Time Management: Are You Late for Meetings: Try Procrastinator’s Clock

A clock that can be installed on your computer and displays the time up to 15 minutes early, you just don’t know. Good for those individuals who just can’t seem to be on time for meetings and appointments. The procrastinator’s clock shows time early to help those individuals be triggered to leave for meetings and appointments and hopefully arrive on time or maybe not as late.

Here are the options for Procrastinator’s Clock

  • clock on deskProcrastinator’s Clock: Free download from CNET
  • iGoogle: Google has their own procrastinator’s clock that you can add to your Google homepage.
  • Dave Seah designed a procrastinator’s clock that just opens in your browser if you prefer not to download any app.

Time Management: Working in the Right Environment for the Right Activity—The Document Development Zone

Most of us perform our daily tasks at our desk near the computer. Often this is not the best place to do certain activities or priority tasks that take more concentration and less distraction. Activities such as strategic thinking, reading, writing and development often require a different environment to assist in changing the mindset to help perform those tasks more quickly and efficiently. An advantage of technology tools, telework and remote work environments is that workers can now utilize the right environment for the right activity.

Here is one type of zone environment each worker should have ;

Document Development zone

In our knowledge-based economy most workers have reports, budgets and written deliverables that are required for the job. These written deliverables require concentrated thinking, as do reading and decision making, but they also require workers to be near their computers. Often workers get started on these written deliverables and become waylaid from the task because e-mail and communication activities are immediately reactive.

A recent Vanderbilt University study found that a person who writes a report while checking e-mail will take one-and-half times longer than if the tasks were done sequentially. To be more efficient in written tasks consider taking the computer to another location such as a coffee shop, quiet room, conference room or home. If that isn’t an option then log out of e-mail and database programs and set the phone to voicemail to limit the immediate reactive temptation. Creating this development zone will maximize time and improve quality of work.

Time Management: Working in the Right Environment for the Right Activity—The Thinking Zone

Most of us perform our daily tasks at our desk near the computer. Often this is not the best place to do certain activities or priority tasks that take more concentration and less distraction. Activities such as strategic thinking, reading, writing and development often require a different environment to assist in changing the mindset to help perform those tasks more quickly and efficiently. An advantage of technology tools, telework and remote work environments is that workers can now utilize the right environment for the right activity.

Here is one type of zone environment each worker should have ;

 Thinking zone

Most decisions are made easily, but some important decisions require more thought and consideration before we can make them. These decisions take time and deliberation to consider the best options. Trying to make these important decisions in the active-communication zone often is not the best practice. It can be difficult to concentrate, and e-mails and interruptions become a distraction. Important decision making is usually done effectively in quiet spaces and in times of solitude. This thinking zone could be created during the commute to or from work, during a break, on a quick walk around the office building or neighborhood or even during physical exercise. Instead of forcing a key decision to be made in an active-communication zone, plan the day to consider those decisions during a thinking zone time period. Not only will the decision process take less time, the thinking zone can also improve decision making.

 

Time Management: Working in the Right Environment for the Right Activity—The Reading Zone

Most of us perform our daily tasks at our desk near the computer. Often this is not the best place to do certain activities or priority tasks that take more concentration and less distraction. Activities such as strategic thinking, reading, writing and development often require a different environment to assist in changing the mindset to help perform those tasks more quickly and efficiently. An advantage of technology tools, telework and remote work environments is that workers can now utilize the right environment for the right activity.

Here is one type of zone environment each worker should have ;

 Reading zone

We are in an information age, and most workers receive a large amount of data that merely needs to be read. Although workers have great intentions to read those e-newsletters, magazines and journals, it often doesn’t become priority because other tasks supersede reading, especially when one is positioned in the active-communications zone.

Trying to read in the active-communication zone is generally not effective, and reading will always be pushed aside for more immediate and quick actions. If reading is an essential component to a person’s job and business, consider finding an environment that is quiet, free from interruptions and distractions and away from the active-communication zone. Some workers enjoy reading in a coffee shop, conference room, commuting to and from work, at home or at a separate location within the office such as a side table, sofa or chair. To read effectively and absorb the necessary information consider finding a reading zone area.