Archive for April, 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shafir Ahmad is the author of “The Experts Guide to Managing Your Time”. If you are not managing your time, you are wasting it. Don’t waste time! Get your 7-Part eCourse on Secrets To Better Time Management at http://www.PlanYourTimeNow.com

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by James Delrojo
One of the basic rules of time management is to sort out the tasks that are truly important and then focus on completing them, but what is the best way to determine whether or not a task is important. Even good time managers often get this wrong and as a result spend time on the wrong tasks.

As a basis for achieving this objective I am going to make the assumption that in a perfect world all you would spend your time on is activities that you really enjoy. Now we can ask if there is a system that will allow you to do that and still accomplish all the desirable outcomes for your life as well as avoiding all the undesirable outcomes.

We don’t really live in a perfect world so you may never fully achieve the above goal but you can get very close if you are clear on your objectives in life and if you develop the habit of asking the right questions.

All good time management starts with having a clear set of goals and objectives for your life. You can’t sort out the important tasks from the non important tasks unless you know what you are ultimately trying to achieve. But assuming that you do have clear goals and objectives where do you go from there?

Once you have your goals and objectives the next step is to rank them in importance. This will basically come down to your relative values in life. For example if you value family over career then establishing a happy family life would be a higher priority than success in your career. This implies that you have to establish the happy family life first and then find ways to build your career without undermining that family life.

If you have your goals and values established then you can get down to the job of sorting tasks on the basis of importance. You do this by asking four questions.

The first question to ask in relation to any task is; what is the bottom line benefit to me if this task is completed?

The average person gets swept up in unimportant tasks because they never take the time to really consider the potential value in completing that task. If you know exactly what completing that task can give you then you are in a position to rank the value of that outcome. You do this with the second question.

The second question to ask is; how will this potential benefit help me achieve my goals and objectives?

This is important because even a good benefit may not be the best option for your time. There may be another task that you could be focusing on that would provide an even better benefit and therefore would rank higher in importance.

These first two questions concerned the potential benefits from completing the task but now we have to also look at the other side of the coin.

The third question is; what is the consequence to me if this task is not completed?

A particular task may provide little direct contribution to achieving your goals but if not completing it would result in some terrible consequence then it should be given a high level of importance.

The fourth question is; how will the consequence resulting from not completing the task effect the likelihood or the ease of me achieving my goals?

Even with the bad consequences it is important to relate them back to your basic goals and objectives. This gives you a way of deciding whether a bad consequence is destructive to your goals or simply an inconvenience.

Once you have answered these four questions you will be in a position to accurately rank the competing tasks on importance to your life. If you decide that a particular task needs to be completed then there is one more, very important question to answer. This is the question that most people forget to ask.

The fifth question is; can I cost effectively delegate this task to someone else?

Remember my basic assumption stated in the beginning of this article was that in a perfect world all you would do is the things that you really enjoy? Well the fifth question is aimed at achieving that objective. If you can cost effectively delegate or outsource everything that needs to be done but that you don’t enjoy doing then that leaves you free to do what you do enjoy.

Try applying this five question system to the tasks that are competing for your time and I am confident that you will make better choices as to where you place you efforts.

James Delrojo would like to help you by giving you hisebook “Unleash the Success Power of Your Mind” (valued at $27) completely FREE. Go to http://www.YourSuccessMind.com

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by web-odonata
Here I provide several time-saving functionalities of different software. Did you know about it?

1. I bet you know about Macro. It is an oversimplified Visual Basic script. When you do some routine job and repeat several commands very often it is quite reasonable to record a Macro. The basic problem about Macro is that some antivirus programs detect them as viruses.

2. Adobe Photoshop’s Actions. Action is a kind of Macro, a sequence of commands, activated on click or keyboard shortcut. You can create different frames; make different complex effects using actions that go with Photoshop by default. You can also record your own Actions.

3. Batch in Photoshop. So what you can do if you need to resize, rename and autocorrect 300 pictures? Use Batch. Select source folder, apply one or several actions, select destination folder, pick the naming option, file format, press OK and have a cup of coffee.

