Friday, March 4, 2011

The Best Way to Use the Last Five Minutes of Your Day

It only takes a few minutes, about five actually. A brief pause at the end of the day to consider what worked and what didn’t. Every day, before leaving the office, save a few minutes to think about what just happened. Look at your calendar and compare what actually the people whom you have interacted, even the breaks you took – with your plan for what you wanted to have happen. Then ask yourself three sets of questions:

 How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure?
 What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do – differently or the same – tomorrow?
 Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback?

This last set of questions is invaluable in terms of maintaining and growing relationships? It takes just a few short minutes to shoot off an email – or three – to share your appreciation for a kindness someone extended, to ask someone a question, or to keep someone in the loop on a project.

Source: Managing Yourself from Peter Bregman

1 comment:

Capt Kasala said...

only to learn that your day rarely happens as you plan it to be. In ship management, a lot of unexpected things happen daily that even the ready counter-measures does not always address.