Tips to Enhance Your Decision Making Batting Average

Just as people are different, so are their styles of decision making. Each person is a result of all of the decisions made in their life to date. Recognizing this, here are some tips to enhance your decision making batting average.

• Do not make decisions that are not yours to make.
• When making a decision you are simply choosing from among alternatives. You are not making a choice between right and wrong.
• Avoid snap decisions. Move fast on the reversible ones and slowly on the non-reversible.
• Choosing the right alternative at the wrong time is not any better than the wrong alternative at the right time, so make the decision while you still have time.
• Do your decision making on paper. Make notes and keep your ideas visible so you can consider all the relevant information in making this decision.
• Be sure to choose based on what is right, not who is right.
• Write down the pros and cons of a line of action. It clarifies your thinking and makes for a better decision.
• Make decisions as you go along. Do not let them accumulate. A backlog of many little decisions could be harder to deal with than one big and complex decision.
• Consider those affected by your decision. Whenever feasible, get them involved to increase their commitment.
• Recognize that you cannot know with 100% certainty that your decision is correct because the actions to implement it are to take place in the future. So make it and don't worry about it.
• Use the OAR, O. A. R. approach in decision making. Look at O, Objectives you are seeking to attain, A, the Alternatives you sense are available to you and R, the risk of the alternative you are considering.
• It has been said that a decision should always be made at the lowest possible level and as close to the scene of action as possible. However, a decision should always be made at a level insuring that all activities and objectives affected are fully considered. The first rule tells us how far down a decision should be made. The second how far down it can be made.
• Remember that not making a decision is a decision not to take action.
• To be effective a manager must have the luxury of having the right to be wrong.
• Trust yourself to make a decision and then to be able to field the consequences appropriately.
• Don't waste your time making decisions that do not have to be made.
• Determine alternative courses of action before gathering data.
• Before implementing what appears to be the best choice, assess the risk by asking "What can I think of that might go wrong with this alternative ?"
• Many decisions you make are unimportant-about 80% of them. Establish operating limits and let your secretary or others make them for you.
• Consider making the decision yourself in lieu of a group, but recognize the potential for less commitment by those affected.
• As part of your decision making process, always consider how the decision is to be implemented.
• As soon as you are aware that a decision will have to be made on a specific situation, review the facts at hand then set it aside. Let this incubate in your subconscious mind until it is time to finally make the decision.
• Once the decision has been made, don't look back. Be aware of how it is currently affecting you and focus on your next move. Never regret a decision. It was the right thing to do at the time. Now focus on what is right at this time.
• Mentally rehearse implementation of your choice and reflect in your imagination what outcomes will result.
• Brainstorming alternative solutions with your staff or others will gain fresh ideas and commitment.
• Discontinue prolonged deliberation about your decision. Make it and carry it through.
• Once you have made the decision and have started what you are going to do, put the "what if's" aside and do it with commitment.

How to Be More Effective and Organized

Achieving goals in an efficient way is possible when you are well-organized. Here are some ideas that will help you become more organized.