4. PDF-converting button in toolbar. It is integrated with PDF Transformer in most office applications. You can convert PDF-attachments in e-mails immediately, as well as convert PDF to Excel, convert PDF to Word. Creating PDF-presentations from PPT is also a single-click job.

5. Handling a screenshot. To create a screenshot and past a piece of it into letter or word application or recognize you also need a single click. Done by a special tiny utility Screenshot Reader.

6. Excel also keeps its secrets. You even don’t need to know Visual Basic to use some of its functionalities. Those are auto-change and sorting. Did you know it supports standard request language? For instance: change line “*http ://www.” into “ www.” Using it you can unify, sort and remove duplicate lines for any list. Removing of duplicates is done by Advanced filter.

7. When you translate — you can do it on-mouse-over. At least 2 applications support this function. Translate It and ABBYY Lingvo 12. Simply hold a cursor a little longer on unfamiliar word.

8. What do you know about Nero beside how to record or erase the CD? Nero can copy CD and record it as many times as you will set up. Just insert blank CDs.

9. You will find an outstanding cover designer in Nero Pack. It lets a complete beginner create professionally-looking cover design in seconds.

10. Use File manager. Your life will be much easier with such programs as Total Commander. Sorting, multi-renaming, packing, coping, moving, transferring files via FTP, access to Control panel can be done much faster than you used to.

Good luck!

http://www.pdftransformer.com/http://web-odonata.blogspot.com/

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by Valerie Dansereau
Lately I find myself more and more conscious of the passing of time. It may be some kind of mid-life crisis, but there really and truly don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. Or so it seems.

The fact is, there are the same number of hours in a day that there always were: 24 to be exact. There are 1440 minutes in a day, 86,400 seconds. As C.S. Lewis said, “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

And so I find myself with time to spend like precious and oh so few pennies. I try to hoard it, but it slips through my fingers.

I find myself wondering — is time something you make, or something you find?

Every minute of our lives is made up of choices. We choose how to spend our seconds just as surely as we choose how to spend our pennies. The seconds we squander won’t ever be regained. If we put work before family, our children may grow up behind our backs, and we will find ourselves examining photographs of little children that no longer exist. We turn our heads and our daughters are off to the prom; our sons taking the keys to the car. We are left holding the shovel to the sand box with no one nearby to play.

We may sacrifice the time we spend with our families for work. We may allow people to steal slivers of time with mindless chitchat, cell phone conversations, waiting too long in line. How much time do we really need to sleep? How much sleep do we dare sacrifice before we endanger our health? Are we wasting time on things that are unimportant, like television? Benjamin Franklin said, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.”

Here’s a phrase to ponder: killing time. Why would we want to kill time? Henry David Thoreau commented, “You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.”

I’ve heard time stands for “This I Must Experience.” I hear the clock ticking, and I know I am right where I’m supposed to be, even when I believe otherwise.

There are wounds that only time can heal, and then time becomes our friend, and not a curse. The passage of time can be comforting in times of pain.

It’s all about priorities, I think, and doing the best we can to spend our minutes and seconds wisely. It’s about forgiving ourselves for mistakes and planning what we will do with whatever seconds remain. The older I get, the more I cherish every single minute, especially the minutes and seconds I get to spend with my children.

I think Will Rogers said it best: “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”

What are we trying to save time for? That’s what we should be doing with it. We are responsible for our choices.

The clock is ticking.

Valerie Dansereau is the webmaster of http://www.work-at-home-parenting.com.

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by Lee, Michael
Time is a resource that single moms need to allocate well. If you are a single mom, then you need to know the right attitudes that lead to excellent time management skills in order to face your tasks and life in general. Time management need not be difficult for single moms.

In life, it is not so much aptitude as it is attitude that gets people to the top. Surviving life is also a function of your outlook towards it. How you make decisions will be based on how you actually look at the situations you are faced with.

