An action plan will keep you organized and moving forward in positive directions. Applying time management techniques, setting priorities and becoming assertive are critical if you want to sustain your performance, achieve your goals and maintain your self-respect.

Set Priorities

If you struggle with knowing that your task pile is getting higher and higher, you are probably feeling overwhelmed and procrastinating. The critical first step is to not accept requests as the status quo; you must question situations and seek alternative approaches.

Ask the requester probing questions like:

“What is the purpose of this activity?”

“What are your desired outcomes?”

“What is your timeline?”

“What activity has the highest priority?”

The more you understand each priority, the easier it will be for you to complete your to-do lists, set boundaries and manage your time.

Put a Value on Your Time

What is your time worth – each hour worth, each minute? If you view your time as dollars and cents, you’ll be more likely to respect it and use it wisely. It also allows you to set expectations and boundaries on your time. If you are scheduling a meeting with someone, let them know approximately how long it will last, and stick to it.

Set Boundaries

If you struggle with saying “no,” delegating and being in control, you are probably taking on more than you should. You need to learn how to respect yourself by letting go of your people-pleasing and perfectionist tendencies. Letting go of these self-induced pressures, will greatly decrease your stress and increase your time. The more you understand the reasoning behind your needs to please people and be perfect, the easier it will be for you to let these tendencies go. It’s never too late to take care of you.

Do One Thing at a Time

Some people think that doing one thing at a time categorizes them as slow or lazy, but people who complete one task at a time are actually less likely to make costly mistakes and are often more productive overall.

Paint yourself a picture and imagine how fulfilled, productive and happy you could be.

What does it take to make your vision come to fruition? There is a one word answer – motivation.

Where does motivation come from? Motivation comes from within an individual. No one can motivate anyone to do anything they do not want to do. If someone truly wants to make changes in their life, they will do what it takes to make them. They get and stay motivated. This is where the phrase, “If there is a will, there is a way” derived. You have to want something strongly enough before you are willing to make a change. If you wait for someone or something to change, you may never get the results you want and need. It is up to you to do something different, to make something different happen.

When you are fulfilled professionally and personally, your customers, co-workers, friends and family become a part of the ripple effect. Your environments become healthy and positive. Negative energy is reduced, and morale, productivity, improved relationships and a better quality of life are increased. You will have less stress and drama when you choose to make healthier and wiser choices. Work and life become fun and more rewarding for you, and everyone around you.

Motivating Others

Is your team motivated? Ask yourself questions such as:

• What communication strategies are in place?
• Does our team enjoy working together? Do we celebrate successes?
• At the end of the day, does each individual feel appreciated and valued?

To fulfill today’s productivity demands, the organization’s climate must support and show appreciation for the efforts of employees at all levels. People are usually willing to go the extra mile when they feel appreciated and valued. Without this intangible reward, morale will deteriorate; consequently, productivity and quality will decline.

This anonymous quote says it best, “Initiative is an attribute to be sought after. The person who can think ahead and do what he or she sees needs to be done is an asset to the employer, saving him or her time, stress, and probably money.”

If someone is motivated, they will embrace the strategies and take action. When you take the initiative to make positive changes in your work or personal life, you will get motivated, do better and achieve success.

It’s never too late to get happy!

Applying time management techniques and setting priorities are critical if you want to sustain your performance, and if you want to maintain your sanity.

To Succeed:

Set Boundaries – if you struggle with saying “no,” delegating and being in control, you’re probably taking on more than you need to because you have not learned how to take care of yourself by setting boundaries. Your need to be in control to make your life and the lives of others perfect is taking up too much of your time and energy. Letting go of such self-induced pressures, will greatly increase your time and decrease your stress.

Set Priorities – if you struggle with knowing that your task pile is getting higher and higher, you’re probably feeling overwhelmed and procrastinating because you have not learned how to get started on the most important tasks first. The key is to not accept a request as status quo; the key is to ask questions.

The more you understand and are clear about your priorities, the easier it will be to set boundaries. The more you understand why you and everyone around you must be perfect, the easier it will be for you to let it go. It’s never too late to take care of you.

