Making the Most of Your Time

Here's an interesting article from a colleague of mine about making the most of your time. In these days of quick results and limited time, I hope you find some of these tips to be useful. Regards, Russ
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Reclaim more of your most precious resource: Time. Outline your phone calls to minimize chit-chat; skip writing emails when a quick call will do; set personal time limits for conversations; and have an assistant sort your lower-priority communications. To stifle personal procrastination, tackle difficult tasks when you have the most energy and adopt a “just do it” philosophy. Focus on results rather than activities. Avoid wasting the first hour of each day browsing email or hobnobbing with coworkers.

Keep a daily “action diary” and manage your work. Take 20 to 30 minutes each Monday to plan the week, and finish each day by taking 10 minutes to map the next day’s to-dos. Implement the touch-once rule: If a new action item will take just a few minutes to accomplish, do it right away versus adding it to a mounting stack of tasks. Instead of multitasking, practice spotlighting by intensely focusing on singular tasks that move a project toward completion. To better manage the flow of documents, use TRAF (Toss it; Refer it (pass it along to someone else); Act on it personally; or File it).

Above all, always ask yourself “What’s the best use of my time right now?” As Ben Franklin said, “Lost time is never found again.”

Cynthia Weber
Senior Loan Officer
American Home Mortgage
(702) 217-1472
www.americanhm.com/Cynthia.weber