Archive for August, 2007

by Cheryl A. Clausen
Is your management style whether self-management or managing a team the root of your time management issues? Crisis management is a management style that is consistently driven by uncontrolled external issues. This management style reacts to crisis rather than proactively predicting and planning to prevent crisis. The reason you get into a crisis management pattern is that you fail to plan, you set unrealistic time requirements on your self and others, and you’re always looking for a problem to solve. In addition, you enjoy a fast paced environment and like to have lots of things going and enjoy the pressure.

This time management tip is based on planning. When you have a well developed plan you can avoid most of the crisis that you deal with daily now. Most of your crisis are the result of external factors, so stop and evaluate what external factors can and quite possibly will impact you, and then develop a plan for the potential actions you can take to prevent or eliminate the impact of those factors.

You aren’t the only one who can handle a crisis. Once you know what can happen target key people to handle specific problems. This will help them to grow and develop so they can easily handle these problems on their own. Once they’re able to handle these crisis on their own delegate it to them. Quite often people who work solo will say they don’t have anyone to delegate to. That’s both a true and untrue statement. It is true that you never want to delegate the really important stuff in your business. It isn’t true that there isn’t anyone to delegate to. You have lots of little administrative tasks that you do everyday that someone else could be doing. That someone else could be a virtual assistant where you buy blocks of time and delegate the administrative tasks to them, it could be part-time help from young people or even retired people, or even help from your family members. There are people you can delegate non-essential non-money making work to. You just have to let go.

Use the knowledge that surrounds you. Ask key people for recommendations for avoiding the daily crisis your managing. These crises are sucking up your productive time and putting you farther and farther behind. There are people: your employees, peers, or experts ready willing and able to provide you with the help you need to make these crises go away. The most successful people make use of the knowledge that surrounds them and you should too.

Are you afraid to pay for the help you need? Are you afraid you can’t afford to pay someone to do your non-essential non-money producing tasks? Are you afraid you can’t afford to pay an expert to help you avoid the crisis you now have? Realize if you’re serious about your business and you want to succeed you can’t afford not to pay these outside people to help you free up the time you need to be productive with your money producing tasks. All these crises are keeping you from making money.

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

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by CJ Williams
Having a clear, unambiguous understanding of role and responsibilities is one of the foundation stones on which successful managers operate. Without this, the manager cannot be sure what activities to lead on, take part in, praise, reward, discipline, or not be involved in. Managers will inevitably become involved in activities and take responsibility for activities that they should not. Worse, areas of responsibility that are those of the manager will be ignored. Managing personal workload and other individuals and teams effectively is not possible when the role and responsibilities of the manager are uncertain. The solution is to arrange for these to be discussed, clarified and agreed, and communicated to other managers and to operational employees. The manager and their line manager must then regularly review the role and responsibilities and make adjustments when necessary.

Whilst role and responsibilities can be relatively easily agreed, the question of degree of authority is often more difficult. A manager that has the responsibility for activities but, for example, has no authority to make necessary local activity changes, be flexible in managing budgets, praise or reward good performance, or discipline poor performance, will run into difficulties that can delay progress, consume unnecessary time, confuse operational employees and undermine the status of the manager. The solution is to discuss and agree, with line and specialist management, the areas and degree of authority of the manager, in general terms but also in regard to specific decisions. Once agreed this should be communicated to other managers and to individuals and teams.

In most organisations the pace of change and the complexity of activities are such that it is essential to forecast, plan, and prioritise. Unless this is done the manager will not be able to defend against potential problems, will waste time on unimportant activities, miss important deadlines. All of these negative effects will then, in turn, exacerbate the problems faced by the manager. The solution is to adopt a system of forecasting, planning, and prioritising. Prioritising can be determined through discussion with senior management and specialists, then communicated to the team. Activities should be linked to outcomes, objectives, deadlines, so that all involved are aware of the purpose of the activity. As part of this process, the manager should involve other individuals and teams as appropriate, and communicate the plans and priorities to all involved. In this way the manager will be in control of activities, prepared for potential difficulties, and have the support of key colleagues.

