Finding time and staying on track should not be so hard, right? You have your eye out for the really big distractions. But maybe it’s the small time wasters that throw you off.

Common Time Wasters:

1. You plan to go to bed early, but there is an exciting basketball game on TV. The next thing you know, it’s the end of double overtime and you are in bed much later than you had planned.

2. You are going to the gym before work but check your home e-mail before heading out the door. You get caught up in reading and responding, and run out of time.

3. You are on your way to an important meeting in an unfamiliar area. You pull over at the sight of an inviting restaurant to order a cup of coffee, decide to call a friend while waiting, and are late for your meeting.

What Do These 3 Scenarios Have In Common?

1. Your focus shifted and you tried to fit a new activity into your schedule.

2. You probably thought you were being flexible and going with the flow.

3. You may have felt victimized by the consequence.

4. You have undermined your trust in yourself to follow through on your plans.

Important Distinction: Being flexible and “going with the flow” are NOT the same!

In each of these examples, being flexible would mean making a conscious choice to stay on course or to change it. When you do that, you are recognizing and mindfully navigating the choices that your day presents. This is a very empowering distinction to make for yourself!

5 Tips for Taming These Time Wasters

1. Make an effective To-Do List and keep it nearby for reference. This is the course you have committed to for the day. When you are tempted to change your plans, ask yourself, "What goal am I putting at risk?"

2. Weigh the consequences of putting your prior plans at risk before coming to a decision.

3. Make a list of your own particular time wasters, and notice what feelings precede an impulsive choice that wastes your time. Are you feeling anxious, bored, or angry? What is an effective way to resolve what is bothering you without becoming diverted from your plans?

4. Schedule a specific time every day for spontaneous pleasure. The more consistently you enjoy this special portion of your day, the easier it will be to reject impulsive choices.

5. If you genuinely value flexibility, make a list of situations in which you wish to 'bend your schedule' – such as helping a friend in need, extra time with your child, etc. and create buffer time into your day to accommodate these events.

Consider your options the next time a temptation crosses your path. Take a deep breath, affirm what you value and have planned, and make a conscious decision. The choice is yours... and each time you make it, you are finding time!

As more and more people are getting into a hectic lifestyle, a need to have a good time management techniques that built-in part of your life, you have to follow some simple requirements. You no longer have the luxury to waste valuable time in your day.

We can’t control the way time is. We can’t make it less or more. However, we can control the way we handle the spare moments in our day. We can make changes on how we use our time, and that can benefit us if we are able to get more done in one day.

Following simple time management techniques can help you get more out of life. You can pay attention to your home life, work and appointments without ignoring any one of them. It all comes down to your time management technique.

However, to adopt effective time management habits there are some things you should be doing. To begin with, you will need to use time management tools. It does not matter if you are using a paper-based to-do list system, a day timer or a complicated software program.

Step #1 - Physically managing your time

The first step to physically managing your time is to know where the time is going. You can plan how you are going to spend your time in the future because work will be done earlier. There are many different ways to set this up quickly.

What are the useful tips for effective time management

It does not matter how you keep track of everything. Just make sure you figure out some way to physically manage your time. This way you know how you are going to spend your time. You should make sure you prioritize with these tasks.

Put all of the projects you have to have done on the top of the list. The things that can wait can go on the bottom of the list. Make sure you know out of all your tasks which ones you have to accomplish. Then set the goal to how far you have to get on the list for each day.

What to do if running a single person business entity?

If your business is a one-man show, change things and hire someone to take over some of the workload for you. You should always have at least one other person to take over some of the workload and make things easier for you. Most probably you can offload a lot of the repetitive, dull work of managing the daily routine of a business to other people – that way you can schedule your time in other forms for other projects.

Good, effective time management can help you to get the most out of your business. If you do combine with someone to help with the load, make sure they understand you make all the rules and schedules (that is, don’t turn over the business to them).

With proper and effective time management, you need to establish a routine and stick to it as much as you possibly can. While things will happen to get in your way, you’ll be more productive if you can follow the routine most of the time.

This way people get to know what your time frames are and this makes it easier for them to help you do what you need to get done. Another part of making sure that you actually get things done is to get in the habit of setting (and meeting) time limits for the tasks needing to be completed.

How to eliminate activities that waste time?

Reading and answering e-mail can consume a big portion of your day. Make sure you only allow a certain amount of time for checking the mail, and then ensure that you stick to that schedule.

What about talking on the phone?

If you know you are wasting too much time chatting on the Internet with people who interrupt you, make it so no one can contact you during certain hours. This way you won’t be wasting your time and will be practicing effective time management.

Another good (or bad) time-waster is “looking for information”. You need to be organized to have effective time management. You need to be able to have the files or information you need at your fingertips.

Make sure you set your system up so everything falls in an orderly fashion. This way you can always find something in a hurry. This will help you to speed up the progress of your project or day.

If you are stuck in an office waiting, don’t waste your time. Always bring a pad of paper and a pen if you can. At the very least, you can organize your day by writing down your plans.

If it is something else you can take with you for a project, it’s even better. You can control your life, but you can’t control time. Get organized today and use effective time management to meet your life goals.

I desire to thank you for visiting. Go up before and look around to discover other helpful tips and information.

Even though, you may now know how to adopt effective time management habits and tips to be a successful person, but all words no actions is simply does not make your goals come true.

Take action now is the most right thing to do if you want you goals realized. Without an effective and proper time management system, there will not be much goal-oriented lifestyle to hope for.

Understanding the fact that an effective program for time management habit may be easy to follow and implement and now allowing you to side-track is really allowing you to enjoy your life once again. So, please do not wait any longer before giving another excuse to realize your goals again.

At many time, people are often asked what they would change about themselves, they often procrastinate too often and therefore never seem to do as good of a job on a project as they would have liked.

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is a very common problem. It is characterized by putting off large projects or tasks until the last possible second therefore not completing the task or just rushing through it to get it done. This can affect everything from one’s performance at work, to a student’s grades in school. However, there are ways to end procrastination, and therefore improve one’s time management skills.

How effective is this type of skills?

Having this type of skills means that you know how to utilize your time wisely. When you can have a list of tasks for a day and accomplish them all in the established time frame, you know that your time management skills are sharp.

However, not everyone has this skills. When the skills are not utilized or are missing, we can see for ourselves the problems that it causes. Things are not done on time and there is time not accounted for.

To make a wasted day useful, we can often feel the impact emotionally as well as practically. It does not make us feel good to know we wasted our day away when we had important tasks to be completed.

To have an effective skills, you have to have a day planner.

You have to know what things in your life you were doing to waste time, and eliminate them. Once you have this taken care of, you can go on to the next step. This is to start planning your day.

Stick to some basic rules (and common sense) with planning. Don’t plan over 168 hours of your week (or forget to plan for sleeping and other necessary activities) and be realistic with the goals you set for yourself. If you know it takes 20 minutes to do a project, don’t put down 15 minutes. This is not effective time management process.

What did employers are looking for in their employees?

Employers like to see people who have good, effective skills in their lives. If time management is not used in a business, that business will lose profits. Losing profits is not what the boss has in mind.

Not to mention that without the use of your effective time managing skills, your boss will think you are lazy in the work force. When you use time management effectively, you are able to see what could be helped in the situation of wasting time. However, effective time managing skills require you to be disciplined.

What type of life are you looking for?

If you want to see your life become more rewarding and fulfilling, effective time management skills are a must. However, to successfully adopt these skills you will need to follow the plans you set for yourself each day.

The key here is to learn how to convert your wasteful habits into positive ones – you will have to do it one step at a time. It is not hard to develop these skills but the process takes time – and since time is already scarce, it is best if you get started now.

If your wasted time is eliminated, so is the stress of the deadlines. You will find your work being noticed in a positive way and that you will have a lot more time for achieving your life goals.

Even though, you may now know how to adopt effective time managing kills and tips, but all words no actions is simply does not make your goals come true.

Take action now is the most right thing to do if you want you goals realized. Without an effective and good time management system, there will not be much goal-oriented lifestyle to hope for.

Understanding the fact that a good skills may be easy to follow and implement and now allowing you to side-track is really allowing you to enjoy your life once again. So, please do not wait any longer before giving another excuse to realize your goals again.

Being a business owner, you want your employees to do the best they can with their on-the-job performance. Setting up a plan of action or a set of goals with time management at work can be a real benefit to the work environment.

Work performance, when good, will bring in more profits. Your team will get more done in the process of your incorporation time management at work. All employees should work at managing their time more wisely. Setting the scene to do so will improve the quality of your business.

This should help you to share the problems you face in your business operations. This will help you to open up some of your own time. The problem is, you are sitting there looking over information about your profits and you become concerned.

How to see more value for your employees?

