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Time Management Techniques:
NET Time
All of my favorite time management techniques are based on doing
things that don't take any extra time or effort. NET Time gives you
those extra minutes or even hours that you can't seem to ever find.
NET Time is an acronym for: 
No
Extra
Time
Executives,
students, teachers, moms, entrepreneurs and anyone else you can think
of can take advantage of NET Time immediately, since there are
constantly opportunitues for getting this time management techniques
benefits, once you know to look for them.
I'll share a
few examples from my own life, not for you to copy me (although you
certainly can), but to give you some thoughts on how you can start
taking advantage of Time Management Techniques: NET Time in your own
life.
Morning
Time
I
don't know anyone who doesn't feel pressed for a few extra minutes in
the morning. Would an extra 10-20 minutes help? If
so, you
definitely found the right time management techniques page.
While you may not be able to relate exactly to my morning, I'm sure
this example will give you some ideas.
My day starts at 5:30, giving me 2 hours to:
- Change and feed our 14 month old daughter
- Take care our dogs
- Get in an hour workout
- Make coffee
- Have breakfast
- Get ready to leave for work
With
that much to do, I need all the help I can get. Time
Management
Techniques: Net Time to the rescue. The key here?
Small savings add
up.
Similar to the concepts of doing first
things first,
the order you do things can make all the difference, in this case
giving me the extra 10-20 minutes I need. Instead of doing
one thing
after another, I look for the things I can do together:
I
typically like to drink some water before my workout, so I let the dogs
out back before I do anything else. By the time they're ready
to come
back in, I've had a chance to drink some water and put their food out
for them.
While
they're eating, I can start my workout - just as an aside, working out
at home saves me approx. 1/2 hour per day going to and from the gym.
Usually my daughter starts
stirring around the time I'm finishing up...Perfect
Since her bottle
take a few minutes to warm up, I can change her. By the time
I'm done changing
her, her bottle's ready.....While she's having her bottle, guess what
I'm doing? Yip - time for my breakfast.
Starting to get the idea? I won't
bore you with the details of the rest of my morning....hopefully that's
enough to get you started looking for NET Time in your own schedule.
What are the things you can start doing together? How
creative can you be?
Phone Calls
How
many times during the day are you interrupted by phone calls that are
totally unrelated to whatever your working on. Years ago,
when I
owned a tax and accounting business, I had trouble getting anything
done because I was always on the phone, and it was usually about things
that I wasn't focused on right then.
Even if you don't own a business, keep reading....the principles still
apply.....
Once
I learned to stop answering the phone, and to start scheduling time to
make and receive phone calls, using NET Time gave me at least an extra 2-3 hours a week.
How? Two ways.
First,
during the day I would only call the clients I was actually working
with at the time. If I was working on ABC Co's tax return,
there
was no reason for me to be talking to Doe & Company right then.
I'm sure you can see the obvious benefit: you stay
focused on what you're working on.
What
about all of the other calls? You guessed it: I
could call
them from my car on the way home. If they were already gone
for
the day, even better. I could leave a message asking them to
email me their request.
The results? I was more productive
and focused, saved at least a couple of hours per week, and my clients
were happier, since when I was talking to them I already knew exactly
what they wanted, and was focused totally on them.
Win-Win.
One
quick disclaimer: if you're going to talk in your car, please
be
smart about it and get a hands free device. Ok, enough said.
Speaking of using your car for Time Management Techniques:
Net Time.....
Automobile
University
 I
love the term Auto University, which I got from Zig Ziglar.
If you're like me, you enjoy constantly learning and growing.
A few years back I found myself complaining that I didn't
have
time to read as much as I'd like.
Thanks to Itunes and my
Ipod, that'll never be a problem again. There are an
abundance of
audiobooks and podcasts on Itunes, covering every imaginable subject.
Instead of taking 30 minutes or an hour out of my day to
read, my
commuting time is now productive.
One of the first ways I used
NET Time in my car was when I was a student in grad school.
All
of the lectures were available for download, so instead of taking up to
two hours to attend a one hour lecture (travel and social time), I
could put it on my mp3 player - ipods didn't exist yet - and
listen in my car. Just this one simple use of
NET Time saved me at least two hours a week, if not more.
As I wrote about on the Power of Focus
page, what we focus on grows, so it's obviously critical to be focused
on the right things at the beginning of your day. That's why
I
love listening to the 15 minute morningcoach podcast on the way into
work in the morning.
You can either get the podcasts in itunes, or get them straight from
the morningcoach
website. Once again, NET Time to the rescue, since I probably
wouldn't listen to it if I had to take an extra 15 minutes out of my
already busy day.
Whatever subject you enjoy, you're sure to be able to turn your
commuting time into productive time.
I'm
sure you now understand why this is one of my favorite time management
techniques, and have already come up with ways of using NET Time in
your own life.
I sincerely hope you'll consider sharing your creative ideas at the Contact Us page.
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