We look at this separately from the section above because setting unrealistic deadlines is a hidden cause of many time management problems. The manager must ensure that deadlines are achievable, otherwise the failure to meet them will itself become an additional problem that will impact on other outcomes and deadlines. However, it is rare for a plan to prove perfect, and deadlines do come under threat and may have to be changed. The solution is to make certain that deadlines are set as realistically as possible, and that where circumstances do change appropriate corrective action is taken, to enable the deadline to be met, or to set a new one. This flexibility of response to change must be a part of the plan. In major projects there should be contingency plans in place to allow appropriate responses to be made to known potential threats.

Usually this is not the direct fault of the individual manager, rather it is caused by corporate decisions that leave areas of activity under-resourced. However, it is a problem that individual managers must deal with. In situations where physical or financial resources are inadequate, the manager must take these factors into consideration when forecasting, planning and prioritising. Being realistic about any resource shortcomings will produce a realistic plan. Where the resource shortage is one of people, manpower, the same planning approach must be taken. However, in cases of forecast shortage of human resources, and particularly when unexpected shortages occur, there is an added danger that the manager will take on additional tasks, roles, responsibilities, and add these to the existing workload. This is to be avoided if at all possible, except for extreme emergencies and very short periods of time. It is impossible for the manager to manage effectively if they are overburdened with additional workload. Worse, they will often be unsuitable, in knowledge, skills, expertise, or physical attributes, to carry out these activities to a high standard. The result, potentially, can be highly damaging, as the manager loses control in key areas, and loses respect through their inability to perform to an acceptable standard in the inappropriate work they have taken on. The solution is to find another solution. This could be to: adjust the plan and deadlines to take into account the missing resources; negotiate for additional resources; bring in appropriate resources from lower priority activities. Due to the culture in some organisations it is difficult for managers to take such assertive, positive action, but if a strong, logical case is presented to senior management, most will accept the necessity of providing the required resources or adjusting the plan.

This is a major cause of problems. At the heart of it is the lack of understanding of the role of delegation. Because delegation is not understood, managers fall into many delegation traps: some do not recognise when delegation is necessary; some believe that it is better to do certain tasks themselves, as they see themselves as more expert or more trustworthy; some delegate but to the wrong people; others give insufficient information when delegating; many do not give sufficient support to the person delegated to; many do not monitor the delegated activity; many do not review the performance of those delegated to; hardly any ensure that individuals receive training and development in how to deal with delegated activities and responsibilities. The solution is to learn about delegation and to adopt best practice in this activity. Effective delegation releases the manager to focus on other issues, generates positive responses from individuals and teams, and develops individuals and teams. It is a highly valuable technique that the manager must learn to do well.

Meetings are necessary, but they must be productive meetings. The manager has two types of meetings that they must manage effectively. The first type is the meeting where the manager is the leader, the chair, the caller of the meeting. With these, the solution to making them productive is to manage them according to the established best practice. Those meetings that the manager attends purely as a participant should also be managed, but in the sense that the manager makes optimum use of the opportunity to obtain and present information, contribute to decision making, and maintain positive relationships.

Information that is insufficient, inaccurate, invalid, out of date, not relevant, will result in decisions that are flawed and this will impact negatively on the control over time management of the manager (and others). The usual cause of poor quality information is the lack of an effective system for gathering and analysing information. This can relate to external environment information and internal monitoring, control, and review of activity.

The underlying cause of poor time management and resulting problems is the personal behaviour of the manager. As well as the manager’s response to the problems described above, there are a number of negative personal behaviours which aggravate the situation, including:

Lacking assertiveness: leading to problems such as being unable to deal with conflict or poor performance. Having a disorganised approach: visible by an untidy desk, rushing to meet personal deadlines, submitting reports late. Fear of loss of control: leading to an inability to delegate, and in extreme cases refusing to take holidays or legitimate sickness absence. Aiming for perfection: an impossible dream but one that some managers pursue relentlessly. Inability to complete tasks: linked to the previous behaviour, this is a weakness that leads to the build up of workload and unnecessary pressure, and often has negative repercussions on others. Being over-ambitious: some managers believe that appearing to be managing a huge workload, or carrying out key tasks personally, will be viewed as attractive qualities and lead to promotion, whilst the opposite is usually true. Over-reacting to events: not giving enough reflection, analysis, discussion, to events, and rushing in with an inappropriate and potentially damaging response. Inability to refuse work: resulting in taking on too much work and potentially causing damage in terms of raised personal stress levels, poor quality outcomes, and conflict with others. Procrastination in dealing with difficult decisions or taking difficult action: resulting in the building up of tasks and problems which combine to cause time management problems but also could cause damage as they reach crisis level. Not managing interruptions from colleagues, visitors, telephone calls, emails: caused by not planning how to deal with unwanted interruptions, overestimating your own importance, being too easily available, having an open-door policy, not having unavailable times, being afraid of offending others, working in an inappropriate location.

