Many time management seminars begin the skills development process by asking you to calculate how much your time is worth an hour. The assumption is that you have 220, eight-hour workdays in a year. Based on how much you want to earn a year, you can calculate your hourly "worth." An income of $100,000 a year is $56 an hour.

The information this exercise provides is interesting, but misleading and undervalued because the model is based on eight productive and billable hours a day. It's an Industrial Age model applied to an Information Age reality. Unless you're working an assembly line, it's unlikely that you really have eight productive and billable hours a day. If you think you do, you're probably lying to yourself. In an office job, you may be in the office for eight hours, but you're probably only truly productive for one quarter of that time.

Productive time is an important concept here. If you want to achieve something, you have to think it terms of your productivity. That's the time spent towards the achievement of a result.

If you're trying to develop a business, give seminars, workshops, market products, write a book or whatever, how many hours are you truly productive when it comes to working on that?

A very liberal estimate grants you about two productive hours a day. This changes the math substantially.

If your annual target is $100,000 and you have 220, two-hour days to apply productive time towards that target, your time is now worth about $227 an hour.

Here's the math for this example. ($100,000 / 440 = $227 ish)

When you know your time is worth $227 an hour instead of $56 an hour, does that change how you value your time?

It might not always be easy to tell a client your time bills out to $227 an hour, when trading your time for money. You do need to make considerations for what the market will bear. Think about ways to create additional value so you're not simply being compared to the next person in the phone book. However, knowing what your hour should be worth should give you the incentive to not undercut your own worth when setting your billable rates.

With a $100,000 annual target, an hour-long workshop that brings in a gross of $300 puts you on target for your annual goal and leave you a lot of time for other projects. What if you add more attendees or provide opportunities for additional business at the event? What could you do to add value and increase that hour to $1,000?

* How about a special report on sale for your clients? A 30 page report, at $10 each can sell like hotcakes. In fact, some people spend more on real hotcakes!
* Offer a membership-based web site and provides value to your clients and regular, residual income for you.
* Sell a DVD of a previously recorded workshop or talk-it doesn't even have to be yours.
* Is there a product you can resell to your clients which gives them extra value from the services or product that you currently provide? There's a reason coffee shops sell pastries too.

If you work an office or production job and don't have any other type of business, knowing how much your time is worth is still a valuable number. As long as your efforts make the company more than you cost, you are a productive value to your company. Learn to think of yourself in those terms and your management will notice the change too.

You might not want to tell your boss you only have two productive hours a day, but understand that he or she is lucky to have the same. Management is often less productive than those they manage.

Understanding how much your productive time is worth is a very important tool in your bag of time management skills. Who you are, what you know and how you can help others is valuable. Knowing how much your time is worth helps you focus on your value. Your time management skills will come more naturally as a result.

If you have made up your mind to master the skill of speed reading, the next step is to decide how to acquire the skill. One effective way is to attend a speed reading seminar. Seminars can introduce you to speed reading, help you improve your skills, or assist you in improving your speed, if you already have the skills.

Attending a speed reading seminar will help you build skills that help you become more efficient in various types of information processing. As you develop an understanding of the philosophy behind speed reading, you will see how these skills apply to other areas of your life as well. Being able to process information at a faster rate is one of many benefits of attending a seminar of this type.

Increasing your reading speed and comprehension will help you find more free time to spend on activities you enjoy. You will cut thru your email in half the time it takes now, and you will spend less time on web research. You will easily find the time to complete your professional reading, which can help you advance in your career.

Many speed reading seminars begin by giving you a reading test, so you will know what your baseline speed is. Next, you will discover your own bad habits, and learn how to eliminate them. Understanding how to manage and group information helps you become more efficient will help you in all areas of time management.

Most speed reading seminars are hands-on, rather than theory oriented. You will learn the skill and apply it immediately. When you leave the seminar, you will have improved your reading speed and comprehension. You may also be given exercises that you can use to continue improving your reading speed.

Many seminars combine time management and speed reading skills. This is a natural combination, as managing information overload improves our ability to manage time. Once these skills are mastered, you will be able to regain control of your life, and find the time to spend on activities you truly enjoy. You will spend less time at work, and less time feeling pressured by all the information that builds up on a daily basis.

Speed reading programs are becoming more popular. Evelyn Wood discovered this technique, and introduced it to the public over 60 years ago. Since that time, many others have improved on her techniques, and several different speed reading programs are available today. With the massive amount of information we are required to process every day, developing the skill of speed reading has almost become a necessity.

Many speed reading programs help you to identify the bad reading habits that slow you down. The most common one is moving your lips when you read. This is something we all did when we first learned how to read, but now it holds us back from reading at optimum speeds. If this is one of your bad habits, try chewing gum when you read, or eating a piece of chewy candy. Placing your hand over your mouth when you read will also stop the problem.

There are many different types of speed reading programs, but they all work on the basic philosophy that your eyes can bring in information at a rapid rate and your brain will process this information as quickly as you can absorb it. This is why you also improve your reading comprehension as you learn to speed read.

There usually are speed reading programs offered at your local university, or college. Computer programs are also available to help you develop this skill. It is worth the time to investigate the different types of programs, as they differ in the level and skill set they teach. Some programs are simply reading improvement programs for poor readers, while others are true speed reading programs for people who already have good reading skills.

Most programs will begin by having you assess your own reading speed. From there they will show you how to read in groups, rather than single words. Some speed reading programs will show you how to skim pages to find the most relevant information. Others advocate reading the first and last paragraph of each chapter so you will be familiar with the information presented. All programs will help you eliminate the unnecessary words, so you will be able to quickly focus on the important ideas that are expressed in what you are reading.

If you want to start cutting down the time you spend reading emails, reviewing reports, and keeping up with your professional reading, then it is time to investigate the many programs available to help you master the skill of speed reading.

Nothing is more precious than time, and the pace of modern life is faster than at any time in history, and it's only going to get faster. There are always more and more demands on our time and more things we are expected to deal with. Not only that, but we are also expected to be able to deal with many of these things at the same time.

Multi-tasking seems to be the norm and is expected of all of us. But is multi tasking actually the most effective way to manage your time? Can you really concentrate on, and give your full attention to more than one task at a time? Do you ultimately get more done, and done properly, if you do more than one thing at a time?

Let's look at some simple examples.

Can you effectively read and watch TV at the same time and really concentrate on both? Perhaps, if what you are reading and watching is quite lightweight, but what if it's complex? I'm sure many of us were convinced as kids, and maybe even managed to convince our parents, that we could do our homework or study with the radio or TV on. But could we really?

What about eating an apple whilst driving your car and concentrating on a conversation on the radio? I think this can be quite easily done, but if you think about it, eating an apple requires no concentration, and driving is second nature requiring only limited concentration. I think it would be a different story if you were trying to navigate your way through heavy traffic in an unfamiliar area, or driving through torrential rain or snow.

What about driving and using a mobile phone? I think the same applies as above, and using hand held mobile phones is now illegal in many countries as it is accepted that it can cause accidents. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has taken a wrong turn or got lost due to being too involved in a conversation, even on a hands free phone.

Female readers may scoff, as it's generally accepted that women are much better at multi-tasking than men. I'm sure this is true, largely due to skills and instincts learned and adapted over many thousands of years, right back to when our homes were caves. Women had to be able to raise children, cook, make clothing, grow crops, and much more. Maybe they didn't do them all at the same time, but whatever they were doing they also had to have one eye on their children and family to make sure they weren't in any danger, and that no intruders or wild beasts were nearby. In those days this was literally a matter of life and death. The main thing men had to do was go out and hunt dinosaurs and find food for the family without being eaten alive in the process.

But if you are working on more than one task at the same time, are you really giving either of them your full attention and using your time most effectively?

It has been estimated that any task may take up to 10 times longer to complete if you keep leaving and coming back to it. This is because you are rarely able to immediately pick up exactly where you left off. You'll usually have to spend time familiarizing yourself with the material again, which will mean rereading and possibly even redoing work you've already done.

Isn't that similar to what we do when we try to do more than one thing at a time? Most of us will find that throughout the course of a working day we have a constant flow of interruptions from phones, email, co workers, etc to contend with. We are already being distracted from our work and having our productivity reduced. Won't trying to do too many things at once make it even worse?

Working on a single task without interruption or distraction until it is finished will certainly allow you to complete the task much more quickly and efficiently.

If you're working on a big project, this won't always be possible, and working on the same thing for hours on end without a break can be counterproductive. In these cases, breaking things down into manageable chunks and working on each section until completed, then taking a break, or going on to something different, can help to keep you more mentally alert and efficient.

Effective time management is one of the most important of all skills if you are serious about success and achievement. If you try to juggle multiple tasks at the same time it's unlikely you will do any of them effectively or quickly. You will be much more effective and productive by developing your ability to focus on the task at hand and your powers of concentration.

Most of us would like to be more productive and be able to get more done. One of the single biggest problems we all face daily that inhibits our productivity and time management is interruptions and distractions. Or, more accurately, how well we deal with interruptions and distractions.

Distractions can come in many, many forms and can even easily distract ourselves.

