Your Work Book In our busy working lives today, we are bombarded with so many different distractions that it is sometimes difficult to keep track of everything that's going on, particularly if you work in an open-plan office.

Instead of recording on scraps of paper or sticky notes all zillion thoughts that pass through your mind during these stressful periods, use an inexpensive spiral note book. Anything of importance that you write down can then be found again at a later date. Use it as an adjunct, or a companion, to your diary and as a great memory jogger.

You'll find using a Work Book will help you focus your thoughts, remind yourself of past conversations and save time as you'll no longer have to search for all those "back of envelope" notations.

Taming Telephone Murphy's Law of Telephones and Deadlines means that when you are really pressed trying to complete a project on time, telephone will take off, with a mind of its own. The pro-active person will rejig their answering message to say something like this: "Hi, it's Joe Bloggs. I'm unavailable right now however if you leave a message stating what your call is about, and best time to phone you back, I'll get in touch later in day."

On other hand, if you have someone working with you who can screen your calls (lucky you) word them up to give a similar message. Asking what call is about will help you assemble any relevant information before you call back. This will enable you to better plan your day, to return all calls sooner and more effectively.

The Final Word Keep your time management systems simple because simpler they are more likely you will use them. Doing basics will help you work smarter, not harder.

Purchase a large vertical wire step file (available from stationers) Sort through your in-tray/s or piles and organize paperwork into similar categories, ie. Correspondence Reading Clients Invoices Staff Label manila folders with above categories. Place folders into step file. Now you'll have all your work to do sitting in manageable files. It's much more effective than shuffling piles of paper.

This simple but practical device saves my accountant 2 hours per week. Do you know what that means to an accountant who charges out at $100 per hour?

Save Two Hours / Week @ Hourly Rate of $200 2 HRS/WEEK = $200 = 8 HRS/MTH = $800 = 96 HRS/YR = $9,600

You don't need to be an accountant to understand significance of saving a small amount of time and impact it has overall. It's always little things in life - one percenters which make difference.