The_Essential_Manager_s_Handbook

188 / IMPROVING YOUR SKILLS

Planning your day

Write an action plan setting out your

activities for the day ahead. The best

time to do this is at the beginning of

the day, when you feel fresh. Build time

into your plan for day-to-day duties

and the work you need to do toward

your longer-term projects. Failing to

stick to an over-optimistic plan can

be demotivating, so be realistic in your

timings, allowing for interruptions

and some breaks.

Calculating priority

When writing your plan, prioritize

your tasks objectively—it often helps

to categorize tasks according to

importance and urgency. Give priority

to those that are both urgent and

important (for example, producing

up-to-date figures for the next day’s

sales meeting). Tasks that are important

but not urgent (such as completing

segments of your large projects)

take second priority. Tasks that are

not important but urgent (such as

dealing with someone else’s request for

information) take third priority, and those

that are neither important nor urgent

should be delegated or not done at all.

BE DISCIPLINED

Try to deal with paperwork

only once. Mark a red dot on a

document each time you pick

it up; attempt to minimize the

number of red dots on your

paperwork—the discipline

will slowly work its way into

all your processes.

Tip

How to prioritize

your tasks

Categorize tasks according

to importance and

urgency. Give priority to

those that are both urgent

and important. Tasks that

are important but not urgent

take second priority

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