Control Your Environment

At my speeches audience members say to me, "I'm able to handle the tasks in front of me for the day, but if I get one more call or one critical email, everything is just thrown off." That's why it is important to condition your work environment.

Look at your office, your car, your home, and all of the other physical spaces in your life, and ask, "What can I do to make these spaces work for me in the way I work and in the way I live my life?" Take your desk, for example: realize that it must be specifically set up for you. Position your PC monitor in the way that's most comfortable for you. If you need tissues, candy, or certain supplies, then put them on your desk, close at hand.

Look at your desk in new ways. Align it so that it supports the way you work, regardless of how it looks to anyone else. Never mind what the person down the hall thinks! Identify the items you need, and then condition your desk to work for you. Remove piles from the window sills or
cabinets tops and put them into file folders. Gain some clear space!

Powers Equal to Your Task

"Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks." Phillips Brooks

Parkinson's Law Repealed

Are you a staunch believer in Parkinson's Law, you know the old saying that "Work expands so as to fill the time allotted for its completion?" Yet, do you know anyone who consistently
has unscheduled, free stretches? In a time-poor society, Parkinson's Law is meaningless for many of us. Today it's more accurate to say "Items competing for one's attention expand
so as to fill the time and hinder work allocated for completion." So, I hereby repeal Parkinson’s Law.

Meanwhile, if you find yourself continually battling the clock, especially at work, try clearing your desk or work area of everything except what you need to complete the one project before you. Also, hold all calls and mail until you complete the project at hand. And if you have to, leave the workplace when you need to finish something important and cannot tolerate interruptions.

Leaving the Office, part 2

In the first month when you've decided that each Tuesday will be a normal eight or nine hour workday and nothing more, you will automatically begin to be more focused about what you want to get done on Tuesdays. Almost imperceptibly you begin to parcel out your time during the day more judiciously. So, at midday stop and assess what you've done and what else you'd like to get done.

Near the end of the day assess what more you realistically can get done and what's best to leave for subsequent days.

Recruit Others: Once you've solidly made the decision to leave on time, say on Tuesdays, every cell in your body works in unison to help you accomplish your proclamation. A natural, internal alignment starts in motion. Your internal cylinders fire in harmony with what it takes for you to have a buoyant, productive work day on Tuesday and leave on time. To ensure that you get out on time, let others know about your plans.

Strike a bargain with yourself. Suppose it's 2:45 p.m. and there are three more items you'd like to accomplish before the day is over. Ask yourself: "What would it take for me to feel good about ending work on time today?" This phrase gives you the freedom to feel good about leaving the office on time because you struck a bargain with yourself wherein you said exactly what you needed to accomplish in order to leave on time and feel good about it.

Re-strike the Bargain. Suppose you have three items on your plate that you want to finish so that you can feel good about leaving on time. Then the boss drops a bomb on your desk late in the day. Strike a new bargain with yourself, given the prevailing circumstances. Your new bargain may include simply making sufficient headway on the project that's been dropped in your lap, or accomplishing two of your previous tasks and X percent of this new project.

Leave Work Ready for Life

When you consistently work longer hours or take work home from the office you begin to forget what it's like to have a free week night and eventually a free weekend. To sustain the habit of leaving work on time, start with a small step.

Leave without guilt. Hereafter decide that on, say, every Tuesday you will stop working on time and take no extra work home with you. After freeing up Tuesdays for an entire month, perhaps add Thursdays. In another month add Mondays, and in the fourth month add Wednesdays.

Uncluttering Your Life

With the introduction of more channels on the television set, the Internet, which was not prominent before 1993, and all the consumer choices that exist, there are many things that compete for your time and attention. If you cram that into the same 24-hour day or 168-hour week that you have
always had, then your perception will be that time is speeding by.

For example, if you talk to a friend, watch a single television show while doing nothing else, read a book, or engage in any singular activity for one hour, you will have a certain perception of how quickly that hour will pass. But, if you pack more tasks into that same hour: the television being on, trying to read a book, maybe eating, maybe looking at 4-year-old; maybe a friend calls; maybe the PC nearby is on the Internet, and so on, then you perception of time changes. So, the more things that you can fit into that hour, then more things compete for your time and attention, and the faster that hour passes will seem to pass.

Does this seem like all the makings of a chaotic life? We each have 24 hours in day, so how are you supposed to fit in all of your daily tasks without getting so stressed out or frustrated that you cannot finish any? The answer is: less is more.

You can only eat one meal at a time. Focus on the task at hand and reflect on that 60's phrase, Be Here Now! You can actually taste the food when you are eating. You can actually watch the show that you are watching. You can actually play the sport that you are playing. Have the emotional and financial strength to let go of all the peripheral items competing for your time and attention and focus on the activity at hand.

The key to reclaiming your time is to practice the art, something I call an art, of doing one thing at a time. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Focus on the task at hand and be present in the moment.

The message that is being disseminated in contemporary society is to practice multi-tasking. "Do multiple things at once." "Click here." "Push here." "Turn me on." "Switch me on." Every place you look, you are besieged by more items competing for your time and attention. Now, people
actually have dwindling attention spans. They lack the ability to remain focused on the same subject for more than a few minutes and, sadly, some people for more than a few seconds.