As we mentioned in the last self mastery blog, one way to master your schedule is to help your employees find their own ways to solve problems using the 1-3-1 Approach. We talked about how to handle phone calls, regulating emails, and setting time blocks for specific tasks. Distractions from your work cost you time, so you have to discipline yourself to get the most out of your time.
Self Mastery of Your Schedule Step 5 of 11: Stick to Your Plan of Action
REVIEW
By now we know that “shoulder tapping” is one of the biggest distractions in the workplace. Employees are an important part of your company's growth. Investing in and encouraging your employees is an investment into your business, but with the right tools for them to solve their own problems, the more time will be dedicated towards getting done what needs to be done.
Instilling problem solving strategies and calendaring specific times to be available to employees and to your own work is the first steps to avoid interruptions to the work you’re doing. In the story from our third self mastery blog, the owner of the auto shop was interrupted multiple times in each day, making it difficult to complete his work. Eliminating these interruptions helped him get ahead.
THE CULPRIT OF CHANGE
The next bump in the road is the excuses — if you’re like most people, you want to call it rationalizations. Excuses are a defense mechanism whereby feelings are justified through a rational explanation to avoid the true explanation. We give excuses as a reason to get someone else to cut us some slack.
Do any of the excuses below sound familiar of why you can not get a hold of your schedule?
“Well, closing my door won't work because…”
“Wearing headphones won't work because…”
“Not answering the phone won't work because…”
“Regulating my email, yeah, that won't work because…”
“Setting a timer. No, I can't do that because…”
In order to move forward with changes to master your schedule, these kinds of excuses have to stop. Finding the “because” in why something won’t work means that you are not ready to change your schedule or manage your time better.
PLAN OF ACTION
Instead of making excuses, ask questions like — how productive am I? where do I find myself being interrupted the most? what is the easiest first step to implement? — and stick to your plan of action. You are your strongest motivator while making business decisions. Find out what interruptions disrupts your day the most, and train you and your employees to eliminate them. Every step helps free up your time to concentrate on your own work and not fall behind.
If you need advice on identifying distractions in your office, feel free to contact us or schedule an appointment with one of our coaches. We want to help you become more productive so you can do what you do best — run your business.
Stay tuned for our next self mastery blog to learn more about different distractions in our own minds that can keep us from doing work.