by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
If you have ever heard me speak in person about time management for college coaches, you will always hear me talk about how you should work like you are going on vacation tomorrow. The reason, you will get a lot more done in a day with this added sense of urgency.
One way to create this urgency is to set time deadlines for getting work done. Working like this in the office is just how most of us run our training sessions. We prepare in advance what we will work on. We decide on how much time we have. We get focused, start the clock, and then we work hard to get as much out of that time as possible. I think that you can apply the same principals with the work we have to do in the office.
In this post, I want to specifically talk about setting time deadlines for doing all of your emails.
A big mistake I see coaches make at this time of year when their seasons are just starting and there is a lot to do, is that they tend to put together an ambitious plan of emails to send out each day, but with no regard to the time. Coach, if you just sit down like most coaches do and don’t set a time limit to get your emails done, you will run far over the time you expected to commit to it, and as a result it will destroy your productivity plans and the rest of your workday.
Can you relate?
Timothy Ferriss, in “The 4-Hour Workweek”, introduces a concept called Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law dictates that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
So for you coach, I am saying that you should set shorter deadlines and you’ll get a heck of a lot more done than you are right now. For example, if you don’t give yourself a deadline to get your emails done, it is a good possibility that it will take you all day to get them done. If you give yourself 60 minutes to write an email, Parkinson’s Law says that it will take 60 minutes. And if you give yourself 45 minutes, magically the email will get done in 45 minutes.
Setting a deadline for how long you allow yourself to do emails and/or for how long you allow yourself to do each email is the secret to getting all of your emails done today coach. These deadlines you set for yourself will keep you on track. By incorporating deadlines for everything you do in the office each day, especially with emails, you’ll find yourself getting more done and ending the day with less of the stress associated with hitting quitting time and still having a to-do list that is a mile long.
Add it to your planning today, and reap the benefits tomorrow.
Need nationally recognized coaching organizational expert Mandy Green to give you personalized advice? Contact her at mandy@dantudor.com