You’re a construction contractor – and you’re busy! All day long!
Or are you?
What about those minutes of time that are maddeningly frustrating because you’re waiting?
Waiting between scheduled appointments
Waiting for the person who is late to an appointment
Waiting for the coffee to brew
Waiting for a slow application to load
Waiting for a field report to finish downloading
Waiting between sessions at a conference
Waiting on phone hold
Waiting while you’re stuck in traffic for . . . well you know, forever
Use the disruptions!
You already know how disruptive “wait time” can be for your day. Do you know how to use those disruptive moments to accomplish small quality tasks?
The first hurdle you’re likely to meet is an all-or-nothing mentality. Yet, there are some simple things you can do to help jump that hurdle.
Be actively looking for those moments of time that you can put to use
Keep a list of potential activities (on your physical or digital desktop, in your wallet, on your dash, in your briefcase, in your toolbox, where ever you’ll see it)
Be prepared with the proper tools (“the” list, a phone, a book, a notebook, pens, a highlighter, a kindle, an iPad, educational or inspirational audio)
Write the list
Some of the types of items you may want to include on your “potential activities list” are:
Proofread documentation
Organize a few files on computer
Clear old stuff off computer
Check or add items to any needed lists
Phone or email someone from ‘contact this week’ list
Send file A to person Z
Physical exercise
Clear spam from inbox
Write an outline for X report
Tidy your desk
More ways to use those minutes
Here are a few more actions you can take which are quite useful in using up those minutes and gaining some traction in other areas.
I’ve already mentioned the drive time dilemma. The simplest way to gain from the traffic down time is keep audio which is either educational or inspirational in your truck. While you’re driving or while your stuck in the traffic jam you have a way to keep yourself ahead of the game through this simple method of self-improvement.
Another useful minute filler is your notebook and highlighter whether it be digital or physical. Say you’re at a construction contracting conference, you’ve been taking notes because, yeah, it’s that good. Then you hurry over to the next session – and you have to wait for it to start. Highlight the most important parts of what you’ve just heard. Yep, that simple. The quick review is great at cementing “the good stuff” in your brain.
Say you’ve just gotten off an important phone call, take a few minutes to write down one to three of the most important takeaways. Use this same strategy when you’ve finished reading an article, a chapter, a blog post, whatever. Building this habit will pay off multiple times over as you train yourself to look for and remember the most important parts of whatever you’ve just read, heard, seen, or done.
Your call to action
Write your “potential activities” list. Using the list provided above and your own knowledge of how you and how your office operates, write your own list of minute filling activities, put it where you’ll see it. Next time you must wait, put those minutes to good use.
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