Sleepless Nights

Do you wake up at 2 0’clock in the morning worried sick that you didn’t get this or that done?

Do you suffer from sleepless nights because you can’t seem to leave work at work? Did you get interrupted while you were trying to finish something important and now, at 2 o’clock in the morning you can’t remember if you finished it or not? Do you remember making that phone call or did you schedule that appointment? I know how you feel. You’re so busy you can’t possibly remember whether or not you got everything you needed to do done and it keeps you awake at night. I can help. With a little bit of practice, you will be able to sleep the whole night through. You might not get everything done but the important stuff will not fall through the cracks.

Start by organizing your work.

In my previous post, Blue Monday, I explain where to start on getting your work organized.

Finish what you started.

Commit yourself to completing everything you touch before you go on to the next task. For example: you might be responsible for paying the utility bills for your organization. Start by working your way through the invoices on your desk and do not go to the next task you have each one paid, recorded and filed away.

Sounds great, right?

In a perfect world maybe. In this world, you have interruptions and distractions all day long that prevent you from being able to breeze through tasks to completion. When you get interrupted, keep the task at hand at the forefront! Set it on your keyboard or chair if you have to leave your office or answer a call. That way, when you return, it will be right there at the forefront, ready for you to finish working on until you complete it.

Out of sight, out of mind!

Create a “tally” of sorts of tasks you’ve completed. Use 2 coffee cups and a handful of pens. Move all the pens into 1 cup each morning. After you complete a task, move a pen over to the empty cup. By the end of the day you should have several pens in your finished cup. More importantly, just by performing that act of transferring the pen from one cup to the other, you are “putting that task to bed” and out of your mind. You could use tick marks or paperclips or even the motion of a tick mark in the air. Anything that helps you make a mental note of completing the task.

On to the next task!

It’s much easier to stay on task when you focus on one thing at a time. Yes, being able to multi-task is a great skill to have and sometimes is absolutely necessary. However, if you focus on one thing at a time, you will be able to complete it much quicker and more accurately than if you’re multi-tasking.

How do you manage your time?

Drop me a line and let me know how you manage to “put those things to bed.”