I mostly work from home which means I can spend all day working with the radio or music on if want to. However, despite being a great music lover and owning a large amount of music, I often have no music on because sometimes I find it distracting. I almost never turn the radio on as I can easily find myself listening to the talking, news and ads rather than working. The same goes for my favourite CDs. Instead, I often listen to instrumental music or classical music in the background music as there are no lyrics to distract me.

Obviously this depends entirely on the level of concentration required. I find writing, coming up with new ideas and technical/IT tasks usually requires the most concentration, whereas it would be no problem listening to the radio whilst doing other tasks requiring less active thought.

This is only one example of how distractions can reduce our productivity.

Whether you work from home or from an office, you are highly likely to have your work interrupted by emails and phone calls. And with mobile phones and all the other portable devices available, we can now be contacted pretty well any time and any place.

Technology is designed to make thing happen quicker, improve communication and make us more efficient, but is this really always the case? Does it always help us, or can we effectively become slaves to technology rather than technology serving us?

Most of us are now so dependent on the instant communication of email and used to responding immediately, that it can take up a lot of the working day. But is it really necessary to respond immediately?

If you work in an office you'll also most likely have co-workers and a boss who will interrupt you. It may not be possible to do much about those types of interruptions, but it is worth thinking about how we handle emails.

It can be difficult to avoid interruptions from emails and the temptation is always there to open our email program to check for new emails many times a day, or to leave your program open all the time and click on a new email when we hear it arrive, no matter how involved we may be in something else. This can cause us to completely lose track of what we were doing, sometimes for hours, as we'll often find ourselves responding and being taken in a completely different direction.

The self employed often suffer even more than employees by being contactable any time of the day or night. This is ironic given that most people go into business on their own because they want more freedom.

How much time do you think you could save if you allocated two or three set times per day to read and respond to emails and kept you email programme closed at all other times? Obviously not everyone will be able to do this and it will depend on your line of work and your boss. Email is an instant medium, but if you were sick or taking a day or two off work, emails may not be responded to for days. How often would a two or three hour delay in responding really matter?

Could you do the same with the phone? Could you have people leave messages and you respond when it suited your schedule rather than theirs? Again, not everyone could get away with this, but can you imagine how much more effective your time management would be if you could?

This is actually one of the secrets of effective time management. If you can discipline yourself to group your tasks and try to do as many of the same type of tasks together rather than just reacting to things as they arrive, you will save a great deal of time and get a lot more done each day.

This is a more proactive approach to managing your work and your day. You'll not only get more done, but you'll feel more in control and less at the beck and call of everyone else.

It should be possible to do this for the types of tasks most of us have to deal with, like making phone calls, responding to emails or letters, plus other types of tasks specific to your line of work.

When dedicating chunks of time to similar tasks, apart from reducing distractions, something else happens too. You'll find you get into a flow, or a rhythm and you'll accomplish much more and much faster than you usually do. The difference can be so dramatic that it can almost seem like magic.

It won't be possible to eliminate interruptions and distraction totally, but with effort and discipline you should be able to reduce them. This will certainly help you manage yourself and your time better you'll be much more effective and productive. You'll also suffer much less stres

“When you write your thoughts down onto paper, you crystallize them into reality.”
--Brian Tracy

If you were to ask me what’s the one tool that has helped me build my success in life; I’d tell you that it’s simply a notepad and a pen, coupled with my habit of using them on a consistent basis. The process of capturing your thoughts is one of the distinguishing hallmarks of great achievers.

What Exactly do you Mean by “Capturing Your Thoughts?”

The problem with thoughts and ideas is that they’re not tactile in nature, meaning that they don’t have any solid or tangible physical form to grasp onto. I can pick up a stapler and hold it in my hands and I know exactly what it is, but with a thought or an idea, it doesn’t come in a convenient form that I can put my hands around. What we can’t experience through one of the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight and sound), we are prone to misplace and lose. Thoughts and ideas fall under this amorphous category.

The process of capturing your thoughts simply means transferring your thoughts onto some type of medium that is physical and permanent in nature. This can include the following:

• Writing your thoughts down on paper
• Writing your thoughts down electronically
• Recording your thoughts by dictation (voice recording)

Why Capture Your thoughts?

Your mind is a powerful computer that can do a great many things, but just like your home computer, your mind can only focus on a certain number of things at any given time. Rarely do we ever forget anything, but it’s more the case that we didn’t place an importance or priority on that information at the time it was presented to us and so it got buried along with all the other bits and pieces of extraneous non-important information that we store in our subconscious minds. By capturing our thoughts, we insure that they don’t fall through the cracks and get lost. A single good thought can be worth millions of dollars or it can single-handedly produce a significant and meaningful change in your life. You simply can’t afford to lose any of these precious thoughts just because you didn’t have a way to capture them.

Once you have your thoughts on paper, you can manage your thoughts just as you would any physical item because now it’s something that can be physically manipulated within your environment. That’s why I’m a huge advocate of thinking on paper. The advantages are enormous. Here’s a list of reasons why you should capture your thoughts.

1. Lost thoughts are like wasted money. I can’t put it any simpler than this: “Thoughts are money.” Imagine that money was pouring from the sky and you wanted to collect that money, but all you had was a straw to channel it into your bottle. A lot of that money would be wasted. Now imagine the same scenario, but this time you had a wide funnel to channel all that money into your bottle. You’d be many times richer using the funnel than the straw, right? The same holds true with respect to our minds. Our minds can store an unlimited amount of information, but it can only focus on a small amount of things at any given time. Therefore, trying to hold information in our short-term memory is like using a straw to channel the falling money into our bottle—a lot of wasted money and very little money actually collected. Capturing, which involves the transfer of thoughts onto a physical medium is like using a funnel to channel the falling money into your mind. There is a lot less wastage and a lot more wealth created.

2. Capturing forces you to clarify your thoughts. According to Tony Buzan, the leading expert on mental literacy and the inventor of mind mapping, your thought process is organic by nature, meaning that ideas usually sprout from other related ideas in a non-linear fashion.1 This is why you might be sitting at your office typing a memo to your boss regarding a patient’s donor kidney and suddenly remember that you have chicken in the freezer that needs to be thawed for tomorrow night’s dinner. The process of capturing your thoughts and ideas, however, requires that your thoughts be organized in a linear format to be put into written or recorded words, which means that the process of capturing acts as a filtering mechanism for your organic thoughts. Capturing will help clarify and distill your raw thoughts into something much more concentrated and pure.

3. Capturing allows for easy processing. Productivity expert, David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, states that your thoughts need to be corralled and processed just the same as you would that paper stack in your inbox or those incoming e-mails.3 When you keep your thoughts inside your head, they become as difficult to hold onto as is it is trying to grab water flowing from a fall with your bear hands. That’s because thoughts have no discernable shape or form which makes them difficult to manage. If you want to transport water from a fall over to your camp site, you don’t use your hands, rather you use a container to transport that water because water will take the shape of that container and you can then manage that quantity of water just as you would the container in which it is in. Just like water will conform to the shape of a container, so can a thought be held by a single piece of paper. That piece of paper becomes your portable container for all the thoughts that you need to carry and you can then manage those thoughts very easily by treating them as items.

4. Capturing activates the reticular activating system. According to Hans Morvec, the principal research scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the human brain's probable processing power is roughly 100 trillion calculations per second.2 By comparison, IBM’s Blue Gene/L supercomputer, the fastest computer on the planet at the time of this writing, has a peak performance window of only 360 billion calculations per second.3 Your reticular activating system (RAS), the finger-shaped process in between the medulla oblongata and the mesencephalon on your brain, is responsible for filtering all the information your brain receives. Most of the information that your brain processes is not useful towards your daily activities, so your RAS filters most of it out, allowing you to focus on the most important information necessary for survival and goal attainment. The process of capturing your thoughts acts as an activating mechanism for the RAS to identify those thoughts as important. Your RAS will then begin to make you aware of things in your environment that resonate with those thoughts, allowing you to pull resources into your life necessary for goal attainment. This process has also been popularly referred to as the law of attraction.

5. Capturing reduces stress. Your brain is a biological computer. You have your hard drive that stores all your programs and files and you have your RAM (ready access memory) that enables your computer to use different programs at the same time. Ever notice that when you have many different programs running on your computer at the same time, everything seems to slow down considerably? That’s because you’re depleting your available RAM on your computer. In much the same way, your brain also has RAM in the form of short-term memory. You can hold a couple of items in your mind, but the more things you start holding in your short-term memory, the more overworked your mind becomes and this translates into the feeling of stress you experience within your body. Capturing your thoughts effectively clears up your brain’s RAM so that you can focus on the important tasks at hand without the burden of stress. Clear out your mind entirely by capturing your thoughts down instead of trying to memorize them. Free up that RAM space for tasks that really deserve its attention. This is truly a key of top performers.

