Wouldn’t it be handy if you could open up your brain, scoop out information that is outdated, then pour in information that would put you on the cutting edge?

To thrive in today’s world, you may have to do just that when it comes to reinventing your time management skills for the 21st Century.

In a recent time management program, a participant brought to class a cell phone, a pager, a PDA and a laptop. He was proud of his technology gadgets and the amazing feats they could perform. The purpose at purchase time was to stay more organized but deciding which feature to use on which gadget and which gadget to use for which function confused him.

Your personal reinvention of time management skills for the 21st Century demands that you pick the best technology gadgets that will fit with your style of time management. Reinvention of time management skills also means understanding the power of the software loaded on your technology tool. It requires handling the deluge of e-mail, a 21st Century work activity, while keeping up with projects, daily tasks and calendar appointments, all rooted in human productivity since the beginning of time.

Let’s examine the Microsoft Outlook software. When you got your tutorial from IT, you probably listened the most intently to the e-mail instruction because it was immediately useful. If however, after years of sending and receiving e-mail in Microsoft Outlook, you still use the program mainly for e-mail, you are only using 1 out of 6 of the powerful features you paid Bill Gates for the privilege of using. You are only taking advantage of 83% of the potential of Outlook. To fully take advantage of what you purchased, you need to change your paradigm, or “unlearn” that Microsoft Outlook is primarily an e-mail program.

Before my personal coaching, a large majority of my clients had not used the Tasks feature in Microsoft Outlook. If you are one of those, click on Tasks and start making an electronic “To Do” list. Refrain from making a duplicate list in your date book organizer, on your yellow pad or on those handy sticky notes. With an electronic task list made in Microsoft Outlook, there are several ways to systematically prioritize the items, move them up and down on the list, turn them into calendar events, change due dates, and other marvelous things only available with technology. You choose the method best for your personality and how you work.

Technology gadgets loaded with calendaring software are great places to keep your schedule. You can schedule out into the year 4000 if you think your exercise and diet routine will keep you going that long. I personally found it easy to transfer to an electronic calendar as opposed to a physical calendar with the 1-1/2 inch blank squares into which you tried to cram all of your daily activities.

Reinventing your time management skills as it applies to the use of the electronic calendar involves using the calendar as a place to plan the flow or your day. For instance, if on today’s date, you need to:

• Take your suit to the dry cleaners
• Make a ticket to Chicago for the conference next month
• Ensure that HR gets your updated insurance changes
• Have a package ready for FedEx pickup by Noon
• Finish the Telco project by 2:00 pm

These are not “meetings” such as the meeting scheduled with your manager at 10:00 am or the team meeting at 2:00 pm, but adding the above items as calendar events and then estimating the time it will take you to complete each item gives you graphic and sometimes shocking information on the discretionary versus the non-discretionary time available during your work hours. This kind of information helps you to work leaner, cut out unnecessary steps and combine errands while reducing and simplifying. It is especially effective if you plan tomorrow before you leave the office today.

The ideas I have given you for reinvention of your time management skills are not brain surgery but they are not easy either. Time management practices are habits. It takes intense effort to change a habit.

The deception of “it is working now” is another reason why the reinvention of personal skills is challenging. “It is working now” lulls you to sleep as you think all is well, believing “I can catch up tomorrow,” “I’m doing pretty good,” “I’m not too far behind.”

A third reason reinvention and self-renewal is complicated is because it is easier to keep doing what we have always done instead of investing the time to learn something new. This is true especially when learning new software. My preferential human style of functioning is to learn the bare necessities to get me into the program and then stumble on to other features and be amazed at the breadth and depth of the software. The need to be efficient this very minute blinds me to the return on investment in the short two to three hours needed to be fully functional in a software program such as Outlook. The return on investment in learning time is well worth the expenditure of energy and is vastly superior to waking up one morning and being obsolete.

Try these actionable strategies and techniques for using 100% of the advanced Microsoft Outlook available and they will help you handle your workload and increase the time you spend in high payoff activities. Graduates of the Time for Results program consistently reinvent their time management skills and find 30 to 90 minutes of valuable time every day, giving their career a positive boost!

Tactical Tips:

1. Review your time management paradigms for relevance.
2. Set aside time to learn new features in Microsoft Outlook and other software programs.
3. Before you leave work, use your electronic calendar to plan tomorrow.
4. Estimate needed time frames for meetings, activities and projects.
5. Work on self-renewal every day.