The solution is obviously for the manager to change their behaviour. However this is not easy. It can only be achieved by building behavioural change into personal development activity, and with support from the line manager, specialist help, and other colleagues. The manager can, of course, take some independent action, once the causes have been identified, but many are not able to recognise that there is a problem. Most managers are not aware of the extent to which their behaviour is causing them time management difficulties. Appraisals and other performance feedback channels should be used, pro-actively, by all managers to examine their time management performance. Where shortcomings are identified then appropriate corrective action should be built into the next phase of the manager’s personal development plan. Improvement in the identified areas then becomes one of the aspects of the manager’s future performance that is monitored and appraised.

Managing time in the workplace successfully is not an easy task. However, despite the difficulties, by implementing the solutions suggested here the manager will be able to effectively manage their role, responsibilities, and workload. With help from others and the application of a consistent, positive, thoughtful approach, the manager will find that they can manage time effectively.

CJ Williams is a tutor and management consultant currently working with Brighton School of Business and Management in the UK, specialising in Business and Management courses taught via distance learning. The writer, CJ Williams, can be contacted via http://www.brightonsbm.com

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One of the biggest concerns of college students is how they are going to juggle everything and keep everyone happy. Most people think (sometimes parents included) that college is a time of fun and little stress. Those that have gone to college may remember that studying, keeping up and lack of sleep is far from a walk in the park. There are several issues, events and social interactions that college students are expected to maintain all in limited time. There are many stressors during this time of life and can leave students frustrated as well as exhausted. The worries of balancing academics, sports, friends, family, employment and sleep are worrisome. Managing time is not only a difficult task for college students, but also the general population. Here are some great ways to manage time and still get everything done, or close to it anyway!

Understanding Your Internal Clock

No, we are not talking about your alarm clock that rings two hours too early every morning. Did you even know that you have an internal clock? This can be seen by the difference in people and their sleep habits. Ever noticed that some people regardless of an alarm clock or not wake up 7:00 am on the dot, regardless of what time they went to bed the night before. Others have trouble waking up regardless of the fact that the alarm clock has been screaming for an hour. This is because their internal clock is preset and is different from person to person. So what does this have to do with time management? Understanding when you have the best concentration, feel your best and are the most alert will help you determine the best time to study. Studying is a huge factor and time stealer of college students, so make the most of the session.

If you are an early bird then plan on studying in the morning, at breakfast or shortly there after. If this is your alert time and when you are best able to learn or retain information than make the most of it. On the other hand if you are a night own and are best able to work or understand at dark then study at night. The only concern with studying at night is the fact that you may be tired from a hard days work and have trouble concentrating. Remember the importance of knowing your body to understand when you are at your best, that way you will not spend hours spinning your wheels and not get any studying done.

Having Appropriate Tools

Make sure that you invest in a pocket calendar so that you can manage your time and make sure that you make your appointments as well as engagements. Keeping up with events and upcoming dates is one of the most important aspects of managing time. That way you do not overbook yourself and promise the weekend meal with your family the same time as a banquet or other social engagement.

As far as academics it is important to have the appropriate material, texts and study guides to make the most of your academic time. If you will spend a little extra time and take good notes, keep your material organized then you will not spend half your time looking for your homework! Unorganization is a leading loss of time for everyone on the planet!