Common Places People Tend to Lose Good Thoughts

People tend to lose great ideas, thoughts and bursts of inspirations in the places where they are least likely to have a capturing device handy. If you prepare in advance by having capturing devices handy in those “black hole” areas, you can effectively preserve your valuable organic thoughts. Here is a list of the most common places where thoughts are lost:

• In the shower
• On the toilet
• Commuting to and from work
• In bed
• At restaurants
• In the dining area
• In the living room
• On vacation

Types and Uses of Capturing Devices

Your thoughts and ideas are of little value to you if you don’t collect and process them in a systematic fashion. By keeping your thoughts in your head, you not only add to the stress of trying to remember them while doing other attention-dividing activities, but also you run the risk of losing your thoughts as well. In order to prevent this from occurring, always make sure that you have a capturing device within reach at all times. Here are some common capturing devices and tips on how to use them effectively.

• Pocket notepad and pen. One of the cheapest and most reliable capturing tools out there. I keep a small notepad in my back pocket whenever I leave the house. As for pen preference, my general recommendation is to use whatever feels comfortable to you. By far, the best pen for my personal use is the Fisher Space Pen.® Their bullet model pen is very small and easy to carry in my pocket and the special pressurized ink cartridge allows me to write on wall calendars, upside down and in the shower as well.

• Journals. These larger-format notebooks are best used for brainstorming and journaling, rather than for jotting down things to do. The information kept within a journal is usually archived for a long time rather than processed and disposed of. The nice thing about a journal is that you can use it as a reference guide to see the progression of an idea or your own personal/professional development. Leonardo da Vinci kept a library of journals, complete with his sketches of inventions and his insight into philosophy and the sciences. Thomas Edison also wrote and maintained over 3,500+ journals with his brilliant organic thoughts, some of which have been donated to various museums.

• Index cards. Index cards are my tool of choice when capturing organic thoughts at home or in the office because they are uniquely suited for capturing and processing thoughts. My rule is simple: one index card for one thought and after the thought has been captured onto that card, it then goes into my inbox for processing. Another advantage of index cards is for project management. You can manage a project quite effectively by writing each executable action for that project onto an individual card and then arranging the card deck by priority and order of events. You can even lay each card out on a table to see the natural progression of the project. When the next step of a project needs to be done, you simply toss that card into your inbox for processing and then move on to the next card. A very simple, yet effective hybrid between a pocket notepad and loose index cards is the Hipster PDA, a novel concept developed by writer Merlin Mann. The Hipster PDA is simply twenty or so index cards that are bound together by a small binder clip on one corner and carried around like a pocket notepad. The Hipster PDA gained it’s inspiration from David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, but quickly took on a life of its own, especially with IT professionals. There are several websites now that are dedicated to the Hipster system.

• Cell phones. Most of us carry cell phones everywhere we go. Start using this communication device as a multi-tasker by capturing your thoughts with it. When a thought comes to mind, capture it by leaving a voice mail for yourself in a voice mailbox account that you check regularly. Additionally, some of the more advanced phones have digital voice recording technology built right into the phone, making it a very useful multi-tasker.

• Micro-cassette / digital recorders. These devices are useful in situations where writing is not possible, such as when driving or walking. The thought capturing process is much quicker when you dictate your thoughts, but the drawback is that you must get it transcribed afterwards in order to have your thoughts in a format that you can use. You can enlist the aid of a transcriptionist or transcribe the recording yourself. Also, the transcription software currently out on the market is fairly good for transcribing thoughts, so you might want to consider investing in one of the software packages available.

• Computers. Laptops and desktops are great tools for collecting and saving your thoughts if you are always in front of a computer. Simply open your favorite word processing, spreadsheet or e-mail software and keep it open during your day to log thoughts as they come to you. At the end of the day, you can either print or e-mail your list for processing.

• Whiteboards. These are great for leaving notes for other people and for to-do lists, but not my favorite for capturing organic thoughts due to their limited space and portability.

• Napkins, coasters & placemats. A good impromptu capturing device while dining at a restaurant when you don’t have your notepad on you. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask the server for a pen—rarely do they ever say “no.”

• Personal digital assistants (PDAs). These make the transfer of information from PDA to computer very efficient; however, inputting ideas tend to be slow in comparison to a notepad and pen. Also, I’ve found that any type of sketching or drawing on these devices is mediocre at best.

• Pens, pens, pens. Having a writing device handy when you need one is often the biggest reason why people don’t capture their thoughts. Avoid this problem by getting a box or two of inexpensive pens and seeding your most common areas around the house with these pens. You really want to eliminate ever saying, “Where’s a pen when I need one?”

• Water-proof paper. This is a relatively new addition to my own personal arsenal of thought-capturing tools. I keep a water-proof notepad inside the shower along with a Fisher Space Pen® which combines effectively for a great way to capture thoughts while in the shower. Additionally, I can take the same setup with me in rainy weather conditions or if I am out by the pool, lake or ocean. Riteintherain.com offers an excellent selection of waterproof paper.

Conclusion

Thoughts are the most valuable commodity that you own. It’s what makes you unique. It’s what makes you valuable. One special thought or idea has the potential for creating unlimited wealth and success, or it can lead to a dramatic and meaningful life change. Don’t be like so many people out there who let those thoughts slip from their minds. Start collecting them today.

References:

1. Buzan, Tony. The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain's Untapped Potential. New York: Plume, 1996.

2. Delio, Michelle. “This is Your Computer on Brains.” Wired News. Nov. 19, 2002. Retrieved February 11, 2006, from http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,56459,00.html.

3. Allen, David. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. New York: Penguin, 2001.

4. “Blue Gene.” Wikipedia. Retrieved February 11, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Gene.

It would be all too easy to say the worst enemy of time management can be found in the mirror. In many ways it's true. Unfortunately there is a greater enemy and its siren song of efficiency, timesavings, convenience and myriad other buzzwords trap us into thinking it is there for our benefit. Chances are you have at least one of these enemies within reach. You may even have several of these enemies surrounding you right now.

Telephones, messaging devices, instant messaging software and email create sources of distraction that prevent us from attending to what is truly important. Cell phones have amplified these distractions by combining interruptions from ringing phones, test messages, and voice mail and asking us to carry them with us everywhere.

As I write this article, my pockets contain a phone with a built in keyboard for convenient key entry (that's what they tell me), a blue tooth headset (which I thought I lost this morning and spent 45 minutes searching for it), my video Mp3 player (because everyone can watch Battlestar Galactica while doing something else, right?) and my tiny laptop computer, connected to a public WIFI network, is blinking email notifications and IM notifications are popping up in the back from people who want to ask me a "quick question."

All this blinking and beeping happens constantly while I sip my Chai Latte.

I know I'm not alone experiencing this chaos. How can it be managed?

In time management, there are two major categories of things to be done. There's the important and the unimportant. Diving each of these two categories is the urgent and not urgent.

People who know what their goals are should know what is important and not urgent. Those are the things which should have priority because they gain us the most freedom over time. Occasionally something important becomes urgent. It can be allowed to interrupt our focus from the important and not urgent for a time.

From what category do you find the instant message, phone call, email and colleague stopping by your office? These are almost always urgent, but not important. It's this category that sucks you away like quicksand in an old Tarzan movie.

You want to avoid the quicksand, don't you?

Mastering time management can take time. Seek out help to learn the skills you need to succeed and then apply it the best you can each day. The more you focus on what is important, but not urgent, the more you be able to enjoy your work. Fewer important, and urgent, situations will arise. Your stress will lower and you'll find that you are able to get more done in less time. It takes practice, but any skills worth learning do.

It's those times when you just don't feel like doing it...

Those are the times when you MUST.

Take right now for example. It is a nice day out there. It is quiet around here. My wife Kari and the kids are away so no distractions - I should be out playing! But, I promised myself I would work until 4pm today (it is now 3:43pm). I don't feel like working the extra 17 minutes - but I know how important it is.

What about you?

Is there something you know that you should be doing - but are waiting to do?

Even though you are better off doing it today.

Human nature makes it easy to put things off. We learn from television, movies and our world leaders - what we don't want to face today - should be put off for tomorrow - or maybe the next day.

Yet - putting it off is the absolute worst thing you can do right now.

Just doing it will start the inner process. When you break the chain of procrastination and get out there to do what you were waiting on - you create a neural connection in your brain that feels good about ending procrastination.

Doing another "to-do" builds another connection. And another to-do knocked off means the neural pathways are getting stronger, thicker and more resilient.

THAT is the secret to being great. Doing the things that must be done - despite your inner voice that keeps nagging you to do it later.

The majority of society puts things off "till tomorrow".

What percentage of society is successful?

Less than 5%.

So if you are doing what the 95% are doing - you can expect the same results that 95% of the population is getting.

Or, you can push yourself to do that one last thing that you don't want to do today - and you join the 5% that get this one simple point.

The top 5% of society does what it takes to achieve their dreams - I think you would agree - this is a much better group to follow and model yourself after.

For today, do one extra thing you have been putting off from doing.

And see how great it feels.

Tomorrow - one more thing.

The next day - another to-do knocked off.

Pretty soon, you have created a whole new habit that will take you wherever you want to go in life.

Be part of the 5% that do things... not the 95% that never get things done.

The following techniques work incredibly well for me. You should read and adapt them for your own personality and work style. Techniques 1 and 2 were in last week’s article and can be found at Proven Productivity and Time Management Techniques for Entrepreneurs – Part I.