You want to see more value for the money that you are paying your employee(s). If you’ve ever had such a thought, then it is time to start worker time management programs. You can’t assume that this is something they already know. It’s a goal setting strategy that you have to incorporate in their work schedules.

How to help your workers?

One helpful way for your employees to learn about employee time management by going through a training course. Set aside one night for a mandatory meeting and either you or a person who knows about time management can teach them how to effectively use their time. Through the course of the discussion, the employee can bring up things about the business they feel is a time waster. You can then correct this problem for them, allowing them to free up some of their time to be more productive.

Once the problems are fixed that interfere with good time management, it is time to set up a schedule. You or all the employees can talk about how much time they realistically need for a project.

This will help you to do your scheduling better. This will take more of the load off them, and will also show you if you need more than one employee! This will be based on the amount of projects you have, and the amount of time it takes to complete a project you give. One thing you have to remember is you can’t change the amount of time in a day.

How to implement your worker time management techniques and tricks?

You need to be organized when you are dealing with time management. Setting up projects at the same time every day will help gear your employee up for good program. Once your business starts using the program, things will run more smoothly. You will also see more profits coming into the business with the good program. The most important factor in all of this is being realistic with you expectations and with the goals you set for your employees.

So long as everyone is honest about the timing for a project, the program will work for you. It will show you how well the performance in the business is flowing. Good employee time management is essential, as long as you implement it gradually and allow your employees to experience the benefits instead of thrusting it on them.

As a business owner, you may now know how to implement a good employee time management techniques and tricks, however, all talking and no actions does not really bring your business to greater heights.

Take action now is the most right thing to do if you want you goals realized.

Without an effective and proper time management system, there will not be much goal-oriented lifestyle to hope for.

Using the 80/20 Rule increases effectiveness and productivity. By noticing the applications of the 80/20 Rule, then acting on such observations, you will enhance the results you produce at work, and in your personal life.

Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) was an Italian economist who established what is now known as the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 Rule. In 1906, Pareto observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Later, he discovered that the Pareto Principle was valid in other parts of his life. While gardening, for example, Pareto observed that 80% of the peas in his garden were produced by 20% of the peapods.

The exact values of 80% and 20% are not important. What is important is to understand is the imbalance. In any situation, there are usually a few factors whose influence far surpasses the importance of the other factors. The effect of this imbalance is that a substantial percent of the results of a given process or system can be attributed to a much smaller percentage of all the possible causes.

So how does this statistical principle apply to us? The Pareto Principle is present in many aspect of our lives, both personally, and in the workplace. By becoming more aware of its presence, we can use the 80/20 Rule as an analytical tool to increase effectiveness and productivity.

Here are a few ways to practically apply the 80/20 Rule in your business:

Business profitability. According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of a company’s profits are generated by 20% of its customers. By identifying and ranking customers in order of profitability, you can then focus your sales efforts on these vital few customers.

Salespeople. About 80% of a company’s revenue will be generated by the top 20% of its salespeople. This information is quite helpful in determining compensation, and also in determining the focus of sales management.

Advertising. Approximately 80% of the results of an ad campaign will be produced by 20% of the advertising. By focusing on the effectiveness of ads, a great deal of advertising could be eliminated, and those funds committed to the advertising that is producing the desired results.

The 80/20 Rule can be applied to your personal life, as well:

Personal Productivity. 80% of your time is currently spent on trivial activities. What are the 20% of your activities that are producing 80% of your results? Focus only on these activities, and either discontinue or delegate all other activities.

Happiness. What are the 20% of your activities that provide 80% of your pleasure? Whatever your answer, strive to increase the frequency of these activities.

Relationships. What activities create the most desired results in your relationships? Once you identify these activities, shift your focus so that you are concentrating on these vital few activities.

Health. 80% of your health is produced by 20% of the foods you’re eating. Try to consume more vegetables, for example, and less fats and sugars.

The 80/20 Rule can be applied to many areas of your life. What other examples of the Pareto Principle are showing up for you? By noticing the applications of this principle, then acting on such observations, you will enhance the results you produce at work, and in your personal life.

Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed or rushed, check-in with your personal perception and experience of ‘reality’.

It might be useful to remember that our calendars and clocks are man-made; therefore these can also be ‘man-unmade’.

The fact is, our globe moves around the sun and tilts on its axis to give us light or dark moments, depending where we are on the globe.

Who has put the pressure on you? What are you thinking that has put you in that state? What new ‘rules’ about time could you take on board to change your current experience of reality?

When the clock on your wall says 10:00AM and you have something due to be presented to another person at 11:00AM you may feel less relaxed about the activity and produce a lower quality product than if you believed you had an abundance of time and only focused on the task.

Believing the latter, and focusing on producing a good quality product may even find you finishing the task ahead of time and find yourself pleased with the end product.

How often do you use “time” as the excuse for an inferior product or use time as the excuse for not being able to think clearly because you are hurried? Is that honestly a valid excuse or simply a handy one?

Many of us readily accept the belief that when we are having fun, time flies, and when we’re not involved in an enjoyable activity, the time seems to drag. Yet the Earth does not suddenly rotate around the Sun at a different rate of speed, during any of those moments.

Where does that time perception originate and what does that tell us about our personal interpretations and global, made-up rules about time?

Work on ways to shift your relationship to time and on creating new thoughts that empower the ways that you view your experiences Set yourself a new set of rules and change your perceptions and feelings about what is happening in the moment.

As also promised, the following are a few very quick and simple time tips for you. A Time Abundance poster that you might enjoy sharing with friends can be downloaded from www.forwardsteps.com.au/TimeAbundancePoster.pdf

1. Learn by observing busy people and their short cuts

2. Get feasible with what you say you want to accomplish in a day, week, month or year

3. Perfection and procrastination might be sourced in fear

4. Place buffers between scheduled items in your calendar, to allow for interruptions or unexpected events

5. Set up basic routines and habits for those events/activities that you can easily pre-empt

6. Learn to say no or place buffers between a request and your response e.g. I’ll let you know this afternoon

7. Read up about the Pareto principle (80/20 rule)

8. Set up ‘capture tools’ for information that regularly comes to you

9. Set up ‘templates’ for information that you regularly send

10. Learn to make decisions more quickly and with greater certainty

11. Make a game out of any activity that you can (you don’t need to share the game)

12. Set specific times for attending to emails and avoid sneaking a peek in between times

13. Plan goals from the end, going backwards to beginning

14. Make more requests of others and delegate or outsource

15. Know your most productive hours and times, plan to make use of those

16. Regularly backup all information and maintain all tools

17. Have everything that you access regularly, at your fingertips

18. Review your weeks, days, months, years, and learn

19. Allow your subconscious to go to work for you overnight, get good quality rest

20. Share your targets with friends so that they may hold you to account

Ever wondered if there is a trick on how to use time effectively? The main problem with those people trying to achieve in their lives is while they appear to be busy, the results are not on the board. Sound familiar?

The Importance Of Time Management

The trick is concentrating on the end result rather than appearing to be busy. This achieves nothing and more often than not you'll end up running around in circles chasing your tail! No one can control time but the secret is how well and how productively you use it.

For those in business, particularly the work-from-homers, the toughest part is getting going. No one is looking over their shoulders and the only person they are accountable to is themselves. This is a real problem. It's a breeding ground for the biggest killer of people trying to use time effectively...procrastination.

How To Beat Procrastination

Using my case history as an example, as a writer, procrastination hampered my time management efforts to the point of sheer frustration. Don't get me wrong, I love to write and have written thousands upon thousands of words.

My problem was, when I had a project to complete without a deadline attached to it, I'd get into a comfort zone and any good time management principles would fly out the window! This was bad, particularly being on my own with no one to account to.

Even though the money was good, for some reason it still wasn't enough incentive to start punching away on my keyboard. I'd sit at my computer and surf the net or, I'd look up at the ceiling and count the vents or, I'd look out the window and try to guess what make and model car would zoom by next...frustrating!

It was procrastination at it's worst. Other procrastination issues facing people include fear of failure, waiting for the right time, no set goals, being perfectionists or simply being overwhelmed by the task at hand. Is this you? Let's examine some ways you can use your time effectively and bury procrastination once and for all.

Tips To Beat Procrastination

Try these time management exercises on for size!

1. Firstly, confessing to yourself you are procrastinating is vital. Simple fact is, most people know deep down they are but are still not driven enough to do something about it.

2. Appoint someone you respect enough or even fear in some respects to be accountable to. What better way than to self motivate than out of fear.

3. Check your list of things to do and prioritize. Urgent tasks go to the top. If nothing is extremely urgent, then start with something quick and small but make your next task the most unpleasant and difficult on the list. It's like exercise. You do a short warm up to get the stiffness out of your muscles before you begin your main workout.

