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Time management and personal effectiveness

Time management, personal effectiveness questionnaire

Here is a brief questionnaire that will give you some good leads on how to improve your time management and personal effectiveness.

1. Do you have a good memory, or do you forget too much?

Most people don't train their memory. Some people do.

Make yourself one of the few people who consciously strive to improve their working memory.

Every day, practice memorising new material.

Train your brain to absorb and reproduce information.

Your money making ability will depend largely on your mental dexterity. And that requires information, memory and processing power. None of that comes for free. You have to pay for it with consistent training.

Train your brain and it will repay you a thousand times.

2. Do you throw out everything you can, or do you hoard too much rubbish?

Hoarding too much rubbish is a common error that stems from the phrase "I won’t throw that away, I’ll keep that.  It might come in handy later".

So you keep it hanging around for weeks, and then finally bin it, six months later.

But in the meantime you, and others around you, have to live in disorder and chaos because you have become overwhelmed with too much trash.

Throw out the trash

3. Do you ask people directly" What do you want?" or do you let people ramble on without getting to the point?

Don't let people steal your time by giving them too much time telling you about:

1. TV programmes
2. Sport
3. Family problems
4. Gossip
5. Office politics
6. Love affairs

Estimate the amount of money that is wasted, every day, with people thinking and talking about things that don't count. It costs us £2.76 billion a year.

4. Do you set time aside, planning for "continuous improvement"?

Do you plan for a better future or do you hope that one turn up unannounced?

If you don't plan for a better future: your future will not be any better than the past.

WHY?

Because everything that exists must have a cause.

The cause for your better future is the “plan of action” that you write today.

5. Do you create checklists for everything or do you rely on your unaided memory?

Don't rely on your unaided memory.

Train your memory AND use checklists.

If you don't use checklists you will inevitably forget one or two items off your list.

If you don't use checklists, you will slow down as you struggle to remember everything that you need to do.

Create and use checklists.

6. When you are mentally worn out, do you stop to refuel with nutritious food and drink or do you struggle on with extra coffee?

Your brain needs to work AND its needs to rest.

When you are worn out, replenish your mind with good food and rest.

Don't struggle on whilst you are tired.

If you do keep going when you are too tired, you will be more likely to make a mistake that could cost you dearly.

If you are tired: stop.
If you’re tired:  sleep.

7. Are you more likely to arrive at appointments ten minutes early, or ten minutes late?

With regard to appointments you have three options:

1. arrive early
2. arrive on time
3. arrive late

My advice is to arrive early.

If you arrive a little early it gives you time to:
1. Get settled before the others gets here
2. Check out the environment
3. Go over your notes
4. Make a plan

If you arrive ON time
You won’t have time to
1. Settle yourself ( use the loo)
2. Check the environment ( and how you look)
3. Go over your notes ( memorise what you want to say)
4. Make a plan (what to do?)

And as a result you will not get the best result that would have been obtained if you had prepared better and got there earlier.

If you arrive late:
If you arrive late, then you look like you are disorganised and unable to arrive on time.
OR
You imply an insult to the person left waiting, because you can’t be bothered to arrive on time:
And you imply that the others time is not valuable.

8. Do you ask enough questions to make more accurate judgements, or do you tend to take action, then realise you misunderstood the message?

Your goal is to understand and be understood.

You goal is not to gain an agreement based on a misunderstanding.
Much time is wasted on misunderstandings.

It is better to spend an extra two minutes checking the details are understood:  than it is to waste days in unprofitable activity because you misunderstood the original message.

Make sure you are always understood and make sure you always understand.

9. Do you get sufficient sleep or do you stay up late watching too much useless TV?

You should get enough sleep to ensure you can operate your brain efficiently.

Tired minds make too many bad judgments.

And bad judgements will waste your time, money and effort.

A short nap will recharge your brain a save you a heartache.

If you are tired: sleep

10. Could you be more efficient? If yes, then how?

Let us assume you are not (yet) perfect. Let us assume that there is something that you could do that would make you more efficient.

How could you achieve better financial results, with less time and effort?

Demand from your mind, a good answer to that question:
How could you achieve better financial results, with less time and effort?

Write your answer on a piece of paper and then resolve to act on the answer.

For more information about time management training visit the Corporate Coach Group website

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