3. Understand the *urgent* versus the *important*.

Every day we are bombarded with *must dos* and *have to have asap* requests. You should understand what will move your business forward and help you reach your goals. Before you accept ANY of these, ask yourself the following questions:

1/ "Is this my unique brilliance (meaning: Does this task fulfill you? Is it in line with your mission?)?" and
2/"Will this bring me closer to the money (defined as new clients, marketing, etc. in your business)?"

If the answer to either of those questions is "no", you should not take on the task.

I realize that it's simple for me to say "just don't do it" and that, in reality, it's not always so simple. You must learn to erect boundaries between you and every request that saunters in the door. Otherwise your business will never move forward.

As Stephen Covey states, you should focus on tasks and projects which are "Important and Urgent" and "Important and Not Urgent". "Important" tasks are defined as the ones which move you forward and generate revenue.

Another way to look at this is by using Paredo's Principle -- also known as the 80/20 Rule. 80% of your income, joy and success comes from 20% of your current activities. The trick here is to figure out exactly what the 20% is and delegate (see "Give Yourself a Raise -- Get an Assistant" article at http://makemoreworkless.wordpress.com/2006/12/27/give-yourself-a-raise-get-an-assistant/) or creatively procrastinate the rest.

Take some time this week to figure out which things contribute the greatest income to your business. Do you have multiple clients? If so, evaluate which ones spend the most money with you and what services/products you are providing to them. Then see if you can either expand those services for that client or find other clients who want the same work.

4. Have a single focus and know your energy peaks.

As an entrepreneur, you have some control over when, where and how you work. Depending on the services you perform, you may have some qualifications to that freedom, but you are still able to be more flexible than if you were in a J-O-B.

Use this flexibility to your advantage. You should work within your peak energy times. For me, that's early morning and late afternoon. My perfect day has me up around 7am, working by 8am, napping after lunch and then back to work before and after dinner.

Try tracking when you have your best energy and see if you can work within those times. Take a look at your environment. Does it suit you? Do you require quiet or prefer music when you're working? Can you work from home or do you prefer having other people around you? Do you prefer to have your clients call or email you? It's your business, design it to work *with* you, not against you.

When you are working, focus on one outcome at a time. It takes much longer to do something if you need to start and stop and then start again. I have a large clock in my office and it helps keep me focused on what I planned to do at any given time. I also keep a sheet of scrap paper to jot down whatever pops into my mind so I can keep going on the current project.

5. Remember to book your quiet time and your fun time.

If all you do is work, work, work -- even on your own business -- you will not be nearly as productive as you otherwise could be. You need to give yourself permission to have down time and to stop working.

Plan a vacation and purchase non-refundable tickets so you *have* to go. Can't quite afford a vacation yet? Then create one in your own home -- and leave your computer OFF and in the office. You will get your most creative ideas when you are away from the office.

Personally, I get my best ideas when I'm near water -- the ocean, a lake, sometimes even in the shower. Is it any wonder I spent two weeks in Hawaii last fall?

As an entrepreneur, we are never done working. There is always something else you can be doing, one more email you can send, another call to take or make, but you need to take vacations and get out of the office for at least one day a week to keep the juices flowing. You can do it, I promise the world will not implode!

Are you ready to get things done more efficiently than ever?

Getting up in the morning can be hard. Motivating yourself for the day ahead can be difficult. If you live in a place that experiences the horrors of winter you will no doubt be feeling worse due to low light levels. Part of the problem is that darkness encourages the production of sleep hormones. If we are to wake up we need brighter light. I try and look at something bright, such as a clear patch of sky for about thirty seconds. Obviously don’t stare at the sun or something stupid like that !

I know I have problems in this area, and like 90% of the rest of the world you do to. Yet, if we want to become truly successful, then I think its necessary that we try and get up as early as possible to get the most out of our day. Of course, when I say as early as possible, what I mean is that we should not oversleep. Whatever you do, don’t under sleep, as this will drastically reduce your productivity throughout the day.

The next step I take, usually when I don’t want to get out of bed, is to start asking myself questions. I can’t stress enough the power of questions. Questions help motivate us in amazing ways. Whenever you ask yourself a question you will find an answer is returned even if that answer is garbage. When the questions are sensible we often give ourselves a useful answer.

By asking questions at key times we force ourselves to choose options and see potential consequences. It is the power of these imagine potential consequences that really helps to ready us for the day ahead.

So - what questions should you ask. Perhaps look at things like ‘If I don’t get up now will I really feel pleased with myself later today’ or ‘If I stay in bed what will I not get done today’ or even better ‘How much better will getting up now make my day’. You might be worried about negative responses to these questions but even on really dark days I have been surprised how motivating these questions are. How badly will the time lost effect the day and how happy will I feel with the way i spent my morning. Nine times out ten this does the trick on difficult mornings !

The next step is breakfast. Don’t miss out on breakfast. You know this already, I’m not going to press the issue!

Once I am out of the house I start listening to audio books about various subjects as I begin my commute to work. Once at the office I start by examining my previous day’s to-do list. Taking items from this list I construct a new list for the day and spread the tasks out over eight to ten hours in my planner.

Using these few methods I have seen a real and significant improvement in both the way I feel and my performance level in the morning. Give them a go and see if they help you too ! ll help to reduce the levels of sleep hormones in your blood stream, making it easier to get up.

Believing you can manage time is like believing you can teach a cat to cook. It doesn’t matter how hard you try or how diligent you are, in the end, the cat will stare at you like you’ve lost your mind and time will march on unmanaged.

Sure, you can organize your day or your week. And you can fill up your Day Timer or your PDA with meetings, appointments and events you’ve planned. But, as the old saying goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

As a society, we are preoccupied with time. Everyone, including elementary school kids, wears a watch. Our computers tell us what time it is, as do our cell phones, our faxes, our microwaves, and our VCRS (assuming you’ve figured out how to get yours to stop flashing 12:00.) We watch the clock and mark the days off the calendar. We “make time” (what ARE the ingredients in that recipe?), we “kill time”, and we worry that we’re “wasting” time. Some of us try to “save” time by driving like Jeff Gordon every time we get on the road. We believe that “time is money,” even though when we offer to give the cashier at the grocery store six minutes instead of our debit card, she just ignores us.

Instead of spending so much of your life trying to manage something you can’t, why not try instead to get a new perspective on time. Here are some quick tips for changing the way you think about the days, hours, and minutes of your life:

Stop racing against time. Are you always in a rush? Do you, for example, eat so fast you have to keep a Heimlich Maneuver chart nearby in case you choke? Many of us are always in hurry, but if we stopped to ask ourselves why, we’d have no idea. Even when we don’t have to be somewhere or have a deadline to meet, we move at supersonic speed, as if we’re the Roadrunner and we’re trapped in a cartoon life we can’t escape.

The next time you catch yourself driving over the speed limit or practically walking over people at work or the mall, stop and ask why you’re moving so fast. Simply taking a second to become more self-aware may help you put an end to unnecessary rushing. Keep in mind the words of Simon & Garfunkel: “Slow down, you move too fast.” Or for an even better reminder, remember what Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Ironically, living life at a slower pace actually makes it seem like there’s more time, rather than less.

Do one thing at a time – Do you pride yourself on your ability to squeeze as many activities into a day or week as humanly possible? Do you point to your calendar with satisfaction, showing your co-workers or friends how every day is totally filled up with “stuff?” If you have an unscheduled block of time, rather than feeling relief, do you feel guilt or fear that you’ve forgotten something really important, like taking the dog to ballet lessons or the kids to the vet for their flea shots? Or is that vice-versa? Women are especially bad about over-scheduling. After all, we reason, what separates the women from the boys is our ability to do more than one thing at a time. Sometimes, we don’t have a choice, but even when we do, we often take on too many tasks at once. How many times have you been on the phone while answering e-mail and doing ab exercises at your desk? Too many to count, right?

To stop this bad time habit, for one week spend an hour a day doing only one thing. It can be starting that novel you keep meaning to write, baking cookies, helping the kids with homework, brushing the cat’s teeth, or negotiating world peace – anything you feel you’ve recently neglected. By practicing this new behavior for a week, you’ll not only find it easier to focus on one thing at a time in the future, you’ll also notice that you still get everything done AND you get more things done right because you’ve been able to give your time and energy to them. No to mention how much more enjoyable life will be – imagine, for example, not feeling compelled to add things to the grocery list while making love to your husband!

Save some time – How many gadgets and devices have you purchased in your life because you thought they’d save you time? That Blackberry in your purse was supposed to help you save time by making you more organized. The more powerful vacuum was supposed to save you time cleaning the carpet. The combination phone/answering machine/fax/printer/scanner/coffee maker/inner thigh exerciser should have saved a lot of time, but you spend all of it and more on the phone with customer service trying to find out why it doesn’t work.

If everything saves so much time, why do we always feel like we don’t have any left? And if anyone has saved any time, where is it and can I borrow a few thousand hours without interest?

The real way to save time is not to get sucked into the idea that new technology will give you more of it. Fill in the following equation before you buy something you probably don’t really need:

Actual time saved = Possible time saved MINUS time spent researching your options MINUS time spent going from store to store or from website to website checking who has the best price MINUS time spent reading the instructions MINUS time spent rereading the instructions, this time the English version MINUS time spent hooking whatever you’ve bought up to whatever it has to be hooked up to MINUS time spent going to the store for the piece that was left out of the package MINUS calling tech support and being put on hold for thirty minutes MINUS time spent taking the device back to the store or to the post office because it didn’t save time after all.

Whenever someone tries to convince you of the time-saving qualities of a new product or piece of software, ask yourself if you’re really going to be that gullible again.

Remember, there’s no time like the present – If you spend your days looking forward to the future or wishing for the old days, you just squander away the only time that really matters – today, this moment. It’s not bad to have fond memories or plans for the future, but if you’re stuck in another time zone, you’ll never fully enjoy your life.

Many women play a game I call “When I...” It goes like this “When I get the kids off to college, then I’ll go back to school/change jobs/start my home business grooming Chihuahuas. And when I get my degree/become a millionaire/get rid of the fleas, I’ll start taking time out to have some fun and maybe take a bathroom break.” Living life in the “When” means you miss all of life in the “Now.”

Here are two simple ways to help you stay in the present: (1) Type the words “Live for today” on a piece of paper and put them somewhere you’ll see them every day. (2) Get a page-a-day calendar and put it on your desk as a constant reminder of this day, the only day you can live right now. You’ll still may need your week-at-glance or monthly calendar for scheduling, but keep those hidden away in a drawer until you need them.

Get some free time – They may not give it away at the bank (which is a shame, especially if you open a “time deposit” account), but you can get some free time. It is really simple if you have the right tools. All that is required is an eraser (or a bottle of Wite Out) and a strong dose of courage. Now take the eraser (or the Wite Out) and eliminate at least one item from your To Do list or calendar every day this week. Voila, free time!

Here comes the hard part, though. The part that takes courage. Do not, I repeat, do not, schedule something else into that block of time. If you want to love your time, you will set part of your day free. Let what will happen, happen. This is a good lesson in learning that you are not in charge of managing everything in life. Some of the best things in life happen spontaneously. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you make other plans.”

Setting time free is an amazing feeling. Think back on the last time you had a meeting scheduled and it got unexpectedly cancelled. Remember the giddy joy you felt? It was almost like when you were a kid and discovered school was cancelled because of the snow!

Give your kids a time-out – You wouldn’t stand by your children’s beds with a stopwatch and measure how long it takes them to get dressed or bathed, right? And you don’t make them punch a time clock when they get home from school, do you? Yet many children feel this is what we do, always pressuring them to speed up and do more with the time they have. If your first-grader or pre-teen feels the same type of time-pressures you feel, it’s because they’ve learned to be a slave to time from you, their parent. It’s time kids got a time-out. Not the kind where they have to sit in their room and think about what they’ve done wrong, but the kind where they get a gift of unscheduled, unhurried time every day. In a perfect world, every child should have at least a few free hours a day with no homework, no extracurricular activities, no family meetings or chores. Of course in a perfect world, we’d have time for a long bubble bath too.

Do what you can to help your kids take time out for themselves in their own busy lives – encourage them not to sign up for every sport or hobby, make sure the family schedule is reasonable (broken down by day, not every fifteen minutes, for example), and set a good example by remembering to take time out for yourself as well.

Change your attitude not the clock – Have you noticed that in every family there is always someone who runs late for everything and someone else who is frantic about getting there – wherever there is – a few minutes early, just in case? The solution many of us “organized” people have for the “procrastinators” is to set the clock ahead ten to fifteen minutes to fool them into being on time. Of course, that only works a couple of times before the jig is up and we waste time defending our stand on the whole time issue.

See if you can become less time-stressed by switching roles for a week. If you’re always the early bird, be late (not, of course, if you’re due at the maternity ward. In that case, go whenever the doctor or the baby says you should). If you’re always late, on the other hand, arrive everywhere fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. This exercise will help you see that a few extra minutes ahead or behind schedule doesn’t really have that much impact on things in the long run. Certainly not enough to waste even more time arguing with the people you love.

Have the time of your life – Imagine this: instead of spending your time trying to schedule, organize, and manage your time, you invest your energy in having the best time humanly possible.You call friends up out of the blue and ask them to lunch. You pull over at a playground on the drive home and try out the new swing set. When someone asks you if you can go out to play, you say “Yes!” not “I’m too busy.” On the other hand, when someone asks you to make time for another meeting, you say “I can’t, I’m too busy having the time of my life.”

If you spend all your time doing things that bring you little or no pleasure, that’s the true definition of wasting time. Try this instead: You know that list of things you’d love to do in your life? The list of things like: Take flying lessons, run for Congress, and become a back-up dancer for Shania Twain? (Okay, maybe that’s my list). Well, this month, why not take one dream and spend at least a few hours a week pursuing it? You may not be able to buy more time, but you certainly can enjoy the time you have more fully!

Believing you can control time gives time the power to control you. Stop looking at your watch and start looking at your life instead.

I know you have a million things to do right now, and one of them could be reading and absorbing that great Internet Marketing course you just shelled out $297.00 for. You know, the one that has the next secret you can use to make massive amounts of cash.

But that is not what you are doing right now, is it?

I can probably summarize what happened with that Internet Marketing course when it first arrived...

1) You tore it open like a kid in a candy store.

2) You broke out the first manual, dvd, cd, whatever...thinking "I am going to do so much with the information I am about to learn!"

3) You were able to read the first portion of that magnificent course (and many of them are actually loaded with those secrets they promised).

But then...

4) You allowed some sort of distraction, and thought "I will just tend to this and be back in a few minutes..."

Those are the words of death for that internet course. How many times have you actually made it back to that information that could change your business life?

Come on now, really. Not many times huh?

I totally understand. I was there myself once. You are a business owner right? Lots of important stuff to do, too many "fires to put out."

Right?

Then why did you buy that internet marketing course to begin with? By the way, that internet marketing course could be a book, magazine, or any other source of information that you promised yourself "you would get back to." Is it important to keep yourself educated and on the cutting edge in the world of business?

I already know you know the answer to that question. And, you have probably referred to the title of this post and thought "I thought this was a 'how to' post, not a lecture." The real title to this post should have been:

"How Do You Read And Absorb Information When There Are So Many Distractions Pulling Away Your Time?"

And the answer is...

Just do it. Make time to do it. It is that important. I mean, how much time does it actually take to read a small portion of that Internet Marketing Course and gain a useful idea that you can use in your business the next day, or plan to implement this idea another day?

Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes? Come on now, be realistic...

For those of you that are reading this post to the end here...and saying:

"But Joe, I don't even have ten or fifteen minutes in a day to sit down and read anything!"

Well...

You are welcome to call me when the money runs out or you are closing your doors. I will try to help. But it might be too late.

Sorry for the harsh reality there. This is just too important to use that excuse though.

Set aside a fifteen minute window for "self education", every day. Even when you have a day off. It's that important. Do not allow distractions in this window of time...

Your business depends on it.

Period.

Your time matters. Treat it well and you'll feel like you have more. Treat it badly and you'll wonder where it all went. Time is the great equalizer. No one has more hours in a day than anyone else does. What do you think of a person who cannot keep appointments, commitments or stick to a schedule? Do you trust them?

How do you think others view you if you're the one who can't respect time enough do those things?

If you see other people treat your time as unimportant by showing up for appointment and commitments late, being a "time management jerk" is probably not the most effective way to solve the problem. First, worry about you. Show people how much you value your time and theirs by keeping your commitments and appointments. When you are unable to, be open and honest about it and indicate your understanding of the value of the other person's time when you apologize for being late.

That's called integrity.

As you develop this practice, people who also value their time and yours will naturally follow your lead. Others won't. You've not found out who deserves your priority when it comes to commitments.

There is usually a link between how people value their time and how they value the opinions of others, their rights, property, contracts, and so on. Noticing who shows up on time and who doesn't can give you a lot of insight into how more "material" situations might be treated in the future.

Out of all the people in the world you can spend your time with, best to give priority to those who deserve it.

Here are some tips to help you be more punctual and show yourself and others how much you value time.

* Plan your day in advance: You don't need to schedule every moment of your day, but plan blocks of time for the major things you plan to do the next day. If you have a rough outline of your day, you will learn to see how to save time by changing the order of tasks and you'll feel more confident and in control as your day progresses.
* Confirm your intentions: When you have an appointment with someone, confirm in advance what time you will be meeting and use the opportunity to let them know you intend to be on time. It sends a clear signal about how you value time.
* Give yourself time: When you plan your day, don't pack your schedule "air tight." Give yourself some breathing room so you have the freedom to handle the little things that happen from day to day. By not booking yourself so tight you'll find it easier to keep the appointments you make.

Practice excellent time management by keeping your commitments. You will become more aware of how others value their time and yours as your skills in this essential aspect of time management grow. As your efforts accumulate, you will notice better results and less stress for your as well as for the people you find yourself spending your valuable time with.