4. Set yourself rewards. This is a great way to use time effectively. Set small rewards during the day and one major reward at the end. I break my task into time blocks. If it's a three hour writing job, then I'll take a short break every hour. Also, compete against yourself in your own mind. A three hour job completed in two hours fifty minutes means you've got a little extra time to play with.

5. Do one more thing before you retire for the night that will give you a sense of accomplishment. You go to bed in a positive frame of mind and it's one less task you have to do tomorrow. Be careful not to get complacent though.

6. Finally, have your accountability partner call you before the start of each work day to check you've completed each of your listed tasks. You'll probably hate him/her by the end of the month but check your productivity levels and see what a difference it's made!

Good time management is a combination of several factors but unless you have the desire to achieve deep down, then it will probably take a little more than just these time management exercises to get you going!

We sometimes feel that we are endlessly chasing our tails in an effort to get things done. And, do we ever get things done? Others seem to manage, why can't we?

Everyone gets 24 hours a day- but why do others seemingly get an extra few hours in their same day? The answer is time management- an important part to running a successful business- as well as a personal life.

The truth is, even geniuses can have problems with managing time- making them less efficient than people who are more experienced in the time management. To help improve your time saving, your first step should be to keep notes. They are powerful tools that let you keep track of what you are doing- no more wasting your time wondering what you were supposed to do, or should do. Things such as portable organizers will help out a great deal.

If you think a problem is too big to handle, divide it into sections and tackle it to the best of your ability. While some may buckle under the pressure, you can continue by working on ‘parts’ of the larger problem.

Prioritizing is the most important- manage your tasks at hand through a priority system. The tasks that are more important get done first- as simple as that. This will make sure you don’t waste time on menial things.

Lastly, convincing others to help you in your tasks can reduce time of the task drastically. Following the previous steps along with this one, and you should be able to manage your time with the best of them.

Do you sometimes feel like the white rabbit in Alice In Wonderland? “I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!” You might be aware of time management tips in the world but during times of increased stress your natural style emerges. So, you can decide to work against your natural time management tendencies OR you can work with your natural flow to improve your productivity.

So, what are “natural time management tendencies”?

There are two types of time management tendencies. One is the “Time Manager”. This person appreciates promptness, speed, brevity and punctuality. They measure things by the clock and typically decide in advance how time will be spent on each task/project. Planners and to-do lists work well for this type of personality. Predictable tasks lend themselves well to this personality.

The other time management tendency is the “Process Manager”. For this person, time is related to many complex factors. Decisions are typically made intuitively, in the moment and as events play out. People issues, intangibles and agreements are most suited to this type of personality.

Each needs a different approach to time performance management that suits their personality and yet gets the work done. Following are three Powerful Time Management tips tailored to each of the tendencies.

Performance Enhancement #1: PLAN

For Time Managers, planning involves making a list and checking it twice. For Process Managers, planning involves piles and possibilities. We have all heard the saying “Plan well in advance and stick to your plan.” This type of thinking will work well for the Time Manager and frustrate the Process Manager.

Time Managers will perform best if they take time during the day to create a to-do list and have an action plan for each day. Process Managers will need to have three to four working items on their desk. More than four and they will feel overwhelmed. Less than three and they will feel bored.

Tip from the Coach: Regardless of your style, schedule three times during your day to do a time management performance check. The start of the day, mid-day and late afternoon would be my recommendation. The length of this check-in should be five to ten minutes in length. During this time you will either 1) review your list or 2) check the piles of working items on your desk. Clarify where you are and where you need to focus between the current time and your next check-in time.

Performance Enhancement #2: FOCUS

“Finish one task at a time.” A great time management tip that works fine for the Time Manager Personality but can be a disaster for the Process Manager Personality. Time Managers strive to finish each task before moving on to the next. Or, at the very least, leave it with a note on top as to the next steps before you set it aside to begin the next project.

For Process Managers, if you spend too much time on one task, your brain will begin to wander to other projects and tasks despite your best efforts to concentrate on one task at a time. Therefore, with three to four projects on your desk, recognize that you may only be able to spend twenty minutes focusing on one project before moving to another. By frequently changing the focus, you will perform at a higher level than the “one task at a time” perspective.

Tip from the Coach: If you manage others, be aware of this difference. What you see as a lazy or unorganized person may be that your style is Time Manager and your staff’s style is Process Manager. OR, you may see a person on your team as rigid and slow. This may be because you are a Process Manager personality while this team member is a Time Manager personality.

Performance Enhancement #3: USE SOME BEHAVIORS FROM THE OPPOSITE STYLE

Overwork and stress sometimes lead us to become more engrained in our natural styles. The more you can self-manage to use the style that is best for the situation, the more your performance will improve. For example, if you are a Time Manager personality with multiple tasks on your desk, do not let the anxiety of too many things and no clear timeline…overwhelm you. Recognize that is not a natural operating position for your tendency. Do recognize the anxiety, but do not overreact to the anxiety.

On the other hand, if you are a Process Manager who needs to focus on one high priority task, you may struggle with keeping your mind focused on the task. The anxiety will also occur but for a different reason. Recognize that this is not a natural operating position for your personality AND do not overreact to the anxiety.

Tip from the Coach: At the same time that you are checking in on your planning needs from Tip #1 also check in with your anxiety. If anxiety is present, first take a deep breath. One of the things that happens when you are anxious is you forget to breathe which in turn creates more anxiety. After taking a few deep breaths, recognize the anxiety and the fact that you do not need to overreact to the anxiety. Do what you can to plan for the next block of time using your natural time management style. If you cannot use your natural style, incorporate what is needed. Just remember, this too shall pass.

You and I were created to have joy. Many times we get ourselves into health problems trying to meet everybody's expectations. We live in a society that has high demands on us in all areas of our lives. Our youth are suffering from diseases that used to be categorized for the elderly. It's so easy not to match up to what the world says we should be ... and that results in our not accepting ourselves either ... which results in health problems.

Jesus said when He was about to leave, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." (John 15:11). His Spirit gives us the power to believe that joy is our birthright because the Lord has made this day for us to be joyful. We have the power to accept our day as His gift or to reject it as "not good enough!" We can make everything okay in our mind and bodies, even if things are sadly wrong around us. We have that power, but we must choose to use it. "This is the day the Lord has made, I WILL rejoice and be glad in it."

Keep your focus on what God expects of us and not what the media, and people, and we expect of ourselves. He made creation for us to enjoy and if you spend some time in it on a regular basis, you will find the power to slow down and find aspects of God that you never knew. I'm convinced that Nature itself tells us more about God than any books.

Get alone in a piece of woods and you will be amazed at how much God can accomplish in you if you give Him your undivided attention. Don't let the day-to-day details get you down and unable to dedicate time to your health and well being. If you had a crisis situation you would drop everything and make the time to handle it. Don't wait for a crisis. Take time to let God make you healthy.

How to create an extra hour every day! How valuable would an extra hour every day be to you? Ever found yourself saying, I will, when I find the time or, time got away from me? We’ll this is for you. I am going to take you through the 7 steps that will create an extra hour a day for you. So let’s go through the steps quickly. We will come back to each one over several articles.The seven steps are:

1. There is no such thing as time management!
2. Time is for spending.
3. Crossing the knowing-to-doing GAP
4. Ready FIRE aim
5. Achieving Focus and Effectiveness
6. Tapping your Energy
7. Don’t mistake activity for achievement!

OK so let’s get in to it. Step 1 – There’s no such thing as time management! Have you been to a time management course? Read a time management book or an article? And how much of the system you learnt or read about do you use? If you are like most people you will be using less than 5% of what you learnt in your time management course. And it’s not that the content was no good (it probably was good, but we will get to that later).

You see there is a key mental block that contributes to the situation here. Time management allows you to think that you really can manage time. But you can’t!

Time is! It just is! 24 hours a day. 1400+ minutes every day.

Does this mean all the courses and diary systems are no good? Not at all.

But first there is a mind-shift you need to take.

Time management implies we manage time, BUT time can’t be managed! The typical mindset on Time Management is about applying techniques and tips – and you can let these tips or system take responsibility how effectively you are. Blaming your tools is not going to help you be effective.

The key to creating an extra hour a day is changing your mindset to SELF-MANAGEMENT!

What is self-management? Mark Victor Hansen, in the book The One Minute Millionaire, says it is “accepting responsibility and not laying blame.” I believe self-management is about acknowledging we are responsible for our lives.

It is your choices that have created your life. Not your boss or your parents or the government or the wrong time management system or anything else. Yes, those things have an impact, but how you choose to see the circumstances, how you choose to interpret and respond is what determines how effective you are and, ultimately, you determines your life situation.

This is scary and exciting at the same time. It can be scary to think about being totally responsible for your life – but this means that you can choose to take control and create what you want in the future.

