No Opportunity Missed

We cannot make progress without identifying opportunity, and then acting on it.

Demand on the average worker is higher than ever. In the professional world we have phone calls, emails, texts, paperwork, people dropping by the office, etc. More often these demands also extend into home life and weekends. Tasks are being thrown at you from every direction at all times, and how you respond is up to you. Personal success and the success of your company relies on how you manage these demands.

Adaptability in how we manage our workload is important. As the working world around us changes, we must adapt with it. Evolve or die.

Here is how I manage my workload in order to act on every opportunity:

1: Establish your primary objective. All other tasks come second to your primary objective. For me, it's customer satisfaction. I manage a division in a service industry which demands responsiveness. If a customer asks something of me, I get them an answer as quickly as possible. My expense report can be done later, I can do my division reports at home, but when the customer asks for something, they get a response.

2: Organize your tasks. Every morning I make a list of what I'd like to get done for the day. I review emails, text messages, and phone calls and make a master list of what needs to be done. Carry incomplete tasks over from the previous day. Everything completed gets crossed off. Prioritize according to urgency/importance.

3: Delegate and Track. You can't take on more and more responsibility indefinitely, something will break. Delegate to others what you don't need to be doing yourself. It takes time and effort to teach someone a task you can easily and quickly do yourself. Teaching is also frustrating, but it's time invested in creating more bandwidth for yourself. Follow up and see how your delegated tasks are progressing.

4: Utilize Technology. I'm terrible at remembering what I am supposed to be doing. I learned this a long time ago so I developed methods to keep me on track all the time. I often say "Hey Siri, remind me to..." The key to this is to record the task immediately when it comes up. After I've put it in my phone, it's virtually forgotten until the reminder pops up. This allows me to segment my time well. It works for me.

Growth relies on adaptability and responsiveness. We cannot change the world around us, we can only change our habits to meet the demands of the world. Find your weak spots and change your approach to how they are handled and managed. Be honest with yourself about what you are good and bad at. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Whatever areas you need to improve, try something new and see what works. Experiment. The most important thing is to try!