From the course: Time Management Tips

Protecting your processing time

From the course: Time Management Tips

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Protecting your processing time

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- Processing is one of the most important things that you can do when it comes to time management. Processing by my definition is simply deciding what the next step is, when you're going to do it, and where its home is. Where do you put it after you're done? It's the keystone of my time management training program, meaning it holds everything up. If you do this, you will stay on top of your time management, and if you neglect it or let something get in the way, it's going to collapse. The problem is many people have obstacles that get in the way of their processing. I want to share with you a few tools that you can use to protect the time that you have scheduled to go through and bring your email inbox and all your other gathering points to zero. First is understanding the value of processing. I was working with a client once who was a little frustrated, and said, "Dave, how can me spending time going through "my email like this be worth anything? "I should be doing bigger projects." I explained to him that processing in the way that I was explaining to him, on a schedule, was worth ten times or more what he was making per hour. The reason for this is he, like most people, are deciding what, when, where, but most people are deciding here, there, and everywhere, constantly throughout their day. They're spending far more time than if they had a regular schedule, and stuck with it. In fact, an hour processing on a schedule is probably worth ten hours or more throughout the course of a year. Second, many people feel that they are too busy to process on a schedule. They have so much going on that they don't know when they're ever going to do it. One tip that I recommend is that you schedule your processing time to occur during times of the week where you're least likely to be interrupted. For instance, if early in the morning, the office is usually a very quiet time, that's probably a good time to schedule your processing to occur. Number three is failing to adjust your processing schedule. Sometimes people start with a schedule that works, but over time it breaks down. Things are getting in the way. Their position has changed, whatever it is. When that happens, don't abandon processing altogether, just readjust the schedule. Take that five hours a week and break it down a different way. Perhaps you'll do it in the morning, perhaps you'll do it in the afternoon. Test it out for two weeks. Then after two week, reassess and adjust again if necessary. The next obstacle is when people are too flexible with their processing. Yes we want to allow for emergencies, but most things that happen in your day aren't really emergencies. You want to treat that processing like it's sacred, and when you schedule it in your calendar, be firm. Make a commitment to it, and protect it as much as possible. Processing is incredibly valuable, and it's worth it for you to protect that time. If you do, it will pay huge time dividends in the long run.

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