Time Management

Time Management Techniques

2010-04-27T05:46:00.001-07:00

Time Management is one of the important and most powerful tool that a successful man always carries. Effective time management involves patience and practical thinking. It's really difficult to manage time. But once you know the secret it will be much easier. When you decide and get right down to it, it becomes much easier. Time management is really about managing your actions. We all want to maintain the process of time management to allow us to perform more actions in the day, getting everything done that needs to be done and giving us time to do the things we enjoy doing. But time management may be called a magical remedy for getting the actions done that you need to do.

Time Management is one of the important and most powerful tool that a successful man always carries. Effective time management involves patience and practical thinking. It's really difficult to manage time. But once you know the secret it will be much easier. When you decide and get right down to it, it becomes much easier. Time management is really about managing your actions. We all want to maintain the process of time management to allow us to perform more actions in the day, getting everything done that needs to be done and giving us time to do the things we enjoy doing. But time management may be called a magical remedy for getting the actions done that you need to do.

Truly speaking time management is not a new concept. From the ancient times, it has been carried on. Time cannot be managed automatically but one needs to manage time. So really time management is self-management, so start by identifying your time wasters.

We all know that there are many things that distracts our attention and wastes our time. For e.g., a telephone interrupts our work, visitors divert our attention, stress, fatigue, procrastination, poor planning, unclear objectives, and disorganization all are time wasters.

The best way to manage time is to carve more hours out of a day and take control of the schedules, organize it better and you will find time is automatically managed. It is seen that if you organize your schedule your task doubles. In achieving a desired goal, a positive outlook is required. You must be excited with the challenges and tasks that you have to do to give you the right start or motivation.

One of the chief reasons why we manage our time is because we have a goal or destination in our life which must be achieved in a specific time. Without results or goals, there would be no need to manage or even care about time. In this fast competitive world one needs to value time orelse he will loose the competition. Though it was quite possible quite a few days back that we could live each day moment to moment, not worrying about the passage of time. Unfortunately, today's world demands that we make the most of each minute.

Management is one of the most sort skills in today's world. Time management skills are your abilities to recognize and solve personal time management problems. The goal of these time management lessons is to show you what you can do to improve those skills.

Always remember that with proper time management skills you are in control of your schedule and your life, and reduce your stress and energy levels. You make progress at work. You are able to maintain balance between your work, personal, and family lives. You have enough flexibility to respond to surprises or new opportunities.

It should be kept in mind that time Management skills are essential for any successful people - these are the practical techniques which have helped the leading people in business, sport and public service reach the pinnacles of their careers. The skills we explain help you become highly effective by showing you how to identify and focus on the activities that give you the greatest returns. Investing in these time management activities will actually save you time, helping you work smarter, not harder.

Content Developer.

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Can You Fully Grasp The 3 Ranges of Time Management?

2010-04-27T05:45:00.002-07:00

As you carefully read this article you will find that it goes to the very heart of mature Time Management.

It covers things that absolutely anyone can do and takes no time at all to learn because you can already do it easily.

Can you think of anyone around you that needs this?

But before I reveal to you the most overlooked and most vital recommendation for time management, consider this..

There are three categories for Time Management.

Below are three excellent and highly recommended techniques for time management that I use all the time.

And if you pay close attention you will understand why techniques for ALL three 'ranges' of time are vital for an optimized approach to time management.

TECHNIQUE 1: Short-range Time Management: Daily 10-Minute On-track Review

The 10-Minute On-track Time Management Review is one of my favorite daily techniques.

In just 10 minutes we can jot down most of the things floating around in our mind and take a strong grip on them by seeing them written down.

At times we get off track, whether practically, or with our efficiency, or emotionally. When that happens I usually realize I have not done a 10 minute 'how is it going' self-review, so I do it then and things seem so much clearer and in my grasp.

Whenever you feel overwhelmed, try it, just jot down those buzzing thoughts, and you'll immediately feel in far more control.

And if you already know this; if this already seems terribly simple to you..

..then I beg you this question:

How consistent are you at doing it as part of your regular Time Management operations? If you do it regularly, then that's awesome.

But I wonder if you have got the 2nd Time Management technique in place too?

TECHNIQUE 2: For Long-range Time Management: Weekend Review

Take an hour or so every single weekend to review the past week and plan for the coming week.

I confess, I myself find this difficult to stick to, yet it's so so so important for total Time Management.

Don't let your brain trick you into missing this. It can be extremely hard work to think of all the messy details of how things are going and attempting to put it all in order. But don't let your brain get away with chickening out.

"Brain, for the next hour, it's you and me bucko!"

The Weekend Review is much like the 10-Minute Review, but the Weekend Review should include 'everything' in your life.

If you've never done this before, then it'll be a bumpy roller coaster the first time you do it.

Have you got the guts? Have you got the foresight that it is well worth doing?

Dedicate an entire afternoon (maybe it will take a day), perhaps with a friend, to individually do a 'mind-dump' of everything important and significant in your life.

This will help your time management drastically because it will push your mind to be aware of projects, responsibilities, and desires that you could, should, are, or want to ultimately be doing.

And you can't apply yourself to the very best possible time management if you are not staying optimally mindful of things, right?

Write down all the big important things in your life, present, and desired, and at the weekend check how things are going in relation to your Time Management 'Master List' that you update and review at the weekends.

So now we need to fill the gap between the short term 10 minute time management and the long-term big life vision time management.

TECHNIQUE 3: For Medium-range Time Management: Current Project List

Key Principle: Time Management works via taking future envisioned results, identifying their steps of achievement, scheduling them, and then acting on what is scheduled.

So technique 3 is this:

Maintain an active list of all your current projects.

This should be a list of every single active project or responsibility you have got going in your life.

It will include repeated responsibilities you have got such as the weekly shopping spree, because writing those things down will push you to fit them efficiently into your time management schedule.

You can't have optimum time management unless you include everything you need to have time management for, right?

To conclude: There are 3 ranges of our life thus we require 3 core techniques of time management.

Always remember those three requirements.

Oh, and I promised to reveal the most overlooked yet greatest time management secret.

It's implied in the above 3 techniques and it is this:

Write things down, don't just let things revolve around your head.

"Don't just think it, Ink it!"

This is the number one priority I want my clients to learn from me for their Time Management success.

Do you know the following fact established by Brian Tracy?

Writing down the things we want to do, have, and become, moves us to the top 3% of the population in terms of life success.

So fancy being among the elite of men and women?

Take pen to paper regularly and get things committed to clear precise orderliness on paper (or computer).

That really is the overlooked secret to all of Time Management.

Currently touring Thailand whilst writing and coaching, Nathan Shaw has a 15 page Time Management Missing Principles Handbook available free.

http://www.success-matrix.com/missingprinciples

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When Is Time Management Not Enough?

2010-04-27T05:45:00.001-07:00

A working manager needs more than time management.

That old saying, "Dance with the one that brought you to the ball," came to mind as I received a reality jolt recently.

Let me share with you that jolting insight. I was in transition away from managing several groups of technicians and professionals to more personal hands-on production management. My self-image and reputation lead me to assume that simply putting in the same hours in my usual efficient manner would do the trick. So, I continued tracking my time.

Wrong assumption!

It was necessary to get back to basics or, to use the wisdom of that old saying, to dance with the one who got me from there to here. Namely, tracking specific actions that produce results instead of tracking time spent on specific and general activity.

What I was suspecting was painfully true. Effective results were falling short of my own standards and objectives.

I replaced my time managing controls with production controls. My daily discipline, attitudes and focus changed immediately and so did the output. I was no longer deceiving myself by playing that look-how-hard-I'm-trying game

It's a humbling experience when the manager needs the same supervision as salespeople, technicians and other such producers. It's embarrassing when a manager applies to oneself the same stringent supervisory methods he or she once used on salespersons and other responsible persons working in critical profit centers.

While this piece is directed to the owner/manager who plays a hands-on role in a small business, it serves as a reminder to all managers who could be due for a comparative review of daily actions, time use and actual output.

Now, let me share with you the simple control device that did the turn-around for me.

It was set up as a spreadsheet. In the first column I listed the items to be produced, in the second column were the objectives (e.g: 10 / week, 0.2/day, 12 in can, etc.) and to the right columns headed with dates of the workdays for the month into which you tally your production. In the far right columns are totals and evaluation against your objectives.

The vertical tally gives you a quick view of your daily output.

You can construct this on your personal workstation, laptop or palm device. I opted for a printout for recording my single stroke [|||] tally because I was working at my desktop computer. Results can be entered on my spreadsheet or into my database later if I want more extensive analyses or records.

This is especially valuable for the manager assuming the responsibility of selling to key accounts and may have excused himself or herself from the scrutiny of a sales manager.

It's a good idea to occasionally review all of your functions for any possible lapses into some gold-bricking activities. It pays to ask yourself, "Who's managing the manager?" Should you find a weakness, you have my empathy as it can be a humbling and/or embarrassing experience. Take heart - it's rewarded with valuable improvements in your own productivity along with improved self-esteem.

Gerry McRae has taught time management techniques in his university courses and at several police colleges. He is also the author of "Time Management for Entrepreneurs - What to do, When & Why" available at http://www.unclemaxsays.com/timemanagement.php

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Time Management Tips for Managers

2010-04-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

Late last year I was presenting a workshop for the senior managers of a major organisation. Whilst doing a pre-workshop survey to assess the challenges these managers were experiencing it became very apparent to me that many of them were showing the signs of business burn-out. And it was no wonder why. They were suffering from 'Priority Problems'. Quite simply they were making the mistake of doing the urgent rather than the important tasks.

They were working extremely long hours, with no time for themselves or the people in their lives. Their offices and departments were cluttered as was their communication as a consequence. This meant that they had difficulty communicating effectively with team members and, worse still with their families. Naturally this had a huge impact on the morale and productivity of their teams and the bottom line. What it did on the home front was even worse!

And yet overcoming Priority Problems is pretty easy. All you have to do is look at what successful managers do and model their behaviour. You'll also find that they are very effective with their time management skills.

Five Secrets of Highly Successful Managers:

Highly successful managers are great role models

They practice what they preach.

Highly successful managers invest time and money in their team and themselves

They develop their people and themselves through education and coaching.

Highly successful managers are organised

They learn effective time management skills so they can manage their time and have systems in place which enables them and their team to work on the important issues.

Highly successful managers are fit and healthy

They understand that a healthy mind and body improves their productivity and general well-being.

Highly successful managers have a life

They apply their time management skills so they can enjoy ensure their personal life is a priority. They know by having a balance makes them a happier and more successful manager.

The result of putting these secrets into action is pretty simple. Highly successful mangers get their priorities about people, work and home right! They hone their time management skills and apply them to all areas of their life.

About The Author

Lorraine Pirihi is Australia's Personal Productivity Specialist and Leading Life Coach. Her business The Office Organiser specialises in showing small business owners and managers, how to get organised at work so they can have a life! Lorraine is also a dynamic speaker and has produced many products including "How to Survive and Thrive at Work!" To subscribe to her free ezine visit www.office-organiser.com.au

This article may be reproduced providing it is published in it's entirety, including the author's bio and all links. For further information please contact Lorraine Pirihi; lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

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Management Schools Teach Critical Skills

2008-08-23T03:35:00.003-07:00

If you are looking at management schools, you will be pleased to find a broad assortment of certificate and degree programs geared toward numerous areas of management. There are several preferences from which to select. Management programs can include courses in human resources, applied management, office management, project management, database management, information systems management, and many others.

A bachelor's degree from a management school (also known as business school) will prove to any potential employer that you possess critical skills and knowledge essential to business. Your management studies will be focused on business administration practices, organization and communications, analysis, and other management-specific courses.

There are many fields of management that can be applied to today's professional businesses. The aspiring manager should be careful to review all management school courses to be sure they teach the particular skills needed for the students' field of interest. Today's world of business can be very diverse, and there are hundreds of types of management occupations. To name a few: administration managers, advertising managers, public relations managers, computer and information systems managers, database administrators, civil and mechanical engineering managers, restaurant managers, human resources managers, network managers—the list goes on and on.

Those who seek high level degrees such as MBA or Master's Degrees in management can anticipate comprehensive coursework, in addition to a standard education curriculum. Upper level management training allows the student to specialize in one or more areas of management, and become an expert in the field.

The career-driven person who has graduated from a management school will be primed for gainful employment right from the start. Additional on-the-job training and experience will soon allow for lucrative earnings and a lifetime of employment stability.

Michael Bustamante is a staff writer for Media Positive Communications, Inc. Find Management Education and find Colleges, Universities, Vocational Schools, and Online Management Schools at www,SchoolsGalore.com, your resource for higher education. If you are interested in learning more about Management Schools, colleges, and universities, (and even online management schools) we urge you to visit SchoolsGalore.com, where you can contact schools directly and get started on a new career today!

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved by Media Positive Communications, Inc.

Notice: Publishers are free to use this article on an ezine or website, provided the article is reprinted in its entirety, including copyright and disclaimer, and ALL links remain intact and active.

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Project Management Online

2008-08-23T03:35:00.001-07:00

Online Project Management Schools provide the perfect option for many. Online courses make it possible for students to log in and learn at their own convenience. Students of Online Project Management studies are often able to interact with faculty and classmates through online means.

Project Management degrees are for those who want the responsibility of directing projects, who want to make sure a project follows the projected schedules, and who enjoy solving problems. Project Management requires dependability, dedication, and a high level of responsibility, as well as the ability to work with varied groups of people to establish efficient and effective delivery of an assignment.

Programs of study in Project Management facilitate the application of skills critical to Project Management in public and private organizations. Courses in Online Project Management programs will develop knowledge and skills important to managing various types of projects.

Project Management is needed in a variety of environments where the specialization of Project Management may be needed, such as in human resources, information technology, and various fields of engineering. Students specializing in Project Management often have an undergraduate degree in business or a related field. Courses in time management, risk assessment, and project development are often required for a degree in Project Management.

Find a school that offers Online Project Management courses right here at www.schoolsgalore.com.

Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved
Michael Bustamante, in association with Media Positive Communications, Inc. for SchoolsGalore.com

M. Bustamante is a staff writer for Media Positive Communications, Inc. in association with SchoolsGalore.com. Find Project Management Online at SchoolsGalore.com; meeting your needs as your educational resource to locate schools

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Strategic Planning Must Connect Human Capital ROI to Time Management to Maximize Business Results

2008-03-13T02:18:00.000-07:00

Strategic planning is all about developing strategies from which your human capital can take the necessary tactics or actions to achieve the desired results such as to increase sales and profits. From these strategies, organizations can increase their human capital ROI while making their shareholders "happy campers."

However, the continuing obstacle to improving the performance of a company's human capital is the constant of time. A recent survey by the Wall St. Journal indicated that time was a 3 to 1 greatest need for today's busy individuals. With information doubling every year and those today experiencing more change in one year than their grandparents experienced during their entire lifetimes, validates the need for effective time management.

When we look at time through the eyes of the strategic plan and human capital, we can discover the following:

* Employees work 260 days.
* Employees have at least 30 minutes per work day for breaks or lunch.
* Employees usually have at least 2 weeks vacation.
* Employees usually have at least 4 paid holidays.
* Employees usually have at least 5 paid sick days.
* Employees waste at least 1 hour per day.
* Many employees receive professional development time.
* Majority of employees (over 70%) are not totally engaged on the job.

When analyzing the above facts, most employees are actually being paid for 100% of their time while only delivering a 27% output. Therefore, employers must leverage every single second to reap a positive return on their human capital investment to increase the bottom line.

Since time is a constant, time management is really a symptom about ineffective self-management and should be about individual leadership development. When time management is approached from a development perspective and is part of the overall human capital critical goal category within the strategic plan, then human capital ROI is quickly achieved because you begin to address the real problems and realize greater profits.

Are you facing repetitive challenges? Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S., an Indianapolis business coach and Chicago business coach, helps business people just like you to turn these challenges into measurable outcomes using results driven leadership skills for sustainable transformational change.

Essentials in Time Management

2008-03-13T02:16:00.000-07:00

Life is filled with essentials, and if we do not have the ingredients to make it work, then we are out of luck. Time management is one of the most important essentials in our life. If you think about it, we have 24- hours in each day, and seven or eight of those hours dedicated to sleep. One of the golden rules is “Sufficient for each day, for no one knows tomorrow.”

This is very true, because we do not know if a hurricane will wipe out our neighborhood, or if an act of disaster will hit our area and change all the plans, we made. So the steps to finding essentials in time management should be evaluated carefully. Planning is one of the elements to managing time, yet plans can change. This is why it is important to make a list of the tasks you are assigned and complete them as soon as possible. Once you finish your task, it becomes easier and you can move on to other tasks. You can start by reviewing emails and notes, since the two are essential ingredients that make time management work.

Email Essentials at Work

If you work at a company that offers an email account and most of your business is handled via Internet, then you know that excessive emails are annoying. Customer accounts, contracts, and other important documents we do not want to loose, so to keep your mailbox from piling up, it is smart to only give your email address to clients. We can avoid emails piling up by not providing information to advertisements that ask for our information.

If you want to place, an order for a product be sure to use an email account that does not send out information over the Internet. Many companies have a managing program that works to save time. Databases often store valuable information, and should be maintained. If you store information on the database, be sure to delete or store old files in a different area, so you can save time. If your email accounts only stores documents that are important to your business, you can save not only time, but also you can spare yourself from liabilities that may creep up. It depends on the company and what type of email account they require the employee to use, but Microsoft Outlook includes features such as address books, business and other features that help the user stay organized.

Essential Notes

Notes are essential since they too play a role in time management. Learning the techniques to taking good notes is a start in the right direction. When we take good notes, we are able to stay organized and run our life smoothly. If you attend a lot of meetings, it might be wiser to meet with the parties attending the meeting before it starts. This can help manage time by informing the co-workers ahead of the game what the meeting entails, as well as enabling you to take notes before the meeting starts.

Essentials in time management also include taking time out for yourself, preparing, keeping your priorities in order, and working toward the goals you set.

Confessions of a Time Management Failure

2008-02-26T04:55:00.000-08:00

Okay I'll admit it. In my pursuit to get more done, save time, be more efficient and all of that, I've made horrible mistakes when it comes to effective time management. But really, who hasn't? Life is for living and living sometimes involves making mistakes. Personal development is about recognizing those mistakes and improving upon them.

A more empowering way of looking at this is that mistakes really aren't mistakes at all. As long as you are willing to learn, what some people might call mistakes are really just confirmations of what not to do in the future. Laboratory workers at Edison's lab tried nearly 10,000 combinations of materials to create a filament for the modern-day light bulb. When interviewed, Thomas Edison did not view these iterations as mistakes. Instead he viewed it as important scientific data that led to a high quality product.

Some of the homerun kings, in the sport of baseball, are also the strikeout kings. Some basketball stars have a low percentage of baskets, but they're still the top point earners. By not focusing on individual failures but instead moving forward to better achievements, these sports stars set a great example for perseverance.

What does any of this have to do with time management?

All too often the biggest challenge in getting more done in using the time that we have more wisely comes down to honesty.

Honesty with ourselves.

When I feel like I'm in a slump something that is helpful is to get out a blank day planner sheet and log everything I did during the day in 15-minute increments. Sometimes I'm not proud of myself when I see an hour or two of completely wasted time staring me in the face. But this information is very important because it gives me a realistic look at where I'm spending my time.

With that awareness comes the opportunity for improvement.

Every day I also write in my journal. This gives me an opportunity to reflect on my day. I describe my perception of events and I also painted a picture of how I would've liked to have seen certain events transpire.

To keep a journal, you can write passages as a letter to yourself or as a report to a person that you wish was your mentor; like Albert Einstein. At the end of each entry describe your intent for your next day or the rest of the week.

Time management is an interesting phrase because it implies that we can manage time, but of course we can't. What we really learn is how to manage ourselves. As we strive to become more effective the time we have seems more fruitful. It's because of this learning that I no longer call myself a time management failure.

Are You An Everyday Achiever? The Time Management System For Goal Getting Instead Of Goal Setting

2008-02-26T04:54:00.000-08:00

How many days do you sacrifice to meaningless activities?

I say sacrifice, because when you let any day go by without nurturing and spending time furthering your dream, you are killing previous progress. Let me say that again, you are killing previous progress. You may complain that others are holding you back, because you don't make enough or are not appreciated enough or loved enough, or whatever your preferred excuse is, but the truth is that the killer of your dream lives within your home.

When you do not love and honor and respect your dream everyday, you are the murderer that is killing it while it sleeps. Your dream is like a baby in that it needs to be nourished, appreciated, loved, and tended to. You must give your dream constant daily attention. Like a baby, if you do not spend time with your dream everyday, it will fail to thrive, and if you ignore it long enough, it may die. Life is already filled with too many doubters, haters, and challenges that would kill your dream; you cannot allow yourself to be part of the problem.

Today is the day you need to make a decision; you need to snap out of the deadly routine that is your life, because your dream is a matter of life and death. Your day to day actions either create life or reap death; your time is either spent constructively or it is squandered destructively.

Let me ask you again... Are you an everyday achiever?

Why not?

Is your dream not big enough?

Is it not important enough?

Do you have a dream or do you have a wish?

No one is guaranteed the next breath, let alone another day, so what part of you thinks that it is ok to let a day go without spending time with your dream? You have got to love your dream. You have got to touch your dream. You have got to see your dream. Your connection to your dream is only as strong as the last action you took to move it forward, and if action is not taken everyday, then you don't want it enough.

I don't care how busy you are. I don't care how much you work. If you can't make 15 minutes for your dream a day, then you are not worthy of your dream. It probably is not your dream; it is just something you think you should do or something you think it would be neat to do. Your dream is something you have to be willing to die striving to achieve, because you might.

Your life could end at any time and aside from loving other people, pursuing your dream will be the greatest work you will ever do. Your life is like currency that must be used or lost each day. Are you investing your time to make your dream come true, or are you using your time doing activities that will keep you where you are.

Each day you have less life within you, so each day we are sacrificing our lives to what we do. Is your dream worth dedicating your life to? If you said yes, then prove it. Every day, you must do a least one thing to advance your dream. I you are really passionate, you must do several things.

This moment is your gut check; do you have a dream or just a really pretty story to tell yourself and others?

Someday is not listed on my calendar, and tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Your power resides in today, which is the one day you don't need a calendar for because you are living it right now. So let me ask you one last time... Are you everyday achiever? (Hint... if your dream matters, the answer must be yes)

If you can still say no, then you just don't want it bad enough.

Knowing Your Time Management Style

2008-02-25T04:31:00.000-08:00

Before we begin, I must emphasize the need to remember that we're all individuals. We do not all work - or even learn - in the same way. Some of us, for example, are visual in style: we learn by seeing. Some people, on the other hand, are auditory in style, learning and working best through hearing. And still others are tactile by nature: they need the sense of touch to fully absorb what they need to know.

We're different in other ways, as well. Some of us seem to have been born neat. Or childhood experiences, or being born a Virgo, or some other mysterious series of events made us so. Our childhood bedrooms were the pride of our lucky parents, our handwriting was (and remains) neat and tidy, and our sock drawers are perfectly arranged.

Others of us are natural clutter magnets, with parents who despaired of getting us to clean our rooms. Today, our desks may vary much resemble the bedrooms of our youth. And some of us are a combination-neat one day and untidy the next, with some parts of our lives elegantly organized and other parts in a jumble.

And some of us are organized in what appears to be a wholly disorganized way. Perhaps you're the kind of person who can pull out a sheet of urgently needed paper from the middle of one of a dozen messy stacks in less time than it might take a more obviously organized person to retrieve it from a file cabinet.

