What To Do When There's Too Much To Do Read Online Free PDF Page B

you can still influence the length of time you have to spend on each task—particularly if you apply creativity, honesty, and assertiveness to hold on to your time and keep things from ballooning out of control. Let’s look at two simple ways you can do it.
How Long Will This Take?
    Many times, all it takes to trim a task down to size is to ask the question, “How long will this take?” You should ask yourself and others this question every time a task crosses your path. Consider, for example, how this might work with meetings. When you ask that question, you make the person scheduling the meeting responsible for completing it within a certain time period. If it doesn’t finish on time, you can always excuse yourself, saying you put something else on your agenda based on the stated end time. Remind other attendees in advance of your commitment when the meeting begins.
    Be willing to leave a meeting if it doesn’t finish on time or wanders into uncharted territory.
The Caching Concept
    You can also take a cue from the computer field and use the concept of “caching” to improve your productivity. A computer stores the data you’ve used most recently in its active memory, because you’re likely to need that data again and will want to access it quickly. If it can grab the data from the cache, it won’t need to go to the extra trouble (and time) of finding the data elsewhere. In short, a good cache improves your computer’s performance.
    To be time-effective, a computer cache must meet three criteria:
    1. It must contain the data you need most of the time.
    2. It can never be either completely empty or completely full.
    3. It must regularly delete unused data while adding fresh, useful data.
    You can also apply this concept to personal availability. “Availability caching” is most critical when you find yourself at or near maximum capacity. While you can’t calculate decisions as fast as a computer, you
are
the programmer of your workload. If you can learn to add, drop, and refuse new “data” on the fly, it becomes much easier to streamline your workflow and achieve that extra ninety minutes or so per day you need to retain your health and sanity. Your decisions about to whom to give your time become more automatic, objective, and logical—and ideally, other people will find them easier to appreciate.
    Hold onto your time with both hands. Don’t let anyone (even your boss) easily take it away from you by adding items to your task lists without a discussion.
LEARN TO SAY NO—AND MAKE IT STICK
    If you really want to limit your availability and put fences around your time, you’ll have to shackle the worst time bandit there is: yourself. Most of us are simply too generous with our time—and when you’re trying to reach peak productivity, you can’t always give in when someone tries to lay claim to your attention—or you’ll fill your cache with no room for additions.
    So let me remind you of a very important word: “No.” I expect it was one of the first words you learned as a child. It’s a really easy word to say … and a hard one to use. The trick is learning
when
to say it, and realizing it should enjoy a prominent place in your vocabulary.
Why Is It So Hard to Say No?
    Unless you’re blunt by nature, you may find it difficult to turn people down. Perhaps your parents taught you to be polite to everyone or to respect authority; I can certainly understand that conundrum. But if this is the case, you’ll constantly have to guard against people trying to take advantage of your good nature—because believe me, they
will
try.
    Or perhaps your work environment is more cutthroat and confusing than most of us like. For example, perhaps you’re afraid someone will come back with an aggressive “Why not?” when you say no. The fear of being on the spot and trying to justify yourself may cause