While there are some valid reasons that can keep us behind and stuck in our same-old behaviors and thinking patterns, holding ourselves and others accountable is the only way to bring about positive results in both our personal and professional lives. To bring about accountability, we need to realize that we are only being responsible when we help people grow and perform, not when we enable them to do less. When we enable others, we are giving them the path of least resistance and ourselves more work or sacrifice. Our over accommodating, does a disservice to all.

Defining our expectations and clarifying our roles are just the beginning steps to bring about accountability. Showing positive recognition and giving consequences are the most powerful components of accountability. Rewards and consequences are what it takes to evolve performances into our desired outcomes. Our productivity, teamwork and personal happiness will shine through when we hold ourselves and others accountable to make things better.

To succeed in today’s workplace and life, it takes more than book smarts; it also takes human smarts. For example, your IQ may get you hired but it’s EQ that will get you promoted! Human smarts (EQ) includes those soft, intangible, gray, interpersonal, people skills that are critical for success at work and home.

EQ provides the ability to control your emotions (yourself) to achieve positive outcomes in both your professional and personal lives. It’s about the choices you make with each interaction and circumstance you experience. It makes an individual contributor into a team player. It makes a manager into a leader. It makes an acquaintance into a desired friend. It makes an unhealthy relationship into a healthy, loving one. It makes a family member into a great role model. It makes you succeed.

Emotional Intelligence involves becoming self-aware, emotionally expressive, trusting, flexible and resilient, compassionate and emotionally aware of others, being open- minded and optimistic, taking initiative, having close relationships and feeling satisfied with your life. Good news – EQ can be learned! Developing your EQ skills definitely matter to your success, happiness and fulfillment.

Can you think of ways to enhance EQ?

With that in mind, this statistic may come as a shock to many employers: 84 percent of workers want to quit their jobs and find new opportunities.

That means it’s time for all businesses to consider what can be done to boost the morale of their workforce and create an environment in which employees can not only survive, but thrive.

This process starts at the top by having strong leadership. Strong leadership requires knowing the difference between being a manager and being a leader.

Leadership is about directing, empowering and inspiring positive change. Leaders create a vision and develop strategies. Managers plan to, but they tend to be more reactive and focus on completing tasks.  If you want to be a leader, you must create vision and define how you expect yourself and your team to perform. Having a strong vision and clear expectations boosts morale because employees believe in their company’s leadership.

Diversity is also important. Does your company truly embrace diversity and encourage feedback? And not just with words, but through actions? Companies that truly embrace diversity will be best equipped to serve the changing demographics and boost morale by being better enlightened with contemporary values in society.

A third key is to treat employees with dignity and respect. Whether at work or home, isn’t being treated with dignity and respect a need for everyone?

The following questions will help you assess if you are treating others with respect at work or home:

• Do you praise more than criticize?
• Do you listen to understand versus listen to respond?
• Do you encourage others to express their thoughts, suggestions and feelings?
• Do you implement expressed suggestions?
• Do you ask questions to show you are interested and care?
• Do you seek out others for their expertise and assistance to show you value their opinions?
• Are you simply courteous, polite and thoughtful?

If you want to be a leader, you must create your vision and define how you expect yourself and your team to perform.  You must listen to your team and treat them with the respect and courtesy they deserve.

How do you balance business needs with efforts to create a positive work experience for employees?

We tend to think that the people who purchase our products and services are our only customers, when everyone is a customer.

However, the employees within our organizations who create, produce, support and sell our products and services are our customers. The people in our personal lives are our customers too. Does each person get treated with same amount of professionalism, maturity and respect?

People want to do business, work and interact with people they like and trust. It is up to you to take the lead and maintain the competitive advantage by creating a pleasant, respectful experience for people. Excellence in customer service requires excellent interpersonal skills. No skill is more important than a sincere willingness and interest in helping others.

Interacting with people is very challenging, especially in our current fast-paced, multi-tasking society. Developing people skills is complex and possible. Check out this video on powerful people skills. It is easier for many people to become great task masters. Great task masters do produce results and excellent customer service does build loyalty, deepen relationships and increase sales. Think about this…what do you value more, your tasks or your customers?

It will be up to you make the appropriate changes within your organization and yourself to reach the goals you want to achieve. You cannot expect or wait for others to change if they do not want to. You can only change yourself and your responses to people or situations.