• Use a personal pocket calendar that you carry with you at all times to help keep yourself organized.
• Use check lists and check sheets regularly for those things which must be done in a correct way.
• Have different-colored checklists for easy identification.
• When people come back to you asking the same question they have asked several times before, ask them to set up a standard operating procedure by simply writing down the statement that you are to make about how the situation is to be handled. They can then keep that at their desk, and will not have to ask you about it in the future.
• Create a visible time line for key projects.
• Make a daily "to-do" list of activities that you must do and set priorities on it every day. Then do the activities in priority order.
• Use a tickler or follow-up file allowing you to file items until the day that you can act on them.
• Set up a system to handle repetitive tasks.
• Avoid over organizing to the point where your perfectionism interferes with your achieving results.
• Identify and post reorder quantities on office supplies to prevent running out completely.
• Carry 3x5 cards or a notebook or note paper or your pocket calendar to make notes of things that you would like to remember.
• When doing work on a computer, have a regular routine of backing up your work at least twice a day to ensure it does not get lost.
• Dictate your notes or thoughts for projects on a cassette, then either have it transcribed by your secretary or personally pay a student to do it for you.
• Work on only one item at a time.
• Keep only one project on your desk at a time to avoid distractions. Time is lost sorting through other items while you're working on one.
• If you are working on several projects, keep each one in a clearly labeled file by itself so you do not have to look through a mixed project file to find things.
• Do not schedule every minute of the day; keep flexible for the unexpected items that will come up,
• When you sense things are out of control-STOP. Sit quietly, relax, re-establish priorities in writing, decide what action to take, then go again.
• Sit down and do all trivia in one sitting to get it over with.
• Build flexibility into your schedule by purposely overestimating the amount of time needed on each activity.
• Use a people page-a page that has an individual's name at the top on which you write down the routine things you want to ask this individual. Then call this person once a day, or at most, twice to ask all the questions that have accumulated on the page.
• If you are responsible for several key projects, use project pages in your calendar or planner. Keep one page on each project. Whenever you think of something that is relevant to that project, jot it down on the appropriate page. This way you will be organizing your thoughts as you have them.
• Schedule a meeting with yourself every day. Then during this meeting work uninterrupted on your top priority project.
• Carry a project with you so when kept waiting in a doctor's office, airport or on a bus, you can be productive.
• Before leaving the office at night, put the most important project for tomorrow on your desk. It will be there ready and waiting for you in the morning.
• Establish an efficient working routine that matches you and your job. Do a certain activity at the same time each day or on the same day every week.
• Organize items you reference frequently in a ring binder in protective plastic. It will enhance its usability and present ability to customers or to yourself.
• Keep a log of requests made. Be sure to note the day and hour they are to be completed.
• Each day make a Call-See-Do list. Who you should call. Who you should see, and what you should do.
• Consolidate support staff where possible. For example, typing staff could be reorganized into a pool to equalize their work loads.
• Create specific useful forms such as time sheets and other record keeping sheets that are helpful to a specific job, but do not bog down the people with redundant paperwork.
• Keep only one calendar and keep it with you at all times.
• Combine all personal and work related items into your one personal calendar.
• Gather all needed materials and supplies for a project. Then when you sit and do the project, you won't have to run for this item or that item.
• Capture a few minutes from every activity you do. They accumulate to be extra time for your high priority projects.
• Use the computer where practical for reports and processing of information gathered.
• Instead of using a standard form it may pay off to make a customized form for a special customer. Assess the situation carefully.
• Trade days. Work on Saturday when it is quiet and take another day or two half days off.
• Implement flex time to help employee motivation.
• Once you are sure you are doing the most important thing, then ask yourself: "How can I do this more efficiently?"
• Use short, simple, written directions for routine procedures.
• Move your in-basket off the desk so it will not be a temptation or distraction.
• As things you must do come to mind, write them down in your pocket planner or calendar immediately so they do not get lost.
• Look for ways of automating office procedures.
• Work four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days. It gives you an extra day at home and better concentration at work.
• Use a steno pad to list thoughts, duties, interruptions or questions. Use a highlighter to cross them off as you deal with them.
• Keep a notebook with pages headed "Thanks giving,"
• "Xmas," "Office party," or the name of other special projects. Then when you think of something that must be done or bought, etc., you can jot it down on the appropriate page.
• Make up daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly lists of routine duties with blank spaces to fill in responsibilities and special duties.
• Group like tasks together to prevent job jumping and wasting time.
• Provide adequate private work space as well as central areas and conference space to maximize effectiveness.
• Buy ahead so you have supplies on hand.
• Ask people who are not closely involved with a problem or process how they think it could be done. You will get fresh ideas.
• Use the proper tools for the job even if you have to go out and purchase them.
• Develop personal systems that work for you, then follow them. Be sure to update them periodically.
• At night put classified material in a secure place. Do not leave it out where it might walk off.
• Clean your desk the last five minutes of the day and prepare it for getting started first thing in the morning.
• Keep papers you are not working on in the filing cabinet, not on your desk.
• Keep supplies and materials in a storage cabinet, not on your desk.
• Establish an organized filing system that anyone can use and see that things get into it immediately.
• Save simplistic, repetitious, routine, manual jobs, (folding papers, stuffing envelopes) for times when you choose to simply relax and chat with others, or listen to cassette tapes.
• List key activities on 3x5 cards, one to a card. Review them in priority sequence several times each day.
• Stick "Post-It-Notes" on projects to show status or progress of a project.
• Role model as an organized person. You will soon convince yourself.
• Devise a problem resolution log which keeps track of progress on solving problems within a department.
• Schedule a block of time to be dedicated to major projects.
• When you think other people might forget something important, use multiple reminders to jog their memory. Use such things as notes, lists, tickler reports, status reports, briefings, phone calls, special bulletins, and so forth.
• Look for two or more complementary activities that can be dovetailed and done at one time.
• When you receive a person's business card, write notes about your encounter on the back of the card.