Time Management for Single Moms Attitude #1: Calmness

If you want to be able to face life and hurdle all the tasks you have to accomplish, you must conduct yourself with calmness. When the pigs start to fly around you, you need to keep a clear head. You need to be able to think yourself out of difficult situations; and calmness is an asset to be able to think clearly. This requires a degree of detachment from high-stress situations so you can take a step back and analyze how you are to finish your tasks.

Another aspect of calmness is to not take things personally. When people offend you, when life’s stress gets to you, don’t get into the victim’s mentality and think that the world is out to get you. The truth is, it just isn’t. It’s a fact that life is difficult. Don’t take things personally. Detach; don’t react, and move on.

Calmness saves you time wasted on wallowing and nursing toxic emotions that you can spend on nurturing your kids or working for them instead. You have to get out of the mentality that the cards are stacked against you. As I said, do not take things personally, clear your mind, get up, and move on.

Time Management for Single Moms Attitude #2: Humility

They say that the greatest men are those who are humble. Humility is a virtue that will take you far. Not only does this attitude attract people to you, it also helps in time management. How? If you are humble enough to admit that you have limited capacities and resources, as you are a limited being, you will realize and admit that you need help and will delegate the tasks that are too much for you, to someone else.

Yes, I could understand why you want to do more. I could understand that you are frustrated with others’ work that you can’t help but do everything yourself. Well, that is a surefire road to becoming burned out. Not to mention that the only things that task hoarding can achieve are pushed or missed deadlines and slipshod work.

Be humble enough to admit that you need help. Get that babysitter. Put the kids in daycare. Give that paper to type to your assistant. Yes, you may not be satisfied with how they did the task, but do save your sanity. What’s a teeny-weeny typographical error here and there anyway? Modern word processing and productivity software have spell-checkers. And don’t worry, your kids will not grow up to be serial killers if you put them on daycare.

Time Management for Single Moms Attitude #3: Discipline

You need discipline to stay on track, stay in focus, and be able to streamline your life. It takes discipline to let go of tasks; it takes discipline to keep yourself calm in the midst of stress; and most of all, it takes discipline to stay on schedule. Train yourself to stay on track and to force yourself to let go of things that you should. Be it a task that is eating at you, or toxic emotions and relationships, discipline is essential in being able to make up your mind to do what you have to.

Time management for single moms is a breeze when you are armed with the right attitudes. So take heed, take these to heart, and learn to streamline your time through attitudes that push you to win!

Michael Lee has dramatically changed countless lives with his powerful self-improvement advice. Get free self-help success secrets and audios now at http://www.20daypersuasion.com/articlelist.html and be the next big success story!

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by John Mehrmann
Email was designed to be a tool to expedite and simplify communication. Tools are effective when managed properly. What happens when the tool starts to manage the person? What happens when a tool for communication replaces conversation and personal interaction? What happens when a time saving tool begins to consume our time? Then it is time to get email under control.

Use Separate Email Accounts

Many people have an email address that is associated with the workplace. This email address should be strictly limited to work related communications and should not be used for personal correspondence. There are many free services available for creating a personal email address that can be used for personal correspondence. If you want to stay in touch with friends, family or classmates, use your personal email address. If you want to share jokes, keep it outside of work. If you want to use an email for registrations, updates or informational newsletters, then use a personal email address. Your personal email address can go places that your work assigned email address can not go, like your next job for example.

Maintaining separate email accounts will help schedule time by maintaining a clear delineation between time at work and personal time. Keeping a personal email address out of the workplace will help to keep your personal life just that - personal. There also may be observations, jokes or comments that you want to share that may not be appropriate for a work related email account. Remember that everything that you send through a company email server is typically stored or archived, and that makes it available long after you deleted it from your own computer. Email correspondence is a favorite target for courtroom entertainment, and a single sentence taken out of context can be devastating. So use the work related email for professional communication and keep the personal correspondence on the side.

