Datasheet

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Chapter 1: Planning for Better Balance between Your Work and Personal Life
It’s getting harder and harder to get off the digital leash
Given the phenomenal rise of Wi-Fi (wireless) Internet access for laptop
computers, and cellular Internet and e-mail access for mobile phones and
other handheld digital devices, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for
knowledge workers to unplug from the Net. (A knowledge worker is some-
one like you who depends upon technology to get work done.) And because
you can now so easily work almost any place you’re located, it becomes
even more difficult for you to keep your time on and off the job separate.
When the problem is primarily finding ways to work smarter (that is, more
efficiently) rather than to work longer hours, simply having constant digital
access doesn’t really provide much of a boost in terms of personal
productivity. More often than not, it simply leads to more resentment as you
devote more and more time to job without seeing your work diminish and
you lose more and more ground in terms of having a life outside your job.
Not enough time to get it all done
The excuse that there’s just not enough time in the day to get everything
done is probably not only the one most commonly heard, it’s also the one
that’s the most true. In fact, chances are you’re going to have to accept that
even when you reach your peak level of personal productivity, you’ll face
many workdays when you simply won’t have enough time to get it all done.
Face it: There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, and that’s all
there’s ever going to be. The only way to get more out of your work week is to
better manage the time you have. And the best way to manage the time you
have is to reach and maintain your peak personal productivity.
Instead of seeing this lack of adequate time as a justification for not trying to
reach your peak productivity, I suggest you see this as the perfect rationale
for becoming and remaining as productive as you possibly can. For, in doing
so, you not only cut down the number of times when you can’t get it all done,
but you also are in a much better position to manage those very occasions
when it’s simply not going to happen.
This is because a big part of maintaining peak productivity is knowing how
to prioritize pressing obligations in ways that help you reach your current
objectives without increasing your stress level. This is, of course, just the
skill that you need to make the most of a situation in which there’s no way
that every obligation is going to get met.
Being able to prioritize in this manner enables you to make intelligent decisions
when it comes to separating the tasks you can complete from those you can’t. It
also helps you deal more effectively with the tasks that spill over into the next
day so that you have half a chance to get back on track and not remain behind
the eight ball.