The appearance of disorganization (or organization, for that matter) can be deceiving. As you learned in the preface, this book isn't about imposing a "one-style-fits-all" approach to managing your time. Your individual style should dictate which suggestions and tips you'll find most helpful. You may also find, however, that your style undergoes a slight-or even major-transformation as you adopt some of the suggestions you'll learn here. If you're the sort of person who never meets deadlines-whose library books were (or still are) always late-you'll most likely want to change some elements of your style. If you already manage your time well, you presumably are still open to fine-tuning your approach.

Time Management Tips - 10 Things You Can Do To Be Effective With Your Time

2008-02-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

If you find yourself constantly frustrated at the end of the day, with a pile of things that need to be done and wondering why you weren't able to do it, you're not alone. Plenty of people suffer from an inability to make the maximum use of their time, but there is a solution! By implementing these simple time management tips in every area of your life, you'll be surprised at what you can accomplish - and how quickly things will get done - every day.

1) Know what you want - set goals.

Since you can't change time itself, you need to change how you work with time. This can be done by making small personal goals to start with, moving to larger goals as you progress in your time management skills. For example, set a goal to not check your personal email while at work for one week. At the end of the week, evaluate whether you achieved that goal and add another one or try again.

2) Do what you need to - create a plan.

This is a more overarching goal, but something that can be implemented as part of a plan for time management success. For example, your plan for trying these time management tips might be to increase your productivity or to lower your stress levels.

3) Learn about yourself - where are you losing time?

For a week, track what you do every day. Take note of your activities, how long they took, and even the breaks you take for a personal phone call or for lunch. After a week, look at the areas that took up your time, and evaluate where you wasted time that could have been given over to more productive activities.

4) Use the available tools - write it down.

Time management tools are an effective way to give concreteness to your goals and the tasks you need to accomplish. Whether it's through a daytimer or a computer program, physically manage your time by listing the tasks you need to do now and in the future.

5) Keep perspective - prioritize.

Each morning, look at the tasks you need to accomplish and prioritize them. Figure out which ones are urgent and which ones can honestly wait if you don't have time for them. Do the important things first - don't put them off, or you'll be stressed and rushed at the end of the day.

6) Keep moving - create a routine.

If you have an established routine, you'll be more able to complete your goals each day. When crises arise, move with them and deal with them - but don't let them distract you for the rest of the day. Once you've dealt with the problem, get back on task.

7) Don't dawdle - set time limits.

If you only need an hour to check your email, set a timer for an hour until you can get used to that amount of time. A day can be easily wasted on one thing if you let it, so this will ensure that you don't waste extra time surfing around that could be spent on other projects.

8) Ask for help - delegate.

You don't need to do it all yourself - no person is an island! Allow others to carry some of the burden for you, but be willing to help them along the way - that way your creative hand is still in the pot. You need to decide to delegate, and then just ask. What's the worst that could happen, someone would say no? It's not the end of the world.

9) Know yourself - don't waste time waiting.

Whether it's standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for a doctor's appointment, or even if you're sitting in a lobby waiting for a meeting, realize that you don't need to spend that time waiting. With a task list set out, bring something with you at all times that you can work on - a report to read, a notepad, your checkbook, or your PDA to check your email. Keep moving, keep working on those tasks. Don't let a moment go to waste.

10) Be realistic - don't get discouraged.

If you've set realistic goals and you've followed the tips outlined here, there may still be some days that you just can't get everything done. That's okay! There are only 24 hours in a day, and all you can do is work with them and manage yourself. Time doesn't change - you can, and that's really the best thing you can do. Realize that some days will be successes and others may be a little more disappointing. That's life - and tomorrow is a new day!

Time Management Skills - Pros and Cons for Drawing Strong Boundaries Between Work and Home

2008-02-21T03:36:00.000-08:00

Time management requires making tough decisions every day. You, alone, must decide what balance to strike between work and home. You maintain this balance with a boundary. It may be strong or it may be flexible. Just make sure it matches your values and that you communicate it clearly.

What happens if you create a strong boundary between work and home? It all depends upon factors like your temperament, your communication skills, and the strength of your support system. Explore these pros and cons:

Pros:

1. If you discourage emergency calls from home or work, your schedule is less likely to be disrupted by others' urgency. Constantly reacting to urgency can lead to rash decisions that undermine your effectiveness and erode others' trust.

2. Encouraging those who are qualified to handle emergencies on their own promotes their confidence and competence.

3. Strong boundaries reduce outside distraction and encourage focus, flow, and personal productivity both at work and at home.

Cons:

1. If demands that arise at home or work can't be successfully delegated, those problems can escalate, consuming even more time.

2. If you can easily transition from work to home activities, maintaining rigid distinctions can discourage creative solutions that enrich both areas of your life.

3. Some people create flexible partnerships in which responsibilities are shared and differing strengths are pooled, to everyone's benefit. Regimenting roles and maintaining strict boundaries deprives both parties from cooperative enterprises.

What's Best for You?

Do you find yourself nodding strongly at one position or another? Take all the time you need to sort out the specifics. What can wait? What needs to be delegated? Answering these questions helps you prioritize and clarify lines of responsibility.

Discuss who does what, and when, with everyone involved. For example, under what circumstances will you take work home? What back-up support will your employer provide if your mother falls and breaks her hip? Are you willing to accept added responsibilities at work if you can fulfill them at home? Who can flex the most in an emergency, you or your partner?

Now is the time to sort this out. You and those close to you benefit by clarifying your roles right now. What conflicts might suddenly arise? Developing contingency plans lessens the possibility of straining relations in the heat of the moment.

Your reward is heightened productivity, improved communications and effective backup plans. Ultimately, your boundaries direct your energies and shape your life. Put these skills to work, and you will automatically maintain more positive control over your time.

How To Increase Your Company's Profitability Through Proper Time Management

2008-02-21T03:35:00.000-08:00

So you have heard your manager say, "Time is Money"! You may have noticed he was extremely stressed when the department was toured; he viewed his employee time sheets and took a pencil to project costs. Managing time and money is a necessity for any executive. They often have no viable way to track project overruns before it's too late. This manager may have been able to pencil the total hours worked on a particular project, but it is highly unlikely he would be able to track the effectiveness of an individual employee or access project history in order to quote a job based on the similarity of a project. It is often deemed a waste of time and money to hire an employee to track time management performance and build reports because of the time involved in generating such a report.

Today, the adage, time is money is the synopsis of time management and money; and is in direct correlation with how well time is managed in multiple areas such as employee timesheets, project time tracking, project resources, time projections of project deliverables as well as being able to access time data on any one or multiple employees or projects.

Increasing your company's profitability is about the focal point of numbers and the ability to access those numbers quickly to implement a plan to reduce internal costs while increasing project profitability. Understanding where an employee's time is spent and realigning that time as necessary to "fit" the project at hand is a major step toward greater profitability.

Flexibility is another important key to implementing great time management. The ability to move resources quickly between projects and tasks without effecting existing time entries is critical.

Having an easy to access time management history allows your company to "guesstimate" with accuracy, the man hours of a particular project, what that project will cost in labor and resources, the cost effectiveness of pricing as well as effectively "quoting" based on similar, past projects. Viewing any one or all aspects of such time management numbers and how they correlate to one another gives insight into areas of time management improvement that leads to greater profitability.

Time is money and to make more money it helps to know the "numbers" that make up the time. The timely availability of those numbers is the key to unlocking the vault of profitability. Time management and your company's profit directly correlate to your ability to access the "numbers" on Employee Time Sheets, Project Time Sheets and past Project Histories.

Numbers at your fingertips allow your company to make improvements to procedures that may be necessary or perform time gap analysis on previous projects. Being able to see the big picture of an individual employee in relation to other employees and tracking time effectiveness on a particular project or task is critical. Reducing employee man-hour averages per project is essential to accentuating skills in future projection analysis and for more effective time management strategies. The optimum situation means having the "right tool" to manage your numbers.

It's About Time! Beyond Time Management

2008-02-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

It's the number one complaint I get from clients. "I just don't have enough time!" Almost without exception, people use time as their number one excuse for not having the life they want and see themselves as victims of their reality of "no time." The ability to spend time with family, work out, or take a seminar seems nearly impossible in the shadow of sixty-hour workweeks and the demands of the job outside the home. Heaven forbid we should take on a hobby!

Volumes of books have been written on time management and chances are, somewhere along the way of our personal growth and development, we learned a couple of methods to combat the demands of our hectic schedules. Tips on how to manage our time are everywhere to be found, but are those tips really providing us with the answers we need to find the joy we so want in our lives?

There is one truth about time. It's a fixed commodity and one cannot "make more time." It's impossible. There are only 24 hours in a day. Non-negotiable. Sorry, we can't change that. However, one can shift one's experience of time. And while this may seem a rather esoteric response to a very practical issue, there are some very practical "how-to's" that can be explored around this idea.

First, let us examine what some of our very basic beliefs are about time. Are you one that that believes "time is money?" Or do you live by the adage, "there's no time like the present?" Do you resist the "ravages of time?" Or "is time on your side?" What does "in a timely manner" mean to you? These phrases represent just a few commonly held notions around the concept of time. So, our first step in creating freedom in your life in this "time domain" is to first take a look at what cultural and societal beliefs you have either consciously or unconsciously accepted about time. Do you share your company's beliefs about time? Are you always "a day late and a dollar short?" Are your deadlines impossible to meet? Over the next couple of weeks, notice how you experience time and notice what you are saying about time. This means noticing the time you have, and the time you don't have. The time others "make" you waste, or the time you give up to do something you really love to do.

The Winner's Time Management Playbook

2008-02-20T21:30:00.000-08:00

You can read a ton of articles about time management, and most of the will say the same things.

Make lists.

Multi-task, if you can.

Get things accomplished during down time.

Bring a book to read when you're stuck in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

All good stuff, but few gurus speak about the glories in being ON TIME. To me this is the Father of All Time Management Doctrines.

If you can't get yourself to show up on time, you're just out of control.

Speaking of control, which this boss exerted with an iron fist, legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi insisted his players do everything on time, even showing up to group meals right on the dot.

Lombardi was the star of a brief training video that I was shown at my leasing job, along with the rest of the sales team. He devised what he called, "Lombardi Time," which among other pointers urges us to arrive at all appointments a full fifteen minutes EARLY.

To him, that is the mark of a professional. That is businesslike.

But it took me a few years after that film to truly get the message. I was part of an elite training team dispatched to teach senior level U.S. Navy managers how to manage better. The Navy simply would not tolerate tardiness in any form.

I learned that lesson so deeply that I'd do nearly anything to keep an appointment or arrive at a distant training locale, on time. Once, when a hurricane prevented me from getting to Ft. Myers, Florida one evening, I hired a taxi to drive during the wee hours across Alligator Alley, getting to my hotel a mere hour before my program was to start.

That was plenty of time to shave and shower and be at my post right on the money.

There are a few pockets of resistance against being punctual. One of them is in college teaching, where some profs feel it is their prerogative to assert their command by arriving in class 10 or 15 minutes late.

Though I succumbed to that temptation myself, the Navy ripped that habit out of my playbook.

As I recall, Lombardi also coached at Army. Maybe they drilled the same way.

Want to me a better manager or just a better time manager? Set your watch fifteen minutes ahead.

Be ON TIME, or even early. It's the way of winners.

Need a great executive performance coach? Contact the author.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant, and attorney. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he teaches at more than 40 university extension programs, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary's sales, management and consulting experience is combined with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies.

Time Management Skills - The Simple Time Management Skills That Get Results

2008-02-19T02:19:00.001-08:00

Developing your time management skills requires a certain amount of discipline. And if discipline is something that is new to you, you will have to develop these new skills as you go along. However, most of these skills are quite easy to grasp so you will quickly adopt them and they will become natural for you.

Perhaps the most important of these skills is the ability to plan your day. Of course, you will also need to plan in the longer term, but to be truly effective with your time you need to make the best possible use of the time each day offers.

If you can plan your day well, while being open and willing to deal with any new situations that arise, you will have developed two of the most important time management skills.

The basic ingredient for effective daily planning is a time plan for each and every day. This may seem like a chore, however it need only take about five or ten minutes to do. That's not long, is it? When you do it is up to you. You can do it at night before you go to bed, or first thing in the morning. I find morning the best as your mind is fresh after a good night's sleep.

It is important to make a commitment to planning out your day before it starts. Those 5-10 minutes will give you clarity about your actions for the day so you are more likely to be highly productive, and feel less stress and pressure.

For the most part, your time plan will help you be effective with your time. However, life is unpredictable so situations will arise that you did not account for in your time plan. Learning how to deal with these situations effectively is another important time management skill. When this happens, I encourage you to stay calm and not flustered. Instead, take a minute to ask yourself what the best course of action is, and listen to the answers that come. More often than not you will know what the right course of action is for any given situation.

Time Management Tips - 10 Things You Can Do To Be Effective With Your Time

2008-02-19T02:18:00.000-08:00

Improve Your Personal Time Management In 30 Seconds

2008-02-18T02:03:00.000-08:00

One of the keys to getting the most out of your time is developing the ability to ask yourself the right questions at the right time. This need only take a few seconds before you begin any given task. More often than not, you will find these few seconds will present new and better ways of doing what needs to be done.

While it is important to manage your time with calendars, diaries and daily plans, effective time management also requires that you manage yourself.

Before you set about any task, big or small, stop and ask yourself whether this is the best use of your time. Perhaps there are other, better ways of achieving the same result. Or maybe it is a task that you are not particularly suited to that another person could do in half the time, in which case you might want to delegate.

If you do decide to take on the task yourself, ask yourself what is the best way to complete it quickly and easily. It only takes seconds to ask yourself these questions and listen to the answers that come.

As time goes on you will get better at this. One of the most important things to do is to learn how to ask the right questions. In general, your questions should begin with the word 'what'. This focuses your attention and evokes clarity. The remainder of the question needs to ensure that it opens up possibilities, is solution oriented, elicits information and moves you forward.

Here are some examples of powerful 'what' questions that would help you focus better on a particular task and make more effective use of your time:

"What is the most important thing for me to focus on at the moment?"

"What would enable me to use my time more effectively?"

"What isn't getting done that needs doing?" And added to that, "What will it take to get this done?"

"What is the next step for me in this moment?"

These questions can also be used when considering more long-term goals. For example, "What do I want my life to look like in five years?".

Once you have asked any question you need to take a little time, perhaps one minute, to listen to the response that comes to you. You may find that what comes up in your response is clear enough and you now know the best way forward.

However, you may find that your response lacks clarity. It may include all sorts of thoughts and ideas, but no clear way forward. In this case, it can be a good idea to take note of the thoughts that come to you and break the problem down into smaller parts to find the best way forward. You may find there are more specific questions you need to ask.

However, for the smaller tasks in our day-to-day professional and personal lives clear answers usually come quite easily and quickly. So, before you move on to your next task take a little time to consider whether it is the best use of your time and if so, how you can complete it in a time effective manner.

The Fundamentals of Time Management

2008-02-18T02:02:00.000-08:00

Wasting Your Time is Wasting Your Life:

The following quote sums up the concept I hope to get across: "Life is nothing but a measurement of time - you cannot waste one without losing the other." I hope to ingrain in you the concept that time and life of the same thing - there is no difference! Think about it, let it sink in and feel what that means. Literally, when something or someone wastes a block of your time, they have in effect stolen a chunk of your life that can never be retrieved. Let me share with you another old quote that speaks to this: "What rich man, old and sick, feeble and helpless, would not exchange all the gold in his vault for the blessings you have treated so lightly?" We must protect our time as if we are protecting our life...because, in fact, we are.

One of the greatest tragedies in life is to advance into old age, look back, and say "where did it all go?" I hope that you will learn to exchange each moment of your life only for something of value. As if you were pulling precious coins out of your pocket with the realization that once they are all gone - so are you! Treat your time and you life as precious and protect it from all the stealer's of time.

Fundamentals of Time Management:

One of the keys to effective time management is to discover where the "leaks in your boat" are. Where are we losing time? Where are we putting our energy? To answer these questions we need to get a full assessment of exactly where we are at.

Think of it as a matter of problem-solving. In this case the problem is the loss of time. So let's take a look at how problem-solving works and how it can help us to approach our time management challenges.

Classic problem-solving happens in 5 stages:

1) Awareness - We must be aware that we have a problem. You can't solve a problem that you don't know that you have, so awareness is critical.

2) Understanding - What is the nature and scope of the problem. Get clear about what is happening, why it's happening and how bad it is. Also note what it's costing you and how many areas of your life it impacts (job, home, school, relationships, money, etc.).

3) Knowledge - Study the solution(s) and gain the necessary skills to be effective in solving the problem.

4) Take Action - Commit to taking action daily and makes solving the problem of focus and a priority. Be sure to acquire the needed resources and asked for help as needed.

5) Evaluate and Adjust - Nothing goes perfectly as planned, so be flexible open and ready to adjust. Get committed to outcomes, not methods, and be willing to change your strategies ("Shift Gears") as needed.

Based on this model, the first thing to do is to gain a full awareness and careful assessment of where your time goes and how it is spent. The best way to do this is to use a time tracking sheet. The sheet is broken down into 15 minute increments, because 15 minutes is a valuable chunk of time and just right for tracking activities throughout the day.

Tracking sheets are a powerful tool. People typically can save one to two hours per day by evaluating these sheets and making the necessary corrections. This tracking this tool is central to our work -so don't skip over it, you would be cheating yourself greatly.

How to Use Your Tracking Sheets:

Track your day from beginning to end (where it starts and ends is up to you), write down what you were doing and draw a line down to the next activity to show this time was used on the task. Track your entire day like this, and repeat this process for a three to five day period. This should give you a good idea of how you spend your time, on what tasks, and how long these tasks take you. Tracking for five days should be sufficient, unless your weekly duties vary wildly.

Next, take time to note how productive/critical/profitable each task you engaged in was. This will give you a better sense of how you time is proportioned between Hide/Medium/Low gain tasks. Be brutally honest here, we don't need to defend or justify something we are going to change any ways. Besides, the more "problems" we find - the greater our ultimate gains will be!

Now take some time to self assess how you utilizing your time. What would you change to free up more time or to be more productive with the same amount of time? This step is powerful, eye-opening, and exciting, because it will help you find the blocks of time you seek. It will also give you a great sense of control and power to choose - it's a great feeling! People always feel better when they're in control and enjoying positive gains in their lives - this is what makes time management exciting and fun!

How to Use Your Time Planning Sheet:

First, make yourself several copies of your time tracking sheet to now use as your time planning sheet.

Speaker Jim Rohn says, "Before you start the day, finish it on paper." What this means is that planning the day will create time savings, a focused plan with targets, it will give you a better sense of control and make you aware if you're getting drawn off track (- this may show you the areas that need improvement or are problematic).

I know this may sound strange in an article on saving time, but be sure to schedule in breaks and time to solve unexpected problems. I do this for two reasons: 1) unexpected problems are a fact of life - supplant for the unexpected (*remember this is a reasonable/realistic planning sheet - not a fantasy). 2) scheduling breaks keeps you alert, happy, and sane! You will also likely notice that breaks keep your problem-solving abilities fresh, you're more creative, your memory is better and you make fewer errors. As a secondary benefit, in a pinch, these breaks also allow pad for unexpected problems that take longer than expected. I typically allot for 2 fifteen minute breaks and a half hour for the unexpected daily (I may not always use them - but most days I do, and this keeps my plans on track).

Planning the day like this typically improves peoples efficiency or time savings by 10 to 25% the first time they use it! See how you make out after your first date using the system. You will quickly see that this strategy is worth the small amount of time it takes to implement daily.

Time Management Skills - Fight Perfectionism with 3 Tips to Win Back Your Time

2008-02-13T02:29:00.001-08:00

Perfectionism, like a mirage, lures you into a desert of false hopes. Your ideal hovers just out of reach while your day slips away. Regain your productivity! Learn to identify the 3 stages of poisonous perfectionism. Then use the following tips to reclaim your power over your time.

Which Set of Symptoms Match Yours the Most Closely?

1. Mild:

" I waste time fine-tuning things that only I will notice. Then I scramble to finish the rest of the day's work. "

Antidote: Develop a mantra that brings fresh perspective to a stuck situation. For example...

"That'll do for now."

"It's good enough."

2. Moderate:

"Anything worth doing is worth doing right."

"I seem to spend twice as much time as others on the final stages of a project, and rarely convince myself it's really complete."

"I make several false starts and never feel satisfied with my finished product."

"I work so intently on some projects that I never get around to other ones."

Antidote: Your challenge is to open up a closed system of endless revisions. In addition to creating a positive mantra, establish a reasonable time frame to complete a project. Set an alarm, if you need to. When the time is up, change activities, no matter what. This becomes easier with practice.

Also, consider broadening your perspective by asking a supportive friend or co-worker to review your work. The more actively you replace your all-or-nothing messages with your chosen mantra, the more you'll welcome feedback that dilutes the harshness of perfectionism.

3. Severe:

"I often lose sleep at night rehearsing the events of the following day."

"I'm so afraid of not being good enough that I become immobilized."

Antidote: Recognize that your excessive standards are padlocking your productivity.

Instead of putting your project under the microscope, examine your expectations of success. Have you developed inflated ideas of what "perfection" can bring? By replacing them with a realistic perspective, you can often deflate ballooning fears of failure.

If perfection remains a deeply ingrained value, substitute ideals of a perfect performance with a vision of perfect balance in your life. The essence of balance is learning when to let go. By participating in a balanced life rather than performing for impossible rewards, you will cultivate new strengths, and take genuine satisfaction in regaining control of your time.

Time Management - The Myth

2008-02-13T02:28:00.001-08:00

In many ways there is no such thing as time management. When you think about it, time simply exists and there is nothing any of us can do to change it. We have 24 hours in the day and that is all we get.

So if we can't change that how can we manage time? Well, the answer is that we can't. We can only change what we do in the time available to us. So, really, it is much more about managing ourselves than managing time.

On average, you will probably be awake for about 16 hours in every day. When it comes down to it, spending your time productively is about what you choose to do and what you achieve in those 16 hours. And the more you want to get out of this valuable time, the better you have to manage yourself personal.

So, if you are happy with your lot and you feel that the way you spend your time now is perfect for you, then you need read no further. However, if you are reading this article you probably feel like you could make better use of your time.

If so, there are two basic things you need to to achieve effective use of your time. The first is to really know what you want out of life and how you want to spend your time. Once you know this you really have something to aim for.

The second to identify what you need to do to achieve this. Of course, there will be effort, change and discipline needed to put this into action but knowing what needs to be done is a very important start. So, for the first steps towards effective time management, focus on how you really want to spend your time and think about what you will need to do to achieve this.

Employee Time Management - When To Use It?

2008-02-12T02:16:00.000-08:00

There are many business owners that not one but many multi-dollar millions or even billions kinds of businesses. Whether you are a business man or not, you at least have 1 person to share your business load and operations.

Setting up a plan of action or a set of goals with time management at work can be a real benefit to the work environment. Work performance, when good, will bring in more profits.

Your staff will get more done in the process of your incorporation time management at work. All employees should work at managing their time more wisely. Setting the scene to do so will improve the quality of your business. With this in mind, you will indirectly free yourself tons of precious time.

When to use employee time management?

The moment you are so engrossed in your company productivity, profits, expenses, overheads, turnover and many more. You should be looking how to use this tip in managing your business.