Folders and Archives

There are many useful ways to organize the incoming emails. Some individuals prefer to file email by the sender of the email. This makes it easy to locate historical email if you can remember who sent it to you. Some email tools also have functions to immediately sort and store incoming email by the sender. Keep in mind that the email chain may be copied into multiple folders if there are several people copied on the email and participating in a chain of updates.

An alternative method of organizing email is to file according to topic. This is a manual process that requires thought and manual effort. It can be useful if there are many individuals associated with an organization or event that you want to manage as a group.

Another useful tool for organizing email is to create monthly folders for temporarily holding emails that you intend to delete. Start at the beginning of each month by creating a folder or directory for holding email that has been read and is intended to be discarded. The directory may be a place to put email that is not intended to be preserved for historical reference, but might be handy to keep around in case it is needed. Continue making a new directory at the beginning of the following month, and the one after that. Once you have collected three months worth of email in three separate folders, then each time that you create a new folder at the beginning of one month, you can delete the folder that is ninety days old. For example, once you have accumulated folders for January, February and March, you might consider deleting or archiving all of the email associated with the January folder when starting April. This is a simple and easy way to manage archiving email on a scheduled basis.

Keep Your In Box Empty

Organize your priorities, file email by person or topic, and archive monthly. If there are still unresolved emails that need to be addressed, then create another directory labeled HOT or PRIORITY for follow-up. Move outstanding or unresolved email into that category for future follow-up and get it out of the general in box. This makes it much easier to manage the new incoming communications clearly and effectively. Clearing out the In Box will also help to reduce stress. Leaving unresolved email in the general In Box is sometimes perceived as a convenient reminder or ‘to do’ list. Why torture yourself with a constant nagging ‘to do’ list of things that you can not resolve immediately? Move it out of the way until you can resolve it and eliminate the distraction.

Schedule Time

Brace yourself, this observation may come as a bit of a shock, “email is not intended to be a conversation”. Email is not a tool for real time communication. Email is not instant messaging. Email is not in person and it is not a phone call. Email is not an effective tool for carrying on real time interactive discourse. If there is an emergency, consider other methods of communication. If there is a need for continual clarification or interaction then consider another form of communication. If the email dialogue has been reduced to a conversation then the tool is managing you.

Create a schedule for checking email. Stick with your schedule and some amazing things will happen. The first amazing thing is that some email chains will resolve themselves before you become an active participant. Just because a group of people participated in a real time email communication, it does not mean that you have to do the same. Wait for the activity to subside and you may be able to catch up on the whole chain of communications by reading one long string, as opposed to being constantly interrupted by multiple other comments as they are added to the pile. It is easier to read the chain all at once rather than sporadically as it develops throughout the day.

The second amazing thing that will happen if you stick to your schedule is that other people will come to recognize and accommodate your schedule. If you are a morning person then people will come to expect your replies in the morning. If you check emails at night because you travel or have meetings during the day, then people will come to expect your response the following day. If you schedule your email periodically at certain times during the day, then people will get to know your routine and will anticipate your replies accordingly. Not surprisingly, it means that people will also adjust the times that they send the email to you. Overall, handling email in scheduled blocks of time is useful for organizing schedules for the sender and the recipient. It allows you to give your full focus on the conversation or activity of the moment will full confidence that you will see your email at a scheduled time, and thereby reduce distractions all around.

Functional versus Conversational

Do you ever find yourself sitting at your computer and waiting for the next email to arrive? Do you respond to every pop-up message alert? If so, then you are addicted to email conversations and need to break yourself of the habit. There is a much better life waiting for you, complete with sunshine and fresh air. Email is intended to be a functional tool. It is useful for communicating to large groups of people simultaneously. Email is a good tool for documenting communications. Email is a great way to stay in touch over long distances and extended periods of time. Email is not a tool for real time communication. If you find yourself using a work related email account for conversational email, then consider scheduling time for your personal email account and make the separation for better time management.

Don’t Everyone Thank Me at Once!

