A distinquished heritage of record-breaking deals.

The average person performs at only about 50% of their capacity and the primary productivity drag is poor time management. Here are some tips to improve your efficiency.

•Be intentional. Success is predicated on making choices that provide control over time.  Plan. Be thoughtful about what activities to perform. Without proactively creating a time management protocol, you leave too much to chance.

•Prioritize. Make a list of all the activities you perform. Next, identify the activities that should be assigned to others and transition them. Now take the remaining tasks, list them in order of importance and estimate how much time each one takes each week or day.

•Schedule.  Plug your tasks into your work hours.  Schedule higher priority activities first so if you run out of time and cannot finish an activity, it will be a low priority. Second, input the schedule on an electronic (with reminders) calendar such as Outlook. Lastly, small tasks may not need to be scheduled as they can be done during idle time.

•Time block. I have found that creating hour-long "power blocks" of time is a great way to stay focused, be efficient and create an environment free of interruptions and distractions. For example, report/document review, making or returning calls/e-mails, employee meetings or cold calling can all be done in distinct time blocks. During the block, ignore incoming e-mails, phone calls or peers and stay solely focused on the task at hand. Amazingly, individual work interruptions can cause a 5-15 minute loss of productivity and that is why reducing interruptions is a great way to manage your time.

•Create boundaries. Set acceptable and manageable limits to relationships, projects and technology. Many people do not want to set boundaries because they have a hard time saying "no".Be honest with yourself and others and only commit to acceptable limits. This may mean closing your door, not answering a ringing phone or saying "no" to meetings or committees.

Remember, time management can provide you with a competitive advantage.

The Sixth Avenue El opened in June 1878 and ran from Rector Street and Trinity Place, going one block west on Murray Street, then up West Broadway to West 3rd Street and up Sixth Avenue (prior to it being named “Avenue of the Americas") and ending at 59th Street. It connected with the Ninth Avenue El with a shuttle stub to Eighth Avenue.   

From its beginning, the line was criticized for being noisey and for dropping oil and other debris on pedestrians walking below. In addition, the structure which was never reinforced, was in danger of sagging since it was not constructed to carry all the weight that it did and was beginning to suffer from metal fatigue.  With the support of commercial interests, the City finally dismantled it in 1938 and was replaced by the IND 6th Avenue subway line which opened between 1936 and 1940.

One of the greatest controversies surrounding the history of the Sixth Avenue El relates to what happened to the steel.  For many years, the story was that the scrap was sold to Japan and was used to build armaments  which were used against us in World War II. These rumors persisted since the metal was sold to a west coast exporter.  Although there were testimonies from both the Manhattan Borough President and from the Harris Structural Steel Company stating that none of the steel ever reached Japan, there are many who lived during this period and still believe that it did.

The midtown zoning which varies from an FAR of 10 to an FAR of 15 has always been favorable to developers of commercial buildings especially from 42nd Street to the East 50s especially in the Rockefeller Center area.  The residential properties in the Village have a low FAR of 3.44 which maintains the character of the neighborhood.

Next in The Changing City Series: The Ninth Avenue El


Marcia Rose Yawitz is Senior Director and Principal at Eastern Consolidated.  With over forty years of real estate experience, she has sold in excess of one billion dollars of investment grade real estate.

Want to be more successful?  Work on improving your emotional intelligence which is more critical to success than technical skills and intellectual horsepower.  Emotional intelligence requires a high degree of introspection and its four main tenets are:

• Self-awareness. Recognize your feelings and the causes.
• Self-management. Regulate your emotions, feelings and impulses. 
• Social awareness. Read situations and other people’s feelings and emotions. 
• Relationship management. Work effectively with others. 

Ok.  Now what?  Here are some tips for improving your emotional intelligence and the results you get in your career and life: