Simplify Your New Year’s Resolutions For Better Day-To-Day Results

<span style="color: #808080;">It’s the first week of the New Year and you are on target with your New Year’s resolutions that will change your life … but it’s a long road until we ring in 2019.

Here are some simple resolutions that will give you more time for longer lasting day-to-day results. When you plan your time more wisely, you implement bigger overall changes that will increase your stamina, your brain power and your bottom line for your business.

Close Your Office Door

If your door is always open, you will never know what your day will look like. While it’s encouraging for colleagues to drop in any time, a steady stream of off-time conversation is distracting and counterproductive. Ideas conceived on the run, while exciting, waste more time and money … and your day.

Build Relationships

Taking time to show someone you care by setting aside time to engage with your fellow co-workers builds relationships and your business. Making it a point to help co-workers feel acknowledged gives you insight to the people and personalities you work with and/or report to.

Schedule your emails

Emails are more likely to be read early in the day. Be more proactive and reply to emails in the late afternoon or evening and schedule them to go out in the morning. Spend an hour in the morning and in the evening only to read and respond to emails. Responding to every email when that alert comes in throughout the day is ineffectual and non-productive. If a response is needed urgently, pick up the phone!

Creative Thinking

It’s the end of the day … where did the time go? Uninterrupted thinking every day to devise strategies to grow your relationships and your business triggers new ideas. If you don’t have an hour, spend 20 minutes to take a walk or go for a coffee. Create one idea this year — that could open a world of possibilities. It only takes one!

Your Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

Take up an interest and broaden your mind by meeting new people outside your working life. A whole world of different thinkers and ideas will fire your imagination to develop new ways of thinking and strategies. It can be as simple as taking a free class at the “Y” or taking a walk with a new colleague.

Turn Your Observer On

There are two sides to our personalities … Ego and Observer. Remember to turn on your Observer when you enter the room and listen before speaking. When you enter a room, encourage others to be heard first. New ideas, perspectives, alternative points of view will flow. That’s the key to collaboration and encouraging out-of-the-box thinking for all.

Multitasking

You created your “to-do” list for today … you’re a master of multitasking. You can switch between tasks quickly. But at the end of the day your list didn’t shrink, it grew. Why? Switching between tasks rather than focusing on one task at a time is inefficient and decreases your attention span making your time far less productive.

Over Planning

If every hour of every day is planned by the clock, there’s no time left for the unexpected. Scheduling blocks of time for work gives you flexibility for those unexpected events that all too often interrupt the day.

Plan Weekly Not Daily

The saying “there are never enough hours in a day,” may be true but there are in a week. Set up your calendar to set priorities across the week to get done the “musts” then you will have time to manage day-to-day tasks.

Sleep

Turn off your cell phone for a good night sleep. Sleep is vital to rejuvenate your body and rest your mind. If you are plugged in 24/7, your cognitive skills are not at their peak so plan a reasonable time to hit the pillow at the same hour every night.