Positive reinforcement and personal recognition are important for motivation and relationships. If you are compelled to respond to an email correspondence with a ‘Thank you’, then send it to one person. If the accomplishment or contribution is so outstanding that it is worthy of informing a large group of people or the entire company, then take the time to document with detail the effort and result that is being appreciated. A simple “thank you” between two individuals is fine. Copying a multitude of people on the simple expression of appreciation is not necessary. If it is important enough to copy everyone on a personal ‘thank you’, then it is worth taking the time to write more.

Be Explicit or Be Brief

Email can be brief to be effective. For example, a simple response or “yes” or “no” may be sufficient under certain circumstances. If brevity fits the situation, then be brief. On the other hand, sometimes a detailed explanation may be a useful response, especially if there are important nuances or details that may otherwise be overlooked. Adapt your email style to the content, message and the recipient.

Are you getting email from other people who could use some advice to get their email under control? Share some tips with them and see if you get a “Thank you” in return. Who is really reading your email?

______________________________________________________

Words of Wisdom

“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”
- Walt Whitman, Songs of the Open Road

“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.”
- Anne Morrow Lindberg, “Gift from the Sea’

“Electronic communication is an instantaneous and illusory contact that creates a sense of intimacy without the emotional investment that leads to close friendships.”
- Clifford Toll, “Silicon Snake Oil”

______________________________________________________

John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital.

John Mehrmann is a freelance author, industry expert and President of Executive Blueprints Inc, an organization dedicated to developing human capital and personal growth.

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by Stacey Moore
America, it seems, is going in a new direction.

• The suburbs now account for most job destinations and more commuters are traveling from suburb to suburb than from suburbs to central cities, according to “The Third National Report on Commuting Patterns and Trends.”

• Transit and carpooling are on the rise in many areas. One reason may be that more employers have moved out of cities to be closer to skilled workers. Another may be that accelerating prices for close-in housing push people farther from cities to find affordable homes. In addition, some people prefer a rural lifestyle.

• Although surveys suggest 45 minutes is the threshold most commuters were willing to drive one way to work, the number of Americans making longer commutes than that has grown steadily to more than 19 million.

• The latest census data shows more Americans are leaving for work between 5 am and 6:30 am and commuting for between 60 and 90 minutes.

• Many people drive longer distances to get to work compared to 15 or 20 years ago. For some of the more “extreme” commuters, the distance is so great they actually travel through several weather systems.

Fortunately, there could be a solution for both commuters and government planners: commuter trains.

These can connect to metro or bus services both at their destination and along their route to extend the range of accessibility.

What’s more, commuter trains are usually powered by diesel-electric or electric locomotives. That means quicker acceleration, less noise and fewer air-quality issues, report the experts at Voith Turbo, the leading supplier of couplings and final drives that make using these public transportation vehicles robust and convenient.

Meanwhile, if you must drive, here are a few hints to help you rev up your gas mileage:

1. Don’t speed. Driving 65 mph instead of 75 mph will increase your fuel economy by about 10 percent.

2. Avoid “jackrabbit” starts, which waste gas and increase pollution.

3. Don’t stop short. Accelerating hard and braking hard waste gas, increase pollution and wear out your brakes.

4. Keep your tires properly inflated. For every three pounds below recommended pressure, fuel economy falls another percent.

5. Travel light. For every extra 100 pounds in your trunk, you cut fuel economy by about 1 percent.

You can learn more about light rail online at www.us.voith.com.Almost 100 million of the 128 million commuters in the U.S. live in metropolitan areas.

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by inspire388
You often hear people say that they are so busy that they have no time for exercise, self improvement, leisure or family or to look for new opportunities.

Sometimes, you just wonder why? Is it just an excuse to be lazy? Of course, there are genuine cases where one has to shoulder 3 or more persons’s work in order to stay in the job. But you then wonder how their bosses manage their time given the heavier responsilbilty and greater scope of work. Some may say that the boss delegates. Well, it may not be the boss whom we are talking about. It could be a fellow colleague!

Time management is an important skill. As the saying goes: Time and tide wait for no man!

