Ping Pong
Do you ever feel like a ping pong ball being bounced around every day? Think about your actions. Who are you rewarding? Disrupters or schedulers? How are you training people to interact with you? Do you give your attention to squeaky wheels? Whose agenda is it anyway – yours or are you allowing it to be someone else calling the shots?
Factoid: If you’re looking at emails as they come in you are allowing someone else to manage your time.
Factoid: If you’re looking at texts as they come in you are allowing someone else to manage your time.
Factoid: If you’re answering the phone every time it rings you are allowing someone else to manage your time.
GET A GRIP! IT’S YOUR LIFE! TAKE CONTROL! But how…?
Start with one of these tips at a time.
Special note: If you are changing your behavior everyone around you will try to change it back. Since you’ve trained others to interrupt you and rewarded them with your immediate attention they won’t like the change. Stand firm – you can do it!
Tip 1: Turn off your email. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – just because someone sends you an email doesn’t mean you have to stop everything you’re doing and answer it immediately. Select the time that you’re going to process the email and stick to it.
Tip 2: Close your door. It’s ok to schedule two or three hours of YOUR day to get YOUR work done. All the rest of the time you can be a ping pong ball to your staff, co-workers and boss.
Tip 3: Prioritize. What’s the most important thing you’ve got to do today? Simple question but difficult for many. Tackle that first thing to make sure it gets done.
Tip 4: Plan ahead. Look at the week – be realistic – can you really get 25 to-dos done? Plan no more than one to three to-dos per day. If you run out of things to-do you can always add more.
Tip 5: I don’t have a choice! Are you saying that to yourself? You always have a choice! Each and every minute you can choose what you want to do. Woman Up! or Man Up! and take responsibility for your actions. You’ve got one life, live it the way you choose.
Have you ever felt like a ping pong ball? What have you done to take control of your life? What has worked? What hasn’t? Leave a comment below!
To print this or any other post, click the first icon in Share the Knowledge below.
I love this topic, Holly. You have a gem in each tip. Here are some techniques that have worked for me. (1) Turn off incoming-email alerts. (2) Disable incoming-text alerts. (3) Check email once a day. Technique #3 has never worked for me in a job situation, but it has worked for me in a self-employed situation. A baby-step approach to technique #3 for those employed by others is to open one’s email client (e.g., Outlook) only a few times a day. Where this especially helps is for last-minute meeting invitations. If you teach fellow employees that you don’t check your email all the time, then you will force them to call you to set up a last-minute meeting, which encourages more courtesy and respect for others’ schedules.
Kirk – thanks for sharing your strategies. They are right on and so useful!
Holly