The truly great athletes often focus on an area where they can improve and work on it to get better in the off-season.
But there is no off-season in business, so any time is a good time to examine how we can improve in our professional lives. These are some of the areas I regularly look at.
Get better organized. I am a habitual packrat. My filing system is piles … one pile for each project. And that’s a lot of piles. I like to joke that I never lose anything; I just misplace things. But I am vowing to do better. And if I can do it, anyone can do it.
Eliminate or reduce distractions. Productivity’s number one enemy is interruptions. Set aside a period of time each day — even if it’s only 10 minutes — when you are unavailable for anything less than a four-alarm fire. That goes for office visitors, telephone calls, emails, and carrier pigeons. There is also the option of coming to work early or staying late.