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

For effective employee time management at work, you need to monitor what your employees do during the day so you can point out what they need to improve upon.

One important way to help your staff

One helpful way for your employees to learn about employee time management is through a training course. Set aside one night for a mandatory meeting and either you or a person who knows about time management can teach them how to effectively use their time.

Through the course of the discussion, the employee can bring up things about the business they feel is a time waster. You can then correct this problem for them, allowing them to free up some of their time to be more productive.

Do you need a time schedule?

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

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

How to implementing your strategy?

Now that you know when to implement your employee time management strategy, it is time to learn how to implement it.

You have to re-organized when you are dealing with time management. Setting up projects at the same time every day will help gear your employee up for good employee time management.

Once your business starts using employee time management, things will run more smoothly. You will also see more profits coming into the business with good employee time management.

The most important factor in all of this is being realistic with you expectations and with the goals you set for your employees.

Most people tend to sacrifice quality for speed by working at the last moment. Your time management at work routine will help them get in shape for upcoming projects.

As long as everyone is honest about the timing for a project, the employee time management program will work for you. It will show you how well the performance in the business is flowing.

In conclusion.

Good employee time management is essential, as long as you implement it gradually and allow your employees to experience the benefits instead of thrusting it on them.

I hope you find this article both informative and enlightening. Eddy sees the need of having good employee time management strategy. That is why Eddy has started a useful time management tip and resource guide that help you to manage not only your business effectively but also your personal life properly.

The Importance of Time Management

2008-02-12T02:15:00.000-08:00

Working for myself, from home, means I am responsible for the work I do. It also means I am the one that must create the necessary motivation to achieve all that I plan to achieve on a given day or week. I know how important it is to set goals and create routines, yet I have spent weeks now working on this article. I have really struggled with motivation and I have wasted hours and hours of time not doing what I know I should be doing. Funnily enough, just writing that makes me suddenly conscious that I am never going to get that time back and that if I'd used it well I could be working on something new. So with no more procrastination, let's all learn from the words I am about to write.

What is time management?

Time management is about managing your day affectively so you can achieve all that you want to achieve. It is also about making use of time today, so that you can obtain larger, long term goals whose deadline is sometime in the future. Being able to manage your time well will leave you with a feeling of mastery and accomplishment, knowing that you put your time to good use.

Having busy lives with enormous demands from so many sources means life often feels like a juggling act. People can become overwhelmed with the amount they have to do, making them tired, disgruntled and demotivated. Motivation is important as it can lead to an apathy which can prevent you from doing anything, even though you know there is so much to do.

As such, time management can be seen as making the best use of your time, so you can handle all your responsibilities, without giving in to the misery of procrastination.

Why is it so important?

We all know that time marches on. We can all say "make the best of each day", "live every day as though it's your last", but are such affirmations alone enough? I am aware that time is precious but it took writing the words hours and hours, that jolted me into a frenzy of activity that I was beginning to think had gone forever.

Being able to manage time is important for those people who desperately would like more time to do all the things they want to do. You know who you are -- "I wish there were more hours in a day" is one of your favourite sayings. Yet there are some people that seem to get so much done each day and still find time to relax and enjoy themselves. We all have the same amount of time. As such, good time management is about making the best of the time available to you. This also means using your time to help you attain both your short term and long term goals.

Stress is a huge problem in this society and being in control of your own time is a sure way of helping you manage the stress you face everyday. By knowing what you are doing and when, then having enough time to do each activity will go a long way to helping you towards a life of reduced stress.

Finally, I think it is important to mention the concept of flow. Flow refers to those moments where you are so focused on an activity that all other things are forgotten. If you are managing your time well, you should be engaging in regular flow-inducing activities. This means minimising time wasters that do nothing to enhance your wellbeing or give you that feel-good feeling that comes from engaging in something that absorbs all of your attention. So begin by switching off the television, stop checking your email every five minutes and browsing websites that you are not really that interested in.

Time Management Skills - Fight Perfectionism with 3 Tips to Win Back Your Time

2008-02-11T02:59:00.000-08:00

Time Management - The Myth

2008-02-11T02:58:00.000-08:00

3 Must-Use Lists to Manage Your Time

2008-02-08T01:42:00.001-08:00

When I do speaking engagements, I always stress the importance of writing things down. When you write things down, it frees your mind for more big picture thinking and you don't have to worry about the details.

That said, these are the 3 lists you absolutely must use to manage your time effectively:

1. Master list

This is a place for a "brain dump", a place for ideas you might want to pursue in the future or possible projects you need to tackle.

You can work off one master list for months, like I do with my business or blogging ideas.

I have a master list of things to do in the house which I've been working on since we moved in two years ago. Honestly, I think there will always be items on this list!

2. To-do list

This list can be monthly, weekly or daily.

The difference between this list and the master list is that this one has a time deadline to it.

I have a monthly to-do list - I keep this one with broad goals like go to the gym 10 - 12 times - a weekly to-do list with about 5 - 7 business tasks to get done and then my daily to-do list which spreads out those 5 - 7 tasks so that I have only 1 or 2 to do daily.

I want to caution you to only put a maximum of 6 items on your daily to-do list so you don't become overwhelmed!

3. Checklist

This is a place with a list of items which you check/ tick off.

This list is ideal for anything you need to do regularly, like a list of weekly cleaning tasks, office supplies, routine business tasks, etc.

Once you start using the right list for the correct task, you'll be flying!

You can download master to-do, shopping and travel lists from my site.

The Fundamentals of Time Management

2008-02-08T01:40:00.000-08:00

Time Management, Marketing and Execution - Run Your Cleaning Business Like a Swiss Watch

2008-02-07T02:19:00.000-08:00

Running a successful cleaning business, well it's not easy, take it from me, I have been doing it for 27-years. The trick is time management, but where does one go to learn how to manage, market and run a cleaning business? It is not as if they teach it in school. Being an entrepreneur in the service industry requires skills far greater than a college degree.

You have to be a master at managing, marketing, efficiency, scheduling, planning and you must focus. Easier said than done, perhaps what you need is a really good coach, a mentor, someone who gets it and can help you thru the maze of regulations and traps of self-employed. Most cleaning entrepreneurs have to start from scratch, a seemingly daunting task, but if you have the right help, you can avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that cause most small businesses of this type to go bankrupt.

"Running a successful cleaning business takes an extraordinary amount of time to plan, create, and implement the systems."

States Scott F. Rendall, CEO and President of the Cleaning Mentor - and that is before you even do the work or run the daily business operations.

Truly, I certainly wish I had, had the wisdom and mentorship of the Cleaning Mentor when I started my company. I can tell you this, I probably made every single mistake someone could make in the cleaning business, and it took me a whole lot longer to succeed than it should have.

Looking back now, I would have to advise anyone starting out in the cleaning business to seek professional assistance and find a mentor and coach that you can work with, one who will help you thru the minefields as you grow your company. Nothing good in life is ever easy, certainly running your own company isn't, but why make it any tougher than you have to? Well, that is certainly something to contemplate in 2008.

Time Management

2008-02-07T02:18:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed how busy your day seems, running errands most of the day, and exhausted at the end of it? Then at the end of the week as you look back, it just doesn't seem like you are making the kind of progress you hoped for. This scenario occurs most days and weeks turn in months and into years and you can never seem to get ahead as you had expected.

The key to achieving any kind of success in life is learning time management. Even though you have the intelligence, ambition, and all the goals set in place, ineffective planning of your time will sabotage you. Personal time management is an essential component to reaching any goal. By managing your time effectively, you will automatically improve your level of efficiency and increase your productivity.

When you learn to manage your time effectively, you gain more control over your life on many levels. You will have full control of all the events surrounding it. You will discover more time for family, friends, making a contribution to society, or taking care of your health.

The good news is that you can learn this skill of time management. Learning this skill can go a long way in helping you accomplish any task you dream of undertaking. It can also relieve you of stress and anxiety and brings more peace of mind, and not to mention the accomplishments of your goals.

Planning Ahead

The key to effective time management is planning ahead. Each evening before you end your day, you must plan out your schedule for the following day. List in pencil all the things you plan to tackle for the following day(s). Know what your long-term goals are and how to prepare short-term to accomplish them accordingly.

First you must take into account the time of day when you are most alert and full of energy so your can plan your heaviest tasks around those hours. You know your biorhythms better than anyone else.

Know your strengths and your weaknesses. Don't overload yourself when you know you become overwhelmed easily and shut down. It is better to schedule 1 important task and accomplish it than to attempt 5 tasks and not complete any. Don't feel afraid to ask for help. Life coaching is one source where you can find the assistance you need.

If your objective is to achieve a particular goal you must first learn to prioritize. You must organize your list based on the importance. Realize you will have daily tasks to attend to as well as tasks that bring you closer to accomplishing your goals. There will also be emergencies that pop up occasionally, which you must attend to. However, after you have taken care of the emergency, immediately return to your objectives.

Next, realistically determine how much time you feel it would take to complete each task. Schedule appointments whenever and wherever you can. Give yourself enough time to complete each task. Allow one day, or one week, or one month depending on the task. Make it fun by challenging yourself to getting your task completed by a specific time. Most of all, remember that with each plan and with each execution of your plan, you are one step closer to achieving you ultimate goal. No task is too small when it comes to planning ahead.

Don't forget your planner behind!

Saying NO

In managing your time effectively, it is essential to be selective of the tasks you undertake. Learning to say NO can move you light years ahead in managing your time. Let's face it, saying YES to someone's request feels good. It gets us liked and we feel as if we are indeed helping. We believe that by saying yes, others will perceive us in a positive light. There are those who say yes out of guilt or just out of habit. The important thing to remember is:

# saying no is not minimizing someone else's request.
# saying no is not being selfish.
# saying no means saying YES to you.
# saying no means giving some thought to what was requested of you. Here you can take the time to explore the request to see if you can realistically commit to it.
# saying no means relieving yourself of unnecessary stress

You must learn the right way to say NO. If it is abrupt you will be perceived negatively. The best way to handle a request is to ask for some time to think about the requested task. Assure the person you will get back to them. This gives you the opportunity to examine the task and your schedule to see if you can fit it in. Then you contact that person and humble decline. Let that person know that you would like to be considered for future tasks but at this time it you will not be able to do a thorough job because of your tight schedule.

Once you have made some progress with your schedule and you feel you can donate some something extra time, let it be known. In the meantime, be careful not to overload your life. This can cause enormous stress, anxiety and slow down your efforts.

Learning to say NO is a great step in time management.

Time Hijackers

If you do not get into the habit of planning your time in advance there are many other factors that can hijack your time as well. Let's take a look at some of them.

Lack of focus

Not having a goal or an objective can seriously hijack your time and interfere with your time management ability. You will float through life and not accomplish anything. This is the first step towards achieving any goal. One you have identified you goal decide how you plan to achieve it. Determine how much time and effort it would take to accomplish it in terms of days, months, years. Then begin prioritizing and planning your time each day.

Procrastination

So you've identified your objectives and goals and feel enthusiastic about embarking on your journey. You have everything written down and you feel confident to begin. However, you begin to find over ways to avoid getting your list of things done. This is a sure time hijacker and you will NEVER reach your objective this way.

The Telephone

This is a huge hijacker in time management. Some of us forget the control we have over the telephone. Instead we allow the telephone to control us and it ends up hijacking our time. The moment is rings we feel we must immediately attend to it. Today with caller ID available you can identify your callers. When you are focused on your task at hand and the time you have to accomplish it, you must learn to better control the telephone. Unless it's an emergency, let the phone ring when you need to preserve your time. If there is a problem, the caller will leave a message. You can check your messages and decide how to attend to the issue or how much importance you want to give it at the time. This can save you many hours throughout your day.

Time Management Tips

Here are some tips to think about when thinking about planning your time.

Personal organization

This is an area that must be addressed from the start. Personal disorganization will get you nowhere fast. I have noticed this is an area that is difficult to admit to. Unable to personally organize is not a sign of lack of intelligence or incapability. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and this may be one of your weaknesses. If it is an area you need help in, solicit the help of a life coach. Once you have some personal, organizational infrastructures in place, your time will be spent more wisely and you will make quicker progress towards achieving your goals. In order to plan ahead, you must have your personal life and personal space organized.

Social time

We all love to visit with our friends and enjoy some fun, social moments together. However, these times must be planned otherwise they can interfere with your time management. When you friends call for some spontaneous get together, if you have planned ahead and accomplished you tasks for that day, then you will have the time available for some fun and laughter. If you haven't planned properly and was unable to complete your planned tasks for that day, when you get together with your friends you cannot feel completely relaxed knowing that you still have 3 very important things you didn't attend to. You don't' have to accept every invitation you receive for socializing. Remember you are ultimately in control of how much time to spend socializing. This can consume your life without even realizing it. Learn to say NO sometimes. Planning ahead makes room in your life for completing your daily tasks and allows more relaxed time with friends.

Damage Control

If you do not plan your time well, most of your day will be spent putting out fires or running around doing damage control. By planning ahead, you are taking care of high priority issues in your life so when emergencies arise, you are better prepared to handle them and they do not set you back. You deal with them and get right back to your planned schedule.

Most importantly, always be aware of your objective. Your goals must be clearly defined and written in a place where you can see them every day. You must have a plan for achieving your goal. Your ability to manage your time is the key to executing your plan.

Even Better Than Time Management!

2008-02-06T03:10:00.000-08:00

What would happen if you stopped managing time? Picture it in your mind for a moment. Would everything around you start to fall like glass breaking in slow motion? What if it didn't?

Although time management is at the top of most entrepreneurial women's priorities, few are able to do it to their satisfaction. I've spent many years working with women who become frustrated and overwhelmed, all while struggling with the accepted "good ways" of managing time. So many of us - whether working from home, a favorite coffee shop, or a professional building - end up blaming ourselves as we struggle with trying to organize our lives in ways that aren't a good fit. It's not unusual to find ourselves flailing when we take on someone else's idea of how things should be done. The secret, as counter-intuitive as it seems, starts with an invitation to stop managing time altogether. We can't really do it anyway - it's an illusion.

We are all unique people with our own set of perspectives and innate strengths. We run at different speeds, on different fuels, using different engines.

Compare two successful business owners at the start of their day:

Owner #1 wakes with her wheels already spinning. Jumping immediately into her day, she works in high gear until early afternoon. Lunching late and alone, she prefers music and long walks in the park to business lunches. Once refueled, she's back into high gear until early evening, closing deals in other time zones until stopping for a late dinner with friends.

Owner #2 begins her day with a good stretch. She faithfully keeps to an exercise routine before work, all the while planning and strategizing what she will accomplish later in the day. At work she remains calm under stress, attaining her goals while remaining in low gear.

So, how can both women achieve meaningful success? Their secret lies in how they use their energy throughout the day. Owner #1 has learned how to ride the big energy waves when she feels them; owner #2 knows her best can be elicited by sustaining a steady pace that keeps her clear, focused and efficient. The comparison shows us two distinctive styles of maximizing the power of effective personal energy management.

Everyone has a picture of success they hold in their minds, along with a list of what they think achieving it requires. These beliefs about how we "should" get things done can blind us to better ways of accomplishing what we want. Becoming too focused on managing time can channel needed energy and creativity away from the goals themselves.

What if you started over? What if you took your focus off managing time altogether and instead looked at your natural energy rhythms. What if your new attempt involved a fresh look at the hours in your day as a space to fill with your inherent energy pattern?

While not all of us have the luxury of designing every moment around when we feel like working, most of us do have more choices than we perceive. If you feel ready for more energy, efficiency, and a greater sense of accomplishment when you lay your head on your pillow at night, it may be time to stop focusing on managing time, and start focusing on managing your energy.

Ignoring our feelings for more pushing-through erases opportunities where we can manage our energy. It's time to shatter this tiring, brittle habit. Responding to our body's needs is like replacing this fragile routine with tempered glass - a material with improved resiliency. Managing time requires us to focus on time, while managing our energy creates instant self-care, keeping our attention on what will actually support us in our greatest personal and business success. These can become the new habits - ones that fit perfectly.

Time Management - Six Tips to Gain Control and Improve Productivity

2008-02-05T01:32:00.000-08:00

In the military, soldiers apply the skill of time appreciation in all they do. Aptly named, time appreciation is the calculation of how long it takes to complete a task/mission given the steps and skills required to complete it. Soldiers value time, not just manage it because in combat the ability to meet a timing means life or death. In business, a person's life may not be in jeopardy but time lines, riddled with obstacles, are forever looming. Below are six tips to help run your business with military precision without having to go to boot camp.

1. Write It Down - People waste time when they forget what they need to do. If you are one of those people, make a list. Use a pen and paper, PDA, computer or day timer. The important thing is to actually write a list and use it. The visual cue of seeing tasks get crossed off is a great sense of accomplishment motivating you to continue on a path of successful serial listing.

2. Schedule Everything - Schools run on schedules to ensure students know what to do, where to do it and for how long. The same is true for business. Make a schedule of your day to include meetings, phone calls, checking email, doctor appointments and even lunch. You are less likely to neglect a task you scheduled because that dedicated block of time places a level of importance on getting that task done.

3. Learn To Say No - Volunteering on committees, speaking at conferences and heading up associations inspires a sense of achievement. Yet, it is possible to give away time too freely and end up with none for your business. Extra activities can multiply and eat into time used to do business with existing clients or in securing future clients. Evaluate what extra activities you currently do. Calculate how much time you dedicate to your business and personal life then determine how much you realistically have left for the extras. Give something up or start practicing your polite, "Thank you for considering me for this committee but I will have to decline right now," line. Do it for your sanity, the sake of your business and the ever important family/personal life you are trying to maintain.

4. Remember You - You look after business. Who's looking after you? Before you end up on Bravo's show, "Intervention," start looking after yourself. If blocking personal time into your daily schedule (remember tip 2?) is the only way you can do it...get on it! Schedule a fitness class, play time with the kids, a golf game, a weekend away or even an hour of reading.

5. Be Realistic - This is where time appreciation comes into play. Set deadlines and make lists that are realistic. Know what each task involves, the steps required to complete it and the materials needed to get it done. Pre-planning allows you to set reasonable goals and schedules that are successful.

6. Stay Organized - Has a whirling dervish taken refuge in your office leaving everything in chaos? Clear the clutter! You will be more productive if your workspace is organized by spending more time working and less trying to find your work. If you are in a vicious circle of cleaning, making a mess and cleaning up again, seek professional help or at least re-assess the functionality of your office. Adding more storage and filing solutions will make a world of difference! Money spent on organization is an investment in your success.

If you feel overwhelmed by the list above, pick one tip you can easily introduce into your workday. Be consistent, believe in it and soon it will become second nature. Gradually, introduce new skills into your time management arsenal until you become a well oiled time appreciation machine.

Time Management Tools for Solutions

2008-02-05T01:31:00.000-08:00

So you want to solve your time problem? Well it's simple -- you need some good time management solutions. These will come in the form of ideas, strategies, and techniques you can use to get more productivity out of your work, relationships and personal life. In this article, I'll show you how to come up with your own time management solutions.

The biggest problem that most people have with time management is that there is nothing motivating them to become more productive. Sure, they wish they had more time on their hands. Or they wish that they could get more done with their business so they can make more money. Notice the key word here though is wish. Most of them do not have a burning desire to get more, earn more and do more. Therefore, they do not come up with any time management solutions.

So the first thing you need to do is to create a compelling reason for why you should manage your time more effectively. You need to cultivate a burning desire to get more out of some area or aspect of your life, if you're going to properly use time management effectively. Otherwise, all the extra productivity and time you gain will be wasted -- and that's a time management sin!

Once you create a desire that will compel you to manage your time better, it is simply a matter of tracking and innovation. Keep track of what works and what doesn't work, as far as your time is concerned. Then, simply disregard the techniques and time wasters, and replace them with more effective strategies. By continually tracking results, and tinkering around with your approach, you will begin to manage your time better. That's how you can create your own time management solutions.

The Best Time Management Tools

Time management is perhaps the most important aspect of any persons life. Whether you do it consciously or not, you have a strategy for managing your time. Most people have poor time management strategies. That is because they have poor time management tools. In this article, I will show you how to leverage the best tools to get more out of your personal and professional life.

The best time management tools you can have are a paper and pencil. This is your time diary. For a week, just make a log each time you do a task. Include every time you switch from one task to another, and the time it took you to complete the task. At the end of the week, analyze where core time is going. Now you have an idea of what your biggest time wasters are, and how you can improve on your time management.

Also, a paper and pencil is a valuable tool for creating a schedule. There are a lot of different fancy planners and time management programs out there that come with all kinds of color-coded tabs and folders, and if that's your thing -- go for it! But my opinion, the easiest way to keep track of your schedule, and prioritize your activities, is to write them down on a piece of paper.

Then, you can scan down the piece of paper and ask yourself this question -- "what is the most important activity that needs to be done right now, in the available amount of time that I have?" Do that activity, then cross it off the list.

Other valuable time management tools come in the form of educational material. There are many great ideas out there that you can use in your own personal time management. One great idea may end up saving you 30 minutes a day. You can expose yourself to new ideas by reading new books, listening to audio programs and talking to other productive people.

Time Management Tips for Unmanageable and Disorganized People

2008-02-04T01:20:00.000-08:00

How do you know if you are in dire need of time management tips for unmanageable and disorganized people? Ask yourself: Do I feel as though I'm constantly busy and harassed and yet I never seem to get anything done? Why is it I can never find free time to do the things I want? Is my time even really my own? If you answered "yes," "I don't know," and "no" - in that order - then it's probably time to read up on helpful time management books or articles. One of the highly recommended books is "Time Management for Unmanageable People" by Anne Mcgee-Cooper.

Here are some time management tips that may help you manage time and enjoy a balanced life.

Organize and prioritize. Make a checklist of things to do. Finish each project before moving on to the next one rather than jumping from task to task, as this is counterproductive.

Deal with the deadliest deadlines first and work your way down to the least pressing item. You've probably heard it before: Start with the most difficult and the rest will seem that much easier to tackle. This time management tip doesn't work for everyone though.

If you fall under that category, try doing it the other way around. Some prefer finishing all of the easy tasks first and getting them out of the way in order to focus more on the big task. Getting the smaller things done and seeing all those check marks on your to-do list can be very gratifying and could even give you the motivation you need to work on the bigger job at hand.

Pick a schedule and stick to it. You wouldn't shirk on a meeting with the boss, would you? So treat every task as though it were an important and indispensable appointment.

The development of the discipline needed to give each the proper time of day is essential as well. But have some leeway for interruptions, social obligations, and personal emergencies, and even more for the bigger priorities so that you are not thrown off course and you don't start panicking about your ruined schedule when something unexpected suddenly comes up.

Learn these time management tips for unmanageable and disorganized people and rein in your unruly calendar. Manage your time wisely and watch the rest of your life fall perfectly into place.

It's About Time! Beyond Time Management

2008-02-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

Time Management Can Make You Rich

2008-02-02T02:30:00.000-08:00

It has been said by many wise and successful people that time management is the most important element of life. Time is the one resource that is not able to be replenished - once you to use it up, it is gone forever. We all manage our money meticulously. Most of us claim to try to manage our health. We manage the use of our utilities at home. We plan the shortest routes driving in order to manage our fuel consumption. We have to manage our time more than any of these.

Unsuccessful people often claim that they just do not have enough time in the day to accomplish what they would really like to. There's more time in the day than people think. Conversely, successful people accomplish what they desire to through effective time management. Many people claim that they try hard to manage their time competently, but still cannot make the progress that they desire in their lives. They lack a well-organized flow chart. Here's one to consider for you:

You need to plan your upcoming week at the end of your current week.

