Write yourself a model day

In my work, I frequently hear recurring themes among my clients…one of them is usually time management.  How do I do I the things I need to do each day without stopping and starting every few minutes.  Frequent stopping and starting, as we all know, is an obstacle to doing things efficiently and correctly the first time.

 I suggest you track your activities for one or two weeks…you can create a simple daily calendar in 1/2 hour blocks…and see what kinds of things you’re doing.  Then, compare that to what you should be doing and map out a model day.  What do I  mean by this?

You know you are going to have a certain number of calls to make within a day.  I suggest you make them twice a day…in the morning and in the late afternoon.  That way, you are bound to reach 90% of the folks you need to reach and with the others, leave some timeframes in your message to them outlining the best time to reach you.  If you have an assistant, have him/her set up a specific time to talk to the folks that are hard to reach.

Do the same thing with your other tasks…reading, reviewing files, reviewing portfolios…do them at the same time each day.  Additionally, I suggest that you block out at least one day a week (maybe in two 1/2 day increments) where you do not meet with clients or prospects.  This is time you are setting aside to do tasks that need to be completed each week so you do not get behind and add to your stress level.

The key here is it’s YOUR calendar.  You can manage it anyway you want.  If you let others dictate the management (other than an assistant), you will become extremely inefficient and in the end, your performance will suffer and it will add to your stress level.

Let me know what other ideas you have for managing your calendar!