Welcome to this month's edition of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (on-line edition.)

The start of a new year is always an exciting time for a leader . . . time to reflect on the past year’s successes, review your personal leadership vision or strategic plan, do some goal setting and generally get in shape for the upcoming year. Today, rather than talk about these higher level leadership functions, we’re going to focus on the small stuff . . . because sometimes, staying on top of the small stuff makes a huge difference in how you feel about your success as leader.

As a leader, on a daily basis you juggle multiple personal and professional responsibilities. Sometimes it can all feel a little overwhelming. Here is our New Year’s gift to you . . . 10 simple tips for de-stressing your life. But, because you like a speedy “read,” you’ll get the first five tips this month and the last five next month.

Strive for excellence, not perfection,

Peter B. Stark and Jane S. Flaherty

Tips for De-stressing Your Life

1. Practice positive self-talk. Rather than saying, “It’s hopeless. I’ll never get caught up” try instead, “I’ve got a huge workload. Where do I start?” Changing your thought process from what won’t work to what will work immediately changes your energy flow. Go for what you want, not what you don’t want. Remember, if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right!

2. Begin with the end in mind. . . identify where you want to spend your time. If you’re stressed because you feel the events in your life have taken over your life, step back and examine your core values. What’s most important to you today . . . career, school, family? Then, identify where you’re spending most of your time. If you are spending a portion of your day, each day, in those areas that you have identified as being of high value to you, then typically you feel less stressed and more in control. When your core values are in alignment with your daily activities, a better sense of balance is achieved.

3. Do a time audit. How can you “find” more time for yourself if you don’t know where the time is going? Commit to keeping track of your time for a full week, if not longer. At the end of the week, determine how long you spent on particular tasks, with family, involved in leisure activities, etc. Once you’ve determined where your time is currently going, determine where you want to spend more time. Then, take actions to ensure that you’re spending your time efficiently, and more importantly, in areas where you want to be spending your time.

4. Prioritize . . . now how many times have you heard that? You already know how to determine your number one, two and three priorities, so we won’t elaborate. But, how about learning to not only prioritize, but negotiate? Meaning, in some cases, the right response is, “No, I’m not able to do that now, but would tomorrow morning work for you?” Too often our first response is yes and our second thought is, “Now why did I agree to that?” Prioritize your tasks, reprioritize throughout the day and don’t forget to get your leisure activities on your list . . . time for you needs to be a high priority.

5. Manage the technology so that it doesn’t manage you. We are blessed with a wonderful array of tools such as cell phones, Blackberries, PDAs, voice mail, email and the list goes on and on. Just because we can communicate 24/7 doesn’t necessarily mean that we should. Determine how often you will check your voice mail, email, etc. and then stick to your plan. For example, returning voice mails or emails only once an hour allows you to more efficiently use your time and better focus on your priorities.

That’s enough for now. Remember, you can’t really “find time,” “save time” or “make time.” We’re each gifted with exactly the same number of minutes each day. Our advice to you is know where those minutes are going and take actions to take control of your time. All the best to you in 2006!
 

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