Your Inner CEO: Parkinson's Law

People tend to have a contradictory approach to time management. They know it’s important -- that it can be the difference between a middle manager and a top executive -- yet they waste time every day. That’s not good! Let’s change that! Here are some ideas:

>> An hour of planning can save you ten hours of doing. Don’t head into projects without setting goals, knowing how you to achieve those goals and setting times by which they have to be accomplished.

>> Improve your reading speed. The average reading speed is two hundred words per minute. Most people in business have to read for about two hours a day. That’s not a lot of words read for time expended. A speed reading course can double your reading speed. It actually works.

>> Devote one hour each day to personal self improvement. If you spend just one hour a day on a skill you want to improve, that computes to seven hours a week. Do the math to see how much time that is over one full year. You can become an expert at almost anything if you follow that schedule. You can become a concert violinist!

>> Practice patience. It’s natural to want positive change to happen as easily and as quickly as possible. But the cycle of change often takes longer than you expect. In fact, I promise you that it will take longer than you expect. But you can make it happen.

>> Be adventurous. See change as a challenge and a chance for transformation. Throw yourself into planning and preparation. Explore new career horizons that may appear. See this as an adventure, not an obligation.

>> Try something new each day. When people expand beyond their comfort zone, they have a tendency to try to build a comfort zone as quickly as possible. Challenge yourself to try at least one new way of doing things every day. 

One of the most insightful rules of workplace behavior is Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands to fill the time available.” So give yourself a challenging time frame. It doesn’t mean you should never sleep. It just means that maybe you should wake up five minutes earlier. Or ten minutes! Fifteen?