Shifting Priorities Are The Norm

Years ago when I started in this business, it seemed many clients had difficulty identifying their priorities. This isn't as true today as it was then. Unfortunately, now what I hear clients say is?'I can identify my priorities with no problem, but I can't get to them. At the end of the day I look up and realize I never got to the one thing I needed to do.' We are all busier today than ever before. A certain amount of chaos in our lives has become acceptable. But it has also cost us focus. Here are a few suggestions on identifying and working on getting to your priorities:

Create SMART goals and visit them regularly.
In order to know your priorities, you first need to know your goals-both personal and professional-because one flows from the other. Make sure your goals are SMART. Zig Ziglar says SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Relevant and Timelined. Now make sure you visit them daily. If your goals are SMART and visible, you are paving the road to then identifying your priorities.

Create focus time.
If you have identified your priorities but are not protecting time to work on them, you are setting yourself up for frustration and stress. Everyone deserves some amount of uninterrupted time to work on things they have identified as 'important'?and not necessarily 'urgent'. The Covey Time Matrix this represents Quadrant II activity and it is where about 75% of our time should be spent. If you think you don't have time to do this, consider the fact that you don't have time NOT to do this.

Minimize priority busters.
During my 'Clear your desk. Clear your mind. Organize it.' workshop, we identify and talk about how to handle the 3 top priority busters-interruptions, overcommitment and procrastination. Not only are we interrupted at least 8 times an hour, but it takes about 20 minutes to climb back into the project we were working on prior the interruption. If you are committed to your priorities, over-committing is more difficult. Each time you encourage or allow an interruption or over-commitment, you are letting others pull you into their priority at the expense of your own. The third and most obvious priority buster is?procrastination. Every time you delay a decision to work on something important, you become your own priority buster! Identify your procrastination roadblocks and move forward in overcoming them.

Begin practicing these basic time management principles and remember?time flies but YOU are the navigator.

Cynthia Kyriazis is an organizing and time management consultant, trainer, speaker, coach and author with over 20 years management experience in multi-unit corporations. Organize it, a division of Productivity Partners, Inc. is an organizational training firm she founded in 1995 and has been serving Fortune 500 clients ever since. Cynthia works with business and their employees to help improve performance and realize productivity gains.

Cynthia has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star and the Legal Intelligencer. She currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), member of the Kansas City of the International Society for Performance Improvement - (ISPI-KC) and consultant to the American Coaching Association.

MORE RESOURCES:

RELATED ARTICLES

What Are You Thinking?
What would be your reaction if someone said to you "In the next 24 hours you will be given $10,000 for every chair you sell like the one you are sitting on right now?"How many time management issues will you have? How hard will it be to set priorities for your day? How long would you wait before contacting your first prospect? How much time would you waist chatting on the phone or exchanging emails with friends? Probably will not take the time to be staring out the window or watching the grass grow!Seriously, in that situation would time management be an issue for you? How much of your 24 hour time frame would you spend sitting on that chair instead of talking to people about it? The excitement of getting lots of $10,000 checks would probably motivate you to see as many people as humanly possible in the next 24 hours, right? Most, if not all, of your time management problems would be resolved immediately!Think about this little example, and you will discover the key to success in many areas of your life -- time management, selling, managing, self motivation. One single ingredient determines the success or failure of just about anything you pursue in life.

When Is Time Management Not Enough?
A working manager needs more than time management.That old saying, "Dance with the one that brought you to the ball," came to mind as I received a reality jolt recently.

Whats Keeping You At The Office (9 Tips To Get Home Quicker)
"Work smarter, not harder" is a cliché that has darted in and out of the workplace for years. But it's still as true as ever.

Shifting Priorities Are The Norm
Years ago when I started in this business, it seemed many clients had difficulty identifying their priorities. This isn't as true today as it was then.