To create and extra hour a day you need to start by adopting a mindset of self-management where you accept responsibility for your life, totally. Then you can start to see new options and opportunities that will create more time.

Now you can choose to see those ‘effectiveness tips and tools’ as part of your self-management toolkit and choose what will work for you.

Step 1 -- Not time management but self management.

Actions: In the next 24 hours.

* Reflect on when you might have blamed others/circumstances in the last week & look for how you contributed to the situation
* Clarify your goals and values. Are you really clear about what they are and why you want them?

Remember to check out the rest of the seven steps.

I owe my mom a huge apology. I was the worst kid in the world to have to wake up in the morning. I'm sure if she hadn't started waking me up 2 hours before we needed to leave, she certainly would have been fired.

She tried everything. Loud alarms, forcing me to get out of bed while she watched, making the dog jump on top of me, singing songs, the whole nine yards. But, by the time I was 10, I learned plenty of tricks to get those last minutes of precious sleep in.

My personal best was going into the bathroom, turning on the shower water and curling up on the bathroom floor for some extra snoozing. It bought me at least 15 minutes before my mother knocked on the door to say "hurry up." She usually had no idea I was fast asleep.

I am betraying my fellow late snoozers, but here's how to keep them from making you late for work:

Stricter bedtimes Between extracurricular activities, television, the Internet, and cell phone chats, kids are up way later than they should be. Plan dinner earlier, record late night shows and put the kids to bed an hour or two earlier.

Limit caffeine intake With sodas, chocolate and coffee (yes, kids are drinking coffee), it's amazing how much caffeine youngsters take in during the day. Regulate their caffeine intake to help them fall off to dreamland earlier.

Prepare the night before Get your kids into a nighttime ritual so they'll have more morning snooze time. They should pack their backpacks, make their lunch and iron their clothes for the next day. Showering the night before also helps. That way, they can roll out of bed, into their ironed clothes and stroll out the door with their packed bags.

Breakfast on-the-go (or at school) Send the kids off to school with portable breakfast -- a muffin, yogurt, fruit, or grilled cheese sandwich. They can eat on the way or when they get there. If school serves breakfast, that's another option.

Bribes Depending on the age range, this will vary. For younger kids, you can set a goal of being on time for two weeks straight. Attach a reward to the achievements. I don't suggest doing a daily achievement and reward, though. Long term ones work better to change habits. For older ones, threaten to leave them at home. Make them walk or ride the bus if they're late.

Encouragement If you have another child who isn't difficult to wake in the morning, let the other children see you praising that child.

Punishments The reality is, if you lose your job, the bills don't get paid. If kids miss too much school, they risk failing out. So, tardiness is a serious issue for some. That being said, the problem may come to the point of needing punishment. So, set a limit and make it clear ("If you're late two times in one month, you will be punished"). Punishment can be a dock of allowance, extra chores, grounding, or limits on recreational activities and phone time.

Set his or her clock ahead This doesn't instill any true values or discipline, but it does the trick for a few days until he or she figures it out. If you need your kid up at 6am, move the clock 30 minutes ahead. When he or she sees that it's 7:30, the feet might move faster than if it says 7am.

Do you sometimes have trouble remembering things? Do you forget doctor's appointments? Are you late for meetings? All of this stems from your ADD. Everything in the world is constantly distracting you. So, what's missing in your life? A system.

One system that is very inexpensive is a computer program called "Time and Chaos," which organizes and manages your daily routine. If you have ADD, you probably don't really have much of a daily routine, and that's the whole thing. Even if you use this program, you may do different things every single day, but everything is scheduled in. Schedule in work, meals, what time you're going to get up in the morning, when you're going to exercise--schedule it all in.

ADD may keep you from sticking to a schedule, and that's OK, but this system is very clear and easy to follow, so it will be hard to miss appointments and such. Ten minutes before each appointment or task, a little pop-up window reminds you that you have something else to do. It's very cool.

This kind of scheduling also allows time for you, so that you can be in top condition, and you'll have a very high level of energy. Schedule in meals, too. If you forget to eat, you're cranky, then sick, and it just deteriorates from there on.

Schedule in your tasks for a week in this software or Outlook or any other kind of scheduling software and see if it doesn't work well for you. Your ADD may be balking, but believe us, this really works. Your mind will be free to create and do the things that ADD people love to do.

But the key to this is that for every problem that you're facing, you can say to the people around you, "You guys, why don't you think about this? Don't you know I have to eat?" Or, instead of blaming somebody else, you can say, "Okay, something's not working; we need to change the system."

Even after you start using an ADD-friendly system, you may need to change it. And that’s what it's all about. It's not that you put something into place and you have to stay so rigid to it. That won't suit ADD people at all. You have to be constantly looking and saying "What's working in my life; what's not working?" The things that are working--let them be. The things that aren't working, change the system.

Have you ever forgotten a Birthday? Overlooked an Anniversary? Failed on Valentine’s Day…..and other important personal dates?

If you have, you are in good company! Many of us need to juggle busy lifestyles in the attempt to maintain a good work/life balance. In my busy corporate life I was always desperately searching for a greeting card and gift service that helped busy people in business like me to achieve the ever illusive work life balance through what would be described as an innovative service. In this article we look at a solution.

You know, what I sought was an organisation that would provide an extensive, quick and easy to use card library and extensive gift range all in one place but I did not find one. Specifically what I yearned for was a service that would allow me to select then forget as they took care of all this for me, and would:

• make sure the greeting card(s) and gift(s) I selected were dispatched to chosen recipient(s) in good time

• remind me in advance, by SMS or email, so I was not surprised to receive the appreciation of my chosen recipient(s). A service where I could select, apply my own personalisation and order as many cards or gifts as I wish, in one go, in advance, but only pay just prior to dispatch. This would thereby negate the need for ‘revisits’ triggered by some of the irritating reminder systems

• give me peace of mind and relieve me of any after the event heartache associated with forgetting to let someone know they are special and ‘I’ remembered ‘them’

It has long been apparent to me that I was not alone in my desire to find a solution to the problem. Looking up some data in 2005 it was confirmed to me, and the men and women of the UK (ditto the wider world), that the long and commonly held view, ‘men particularly forget’, birthdays, anniversaries, valentines day and a variety of other special dates, really was true. I have pieced together the following information, ten facts, on the subject which is tabulated below:

# 1 Men who forgot a minimum of one special occasion pa: 19%

# 2 Men made to suffer by their partners as a result: 14.5%

# 3 Women made to suffer by their partners for forgetting: 4%

# 4 Time spent by men finding a card: Minimum / First found

# 5 Time spent by women finding a card: Hours

# 6 Women that wanted a nice card not the first to hand: 74%

# 7 Women that desired a card rather than other greetings: 74%

# 8 Men who believed a unique or personal card was important: 1 in 10

# 9 Number of men that do not have time to look for cards: 66%

# 10 Men funding a dinner date after forgetting: 20%

Additionally, and whilst wandering around a recent exhibition for greeting cards publishers, I learned from a number of stall holders that the UK greeting card industry is amazingly worth around of £1.9 billion per year, that’s more than UK tea and coffee sales put together. Surprisingly it is the most successful greeting card industry in the world with over 800 publishers producing in excess of 2.6 billion greeting cards per year for the greeting card hungry UK public. I also learned that the average number of greeting cards sent per person per year is a whacking great 55 (see UK retail sales figures below in £m)!

Flowers & pot plants £1,409,
Greeting cards £1,155,
Chocolate (counter) £1,048,
Chocolates (boxed) £671,
Chocolate (blocks) £411,
Fizzy drinks £1,290,
Ice creams (handheld) £788,
Crisps £740,
Savoury snacks £611,
Nuts £124,
Gum £211,
Batteries £265.

During 2005 a small group of people teamed-up to develop a service, the type of which I had envisioned in this article, in a bid to help busy people, men but not only men, no longer be part of such statistics on forgetfulness. So, in future don’t be a statistic, find an online greeting card company that enables you to quickly select cards and gifts all in one place for chosen recipients, in advance, and you will ensure that a reprimand from a partner; family member or friend for missing a celebratory date is banished to the past.

Time management is a critical issue faced by many organizations. A good time management calls for proper systems to execute various tasks. A good time management can be implemented with the help of appropriate systems in place. If you manage your time with the help of some well-organized systems, you can save lot of time and effort in executing a complicated and time-consuming task.

The system should be well crafted in order to utilize your resources most efficiently. There are various ways through which one can execute a particular task. We need to find out the possible best way to execute a task by saving time and maintaining quality of the process involved.

A good process diagram will help you to discuss the overall process involved in executing a task with your teammates. People can easily identify any flaws in the process with the help of well-defined process flow diagrams. Regularly update this process flow diagram especially when a new task is integrated to the existing process. Implementing a new system can take some time for people to understand and update. Give good training to your teammates, so that they understand the benefits of the new system being implemented and how it can contribute to the overall growth of the company.

