My weakest link initially was also what has probably helped me the most.. - so this addresses both threads - I initially resisted anything related to filing - a ticker file, putting my files in alpha order, a labeler, filing my email rather than leaving them in in box. Those were the some of the last things I implemented, but they made all the difference. I do so much less backtracking and now they are just habits I don't realy think about.
I think my current weakest link is having the discipline to do predefined work in the right amounts rather than doing work as it shows up. I think it a similar sort of weakness that Busydave was taking about with procrastinating...there is a certain fun in seeing what shows up each day and going with flow...but I bring so much more benefit to my company, family, life when I stragetically think about what really needs to happen and make sure I am moving those projects forward rather than bouncing around with each email, phone call and person coming into my office. This is probably why I struggle more with my daily review than my weekly review - I'm always just temped to jump into my email, voice mail and see what's new.
A couple cheap tricks for those who need urgency and people who struggle with the weekly review. And these really are cheap.
For the weekly review, I always have a sense that at least my in-box needs to be totally empty before I start.....I'm just ready to start, and in comes another piece of paper. I've learned that if I need to, I just give myself a few minutes to do an emergency scan of my paper in box, see if there is anything that will really truly blow up if I don't handle it that afternoon and then I stick the rest of the paper in my tickler file to put back in my inbox the next morning or when I'm done with my WR. That way I don't see it out of the corner of my eye and get distracted by it. There are probably a number of reasons why this is a bad idea, but sometimes it is what I need to do.
For Busydave and other who need a sense of urgency - fake it. You've probably heard this one, but I've been playing iwth this idea during my daily review and it helps. If you could win an all expense paid vacation for 30 days, where would go you? Picture that in your mind. When you come into work and you are doing your daily review, imagine that you get a call saying you've won that vacation and they've already worked with your boss to get you the time off, but you have to leave tomorrow. What would you absolutely have to wrap up before you go? See what that queestion raises as a game plan and then try to stick with it that day.
You can do the same thing for home...if you got a call on Saturday morning saying you had to leave your home and family on Sunday for two weeks (I find a month too depessing) for some sort of an emergency, how would you play that day.
