5
Things To Ctrl-Shift-K
When I
was re-listening to the Manager Tools Development Podcast last week, I
heard Mark say, “put a reminder on your task list once a
month and ask yourself ‘How am I doing with family
time?’”
Ctrl-Shift-K
is the Outlook shortcut for a task. By using that, Mark suggests you
check in with yourself once a month and see how you are doing on your
commitment to leaving work on time and getting home to see your family.
That
made me think. What else can we use Ctrl-Shift-K for?
Stay
Connected: If
you’ve listened to any of our casts on building a network,
you’ll know we recommend using Ctrl-Shift-K to create a
recurring task to keep in contact with all the people in our network.
Just reach out each time the task comes up. You
don’t have to “be a networker” to have a
great network. You have to “stay in touch with [people].”
Meet
Your Objectives: In
organizations we’ve worked in, objectives are set at the
beginning of the year and never looked at again, until it’s
review time. That’s a guaranteed way to miss your objective.
Put them in a task list and make the task pop up at least once a month.
When the task comes up, put time on your calendar to work on them in
the next four weeks. Don’t
wait longer than the first quarter to schedule a ping. If you
haven’t started by then, it’s going to seem
impossible.
Update
Your Resume: We recommend
you update your Career Management Document once a quarter. Just add the
accomplishments from the last quarter, and when you need a resume,
it’ll take no time to create. 30
minutes, once a quarter. To avoid panicky scrambling when a great
opportunity falls in your lap.
Follow
Up: Bad at remembering to
ask about people's vacations, family events or operations?
Create a task for the day or week after they return. Don't
forget to look at your task list just before you go to a meeting or
pick up the phone and you'll be reminded to ask how the event
went.
Stay
Regular: Any task which is
tedious is better done more regularly. Take filing. Most of us file on
our computers now, but those hard drives get as messy as our desks used
to. Got a file folder called ‘stuff’ or
‘everything’ where you've just swept
everything when you’ve needed to concentrate on the latest
fire? Put a task on your list that recurs weekly called
‘filing’. Next time you’re waiting for
the caffeine to kick in, spend 5 minutes filing. It's much
easier done in small bites regularly. 5
minutes. FIVE.
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