In a software development process, using a Source Code Management System is a best example of a system implemented, which facilitates time management also. The tool used for source code management helps to work on different modules of a software project by different people. This tool avoids double working on the same file and even helps to track the history of changes of made to different files. This system if implemented well, is a good document management system also.

Do you know the most common reason for not spending enough time with your family or loved ones? For not making lots of extra money? For not doing that home study course? For not reading more? For not doing the things you want to do!?

The answer is always time! I'm just too busy. I haven't got time.

But if you really want greater freedom, if you want to achieve more, if you want less stress, don't let 'time' steal from you.

Here's a quick and simple 2 step exercise to get you more time. This exercise is best done away from your computer. Seriously, do this, just take 10 minutes in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed and do this.

The 'Find More Time' Exercise

Step 1:- Think about the last week. Close your eyes if it helps you remember. Play back each day like watching a movie in fast forward. Think about all the things you did, all the fun stuff, the chores, working, travelling to places, people you saw, shopping, all of it. Run through that last week in your head.

Step 2:- Be gentle with yourself here, this is not an exercise to force you to feel guilty! Last week was last week, this is about finding more time to better enjoy the rest of your life.

So now, replay the week in your head again. And this time you're going to skip forward whole chunks just like you can with a DVD. You have a button that jumps straight to moments that if you could live them again you would spend them differently.

Remember, do not judge yourself here, just be a viewer watching your weeks movie on a screen. Keep pressing that button, and note all the moments you would live differently if you could.

Don't be cruel to yourself here. If you sat in a park daydreaming for an hour, enjoying the birds and the trees - that's not a waste of time if you enjoyed it. The moments you would live differently are usually the periods of time that left you feeling drained of energy or feeling down afterwards for no particular reason. Maybe it was an hour stuck in traffic breathing fumes and getting frustrated, or maybe it was a whole evening spent channel hopping TV without really watching anything. Only you can judge here.

So What Now?

If you really do this exercise it will make a powerful difference to you and the people around you.

Look over your list from Step 2. It may be just one item, it may be a whole page of stuff. Either is just fine. Most of us live our lives to a pattern. Often we aren't even aware of some of that pattern. We tend to do certain things at certain times. It's a good thing. But it's also very likely your list reveals patterns of a particular day, or times within each day, where you can steal time back.

But don't leave this to chance or someone, or something, will happily take that time away from you again. So choose one, or more, or even all of those times you identified from last week - and write an appointment in your diary or calendar for this week and beyond. This step is absolutely vital. Allocate that time to you. To do one of the things for which you've heard yourself say "I just don't have the time". Make it clear to family or friends or work that you are simply not available for that small piece of time. It's booked, it's planned, everyone knows about it in advance. It is now yours. And once you have claimed that time, and started using it for something you always wanted to do, you will never lose it. Congratulations, you have found more time.

Meetings could be considered a necessary evil of the everyday work life. A poorly organized meeting will not only be a huge time waster, but can also ruin your credibility with your coworkers. It is vitally important that you learn the basics of conducting a short and well organized meeting.

The single most important thing for you to do before a meeting is to develop an agenda. A meeting without an agenda is pure and utter chaos. Nothing will ever get resolved and the meeting will drag on forever. An agenda is like a road map to guide everyone to the correct destination. Do not even consider conducting a meeting without one.

When you are preparing your agenda, identify the aim of your meeting. Clearly state the focus of the meeting on the agenda. Then list each item to be discussed in order of importance. Give a time limit to each item and list the expected outcome. Distribute the agenda one week before the meeting. Confirm that everyone attending has all the information that they need and the presenters are clear on how much time they are allotted. While circulating the agenda, state that the meeting will start on time and end on time.

A couple of hours before the meeting is to begin, send an email to everyone who is attending your meeting. State the starting time of the meeting, the location and the ending time of the meeting. This is so that no one will have an excuse for being late, or worse, forgetting that they have a meeting to attend.

On the meeting day, rehearse your presentation. Arrive early and confirm that everything needed is in place such as, chairs, whiteboard and markers, copies of handouts, coffee etc. Try not to give all the handouts at the beginning of the meeting, as people tend to read the handouts and ignore the speakers.

The best setup for a meeting is a round table where everyone can face each other. This will encourage participation and discourage slacking or dozing off.

Start on time. Move the meeting along according to the agenda. If someone tries to derail the agenda by longwinded comments, be assertive and get the meeting back on track. Offer to meet with that person on a one to one basis if needed to keep the meeting flowing.

If an item on the agenda is not getting resolved in a timely manner, move to chair the item and plan to resolve it at another time. This will help keep the meeting moving along.

When presenting, stick to the time allotted on the agenda. Say what you need to say in short straightforward sentences. Answer questions with the shortest answer possible to get your point across and move on. Most people love to hear themselves talk. Resist the temptation to elaborate on every point you make just to hear the sound of your own voice.

End your meeting on time. If all of the issues are not resolved, take note and follow up at a later meeting or through personal contacts. With the right agenda, your meeting can be kept short and to the point.

Is your schedule jam-packed? Is your day overloaded with meetings, managing your business, planning for the future and day-to-day work? Do you get to the end of the day and wonder what you really accomplished? Is your work day overflowing into your home life?

Do you wish you could get a handle on time management once and for all, so you could run your life rather than your life running you?

You’re not alone. Don’t let the march of time spin you into a tizzy of stress and desperation. Apply these top 7 secrets and watch your time expand to include what’s most important to you.

Secret 1: Prioritize—Put your “rocks” in first.

What’s most important to you? Building your business? Getting a promotion? Leaving work at 5 p.m.? You need to focus on your priorities—the things that matter the most to you. Identify your top priorities right now. These are the “rocks” that you put in your schedule before adding lower-priority items.

Secret 2: Target your action.

Do your action items line up with your priorities—the rocks—that you just defined? If they don't, you’re spending your time on non-priorities. Once you determine what the rocks are, scan your vast to-do list. Hone in on 3 rocks that you will accomplish today. For example: (1) Work on new project, (2) Contact 10 past clients, (3) Have meeting with boss about promotion.

Go to work on these priority tasks. When you complete them address other to-dos. Don’t get side-tracked by unimportant things. Learn to prioritize and stick to your list. Be honest and productive about what you really need to get done now.

Secret 3: Focus your mind first.

Consider focusing your mind as a warm-up before stepping onto the field. When you wake up, do you hit the snooze bar 7 times? When you do finally get up, do you jump out of bed, gulp a cup of coffee and run out the door? How you start the morning is a reflection of how you live your life. Instead, start your day with 15 minutes in which you focus your mind in solitude. Your brain will sharpen and your productivity will increase just from this one step.

Secret 4: Take something off your plate.

OK. You’ve calmed your mind in the morning. You feel sharp and ready to go. Now look at your week, your month, your entire work schedule and remove something. Review the things you do regularly that consume too much of your time or drain you. Do you have to do them personally? Can you outsource them? Are these things important, or are you just in the habit of doing them without thinking? Remember the priorities that you set in Secret 1. The truth is, there are many things on your lists that are not urgent and not important. Remember: just because you’re good at it doesn’t mean you have to do it!

Secret 5: Complete something you’ve been putting off.

Shorten your to-do list. If you let things pile up, they’ll rob you of time when you need it most. Get something done that’s been on your list day after day. This will immediately refuel your energy and free up mental space to focus on priorities. Clear off your desk or return a phone call. Then pause and take a moment to enjoy the satisfaction of getting things done. Take one hour this week to complete something you’ve been putting off.

Secret 6: Declare yourself complete.

“Finish each day and be done with it.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Business consultant Tex Johnstone says this step is key. If you face the end of the day and 185 unanswered e-mails still sit in your inbox, say to yourself, “I declare myself complete.” This sends a signal to your brain that you’re done. Free yourself to let go and move on with the rest of your day. Your days could, and sometimes do, extend into twelve, fourteen or even more hours. Save time for the rest of your life too. You’ll be happier. And more productive.

Secret 7: Accept that you can’t do it all at once.

“What? But I want to do it all!” you may say. This one can be hard to agree to—especially if you’re passionate about work and life. But remember that what you take on can take place over a period of time. It doesn’t all have to occur right now. Once you realize—and accept—that you can’t do it all right now, you’ll experience immediate relief and free up new hours in your week. Do what matters most with quality, then move on to the next thing.

Now that you’ve discovered these 7 secrets to time management, schedule time for one, two or three of them into your calendar today. Start practicing these skills right away. You’ll spend less stress and energy on things that don’t matter, and gain more time for the important things in life.

The old adage: Time is money. We all say it. What does that really mean? Many of us are paid on the basis of the amount of time that we put in. However over the long term, the rate we are paid for our time is based on the value and efficiency of what we accomplish. Mastering the use of time is the means to the end of acquiring money.

