attached to it,
then you REALLY don't need to keep it. If it contains
information you need, by all means transfer the data
into your day book, but don't get into the habit of
keeping paperwork just for the sake of it.
S is for Send it. If none of
the above apply, send it
on to someone who can either make use of the
information or who has the responsibility of
maintaining the filing system. Just DON'T keep it on
your desk!
No, it isn't easy. Taking control of your life and your
work never is. It takes GUTS.