The concept of time management has been through some evolution. The first stage was all about managing your time with lists. Writing down your task list and checking things off. It didn’t matter whether the tasks were relevant or important, just getting them done was good enough.

I love seeing items checked off my list. I have another friend that makes a daily list when she enters the office and does not leave until it’s all done. The advantage of this method is that you can give yourself a mental pat on the back. On the other hand, you can spend all day long engaging in minutia that really does not help you to get what you want.

Along came computers with Lotus Notes, Outlook, and other time management and scheduling software. Time management shifted into an era of planning and prioritization on a daily basis. Now, if you had an unending list of things to do over the course of a month, you could break it down and add each item to a daily list. On any given day you would know exactly what you were doing. You still had a list, but now at least the list had priorities wrapped around it.

We are now in the age of efficiency and multi-tasking. We can drive a car, listen to an audio book, and make important business calls all at the same time. A 45-minute commute to work is now the power hour. Lunch breaks are used for networking and business deals. We are scheduled down to the minute. If a time slot has just one activity it’s nixed as inefficient and blended with at least one other item. The advantage here is that we are efficient. We have cut out all the fat, but at what cost.

It’s time to move to the next level of time management. A level that is efficient and healthy. It all hinges around knowing what you value and putting first things first.

Have you heard the story about the teacher, the jar, and his class? It goes like this. A teacher is lecturing to a class about effective time management. To illustrate a point, he picks up a jar and fills it up with large stones. He then asks the class, “Is the jar full?” His class eagerly replies, “Of course.” He then pours gravel into the jar and shakes it up so that the gravel fills in the spaces. Then asks the question again, “Is the jar full?” The class again responds affirmatively. Some of the students are starting to sit up in their chairs. He picks up some sand and pours it into the jar. Then he shakes the jar so that the sand falls into all the itty-bitty spaces, and posits the question again. By now the class is hip to the experiment and says, “No, it’s not.” He reaches down again and begins to pour a jug of water into the jar. He then asks the class, “What did you learn from this experiment?”

One of the students courageously answered, "Even when our schedule is completely filled up, it is always possible to add another appointment or other thing to do."

"No, this is not the purpose of the experiment," said the teacher.

Then, after a moment of silence, he added, "The great truth of this experiment is that if we don’t put the big stones first into the jar, everything will not be able to go in."

In life, the big stones are things that are your foundation. For me it’s my family, my health, my spiritual practice, and my purpose. Gravel symbolizes the things that are of less importance, but are still necessary. For me it’s my job. Sand and water might symbolize the things that you like to do, but aren’t really that important. For me, surfing the internet tops the list. If you fill your life up with sand and water (internet surfing, gossiping, watching television), or even gravel (jobs, shuttling the kids around), you won’t have the space for the things that are of the most value to you.

Knowing what you value, then determining how to value it, and putting it first in your life will give you the time to do everything, while giving you a much more robust, balanced life.

The difficulty in achieving good work life balance is that there is more to do than there is time in a day to do it. The simple answer is to discover a way to insert more hours in each day. However, since no one has cracked that one yet, the next solution is to focus on making sure you do the important things with the limited time you have.

Children in our MindLab classes learn a very useful tool which can help you focus and prioritise your time. Our pupils learn to distinguish between what is trivial - things that are unimportant and give little value and what is crucial - things that are extremely important and valuable.

We teach children to apply this distinguishing tool both to the board game they have just played, and to their real life situations, in our case, to work life balance.

Firstly decide who are your “customers” in your working life and in your home life. In your home life I suggest that your customers are your partner and children. In your working life, your customers are the people who employ you, such as your boss, and the people you come into contact with who bring money into the company, such as the people who buy your companies goods.

The next important step is to decide what are the activities that would delight your customers. These are the crucial activities you should make time for.

For example in your family life crucial activities the delight your customers might include:

Sitting down and chatting over a nice meal together as a family

Asking your “customers” what they think and how they feel, and listening and responding sensitively.

Doing activities together that your “customers” enjoy and which encourage laughter, communication and warmth.

Similarly use this tool to identify what is trivial in terms of delighting your “customers” at home. Think of the many activities you spend time on in your family life that your “customers” don’t notice or care about, such as cleaning, or washing up after a meal. Clearly these are necessary activities. However, now that you have identified that they are trivial to delighting your customers, you should look for smarter and less time consuming ways to achieve them.

Here are a few ideas:

Cleaning – dust and mop less often. Splurge on a cleaner every two weeks. Ask your family to share the responsibility by tidying up after themselves. Children can be asked to make their beds and keep their rooms tidy from a very early age.

Grocery shopping – use delivery services now available from all the national stores; it saves a huge amount of time.

Driving – organise more carpools for school pick ups, after school activities and birthday parties. Look into more local activities your children can walk to themselves.

Laundry – do shirts really need to be ironed? You’d be amazed what water spritzed onto a hanging shirt can do. Enlist older family members to help with the laundry, my children love to earn pocket money by folding and putting away clothes.

Cooking – can you share the job with your partner? Develop family menus that are healthy but take minimal time to prepare. Older children can help with the cooking and learn some valuable life skills at the same time.

Dishes – in our family all the mealtime tasks are divided between the children and rotated weekly, such as emptying the dishwasher setting the table, clearing the table and filling the dishwasher. Our youngest took his place on the chore rota when he was four.

The next step is to look at your working life using the same tool.

1. Create a list of your “customers” in your working life.

2. Create a list of the activities that delight your customers – that is your crucial list which you should focus and spend time on.

3. Create a list of all the activities you currently spend time on that aren’t on your crucial list. This is your trivial list.

4. Put some creative energy, even brainstorm ideas with a colleague, to come up with a variety of ways for you to reduce the time you spend on trivial activities, delegate them, or if possible, ignore them entirely.

Once you have put into practice your ideas of how to spend time on your crucial lists and reduce the time you spend on your trivial lists, you should find that you have more time available to you. This “gift” of more time should give you more control and balance in your life.

You should also find that you are spending time on the right activities and experiencing a more satisfying family life and a more successful working life.

Enjoy!

Just thirty-five short years ago, it used to be that you could decide to read all the great literature that ever was in about a year. I know this is true because many of the teachers that I had told me that--this was the late sixties, early seventies, everyone who was a part of the "enlightened" group wanted to be an intellectual and know all there was that could possibly be known......

Today, it would be ridiculous to read all the great literature, know all there was to know about one's "pet" passion because the information NEVER ENDS. Because of the Internet, we have so much information that one can never "rest" or "coast" because even if you read and researched everyday, you would never get to the end of information.

Technology has truly created a "fuel injected" knowledge base. All of this information has created great possibilities, but also endless problems--the technology that was supposed to be a time saver, has now become like the high maintenance pet--sometimes technology seems to be in charge of us and we are spending endless hours in the "care and feeding" of our little information "Gods".

Everyday I am reminded of this, when I turn on my computer and peruse my email. In my less sane moments, I sign up to receive automatic emails on the subjects that I am passionate about only to find out that they take on a life of their own--either nagging me endlessly to read or take action on "something" or to mock me into guilt by my non-action. How is it that inanimate emails can become my antagonist???

When did quit becoming the master of our "things" and become a "slave and caretaker" to our things. Who is taking care of whom?

Applying time management technique to work from home business is so vital it's often understated. Many people go "belly up" trying to run a business from home, whether it be MLM, web publishing or internet marketing simply because they don't implement a plan of action.

Time management technique isn't just using your time wisely; it's a combination of practices all working to achieve the best possible outcome for you. It's so easy to get way laid when you are working on your own from a home environment. Applying some well worn tactics can both increase your productivity levels and boost your bottom line.

Let's have a look at some time management techniques that have served me well during the past 12 months.

Time Management Technique

1. You need to implement a plan of action. Before I started to turn my business around I would wake up in the morning and try to decide exactly what it was I was going to work on that day. Not good! By the time I'd decided, half the day was gone and then "Mr. Procrastination" would start to play with my mind by suggesting things like... "It's too late to work on this today. You are better off starting fresh tomorrow." Does this sound familiar?

2. Plan your action at least a week in advance. It makes sense. By delegating specific tasks to specific days it eliminates the wasteful time you'll spend trying to figure out what you are going to work on any given day. This will get you into a routine and eventually, your work week will begin to automatically take shape. In fact, you should get to a stage when you'll know what you'll be doing in two weeks time. It's called planning your action.

3. Dedicate a particular part of your home to your work area. This may be a spare room or an area well away from normal human traffic. This is your work space and more importantly, it's an area you can spend quiet time in to come up with new ideas.

4. Dedicate an amount of time you'll spend on the business each day. This is one area which really catapulted me out of the "doldrums" and into the area of professional. Why? Because I disciplined myself to spend 6 hours a day on the business between 8am-2pm. Nothing short of a tidal wave ( I live on the beach!) was going to distract me from my work...nothing!

Okay, so maybe something other than a tidal wave could have distracted me but it was this kind of discipline which helped me progress from the ranks of amateur. Once 2pm came along, I was free to spend some time on other activities.

This time management technique works for me. It could work for you too however, you could modify it any way you like. But remember, start with a plan of action and know days in advance what you will be working on in your business.