Could time be among the scarcest of all our resources? More so than money? The US Dollar is an elastic entity. The Federal Reserve is printing currency as you read this. No one is producing more hours for your day. It is up to you to make the most of it with the choices you make.

* With both time and money, you choose to either spend it or invest it.

* Spending, with either commodity, involves using up what you have.

* Investing involves committing some of that resource with an expectation of a return.

* Are you finishing each day, week or month in the red? Or in the black?

If time is among our scarcest resources, why do so many find it so difficult to invest it?

Money is tangible. Time can not be touched, felt or seen. Time's intangibility makes it difficult for us to realize when we haven't invested it. The result is that we habitually spend it on today at the expense of tomorrow.

Most of us know the proven principals for mastering your use of time.

* Prioritize your activities based on importance on a daily basis.

* To maximize your productivity, you should work toward completing your urgent/important/critical tasks each day.

We know that effectively planning our own day makes more sense than letting others do our planning for us. Yet we constantly fall into the trap of spending our time on the less important items on other people's agendas.

Management Productivity Season is upon us. Are you ready to begin developing more productive habits to manage this precious resource? Can you reasonably expect to build a prosperous tomorrow, if you haven't worked on it today? When will you begin to establish more productive habits for investing in your agenda rather than spending your time on the priorities of others?

Creating a smooth flow between doctor and hygiene patients requires proactive management of how doctors’ time is spent. This can be easily accomplished by appointing a facilitator to direct doctor rather than relying on the appointment time to dictate it. The best suited person for this responsibility is usually the dental assistant although not required to be. The appointed person must have an intimate knowledge of dental procedures in order to make use of doctors’ time appropriately and eliminate inconveniences.

The objective is to ensure timely patient care for all patients whether in doctor’s chair or the hygienists chair AND remain on schedule. To achieve the objective the facilitator must have a solid understanding of the following:

1. How much time is usually needed for a hygiene examination

2. What points or times during doctor’s procedure can he or she conveniently break away to see another patient

3. What part of the procedure can the assistant do without the doctor to facilitate treatment. The assistant is usually well aware of these answers hence is usually best suited the responsibility.

The scheduling facilitator plans all doctors’ movements in advance ensuring that all patients are seen without inconveniencing the other team members. The appropriate order is not necessarily the one stipulated by the appointment times. It is better determined by the routine flow and stopping points of administering treatment. Most treatment includes the use of materials that require time to cure or set creating waiting periods. The waiting periods become the various times when the doctor can conveniently visit another patient. They are natural opportunities when hygiene examinations should be worked into the schedule.

Creating your plan begins with the doctors’ schedule which is the center of operations. Determine the times during the day when doctor can break from his or her scheduled patient - conveniently. Place a mark at all the times when this can occur. The marks represent the natural points when doctor could be directed to a hygiene examination or other task.

Next eliminate any patients that doctor does not need to visit by drawing an “X” through them. These might be patients scheduled for alginate impressions and cared for by an assistant or patients in hygiene that do not require examinations. You want to remove any unnecessary stops during the day to create more flexibility. These people could be visited if time permits.

Take a marker or pen and draw lines connecting the remaining patients with the marks (natural points of opportunity) to identify which patient will be seen by doctor at what point. This is the path that doctor will follow in order to move from one patient to the next all day long. It is similar to a “trip tick” identifying the most efficient and convenient route between destinations.

Preparation and planning takes time and careful thought. In healthcare, change is inevitable because human beings and illnesses are not predictable. It is best to develop your strategy in advance so if changes to the schedule take place they can be compensated for easily and quickly. Generally, preparation one day in advance is sufficient. Through practice and experience you as facilitator will eventually be able to detail the movements of doctor right down to the minute.

Constance L. Knieper has served in the field of dentistry for over 22 years in all capacities of customer service, sales and marketing, and management. She has participated in testing dental products and materials and coordinated educational programs for public speakers. Her passion is developing and implementing strategies to facilitate accomplishment of personal and professional desires. She finds satisfaction in helping others to refine and create systems that encourage increased productivity utilizing all available resources more effectively. In June 2006, Constance formed her company Goal Achievements, L.L.C. offering her patent pending system G.A.S. Goal Achievement Scheduling™ to professionals. The system is designed to help optimize time management, while gradually progressing toward achievement of goals.

Whether working as an ezine newsletter editor or content writer, you will be required to insure timely up-to-date quality writing on a consistent basis. Mastery in this area will require developing and utilizing measures that help avoid time wasters and unnecessary interruptions that can inhibit your success.

Getting a handle on managing your time may require your making lifestyle changes including eliminating the following time wasters:

Telephone Calls – avoid answering the phone during your creative writing time because it interrupts your creative flow and requires too much valuable time to get back into the groove of writing. Let friends and family know your “work time” and your “down times”. Encourage them to avoid calling you unless there is an emergency and help them understand when you don’t answer the phone during those creative writing times.

Emails - This is a distraction area we fail miserably. If you are spending more than 40-45 minutes or more a day (unless you have an e-commerce site) with email communication, you are wasting valuable time. If not cautious, you may find yourself socializing and answering frivolous inquiries that take up some of the most important hours of a day. Decide what you will open and when then stick to the plan. Don’t fall prey to the temptation to open mail from friends and family if it not the time set aside to open and respond. If you decide a.m. is time for business and p.m. for friends and associates then don’t make excuses and succumb to the temptation to read and respond.

Television – Even commercials create distractions and disruptions to a writer’s day. If you have a favorite show, block time to review and enjoy. Other than that, limit your television time daily to one or two shows per day. If you find your productivity is still affected, then reduce it to no more than 1 hour a day. The key here is to find what strategy will enhance your efficiency and writing style. Many people will realize that their best writing comes as a result of quiet time without the unpredictable noise and distraction created by television.

Household Chores – Believe it or not preparing a schedule for household, bill paying and post office related issues saves an enormous amount of time. Decide what days of the week will be used for which activity and stick to the plan. Don’t get distracted or compromise the schedule or you will interrupt your creative flow and will have to spend valuable energy trying to recoup the time.

Planning Your Day – Never start your day without a plan. Never end your day without reviewing what you’ve done and evaluating the progress. If your goal was to complete two or three articles for your ezine, it is important to assess your progress at the end of the day. Begin by writing down what you did for that day from the moment you awoke. If your did not complete your writing goal, take a look at that day’s schedule to see where you wasted time and eliminate those time wasters the next day. Practice this drill for 10-15 days. It will help improve your writing performance.

Defining project time management means looking at a combination of actions which ultimately lead to a desired result. When you are planning a project, there is a start and end time and it's what you achieve in between which determines whether you complete your objective.

We know time itself can't be managed in a sense but how you use the time allotted to you each day is what counts. A person with a set of objectives and with the proper desire to achieve these objectives can work wonders in both their social and work lives.

Project Time Management Planning

It all starts with a plan. For example, if you are someone who conducts their business affairs from home and your income is wholly and solely dependent on your own levels of productivity, then managing your time is of utmost importance. Why? Unless you do it, no-one else will and your income will dry up quickly.

Project time management involves:

- planning your project

- giving it a start and end date or time depending on how big a project it is

- being able to actually commence the project which gets back to problems of procrastination

- having the resources to work with

- setting up some sort of reward feature for completing the project

Unless you start out with a plan or create a foundation for your project and clearly follow the objectives you set yourself then it could end up being a little like a dog chasing it's own tail!

Project Time Management In Relation To Home Business

Once you have established your plan and associated goals it's time to get to work. Don't underestimate the power of a plan in relation to time management because having a written agenda has the power to hold you accountable should you begin to get off track.

You need to be flexible when applying short term project time management goals. A good way to maintain enthusiasm for your project is by setting a reasonable plan of action. Find a happy balance between too much and too little; setting an unrealistic plan will only serve to frustrate you when you fall behind and setting one which is too easy is like achieving false success.

Project Time Management Flexibility

By being flexible, you give yourself the option of reassessing your goals and permission to re-adjust them if you have to. Remember, when working on your own self-motivation is pretty tough especially when no-one is looking over your shoulder. If that's the case with you, once you have your plan of action on paper, organise extra copies and give them to people you respect and trust.

By doing this, you give them permission to check in on you at certain intervals just to confirm where you are at with your project. This is also a powerful method of being held accountable for your actions. It's like making a promise to someone of some authority and not wanting to break it so as to not look foolish in their eyes.

Double tasking is the secret for multiplying your use of time--according to some so-called experts. We are told to make it a habit to increase our efficiency. But it never produces the promised results.

