Personal effectiveness and the finance officer.

• Author: Austin, Kent R.
• Position: MANAGEMENT & CAREERS - Column

When you get to work in the morning, there are probably many items competing for your attention. Perhaps there's a city council meeting agenda item that needs to be prepared. A Fannie Mae bond maturing tomorrow that needs reinvesting. Biweekly payroll timesheets that need to be reviewed and approved. That five-year financial forecast you'd been intending to do for the last four years that is still waiting to get off the ground. And then there's the untold number of messages waiting in your e-mail inbox. It can feel like the day is already lost before it even begins.

Even seasoned government finance professionals can become frustrated when trying to balance obligations, stick to priorities, and follow through on what matters. While the job gets done, sometimes it feels like you're always playing catch up instead of being a proactive, productive professional. (1) Times like these make us wonder if we can do things differently.

For instance, you might start most mornings by opening your e-mail program and reading and responding to messages. Perhaps you tell yourself it will just take ten minutes, and then you can focus on the major projects that always seem to accumulate. And then an hour passes before you shift your attention away from your inbox. Instead, you might spend the first 30 minutes of the day reviewing the articles and book excerpts you've collected about excellence and techniques for success. Time spent identifying ways to improve your performance is time well spent.

CHANGES TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE

Making a positive change doesn't have to require a huge effort. Sometimes, it helps to just do things a little differently.

Organize for Effectiveness and Kill the Clutter. Although some people maintain that a messy desk is a sign of genius, most would agree that it's closer to a cry for help. It can be easy to become distracted by the large number of items competing for your attention. You might want to consider relocating current project materials and task items to files or spaces off your desk. If your attention keeps shifting from the letter you are writing to the other things on your desk, you will spend more time on the letter and feel quietly frustrated at how difficult such a simple task can be. By contrast, if the only thing on your desk is the immediate task at hand, your attention is likely to remain more focused, which makes your work more satisfying.

One of the oldest and simplest organizational techniques can also be one of...