50 GREAT WAYS TO STOP THE TIME THIEVES

by Hyacinth Fraser

1. Make telephone calls within an allotted time frame.

2. Create daily time schedules.

3. Undertake an inventory of the things you believe steal your time.

4. Identify those areas that are important to you in your life and that will lead toward you achieving your overall objectives.

5. Set priorities.

6. View time as money, don't waste it. If time were money in the bank, you would want to account for every second.

7. Remember time cannot be bought back.

8. Assess your own habits. To what extent do you allow others to waste your time?

9. Ask yourself whether you actually need to attend that meeting.

10. Do things right first time.

11. Stop being reactive and start being proactive.

12. Adopt a mindset that says `I am in control', ` I can make changes and decisions that impact my life positively'.

13. Create a vision of yourself that puts you at the centre of managing those time thieves.

14. Surround yourself with people who are of like mind, in relation to the value of your time.

15. Undertake tasks in a timely fashion, remember, procrastination is a thief of time.

16. Hold meetings in other people's offices, this way you can more easily leave when you need to. There are loads of great books, CD's, DVD's on Amazon

17. Stand up during meetings.

18. Prepare in advance for meetings, this will enable them to be more efficient.

19. Have a clear, time scheduled agenda for meetings.

20. Delegate as appropriate. If you are not the person that needs to do it, then don't do it.

21. Say no, as appropriate.

22. Say yes, as appropriate.

23. Become fanatical about organising your time efficiently.

24. Plan tomorrow's agenda today.

25. Start with the end in mind, have a clear focus about exactly what it is you want to achieve.

26. Keep idle conversations to a minimum.

27. Set specific time aside for friends and family.

28. Write things down, rather than attempting to remember them.

29. Set timeframes around particular tasks and activities.

30. Be clear about why a particular action needs to take place, if it doesn't need to happen, then don't do it.

31. In order to manage frustration levels, build in `buffer' time around those unscheduled activities.

32. Keep unscheduled activities to a minimum.

33. Stay focused on the activity in hand, you are more likely to complete it more efficiently and effectively.

34. Adopt a positive mental attitude. It may well be you have lots to do - the way you carry out the task will enable it to seem less painful and more joyous.

35. Create a mantra for yourself which you say everyday about how you use your time wisely.

36. Find out what really busy people do to manage their time efficiently and copy them.

37. Ask yourself, what are the consequences if I don't stop the time thieves?

38. Develop a strategy for eliminating stress in your life; stress can lead to procrastination and therefore a waste of time.

39. Perhaps use travelling time to do some essential reading.

40. At work keep specific times for an `open door' policy, otherwise, keep it closed.

41. Manage telephone calls by letting your answer phone work for you.

42. There are times when getting `away from it all' is the best way to focus and manage your time efficiently.

43. How much time have you spent looking around for something - a place for everything and everything in its place saves an awful lot of time. There are loads of great books, CD's, DVD's on Amazon

44. Coach people to help them use your time more wisely.

45. Don't take on other people's problems, they may become dependent on you and leave you with `their' problem to resolve.

46. Support people to ask the right questions to enable them to focus on their problems to reach a resolution.

47. Become creative, intuitive and innovative about time management. Create a fall-back position and think win-win.

48. Continuously review how time efficient you are.

49. Stop, go for a walk, be in nature, clear your head and revaluate.

50. Please add your own ideas about how you might stop the time thieves.

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