As an example, remember the special dinner you were attempting to prepare while planning the conference agenda for tomorrow's meeting. Neither activity was a proud example of your skills or intellect. Or, how much of the food did you really taste while you were watching a favorite television program? The only time that truly exists is now--the past is gone and the future is yet to come. Two things simply cannot occupy the same space.

Most likely, the individuals receiving our "half-attention" will feel hurt and angry at what they consider is an insult. Has this ever happened to you? You go into another office to discuss a new project or give a progress report. All you get is some muttered responses because the person is busy reading and deleting emails or checking the stack of phone messages. More than likely you are not going to be eager to repeat the performance any time soon.

Truly listening to what is said takes concentration but it is worth the effort. You will never know if the speaker has a new, unique point of view unless you listen. Now is the best time to ask questions to clarify any parts that need to be explained. Certainly it is a better use of time to finish the discussion rather than discovering another meeting is necessary to fill in the information gaps.

Assuming we know another person's mind is risky--even with friends or co-workers we have known for years. Do not anticipate based on past history. What good does it serve you to live today based on your memory of yesterday? You totally miss the present moment.

Everything changes! We may have had many similar experiences together in the past and yet our interpretation of them is different. A classic example is the police report of the same accident viewed by two or more persons. The people are not lying--it is simply that each one saw it from a different viewpoint. These kinds of differences are what make our lives more interesting and challenging. How boring it would be if we all saw everything in exactly the same way!

Never forget that we communicate on unconscious levels. Body posture, eye contact and hand movements add depth to the meaning of spoken words. You gain extra information that words alone cannot convey. Observing body movements gives us clues about the person's honesty, confidence and belief in the ideas being presented.

Listening to a speaker with the concentration they deserve has another benefit. Your willingness to listen gives them courtesy and respect. That is a good start for any productive business or personal relationship.

It's Time to Take Control Of Your Life And Manage Your Time Effectively

If the last thing on your list is time for you and the things that are dear to you, it's time to make some changes.

How Do You Spend Your Time?

Are you constantly doing whatever shouts loudest? If time runs away from you it's time to get it under control.

Like everyone else, you have 24 hours each day. You can't create more time, but you can make better choices about how you spend your time.

When you choose how to spend your time, you start to live life on purpose and spend more time and energy on what's important to you. Honouring your priorities and focusing on one thing at a time reduces stress and helps you to accomplish more with less effort.

Is Multi-Tasking All It's Cracked Up To Be?

Do you think about the things you didn't get done or think about what you need to do instead of concentrating on what you're doing now? Do you try to do too many things at once? When you scatter your thoughts and attention it can lead to a sense of feeling rushed and being pulled in too many directions.

When you multi-task you often end up with a number of things only partly done. This leaves you feeling dissatisfied and sometimes anxious. When you give your full attention to what you're doing or to the people you're speaking to, it's more satisfying.

Choosing to focus your thoughts and energy, doing one thing at a time and doing it well, helps you to do more, with increased peace and a greater sense of fulfilment.

Choose How To Spend Your Time

Life is full of possibilities. You're constantly faced with choices of how to spend your time. Because there isn't enough time to do everything you give up one thing to do another. The problem is that you have a tendency to concentrate on things you think you should do that aren't satisfying and aren't always as important as you think they are.

When you know what's important to you and have clear priorities, it's easier to make wise choices about how to spend your time. When you focus on things that are important to you, you'll feel good because you'll be spending time doing what you want to do and making more effective use of your time.

Action Steps What one idea will you take from this article and use right away?

When will you get started?

Copyright: Lynne Lee - All rights reserved

Lynne Lee is a Christian life coach and spiritual mentor. She helps people to re-design their lives around what matters most.

Setting priorities helps you to make thoughtful, informed choices about how best to spend your time. When you set priorities you live your life on purpose and usually get more done.

Ask Yourself

* Why am I doing this?
* Is it something I feel I should do, ought to do, or is it something I really want to do?
* Could someone else do it?
* Do I really need to do it now or could it wait?
* Does it support my goals?
* Does it honour my values?

Once you've decided what's important to you in each area of your life, it's much easier to prioritise. You're more free to choose the things that are important and leave the less important things for now.

Be honest with yourself about what you can do and what you want to do. Priorities change. Give yourself permission to change your priorities. Different things are important during different seasons of your life.

Schedule Prorities

Plan to do the things that are important to you and set yourself a deadline. Build a buffer zone into each day. Consider scheduling an hour or more to deal with the unexpected, for things that take longer than expected, or as 'me' time.

Tips For Dealing With A Backlog

If you're behind with things, you're probably being driven by deadlines and feeling under pressure. The good news is that you can get back on top.

Try putting the backlog in a tray with the most important things on top. This separates it from new stuff coming in.

Deal with new things as they arrive and allocate specific time each day to deal with the backlog. It's a simple but effective approach and enables you to gradually do what seemed impossible.

You'll feel heartened as you see the backlog gradually diminish.

Copyright: Lynne Lee - All rights reserved

Lynne Lee is a Christian life coach and spiritual mentor. She helps people to re-design their lives around what matters most.

Sure enough, the family is the only threshold you can have when everyone else has left you, but let us be realistic here- not all people would stand by you in all moments of your life. Not everyone would be there at your happiest moments. The sad truth though is that most friends would leave, either by disappoint or simply because the friendship just died its natural death, regardless of how long you have been building your relationship.

However, with a family, it is inescapable for one to completely detach himself from the people he has learned to attach his emotions and sentiments to. Besides, having to spend the very first years of life with individuals is enough to build a special bond kindled by love.

Therefore, you have no reason to spoil this special relationship with a bunch of people you have considered life companions.

While our normal living deprives us of free association with all the people we want to spend time with, we must still realize that this should not be made an excuse as to not create a time frame that would allow time for your family.

The busiest people, they say, are those who have time for almost everything. They are the ones who search the balance between activities and priorities. By priorities, we mean that these are the things that are most essential to us without being exhaustive and detrimental against our ?being?.

Work, career and recognition are not everything. There are things that have far greater value which we often take for granted simply because we assume that they remain with us even if we have for long, utterly disregarded them.

Make time for your family.

How many times have we seen films that portrayed characters that have lost everything by simply loosing the affection given through their families? These aren't just films. These are instruments of realization.

The best way perhaps to resolve the issue of lack of time for family is not to allow time to imprison you. It should not box you in its own frame, instead you must optimize your own time frame so as to create time for everything. Yes, you heard it right. You can create time, don't let time dictate you what can be done for today and what must be done tomorrow.

As the years passing away, most of the people having second thought about thing that they didn't do, like spending time with family, something very close but at the everyday life look so far, try to change this reality and you earn from this for a long time.

Have you ever sat at your computer for hours at a time? I mean hours and hours at a time. Have you skipped lunch? Have you eaten at your desk? How productive are you with no break at all? Have you ever felt fatigued after working all day?

Most people work at their computers 8 to 10 hours a day. That is 40 to 50 hours a week. People work harder and harder. They think they are productive with working straight all day long. Some people feel that they get more done. However, our bodies are designed to move. The long hours on your computer causes your muscles to stiffen. Your body becomes fatigued. Your productivity therefore starts to go down the drain.

What can you do to energize your body? What can you do to be more productive? Here are 5 steps in staying in shape at your computer.

1. Stretch your body. Stand up, raise your hands above your head and reach for the ceiling. Hold this stretch for 5 seconds. Then repeat it 3 more times.

2. Shoulder rolls. To loosen those tight, stiff shoulders, stand up and bring one arm backwards then the other arm. Repeat 5 times.

3. How about your neck? Sit up straight and hold your head high. Relax your neck. Gently touch your right ear to your right shoulder. Hold for 5 seconds. Then touch your left ear to your left shoulder. Hold for 5 seconds. Repeat this 3 times.

4. You only have one back. Take care of it. Stretch your back while you are sitting in your chair. Slowly bend your upper part of your body between your knees. Hold for 5 seconds and sit up. Repeat this 3 more times.

5. Breathe, Breathe, Breathe. Take a few slow and deep breathes in and out.

By staying in shape means moving your body. You will get your blood flowing. You will clear your mind and get more done. Take a break once in the morning and once in the afternoon. It is your choice. Choose to become more productive.

Time is something that you can never take back.

What’s done is done. Nothing in history can be changed. The most we can do about anything that has already been done is to take counter measures to prevent the damage from spreading. However, there is one more effective way to stop the damage and that is to prevent it.

You must have heard it said that “Prevention is better than cure.”

This quote is most often used in terms of illness; however, this can also be done for future mistakes. Time management is a form of prevention.

Why is time management so important? Time is the most important commodity. Time never comes back. It never rewinds like videotape.

You can get more money but you cannot get more time!

Here are the most common reasons why time is so important:

1. Time cannot be stored
Everyone no matter how rich or poor spends time the same way, it doesn't speed up for the rich and slow down for the poor. Time management is equal to wise usage of time. This may be the difference between fame and failure.

