Stop Manic Mondays!
Mondays can be difficult, if you truly avoid your office over the weekend. Sometimes I find myself jumping from one client to another and one task to another without fully completing anything.
A couple of ideas to keep your Manic Monday under control might be:
1) I block out at least an hour for each client and focus on their work. I color code the hour(s) on my Outlook calendar. This gives me a reminder before the next 'client change' is due. This has kept me from leapfrogging so much.
If the phone rings, I quickly look at the caller ID and let it go to voice mail unless I am expecting the call.
I check voice mail about every thirty minutes or so to keep up with the messages. Which brings me to - change your voice message if you are going to be out or if you want to hide behind voice mail. Now you can't just say you are are hiding, but come up with an inventive message letting people know you will return their call as soon as reasonably possible. Note the word reasonably.
2) Write down your tasks, both personal and professional, that you would like to accomplish. Pick the ones that are bogging you down and might only take a few moments to finish - and just do them. Have a friend keep you accountable. Check in every hour or two with what you have done or are going to do the next hour.
3) Email - this can really drag you down and waste your time. Remember - one touch! I usually check my email first thing and decide if they are trash, defer, task or read. If they are a task and you use Outlook, simply click on the email and move it to the Task Folder. This has a double whammy - it moves it out of your inbox and sets up a task for you immediately.
I stopped my email from notifying me when a message came through. Now my clients have a folder in the Favorites of Outlook and I know I have a message because the folder is in bold. If you start your client's folder with the @ sign (@New Messages; @Client), the folder is moved right to the top of the folders.
Let me know if you have any great tips for keeping Manic Mondays under control or have some great shortcuts for streamlining work!
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