Recently someone wrote and said, "I am really bad at planning for future events such as vacations, and I blame myself for not "getting better" about managing my time. How can I improve my time management?"

My answer? The first thing to consider is the extent to which others have this problem too. Why? Because shame won't make you a better time manager. And because we all, to some degree, have trouble managing time.

What makes us have this trouble? A small part of human nature. The idea that all psychological injuries distort our ability to sense time. All psychological injuries. Moreover, since we all have psychological injuries, we all have glitches in our ability to sense time.

So what can we do to get better at managing time? Begin with the idea that whenever we lose track of time, we also experience a parallel symptom; our mind goes blank. This, in fact, is the true culprit here; our blank mind. In fact, no blank mind, no loss of time. Thus, this is where we need to focus if we hope to improve.

Where do we begin? By realizing that there are two psychological ways to sense time; the way we sense time before age seven, and the way we sense time after age seven.

Please remember we are not talking here about the physicist's sense of time. Rather, we are simply referring to the two ways in which human beings can psychologically sense time; the before age-seven sense of time, and the after age-seven sense of time. How are they different?

Before age seven, we sense time only as separate, disconnected moments. After age seven, we sense time as a sequence of before and after moments.

This means that before age seven, we cannot grasp what "waiting for something" means. Other than we are not getting what we want and that this not getting feels painful.

This is why before age seven kids kids throw tantrums when you tell them they have to wait. To them, this means they will never get what they asked for, because the here and now is all their is and ever will be.

After age seven, we begin to understand that time happens "over time." In other words, we realize that things do not always occur in the same moment as we ask. Which gives us the basis for learning patience and that we can look forward to things.

In this way then, with after age -seven time, we not only can diffuse the pain of waiting, we can also see it as a good thing by having things to look forward to.

Then there is the idea that how we learn from teachers changes at about age -seven. How?

Before age seven, if we do not immediately grasp something a teacher is saying, we dismiss either the teacher, the idea, or ourselves as learners. After age seven though, this experience changes radically, as we can at least intellectually grasp that the struggles involved in learning may pay off in the end; moreover, that what may appear worthless at first may indeed hold great value once we learn to see it.

In addition, there is the idea that before age -seven, we cannot learn from our mistakes. At least not temporally. Why not?

Because in order to temporally learn from our mistakes, we must be able to consciously witness time unfold as a sequence, in other words, that the present moment has followed the one immediately before it and so on. B

efore age seven, we can not connect moments in time to each other. Thus we cannot see how what we do affects outcomes.

So how, before age -seven, can we appear to learn from our mistakes at times?

Because while we cannot see time as a sequence of events, we can associate external experiences to internal experiences.

What I am saying is, even in the first few hours in which we are alive, we can, and do, begin to associate life events with qualitative evaluations. Some things feel good. Some feel bad. And this is how we "learn."

Thus, before age -seven, we learn from "good" experiences by associating good feelings with certain events. Likewise, we learn from "bad" experiences by associating bad feelings with certain events. Because we lack the sense of time over time, we still cannot predict when these things will occur. But when they do, we feel the same good or bad feelings. And often take the same momentum based actions.

These momentum based responses are what we call, "associative" learning. It is how we learn about ourselves and about life before age seven. By associating feelings with events.

This differs markedly from "logical" learning, wherein we use a sense of causality to infer future outcomes. This is what the cliche, "learn from the past or be doomed to repeat it" refers to. It refers to how we can, after age-seven, use logic and time to improve our odds of having a happy life.

What is especially important to note here,though is that I did not say "will" give us a happy life. Why not? Because while consecutive moments in time may often seem connected causally, at times, they are not. If they were, we could predict and prevent all bad events, from bad weather and storms to car accidents and illnesses.

My point is, before age -seven, we cannot even hypothesize causality, because we cannot experience time sequentially. Each moment feels separate and unrelated.

The question now becomes, so is before age -seven time "bad?" Not at all. Especially when you realize there is something special about both ways of sensing time. Each functions better in some particular part of life.

For example, before age-seven time is best for people who do a lot of creative work. Why? Trying to be creative in after age-seven time is like trying to make love while you are mentally reorganizing your closets. Not too much fun for either you or your partner.

On the other hand, after seven time is best when you are planning things; work schedules, vacations, saving for college, etc.

Trying to do any of this in before age-seven time is like trying to drive a car with a stiff neck; you can not see where you are going. At least, not very easily. Why not? Because you can not look back. This means you will be unable to learn from the past and in effect, be doomed to repeat your mistakes. The result? Everything from vacation conflicts to career dead ends.

OK. So being able to choose between the two types of time consciousness, between before age-seven time and after age-seven time, is very important. So what keeps people older than seven from using this knowledge then? The answer? I have already mentioned it. Injuries. Why? Because we all have injuries. And because all injuries involve distortions to our sense of time.

To see how, allow me to briefly dip into Emergence Personality Theory's basics of injury, starting with that we even divide all psychological injuries into two broad categories. No surprise both are based on what happens to the person's sense of time.

What are the two kinds of psychological injury? One type we call, "blank screens," and the other, we call, "stuck clocks."

How do these two things affect our sense of time?

With "blank screens," the screen of your mind goes blank during the wounding event. Thus, the trauma seems to last forever.

With "stuck clocks" though, time freezes during the wounding event, similar to how a scratched phonograph record can freeze in one spot on the record. Thus, with stuck clocks, we forget time even exists but repeatedly experience the same single painful frame of experience.

In effect, this means we can divide injuries into those in which time stops while life continues, and those in which our vision stops while time continues. Either way, getting injured distorts our sense of time.

All this said, let me now try to briefly address your question.

So what can you do to begin to improve your sense of time? From a damage control, will powered sense of time, you could learn to be more aware of when you are unable to sense after age-seven time.

And from an Emergence Personality Theory based, "heal the injury" sense of time, you could begin to develop a list of the situations wherein you cannot picture things unfolding over time. You could then use this list to focus your healing efforts.

In the end, the goal would be to become able to choose between these two ways we can sense time. For instance, planning a vacation? After age-seven time. On vacation? Before age-seven time. Choosing a career path? After age-seven time. Creatively designing a job within your career path? Before age-seven time.

Seeing time this way means you see nether way as "bad." More, they each become simply the right, or wrong, tool for each thing you do. Before age-seven time for being creative. After age-seven time for planning for the future.

Encourage flexible schedules. Perhaps your employees want to work longer days Monday through Thursday, with Friday off. If they need to pull an all-nighter once in a while, they’ll be okay with that as long as they know they’re free to take a “mental health day” afterward. Provide flexibility in their schedules when possible. Employees must get their work done, but they’re adults. Self-motivated people don’t need to put in face time, and their leaders don’t need to install a metaphorical time clock in the break room.

Don’t let people become workaholics. When you see individuals working too many nights and weekends, encourage them to take a break. Identify coworkers who might be able to share the load. They’ll appreciate your concern, as well as the fact that you noticed their extraordinary efforts. Yes, asking an employee not to work so hard is counterintuitive. But you’re not being totally altruistic. Overworked people make mistakes and display poor judgment. Eventually, they burn out. Clearly, that is not good for your company.

Set a good example. As a leader, you set the tone for everyone else. When employees see you staying in the office until 8 p.m. every night and working through lunch, they feel a not-so-subtle pressure to do it, too. But more important than that, you’re burning yourself out when you do that. You can’t be a vibrant entrepreneurial leader if you’re running on empty. Everyone will suffer for it.

Get creative with benefits. Unusual perks that help employees balance their own lives are relatively inexpensive and are worth their weight in gold. If you can’t establish an onsite daycare center, maybe you can help several employees with small children to pool their resources and hire an in-home nanny. If there’s enough employee interest in fitness, you could buy a corporate gym membership or get an aerobics instructor to come to your workplace several days a week. Some companies offer shopping services, adoption reimbursement, and even pet care and pet insurance for employees. The point is to get involved in their personal lives in helpful, loyalty-cementing ways.

Bring joy into the workplace. It blurs the boundaries between “professional” and“personal.” Many employees view “work” as a place of drudgery and duty and “life” as the arena for fun, friendship, and family. Lighten up the workplace and people will quit seeing work as a sentence that must be endured until the fun kicks in. “Schedule an occasional lunch at a nearby restaurant,” suggests Sujansky. “When the files and office space need to be cleaned and organized, hold a purge party, complete with pizza and drinks. Hold a ‘Bring Your Kids to Work Morning’ that segues into a day at the zoo. Laugh loudly and often. You’ll find that as morale skyrockets, so does productivity.”

This article may be reprinted for your use in an organizational newsletter and or e-zine provided that you contact Kelly Hanna, Director of Sales and Marketing at 724-942-7900 to gain permission.

How many times have you looked at your schedule and wondered how you were going to fit everything in? How many times have you made the comment “this should have been scheduled here”? Do you have days where you’re empty at noon but the schedule dictates that you keep going until 5:00 pm? Do you dream of days that consistently flow smoothly AND you have accomplished everything intended – on time? Creating a scheduling template can solve these problems and change your life.

