CREATING
A NEW HABIT
K.
Gleeson gives the following example: It is possible to adopt new ways
of doing things by developing new habits. Maybe you go into a new
restaurant because you are curious or by accident. When you have tried
the food you love it and decide to go back again and again. Something
similar happens with new habits - you have to start by adopting them,
starting with one in particular, the habit of acting now. Do it now.
When a positive idea crosses your mind, try a new method of doing your
job. Try a different route to work as soon as you feel the impulse to
do it.
In order to manage our time better, we
should therefore create new habits and eliminate the bad habits.
We are now
going to see some examples:
Write
a list everyday of "things to do" and refer to it frequently.
You
can start writing a list of "things to do" after having experimented
with a daily planning calendar. When you first look at your daily
calendar, make a list of everything you have to do during this day.
Make sure the list is relatively short, for example, 5 or 10 things to
do, this way you will be more likely to achieve your list.
Be realistic with what you can achieve in a
day and remember to programme some "personal time" including an
activity or some private time as one of the items. Make a list of
specific actions instead of vague concepts. For example, "buy flowers
for my wife" would be a more specific item than "be friendly to my
wife".
Continuously
examine the list and assign every item a date and specific time into
the daily planner. Try to complete the activities according to what you
have programmed, remembering to always revise the list and carry out
exactly what you have written. Always evaluate the activities that you
have pending to do.
At the end of the day, look
back at the list. It is important that you are happy with yourself for
what you have done and you are aware of the things you still have
pending to do.
When you have pending
activities, simply add those activities to tomorrow's tasks. However,
if this happens frequently, it may be that you are trying to do too
many activities and that you should be a little more realistic. In this
case, another suggestion is that you delegate some activities and
concentrate on the most important ones.
Write your activities in an
order of priority and carry the activities out according to this order.
You
can develop your list of pending things by placing them into an order
of priority. For example, you can place them from most important to
less important. Another systems is to classify them as Primary,
Secondary and pending.
K.
Gleeson believes that you should choose the method that accompanies
your own personal style and start by putting your list into an order of
priority.
It
is important to practice certain statements that can be usefull to you,
help maintain your work rhythm and help carry out your priorities. For
example, some statements that you can repeat throughout the day are:
Come on, you've nearly finished: come on concentrate: I will be
successful, etc. It is important that these statements are positive.
Avoid negative statments, for example, don't be distracted, you have to
avoid....,.
A
particular system
In
this section, the author J. T. McCay is going to show us some steps to
successful list making:
Take two pieces of paper
On one of the pieces of paper put the title
I HAVE TO DO and on the other IT WOULD BE GOOD TO DO
On
the I HAVE TO DO... you should write down the things what you should do
today.
On
the other sheet IT WOULD BE GOOD TO DO....write all of the things that
you believe you should do.
Put
away the IT WOULD BE GOOD TO DO list for future reference.
Carry
out all of the activities that you have on your I HAVE TO DO sheet.
J.
T. McCay says that the
key to the method rests on the selection of those items that you write
on the I HAVE TO DO sheet. You should not include anything that doesn't
suppose a YES to the following questions: Is my job, colleauges or
family in danger if I don't do this today?
When
you ask yourself this question, you will be surprised at how little we
have to do. The same way, when you study the list of things that IT
WOULD BE GOOD TO DO, you will note that a lot of these things lack
importance. McCay concludes saying that if we practice this procedure,
we will save time from the first day. We should use the time that we
save to outline objectives to develop in the next three mjonths and so
forth.
