Tool Box
Issue No. 26 - December/January 2005/06
Make your diary earn its keep
by Craig Stubing
Getting best value from our time at work is a challenge for all business people. This is especially so for anyone involved in sales because our sales prospects don’t always come to us – we must be proactive and go to them. This requires time.
Our diary is our foundation time management tool; this is so whether the diary is in the traditional paper format or electronic.
The harder our diary works for its keep, the better will be our time management; this means more time available for the activities that create sales.
A diary should be more than a record of appointments (past and future) with others; here are some tips you can use in 2006 to get better value from yours.
They have been compiled with a paper diary in mind, but they are easily adapted for use in an electronic version.
Use a pencil
Use only pencil when writing in your diary, unless there is an overriding requirement for you to use ink.
This is such a simple rule but so few people abide by it. It is easier to erase a pencil entry if an appointment or other time allocation is changed.
If we use ink, our diary will eventually become a confusing mess of scratchings out, alterations and ‘white out’.
Think of your diary as a time allocation tool, not simply an appointment book. Use your diary as a work scheduler.
Many people are familiar with the Perfect Week concept. This involves identifying the top four or five key proactive tasks within one’s job and then designing a weekly time allocation template that fits in all those key tasks appropriately.
This Perfect Week template is meant to operate as a track to run on as we work our way through our week.
It’s a simple supplementary step to transfer that Perfect Week time allocation template to our diary (using pencil, remember!) as a reminder to ourselves of what we would prefer to be doing at any time.
As you make time allocations to others ...