A scheduling template is a blueprint of your ideal day prepared in advance. It coincides with a prepared appointment guideline based upon individual desires and appointment history. The concept is similar to “painting by number”. Every possible or desired appointment is reserved in advance for up to one year at a time. Appointments are scheduled by referencing the guideline then locating the next available appointment of that kind.

Regain control of your time. The greatest benefit realized is the return of control over how your day is scheduled. Everybody seems to want everything yesterday or last week. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to respond that quickly, yet we are often forced to try. This is especially true if others are scheduling your appointments without a clear and specific set of instructions. A natural byproduct of the scheduling template is the development of a very clear set of scheduling instructions.

The formation of a plan for scheduling is a huge benefit. As stated, this is a natural byproduct of the template. Once created, it is easily learned and followed allowing anybody to schedule an appointment simply by referencing the guideline. People can be taught quickly, it is easily understood so they can begin scheduling immediately.

Incorporating personal desires with professional desires is often challenging. In fact, it is common for personal desires to be overlooked or skipped due to lack of time. A scheduling blueprint is a reflection of personal and professional desires. When creating the template, both are coordinated so that the ideal day includes time allocated to accomplish both.

Eliminate stress and fatigue. The scheduling guideline identifies all possible appointments including a list of all activities that can be completed within each one. Reviewing each appointment to ensure the time allocated is adequate for the activity aids in removing problems experienced routinely in the past. The ideal day is constructed using the guideline to reserve each predetermined appointment eliminating conflicts through the day. Since they conflicts are resolved in advance, stress and anxiety are reduced or eliminated.

Once the initial template and guideline are created they are easily updated. This is important since technology is improving at an astounding rate giving the ability to complete more in less time. Modifications to the template are easily incorporated and can be applied immediately or to subsequent years.

Generally, creating the ideal day carries forward to the ideal week, month, and year. Since the template is arranged to plan up to one year (can be longer if desired) it practically eliminates haphazardly scheduled days. The advance planning and development of a scheduling template has simplified the process of scheduling and resulted in more productive days.

Time is our most important gift. And I think we need to use it as wisely as we can.

I also do not think that we need to be busy every waking minute. We need rest, relaxation, periods of doing nothing every day. Call them meditation times, times with the family, reading or engaging in a hobby, or whatever gives one rest, a refreshing of body and mind.

You may be so busy that you don't have time for such things. Or so you think. Then you need to take time, for they are rewarding. And one way to gain that time is by ridding yourself of time stealers. We all have them, but when caught up in being busy we overlook them.

Time stealers are moments and activity that usually have no reward. Some we can get rid of, and some maybe not.

For example:

Your computer hangs up, and there you sit frustrated until you un-hang it. That is wasted time. Maybe you need a newer computer, or newer software that works all the time. No hard copy explicit manuals come with software or hardware anymore. Go to their web site and tell that company about it, and that you do not like the performance. Whatever the problem, it is a time stealer.

You have caught a bad cold, and now you sit in a doctors office waiting for the doctor to see you. Ask yourself, did you arrive too early ? Was your appointment at the busy time of day, or busy day of the week ? One doctor I have seen has a sign in the waiting room that says that if you have waited thirty minutes see the receptionist, and maybe that needs to be done, see the receptionist. At least it will tell the staff, including the doctor that they are expected to be on time, barring some emergency they may have.

Department stores are terrible about waiting in line at the cash register to check out, and you see empty cash registers. Aggravating at the very least. Don't get on the cashiers, but you can tell them to tell the manager that he or she needs to take better care of their customers. And you can look for one that has fewer or no customers and move to it.

Stores that should have an item you are looking for, but you cannot find it. The store may have moved it to another location, and you waste time looking for it. Don't waste that time. Get a clerk to show you where it is. Some larger stores have a greeter, so when you go in the door have that greeter tell yo where the item is located, or find it for you.

Learn the busy times at your favorite gas station and then get gas at other times. Not only are you wasting time waiting, you are also burning gas, wasting it.

Television is a great wasteland, a time stealer. It is easy to sit there and do nothing, and it can be habit forming. Check schedules and only turn on the television when it has something worthwhile to watch, and even learn from. Read an informative book instead.

I do not like TV Dinners, but food can be prepared ahead of time at home. Pick certain days to prepare such foods, then on other days preparing a meal takes a short time. Time gained.

Have a squeaky door ? List such nuisances and fix such items on certain days. Don't let them barge into each day.

Social appointments can easily become too many, and then many of them are actually a waste of time. Review them, and get rid of those that are redundant or that are mostly useless.

Membership in community clubs can also become a burden of too many, and too many meetings. And drop those that are luncheon meetings. Lunch should be your time, and it should be a time to allow you to savor the food, and allow it to begin digesting without any tension. Remember that even humor can be tensing. On a review you may want to drop a club or two.

One other item. Put a value on your time. Realistically this cannot be done since time cannot be bought. Lawyers do it, so why not you ? Put a value of say $500 an hour on your time just as a lawyer might have on his, then review the time stealers in your life. Soon you will see those things, those actions, that do not measure up to your time value.

You will get more done over the week, or day, when you rid yourself of time stealers.

At the very least, take time each day for your family, and to relax, even meditate.

Finding time is like finding treasure, right? The next question is how to spend it!

If time is money, then to-do lists are the smart budgets that ensure you pay your bills and still have cash left over for that special something. They’re powerful and they’ll work for you. If you hate them, lose them or never even start them, learn how to use them to your advantage.

It’s easy, once you’ve decided you want to use your time well and will do whatever’s necessary. Here are 3 common To-Do Lists Myths and 3 Tips to dispel those myths with Effective To-do Lists.

To-Do List Myth #1: “To-do lists don’t work.”

Reality: Effective To-do Lists are extremely successful if you construct them well and follow them! Make sure you construct to-do lists as realistic plans that align with your values. Then they’re like mini-navigation systems, guiding you through your day and keeping you on track.

To-Do List Myth #2: “To-do lists will just make me feel rotten (or guilty or overwhelmed) at the end of the day.”

Reality: Effective To-do Lists will make you feel powerful and accomplished at the end of the day! The secret? Make them short. Only put on what you can realistically do and are motivated to do. If a project can’t get done today, don’t put it on today’s list. Or only enter the small portion you can accomplish. Anything else goes onto your weekly or monthly list, in doable chunks!

To-Do List Myth #3: “To-do lists will just remind me of what I hate in my life or what I’ll never be able to get around to doing anyway.”

Reality: If making Effective To-do Lists helps you face what you dislike and identify what you want and never find time for, that’s a benefit. Examine what you have identified as necessary. If it’s truly necessary, then clarify why you value it. Don’t waste your time resenting it. If it’s not necessary, omit it. If you feel a pang over a valued activity you never get around to, commit to reworking your time choices!

For reinforcement, print this out and post it prominently. Make Effective To-do Lists. Learn to plan and accomplish tasks in manageable increments.

You’ll love how Effective To-do Lists help you find time!

When you have ADD, you may not want to give up control of your world. It's hard. You know how well you can do things, and sometimes worry that no one else can do things the way that you can do them. Plus, ADD people have trouble communicating their needs and wants to other people so that when they do try to delegate, nothing comes out the way they want it to. So, the circle comes full around and we don't want to delegate again.

But there are some things you can delegate. And we aren't talking about paying an assistant or spending a lot of money to outsource to other people. You can start really small.

A big time waster is email. You may be inundated with over 1,000 emails a day, with stuff that maybe 1/3 of that is junk, and that's fine. But stuck among the junk is stuff that needs to get forwarded or done, and you probably have no clue how to separate that out. If only 20 of your emails are important to look at, and the rest are emails you may want, but don't really need. What can you do about that?

Okay. Now before I give you the ADD-friendly solution, the concept behind the solution is more important, which is that you have identified a problem, right? This email problem may be something you don't like dealing with, especially if you have ADD. That's number one. It's definitely something you want to delegate.

Actually, there are many ways you can delegate email handling. I mean technically, if you can afford it, you could hire someone to come in and check your email, and just send you the ones that are worth you looking at, right? That's a perfect ADD solution.

But if you're only getting 1,000 emails a day, it's probably not a good reason to hire someone. And what if you don't have the income to support it? Even if you're getting more like 5,000 junk emails a day, and you can't afford to hire someone, you have to think of something else, right? You have to come up with an ADD-friendly system.

If you only have 20 or 30 that are actually useful, then here's what you do: You go to SpamArrest.com and you sign up for an account.

Now, SpamArrest costs money, but it's not terribly expensive – it's actually a lot cheaper than you'd think. But it does cost something. What does SpamArrest allow you to do? Well SpamArrest allows you to pre-filter out all your emails so whenever someone sends you an email, the only way it gets to your A is if they click on a link saying "Hey, I'm really a human being," you know, instead of some automatic mail sender. And you can also go in there and tell it who you want to accept email from---automatically, like if you subscribe to some newsletters and things like that.

The point is that you're still hiring someone to take care of the problem for you. And will it be a perfect solution? The answer is no. It won't be. Just like when you hire a normal person. Will it be the perfect solution? No, but it will be a starting solution. You need time to train your assistant, especially when you have ADD, and you'll need time to train the software.