Welcome to Skill-Pill's latest Health Check. This month we're introducing a package of content to help you smash the gridlock - when executives get trapped in a world of meetings and emails. With extracts from bestselling Pearson titles and Skill-Pills full of tips and advice, this Health Check will help you manage your workflow, break down problems and maintain focus.
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Our Stopping Gridlock package includes a group of Skill-Pills and helpful book extracts
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In order to improve your performance, and stay focused, you need to set yourself objectives. This Pill of the Month explains why you need to have goals, and how to go about making them. You can view this Skill-Pill on our home page, all this month.
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A goal is something that should challenge you to grow and use the potential that's inside you. At the time you create the goal, you probably don't know exactly how you will reach it. When US President John F. Kennedy said, in 1961, that America will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, that was a goal. Do you think President Kennedy and NASA knew exactly how to do it right then? Probably not, and for your goals, you probably won't know either. That's the scary part. (The Truth About Getting Things Done by Mark Frtiz. P.26)
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All of us waste too much time managing our emails. You've probably had days when you don't think you've done anything apart from respond to emails.
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This is a skill we all think we have, and few of us do. And it has far reaching implications for our day-to-day activities, our career and our private life. View this Skill-Pill to get some straight-talking advice on how to prioritise, keep order and get things done.
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One idea is always to focus first on those necessary tasks that you really don't like to do. If you build the drive to do those first in your day, the rest of the day becomes much easier, as you then begin to do all the other tasks you enjoy doing. By doing all those necessary evils first, you'll accomplish more every day. Why not make a list of those necessary tasks, and put the list in a place where it will remind you every day? The discipline to do the necessary is the foundation for success. (The Truth About Getting Things Done by Mark Frtiz. P.83)
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Far too often we attend meetings without preparing. This leads to long, unproductive meetings that waste the time of every attendee. This Skill-Pill runs you through how to correctly prepare for staff meetings, and ensure everyone's time is spent efficiently.
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Long-term planning can help you get a grip on your day-to-day schedule. This Skill-Pill explains how you can start working towards your long-term goals right now!
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The best way to set deadlines is to work backward from the goal. Begin with the final step and then indicate the step you need to take just before that one, then the one just before that one, and so on. Just about any project can be broken down into these kinds of steps. With a long-term project that involves people not under your direct control, you may not be able to attach exact dates to every step. Even so, it's useful to attach target dates to help you track your progress. Build in time for human and technological error. If, by some miracle, nothing goes wrong and you reach the goal early - congratulations! (Focus, by Jurgen Wolff. P.184)
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