Time Management Secrets Anyone Can Use

[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط]
Time Management Secrets Anyone Can Use

Helen Coster
How to stay focused--and productive--in a world full of distractions.
In the two hours that I've been at work today,I've found many ways to not write this article. I've scanned 44 newe-mails and visited a colleague down the hall.
I've skimmed The New York Times, read a few updates on Facebook,checked a Yahoo! account that consists mostly of spam, and spent adisproportionately long time writing an e-mail connecting two friendsin Beijing.
The Wall Street Journal is sitting on my floor, tempting me with anarticle called "Mind Games: Attention-Deficit Disorder Isn't Just forKids." Before I wrote a word of this story, I decided that I absolutelyneeded a cup of tea. And a granola bar. And an orange. And a napkin toclean up after the orange. And where is Butler University, anyway? [ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط]

If you're reading this article instead of doing your work, chances areyou face similar obstacles to your focus. You're not alone. Accordingto a survey by Salary.com ( SLRY - news - people ), the average workeradmits to wasting 2.09 hours of each eight-hour workday, not includinglunch or scheduled breaks.
The Web is like the next-door neighbor who keeps asking us to play whenwe know we have homework to do. It and e-mail provide so muchdistraction on a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour basis that we find itnearly impossible to give our full attention to higher-level tasks. Andbecause there are no defined edges to most of our projects--andcertainly not to our workdays--we live in an endless jumble of work andlife.
We can book a trip to Mexico while participating in a conference call.We can send work e-mails from a chairlift above the ski slopes ofVermont.
It's tough to establish boundaries and focus on any one thing.
Today more than ever, American workers have more to do and less time todo it. Thankfully, there's an entire community of people who specializein productivity and time management. Their guru is David Allen, authorof the 2001 book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-FreeProductivity--or GTD to its devotees. [ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط]

I've read some of Allen's teachings, as well as those of Merlin Mann,founder of the blog 43 Folders, and the highly addictive Lifehacker.comand others. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity, butAllen and company have some great ideas to help you declutter your lifeand make way for big, creative boosts of productivity.
Some of their advice, like "don't multitask," is counterintuitive. Apparently,you'll be much more productive if you check your e-mail only a fewtimes a day, rather than incessantly, as I do. But much of it is commonsense, in an "I know I should do that, but I never actually do" kind ofway. Allen's mission is to help people rein in all the to-do-list itemsthat float around in their heads, and then organize themsystematically. A system allows you to identify the next step to takeon every project and keep those projects moving forward, while freeingup your mind to relax and dwell on loftier things. A lot of productivity-speak involves managing technology. Myfriend Gretchen Rubin, whose blog The Happiness Project is a vital partof my morning routine, describes technology as a great servant but aterrible master. Allen says that if replying to or disposing of ane-mail takes less than two minutes, you should always do so right away.Turn off those annoying e-mail alerts--do not have a sign flash up onyour screen every time a new e-mail comes in. Send less to receiveless: Keep your e-mails short, and write fewer of them.
At a time of year when many of us are engaged in some kind oftherapeutic spring cleaning, cutting off distractions, decluttering ourworkspaces and developing systems to keep track of where things go canfeel deliciously Type A, and necessary. Now back to my inbox.