How well you manage yourself and time you have, is crucial to your success. Wasted time equals lost opportunities. Lost opportunities equal lost business and profits.

Time can’t be “saved” – it’s an impossibility. You can’t find more of it – it’s a fixed commodity. You can only manage your activities as time passes. So how are you spending 60 seconds in each minute - 60 minutes in each hour - 1,440 minutes in each day?

What you need is to achieve is working on your top priorities in most effective way. Here are 10 great strategies for doing just that.

Lesson 1: Prioritize Aside from just listing what needs to be done, rank them from most important to least important. And then complete them in that order. Too often we start with easy stuff or quick stuff, regardless of how important it is. Look at list of things that need to be done. Hi-light activities that you could put on hold if you had to. How much time could you free up if you put some of those activities on hold?

Be realistic about number of priorities you have. Most of activities we are involved in are things we want to do. The problem with overwhelm is that there are many more things we want to do, than we physically have time for. So create some space by telling yourself that you are just putting some activities on hold for now. You are not giving them up forever, but you are giving yourself permission to put some activities on hold – so you can focus on most important priorities. This may force you to make some tough choices – but it’s a pretty empowering thing to do.|

Lesson 2: Be ruthless with e-mail. What a productivity killer email can be if misused. Use a private email address for clients and customers. Get everything else sent to a generic or alternate email address. That way you can deal with your client issues first, and rest when you have time.

Only respond to your emails at set times during day. I personally do emails first thing in morning, and between 2 and 3pm each day. There’s no need to respond instant that you receive an email. This approach simply means you get interrupted all time, and your productivity remains low.

Same Old, Same Old PR Still Tops

Like human nature over time, power of good public relations remains same.

Whether you are a manager working for a business, a non-profit or an association, at some point, you will want, or need to create outside stakeholder behavior change – kind that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

Fortunately, you can get that job done by doing something positive about behaviors of those external audiences that MOST affect your organization. And do so by persuading those important outside folks to your way of thinking, and moving them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed.

Fact is, your public relations push must involve more than special events, brochures and news releases if you really want to get your money’s worth.

The fundamental premise of public relations says as much when it highlights reality that people act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.

That premise, that blueprint, really promises results. From new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; rebounds in showroom visits, membership applications on rise; community service and sponsorship opportunities, to capital givers or specifying sources looking your way; enhanced activist group relations, and expanded feedback channels; not to mention new thoughtleader and special event contacts.

Even, conceivably, results like stronger relationships with educational, labor, financial and healthcare communities; prospects starting to work with you; customers making repeat purchases, and improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies.

That’s a lot of results from even a high-impact blueprint.

It almost goes without saying that your PR crew – agency or staff – must be committed to you as senior project manager, to PR blueprint and its implementation, starting with target audience perception monitoring.

Be wary of PR people who describe themselves as “totally on board program.” That doesn’t mean they’ve bought into whole effort. Convince yourself that your team members honestly believe why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Assure yourself that they buy reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.