1. Set goals for each of the days of the upcoming week.

2. Set specific business goals for each of those days aside from your personal goals.

a. It is good to set three or four business goals per day.

3. Each goal may be comprised of several individual actions.

4. Each individual action needs to have a specific time range allocated for it.

5. Once you have your plan in place, did not stray from it.

b. Complete each action thoroughly.

c. Do not allow yourself to rationalize why this was a bad plan.

d. If for some reason it is impossible to complete an action, let it flow over onto the next day's agenda.

6. Your time management schedule must take priority over every other single element of your life. You must allow nothing to stand in the way of your success.

7. Focus your attention like a laser on your action plan.

8. Disallow the concept of failure with every fiber of your being. You will never succeed by accommodating failure.

It may seem tough it first. In time, you will only wish that you had begun sooner. You will see that time management is the key to all success. The only way for success to occur without effective management of your time is by sheer luck - a concept for losers. Don't gamble with your future anymore! Ensure it with powerful time management techniques.

Time Management - Some Philosophical and Practical Considerations

2008-02-02T02:29:00.000-08:00

In the postmodern and connected life we “manage” our time. While world religions can’t agree whether time is linear, circular or stops altogether at one point, it seems to be a rather pretentious endeavor to establish rules for time management. Also for the faithless time remains an enigma and sometimes difficult to bear. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said that intelligence is the capability to be alone, and we might as well say - the capability to be alone when time passes by.

We can foster our philosophical understanding of time by using it efficiently in our daily lives dedicated to making money and thus gaining freedom from financial pressures. The single most reason for not realizing our longings in life lies in financial restrictions, hence money is an enabler for independence. When we assume independence from the usual walks of the life of the white collar worker’s 9-6-day in the office, we experience enhanced ease of time. We will grow more silent in our minds, and in silence there are truth and power for an eventually happier life.

Let’s have a look at daily practices for time management and more financial success:

If you organize your working time with reference to the Eisenhower method, you learn to distinguish the important from the urgent and to act accordingly. Ask yourself about every issue how it fits into the below mental diagram:

Important and urgent - get done with it right away.

Important but not urgent - make an entry into your calendar.

Not important but urgent - try to delegate as much as possible and reduce involvement.

Not important and not urgent - trash it.

The Eisenhower method makes sense if we work receiving from and reacting to the environment, i.e. if we are working dependently. This method helps to prioritize work tasks. In order to become financially free we have to go one step further and look at how we should plan and spend effectively.

Let’s have a look at the “time quadrant”. So, once more we have the dimensions urgent and important, but this time we do not look at how they help us prioritize work tasks, but at how to spend our time in first place so we can plan our lives.

Steven Covey also describes this time management matrix in the “the 7 habits of highly effective people” in habit 3 “Put First Things First”.

Urgent and important - fighting daily fires. This is where most people spend much of their time, doing so is a guarantee to remain in the rat race. Try to minimize your time in this quadrant and if possible, delegate.

Not urgent and important - strategic thinking, big picture mode. This is where you see the forest and not only the tree. This is where you want to spend quality time, maximize!

Urgent and not important - urgent to someone else, not important to you. This is the daily situation of unhappily employed people. Minimize!

Not urgent and not important - this is where you waste your time. Like e.g. gossiping on the phone, watching television, surfing the Internet without purpose. Try to minimize!

Even if we plan our time and spend most of our time in strategic thinking mode, we are sometimes overwhelmed by our daily lives. To gain clarity again and physical strength we should retreat once in a while. Eventually peace of mind and happiness will come along with developing your own inherent time making you a fully intrinsically motivated person.

Augustine of Hippo once said “There is only one word written on the eternal watch - now!” - this tells us not to procrastinate. This is also where intuitions come into play to make wise decision, as in the complex world we live in we do not - and in fact should not - always have the time to gather all the information we feel is required to take an informed decision. If we learn to use our intuitions we learn to be close to ourselves.

Finally, we actively need to give our friends, families, leisure and pleasure the same priority as we give to our work.

Applying the simple methods describe above will not only help us become more effective professionals, but also bring us closer to time. Development, it was once said, is the increase of consciousness.

Getting Things Done - The Art of Unreasonable Requests

2008-02-01T02:30:00.001-08:00

Your number one leadership task is to spread an exciting, motivational and profitable vision for your company. Number two, just as important, is to insure execution. Whether employees, contractors, partners, even vendors, it makes no difference - all execution begins with you asking someone to do something. When viewed in this light, "asking" may be the most fundamental element aspect of your daily work, so you'd better get good at it.

According to Philosopher John Searle, all action begins with someone asking another for something. In his book Speech Acts he calls it "making requests."

A request expresses a desire for the addressee to do a certain thing and normally aims for the addressee to intend to and, indeed, actually do that thing. A promise expresses the speaker's firm intention to do something, together with the belief that by his utterance he is obligated to do it, and normally aims further for the addressee to expect, and to feel entitled to expect, the speaker to do it.

Sure, Searle's wording is a little dense, but follow his logic. Does anyone do anything meaningful without being asked, and without in return, promising to do so? (Even the self-motivated, ask things of themselves.) Making requests causes your people to carry on the business of the company. Want something done? Just ask. Of course, when you are the ranking executive people automatically say yes, and that thing is done. That's called power. But requests carry their own little problem.

Most of us, even leaders, hate rejection. So when we make requests they are typically for small things, easy-to-do things, even wimpy things. It is rare that we ask for what we really hope someone will accomplish-or even agree to. We cut back our expectations. Our scaled-down requests make it easy for others to agree, but those requests bring us results far below what we really want. Over time, repeatedly accepting that we can't ask too much from people, our expectations drop permanently.

Here's a secret that can up-shift your results. Linguistically, a request differs from an order or a demand. Searle's "addressee" doesn't have to say "Yes, sir." She can as easily say "no" to your request. She can counter-propose, offering a different solution. Even if you are the big boss, leave your people free to say "No, it can't be done," or "No-at least, not now," or something like that. All promises are voluntary involving free will. The other party can evaluate the possibility of whatever it is you asked, and then decide.

Now, of course, people may think what you're asking is wildly "unreasonable" but decide to say yes anyway. That's their call. But once they do, it's your job to support them to succeed. Don't approach this frivolously.

"Ask, and it shall be given you; . . . knock, and it shall be opened unto you." If you're going to knock, don't be meek about it. Why ask for things that are reasonable and easy to deliver? Knock on the big doors. Knock loudly.

Back to John Searle for a moment. Nothing happens until you ask someone for something. And nothing big happens unless you ask for something big. If you have committed your company to a significant course of action, puny requests cannot get the job done. You have to ask people for a lot. Up the ante and make your requests unreasonable requests.

Big Requests Cost No More Than Small Ones

Large requests cost you no more than small ones, and since people can say "no" to either, ask for what you want. Ask for what you need. Ask people to do things you think you have no right to expect from them; ask for things to which you expect they'll say no. But ask anyway.

Here's the trick: expect them to say yes and don't worry about whether they do or they don't. Train your staff the same way. Imagine that your entire team is continually unreasonable in their requests, while confidently expecting those requests will be met. What do you think will happen? What if you made it a game whose object is to promise to deliver, no matter what? Would that rocket your project or your business forward? Of course, it would.

Just as making formal requests is not a normal activity for people in businesses, unreasonable requests are doubly abnormal. Making unreasonable requests takes guts. You'll shock some people. Others will get angry. Nevertheless, if your goals are important enough, shaking people up is likely to be a good thing. And once you have fully internalized the results you wish to produce, you'll make the kinds of requests that will deliver with aplomb.

Bump it up

To accelerate your results, bump it up. Whatever you were going to ask for, ask for more. Whenever you wanted it, request it sooner. Whatever you were willing to pay, ask for it free. You get the idea. Your business will move forward in direct proportion to the size of the requests, so go ahead: ask unreasonably. Amplify your requests. Set that knob to an eleven.

Take out a pad and draw a line down the middle. Title the left column, "Reasonable Requests I Was Going to Make," and the right, "Those Requests Made Unreasonable." For example, your reasonable request might be, "Bill, I need this by Friday." Your revised unreasonable version: "Bill, I need this tomorrow morning." Or, you may be planning on calling your banker, Yvonne, to ask for a 30-day extension. Your new unreasonable request could be, "Yvonne, I need to double my line of credit and extend the terms." You get the idea. Do the unreasonable: Ask for a lot.

Unreasonable Requests Motivate

Besides increasing productivity, big requests motivate. Would you rather do some difficult but glorious thing, or would you prefer some small task yielding results no one will ever hear of? If there's anyone on your team who chooses the latter, transfer him immediately.

People will still approach your challenge with fear and trembling. They may need a bit of courage to agree, but with that comes a feeling of heroism. People love to feel as if they're doing something meaningful, even daring. Perhaps they will be called upon to rescue the company. They are doubly motivated when what you've asked feels like life or death.

My first business partner repeatedly told our troops our company was in dire straits and that saving it-along with saving their own jobs-would require an act of huge commitment. Occasionally he exaggerated the depths of financial despair, but he always praised our employees' valor and called forth their willingness to help rescue the business. Even though this drama went on for years, they never tired of hearing about it, and they never failed to rise to the challenge.

To insure execution, you have to ask people to take action. Make those requests reasonable, and people will give you modest results. Make them big, splendid. Make them unreasonable, and you inspire your team to greatness. Be unreasonable. Ask for everything you need. Ask for the moon. You just might get it.

Easy Time Management For New Teachers

2008-02-01T02:28:00.000-08:00

Time management for the new teacher can seem unattainable, but there are ways to make the most of your time, while also allowing for a few moments for mental health. The first year will always be the most difficult as you are trying to get your roots in place, along with schedules, routines, expectations, all while learning new content, students, and parents! It probably seems like a bad nightmare! My first year teaching, I would sob in my classroom several days a week after everyone else had gone home. I can understand why some don't have the will to continue after the first year! Hopefully, some of the following tips will get you on your feet and back in the game!

Always make a list! On a legal pad of paper, write each day of the week at the top of a different sheet. Then, tear out another blank sheet, and begin by walking through your classroom and writing down anything and everything that comes to mind. Are there questions you need to ask someone else? Are there bulletin boards to put up? Do you need to start a filing system for your lesson plans? Do you need to find a new place to store all your supplies? Write it down, write it down, write it down. The more that is out of your head and on your paper is less that you need to concern yourself with at this time.

After completing your list (keep it handy because you will remember plenty more to add), begin by starting at the top of your list and assigning each activity to a day of the week, making sure no one day of the week has more work than another. Also, double check that you have not created too much work throughout the week. Always write down what HAS to be completed first (prioritize), then add smaller, less important items. Big items to consider first are those that directly impact students' learning (lesson plans) and also what your administrator deems important (varies). Move the least important items to later in the week, or into the next week. Keep pushing these items back as other urgent tasks arise.

Once you now have an organized, more manageable chunks to complete each day, you are ready to begin without feeling overwhelmed. By breaking the many tasks into smaller chores, the desire to run out the door and never come back diminishes, even if ever so slightly! Stay on top of your to-do list, trying to accomplish it each day, and you will feel a sense of accomplishment as you cross each item off your list. Just think: next year, save the tears for someone else!

Basic Techniques of Personal Time Management

2008-01-31T02:49:00.000-08:00

Improving your time management is not as hard as you may figure out, and it may help you build a stronger foundation for your success. However, this is a highly personal task in which there is no one better than you to design an action plan to achieve your goals. Personal time management is based on prioritization, and what works for one person may be useless to someone else, and following your heart to see what happens is not planning anyway.

People not familiar with setting goals may find time management software helpful to set priorities and manage their time, to meet deadlines. If you are concerned about time management, there are many software options to choose from ranging from to do list software to organizer software. Personal time management is easier when you have installed the right software package on your PC instead of a paper time management system.

Time management software allows you to organize the activities most meaningful for you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. If this is your first experience managing your time, do not be afraid and simply make notes of those things you want to do on a particular day, whether an idea, plan, commitment or pending task. Over time, you will effectively organize your daily actions.

In fact, organizer software is the best fit when it comes to efficiency in time management, because you can concentrate on two or more things at once, if not flitting back and forth from one thing to another. On the other hand, to do list software is easier to learn, operate and use for common tasks in your daily life, such as shopping lists, attendance lists, personal things, etc.

Personal time management is as individual as you are, so make sure to review the features of the different time management software carefully. Time management applications featuring complicated functions that you will probably never use, will only serve to waste time, not to save it. Once the right software has been chosen, it is matter of disciplining yourself with its consistent use.

Depending on your activities and lifestyle, you may consider getting time management software for your personal digital assistant (PDA), which allows you to synchronize the information saved on your home or office's PC, with the PDA for efficient access to your time management plan from any location when you are working on the run.

A personal digital assistant is small in size and cheaper than a laptop or any other portable computer device. Furthermore, these small devices come with to do list software or organizer software (depending on their amount of memory), making it smoother to development your skills in personal time management.

Copyright @2006, 4th Media Corporation

You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included.

Tips To Conquer Time Management

2008-01-31T02:48:00.000-08:00

Part of the American Dream is the opportunity to create your own wealth and destiny. As a business owner, you have the chance to not only establish your own business, but to create an identity that is consistent with your goals and vision. One of the major challenges that new business owners have in the early stages is wearing the many hats. Operating a successful business often requires more time and resources than initially anticipated.

Time management plays a key role in handling the daily grind of running your own operation. Setting daily goals is an essential part of building a results-oriented routine for your business day. How does your day begin? Do you start early and end late? Do you accomplish enough during your business day? Or is every day a challenge?

Here are some tips to conquer time management:

- Do you procrastinate? Procrastination can leave you overwhelmed and create an entire new set of business problems. Get to the root of your procrastination and eliminate it!

- Make a list of priorities for the day and stick to it. Simpler than it sounds, keeping a to-do list will hold you accountable for your day and keep you moving forward.

- How do you spend your time? Focusing on a group of unimportant tasks while the important ones fall by the wayside? Wasting business resources and time on smaller tasks that could be outsourced to someone else? Get a handle on what is important and you will experience a more productive workday.

- Don't let the pressure get to you. Sometimes it feels like we have to perform far beyond our limitations as a small business owner. Stress can attack your day and the performance of your business. So take a moment to assess the most important goals for the day and get back on target!

The Winner's Time Management Playbook

2008-01-30T02:24:00.001-08:00

Switch Off Time Management?

2008-01-30T02:22:00.000-08:00

Have you ever worked on something that you were absolutely possessed about? You weren't working you were obsessed. Time flew by, there were no hiccups and inspiration was in everything you did. You were performing at a level of high quality and you produced a lot. You were in a zone of contentment and clarity.

What you were experiencing was your brilliance. The end and the path were clear. For most people these moments are rare. But that not need be the case.

We have a tendency to think in tasks rather than outcomes. We clutter our lives on goals rather than the creating experiences. Then we wonder why we are stressed

We lust after achievement instead of filling our lives with true passion. Passion is filling, lust is exhausting. We tend to seek pride instead of satisfaction of fulfillment. Pride is something we feel internally. Satisfaction is what we experience when we have made an impact.

Time is actually a gift. How much of it we have is unknown. What if you only have today? How would you use it? Would you look at the people in your life differently? What impact would you make today? How would you treat your co-worker, family member, sibling, spouse, or child? Would you micro manage the time?

Time management is a focus on scheduling tasks. Those that need to get done with all the conflicting obligations we face when we are living someone else's agenda. When you allow your purpose to live and your brilliance to breath, time disintegrates. The outcome is lasting and the result is larger than life.

If you shift your thinking to how you can become a creator instead of a tasker then you will begin to see time differently. Before you sit down to make a list of chores, (Tasks) think about how the outcome feels to you. Imagine how the results can positively change someone else's life.

Maybe it's time to get out of the slumber of your life. Try to remember when you were a kid and you absolutely loved today. Like when things really tasted great. When things got messy it was OK. As someone asked if you wanted to try something and you said sure. That trying was more important than being right. What about those days that you learned something new and that was great?

As you begin to plan awaken all your senses; the light, colors, size, distance, sounds, frequency, amplitude, smells, pungent, sweet, touch, hard, soft, of the place close or far, in the mountains or at sea level. The more real you make something before you do it the easier it is to live it.

As a kid, we pretended and that pretending became our reality. You can do the same thing with your planning. Can you recall where in your body those feelings of pretending originated? Here is a suggestion:

To really make it more real, try to move your thoughts from your head into your torso. Take a deep breath saying to yourself, "I am now entering the calm clear space!" exhale and strengthen the experience from a calm clear perspective. Repeat your breathing a few times repeating the expression. You will sense clutter disappearing.

When you actually begin the experience keep redirecting your thoughts back to this centered calm space. Whenever you feel your thoughts inside your head, take a breath and move them back to your torso.

Try this right now. On your next activity. Remember, it's like shampooing; Apply, experience, and repeat. Be calm, be centered, be Brilliant. Keep returning your attention back to your centered space. That's what you did as a kid. That's when you were most brilliant. It's when you were on purpose the most. It was the moments that time flew.

That was the zone. Why not relive it today and be complete in this moment and have fun. Invite others to join you. You might simply get a lot more done without the worries of what must be done.

Instead of working on tasks on a ToDo list you are experiencing the brilliance of the people around you. I wonder if you would accept, that is a last day worth living. Making it a life will generate memories to fill a universe.

Personal Time Wasters - Do You Know Them?

2008-01-29T02:05:00.000-08:00

Time is the most valuable resource that every human being has. There is no way you can recover the lost of time. Therefore, we need to identify any time wastage before it is too late.

1. Watching television

According to statistics, the average American spends more than 4 hours a day watching television. This is a quarter of our day after minus off 8 hours of our sleeping time. It is good if we practice responsible moderation but sadly, most of us often watch whatever programs shown on television.

2. Internet surfing and social networking.

Recently, Facebook was been labeled a $5b waste of time. Internet surfing can be addictive and waste of time when we do not stay focus on what we want but simply follow all the links that are attracted to us.

3. Inability to Say No

Often, we will receive invitation from friends to join social functions, meeting, gathering or request for help on something or charities. Socializing is part and parcel of life and doing good deeds is commendable but we have to control and balance them with our life.

4. Unimportant Reading

Today, there are ton of reading materials (physical or soft copies downloadable from internet) available for reading. Instead of spending our time on quality and relevant books, majority of people spend their time on newspapers and magazines, which contain a lot of unimportant news, stories and advertisement.

5. Socializing and Chat-Chat

It is true socializing and chatting are part of our socialize life but without proper plan and control, it can chew up our personal time.

6. Indecision

The cause of indecision is fear of making mistake which lead to waste a lot of time in analyze the available information. The will be no result or output till we have taken our action. In summary, it is paralysis by analysis.

7. Procrastination

We try to delay or avoid a task fearing it will cause a mistake or criticism. A lot of time is been wasted for delaying the task until an action is been taken. "Time and tide wait for no man".

8. Disorganize

When our things are not in organized way, we will waste the time to find an item, recall any meeting or simply interrupt our work schedule. However, re-organize our work have to be done in moderation before it will turn into another time problem, perfectionist.

9. DIY

Some people prefer to Do It Yourself (DIY) type of work. If it is cost effective or it is your hobby, by all mean continue with the DIY, otherwise, it is advisable to outsource or hire other experts to work on it.

10. Do Not Enjoy Our Work

According to John Spalding, we will find time to do what we love to do. Time will be wasted as we may procrastinate when we want to work on the job that we hate to do. Either find a way to make the job interesting or change your job or career, rather than waste your own precious time.

Once you have identified all your time wasters, take immediate action to overcome or minimize them because you may delay the action but time will not.

Time Management - 4 Powerful Benefits Of Effective Time Management

2008-01-29T02:04:00.000-08:00

For any project that we undertake in life, be it a long term or short term, personal or professional venture, setting an outline to achieve our goals is a great idea. Time management makes it that much simpler to work towards your goals. When you have a plan outline, it also saves you when things go wrong. For example, if you are unable to work one or two days due to issues beyond your control, you time management plan can quickly tell you where you need to put in and how much time you need to put in, to make up for the loss. So it keeps a clear idea in the head of how you are right on track and right in control.

A proper plan should contain a break up for your goal achievement over time segments. This ensures that you complete your projects within the time frame you designated for your self.

Here is how time management plans can really help you:

A. It increases the production level. Be it a company or an individual, when you work with the right kind of project management plan, you will find that you suddenly have so much extra time on your hands to work on other issues of production and work accomplishment. This would no doubt increase your efficiency levels to a standard they had never reached before.

B. Time management helps eliminate time wastage. When you do not work within an allotted time frame, you could well tend to take it easy at times. When this happens, you are suddenly faced with the realization that your dead line is near and you have a lot to accomplish yet. This would no doubt affect the quality of the work that you will churn out. When you do work within a plan of time frames for every segment of work, you will see consistency in work quality and minimum wastage of time.

C. Performance levels increase with time management plans. We all have felt the tiresome feelings when we see a mountain of work in front of us. However, when you break down the mountain into little segments to climb every day, you are that much more motivated to accomplish your goals. So do take the help of a good plan to help you get your work down efficiently and in an orderly fashion.

D. You have feelings of accomplishment and a sense of a balanced life when you work with a time management plan. Especially where long term goals are concerned, a little work done in a day to reach your goals gives you a feeling of contentment at the end of the day. It tells you that your life is right on track and gives you the assurance that you will reach your goals if you stick to this plan.

Knowledge Management Software

2008-01-18T05:01:00.002-08:00

Knowledge management comes with its own challenges, such as identifying information that meet the “valuable” criteria. Not all information can be classified as knowledge, nor can all knowledge be considered valuable. Put simply, the secret is to separate the wheat from the chaff.

People are at the core of what knowledge management is all about. It is directly related to people’s knowledge and how that knowledge can support business and organizational goals. It draws heavily on human creativity, innovation, motivation, intuition, ideas and competence. It is not technology-based, although technology is used to support knowledge management drives.

Knowledge management is very organized and goal-oriented, and has a direct link to the strategic goals of the business. It employs knowledge that is relevant, meaningful and practical. Knowledge management is not static but ongoing, not the least because knowledge keeps changing and needs to be updated, revised and sometimes done away with.

If a business needs an application to create, manage and share business knowledge, or if it needs to manage its business intelligence more efficiently, then knowledge management software may be just the thing for that business. Although knowledge sharing is a relatively old concept, it is only now that it is becoming a formalized business practice. Knowledge management software assists the process of managing and propping up the storehouse of knowledge by accessing human and organizational capital.

Knowledge management software uses an organization’s intellectual capital to present an effective way to excavate, manage and share these resources. Knowledge management software also allows for the efficient management of self-service customer support, FAQ management, help desk knowledge foundation, document and project management. This software supports the sharing of the best practices in business, directing educated business decisions, and can also serve as the principal means of internal communication.

Some of the benefits of using knowledge management software include greater employee efficiency and productivity, improved customer satisfaction, competitive advantages and pioneering self-service giving rise to increased satisfaction. Knowledge management software is easily available. Therefore, it is always good to identify your requirements and install a trial version before settling for the final software solution.

Asset Management Services

2008-01-18T05:01:00.001-08:00

Managing one's assets to maximize returns is one of the popular options that a lot of companies turn to for optimum company growth. There are a number of asset management services available for individuals and companies alike, which allows clients to choose from among these services the one that would best fit their needs and goals. Asset management services may also be customized in such a way that the company's objectives and terms of use are followed for even added efficiency.

