The Repeat Test

Do you ever look at something and see something else?

This morning while checking my emails (insert plug for my email reducing plan working! Woot!) I saw a post that was titled “The Respect Test”..hmmm  I am always interested in posts by my friend Nina at Greater Impact Ministries so I clicked on it.

Boy, were my eyes not awake! LOL The article was actually titled “The Repeat Test” – I know – not anywhere near the same but in reading I did find a new writer to connect with and learned a little something in the process.

In this article, the author suggests ways to reduce the time wasted – times you may not think about when you look back over your daily activities.

This test is different than ones that I was taught in management class years ago. In my class we had to stop at the top of every hour and just make a quick note of what we worked on and at the end of the day compared that list to the scheduled work plan. This allowed us to see if projects were taking more time than allocated or if we were wasting time (glad these were self judged!)

Another type of test was to show how many times you were interrupted in a day  (I know – for us moms at home this would be a challenge) by marking a hash line every time you had to stop to answer the phone or answer a co-worker that stopped by your office. The purpose of this test was to show that by having “work hours” that had no interruptions was far more profitable than dealing with each little thing that came up.

I can see me now…. I need 4 hours to write so I place a chalkboard outside my office (ok dining room) and tell the kids to leave a note if they need me. I will deal with it later. Wonder how that would work?

We have started teaching the girls Microsoft Outlook in school and they are now trying to “make appointments” and “schedule activities” through the calendar feature. When they need me to register them for camp, they first book the “camp” dates as an appointment, then schedule a “meeting” with me several weeks before so I can process the registration. On my end, I get a notification of the “appointment” and an invite to the “meeting”… The goal to this is to keep everyone on the same calendar and help the girls take responsibility for letting everyone know when something important is coming up that they either need to attend or would like support from family members. (Mom also doesn’t have excuse of losing the registration form)

I will post another article on this at the end of the summer to report how well this project went and to share our fall scheduling for their Sophomore and Junior school years.

Back to the post this morning…Time wasted is just that TIME WASTED! Understanding where you spend your time and what eats up the most of it is a huge step in learning to manage it. Here is the original post that got my attention:  The Repeat Test by Bruce Kasanoff – I hope it will get your brain spinning on ways to use your time wisely.

 

Disclaimer – I do not know Bruce or endorse his position on any other topic. I simply like this article.