How To Supercharge Your Daily Routine

Most people aren’t aware of this powerful time tactic!  When you are listing high-priority tasks for the day, list a “personal principle” to practice.  Some favorite principles of mine are being positive, praise others, smile, really listen and practice self-discipline.

Practice the personal principle you list all day long, then check it off complete at the end of the day as you would any other task.

You’ll get progressively better at living the principle, impact others in a positive way, and feel better about yourself.

This is productivity strategy #68 from the book Attack Your Day! Before It Attacks You co-authored by Mark Woods and Trapper Woods, time management experts.

Use A Talk File To Avoid Interrupting Others

One of the best time management tips I ever learned was the use of a “talk file.” If you communicate with a number of people on an on-going basis, you could label an index tab in your planning tool “talk file.” Then put a sheet of paper in that section for each person with whom you communicate.

As you are working during the day, thoughts will come to mind about issues you need to discuss with individuals in your file. Rather than call and interrupt those people on the spur of the moment (which is the natural inclination), jot the thought down under their name in your talk file. Begin to build a digest of issues for each person. This way, you will reduce the number of times you interrupt others; and, when you do talk, you won’t forget a thing! In addition, your peers will appreciate you even more.

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.