Balancing Social VS Academics

Finding time between keeping up with your academic work and your friends is sometimes very strenuous. Everyone wants to go out and eat, spend a day on the lake or watch a movie instead of writing an English essay. It is important to keep your studies up though because it is easy to fail a class. Not only does this cost you or your parents an arm and leg, but it also puts you behind. You came to college to earn a degree in academics not socializing. There is a time and place for everything, but put your college career first. Allot so much time to your friends, sports and other activities in order to avoid running out of time. If something must be skipped make sure that is not your school work. If you miss a test or perform poorly, your grades, scholarship and other financial aid status can suffer, but your friends will forgive you.

As for balancing sports and academics, you have to do just that, balance it. This can be a very trying feat because both can take a great deal of dedication and time. Again remember that you will not be able to continue your sports and be the star of the basketball team if you flunk out. Ever heard of the “no pass no play rule”? It gets excellent athletes all the time, how good are you on the bench?

Rid of Distractions

If you are trying to achieve a goal and there are several distracting factors you probably will not accomplish them. Ridding or removing the distractions is the best way to get your wish list completed in record time. Background music or other slight noise is acceptable during study time, but rap music, loud music or the blasting television needs to be eliminated. You can not study when your friends are having a party or a loud get together in the next room either. Pick a time and place that is quite and free of distractions to study.

Other college tips from Gene Grzywacz include Becoming a Nurse and a College Student Survival Guide.

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by Cheryl A. Clausen
Most people want and need a time management tip for effectively managing their use of the phone. Don’t be a slave to your phone learn how to master it and use it as the useful tool it can be. Unfortunately far too often the phone is your enemy sucking up tons of time with little benefit to show from all the time invested. The phone can provide a way to: get quick information without leaving your home or office, stay in touch and manage remote events and operations, leave a quick and useful message, and to save time by getting the information and help you need almost immediately. Let’s focus on its usefulness and identify ways to make it more useful to you than it may be now.

Does your phone ring all day long or do you have people talking to you via the intercom feature? Recognize that just because your phone rings doesn’t mean you have to answer it. When you’re focused on your work ignore the phone until you’ve finished and have a break before you start the next thing. Let your voice mail do its job and record the necessary follow-up information, so if it’s a call you need to return you can do so, and if it’s a nuisance call you can just delete the message. Treat the intercom like someone walking into your office unexpectedly. Let them know that although you want to speak with them you are otherwise involved at the moment, and ask when you can call them back.

Make sure your calls are respectful of others time too. Establish the purpose and main points for the call before you ever pick up the phone. That way you won’t be frustrated when you hang up thinking you forgot to communicate something important during your call. As an example; the purpose of your call is to set a date time, and location for an upcoming meeting. The main points you want to cover in the call might be key responsibilities, purpose of the meeting, and the main points for the agenda. A great way to set the stage that this is a business call is to begin the call with a target length for the call. Following the example you might open by saying that you think everything you need to cover can be handled in 10 minutes and confirm the other party has 10 minutes available. Then proceed into your purpose and main points. In essence any time you make a call you are asking for either a planned or unplanned meeting with the other party. Having an agenda for this meeting conducted via the telephone is as effective as it is when holding a face-to-face meeting.

Not everyone has the same understanding of how to make the phone a useful time management tool. Train those calling you to have a clear purpose and objective before calling you. You can help them with this by asking how long they think the call will take, and asking them about the purpose of the call. If you don’t have the time when they call establish another time for the call, and ask them to have their main points ready so you don’t miss anything. Let them know that now that you understand the purpose of the call that you will be prepared with your main points for the call as well.

Proper phone management is a great start to effective time management. The phone can save you oodles of time if you use it to get the information you need without leaving your office or home. The phone only becomes a time management nightmare when you allow yourself and others to use the phone improperly. There is a big difference between a call to chat and a call with a purpose. Avoid allowing calls that should have a purpose to become chat calls.

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

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by Cheryl A. Clausen
Could personal time management actually be fun? When you think of time management you may associate time management with making yourself live by someone else’s rules so you have more time for work. That’s definitely not fun or a fun way to look at time management. We all have things we have to do that for one reason or another we just hate doing. I hate cleaning toilets, grocery shopping, and unloading the dishwasher to name just a few things. But I’ve found a way to make un-fun things a little more fun, and it may make your un-fun things a little more bearable too.

Have you found that a big part of your personal time management problems stem from failing to start? You hate doing whatever it is so much you dread starting, and the more you dread it the longer it takes to get yourself to start. And you’re wasting precious time that could be used for something else during all this dreading time. Figure out how long it would take you to do the task if you just started and did nothing else.

How long would it take you if you started it, and attacked it like your life depended on it rather than just half-heartedly working on it and maybe even leaving it partially done? Time yourself and try to beat your best time the next time you have to do one of the things you hate. If you don’t know how long it actually takes just guess the first time. I found that if I just start I can clean 3 toilets in 10 minutes, I can get all my groceries bought and in my car in one hour, and I can unload the dishwasher in 5 minutes. Why is that important? Once I realized how long things take I realized I could group them and get the things I hate out of the way all at one time. Plus I make it a little less miserable and a little more fun by trying to beat my best time.

Get the things you hate done first, so you have time for fun. When you beat your standard time give yourself a little time related reward. Because I have all the yucky things done I have a couple hours to do something fun that I’ve wanted to do but didn’t think I had time for. If you could get all the things you hate done how much time would you have to do something you want to do, and what will you do?

Personal time management doesn’t have to be rigid and make you feel like a slave to the clock. When you improve your personal time management skills by changing how you behave you can reward yourself with the gift of free time. When its fun time just have fun, and don’t allow anything un-fun into that time period that you’ve set aside to reward yourself.

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

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by Matthew Roberts.
They say that time is much more important than wealth. Most effective people think so. They know how to get more time in a day, and they have mastered the art of utilizing time effectively to do more productive things that contribute to their advancement or success. So how do they do it?

Proven Technique Number 1 - They delegate and assign simple routinary tasks to other people so that they can have more free time to do as they please.

This is very elementary but of great significance. If you have the money, hire people to do the housework, the repairing, and even some of your office jobs. Let others do the research. But of course, you have to reward them accordingly so they will get motivated to render their services again.

You can then focus on the more important things in life, like planning and managing your activities.

Proven Technique Number 2 - They plan seriously.

The less time you think you have, the more critical it is for you to plan. By planning carefully, you’ll be able to manage your time better and avoid costly mistakes that eat up much more of your time.

You might say that you’re so busy you don’t even have time to plan. Maybe you can insert some time planning while doing your other activities. The planning phase is very important in organizing your thoughts to carry out the desired effects.

You might say that this is boring stuff, but you should never underestimate this process. This is like a guideline to steer you into the right direction.

Your plan will be your road map. Spend enough time to ponder through the different approaches and activities, and you will soon realize that you can save a lot more time by doing this.

It will be best if you can choose a quiet place to make your plan.
Your mind can focus and think more clearly this way.

Every individual has his unique perception of a well-made plan. There are no specific rules in making it. But in case you’re in a tight situation, let me give you some tips.

1. Write down your objective. This is a precise definition of your target.

2. Brainstorm the strategies & tactics you will employ to accomplish your objective.

3. Assess the advantages & disadvantages of carrying out those strategies & choose those tactics where the pros outweigh the cons.

4. Set a timeline or deadline in completing your mission.

5. Make modifications & back-up plans in case Plan A doesn’t work.

6. As your plan evolves, you will gain experience. Learn from your mistakes.

Most important of all, don’t delay. Start applying what you have learned today, and have lots of great time!

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Matthew Roberts (the author of this article) has set you up with a special gift on his website.

In an exclusive personal interview he uncovered the secret success strategies of multi-millionaire John Di Lemme. For your FREE 18 minute extract of this interview, head on over to Inspiration: Achieve Goal Setting Success

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by Kale Jones
Speed reading materials often concentrate on the brain by tweaking the ability to choose and process printed information in a matter of seconds. In order to increase the speed at which this takes place, the brain needs a bit of sharpening and training. With the assistance of decent speed reading software, books, and other programs, one can learn how to not only read faster, but also gain a better understanding of the text they scan.

With this higher level of information retaining — the more knowledgeable one will become. As a result, you also become more desirable and productive within the work world, as well as on the educational scene. In order to obtain the ability to speed read without compromising comprehension is a skill that takes practice. Below you will find five helpful ways on how to sharpen your skills in the speed reading department:

1) Scan Content Before Reading

Become a smarter reader by scanning the content of a book before starting to tackle the chapters. Each book alerts a reader to the kind of material within a book that is most useful (or a complete waste of time). By avoiding unnecessary or “fluff” chapters, you will be able to save a great amount of time and energy.

2) Vocabulary Increase

Understanding the words you are reading will help you with your speed reading goals. If you are unable to decipher words in your text, your rate of reading will decrease because you will pause more to figure out what you are reading. Also, pressing words require a quick look-up in the dictionary, which could be quite important in understanding a key point in reading material. This is especially significant for college students using speed reading to make their heavy load of study materials much lighter, as they often encounter information they have never seen before.

3) Prioritize

Some people succeed in improving their speed reading and comprehension by prioritizing their reading material. This means they will classify what part of the content requires a more urgent response. First, you will approach a chunk of text, chapter, or book by placing “very significant” and “less important” tags before you start to read. This technique not only helps you speed read through the material, but also enhances your comprehension.

4) Choose Suitable Reading Room

To improve how you read faster and comprehend the material in front of your face, it is important to select a comfortable and quiet reading arena that encourages better results. Your chosen place should be free of distractions, but not too much so that you will fall asleep. For instance, it is not suggested to read difficult or vital material while in the bed. The best approach is to select a location where you will not be disturbed while you speed read, which will only slow down your focus and overall flow.

5) Practice

How will you improve your speed reading skills if you never practice? It is vital to continue developing your capacity to read faster and comprehend more and the only way to give your brain sufficient training in reading and processing information at an elevated rate is to practice. This step is also important for training the eyes to move faster across a page.

Forget Those Boring Speed Reading Courses - Now You Can DOUBLE Your Reading Speed In Just 16 Minutes Flat. Discover The Fastest Audio Speed Reading Program On The Internet –> Visit http://www.nitrospeedreading.com

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by Cheryl A. Clausen
Poor time management is a frequent cause of stress. Inefficient time management can result in: embarrassment, anxiety, worry, feelings of inadequacy, anger, fear, depression, and even sadness. The bottom line is the only person who can change that for you, is you. You are the only person who can step up to the plate and take the necessary actions to ease the stress that time management causes for you.

The stress caused from poor time management is a reflection of what is going on inside you. If you want to make time management improvements start with your mind. Right now you’re giving yourself permission to have poor time management behaviors. More often than not, that permission comes in the form of inaction. When you allow yourself to miss deadlines, show up late for appointments, leave projects unfinished, and work in an environment of chaos; all of those things exist for you because you’ve given yourself permission to allow them to exist.

Planning is important for success in all areas of your life, and time management is no exception. Develop a plan for how you want to use your time. The best time management plan will include your plan for how you will spend your time in all areas of your life. This creates balance and allows you to live a fuller richer more enjoyable life. In order to make this as simple as possible, just start with a plan for tomorrow. At the end of the day tomorrow plan the next day and so on. When you build up your confidence in your ability to develop a plan and stick to it begin planning a week at a time, and then maybe planning the bigger things a month out or a quarter out or even a year out.

You can plan all you want and your life will never change unless you hold yourself accountable for taking action. You have to move your hands and feet to implement your time management plan. When you first look at a project it can seem so overwhelming that you don’t even know where to begin. Avoid project paralysis by breaking it down into pieces and then focusing on just working on one piece of the project at a time. You may be surprised how many pieces of a project you can complete in 15 minute increments.

As you begin to master your time management effectiveness take time to notice how much less stress you have. A good way to make sure you don’t overlook the impact your new behaviors is having is to work from one master “to do” list, and check things off each day as you complete them. I personally prefer to use one list for the whole week, and just keep checking things off and re-prioritizing as I go. This helps you to really realize the difference your efforts are making not only in your stress level, but in your productivity level too.

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

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by Kale Jones
You’re a college student trying to juggle your on-campus job and three weeks worth of reading for required classes you need in order to graduate. When tackling the near-impossible philosophy, comprehension becomes a rather important skill to possess. As you face two novels in one week, the ability to run through two books at a faster rate in a short amount of time is priceless.

When you enter training to learn how to speed read as a college student, you will cultivate skills that make study sessions much easier to accomplish. Once you graduate, this technique will also help you later on in whatever additional studies or career you choose to pursue.

Numerous reading interpretation and comprehension skills are taught in an array of speed reading programs and software that aims to make studying in college much easier. When college students are able to prioritize the text they must read before a heavy test, they can increase the speed at which they complete their studies. It is important to assess what part of the reading material is more significant than the rest. This works as a successful prep for tackling a large chunk of reading matter in a shorter period of time.

Speed reading is an incredibly valuable skill, allowing college students to save a lot of time and energy in an atmosphere that often brings about many distractions and interruptions. As a college student, being a slow reader hinders your progress in the classroom, and takes time away from completing outside activities and other school pursuits. When a student learns how to read at a faster pace and better comprehend material, they will gain a competitive edge in the classroom that continues beyond graduation.

When it comes to learning how to speed read as a student, below are the top three reasons to seek out a decent speed reading program:

1) Saves Time

One of the largest benefits speed reading skills give college students is more time. When you have mastered the art of speed reading, you will finish a book in half the time (in some cases — even less than half the time) it takes to finish books at an average pace. Speed reading helps a student learn that it isn’t always necessary to read whole materials to get the main idea. Some reading is easy to skim, making it effortless to absorb essential pieces of information.

2) Increase Your Love of Reading

Many people falter in the reading department because they dread it so. If you are more open to the idea of reading, your overall experiences will become better and more fulfilling. Instead of approaching the concept of reading a lot of material as boring, train your mind to view reading as opening new doors and enhancing your intellectual capacity.

3) Higher Grades

Speed reading greatly helps students by not only improving their rate of reading, but also promoting the attainment of higher grades. With a great deal of information to tackle, speed reading really comes in handy and allows some to push farther in their grades, which often comes in the form of improved comprehension.

Forget Those Boring Speed Reading Courses - Now You Can DOUBLE Your Reading Speed In Just 16 Minutes Flat. Discover The Fastest Audio Speed-Reading Program On The Internet –> Visit http://www.nitrospeedreading.com

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by Cheryl A. Clausen
Crediting your time with its real value is an effective time management skill. Recognize that time is more valuable than your treasures, and treat it that way. Time can never be recovered, or replaced. Just like running out of money, running out of time is stressful and worrisome. There are ways you can get more money if you just put your thinking cap on. There aren’t ways to get more time, only ways to better use and control the use of your time.

Your checkbook register and your calendar are similar tools. Your checkbook register helps you to keep a running tally for how you spend your money. For many of you your calendar is a running tally for how you have spent your time. I want to challenge you to take it from a tool you use to track how you “have” spent your time, to a tool you use to plan how you “will” spend your time. You do this by blocking out all the fixed appointments in your calendar for the week first.

Almost everyone is good about recording their business or professional appointments, but what about everything else. If you want to effectively manage your time you have to take a look at the whole picture. Block out the eight hours you need for sleeping. Block out all your appointments that you need to honor during your work day or productive time. You also need to block out appointments with yourself for the personal things in your life. Things like playing with the kids, going out with friends, seeing a movie, going to the gym, or time for the groups that support your beliefs and values. When you block your time for your physical requirement for sleep, the time you need for productivity, and the time you need for personal enjoyment you are including balance in your life. Balance is very important because you live your life for the long-haul.

Expect the unexpected. An effective time management skill is the realization that you don’t want to block your time so closely that you don’t have room for the unexpected. You know that you can expect the unexpected to challenge your use of your time. One way to become more proficient at blocking your time is to realize how much time the things you regularly have to do really take. Take something as simple as checking your email. Just this morning I spent 40 minutes checking, sorting, and responding to my email. Because I know this is typical I only check my email twice a day. That way I’m not losing 10-15 minutes here and there throughout the day as I am trying to focus on my productive activities. After you’ve scheduled all your appointments for the things you have to do, and the things that would make your day productive, make sure there is some white space left over where you can insert time allocations for the unexpected.

You may allow your checking account to go overdraft on occasion, but you can’t do that with your time. If your checking account has an overdraft you get the money, and pay a penalty, and move on. When your time bank goes empty there isn’t anywhere to go to get more time. You can avoid allowing your time account to go overdraft through effective time management where you use time blocking to control your time so it serves you and reduces your stress.

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

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