The services that asset management firms or asset management advisors vary depending on their client's needs. Although these services basically have the same premise, that is to manage the asset or the money of companies and individuals which can be done in several ways. Retirees who turn to asset management services usually employ asset management advisors or firm to manage their retirement plan for day-to-day management, living expenses, even health care, and may even include travel options as well. Availing asset management services would be a good option for retirees who seek to stretch their retirement fund without having to pool their finances with other investors the way that mutual funds do.

Asset management services also include account services that provide check-writing opportunities, credit or debit cards and automatic transfers from one account to the other. The latter is of great convenience between companies, their suppliers and their customers.

There are also asset management services that manage one's money through stocks, bonds and their cash equivalents. These services are more complex than the other services since expertise and much knowledge is needed by asset management advisors in the fields of asset management and the stock markets. These services are subject to pre-set objectives made clear by the clients who are also made aware of the different investment styles that may be used to manage their assets for optimization.

How to Spend 100 Percent of Your Time On High Value Activities

2008-01-03T03:59:00.001-08:00

You may be wondering to yourself, 'But, I am an employee! How can I choose to only do work that is of high value? Who am I going to delegate it to? Many of the low value work like checking emails & paperwork are still necessary, they must be done!'

Yes, if you are currently employed in a job, you must still do everything yourself initially. However, start focusing on doing all the high value activities first. Spend at least 70% of your total workday on these activities. Then, use non-work hours to clear most of the 30% low value stuff! The hours of 9 am - 6 pm are the critical times when your actions must be generating high profits, like developing new businesses, following up with clients, ensuring product quality, strategizing growth in meetings and so on. Doing paperwork, organizing your files, surfing to research materials and checking emails should be done after office hours.

Once you have managed to fully optimize your time, you must then take the next step. You must ask for an assistant so you can delegate all your low value activities to this person and fully concentrate your time on high value activities. Remember, if you do not already have an assistant or one is not provided for you, be proactive, and ask for one!

Why would your boss want to get you an assistant and increase the company's monthly expenses? Again, if you can show that by investing in an assistant for you at $3,000, you can be freed to generate an additional $15,000-$30,000 in value, it will be an obvious decision to do so.

A Lesson that My Staff Taught Me

Another example I can give you is from my own advertising agency. I have got a number of account managers and directors. Some of them generate gross profits of over $45, 0000 a month, while others manage only about $22,000. Obviously I pay the $45,000 person double what I pay the other regardless of age or qualifications.

When I observed how they worked, it was obvious why this was happening. The $45,000 account manager spent 80% of the time, out of the office making presentations to secure new clients and visiting existing clients to get more advertising business. He would then spend 20% of his time on office admin like checking the spelling, grammar of ad copy & coordinating workflow with the creative and media departments. On the other hand, the $22,000 manager was spending most of the time in the office on the low value detail work and hardly any time strategizing on new campaigns or on business development.

When I first started out in business, I was not aware of the need to maximize the value of time until one of my staff, an accounts manager, taught it to me! This accounts manager came up to me and asked for a secretary. At first, I thought that she was just being lazy and wanted to do less work. It appeared to be an unnecessary cost, so I did not approve it.

However, my accounts manager did not stop there. She knew that if she proved to me how it would be a great investment, I would approve. She was paid $4,000 per month at the time and she had to do everything that was necessary to manage the client's advertising account. She told me that she was already working full eleven-hour days and that she just could not take on more clients and increases her gross profits from the $35,000 she managed every month. But if I could get her a secretary for around $1,800 a month, she would have 40% of her time freed to bring in and manage additional clients and easily add another $20,000 in monthly profits. Once I saw the math, I gave the go-ahead!

Spend your time on high value activities where you will bring in the most profit and your income will rise as a result of the extra value you can now create. Focus on always creating more and more value!

It is Not the Number of Hours You Work

2008-01-03T03:55:00.000-08:00

Now you may be saying to me, 'I am already working eighteen-hour days! How much harder can I possibly work?' Or if you are working for somebody else you may be thinking, 'This does not apply to me. As an employee, my hours of employment are fixed from 9am to 6pm. I do not get paid more for working longer hours.'

When I talk about increasing the time you spend creating value, I do not necessarily mean that you must work longer hours. Rather, you must spend more of your time only on activities that create the greatest value that generate the most profits for your company.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee, you will have a list of things that you must do everyday as part of your responsibility. You will find that not all the things you do create the same amount of value.

There are some activities that create high value while some activities are low in value. In fact, if you find yourself doing low value items throughout the day, I have to say that you are not adding more value than you can to your business or company you work for.

I'm not saying that these things are not important or that you can ignore them. Because I know that there are some emails, telephone calls or planning that is also critical to adding value.

What I'm saying is that instead of you spending most of your time doing all these low value activities, what you should do is to outsource these low value items to someone else. Why else do you think a CEO has a personal assistant?

So that he can free up his time he otherwise would have spent checking his emails and answering phone calls and instead use the time he has everyday to do the things that will lead the company to higher growth and profit. That is where he adds the most value.

In fact, I have discovered that most average income earners spend only about 20% of their workday doing truly high value added activities while they spend most of their time, about 80%, on low value activities like checking email, attending unproductive meetings, chit chatting, complaining, waiting, finding lost items, stuff that does not generate profits or help clients meet their goals.

High-income earners are the opposite. They tend to spend 80% of their time on high value added activities like business development, closing sales, innovating new revenue streams, market strategizing, following up with prospects, strategizing on how to improve productivity, managing projects, getting feedback from clients, stuff that leads to high customer satisfaction and higher profits!

5 Ways To Automate Your Business Immediately

2007-12-20T02:05:00.001-08:00

Have you ever realized, as a business owner you frequently repeat some tasks more than twice daily? If yes is your response, I bet you also didn’t realize the amount of time used to repeatedly do the same tasks. For example, after a sample session with a potential client, I explain my services, fees and expectations as well as ask a series of questions to see if we will be a good fit for one another. This process took an additional 15 – 20 minutes beyond the allotted sample session time. I decided that I could save time and close the sale quicker if this process was automated, so I developed a Welcome Packet and Questions that the potential client received 24 hours prior to our sample session. The client is required to emailed responses to the questions prior to our session. It not only saved time but it allowed us to show up for the session prepared and informed about each others expectations and it allowed the client to make a quicker decision.

Here are five ways to automate your business immediately:

Write A Job Description

I am amazed at the amount of business owners who do not have a clear written job description of their duties. You must know what you do and what is expected of you in your business. Take a few minutes and jot down what you do. Include everything even if it seems trivial. List the items, it doesn’t have to be in order but you need to include all your duties. This is the starting point of automating your business, you must know what you do and how often it is done. Next to each line item, write a number estimating how often the task it done. For example: 1. Write a sales letter – 3 times monthly

Write A Step-By-Step Process For Each

Once you have a job description, write your process for completing the task. For example, if one of your task is marketing. Than write the process of one of your marketing strategies. If speaking is a marketing strategy for you, write what you must do before a speaking engagement. Your steps may look like this:

Booking a Speaking Engagement
1. Research target market
2. Research a topic
3. Create a presentation
4. Edit the presentation or hire an editor
5. Look for speaking engagements
6. Send out a press release
7. Make cold calls
8. Schedule presentation on calendar

Create A Work Flow Chart

Use your step-by-step process to create a work flow chart. Use sticky notes to write each step and decide the exact order. The sticky notes allow you to change the order of steps around as needed, until you decided on final format. This will help you to create a plan and flow of your duties. You will never miss a step or waste time deciding what comes next. Whenever you need to prepare for a speaking engagement, you now have a flow chart of the necessary steps needed to take in order to complete the task. This will organize your workflow and create a clear concise system & thus preventing the accidental elimination of tasks.

Create Templates and Forms

Now you know what you do and how you do it. Make it more simplistic and create a template or form to use repeatedly instead of reinventing the wheel daily. When speaking to potential clients, what information do you ask consistently? Don’t rely on your memory, create a client prospect form and write every question you need to capture from the prospect? Do most of your clients ask similar questions? Why not create a most frequently asked questions list and email it to them instead of answering the same questions over and over! If you network offline and have one- on-one meetings with business owners in order to provide referrals, create a form to ask about the business owner’s ideal customers, etc and staple her business card to the form for future reference for referrals. I can not stress the importance of creating and using forms and templates to establish organization in your business. You will never miss obtaining the information you really need to capture and you will be organized and save time.

Delegate

Peruse your job description again to notate if there are any items that can be delegated to a virtual assistant, current employee, etc. If you decide to delegate a task, it will be so easy, because you now have a step-by-step process, forms & templates that will make the delegation process easier and quicker. Delegating tasks allows you to concentrate on your expertise and free you from daily mundane task that take up time. Once an item is delegated, take it off your job description or highlight it as delegated. As many items that you can delete from your job description allows more time for your business productivity

3 Mistakes Most Business Owners Make

2007-12-20T02:02:00.000-08:00

Thinking They Can Manage Time

You can not manage time, you can only manage yourself around time by changing your mindset and habits. You can not add more time to your day nor stop the unending movement of time, you must manage yourself first by planning, having clear goals, taking daily actions steps and make a commitment to be conscious of your time daily.

Keeping a Traditional Rigid Schedule

You do not have to follow the traditional 9 to 5 schedule, work at your highest peak performance to reach your highest productivity. Be flexible. You didn’t go into business for yourself to work harder and longer as you did for your previous employer, “work smarter not harder.” Make time for yourself, block it on your calendar, take a brisk walk, get a pedicure, take a power nap, just do something to allow your creative energies to flow.

No Written Job Description or Mission Statement

Do you have a written job description? Do you know your core functions and work objectives? Even as a solo-entrepreneur, there is a need for a written job description. A job description is a written summary listing the elements of a particular job, purpose, duties and equipment needed. It provides an organized plan, determines work objectives, explains core functions and gives clarity to what is important to you and your business. It gives you a plan and direction of your work flow. Your job description is a good place to include your mission statement. Your mission statement outlines you and your organization’s vision, why the organization exist and what it hopes to achieve in the future. Also it serves as a resource to monitor your performance and measure if you are meeting your business objectives. Steven Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, states that a mission statement is a “connection with your own unique purpose and the profound satisfaction that comes in fulfilling it.”

Are You Suffering From Time Poverty?

2007-12-18T00:04:00.000-08:00

Many people struggle to find the time to do the things they want to. There are only 24 hours in a day and that is never going to change. However, we can change how we look at time and how we use it to help us lead a fuller and more productive life.

If you have a to do list that is longer than your arm and only limited time available you are probably wondering how you can get it all done. Most likely you are feeling stressed out and helpless. However, with a little commitment and effort you can learn how to manage your time more effectively.

The first thing you need to do is to take a step back from your life and try to look at it objectively. Take some time to consider what in life means the most to you and what you really want to achieve. Once you decide what is most important to you, you can begin to move towards more effective time management.

Write down what is important to you and compare it to how you plan to spend the coming days. There will most likely be many things that are not important to you and that are not essential to get done. First remove these from your list and you will find that your schedule now looks much more manageable.

There will, of course, remain some things on the list that are not important to you that simply have to be done. At the beginning, at least, this will be a fact of life. However, effective time management can lead to some life-changing choices and help you achieve what you really want in your life.

The mismatches between how you currently spend your time and how you would like to spend your time can be very revealing as they help you identify where you need to make changes. Some of these changes may be very small while others may be life changing.

You can start on the small changes right away. These could include simple things like getting fit or learning a new hobby so all you will need to do is schedule a little time to devote to these each day.

Bigger changes will require a lot more thought and commitment, but are achievable. Perhaps you want to move house or change profession. You cannot do things like this at the drop of a hat so you need to identify the steps you need to take to achieve them.

I encourage you to break these steps into small, manageable tasks that can be easily scheduled. Using the changing profession example, a first task might be to research courses available to train you in the skills you need for your chosen new profession. This small task can easily be scheduled into one of your days. Once you begin to take action to move you in the right direction you will feel more satisfied with your life.

Finding Time For Romance Or Family

2007-12-18T00:02:00.000-08:00

Modern life in big cities has many advantages; modern malls, exciting nightlife, many luxuries and conveniences. A convenient life style is at our doorstep. Probably the greatest advantage is a smoothly operated transportation system.

The downside to all these advantages is that our lives have become complicated and rushed. We are constantly trying to cram more and more into the 24 hours of a day, leaving very little time for our personal lives. We are also expected to do more things faster with very limited time to our exposal. Our friends and family are also very busy "living" - their time being robbed as well.

We are all suffering one huge drawback, modern living robs us all of our personal time!

So the question arises: When do we find the time to spend quality time with our partners and family? The common response is: "I don't have any extra time!" or "I can't find the time!".

So, how do we manage this difficult situation? It is all about priorities. We need to actively reserve private time - time for partners, family and friends.

Our jobs require that we make appointments, arrange meetings and set time aside for particular activities. We can do the same thing with our personal lives. As long as we realize that there may be a need for some sacrifices, but they should be small. And, in time, as your life becomes more organized, you will not feel that you are making any sacrifices.

One of the largest barriers against getting organized is that we are stuck in a rut; a particular routine; doing things out of habit. When we get home after a tiresome and difficult day at work, we only want to relax. We drop down in front of the television, watching our favorite show or sports program. When weekends arrive, they become an extension of our week's after-work-behaviour: doing a lot of relaxation and less and less constructive living.

You need to take a decision to change that behavior!

The question is how?

First of all, set one evening a week aside for you and your partner, or your family. Give this night a name. Names attach importance - call that night "family time" or "date night". You may feel initially as if this time is robbing you of your relaxation time, but you will soon experience the value of togetherness that "family time" brings. Making it easy. In that way you will not feel robbed of your private time.

Changing ingrained habits can be difficult. Routines are not that easy to break and should be replaced with something else. I have found that if you can stick with this new introduction into your life for three weeks in a row, you will have experienced the benefits and not want to go back to the old routine.

Now, the next question arises: What do I do with this newfound time?

You need to plan activities for this time, or its value will not be realized and you will relapse back into old habits. Discuss plans with your partner. If your "family time" evening is with your whole family, it might need some sort of consensus decision. Or, make it a surprise â€" let a different family member come up with an idea each week.

Our family has practiced "family time" nights for a few years. The only time we skip them is during the holidays. But, we enjoy these evenings so much that after the holidays they "just start up" again.

Time Management - Accomplish More By Doing Less

2007-12-15T02:50:00.000-08:00

Effective time management is a step by step process that takes determination and a long-term commitment. However, it is essential that you do not try to take on too much, too soon. In this article I advise you on how you can manage your time effectively. We all have days when we are left frustrated and dissatisfied because we did not achieve everything we wanted to get done at the start of the day. This feeling of dissatisfaction can have a disruptive effect that can lower productivity and general happiness.

Because of this, it is essential not to pack too much into your day. It is true that we can achieve a lot if we focus and work very hard, but this is difficult to sustain and can be counter-productive in the long run. When you are planning your day you should think about how you can use your time effectively. Think about what the most important things are for you to achieve and give these priority. Make a list outlining what you have to achieve and what you would like to achieve.

Allocate time slots for the things that you have to achieve and use any left over time for the things that you would like to achieve that are most important to you. Anything else will just have to wait until another day.

If you are just starting out with managing your time more effectively you may find it difficult to gauge exactly how long a task will take. As time goes on you will get better at this but for now allow a little bit more time than you think a particular task will take. This will make sure that you do not over stretch yourself at the beginning.

You can now go about your day happy that you have given yourself realistic and achievable goals. This will allow you to work in a relaxed and stress-free manner and most of us work better when we are relaxed.

However, it is at the end of the day that you will feel the most benefit from the exercise. The feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction will be replaced by a sense of achievement, and contentment that you have had a full and productive day where you attained all of your goals. This will leave you ready for the next day and, in the long run, increase your productivity and quality of life.

As mentioned, as time goes on you will be able get better at estimating how long various tasks will take. Two tools that can help you with this are the time log and the time plan.

A time log is basically a list of how you spend your time every day. Try writing down how you spend your time each day for a week. You will probably surprised at the results. This will allow you to see exactly where your time goes and will show you how long different things take. You can use this information to make a time plan for how you are going to spend each day.

Time Management Tips - Helpful Strategies to Manage Your Time and Get Things Done

2007-12-15T02:49:00.000-08:00

"If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done," said a wisecracking piece of stationery I once came across in a store. But if you were to learn proper time management tips, you wouldn't need that procrastinator's motivator of a last minute in the first place. Here are some useful time management tips to help keep you and your time in tip-top shape:

1. Delegate. Recent studies show that multitasking, rather than being an asset, is actually quite detrimental to productivity, as opposed to focusing on one job at a time. You cannot do everything by yourself. You are not superhuman after all. Know your limits and don't be afraid to say "no" to more work or get others to share the load.

2. Don't procrastinate. All this does is pile up your work, making it even more daunting. And the more daunting it is, the less you'll be inclined to work on it, and the more you'll put it off. It's a vicious cycle, indeed. So another time management tip is to break the task apart into several tiny, more manageable pieces. Work on these pieces one at a time and before you know it, you have conquered the project in its entirety.

3. Personalize. Work on your workspace so that it is conducive to productivity. Get rid of distractions, but do what works best for you. Some people prefer a desk that is the epitome of organization. But if your clutter is your very life source, the fuel from which you derive all of your creative energy, then keep the mess-as long as it's organized mess, meaning you know exactly where everything is so that you don't waste precious time scrounging around for this paper or anything else you might need.

4. Reward yourself for a job well done. Hard-earned rewards can be added motivation, goals toward which you can strive. They make work that much more satisfying and fulfilling.

Time is such an invaluable resource. So simply follow these time management tips and actually get things done - right on time and without ever having to rely on the last minute.

Time Management Techniques for the Work at Home Mom

2007-12-12T00:31:00.000-08:00

Time management is something that many people battle with and for the work at home mom trying to juggle many different roles and responsibilities this can be particularly difficult. In this article we give some strategies that you can use to manage your time more effectively.

A Diary is Essential for Effective Time Management

The first time management tool that a work at home mom should not be without is a diary. Making a list of what you need to accomplish each day will help to ensure that you manage your time in order to get the best results and get done what you need to. Use your diary to write down appointments and keep your to-do list.

Find Ways to Double Your Time or Automate Processes

Another way the work at home mom can manage her time more effectively is by learning to double time or automate processes. Some things can be done at the same time such as phoning and ironing, listening to tapes and doing the washing, etc. Various aspects of your business may also be automated if you work online and you should learn all you can about automation in order to save more time for the things you cannot automate.

Do the Important Things First

Start your day by doing the most important things you have to do. If this is work-related and you have small children then it is probably best to wake up a little earlier than they do and get the most important work-related task done before they wake up. This way you will not be stressing about it for the rest of the day.

Don't Be Dictated to by the Tyranny of the Urgent

There are many things which demand immediate notice that are not really urgent and it is important that our lives are not dictated to by these things. The telephone is a prime example but instead of always answering, get an answering service and return phone calls at a time that is more appropriate to you; don't always feel that you need to check your email but make set times when you do and reply to emails.

Get Up Early or Go to Bed Late

When you have small children they may make a lot of demands on you during the day and so in order to manage your time more effectively you should try to either wake up early and get some work or housework done before they wake up, or do some after they have gone to bed. This means that you will be more ready for their interruptions during the day and will not feel as stressed when you are not able to get everything done then.

Being a work at home mom requires special time management skills in order to cope effectively. You should learn how to use your time more effectively by doubling time, automating tasks, waking up early or going to bed late, and doing the most important task first. A diary is also a critical time management tool to help you get more out of your day.

The Importance of Time Management

2007-12-12T00:28:00.000-08:00

Learning better time management skills will help the manager efficiently to work through the stressful tasks that they encounter as managers. They have to deal with deadlines and other time constraints on a daily basis. Because of these time constraints, managers need to learn how to maximize their time at work by doing more important tasks.

Effective Time Management

Every field deals with different levels of time stress so; therefore, there are several methods of time management that can prove to be useful for these fields. Using effective time management practices will help to ensure quality use of time as well as efficiency. By working smarter rather than working harder, managers may realize how much time they are saving and consuming in an appropriate manner. One can really reduce its stress if it follows the some of the suggestion.

"To do"List for Time Management

The most basic way to start beating away at the problem of losing time is by getting into a routine of making "To-Do" lists and daily reminders. While managing time, it is always suggested that you should have only one list, not a multiple list on a separate scraps of paper. Moreover, put the "To-Do" at that place where you see after every hour or more than that so that it keeps reminding you about your important task.

Prioritize Significant Task

Another method of effective time management is to handles the daily tasks by prioritizing them. By doing this you will able to separate your tasks in accordance with their significance and relevancy and deal with them one at a time or you can delegate your work to your subordinates also.

Ability to Say "No"

The ability to say "no" to tasks and other affairs that are not really important when time is not on your side is an effective time management skill. By turning things down and staying committed to your task will save time because you will be able to complete this task in the time you have allotted.

Time Will No More Your Enemy

Managing time is important for managers for various reasons. Getting tasks done at right time is the first thing that a manager should understand to save his time for other useful tasks. Saving this time means saving time for the company. While time is an enemy for majority of people but those who know how to use time wisely they don't follow time but time follows them.

3 Simple Strategies for Time Management

2007-12-05T01:45:00.001-08:00

In working with coaching clients, one of the most common issues that comes up is the problem of overwhelm, of getting things done. I have studied some of the great time management classics for years and am always fascinated by the systems people develop, but for some reason I never manage to stick with them.

First of all, you can't manage time. Time simply "marches on." But you can manage your activity, your productivity. Here are 3 Simple Strategies for managing your productivity.

1. Write down everything.

As a mentor of mine says, "If it's not written down, it doesn't exist." Simply capture everything that comes to you - ideas, projects, to-dos, things to remember like phone numbers. Schedule some time on a regular basis, daily or weekly, to sort that information into projects, to-do lists, or reference files.

2. Make decisions quickly.

Decide to do it, delegate it, delay it, or dump it.

3. Do one thing at a time.

Multitasking is a myth. It doesn't work. Focus on accomplishing one thing at a time. Any project, no matter how big, is a series of individual tasks, and individual tasks can even be broken down into individual actions. Remember - How do you eat an elephant? ......1 bite at a time.

Time Saving Tips to Survive the Holidays and Beyond

2007-12-05T01:43:00.000-08:00

We mommies, have more than enough to do in a day. Wake the kids, make lunches, breakfast, out the door, work, homework, laundry, dinner, baths, bedtime routines, and much more. Then add the holidays with family obligations, gift shopping, decorating, parties, and the list goes on.

Feeling overwhelmed yet? You don't have to. Below are 7 tips to help you maximize your time and enjoy it.

1. Make a List - Ok, pretty basic, but writing down all you have to do will insure a smooth plan and less stress.

2. Prioritize - Be honest. Not every task has to get done first. What important things must be done? Put those at the top of your list.

3. Eliminate - The items towards the bottom or your list can wait, for now or forever. If a task doesn't contribute to your immediate goal or purpose - get rid of it. If you really must remember it for the future; then create a master list.

4. Delegate - No matter what age your children are they can contribute. Younger kids can clear or set the table, pick up their toys, even make their own beds. Older kids can, do dishes, a load or two of laundry or help the younger kids with homework. You don't have to do it all; so don't.

5. Say NO - You are not Wonder Woman or Super Mom. It is ok to say no. No, to that party, no to helping with that school social. You can say no this time and go or help next time.