In order to do well in life, we should manage our time to do the task or activity that are important to us. How do we determine whether something is important or not? The answer lies in the potential consequences of any task or activity.

According to Brian Tracy, this way of evaluating the significance of a task is how you determine what your next frog really is.

Our attitude towards time, our “time horizon,” has an enormous impact on our behavior and our choices. People who take the long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future. It was found that people with long time perspective tend to be more successful in life and at work.

Think About Our Future
Successful people have a clear vision of their future. They think five, ten and twenty years ahead. To achieve their long-term goals, their actions, choices and behaviours will be consistent with what they desire in the future.

We should also have a clear idea of what is really important in our work in the long-term so that it is easier for us to make better decision about the priorities in the short-term. This also applies to every aspect of our lives.

Determine the Consequences
We should always ask yourself before we begin, “What are the potential consequences of doing or not doing this task?”

As long as our intentions are clear, we will have greater influence on what we do in the moment. We will be capable of evaluating whether what we are doing now is consistent with what we truly want to end up with and we can be assured that we are going the right direction.

Make It A Top Priority
Always get started immediately on task or activity that has large potential positive consequences. Make it a top priority!

The same can be said of something that has large potential negative consequences. We need to give it top priority as well.

Keep Motivated
In order to be motivated, we need motive. When we are motivated, we will overcome procrastination and get the task or activity done quickly. This is because of the positive potential consquence the task or activity has on us.

Thinking continually about the potential consequences of your choices, decisions and behaviors is one of the very best ways to determine you true priorities in your work and personal life.

Action To Be Taken
Always review our list of tasks, activities and projects and continually ask ourself, “Which one project or activity, if I did it in an excellent and timely fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my life?”

Go to work on whatever it is that can help us the most. Set it as a goal, make a plan to achieve it and go to work on your plan immediately.

Quote from the wonderful words of Goethe, “Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!”

Start from now, set our priorities right, remove procrastination and embark on a successful life.

Warmly,
Peck Ling
http://www.SkyQuestCom.com/Inspiration
email: inspire388@gmail.com

Peck Ling has introduced many world class speakers and gurus to people who want to know how to be successful in life. Please check out http://www.PreEnroller.com/Inspiration to discover a wonderful business opportunity and the Secrets of Success From Successful People.

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by Tonya Ramsey -
Time management is a big concern for a lot of people. I keep hearing, “There are just not enough hours in the day…” or “Where does my time go?” Face it we all live busy lives. Work, family, and other commitments keep us all hopping. To utilize better time management, it’s important to recognize what the specific problems are. Is it not having enough time for you or your family? Do you feel that you are wasting time by excessive driving? Maybe you are not sure where all your time is going and just want to account for it. Or you could have a full schedule that you are having a hard time keeping up with. Whatever the reason, time is a precious resource that most of us need to use to its fullest.

The most important step in time management is evaluating our schedules. On a sheet of paper write up a “typical” week for you, by looking at your current schedule you will be able to identify places where better time management could be use. Ask yourself why you are feeling unsatisfied with your schedule? Make a list of what you want to change and what you want to make room for. Do you want more time to peruse interests? More time to be with your children? Or just more time to get everything done?

After you have done this take a piece of paper and draw three columns. In the first column put a list of all appointments, events, or commitments that are “set in stone”, things that take place at a set time and happen daily, weekly or monthly. Such as work, club meetings, or standing doctor’s appointments. In the second column put “flexible” tasks or commitments that can be done around your “set in stone” commitments, such as grocery shopping, house cleaning, or having lunch with a friend. In the third column put those “occasional” appointments, doctor appointments, a school play, or an old friend coming into town (or anything that does not fall into the other two columns).

Then using a calendar (preferably one with large spaces for the days) Or use a notebook and label each page a day or two (depending on how much you are trying to accomplish daily or weekly.) Start putting in the items from your three columns, starting with the items that are “set in stone” then the items that are occasional, leave the “flexible” items to last since you are able to put them in around the other things.

