Archive for October, 2007

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
Invest 15 minutes each week to reduce your stress and get more value from your time. Effective time management is a skill anyone can develop and this technique will help you to develop good skills faster. And it only requires about 15 minutes of your time. How do you wrap up your week now? Do you rush off from work leaving everything as is until you start the work week again on Monday? When you do that there are two negative things that happen.

First, there are some things that get lost in the shuffle because you didn’t write down the next actions you need to take. And second, you start the next week spending much more than 15 minutes trying to figure out what you should be doing and where you left off the week before.

Take time to review your week and plan the upcome week before you end your week. Do you take on more than you can handle? If, so you join a group made up of the majority.

You usually get in this situation because you don’t realize how many commitments you’ve already made. Use the last 15 minutes at the end of the week to record all the actions you need to finish up on from this week. Write down all the actions you need to take next week, so when Monday comes you’ll know exactly what to start on.

Complete the process by prioritizing the three most important things you’ll do on Monday. Refer to your calendar to determine where you’ll fit those things in among the commitments you’ve already schedule. Just get a general idea when you’ll take those actions. You don’t want to schedule them as appointments.

Empty your pockets. During the week you’ve allowed sticky notes, receipts, bills, business cards etc. to accumulate in your pockets and briefcase and on your desk. Put all these things in one basket and schedule a time when you will pay your bills, turn in your receipts, and properly file the rest.

Author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get unstuck. Get Time Management Tips get her free ecourse. Increase your Time Management Skills, check this out.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
As you struggle with time management each day it all boils down to uncertainties about what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Given that you know how to focus when you want to. Given that each day you write things down so you won’t forget or overlook them. Given that you understand the outcomes or results of your actions. Given that you know how to review your options and make choices. Why is developing an effective time management strategy so hard? Time management struggles are the outward manifestation of internal struggles. You can attempt to use all kinds of time management strategies, tips, techniques, and tools but until you understand the underlying drivers you are making cosmetic corrections. Your internal struggles arise from a combination of your own behaviors and motivators, and the miss match between your natural behavioral styles and the environment you’re trying to function in.

There are two aspects to time management. The first aspect is your time related behaviors. These behaviors are either natural to you or they’re adaptations for how you think you need to behave.

When you try to adapt your natural behaviors too much to fit into your environment you feel stressed out, overwhelmed, burned-out, and generally miserable and unhappy. If that describes your current feelings you may need to step back and review your environment. You may even need to remove yourself from your current environment and into one that is a better match for you. You simply may be the right person in the right job at the wrong company, or the right person in the wrong job at the right company. Something isn’t working and you need to know what isn’t working.

The other part of time management is your motivators. Everyone has one or two attitudes that you need to have fulfilled. When you’re doing things that fulfill those attitudes you feel energized, satisfied, and generally happy.

When you’re focused on tasks that motivate you time passes quickly because you’re enjoying yourself. Do the work or tasks you’re doing feel rewarding to you? You can’t expect to spend all day every day on rewarding tasks, but you definitely shouldn’t be spending the majority of your day doing things that make you feel exhausted, stressed, and strained.

It’s easy to stay focused when you’re in the right environment doing the right things. It’s easy to develop long-term plans working in the right environment doing the right things. Long-term plans help you to make decisions and choices each day that take you closer to the fulfillment of those plans.

One of the easiest time management solutions involves not knowing how to do something. When you know what you need to do, but you don’t know how you can learn how to do it yourself, or you can get the help of someone who does know how to do it. Don’t do it yourself unless it makes sense for you to learn how.

About the author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get unstuck. To find Time Management Tips get her free analysis. Enhance your Time Management Skills, check this out.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by Robin OBrien
People are often described as being two-dimensional. It implies that there is a lack of depth to their character; a three-dimensional person is supposed to be the complete picture. But many forget that there is a forth dimension: Time. Is it sheer folly to try and control a dimension?

Without Time life would cease to exist. Consciousness only exists because we all have an innate sense of the passing of time. We know we’re happy or sad because we have a fixed time reference; we know that our psyche, indeed everything in life, is constantly changing. We’re happy, because we know that sometime in the past we were not. Without Time we would not be able to say if we were happy or not.

