Feeling like time is grabbing you by the hair and yanking you around the room?

Too graphic?

Here are five tips to show time who’s boss so you can reach your BIG GOALS in short order.

1. Keep Your Inbox Empty (seriously it’s possible)
Real time decision making with quality outcomes happens when you process information and turn it into action. Hence, keep your inbox empty by immediately putting them into four buckets.

• To-Do Bucket – this email needs more thought
• Reference Bucket – might be referenced for future clarification
• Meeting related – move key notes to your calendar notes
• Delete – touch it once to simply scan and delete

2. List MITs Every Morning – Do Them First
MITs are Most Important Things. This technique by Peter Thomas, successful entrepreneur and author of Be Great will help you get more done in a week than you ever thought possible. Additionally, “Don’t do emails first thing,” advises former Yahoo executive Tim Sanders, author of Today We are Rich

3. Split Multitasking into Two Categories BAD and GOOD

• Bad Multitasking means you are doing two or more important things at once. A surgeon doesn’t multitask because it is life and death. From driving your car to a conference call at the office – use what Joanna Colrain & Jim Struve call mindful presence - to stay focused on the task at hand. Then move on to the next task. This approach will save you time.
• Good Multitasking means you can do routine activities at the same time. Savvy multitasking chefs have peas steaming while they are cutting celery while grilling steak.

4. Use Email Discipline
Discipline yourself to do emails on your schedule, not because your PDA or laptop says You Have Mail. "It's not effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately does not mean that you have to respond to them immediately," says Dan Markovitz, president of the productivity consulting firm TimeBack Management, "People want a predictable response, not an immediate response.

5. What’s the Best Time for Your Best Work?
In a study done by Karen Leland, “36 percent of those surveyed said that the morning between 9 and 11 was their most productive time of day. “My first manager said, ‘Talk to your clients and customers in the morning. Action your jobs in the afternoon.’ This has proved a simple and successful formula,” said George Buckland, Editorial & Corporate Communications Recruiter.

In second place was early morning, when 31 percent of those who responded said their productivity was at its highest. “I love the time between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. when no one else is in the office. It’s my time to think more creatively (rather than reacting to what’s going on around me),” reported Dan Muse, Senior Executive Editor at Jupitermedia.

The lowest time for productivity was between 12 and 2 p.m., with only 6 percent of respondents saying this was their most productive time of day. A mere 9 percent said the evening between 7:30 and 10 was their most productive.

Want more ideas for showing time who’s boss?