The objective is to balance out your days and to maximize your time. Why make a separate trip to the pharmacy when it is on your way to your son’s soccer practice? I always try to plan appointments in the same area on the same day, this reduces my travel time and gets the most out of my day.

The biggest thing to consider is: Are you doing too much? No matter how well time is managed there is such a thing as an overload of commitments. Time management is not just about structuring your week so that you can get everything accomplished. It is about creating a manageable schedule that will give you time for the important things in life. So, before looking at your time management skills look at what you are trying to juggle.

Include things that you want to do but just don’t seem to have time for in your day. What is the sense of managing your time better just to fit in more work? A part of time management is balancing so that you can have time to enjoy the fun stuff in life too.

If you are so booked solid that you can not schedule an hour and a half of quality family time, an hour of time with your significant other, and at least at the very minimum 30 minutes — 45 minutes of time for yourself then you have too much on your plate and it is time to ask for help to relieve yourself of some commitments. Being run down and worn-out will not assist you in better time management, in fact it will hinder it.

Tonya Ramsey is a writer, speaker, life coach, and owner of Life By Design. She specializes in helping women improve their foundation of self in order to bring prosperity into their lives. Her passion is to assist women in empowering themselves.

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by Dean Caporella
There are a number of factors contributing to poor time management but the reality is, procrastination is just about the “grand daddy” of them all. But procrastination alone isn’t responsible in fact, there are are few things which people do that have a lot to do with the big “P” setting in.
We’ll examine ways of eliminating procrastination during this time management article.

No More Time Management Articles!

Time management articles are a great source of information, tips and tricks to beat procrastination but at some stage, you need to start taking stock and putting into practice some of the advice handed out. Why? Because continually reading articles extolling the virtues of better management of your time is one thing; actually doing it is another.

I am hoping this is the last time management article you read for awhile. Make a conscious decision to turn your productivity levels around. You want to succeed but something is holding you back, right? I’m here to tell you it’s possibly got more to do with the way your structuring your day.

Ever sat down to work on a big and important project and just before you start, you decide to go and get a coffee. Then as you’re walking back to your desk the phone rings. An hour later, it’s time to get back to work but before you start, you check your emails. There’s one from an expert on making money and you start reading. It’s one of those long sales letters so it’s another hour later and…

Time Management Tip

Pareto’s 80/20 rule also applies to time management. Many people are spending 80 per cent of their time on 20 per cent of their problems. This is why it’s important to prioritize when it comes to being time effective. Learn to say no if the problem is not life threatening!

More Techniques

Try utilizing the following action plan for better productivity:

1. Organize a time management mentor. Peer pressure is powerful. By having someone you respect and even fear is a great way to keep tabs on how you are managing your time.

2. Identify procrastination. There are many things we hate to do but must and if these are tied into your livelihood, then it’s costing you plenty in regards to your bottom line. This ties in with our first tip so organize a peer mentor right away!

3. Keep a journal of your activities. This will help you identify the important from the unimportant tasks in your current schedule. You’ll be able to see at first glance where you are spending unproductive time. You’ll also see at just what times of the day you are most productive!

4. Organize your schedule the day before. This is about prioritizing your day. We’re not saying the least important tasks shouldn’t be completed; you need to list the more urgent and important tasks first. Also, if you are working towards a major goal, then list the actions first which will carry you to your ultimate goal.

Effective Scheduling

Stress is a problem affecting many areas of our lives. It’s also related to bad time management practice. How? Stress is caused when a person over commits in their day. They set themselves some unrealistic short term goals and the build up of anxiety as a day progresses gets to a point when they realise they are not going to accomplish what they set out to achieve and begin to lose heart.

The next day, the same thing happens again and the day after that and so on. Soon they realize this whole time management thing doesn’t work and procrastination is back with a vengeance! Don’t let this happen to you. Decide what time is available and schedule a realistic to do list. Remember, don’t over commit.

Dean Caporella is a professional broadcaster. Are you a victim of procrastination? You can change. We reveal more in this time management article plus, get the latest time management news and tips at:http://www.timemanagementsite.com

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