Time is a universal law and yet we hear experts telling us we should manage it. Time management is now big business. But time management implies total control, that we can somehow change it. We pay these people huge amounts of money each year so that we too can learn the trick of managing, taming and controlling time. We take these gurus seriously; they are rather like the fabled alchemists who could change lead into gold.

But what if they preached about width management, height management and depth management and how we need to control them to live a more fulfilled life. We would think them ludicrous. And yet, when they talk about time management - the forth dimension - we nod respectfully and beseech them to take our money.

Perhaps I’m being a little facetious but I think there is a serious point to be made. When we spend too much effort in sectioning off our time from one activity to the next, we may think we are more fulfilled, but I suspect, something dies within us.

Are we seriously supposed to draw up time charts for work, family, hobbies and ‘quality time’. Surely, our family is a constant part of us; is it possible to shut them out altogether when they are not scheduled in. The term ‘quality time’ implies an allotted time for us to explore our emotions; a time to be happy, to reflect, to build relationships, to be sad even. But how can we ’switch on’ these things; we’re human beings, not machines. Our emotions and thoughts creep up on us; they bare scant regard to time, whether it’s been allotted to them or not.

When we try to live a regimented life we loose that certain something that makes us human.

Of course, the business of getting through the day does require a degree of organization but spontaneity, creativity and true fulfillment is only possible when time is given a long leash.

I often think that when Time Management gurus tell us that we can reach a better, happier place from the rigorous management of our allotted time on this planet, they are, at best misguided. What is more likely to happen is that we turn off our humanity; we become machine-like. A machine doesn’t have any self doubts or bad times, but neither does it have our genius for thought, creation and spontaneity.

A machine is the perfect example of time management. A human being is the perfect example of something that is not governed by, or tries to manage time, but is aware of the possibilities that time gives each and everyone one of us.

Robin O’Brien is founder of a website dedicated to self improvement. It contains many self improvement tips and self improvement articles.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
Turn all the thoughts cluttering your mind into actions. The objective of improving your time management skills is simplification. You only complicate your life when you try to store information in your head about what you need to do and remember later. That approach clutters your mind, and increases your stress. Sometimes you try to avoid this by writing those things down, but you write them down in more than one place. Simplify your life by recording all these thoughts using a simple, portable, and easy to use system so you will use it. A “to do” list can do all these things for you.

Good time management skills can help you to simplify your life. Don’t create a daily “to do” list. When you make a “to do” list each day you’re doing seven time the work. Create an electronic version of your “to do” list so it’s easy to update.

Enter standing actions in your template. When enter projects list all the actions you need to do yet until the project is complete. Then once a week print your template and fill in the actions for the upcoming week.

You don’t want your “to do” list to be a list of random and disorganized thoughts. Your “to do” list should be a list of the actions you need to take now and later. Your “to do” list serves as both a check sheet for marking off actions as they are completed, and a reminder for future actions so you don’t forget them when the time comes.

Make sure as you enter things on your “to do” list that you state them as actions. Using your time is about actions not ideas. Include a section for future ideas and plans you want to make, but in the actual “to do” section every entry must be made in terms of an action. You wouldn’t write the word groceries by itself on your “to do” list. Instead groceries might be an item on your list with actions listed: make list on Thursday with items for Saturdays party, and go to store on Saturday. Your weekly “to do” list is also a great place to track your progress. On your template you may want to include a section for phone calls you need to make with the names and numbers of those to call. You absolutely want a results section where you track your weekly outcomes.

You can have the outcomes from phone calls in one place so you know exactly how many appointments you made and/or the number of sales you made. You know immediately if you are on track or off track and what you need to do to get the results you want. This simple tool helps you to keep everything together in one place so you aren’t wasting time trying hunting for information.

About the author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get unstuck. To find Time Management Tips get her free analysis. Improve your Time Management Skills, check this out.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by D Nelson
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.”