6. Simplify - Decide what's really important. Do you really need to put out all of the decorations? Do you really need to host a big dinner party? Does everyone you know really need to receive a gift? Do you really need to back all those goodies? If something is important, trim it back a bit.

7. Make time for you - what do you enjoy? Take time to rejuvenate. Put the kids to bed a half hour early and take a bath. Hire a babysitter for a few hours and go to a movie. You deserve it. And so do your loved ones. Make time for what you enjoy. And always remember, "If momma ain't happy; ain't nobody happy."

Spend a week applying each tip for one day. See how much more relaxed and peaceful life is. Your kids will enjoy the less stressful environment as well. Let me know what tip was most helpful. It is time to enjoy life and not just live in it.

The Importance of Time Management

2007-11-30T02:26:00.001-08:00

Accomplish More By Working With Your Time

2007-11-30T02:24:00.000-08:00

With today's busy lifestyle you will often feel that there simply isn't enough time to do everything you want to do. Most of us have busy work schedules and have families to look after so every minute of leisure time seems like a valuable commodity. However, there are some simple steps you can take to get more out of your day.

Whether you work in an office or run your own business, managing your time effectively can make you more productive and free up more time for the activities you enjoy. However, you will have to make some changes before you can do this effectively.

The first thing you have to do is accept that there is only so much time available in any day. We all have days where we are extremely productive and even achieve more than we thought possible. However, this is rarely sustainable and sooner or later you will burn out if you try to pack too much into each day.

So when you are planning your time for a day, you need to think about what you can realistically achieve with the time you have. One option is to allocate certain amounts of time for certain things. For example, you might want to dedicate nine hours to work, two hours to chores, three hours to your family and two hours to doing something that you enjoy on your own.

There is only a certain amount of time available to you and you can not change that. However, you can learn to use this time in the most effective way possible. First, I invite you to take some time to consider what is most important to you and what you are good at. These are the things that you need to be spending your time on.

If for example, you develop websites you will have different tasks such as graphic design, programming and writing content. Perhaps you have a flair for graphic design and programming and you are very productive with these tasks, but you struggle when it comes to writing content. In this case you need to delegate the writing work and concentrate on what you are good at. This is effective time management as it will boost productivity and ensure that you are spending your time on something you are good at and enjoy.

It may take a few weeks, but if you actively try to identify what is important to you, you will quickly learn how you really need to be spending your time. This will allow you to plan out your day effectively and give you a satisfying sense of control.

However, you could even take it one step further by choosing the best time of the day to do certain tasks. If you look at your working day closely you will find that there are certain times when you are suited to certain tasks.

For example, we are usually most alert in the morning so you may want to use the early hours of your day for the work that takes the most brain power. In the afternoon you may find that your energy is more suited to meetings or making phone calls, while you might like to wind up your day with basic housekeeping tasks like filing emails or updating your contacts. This will vary from person to person so experiment with it and you will be able to see when you are most suited to certain tasks. Once you have an idea you can plan your day accordingly to boost productivity.

Time Management Through Meditation

2007-11-22T02:51:00.001-08:00

How do you deal with the ever expanding demands on your time? What do you do on a regular basis to put your first things first?

People are often surprised when I tell them that I meditate daily. Maybe they don't think that I look like the meditation type? I am not sure. What does your average meditator look like? I do not walk through the halls chanting " om..." but I do work in a very demanding field where burn-out is epidemic. Meditation is teaching me to put things in perspective. I am learning to use meditation as a means to stay mindful. Mindful of what is important to me. It is easy to get caught up in making plans, worrying about what happened yesterday and what lies ahead today or tomorrow or next Thursday. Do you find that you want to manage your time? When I googled time management I got 114 million hits. Apparently managing our time is very important to us.

Stephen Covey, who has written numerous books on how to manage our business/personal lives, how to set and achieve goals, how to make the most of what we have... states that we cannot manage time. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, the same number of days in the week... etc. So we cannot manage time but... we can make choices around how we use the time we do have.

What is time really? It is an ethereal mechanical measurement that we often feel dictates much of our life. There is pressure to perform, pressure to have a certain body of work done by a 'deadline', pressure to let time manage us. What if instead of measuring our accomplishments and our expectations by past present and future we simply lived the experiences.

But, how do we do that? How do we move from our heads into our heart/soul/spirit? To be in-spirit (or to be inspired) is to take something in, not just into your brain/mind/ego, but into your inner being, into your spirit. To go within, to be in-spirit, to let go of ego and BE. I was inspired by a blog entry I read that was written by Gregg Krech. Gregg and Linda Anderson run a retreat centre in Vermont, The ToDo Institute (pronounced toe-doe) where "By blending Japanese approaches to mental health, they provide an approach to living well that bridges the gap between the spiritual, the psychological and the practical."

Gregg's blog entry is about awakening, how he has changed his focus upon waking each morning. Instead of waking up and starting right off the bat to plan his day, rather than jump right into considering all of the many tasks that lay before him he has taken to spending the first few minutes being mindful - in the moment. He takes a moment to be thankful for having a warm bed to sleep in, he takes a second to stretch and be thankful for the body parts that move at his subconscious will, he breaths, he enjoys the first sounds of nature beginning to stir outside, the song of an early bird, the whispering of the wind, the lightening of the sky.

That is what meditation does for me. It gives me the opportunity to stop in a perpetual-motion-kind-of-day , to take stock, to slow my life down to something as simple as breathing in and breathing out. It allows me to slow to a speed where I can luxuriate in the scent of a freshly cut flower. I can bathe in the warmth of the sun coming in the window. I can savor the taste of warm sweet tea. With each breath in a renewed energy fills me up, with each breath out a letting go of tension, concerns as well as a soft outflowing of my gifts to share with the world.

Time Management Through Task Templates - Fast Answers to FAQ's to Get You Started in No Time

2007-11-22T02:49:00.000-08:00

Time management is highly prized by most people - and finding time is even preferred over earning more money, recent studies report. But if you don't use your time effectively, you simply lose the time you have found.

This is where task templates will help you. Task templates are simple, flexible systems for managing your time and shaping your schedule. Once you start using them, you'll wonder how you ever got by without them!

Task templates FAQS:

Q: How will task templates help me?

A: Task templates combine personal effectiveness with stress management by helping you avoid:

1. Bottlenecks
2. Late charges
3. Missed appointments
4. Under-preparing for key encounters
5. Reinventing the wheel for recurrent events

Task templates capitalize on what your mind does best, which is creating patterns. Those patterns highlight where you want to go and what you want to avoid in a given period of time. Your brain isn't hardwired to recall, shuffle and re-prioritize multiple items in your head. But the task templates you create will put everything in front of you quickly and clearly written out. This frees up your mind to assess your options, prioritize and launch into action. And that frees up your time.

Q: Which activities are task templates best suited for?

A: Any repetitive activity with multiple steps can be streamlined with task templates.

Use them as a framework for your activities. By creating task templates, you develop a simple outline for your projects that you can refer to time after time. For example, they can help you with:

1. Tax preparation
2. Holiday planning
3. Spring cleaning
4. Packing for trips
5. Financial reports

Q: How do I get started?

A: Follow this template and see how much time you save.

1. List activities or projects where a template would be helpful to you, using the examples above for a guide.
2. Select one project you'd like to work with first.
3. Jot down each activity associated with this project. If applicable, also include all supplies you will need.
4. Order them chronologically.
5. Place all the task templates you create in a loose-leaf notebook or in a dedicated file on your desktop. That will keep them easily accessible.
6. Put the template you are currently using in the appropriate workspace. If it's helpful, print out several copies to post in multiple locations.
7. Review your task templates to see if important areas have been overlooked. Revise accordingly.

Task templates are infinitely flexible systems. The more you utilize them:

* The more constructive uses you'll imagine.
* The more confidence you'll place in them.
* The more confidence you'll have in yourself.

Effective Stress Management Techniques in Just Five Minutes Daily!

2007-11-17T04:53:00.001-08:00

Each and every one of us has experienced stress. There are many different types of stress that an individual can experience - even good stress - however, this little "six letter word" is often viewed in a negative light. Practically any and every single thing that we experience in life can be viewed as stressful. Seeing that stress can induce many negative physiological responses in the body, it is essential that we learn methods to effectively manage it. In this article, you will learn some effective stress management techniques that you can experiment with in just five minutes daily!

We are all familiar with the concept of routine. Many times, we speak of the fact that life is unpredictable. However, when we really think about it, there is some form of routine when it comes to our lives. We usually wake up and follow a certain pattern when it comes to preparing for our day. When employing the use of stress management techniques, it is important to ensure that we make them part of our everyday life. We must make sure that these techniques are just as routine as brushing our teeth and showering.

The first effective stress management technique that you can use on a daily basis is the ability to manage your time as appropriate. If you are able to carefully outline your day in such a way that allows you to work, spend time with your family, handle your basic responsibilities, visit with friends, and take time for yourself, you will start to experience less stress on a daily basis. Managing your time will help you to spend more time with those that you love, increase your productivity, and ultimately increase your performance in all areas of your life.

There are many ways that you make the best use of your time. The following outlines some valuable techniques that you can use for time management purposes:

- The first thing that you should do when delegating your time is to set some time to the side for yourself.

- If you are having a difficult time delegating your time appropriately, you should create a time-tracking system that will accurately reflect exactly how you are spending your hours each day.

- You should prioritize the things that you need to do each day based on the important to the least important. By doing this, you can ensure that everything is being completed as it should be.

- You may benefit from using time management tools, like a planner or computer software.

- It is important that you keep a careful eye on your commitments and that you learn to say "no" if it becomes necessary.

- Remember, ultimately, your time is your own and you should treat it as one of your most valuable assets.

The next thing that you should do in order to effectively manage stress is to make sure that your lifestyle reflects activities and things that are not stressful. It is important to achieve some sort of balance in your life. You should be able to appropriately define your goals and purpose in life. If you are unsure of what this is, create goals and purpose! It is also important to ensure that you are consuming foods that are healthy, getting the right amount of exercise, and are sleeping well. All of these methods will help you to manage and alleviate stress that you may encounter.

Each and every single one of us benefit in numerous ways by having the support of our friends and family members. It is important that we each have a well-rounded group of people that we can lean on, and learn from. Every person has a basic need to feel valued and loved. If each of us has this, then we can effectively manage the stress that we experience in our lives. Just remember to nurture these important relationships and they will continue to nurture us.

7 Steps to Taking Control of Your Time

2007-11-17T04:51:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest obstacles to business success is allowing yourself to feel at the mercy of time.

It's too easy to say "I don't have time" but you choose how to spend your time and you can spend it wisely or badly.

Here are 7 ways in which you can take control of your time.

1. Stop inputting and start outputting

It's easy to be busy taking in new information and ideas but it's only taking action on them that gets results. If you're inputting information, you're not outputting real work and making money. If you're an info junkie, perhaps you need to go on an info diet.

2. Always remember why you are doing it

If you have set a clear vision for your business and distinct milestones on your way to achieving it, you'll find it much easier to manage your time.

If you are spending time on something that doesn't contribute towards getting your goals, you have to challenge yourself about why you are doing it.

3. Plan your day and stick to your plan

A minute spent planning can easily save you an hour later on. You should set aside particular times every day, week and month for planning. During this time, reflect on past achievements and future goals.

The best way to schedule is to split large tasks into smaller steps. It feels wonderful when you are able to tick it off at the end of the day and works as a great motivator.

4. Prioritize your time

Prioritization is figuring out which tasks are most important at a particular time and focus your attention, time and energy on them.

This means recognizing the difference between 'important' tasks (those that help us achieve our goals) and 'urgent' ones (which demand immediate attention but may not be related to our goals). Another important distinction is recognizing the difference between 'productive' time (which generates income) and 'unproductive' time (which makes no money).

5. Say No ' to yourself as well as to others

The truth is, no matter how efficient you are, you can't do everything. So, one of the most useful things you can do is go through your 'to-do' list and decide what you don't really need to do.

The management guru Peter Drucker said: "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently something which shouldn't be done at all." Before you get into doing the things on your to-do list, consider whether they'd be better on your 'not-to-do' list.

Learning to say no is a vital time management skill. People much prefer to be told 'no' right away, rather than being let down later.

6. Develop systems and processes

If you have your work organized into clear processes, it makes it much easier to delegate. And, even if you're doing the work yourself, writing down the steps involved helps you use your time more efficiently. Productivity expert William Edwards Denning said: "If you can't describe what you're doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing."

7. Take care of yourself

If you are going to get things done and also to enjoy the lifestyle you want, you have to allocate time to doing things that you enjoy and taking care of yourself physically. Eat well, drink water, get plenty of sleep, relax, and take time off.

Procrastination - Getting Unblocked And Improve Time Management To Beat Procrastination

2007-11-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been stuck on getting something done? Perhaps you got distracted, finished something else instead of your intended goal, or just plain did not do it because of something holding you back

When you want to get something done, reorganize your thinking and activity pattern to get your mind and body in a better position to succeed.

Here are some tips that will help you complete your goal:

1. Move around - Go open or shut the windows, climb the steps or do some stretching exercises. This will get the blood flowing and the mind will start to quiet down after some movement. Make the bed or refill the pet water bowl.

2. Drink water - As the cells begin to dehydrate the body gets fatigued The body will be more equipped to think and function when fully hydrated and joints lubricated.

3. Get a snack - Eat a healthy snack like fresh fruit, almonds, grapefruit, watermelon, broccoli, or mangos. Foods that are alkaline versus acidifying will put the body more in balance. Stay away from refined sugars, coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol.

4. Relaxation techniques - deep breath, do some guided imagery or a brief meditation. Shoulder shrugs will help ease tension in the head and neck area.

5. Be in the here and now - stay in the moment. The more you can do this the quicker you will get the job done. Put a sign up in front of you if you have to.

6. Stay alert - essential oils (citrus oils such as lemon and grapefruit) have been known to improve mental accuracy and concentration.

7. Set a time line - give yourself a deadline to complete the task. Make it realistic and do not let up until it is completed. You can set a timer to help keep you on task.

Do not get distracted! If you feel yourself heading in the opposite direction, stop yourself, acknowledge that you got distracted, tell yourself 'NO' and get back on track. The more that you can do this "self-talk" the better your concentration will be and the less you will be distracted.

Procrastination, in other words, can be over come by staying focused. Keep telling yourself that you can "do it later" as things keep popping up in your mind. Handle any emergencies that come up and get right back to the task. If you are typing on the keyboard do not lift your hands up. Keep your fingers on the keys. If you are writing do not lift up the pen. Your mind will supply you with the next thing. You can go back and edit it later.

Time Management Technique - Sticky Note Mania

2007-11-16T00:03:00.000-08:00

Are you trying to find your life under a blizzard of sticky notes? If someone visited your home or office and began to look around would they find a sticky note in, on , or around almost every area and everything? Perhaps a good time management technique for you is to evaluate your use of one of the most used modern inventions, the sticky note.

Sticky notes are a great tool for the right applications. Unfortunately many times you use them for the wrong application, and eventually it begins to cause you problems. Sticky notes are great for marking a page and making references you don’t want permanently left on the page. They can be a great tool to use when you have a lot of steps and you aren’t sure of the order, and you can keep rearranging the notes until you’re satisfied you have them in the right order. There are many other great uses for sticky notes, but just as many ineffective uses.

One reason sticky notes may not be a good time management technique for you is that you tend to randomly have them everywhere. Your sticky notes will work much better for you if you group them by category, and then prioritize them within the category. The down side to sticky notes is they may not be as portable or transportable as you need. The next time you reach for a sticky note ask yourself if it’s the best tool for your needs. Have you ever thrown one away only to have to dig through the garbage trying to find it later?

A solid time management technique is to do things only once. Would one “To Do” list or project list or action notebook work better than a blizzard of sticky notes here, there, and everywhere around your home and office? When you get pare things down to, for example, one action notebook that you can take with you and check things off as they are done you may find that you not only make your life less complicated but more efficient too.

Time Management & Success Strategy - Achieve More by Doing Less

2007-11-15T22:33:00.000-08:00

Achieve more by doing less" said Dr Wayne Dyer. It sounds nonsensical at first but there is a powerful truth behind this statement and it is a key time management and success strategy whether successful people use it consciously or not.

There are several ways to achieving more by doing less and becoming super-productive. Let's take a brief look at three ways this goal can be achieved.

1. Do things in a calm, relaxed manner

Have you ever noticed how frenetic some people are in doing their activities? When you work in a calm, relaxed manner you achieve more in less time.

I once watched former 400m athlete, Roger Black, take part in a celebrity chef competition. His kitchen looked liked a disaster zone. There were ingredients scattered everywhere. He was preparing food on every surface imaginable. Sweat was pouring from his brow. He looked tense and stressed and barely finished in the allotted time.

In contrast, in another competition, a chef who in the past had found the time limit somewhat a constraint, decided to create a simple yet at the same time sophisticated starter. This meant he had more time to concentrate on preparing his main course and dessert. He appeared busy, yet unhurried. He was in control. As Gordon Ramsay of Hell's Kitchen fame said to his protégés:

"You control the kitchen or the kitchen controls you."

The dishes prepared by this chef were visually stunning and from the expressions and comments of the judges they tasted great. He was crowned "Master Chef".

There is another lesson that can be learned from this in relation to the "doing less" theme:

"Focus on the key elements of your project - the elements that will have the greatest impact on your business success."

2. Systemise

Create systems for the things you do on a regular basis. Systems may take time to install and implement but, in the long run, they will save you time, energy and money. Businesses often get up and running and then decide to adopt various systems to smooth operations. Deciding upon the systems you need upfront can be very beneficial to your bottom line. Plus, if you hire staff they will have a set of procedures to follow. This will have the added advantage of standardising what you do and make it easier to test the effectiveness of your strategies.

In some cases you will be able to use ready-made systems. However, for unique or highly specialised projects you may need something that is customised. Again, the initial outlay may be costly but, in the long term, you will recoup your investment through being able to optimise your business more efficiently. The systems you implement can then improve your business's profit margins and cash flow while reducing your work load.

3. Go with the flow

If you swim against the current you will get nowhere fast and expend a lot of energy in the process. When life feels like a constant uphill struggle it is an indication that you are probably either doing the wrong thing or doing the right thing in the wrong way. At times like this it's important to stop, reassess where you are and where you are heading. If you suspect that you are working towards the wrong goal examine your motives for doing what you are doing. Your answer may help you to discover a far easier way to achieve your goal.

If you set out on a journey and discover you are going the wrong way you wouldn't continue along the same route and expect to arrive at your planned destination. In the same way, if you discover that what you are doing isn't working, it's time to make a course correction. It may be a small issue that is affecting your progress. However, unless you review and evaluate your progress you will continue to go headlong in the wrong direction and you will continually feel as if you are doing battle. You will lose the ability to feel the joy that should be associated with your life's work.

Yes, if you're not enjoying your work, if you're not having fun, it is a clear sign that all is not well and that you're going against your flow.

Imagine a life where you thoroughly enjoy your work and where you regularly take time off to replenish your spirit and have fun doing other activities. Just think how healthy you would feel plus your creativity and productivity would soar!

Time Management Training - Do You Know How You're Spending Your Time Now?

2007-11-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

Time management training helps you to see how you use your time now. If you’re like most people you really don’t know how you are spending your time now. You let time slip away and at the end of the day you just don’t know where it went.

Taking one week and tracking how you really spend your time is an eye opening time management training technique. Most people find it very hard to do this, but they also find great value in the exercise. Track your time each day in 30 minute increments just noting how you are spending your time each interval. You have to do this as you go. Trying to write down how you spent each interval at the end of the day just won’t work. It doesn’t even work waiting a few hours. You simply won’t be able to recall how you really spent that time.

The value of this time management training technique comes from the big picture. At the end of the week group your activities into big categories like: phone calls, appointments, projects, etc. Then total up how much time was spent in each category. Most people are shocked to learn how much of their time is literally wasted on unimportant things.

The power of this time management training technique comes for taking what you know to create what you want. Now that you know how you are spending your time currently you can change your future by planning how you will use your time. Currently you plan your time for how things are and as long as you continue to do that things will remain unchanged for you. If you want to use your time differently you have to start by planning how you want to use your time actually making appointments or blocking out time in your calendar and then stick as closely to your plan as possible.

You can’t ever change the unexpected, but you can change how you respond to the unexpected. With your newly laid plans for how you will spend your time you are prepared to deal with the unexpected. When the unexpected happens, and it will, you can look at your calendar evaluate the importance of the unexpected and determine either when you will schedule it in or if it truly has to be dealt with now how you will rearrange your calendar to compensate.

Would you like to learn more about your time behaviors? Try this Time Management Analysis and find out where your opportunities for improvement are.

Time Management & Success Strategy - Achieve More by Doing Less

2007-11-14T21:11:00.000-08:00

"Achieve more by doing less" said Dr Wayne Dyer. It sounds nonsensical at first but there is a powerful truth behind this statement and it is a key time management and success strategy whether successful people use it consciously or not.

There are several ways to achieving more by doing less and becoming super-productive. Let's take a brief look at three ways this goal can be achieved.

1. Do things in a calm, relaxed manner

Have you ever noticed how frenetic some people are in doing their activities? When you work in a calm, relaxed manner you achieve more in less time.

I once watched former 400m athlete, Roger Black, take part in a celebrity chef competition. His kitchen looked liked a disaster zone. There were ingredients scattered everywhere. He was preparing food on every surface imaginable. Sweat was pouring from his brow. He looked tense and stressed and barely finished in the allotted time.

In contrast, in another competition, a chef who in the past had found the time limit somewhat a constraint, decided to create a simple yet at the same time sophisticated starter. This meant he had more time to concentrate on preparing his main course and dessert. He appeared busy, yet unhurried. He was in control. As Gordon Ramsay of Hell's Kitchen fame said to his protégés:

"You control the kitchen or the kitchen controls you."

The dishes prepared by this chef were visually stunning and from the expressions and comments of the judges they tasted great. He was crowned "Master Chef".

There is another lesson that can be learned from this in relation to the "doing less" theme:

"Focus on the key elements of your project - the elements that will have the greatest impact on your business success."

2. Systemise

Create systems for the things you do on a regular basis. Systems may take time to install and implement but, in the long run, they will save you time, energy and money. Businesses often get up and running and then decide to adopt various systems to smooth operations. Deciding upon the systems you need upfront can be very beneficial to your bottom line. Plus, if you hire staff they will have a set of procedures to follow. This will have the added advantage of standardising what you do and make it easier to test the effectiveness of your strategies.

In some cases you will be able to use ready-made systems. However, for unique or highly specialised projects you may need something that is customised. Again, the initial outlay may be costly but, in the long term, you will recoup your investment through being able to optimise your business more efficiently. The systems you implement can then improve your business's profit margins and cash flow while reducing your work load.

3. Go with the flow

If you swim against the current you will get nowhere fast and expend a lot of energy in the process. When life feels like a constant uphill struggle it is an indication that you are probably either doing the wrong thing or doing the right thing in the wrong way. At times like this it's important to stop, reassess where you are and where you are heading. If you suspect that you are working towards the wrong goal examine your motives for doing what you are doing. Your answer may help you to discover a far easier way to achieve your goal.

If you set out on a journey and discover you are going the wrong way you wouldn't continue along the same route and expect to arrive at your planned destination. In the same way, if you discover that what you are doing isn't working, it's time to make a course correction. It may be a small issue that is affecting your progress. However, unless you review and evaluate your progress you will continue to go headlong in the wrong direction and you will continually feel as if you are doing battle. You will lose the ability to feel the joy that should be associated with your life's work.