Im Too Busy - Oh Really!
If I had a dollar or even better a pound for every time I'd heard a business leader say this I'd be very rich.I'm too busy is used in so many contexts* I'm too busy - I don't want to * I'm too busy - I'm overwhelmed * I'm too busy - Go Away * I'm too busy - I'm confused * I'm too busy - And you're not!If we break that sentence down and look at each part, we can then look at ways of helping you be less busy.

The Keepers of Time
I give presentations on organizational skill building as it relates to paper, time, and computer file management. It seems that we all have too much paper, not enough time, and more than enough information stored in our computers if we could just find it!Part of my job is to help identify the challenges an employee or organization is facing and suggest solutions.

10 Time-Saving Calendar & Scheduling Tips
Nowhere is the line drawn more clearly between 'Industrial brains' and 'Electronic brains' than when it comes to the way people prefer to keep and use their calendars. These scheduling tips will really make your calendar talk to you, whether you use a packaged set, print out a computer calendar because you like the paper 'view' for better planning, or you synchronize your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with your laptop and office computer and it never hits paper.

Creative Leadership; Inspirational Power ( Part 2 )
Time management is absolute crucial nowadays where business decisions have to be taken often at the speed of light, leaders have to find spare time to prioritize their actions.Time is the scarcest of all resources.

Vilfredo Paretos Principle: The 80-20 Rule: 80% of Results are Produced from 20% of Efforts
Vilfredo Pareto's Principle, or The "Pareto Principle," is more commonly known as the 80-20 rule. It suggests that a ratio of approximately 20% to 80% can be found as an effective measure for most things in life.

Top 10 Ways to Manage Yourself - Time Wise
"Time management" is a myth. Time ticks by, whether you achieve what you want to or not in the run of a day or week.

Time is on Your Side - Manage it Wisely
How do you manage your time? Or is the more appropriate question do you wish you had better time management skills? I have clients and friends who rely on everything from legal pads to brightly colored sticky notepads to manage their time and appointments - practically everything in their life. I don't understand why some folks place so little importance on something as important as time management!As a professional Virtual Assistant, I have numerous clients and tasks I must complete every day.

7 Tips for Being Your Best Time Master
It is not enough if you are busy. The question is, "What are you busy about?" - Henry David ThoreauWith our to-do lists ever-growing, assigning tasks to our calendars can be a simple way to manage time and reduce stress.

10 Ways to Take Back Your Time
I've divided my tips into two sections - 5 ways to manage your time and 5 ways to take back your time. Both offer daily or regular practices to try out in your life right now.

5 Tips To Get More Out Of Your Work Day
It's easy to waste time on things that seem urgent but are not important, and even easier to get slowed down by clutter and distractions. Here are 5 solutions.

The Kaizen of Goal Setting
There is an old way of goal setting and a new way of goal setting! The old way of goal-setting involved setting yor goals, preparing a list of sub-goals, and then carefully checking them off one after another (as and when they were being accomplished). Am I trying o pour cold water on the goal setting method many of us grw up on? Not necessarilyWhile I am not saying the step-by-step approach does not work, I am advocating a flexible-goal setting approach.

Time Management: Set Yourself Up For Success
Any habit of mind or body that interferes with taking decisive action contributes to your tendency to procrastinate. Think about your good habits and the environment that leads you to be most productive.

Make Procrastination Wait
Reflect on the rewards of kicking the procrastination habit. They are quite clear: -- Daily feeling of accomplishment.

Time Invested Wisely = Your Dreams
This past Friday I was asked to speak with a person, who just signed into a home-based networking business -- which I know is one of the most effective entrepreneurial methods for an average person to achieve true financial success. My entire conversation/coaching session with this individual was based on the simple theme of working your plan and committing long-term with no thought of ever quitting until the achievement of your ultimate outcome.

Living Life In A Time Starved World
Recently I saw an advertisement for a time management booklet: "Shorter deadlines, competing priorities, endless meetings, interruptions and even higher quality expectations are just some of today's time challenges. And yet the number of hours in the day remains the same.

Work Smarter Not Harder
To work smarter all you need is the consciousness of the present. This is possible only when you cast off your emotional bindings, this helps you relieve your prejudice.