How to Improve Your Goal Setting Skills

Life is a journey. Not just any journey, but the most fantastic journey in the universe. Life is a journey from where you are to where you want to be. You can choose your own destination. Not only that, you can choose how you are going to get there. Goal setting will help you end up where you want to be.

• When it comes to setting goals, start off with what's important to you in life. Take out a sheet of paper. Sit quietly, and on that sheet of paper, brainstorm what you want to accomplish between now and the end of your life.
• Second step-use another sheet of paper, and this time consider yourself and your personal goals for the next 12 month period. Some key areas in which you might set personal goals include: family, personal growth, financial, health, social, career, hobbies, spiritual, and recreation. Write down the things that you plan to accomplish or achieve or attain during this one-year period?
• Now, as a third step, go back and compare the two goal lists you have made. Make sure that the items on your short-term list will, as you attain them, be helping you attain your long-term or lifetime goals. It is important that what you are doing short term is taking you in the right direction toward your lifetime goals. Please rewrite your short term goals now if you need to.
• As a next step, looking at the goals that are on your list at this time, if there are any that you are not willing to pay the price for, go ahead and cross them out, leaving only those items you are willing to cause to happen in your life. This does not necessarily mean you have the money or the other resources for attaining the goal right now. However, when you do have it, would you spend it on or trade it for the goals you have on your list?
• Now, on still another sheet of paper, create the job goals that are important to you during this upcoming 12-month period. Identify what outcomes you wish to attain or achieve during this one-year period in your specific area of responsibility and authority.
• Some key areas in which you might consider writing job goals, if you did not already, include: quality, quantity, cost control, cost improvement, equipment, procedures, training, sales, financial, and personnel.
• As a next step, look for the blending between your job or work goals and your personal goals. Anywhere you notice that you are attaining a goal on the job while at the same time you are attaining a personal goal, note this relationship: it is in these areas you will be most highly motivated.
• For each of the three lists that you have just created, take an additional sheet of paper and list the activities that you must do to attain the most important goal that you have on each of your lists.
• Now on another piece of paper titled "Things To-Do List" identify from the activities you just listed, the ones that you must do tomorrow to move you toward your most important goal.
• Rewrite your goals in these categories at least every three months.
• The only thing in life that is constant is the fact that everything is changing. It makes sense that our goals will change as we change.
• Recognize how focusing on what you do want, what you do intend to accomplish, also defines what you choose not to do in your life.
• Daily rewrite your list of "Things To-Do" after first reviewing your desired goals.
• Success is defined as "the progressive realization of a worthwhile goal." If you are doing the things that are moving you toward the attainment of your goal, then you are "successful" even if you are not there yet.
• Every step along the way to achieving a goal is just as important as the last step.
• It is not the achieving of a goal that is so important, it is what you become in the process.
• Set goals with your family also. Help children learn this process early in life.
• Decide what you should be accomplishing and then stick to your knitting. Do not attempt to be or do all things for all people.
• Dreams and wishes are not goals until they are written as specific end results on paper.
• Written specific goals provide direction and focus to your activities. They become a road map to follow.
• Being busy with activities does not pay, only results do. As in baseball you only get points for getting to the goal of home plate. Just making it to the bases does not count.
• It has been said that the amount of information available to us is now doubling in less than 30 months. We must learn to focus on only what is truly important to our self and our job.
• Be sure the goals and activities that you are working for are yours and that you really want and desire to achieve them. The commitment is vital to your success in achieving them.
• When you have a goal that is exciting to you, the life energy flows through you. You are excited about accomplishing it because it is personally meaningful.
• Create a time line or matrix chart on which you display your goals visually and the dates when you will have them accomplished.
• Continually look for ways to integrate or blend personal and professional goals.
• Setting a goal, that you believe is unattainable will result in frustration. To be challenging and motivating, goals must be perceived as realistic and attainable.
• Those people with dreams are the ones most likely to experience them.
• Set goals carefully for you will attain them. This also means if you set none, you will attain that.
• Goals, when thoughtfully set, can provide strong motivational direction.
• Clear cut, understandable and realistic objectives leading to the goal help to maintain the sense of realism and the hope of attainment of the goal.
• Establish measurement criteria to monitor progressive movement toward your goal. Then you will experience progress.
• Set goals that you will be proud to have achieved, then sense your having completed them.
• Have a vision that you know is unquestionably right and you will be internally driven to achieve that vision.
• A goal is "reasonable" when you can see the entire process needed to get to its attainment.
• Good planning assists in sensing reasonableness of challenging goals.
• Use picture goals.
• Develop an emotional reason why you should attain your goal.

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