Women Get Wealthy

With the constant distractions of email, text, phone and face to face meetings, it has become more important than ever to effectively manage our time.  Otherwise, it seems that an entire day (or days) can be spent only reacting to the requests/demands of external sources.

Avoid falling into the ‘reactive’ category and make sure that at least some portion of your time is spent focused on your own agenda.  What are the key priorities which will drive you towards accomplishing the specific goals in your life? 

Studies prove (The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz) that deciding and documenting specifically WHEN and WHERE a task is going to be accomplished will result in a much higher rate of success. 

If you are serious about getting things done, take a few minutes at the start of your day and jot down a specific time and place.  Try the following 15 minute routine to get yourself into the habit of planning (and effectively managing) your own day.

1. As each day beings, before checking voicemail/email, write out your specific tasks for that day.  What small things can you do today, which will get you one step closer to your goal? (5 minutes)
2. Next, set a recurring daily reminder on your phone/pda.  When the reminder goes off, if you are not in a place where you can review, hit the snooze button until you can take at least 5 minutes to check in with the short list of to-dos for the day.   Allow the alarm to serve as a chance to refocus your time on what is most important.
3. Finally, at the end of each day, revisit your list of goals (set another reminder, if needed).  What went well?  What could you have done better?  Did you achieve success in moving at least one step closer to your overall goals?  If not, what could you do differently tomorrow? (5 min)
   

I have been implementing this strategy lately and it is effective.  It may not be happening quite as fast as I would like but I make some small progress each day (ok, not every day).  My husband rules his life with blackberry reminders and it is amazing what he can accomplish in a day!

Give it a whirl……. and let us know how it goes!