Enhance Your Personal Organization by David G. Rohlander Your commitment book is your daily road map. The picture that you paint in your daily schedule should include blocks of time, hash marks for transportation and entries from your To Do List. The blocks of time can be broken down into four basic categories: Planning, Communicating, Managing and Execution. When considering "High Pay Off" activities, they will usually be ranked in the same order as the four categories mentioned above. Your highest pay off activity is Planning, next comes the different forms of communicating, then managing and finally, execution. Obviously, the higher your area of responsibility in an organization, the more time you will spend proportionately in planning. The closer you are to the front line of an organization the more time you will spend in some form of task execution. Plan The reason planning is the most important activity is that it determines what you do and how much time you spend doing it. If you have a well thought out plan you will be highly productive. Often people stay very busy, busy, busy so that they do not have to face risks of deciding on important and unimportant goals. If you plan, you are responsible for knowing and doing that which is best for the organization. If you don't have time to plan, there is a subtle implication that you know better but don't have a choice. This is not the case. It may be that you have low competency. You do have a choice and will do well to start today planning even if only a few minutes. Once you do it, the benefits will be so apparent that you will continue to do it and to improve. Block time for long range planning, short range planning and scheduling. The daily routine of referring to your personal and business goals and then scheduling the necessary activities and events to make progress toward those goals is one of the best self esteem builders you will find. Buy a red pen and don't let anything override your appointment with yourself. Commitments to yourself are just as important as the appointments you book with others, maybe more so. Communicate The most worthwhile and elaborate plans are ineffective if they are not communicated to the appropriate people. After planning, the next most important category of activities relates to the numerous types of communication we all perform. Contact with clients or customers, feedback and plans with employees, information on new developments in our industry and business are but a few of the areas that need attention. Review the various ways that people retain information in the first week's discussion on day three. Design a system that is easy to maintain and fits into your blocks of time so you have frequent contact with the members of your team. Measure this by means of a checklist or have your secretary monitor the patterns of contact with people that will get the best results. This is an area that many people overlook. Be deliberate and have a system. Manage Management relates to blocking time for directing, controlling, administering and a myriad of other tasks that must be performed. This is a good time to go back to the chart on D I S C to review how your style influences the way you chose to manage. Strive for balance and continually work at pushing decisions down the organization and pulling ideas up out of your people. Execute The last broad category is that of execution of tasks. The President of an organization should do the least amount of this category. The person at the front counter or the telephone receptionist does the most of this category. The strength of an organization is directly related to each person knowing what his responsibilities are and performing the correct ones. The President needs to spend the majority of time planning and setting the vision. The person answering the phone needs to answer within two rings in a pleasant and efficient manner. 'Let all things be done decently and in order.' -1 Corinthians 14.40 Copyright © 1999 by David G. Rohlander. All rights reserved. David Rohlander is a highly recognized international speaker, consultant and author. David has been successfully working with leaders and management teams to enhance communication and produce increased bottom line results since founding Orange, CA-based DGR Communications in 1979. Rohlander taught management, marketing and communications as an adjunct university professor. He has an MBA in finance and studied at the postgraduate level with Peter Drucker. Nearly a decade with Merrill Lynch, personally developing commercial and residential real estate, owning a travel business and being a former combat fighter pilot gives David a unique perspective. For information on David, his speaking, consulting or facilitating a program that will help improve profits for you, call 800-921-1958, fax 714-771-1218 or e-mail David@dgrinfo.com or on the web at www.dgrinfo.com. *D,I,S,C refers to the four quadrant model of behavioral styles. Fax or e-mail David Rohlander for a free reference copy that explains the model and gives practical tools for dealing with people.