Yes, if you're not enjoying your work, if you're not having fun, it is a clear sign that all is not well and that you're going against your flow.

Imagine a life where you thoroughly enjoy your work and where you regularly take time off to replenish your spirit and have fun doing other activities. Just think how healthy you would feel plus your creativity and productivity would soar!

Most people say that they work to earn money. The world-renowned philosopher, Bob Proctor, says you should go to work for satisfaction and that you earn money through multiple streams of income. There is also a saying that:

"The more time off you take - the more money you're likely to make".

It's a question of discovering how to work on your business rather than in it. So re-examine the way you work to see how you can "achieve more by doing less".

Time Management Training - Do You Know How You're Spending Your Time Now?

2007-11-14T21:10:00.000-08:00

Time Management - How To Use A System That Will Give You Time For Everything and Lead You To Success

2007-11-12T02:36:00.000-08:00

Time management is a challenge for most of us. We make lists of things we need to get done and keep written and electronic plan books to make sure we don't miss a meeting or an appointment. By the end of the week we still have several things on our list that we did not get to and several more important things have been added. We may have had to reschedule an appointment because of something that came up and conflicted with our time.

There is an easier and better way. It is a process that I learned years ago when I was attending a program on personal development. It was referred to then as rocks, pebbles, sand and I still think of it that way. Let me explain further.

The speaker made a visual presentation that was very powerful and has stayed with me all this time. He brought out a large, wide-mouthed jar and filled it with rocks that were three or four inched in diameter. He asked the audience if the jar was full. We all agreed that it was. He then brought out a container filled with small pebbles. He poured the pebbles into the jar until it could hold no more. We now were sure that the jar was full. He smiled, and then brought out a bag of sand. As we laughed and looked on, this man then filled in all of the open spaces with the fine-grained sand and even he agreed with us that the jar was finally full. He continued his speech and suddenly, out of nowhere, a man came up to the stage with a pitcher of water.

The speaker now poured the water over the mixture of rocks, pebbles and sand. When no more water could go into the jar without it running over the sides we saw that the jar was now more than full; it was completely full.

He went on to speak about this for more than an hour. He explained that the rocks represented the one or two things that are the most important to us in our lives. These things may include family, faith, work, school or anything that you make time for no matter what. He then brought out a large desk calendar and showed that he had used a red marker to indicate the time he set aside for his rocks, which were his wife and daughter and his church. He said that he blocked off the time he spent with his rocks before he made any other appointments.

Then he brought out another calendar that had the red times along with some blue ones. These were his pebbles, and included his business and his close friends. Because he had owned his business for several years now, it was no longer a rock to him. It had become a pebble and was given less time and a lower priority in his life.

The last calendar he showed us had red, blue and green markings. The green items were his sand; the things he liked to do and needed to do, but the things that were also given the very least importance in terms of his time. He pointed out a dentist appointment, a book he wanted to finish reading, and a movie he intended to watch. The water represented anything else that came up at the last minute, like going to dinner with people he didn’t know very well or looking for a new pair of shoes.

Beware of Habits That Nibble Away at Your Time

2007-11-12T02:33:00.000-08:00

You may have heard it mentioned that time management is really about managing ones self.

That truth becomes all the more apparent when your ingrained habits seem to chew away at the time you have available each day.

Most of us deal with a few “bad habits,” but sometimes our habits move beyond “bad” into “destructive and limiting.” Does this describe some of your habits? And do those habits make managing your life almost impossible?

When it comes to bad habits, there are several that can completely stall your efforts at effective time management, but here are two common ones to start with:

1. Procrastination. This is a habit that can range from mildly annoying to downright debilitating. While some people procrastinate only occasionally, others have gotten locked into a rut of inaction that will eventually create severe problems in their lives.

2. How often do you procrastinate? Do you consistently avoid doing the things that would make your life easier? Is your favorite phrase, “I’ll do it later”? If so, you are likely causing more problems for yourself because you can’t realistically do everything later.” As a result, more and more things aren’t done getting done, right?

In order to overcome this habit, you’ll need to develop a stronger will to do certain things immediately instead of setting them aside until later. You’ll find that many tasks you’re tempted to put off until later really wouldn’t take that much time if you’d just get them over with quickly.

When you do decide to set a task aside for later, just be sure you schedule time for it so it doesn’t remain in the “later” category forevermore!

Time Management is the Key to Success for Working at Home

2007-11-05T23:04:00.001-08:00

One of the luxuries of working at home is having your own schedule. However, if you don't manage your time and set rules for yourself, then it's too easy to be distracted. You need to treat your work like any other job. Set work hours. For this to work, you need to tune out everything else during this time. Don't chat on IM (unless it's work related), make social phone calls, do the laundry, etc. I know how easy it is to start chatting on MSN or browsing the web with the excuse of research. Those things can wait. Make sure that your friends and family are aware of your schedule. If they stop by for a visit, turn them away. Tell them you're working and to call next time or come during a different time of day. Be firm, this is your career on the line. If it's not important to you then it won't be important to them.

Set guidelines for interruptions. There will be emergencies or family situations that demand attention. Don't let yourself be interrupted for anything less important. Come up with a signal that the rest of the household can use to let you know they need your attention. Create a special knock, or have an object they can set on your desk. If you're married and have children, let your spouse get the child a snack or entertain him for a while. Get the household's help with the laundry or with meals. Your time will be more efficient if you focus completely on your work.

Also important is leaving your work alone when it's not work time. Put it out of your mind, spend some time with family, or get other things done. If you have a phone number for your job, set it so an answering machine picks up the calls. Unless you're a doctor, it's highly unlikely that your client's calls can't wait. Don't let them take advantage of you by being available 24/7.

With specific work hours, you can then go on to create a calendar and set business goals. A calendar will help you to manage clients and projects, avoiding the overbooking or taking on more than you can handle. Start a spreadsheet and keep track of exactly how long it takes you to do anything business related. Include time for business calls, writing articles, meeting with clients, whatever it is that you do. You can then look it over and see exactly how much time you're spending on work and go on to calculate how much you make an hour. Make every minute count.

Set business goals to improve those areas that aren't holding their weight. Are you spending too much time on the phone when you're more productive in person? Make adjustments. Do you have work hours that are wasted? Take on another project or client, make more money for your time.

Notebook As A Tool Of Time Management

2007-11-05T23:00:00.000-08:00

Notebooks have emerged as a bare essential for the business executives who carry their work along with themselves. Notebooks which are also known as laptops can facilitate the work process thereby saving substantial and valuable time. In short, it is used as tool of time management.

Owning a notebook is a dream of many, but since it is very expensive nobody buys it unless it is indispensable to them. However, some people having shoe-string budget look for a good notebook. They are the ones who need detailed and comprehensive information on notebooks and laptops before they settle for one.

Basically, buying a notebook or laptop largely depends upon the personal choice, specific requirement and social status of a person. Besides, different manufacturers are introducing notebooks of different look with a wide-range of features. However, some notebooks are launched in the market to cater to a particular segment of buyers keeping in mind of their specific needs. Accordingly, these laptops differ in flavor, class and quality.

Let`s take a look at the various types of notebooks that are available in the market today. Keeping various factors in consideration the notebooks can be broadly divided into four major categories, such as:

Budget laptops - Typically, these laptops cost around US$ 1000 to $ 1200.

Mid-range laptops - Notebooks of this category can be found with a price-tag of about US$1200 to $1600.

Ultra-portable laptops - These light-weight laptops ranges from US$1600 to $2200.

Laptops for the people with a class apart. With all the standard and advanced features in these notebooks, they cost above US$2200.

Performance test of laptops:

Notebooks can be tested on the basis of certain benchmarks such as Multimedia content creation 2003 and Business Winston 2002. These tests determine the performance ability of different notebooks with regard to regular productivity applications and multimedia content application.

Similarly, 3D Mark05 and 3D Mark06 are used as standards to measure the gaming and graphic potential of different notebooks.

Likewise, PC Mark05 is taken as a yardstick to test various components of notebooks such as hard-disk general usage, multithreading, web-page rendering, file decryption and 3D pixel shader.

Moreover, the battery back-up and wireless connectivity can be tested using Battery Mark02 and QCheck as the benchmark.

Finally, Vista Compatibility Check can be undertaken to test if the notebooks have Vista-readiness. Under this test, the performance of the laptops is assessed on the basis of Vista drivers and Vista upgradeability.

Features:

When it comes to features, the list seems endless. Some expensive notebooks have the most advanced features such as built-in webcams, fingerprint readers, TPM and so on. So far as the features go, they can be divided into five different categories, such as:

Physical - Screen size and weight of the notebook

Connectivity - Bluetooth version 1/2, infrared, MMC reader, S-Video, DVI port, FireWire. The number and type of USB ports and PCMCIA slots.

Components - Type of optical drives, whether the notebook has a DVD combo, a CD-RW or a multi-recorder DVD-RW. The hard-drive capacity and any additional component such as wireless optical mouse or an MMC adapter.

Software - Software have always been an essential part of the package. These include recovery CDs, driver CDs, OSes, etc.

Protection - All types of protection available in a notebook, be it a finger-print reader, BIOS level HDD protection, touch-pad lock, TPM, or even rescue option available at the time of boot up.

Pricing and Warranty:

All notebooks ranging from $1200 to $4500 offer warranty of 1 year and some laptops have the option of additional extendable warranty.

Are You a Time Management Strategy Victim?

2007-11-01T01:19:00.001-07:00

Do you find yourself complaining that you never have enough time? Are other people and things keeping you from getting things done? Perhaps you are a time management strategy victim. Perhaps your own negativity and passiveness are the real source of your time management issues.

Blaming others and responding to every distraction or crisis that hits your radar screen are the easy things to do. But when you choose to respond that way you're allowing other people and other things to control your time and your destiny. You're allowing hap-in-stance to determine how you will invest your time, and keeping yourself from the achievements that would make you successful. The only way to stop being a victim is to take control of your time by taking responsibility for how you will use your time at every moment of every day.

It's impossible to make good time management strategy decisions when you are unclear about what you're trying to accomplish. Develop a clear direction for where you're headed and include a plan of action. That way you can make daily decisions related to the most important actions for you to take each and every day. You can make better decisions about how you will allocate the resources you have and the ones you need to acquire.

Multi-tasking is a myth. Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you multi-task your brain is switching between tasks, and neither is getting the attention required to do whatever you're doing well. Focus your attention on the actions you can take now to make the best use of your time Face it time is an investment of a non-renewable resource. When you don't get the most value from your time you've missed it and can never get it back. Sometimes when you miss an opportunity there isn't a second chance ever.

The adage goes "if you can't measure it you can't manage it". It's true. If you don't track and measure your outcomes you aren't focusing on what you're trying to achieve. You can have some success working that way, but if you want to ramp things up and be really successful you have to know that you're doing the right things at the right time each and every day. Take advantage of the Time Management Analysis and start improving your time management strategies today.

How To Schedule For Better Time Management

2007-11-01T01:18:00.001-07:00

Scheduling is best practiced when it is done regularly; for instance, at the beginning of the week or month. When you schedule your activities you may want to follow some steps which would serve as helpful pointers to help you get organized:

Begin your planner by specifying the schedule and the amount of time you will allot for the task. Of course this will vary with the kind of and requirements for the task and with the objectives and goals you have set.

After that, you need to identify the necessary actions and steps that you think you will need for the successful completion of the task. This enumeration of actions and steps will serve as an outlined guide for you so that when you are already working on the task you will not literally get lost and confused on what you will do next. In addition, this outline of steps and actions will help you work conveniently.

One good feature of schedule preparation is its quality of being flexible. Once you are done outlining the steps and actions, go over your to-do-list and make the necessary adjustments if you think they are necessary. You can add more time for one task or chip off a small amount from it. You can change the date you have identified and so on, to fit your needs.

More importantly, do not forget to schedule in the bigger, inevitable and most important tasks first. They should be placed in the top order of your to-do-list and the less important tasks should follow. This set-up will help you experience less stress as you work on the tasks because you will start in the right manner. As you work on the most important down to the less important tasks you will notice an increase in satisfaction, pride and fulfillment as you go down the ladder; that is, as you accomplish the things in your well-prepared list.

However, do not forget to allot some time for interruptions and emergency. You will not be told when emergency cases or intermissions will turn up so you better indicate some space in your schedule. Thus, the best thing that you can do is to prepare for it especially if you have an unpredictable work where unpredictable circumstances show up. By indicating some time for such restraints, you and your schedule are being adjustable to meet the needs of the time and respond to them as they show up. You call this kind of time in your schedule as "contingency time."

Then, after indicating the contingency time what remains is the working time, the time that you have specified to work on the tasks and meet your priorities and goals.

How To Schedule For Better Time Management

2007-11-01T01:18:00.000-07:00

Time Management Through Meditation

2007-10-31T05:01:00.000-07:00

CYCLING - Tips on Time Management

2007-10-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

You can't ignore the role of time management when training cycling. Here are some useful tips on time management.

Set goals

When you have the date of an important event circled on the calendar, you won't have difficulty motivating yourself to find riding opportunities. As the crucial day nears, you can justify arranging other parts of your life around cycling for a change. Afterward, reduce your cycling to recover, restore balance, and take care of things you ignored. Then, identify another goal to build toward. There's nothing like seeing progress to keep you interested in training.

Know your needs

Let's say your goal is the club century. You may assume that you need to be doing time-consuming 80-mile rides to train for it. In fact, most cyclists find that they can handle about three times the duration of their average training ride, as long as they maintain a sensible pace, keep eating and drinking, and take an occasional short break. So, if you find the time to average 35 miles every other day for several months, you should be capable of a 100-miler. For beginners who have a half-century or metric century as their goal, a 15- to 20-mile daily average is sufficient.

Ride early or late

With good planning, it may be possible to ride before or after your core work hours, however long they might be. Schedule weekday rides in your appointment calendar so that they become as important as any other responsibility.

Riding at dawn has several advantages. It sets the tone for a confident day. You'll feel good about having your workout safely behind you no matter what else happens. In summer, the air at daybreak is cooler and cleaner. There's usually less traffic and less wind, and you avoid the risk of afternoon thunderstorms. In winter, a bright, reliable lighting system makes it possible to be on the road despite late sunrises.

Riding in the evening is possible thanks to modern lighting systems. They expand cycling potential past sunset, ridding you of anxiety about getting home in time to squeeze in a ride before dark.

Ride at noon

Many companies now accept midday recreation by employees. Some even encourage it with flextime. When you're forced to fit your ride into an hour during the workday, you have the impetus to push yourself. The result should be lots of improvement for the time spent. Riding at lunchtime can work if you have suitable roads near your job (a park may be available if you work in a city), a way to clean up afterward, and a safe place to keep your bike.

Commute by bike

The oldest advice for creating training time is still the best: Ride your bike to your daily destination and back. Let's say you live 10 miles from your job. Driving that distance in stop-and-go rush-hour traffic takes 30 minutes. By using a 12-mile route that keeps you off the busy roads, you can ride there in about 50 minutes. So, you get 24 miles of round-trip cycling per day, and it takes only 40 minutes more than sitting behind the steering wheel, wondering how you'll find the time to squeeze in a ride.

Commuting miles aren't likely to be top quality, given the stop-and-go nature of riding in town, but you can improve them with some ingenuity. The simplest way is to find a longer route home and do some real training while you blow away the day's work stress. You'll get a decent workout and free your evening for other activities.

Ride for transportation

You want to do things with your spouse and kids on the weekends, but you also want to ride. Do both by pedaling to the lake while the rest of the family drives. If you depart early you'll all arrive at the same time, then you can enjoy the rest of the day knowing you got your miles. Throw the bike on the car rack and return with the family (unless you can talk them into letting you ride back, too).

Emphasize quality

Get maximum results from each minute on the bike by riding with a purpose. For example, if you're going with a group, practice your paceline skills. If you're solo, do low-gear sprints to work on your spin or climb hills to develop power. On a recovery ride, practice cornering, riding with no hands, or other skills that don't tax your cardiovascular system. You'll see how each day requires a different type of riding for maximum improvement.

Ride hills

Minute for minute, it's hard to beat the benefits of time spent climbing. Take it from three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, who says, "There's no better training than riding hills. For me it was the easiest way to get in shape." It improves everything-strength, power, stamina, cardiovascular conditioning. As opposed to a flat 90-minute ride, one that includes a couple of thousand vertical feet will leave you feeling happily hammered, satisfied that you got a lot for your precious on-bike time.

Be organized

Keep your riding gear in the same place so that you don't waste time hunting for something while your cycling clock is ticking. Lay out your clothes and food, and mix your drinks the night before. After the ride, put your sweaty clothes in the washer while you're in the shower. When you're clean, they're clean, and you can hang them to dry for the next ride. Routine means efficiency.

Time Management - Some Philosophical and Practical Considerations

2007-10-30T03:01:00.000-07:00

The Real Secret to Time Management

2007-10-30T02:48:00.000-07:00

Most people believe that the secret to time management is doing more things in less time. This is simply not true. The secret to time management is doing fewer things!

This may sound strange, but it is still true. It is so important that I will say it once again.

The secret to time management is not doing more things in less time, it is doing fewer things.

At the beginning of each year, sit down and ask yourself the following question: "If I could do just one thing this year in my business and nothing else, and looking back at the end of the year I would say to myself, 'What a terrific year!' what would that one thing have to be?"

Then take it one step further. "If I could do just one more thing, and looking back at the end of the year I would say to myself, 'This has been the most productive, profitable, and rewarding year ever!' what would that one more thing be?"

Then do these two things and nothing else.

You will have an amazing career. You will become a business legend.

Then do the same thing in your personal life. Find the two most important things.

Do those two things and nothing else.

You will have an amazing life.

Then do the same thing with your philanthropy. Find the two most important things.

Do those two things and nothing else.

You will make an amazing contribution to humanity!

Imagine what it would be like if you get to the end of the year, and looking back . . .

You launched the most successful product in your company's history.
You recruited five of the most talented people in the industry to join your team.
You built your dream home.
You found and married the partner of your dreams.
You took 150 orphans to Disneyland.
You sponsored an emergency medical team to fly to a region wracked by natural disaster.

Then imagine to yourself a life made up of 30 more years just like this one!

Time Management Technique - Procrastination Through Exaggeration

2007-10-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

A reality check is a good time management technique. When you procrastinate because of exaggeration you exaggerate the extent and involvement of a project. Part of you is hoping that will make others just give up and go away, but that doesn’t work all that often. Break the project down into it’s components to understand the full scope of the project, and then just work on one component at a time until it’s done.

Another good time management technique is to get the overall scope down on paper before starting anything. Write out a quick rough draft identifying the big pieces needed for the project. Check and review to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything, and that you haven’t added more than is necessary.

Look at each big piece and write out the major steps or activities required to accomplish each one. This time management technique either re-enforces that the project is as big as you thought, or it demonstrates that maybe it’s not as bad as you were making it out to be. When the project really is big, look for outside help to get things done rather than just putting it to the side because it seems overwhelming.

Delegation is always a good time management technique so ask yourself, “what can I delegate”? Now if you believe the only way to get things done right is to do them yourself this will be really hard for you. If you think this way I challenge you to recognize that you’re also creating your own time management prison where you have to be at the center of everything or nothing happens.

The next time management technique is to break the big steps or activities into all the little supporting steps or activities. This serves two purposes. First, it prevents you from overlooking things and having to scramble to recover. Second, as you go through this thought process you’re getting everything that needs to go on your to do list so you can efficiently work down your list checking things off as you go.

Exaggeration procrastination doesn’t have to foil your time management techniques. Exaggeration is just part of who you are, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. Now you can choose how you respond to your need for exaggeration by stepping up and taking control and getting things done no matter how big or small.

Time Management - "You Are What You Time" A Whole New Approach

2007-10-29T03:47:00.000-07:00

Being half a century in age, I have given the subject of time management a lot of thought. I am endlessly fascinated, entertained, and humbled by the concept of time. As an entrepreneur, I have often speculated~ "If only I could bottle and market time, I would be richer than Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola put together!" I would be Deborah Nelson, the original bottler of time, a Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Martha Stuart, all rolled into one. I would be the wealthiest person ever to walk the earth-even more wealthy than Solomon who was granted wisdom and wealth by God. But who can bottle time? Time is a rebellious demon wretch. Nothing less than a life long quest could put that Genie into a bottle, and it would take none one less than God Himself to do it.

Time Ticks Me Off!

Time causes problems. When you need something in a hurry, there's an instant time shortage. Tempers flair. Road Rage is born, car wrecks happen, sirens scream, dangerously challenging the bounds of time even further. Time seems uncooperative. Whether you are waiting for a teenager to come home from a party, a late arrival to show up, or simply caught in a daily traffic jam, time ticking off, ticks us off!

But my purpose is not to complain about time even though Time gets the brunt of all our complaints. "I didn't have enough time," "Our marriage is on the rocks because we don't have time for each other." Teacher, I didn't finish my homework, because I ran out of time." "My checks bounced because I didn't get the deposit to the bank on time." Time gets all of our excuses doesn't it? Time really ticks us off.

You Are What You Eat?

We have all heard the expression, "You are what you eat," but I would argue--You are what you spend your time on. "A Nick in Time saves nine." "Time Heals All Wounds." "Time waits for no one." "Time Will Tell." "Time is Money." All these are powerful expressions about Time. How we use our time says a lot about who we are doesn't it? If we want to make a difference in our entrpreneural and personal life, we need to be honest and admit, "We are what we Time." You may wonder, how is Deborah Nelson qualified to give powerful time tips? Surely the experts, Covey, Franklin, and Mr. Day Timer have already done it with their expert time management systems. However, I have wrestled with time as a 24/7 single parent, an entrepreneur, a writer, a homeowner supporting a daughter in a private art college, and as a woman living in the twentieth and twenty first centuries.

Having had less time and far more challenges than the average person, I have experimented and implemented all the Time Management methods of the day, finding them to be inadequate for my particular life challenges.

Graduating from Time Management to Time Prosperity

I love the expression; "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I finally had to admit that I was not a good time manager. I was doing the same thing over and over again and not getting different results. For Example, I was chasing time, and time was running out on me. I was twenty minutes late to everything, and after trying linear time management for many frustrating years; I was still 10 minutes late to everything. Not good enough.

I had to do something different than trying to manage time, chase time, and conquer time. I had made an enemy of Time and I was losing. It was a process, but now I have learned to become a leader of, friend, and partner with Time; and have discovered Time Prosperity! Here are 3 Time Prosperity Tips for your to begin this journey. I hope even one of them will transform your relationship with Time. It a whole new way of thinking about Time and being with Time.

Time Prosperity Tip #1: You can make time your enemy or you can become friends with your time. Think about it, honestly, is Time Your Enemy or Is Time Your friend?

Time Prosperity Tip #2 You can chase time, making time run away from you, or you can walk with time side by side. Are you chasing time away, or are you walking with time?

Time Prosperity Tip #3 Time is our most powerful and precious resource-more powerful than money, love, health, and space. How do you perceive time? Is time a Thief, or is time a Gift?

Time in a bottle? I haven't done that yet. But making friends with time is a great start. My quest now is to tell everyone who will listen how to graduate from time management to time prosperity...because--- "You Are What You Time."

Time Management Technique - Procrastination Through Exaggeration

2007-10-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Master Time Management With One Question

2007-10-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

Time management advice is found in great abundance on the Internet. You can determine how to schedule your day, how to set your priorities, how to delegate, and how to tackle your to-do list.

As a service business owner, you face an enormous number of tasks and responsibilities each and every day. What I've come to realize in my years of self-employment that my most valuable asset isn't my contact database or my marketing materials or my business plan.