2. Time is rare
Yes, everybody has the same number of hours, but haven't you noticed that people are complaining that they don't have enough of it? There is just “so little time and so much to do” that people go out of focus. Time management means giving importance to priorities and nearer deadlines and these give you enough for the crucial activities in life.

3. Time is needed for everything
Everything takes time; everything needs time to materialize. With time management, each task is given enough time to be finished. By giving a sliver of time for each of your goals and accounting for it wisely, you will be able to achieve them, plus make time for rest. Truth is, even little time produces work. If distributed wisely throughout the day or week, you would be surprised to how much you can accomplish.

4. Time management helps you finish more jobs with less effort
By allotting a certain amount of time for each activity, you don’t have to worry about the next thing that you will do. With time management, you become more organized and the things you do become more habitual than panic-driven. By making it a habit, you become more productive. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ”

In modern times, each product, place, or gadget has minute differences that make it very hard for you to choose. There are so many opportunities to choose from as to what to do with your time. By having a plan, you will be able to make intelligent choices. By becoming more conscious of the available time and the choices you've made so far, you focus more on your priorities rather than useless work.

Time management is indeed a gem. Once it becomes a habit, it will be more beneficial than time-consuming.

Posted by Alan Searing who is Managing Director of Online Express Limited and trades as Solutions4U providing self development books and tapes at the support group for Anthony Robins fans (The Yes Group) and he is passionate about providing resources to help others help themselves and to improve upon their own circumstances in life.

Most people think of time management as a system for organizing the day or week in order to maximize efficiency. I'd like to propose a different view of time management that is complimentary to the traditional view but has far greater implications for your quality of life.

Rather than viewing time on the small scale of a day or a week or a month or even a year let's think of how effective your time has been over a lifetime.

There are 8,766 hours in an average year. This means that by the age of 20 you have lived 175,320 hours, by 30 it is 262,980, by 40 you have lived 350,640 and by 50 the total hours lived adds up to 438,300 on so on.

My question is; are you getting value for those hours? If you were paying someone, by the hour, to build a magnificent life would you be happy that you had got your money's worth if that person had built your current life in the total number of hours that you have lived?

With traditional time management it is easy to become super efficient each and every day and yet when viewed over a lifetime you have really not achieved anything magnificent or inspiring.

In recent years the emphasis in time management has been to ensure that you are doing what is important rather than what is urgent but still it is possible that you achieve many small victories in the short term yet your life as a whole has not been a masterpiece.

My suggestion is this; that at the beginning of each week, before you plan yours days and hours for the week, you imagine yourself looking back from ten years in the future. Then ask yourself; what do I need to do this week so that when I look back I will honestly say that those ten years were a magnificent part of my life and I am totally and enthusiastically proud to have lived them.

The only time that you can actually use is the precise moment that you are presently experiencing. However without a frame of reference most people fritter away those present moments. By viewing each moment as a dot of paint on the canvas of a magnificent life then it is far more likely that you will treasure the moment and use it to enhance your life.

At the start of each month repeat the weekly exercise but instead of thinking from the perspective of ten years into the future think from the perspective of look back from the last few moments of your life. Imagine that you have finally run out of time and you are assessing whether your life was a success, a failure or just another average existence. What would you really like to see? What sort of life would you really be happy to have lived?

Once you have this picture in your mind ask yourself how you need to use your time in order to be contributing to that amazing adventure that your life should be. There are many different religious and philosophical views on life after death and reincarnation and planes of existence but the only things you can be sure of is that you have this life that you are experiencing now and that one day this life will be over.

Life is not a practice session it is the real thing. Every moment you live is a little piece that, when taken together with all the other moments, creates your unique life. The clearer the picture you have of that life as a whole, the easier it is to know where and how this present moment best fits into that life.

Try the weekly and monthly exercises outlined above as you will find your life taking a more inspiring direction.

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Rhonda, a solopreneure, started to write a paper for her MBA program at ten in the evening. She worked until 1:00 a.m.. Then, satisfied that the paper could be turned in class the following evening, finally went to bed.

The next morning at work, feeling exhausted, she berated himself for waiting until the last possible time to get her homework done. She always seemed to procrastinate about something important, and then push himself beyond her limits to get it done.

She seldom kept her promise to herself to start things early.

Rhonda discussed she problem with her coach. As they explored procrastination, Rhonda learned why people often have trouble starting difficult, unpleasant, or time consuming tasks.

They usually say to themselves "I should..." or "I have to..." and ignore the little voice that says, "I DON'T WANT TO!" After all, it's not acceptable not to want to do those things. When people procrastinate, that little voice takes charge.

There are many possible reasons for not wanting to do a task:
- Sometimes a person has decided to do a task to meet a long term objective, and immediate short term projects seem more pressing.
- Some people don't want to do a task because it is inherently unpleasant.
- Others don't want to do it because they are afraid of failing and looking bad.
- Often people don't want to do a task because it is about someone else's agenda and not their own. They said yes to a request they really wanted to refuse.

Sometimes people fear starting a large, complicated project because they simply don't know how to organize and manage the task. They may believe that not having enough time will excuse them from not meeting their own very high standards.

In today's busy world, people often believe they need to do more than it is possible for one human being to accomplish in any reasonable period of time. The reasons for procrastination are as varied as the people who procrastinate.

Rhonda had lots of information and a few suspicions about why she kept putting off important tasks.

She made a list of the commitments in her life. Work, school, her fiance, her community service activities, and her loyalty to her swim team. She couldn't remember the last time she had taken any time to just relax. She was clearly over-committed, and her short-term activities were interfering with her long-term goals.

She discussed the situation with her fiance, who helped her set priorities about what things would matter most to both of them.

She decided that both her business and school were important to her long-term success, and that she really preferred hiking with her fiance to swimming. She also reluctantly decided to postpone the community service activities until she completed her MBA.

In the following few weeks, she found that she was able to keep her commitments to himself, and even take a few evenings off just to relax.

For most people time management can be very difficult. Effective time management begins with understanding what needs to be done and then knowing how much time you have to do it. Everyone knows what needs to be done, but most of us fail to turn our thoughts into action.

Why?

Could it be procrastination or just plain laziness?

Probably not, successful time management depends on understanding what you are doing with your time each and every day. Managing your time more effectively will allow you to accomplish your tasks more quickly and bring you closer to your goals. Take the time each day to think about what needs to be done, and then do something about it!

Tips For Successful Time Management

1. Know exactly what you want in life. It is so easy for people to spend a whole day working and then accomplish nothing of any real value. Ask yourself, "What exactly am I trying to accomplish here?" If you do not define your goals and figure out your destination, then how will you know when you have arrived?

2. Complete one task at a time. Once you begin something stay with it until it is complete. A lot of time can be wasted switching tasks because you have to take time to prepare for each new task. Time can also be wasted breaking a task down into smaller tasks, just get it done! Concentrate on one thing only, get it done, and then move on. Try not to fill your mind with so many things to do that you stress yourself out and get nothing done!

3. Get busy! Most of us go through life not knowing what we want. We spend to much time in a state of "I do not know what to do". Decide what you want and then work on getting it! Remember that most of us will lean alot more by doing than by just thinking.

4. Say No! Do not make the mistake of ignoring those who are most important, family. If you cannot say no, then you will soon find yourself pulled in to many directions. No matter how important your obligations may be, spend time with your family. Stick with your area of expertise, do what you do best, no more.

5. Set priorities. Everyone feels overwhelmed at times. Every day stop and ask yourself, what do I have to do today? Focus only on those tasks that must be completed, not on what you would like to do.

6. Learn how to delegate. If you insist on handling every task yourself, not only will you not succeed but other areas of your life, such as family and health will suffer. Turn over those routine tasks to others and concentrate on those things that require your knowledge and skills.

7. Develop the habit of making decisions as soon as possible. If you cannot make a decision right away, then set aside some time when you can gather all the facts and then make the decision. Spend most of your time on action, not decision making.

8. Organize your email. If possible, answer your email right away. Try not to read it and then leave it in your inbox. Create folders and transfer the email you want to keep. Create a folder for pending emails that will need your attention later. Delete junk email right away, do not waste your time reading it.

9. How many times have you heard, "Always finish what you start?" If you made a decision in the past that is no longer providing you with the results you expect, then forget it! Move on to something else. Re-evaluate what is happening now to decide what to do next. Do not forget that failure can be your friend.

If you remember one thing, then I suggest this, do it now! When you put things off you waste alot of time because you will constantly dwell on them. Thinking and planning are important, but results come only with action.

Time management is not about giving up what you like, it is about becoming more productive and discovering more of what you already love. Refuse to spend your time where it absolutely will not give you the very best results. Invest your time only in what will pay off big!