Time Management Techniques to Help You Think before You Act

You start your day running to your first appointment. When you get there you find that you don't have what you need. It's time for you to slow down, and plan what you're going to do before you take action. It seems counter intuitive, but you'll get more done faster with less stress if you set aside proper planning time. You love action and you would rather be doing than thinking. You're confusing activity with progress.

In reality you're just making yourself tired and stressed because your approach to doing isn't focused on doing the things that produce the best results. Plan the next day the day before and get organized. Just take 15 minutes before you end your day to plan the first thing you'll do the next day. Identify what you'll need to do it so you can start your day right and get better results.

Plan how you'll start your day start with the most important thing you could do that day. Schedule your most important appointments, phone calls, and actions for first thing in the morning. Each action you'll be take must have a clear objective. Know exactly the outcome you expect from every appointment. The same holds true for phone calls. As you start your day Know exactly who you will call, have an agenda for the call, and identify what you want to accomplish as a result of that call.

Without clear objectives you waste valuable time and you get poor results. You're running around working harder than you need to and you aren't getting the results you want. If you don't know exactly what you want from your actions you can't expect someone else to know.

You like to solve problems and make things happen. When a customer or prospect calls you like to drop everything and immediately respond, but that isn't necessarily a demonstration of good time management skills. It just demonstrates that you'd rather be reactive than proactive.

You can better serve your customers, prospects, and yourself when you develop a planning habit. Your current habit of reacting rather than planning is causing you to receive poorer results than you could be. Plan before you act and have a clear understanding of your objectives. This will help you to be organized in your approach so you can enjoy great success and free time.

Author: Cheryl A. Clausen can help you get where you want to be. Helpful Time Management Tips get her free analysis. Improve your Time Management Skills, check this out.

Article Source: http://www.c3careerarticles.com

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