Deborah Nelson owns The AdStuff Company, (http://www.theadstuffcompany.com) which specializes in branded advertising products, as well as conducting Time Prosperity workshops based on a whole new model for time management. If you want to learn how to really be successful with time, Nelson conducts a workshop entitled “It’s About Time Prosperity.” Nelson teaches a time prosperity system as opposed to the traditional linear time management system. You are invited to discover a whole new world of Time Prosperity. and may contact Nelson at info@timeprosperity.com

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by CollegeAnte
I started getting into poker about halfway through my freshman year in college. I thought about it as a means of getting more money because I didn’t want to do a work study. I started playing online poker on Absolute Poker. I heard it was one of the best sites of college poker. I ended up winning $200 on one of the tourneys and that started my bankroll.

I started playing Limit Holdem, because I found it was fun, stressless casual game. Starting to put in some serious hours at the table, but I found that I wasn’t getting the profit that I was hoping for. I was getting around 20 bucks a week, which was nice but I was hoping for more. So I went to the bookstore and bought a couple of poker books. I started reading the books and playing poker everyday. Found out that I was getting behind in some of my classes. Ended up having to cut down my playing time to catch up to work.

I heard at a time management seminar that you should think of college as a job. Make hours for yourself to do work only. My hours were from 9-5 ever day. I got off ‘work’ at 5 and I had the rest of the night to do what ever I wanted. There are still nights that I have to study for exams, but I get most of my studying in during my hours. I got into this plan where I study up for poker, for half an hour, then start my poker session. It’s amazing because I started putting more focus on my playing then worrying about school.

It’s been about a year and a half since I’ve started playing poker on Absolute Poker. I’m now currently making around 10,000 a month and it’s ever increasing. You could do exactly like I did if you could manage your time.

Tim McCann is a college student at the University of Maine and the webmaster at www.Collegeante.com, High Stakes Poker, Absolute Poker, College Poker.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
According to Dave Kahle your mindset is a group of beliefs that are so deep and firmly held that they are the source of many of your thoughts. Those thoughts determine how you’ll handle your time. Those thoughts determine your actions and the actions you take or avoid taking determine your results. As long as you’re content with your current situation you won’t make any real changes. As soon as you are strongly dissatisfied with your current situation you’ll commit to making positive changes to get what you want and you’ll follow through on your commitments.

You have the ability to increase the effectiveness of your time management skills through your desire to achieve greater potential than you’re achieving now. You can only expand your potential if you recognize that you have greater potential and believe that you have ability to achieve greater potential. Stimulate your motivation and build your commitment to do what you need to do to get what you want so you’ll have both the drive and the desire to improve your time management skills.

Great achievers are masters of their time management skills. These great achievers demand the time they need so they can do more, be more, and have more. Their focus is on the prize and on increasing their efficiency so they can get what they want. Contentment prevents the drive required to make positive changes. Contented people stay stuck where they are. They aren’t able to achieve a higher level of potential than where they are now.

Do you have the drive or burning desire to make positive changes so you can improve your time management techniques? If you’ve found that time management tips haven’t really helped you all that much in the past it’s probably because you gave them a half-hearted try and then you reverted back to your old habits. When you revert back to your old habits you get your old results.

You are the only person who can trigger this drive or burning desire within you. So, if you’re ready to achieve more of your potential stimulate that desire and allow your desire to help you to see the opportunities around you. Believe in yourself and your capabilities, and you’ll start seeing those opportunities.

So now you have the desire and you have the opportunity. To take advantage of those opportunities you need the time management skills that will help you to get them. Take advantage of the tools below to improve your time management skills and start achieving the potential you’re capable of.

Author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get unstuck. Simple Time Management Tips get her free analysis. Enhance your Time Management Skills, check this out.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
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.

Quickly go through each item and decide on the action you will take. Choose just one of your in boxes and begin reviewing each item. Evaluate each item to determine if you could take care of this item within a minute or two, if you can do it now and get it over with and out of your way.

Anything taking longer than two minutes will require you to decide on your next action. Add that action to your weekly To Do list immediately. There isn’t any need to organize or prioritize your To Do list as you go because you’ll prioritizing your list each day, and you’ll be checking things off as you complete them. When the end of the week comes you’ll find you have a lot of things checked off, and only a few things you’ll need to carry over to the following week’s To Do list. Ruthlessly make sure an action is required before you enter it into your To Do List. When you find an action you don’t need to take immediately cross it off your list or toss it out.