It's my time.

Most entrepreneurs are time-starved. It seems everyone wants a piece of you -- your clients, your family, your prospective customers, your friends, your employees or subcontractors. For most service business owners, there always seems to be too much stuff to fit into too little day.

The most valuable time management question that time-starved entrepreneurs need to ask themselves before agreeing to do something is, "How will this serve me?" A business coaching colleague asks the same question a little differently, "Is what I'm about to do going to increase the confusion/complexity in my life?"

That's it -- pretty simple, isn't it? So, before I'm about to embark on joining a new organization or committee, or before I'm about to think of another sideline path for my business, I just ask myself this one simple question.

The answer leads me to my next step.

Now, a word of caution here---don't get caught in the "but crack". If your answer is, "Well, yes, it'll be good for my business but it's.....", you've just fallen into the "but crack", which means that you've negated everything that came before the "but" in your thinking. If there's a "but" attached to your sentence, more than likely what you really need to do is the opposite of what you're saying.

So, in the example above, "Well, yes, it'll serve my business well but it's going to take the next 8 weekends to pull it off," it may not be the great opportunity you think if you already are concerned about the havoc it might bring to your life.

What if you're unsure of how this opportunity/task/chance will serve you? How do you make that determination?

I borrow a page from life coach Cheryl Richardson's book, Take Time for Your Life, and create what she refers to as an "Absolute Yes List." This is your list of the top 5 priorities in your life. For most of us that would include spouse/significant other, family, work or business, hobby, volunteer effort, and yourself. You did remember to include yourself, didn't you?

Remember, your time is your most valuable asset. If you don't create time for yourself and make that your #1 priority, I will guarantee you that no one else will do that for you. When I used to deliver my work/life balance speech to various women's professional organizations, I would have the participants create their "absolute yes" list and then take a survey of hands to see how many had included themselves on the list. Typically less than one-third of any group put themselves on their list, and less than 5% of that number listed themselves first.

If what you're considering doesn't fit on your "absolute yes" list, then it's an "absolute no." If it does match your top 5 priorities, then give it the, "How will this serve me?" test.

Time Management Program - Punctuality is Important

2007-10-24T02:26:00.000-07:00

Punctuality is a big deal in time management. Everyone is late sometimes, right? Yes, most people are occasionally late and when they are it’s because of an unexpected occurrence. But when you are habitually late punctuality is an issue you need to address.

When you aren’t punctual you set yourself up for escalating levels of stress. When you start the day late you tend to run late the entire day. Even though you may not place a high value on punctuality, recognize that others do. Lateness can lose you the sale, cost you the job, diminish the level of respect the other person has for you because they are thinking that if you can’t even be counted on to be on time how can they count on you for something important.

Punctuality is an integrity issue that creates chaos in your time management program. When you aren’t punctual you are demonstrating a lack of integrity with yourself and others. When you agree to hold an appointment at a specific time and then you’re late you have missed an opportunity to keep your word. Keeping your word enables you to feel good about yourself and others to feel good about you.

Punctuality communicates more than timeliness. When you aren’t punctual it demonstrates a lack of focus and clarity on what’s important. When something is really important to you, you will be on time. Being late communicates the appointment wasn’t important to you.

How do you improve your punctuality? Start allowing a little slack time between your appointments. Give yourself at least an extra 15 minutes between each appointment. Then if you’re a little early use those few minutes to do those little things that don’t take much time like reading an article, making a quick phone call, planning the next week’s calendar etc. As you improve your timeliness you’ll feel a whole lot better and more in control. You won’t need to be speeding around to get everywhere, and you project a more professional image.

Extraordinary Time Management Begins With Extraordinary Self Leadership

2007-10-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

Is time management or the lack of effective time management training getting the best of you? Are you:

* Missing target or due dates?
* Unable to get motivated to get things done?
* Finding less and less time to spend with family or even yourself?
* Working longer and harder?
*
* Having problems making decisions because of no time?
* Feeling stressed out, frustrated and just tired of the rat race of life?

So as you look above to any of these questions, is time management the real problem or possibly just a symptom of a greater problem? If time management is a symptom instead of a problem, then what is the real problem?

If you are honest with yourself, the real problem is your inability for consistent self leadership. For if you cannot lead yourself, how can lead others when trying to meet deadlines or work together as a team?

The problem with most time management training is that it focuses on trying to manage a constant that being time. Since time is a constant, you cannot manage it. However, when the focus is on developing extraordinary self-leadership, then improving the result that being better time management is much easier to be achieved.

And anyway, doesn't it make sense to work on developing all of those essential skills necessary for business, professional and personal success instead of creating a silo solution that focuses on just one?

If you are considering a time management training course, then look beyond time management strategies and to self-leadership strategies. Some of these strategies might include:

* Goal setting
* Goal planning
* Goal achievement
* Decision making
* Problem solving
*
* Communication
* Statement of individual purpose
* Balanced action plan between professional and personal lives

Sustainable time management is truly about extraordinary self-leadership especially if you wish to get to where you want to go for yourself, your professional life and your business.

Would you like to take control of your time? Are you tired of not getting things done on time or on budget? Do you truly know how to write goal statements that are executable, reinforce your long term desires and work within your limited time?

I have just completed a 9 lesson on-line email coaching program. Visit WAY SMART Goals to learn more.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. is nationally recognized business author, speaker and Indianapolis business coach. She has authored over 500 articles. She focuses on leveraging human capital for sustainable transformational change.

Is Poor Time Management Keeping You From The Business Success You Want?

2007-10-18T06:02:00.001-07:00

You're either directly responsible or overseeing all functions, and you're overwhelmed by the details. Rather than focusing on the important you seem to fight the fires and at the end of the day you aren't sure if you've really invested your time in the best way. Long-term your time management skills will either make you or break you, so it's time to improve those skills before it's too late.

When you're solely responsible for everything in your business it's easy to get caught up in firefighting and micro-managing. It's actually easier to respond to interruptions and crisis than it is to focus on the important. But that's a success killing habit that you'll want to break now. In order to develop good time management skills you'll need to set aside time outside of your normal business hours to de-clutter and sort through all the stuff you've allowed to build up. This is the piles of paperwork you have in and under your desk and shoved into drawers and cupboards that needs to be gone through to determine relevance. Quickly sort through this stuff creating piles or boxes for: needs action now, needs action at some point, reference, and throw away.

The reason you have poor time management skills is because you aren't sure what actions you should be taking at any given moment. Gather up all the stuff in your needs action now pile and identify all the actions you need to take making one list so you have everything in one place. When you have to search through files, folders, your calendar, and your computer to find what you're supposed to be taking action on you forget, and you just won't take the time to hunt through everything.

Good time management skills come from knowing when to take action on the right things. As you look at your list of actions the next step is to prioritize, delegate, or dump each action. Start by crossing off anything on your list that you or anyone that works for you shouldn't be doing. Then get tough with yourself and challenge yourself to find as many things that could be delegated to someone else so you have more time for the business of running your business that you can. Don't overlook opportunities to outsource things to virtual assistants, employees, or even volunteers. Did you know that some senior citizen centers want work like addressing envelopes, and will have their members do this work for donations? Now you still have a lot of stuff left on your list that needs to be prioritized, but I only want you to select the three most important things for you do to one day at a time. Do not prioritize the whole list just prioritize and commit to taking the required action on one to three actions each day.

Good time management skills are inspired by the desired end results. As the owner it's up to you to develop the higher level big picture that you want to accomplish and that you need to focus on. With that big picture in mind decide on the actions you'll take and when, based on their alignment with what you're trying to accomplish. See how else you might improve your time management skills by taking the free time management analysis.

Time Management

2007-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Use routine to make efficient use of your time. Get up at the same time of day, start your day the same way on most days, have your meals at the same time, etc. The more routine you have the less time you spend settling in on regular tasks.

Streamline any thing you do regularly. Choose a few regular options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that are quick to prepare. Choose exercise that will give you excellent benefit in less time and can be done with little preparation, or while you are watching television or getting together with others.

Portion the tasks you regularly do at work for particular hours or days of the week. Early mornings are generally good for tasks that require solitary concentration, and later in the day for our contact with people. Schedule in blocks long enough to get up to speed, and short enough that we do not tire, then switch tasks.

For each day, pick three tasks that are most important for you to do, or that will make the most difference in your life, and do these things early in the day if at all possible.

Work very hard during some hours, but always allow yourself a block of time every day where you expect nothing of yourself and can relax.

Our being able to work quickly is affected by our feeling fully present, alert, and focused. Sometimes moving our body quickly for a moment, breathing deeply, or changing our position helps us to freshen our mind and become alert. Avoid drifting and pausing.

Set your goals high so that you are challenged and don’t have time to waste.

Rest when truly tired... not distraction, but rest.

Know what you should be doing at each hour of your work day. Plan ahead and set most of your tasks for the day at least the day before.

Time Management and the Importance of a Schedule

2007-10-17T01:06:00.000-07:00

We are all familiar with the concept of “time”, but when you add the word “management” behind it, things can get a little cloudy. Simply put, time management is the process of managing your time. People can make this more confusing and harder than it has to be when they try to get too technical and start creating “time maps” and flow charts.

When it comes down to it, it is a lot simpler than that. We all have twenty four hours each day. By practicing time management strategies, we are deciding how to use those hours to accomplish all the tasks we have on our to-do lists.

Having a schedule is a fundamental part of time management. You can imagine your schedule as a road-map. It provides important information about where you are going and how you can get there. Without it, you may take a wrong turn somewhere and find yourself lost. Once someone is lost, it may take some time before they get back on track, and they usually arrive to their destination a bit later than they would have liked.

When you have a schedule, you can look at it and see what you need to do each day. You’ll know if you are on track, and if you aren’t, what you need to do to get back on course.

How To Make a Schedule

One of the first things to do when making a schedule is to write down all the things you have to do on a piece of paper. Some people keep separate work and family schedules, and if you decide that would work best for you, you can divvy those tasks up later. For now, simply write out everything that needs to be done on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis.

Once you have everything written out and in front of you, it’s time to start sorting between the common themes. You can do this by assigning a highlighter color to each theme (such as family, work, daily, monthly, weekly) or by taking out another piece of paper and writing those columns on it, and rewriting all the tasks into the appropriate column.

Now that you have all of your tasks sorted out, try to give a time estimate to each one. You may even want to time yourself for a week or two on these tasks, as you may be very surprised at how long some things take.

For instance, you may think it only takes 45 minutes to go to the grocery store, but in reality it could take an hour and 15 minutes. You may think it only takes 15 minutes to run up to the school and pick up the kids, but may find it actually takes 25 minutes.

In many cases, people underestimate the time it takes to do things, and this is one of the reasons they think they aren’t getting enough done. By timing yourself, you will get a visual picture of your time. When you see how long it really takes to accomplish your regular tasks, you will be able to see how many things you can fit into a normal day. You won’t constantly be trying to push yourself to do more.

Once you have written down your tasks and estimated the time it takes to accomplish them, you can start planning your schedule. Some people like to have a daily schedule that is very organized with certain tasks assigned to certain times and others prefer to keep a weekly schedule that is more flexible.

Time Management Technique - Lack of Self-Discipline Leads to Procrastination

2007-10-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

It’s not your fault you lack self-discipline. This time management technique will help you to understand why you lack self-discipline, and how it’s not your fault but rather a mismatch between who you are and what you’re being asked to do. Procrastination caused by lack of self-discipline is a warning signal to you that needs to be investigated.

Most time management techniques are generic recommendations that don’t address your uniqueness. You don’t lack self-discipline because you’re just a lazy lout, there are very specific reasons that you seem to lack self-discipline. You lack self-discipline because you don’t clearly understand what’s important. When you don’t understand or haven’t clarified what’s truly important it’s very easy to float from one thing to another completing few projects. Taking the time to clarify what’s most important will increase your self-discipline and reduce your tendency to procrastinate.

Most time management techniques fail to recognize everyone doesn’t have the same behaviors. You lack self-discipline because you’re trying to work in a manner that contradicts your natural behaviors. You naturally behave a certain way in response to different situations. How you behave isn’t right or wrong, but understanding how you behave enables you to better control your environment and your response. Some people are naturally fast paced and drive hard. You may not be one of those people yet you can still get things done in a timely manner that feels more comfortable to you.

Most time management techniques fail to recognize that everyone isn’t motivated by the same things. You lack self-discipline because what you’re doing doesn’t match with your natural motivators. You have natural motivators that lead you to take action. When something doesn’t fit with your natural motivators you seem to lack self-discipline because you don’t get things done, but what is really happening is that you are balking because the situation isn’t motivating to you. For example, if helping people is really important to you and your boss is only talking to you about increasing sales and bottom line profits you aren’t motivated to act at all. If you worked for a non-profit and your boss was talking to you about the number of people that you could help you would be highly motivated.

Is your procrastination really a matter of a lack of self-discipline, or a mismatch between you and the task at hand? When you’re doing something that is motivating to you and compliments your natural behavior style you have all the self-discipline you need to get the project done, and you aren’t likely to procrastinate because the work is energizing and exciting to you. So the next time you find yourself procrastinating remember this time management technique and determine if you simply lack self-discipline or if you’re responding to a poor match between you and the task at hand.

Time Management Program: If You Want to Be Time Rich, Pay Yourself First

2007-10-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

Have you come to realize the true value of time from past time management programs you’ve tried? Simply speaking time is more valuable than money because it’s a non-replenishable resource. The great thing is that time is available to everyone, and anyone can have more free time.

To get started with some good time management habits schedule at least one thing each week that is really important and rewarding to you. Emphasize important and rewarding to you. Don’t think about or worry about the things you must do or should do here. If you wanted to purchase a new home and you had zero dollars for a down payment you understand the concept in the financial arena that you have to pay yourself first, or set aside even a small amount of money each week until you reach your target. The same concept works here. If you want to be time rich you have to start by giving yourself a little bit of just plain old free time to do what you want now, or you never will and you’ll never be time rich.

The next step is a common time management practice. Fill in all the must do’s for the week in your calendar. But only fill in things that are absolute requirements, not things that you just think are absolute requirements. For example, you have to go to work or you’ll be cash poor, but you only think you have to do some of the chores you have on your calendar for the week. If there aren’t immediate negative consequences for not doing something it isn’t really a must to.

Don’t forget the hidden time sappers, this is an often overlooked item in your time management training. It takes time to drive to and from work. It takes time to get ready for work. Don’t forget to allocate time in your scheduling to allow for all these little time sappers that seem to slip through the cracks of accountability, and cause all sorts of problems with your scheduling.

Now evaluate everything that didn’t fit in. When you start planning based on how you will spend your time rather how you are spending your time, you quickly realize that you can’t possibly fit everything in. That means if you want to implement an effective time management program that some things are going to have to: get dumped, get delegated, or get moved to a later time. Just evaluate each remaining thing with the objective of first seeing if you can dump it and never do it, be ruthless here. Then identify what someone else can do and get them doing it. Finally, only focus on the things that must be done this week and move other things to a later more appropriate time.

Time management is a battle you can win. As you start to reward yourself by allocating free time for yourself first your incentive to guard your time against the things that are time sappers strengthens. It gets easier to say no to those things because you just don’t have time for them. As you get more ruthless in your dumping and delegating, and more committed to paying yourself in time first you develop the skills and habits you need to be time rich.

Time Management Tip - Become the Master and Not the Slave to Time

2007-10-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

For many time is viewed as the master and they are the lowly slave who must walk to the constant beating on the drum of time. Yet, this is not how it must be.

What would happen if you could become the master and not the slave to time? Would you have:

* More free time?
* More balanced life?
* More results?
* More fun?
* More success?

Maybe you are thinking:

* That is not just possible?
* You don’t know my schedule?
* Time management training does not work because I have been there, done that?

First to answer those three questions:

* Yes it is possible because it is about you and not about time!
* I do not need to know your schedule, because you probably focus more of your time on what you cannot control than what you can control.
* Yes, most time management training does not work, because time management is not about time nor about management, but about goals and integrity.

Starting right now, you must learn to lead yourself first. Self-leadership is how you no longer become the slave to time. Within this process of internal leadership, you should write down your own personal values statement. When you adhere to this along with your vision and current mission statements, you will direct your actions and not react to the actions of others.

Finally, learn a proven goal setting and goal achievement process. Time management is really the apex of goal setting. Many time management training courses do not focus on the foundation that being goal setting for their time management skills and knowledge. Without a solid foundation, time management implodes creating more redo of the time management training.

By changing your focus away from time and to what the real issues are, you will no longer become the slave, but will become the master.

Time Management Skill - Improving Through Actions

2007-10-15T02:20:00.000-07:00

Your time management skills are directly proportional to your ability to take the right actions at the right time for the right reasons. Are your in boxes overflowing: physical “in” stack tray, email, and voice mail? Perhaps all these things are building up because you just can’t figure out what to take action on, what action to take and when to take action. One way or another, an action will have to be taken to make them all go away and to remove the clutter from your environment.

The act of making a decision is part of this time management skill. As you look at all this stuff you may be overwhelmed even thinking about how to decide on what to take action on. There is a simple solution to that. You will take action on each thing until an action has been taken on each thing up to a certain date and time. Don’t get scared we’re going to figure out how to do that next.

You have to quickly go through each thing and just decide what action you will take. Start with just one of your inboxes and begin reviewing each item either from oldest to newest or newest to oldest it doesn’t matter which end you start from. Starting from the end of your choice evaluate each item to determine if you could take care of this item in one to two minutes, if you can then take care of it so it’s done and over with. If the item requires more time and you know the next action you need to take on the item add that action to your weekly To Do list. Don’t worry about organizing and prioritizing your To Do list because you’re prioritizing your list each day and checking things off so by the end of the week you have a lot of things checked off, and only a few things to carry over to the following week’s To Do list. If there isn’t an action that needs to be taken delete the item or put it in the garbage. If it’s an idea that you want to think about at a later time add it to the future planning part of your To Do list. If it’s an item you want for future reference set up a file folder and put the item in the right folder. Don’t make this folder or filing complicated or you won’t do it. You could just have a folder for each topic and organize the items within the folder alphabetically or by date or in another way that makes sense to you.

Prioritization is another time management skill. Some of the items from your inboxes are now on your To Do list. The next step is to determine when to take action on those action items. There is a simple and time saving way to approach this that doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed. Once a week put together your To Do list with everything that needs to be there not worrying about organization or prioritization, your only concern is getting all things that require an action or future consideration on this one list. Then each day scan your list of actions and prioritize only the top 3-7 things that if you were to take just those actions would make your day successful.

When you use this time management skill you consistently take actions and you consistently take the right actions. You don’t need to tackle everything at once you only need to take on the most important things. After a couple weeks you may decide that some of the actions on your To Do list really don’t need to be taken. Once you do this quick sort and make your action decisions to get control of your inboxes make a commitment to clear your inboxes at one point each day so you don’t get into the situation of having overflowing inboxes again.

Time Management Technique: Procrastination Through Fretting

2007-10-15T02:07:00.000-07:00

It’s very hard to benefit from time management techniques when you procrastinate. There are a number of reasons you procrastinate, and fretting may be the source behind your tendency to procrastinate. When you fret you think about all sorts of imagined problems that may or may not ever happen. You fret about what might happen if you succeed. You fret about what might happen if you fail. You fret about what others will think. You fret that you don’t really know how to tackle the problem. With all this fretting your expending way more energy thinking about it than it would ever take to just do it.

Procrastinators who fret are thinkers, so let’s get you thinking about the right things. What happens if you do succeed if you complete this project or activity? What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen and the absolute best thing that could happen when you finish the project? Get out a piece of paper. Divide it in half heading one side best and the other worst. Keep brain storming and writing until you can’t come up with anything else. Is there anything on the paper that you absolutely couldn’t live with? If not, go to the next step.

The next step in this time management technique is to identify what happens if you fail. Flip you paper over and now list the absolute worst thing that could happen if you fail, and the best thing that could happen if you fail? Your first reaction may be there isn’t a best thing that could happen if you fail, but there is. Every time you fail at something you’re one step closer to succeeding, so you really want to fail fast and often so you can succeed that much faster.

When you procrastinate because you fret about everything isn’t a big part of your concern about what others will think? This time management technique may be hard for you, but mastering this technique will liberate you. Recognize that you can’t control how other people will think or react now or ever. You can only control how you respond to how others react. So, on a second piece of paper list how you think others might react on one side and on the other side list how you choose to react in response to that reaction. Let’s say you’re fretting that if you complete this project or activity that someone may get very angry and confront you. You can choose to remain calm, acknowledge the other persons feelings, ask them to tell you more about whatever they are telling you, and then communicate that you want to work together to resolve their concern. Because you’re prepared for the possible reactions and responses of others you’re prepared to handle your own responses.

Often the reason behind your fretting is that you’re concerned that you don’t know how to do what you need to do. All time management techniques are really about taking control and moving forward. In this case, flip your second piece of paper over and list what you don’t know how to do. Review your list and on the other half of the sheet identify how you could know how to do it, and when you will take action to know how. Evaluate which things that you don’t know how to do that you could have someone who does know how do for you.

Ultimately fretting usually comes down to fear. The best time management technique for overcoming fears is to face them. As you thought things out through the previous steps you were really identifying your worst fears and coming up with solutions for working around them. The best way to conquer your enemy is to know your enemy. As you work through this thought process your confidence builds, and you restore your ability to move ahead armed with the knowledge of what you need to do and how to do it.

The Significance Of Time Management PPT

2007-10-13T01:24:00.000-07:00

If you wish to lead a goal-oriented lifestyle, it is necessary to realize the importance of time management. It is only through a time bound program of action that you can hope to achieve success in any venture. Many people do not attach much significance to time management and because of the same, they are unable to finish their tasks on time and fail miserably.

Importance Of Time Management

It is important to realize that the available amount of time is constant and all that you can change is the way you utilize this time. If you take time management seriously, you can break loose from this bondage and pack more in the available amount of time. You need to alter your habits and your attitude in order to derive the maximum utilization of the limited time at your disposal. Wasted time can never come back.

Prioritizing Your Tasks

The first step towards an effective time management planning is to make a list of all that needs to be done in the course of the day. You would then need to find out which tasks are more important than the others and this will enable you to prioritize your tasks. You, however, should retain the less important tasks on your list. The next step is to estimate the amount of time that each task is likely to take and in doing so, you should take a realistic view. It is no use trying to achieve the impossible and then failing miserably and upsetting the entire schedule. Even the smallest element of the task needs to be considered in arriving at the required time. Once you have analyzed all these elements, you will be able to see where you might waste time so that you can adopt a time saving strategy.

After identifying the areas where you can waste time, you need to eliminate such activities. Your work schedule will thus be compacted and you will be able to find some free time for relaxing with your family. The significance of time management will be apparent when you have been able to organize your daily activities and are able to achieve your long-term goals with a sustained methodical approach.

Start Now

Realizing the significance of time management is essential but not enough as these principles need to be put into practice in order to derive the maximum benefits. The best time to start is now as the duration of your life is predetermined and limited. The time that has elapsed is gone forever and the future is not known. All that you have is the present time and so, you need to start now. If you can set into motion the correct time management techniques, you will find that you will be able to achieve your target of a goal-oriented lifestyle and enjoy life to the fullest.

Time Management Skill - Improving Through Actions

2007-10-13T01:23:00.000-07:00

Time Management Technique: Procrastination Through Fretting

2007-10-12T00:58:00.000-07:00

How To Schedule For Better Time Management

2007-10-12T00:56:00.000-07:00