- Prioritise: Choose three jobs each day that you must get done. Anything else you achieve that day is a bonus.
- Concentrate on one thing at a time: Multi-tasking is a myth - you are actually flipping from one task to another. Each time you switch activities, you brain takes a moment to catch up - which slows you down.
- Control your email checking: Only check emails twice a day. Keep replies to five sentences.
Successful people cultivate useful habits, such as the following:
- Get up early - you'll feel less rushed and less likely to forget things.
- Keep your phone charged.
- Watch the news - but only once a day.
- Schedule appointments (e.g. haircuts, dental appointments) well in advance and note in your diary or on your phone.
- Keep receipts and minutes of meetings or lists.
- Service things before they break rather than fix them when they go wrong.
[Both from a feature on self help books in Good Housekeeping, July 2013]