Sometimes you’ll have an idea you want to think about later. Add your idea to the future planning section of your To Do list. Sometimes you have things you want for for future reference. Set up a file folder for those reference items and put the item in the right folder. There isn’t any reason to make this folder or filing system complicated because if you do you won’t use it. A simple way to organize your reference folder is to have a folder for each topic and then organize the items within the folder alphabetically or by date or in any way that makes sense to you.

Do you have trouble prioritizing? You now have the items from your in boxes entered on your To Do list. Now you need to decide when to take action on those action items. Once a week simply put together your To Do list including everything that needs to be. Don’t worry about getting these action items neatly organized and prioritized. Just focus on capturing all the things that require an action or future consideration on this one list. Each day scan your list of actions and prioritize only the top 3-7 things that would make your day successful. Using this time management technique consistently will get you to consistently take the right actions. Just tackle the most important things one action at a time. In a few weeks you may find that some of the actions on your To Do list really don’t need to be done. Each day as you do this quick sort and decide on your actions you’ll gain control of your in boxes. But this only works if you make a commitment to clear your in boxes each day. And when you make that commitment and hold yourself accountable you won’t get into the situation of having overflowing in boxes ever again.

About the author: Cheryl A. Clausen can help you get where you want to be. Enhance your Time Management Tips get her free analysis. Enhance your Time Management Skills, look here.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
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.

You can’t be effective when you aren’t sure what actions you should be taking at any given moment. The easiest way to increase your effectiveness 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. Your odds of forgetting important things increase when you have to search through files, folders, your calendar, and your computer to find what you’re supposed to be taking action on, and you just won’t take the time to hunt through everything to figure out what you should be doing.

Knowing when to take action on the right things helps you to develop good time management skills. Prioritize your list of actions, delegate the actions you can, and dump any action that doesn’t need to happen. Commit to dumping anything that isn’t taking you closer to achieving what you want to achieve.

Develop procedures for routine tasks so you can delegate those tasks to someone else and free yourself up to actually run your business. Realize there are a number of opportunities to outsource tasks to virtual assistants, employees, or even volunteers. There are some senior citizen groups that want activities that members can work on together.

There is probably a lot of stuff left on your list that needs to be prioritized. Just select the three most important things to do one day at a time. You don’t need to prioritize the whole list. Prioritize and commit to taking action on only one to three actions each day. As you recognize the desired outcome is actually doable it becomes easier to develop good time management skills. It’s up to you to develop the higher level big picture that you want to accomplish and that you need to focus on. Decide on the actions you’ll take and when, based on their alignment with what you’re trying to accomplish.

About the author: Cheryl A. Clausen can help you get unstuck. To find Time Management Tips get her free ecourse. Increase your Time Management Skills, check this out.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
If you never have enough time it’s probably because you’re allowing other people to keep you from getting things done. The source of your poor time management techniques is your own negativity and passiveness. It doesn’t do you any good to blame others because you choose to respond to distractions and seeming crisis. When you elect to respond to the daily interruptions your electing to reduce your productivity and outcomes. You have to determine how you will invest your time. Focus on the activities that help you to be successful. Only you can stop being a victim and take control of your time.

When you aren’t clear about what you’re trying to accomplish you can practice good time management skills. Set aside some time to develop a clear direction for where you’re headed and the actions you need to take to get there. Only then can you make daily decisions about the most important actions for you to take each day. Better time management techniques lead to better decisions about how you allocate your resources.

There is a common myth that you can multi-task. You really can’t because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking forces your brain to switch between tasks. Neither task gets the attention it needs and neither gets done well. To make the best use of your time focus your attention on the actions you can take to make the best use of your time. When you don’t get the most value from your time you don’t get a chance to use that time again. There are times when you miss an opportunity there isn’t a second chance ever. To get the most value from your time track and measure your outcomes so you focus on what you’re trying to achieve. That way you can focus on doing the right things at the right time. You can change your current time management skills and increase both your productivity and free time.

Author: Cheryl A. Clausen can help you get unstuck. To find Time Management Tips get her free ecourse. Improve your Time Management Skills, look here.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard