7 tips to manage our phone calls more effectively.

1. I don’t know about you, but when somebody calls me and they want to give me information, then they put me on hold while they try and go find it, it’s a bit discourteous in my mind.  I tend to call them time robbers.  Have all the information at your finger tips prior to making the call.
2. Establish relevancy quickly. Relevancy means paying attention to the matter at hand.
3. Put a time limit on the front of your call. So if you were to call me I would say, “John, I am glad you called, I have about 3 minutes.  Could we wrap it up in that amount of time, or maybe I could call you back?
4. It’s a good idea to have clock or a watch by the telephone so that you are aware of how much time is actually ticking away during each call.
5. Screen your calls whenever possible, of course in a polite way.
6. Keep a talk file. If I communicate with you on an ongoing basis I keep a little paper file, or memo file electronically about things I want to talk to you about. Rather than call you every time something comes to mind, I just put it in the file and then when we finally do talk I might have six or eight items that I want to review with you and I have only made one call rather than six calls.
7. Very often we are called but nobody tells us the best time to call them back.  They give us the telephone number so fast that we have to keep playing the message over and over to get it down. I’m sure that’s happened to you many times. So when you wrap up the call give “precise” detailed information and restate your phone number twice.

Take the next few minutes and think about your biggest telephone challenges and write a statement in your Day-Timer how you will change that habit starting today.  We form habits by daily repetition, so practice this daily.

More time saving tips

Many time problems are self-imposed

Not enough time for you? Pay yourself first.

On airplanes, in case of an emergency, we are told to put on our own oxygen masks first and then to help our child. When investing money, we are encouraged to pay ourselves first. Why? We have to take care of ourselves to serve effectively. But a mind-set that says we must first satisfy the demands of others often leaves us lacking energy for the things we care about. This ultimately leaves us with less energy and resources, not only for ourselves, but for others as well.

Try this: plan time for yourself every day. Make an appointment with yourself! Note in your Day-Timer^® Organizer not only the time, but also the place. Honor the commitment.

How Successful Organizations Deal with Interruptions

On a typical day, you can expect to get caught in the crossfire of interruptions, the unexpected will bubble up, and demands will fall out of the sky at inconvenient times.  Flexicuting will be required.

Yes, we invented the word flexicuting because we can’t think of a better way to describe this skill.  Events are so fluid in today’s work environment that we have to change, adapt, and shift our focus all day long.

Flexicuting involves the ability to:

• Be as willing to leave your activity list when priorities shift.
• Be able to respond to opportunities the middle of the day.
• Reserving some time every day to deal with the expected/unexpected.
• Be wired 24/7 without letting it be a source of distractions and frustration.

Would you like to become better at flexicuting?  Here’s how! Recognize it’s a survival skill by changing your mindset and practice the forgoing flexicuting skills daily. It can be quite fun.

Flexicuting involves the skill of both multi-tasking activities and alternate-tasking activities. It also requires the wisdom to know when to use and when to avoid either of these approaches.

We’ll talk about multi-tasking first. In our society, the term multi-tasking is overused. Even worse, the skill has been elevated to the pinnacle of desirable abilities and we often find ourselves abused—and sometimes abusing—in the execution of multi-tasking because there are some guidelines to multi-tasking that most people aren’t aware of.

Beware of multi-tasking while engaging with another person; for example, opening and reading your mail while carrying on a business conversation with somebody in your office. Not only is this disrespectful and a put-down of the other person, it’s very easy to miss a point or to misinterpret the communication.

Alternate-tasking is the natural result of being wired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365). Living under these conditions, it makes sense to alternate our work and personal life activities in a way that we can fully experience both. While multi-tasking can contaminate time, alternate-tasking does not.

Alternate-tasking can help you get more done in less time than multi-tasking because, when you are fully engaged, you are more efficient and productive.

Flexicuting also involves the “oscillation” of our daily activities. This too is part of the flexicuting skill. In other words, we alternate activities that require intense concentration of effort with activities that are easier and much less stressful. The easier activities give you a chance to recover your energy and then re-engage again.

Here’s how I oscillate. I spend a lot of time working from my office at home. Typically, I’ll schedule the activity of telephone coaching with a client, followed by thirty minutes of paper pushing. Then, I might do another period of coaching, followed by taking some time to get out of my office and run an errand. This is what we call making waves during the day. It’s a way to manage our energy as well as our time. It can be a real downer to run out of energy before we run out of action list.

One of the foremost experts in the country on this subject is Dr. James Loehr, who co-wrote, among other books, The Power of Full Engagement. His advice is to manage our day as a series of sprints, each followed by adequate recovery time. If you are executing activities all day long as a marathon, it’s likely you won’t be as effective and will possibly burn yourself out by the end of the day.

Flexicuting and making waves during the day is not only ridiculously easy—it can be fun!

More on the subject of overwhelm.

More on the subject of stress.

Excerpted from the book Attack Your Day! Before It Attacks You, co-authored by Mark Woods, a time management expert. Mark Woods conducts training workshops, keynote speeches, breakout sessions, webinars, and offers private mentoring on the subject of time and productivity. Contact 623-688-2221 for more information.

If Everything Is A Priority, Then Nothing Is

Some people feel pushed to the limit with overwhelm.  They see everything as an equally high priority.  That’s an illusion.  An outstanding executive put it this way: “If everything is a priority, then nothing is.” (Andrew Komenek.)

Survival today requires the skill of selecting the highest of high priorities in a mire of multiple demands. See through a lens of filter questions. Strengthen your priority-eyes. Here are three good questions that can be used any time of day: What things are absolute necessities today?  If I don’t do this today, who will it affect and who will suffer?  What can I eliminate to free up more time?

For more time management productivity tips

Is A Project Hanging Over Your Head?

I often hear people say, “I’ve got too much hanging over my head.”  When somebody says that, you know their energy is being drained.  The longer something hangs up there, the heavier it feels.  Energy that could be used to accomplish things is burned up in one’s stress generator.

If something is hanging over your head and it’s bothering you that means it’s important!  It’s also likely it’s hanging up there on the hooks of fear and indecisiveness.  Postponement will only make things worse.

Lighten your load with three steps.  First, determine the fear that’s blocking you and face it.  Second, decide when and how you’ll get it done. Third, do it.

The relief you’ll feel will far outweigh the challenge of getting it done.

How Time Management Reduces Stress

This was posted a few years ago by Jeffrey Janata, Ph.D., Psychologist, University Hospitals Case Medical Center and it still is applicable today.

“Again most of us experience stress when we feel as though we have a perceived lack of control over the events in our lives. And time management — being careful about how we use our time, how we portion our time — can enhance our sense of control. As far as tips are concerned, I think any time management process has to begin with a realistic appraisal of how it is that we’re using our time.

Typically it’s a reasonable thing to monitor how we use time for a few days or a week to try to get a sense about whether or not we really have a problem with time management, or whether we’re really spending too much time on too many tasks that aren’t really terribly relevant to our job or our school performance.”

My summary.  Stress will decrease with proper time management.  The new time management is is activity management.  Under plan and over commit so you don’t experience time compression.

View the original post here. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/StressCoping/story?id=4672836