Archive for October, 2007

by Cheryl A. Clausen..
Time management is basically a goals and integrity issue. Do you ever find yourself going off on wild goose chases, reacting to the daily fires rather than proactively planning your day, and spending hours on activities that no one pays you to do? When you make these mistakes they are costing you precious time and keeping you from getting the results you want. You don’t get side tracked because you want to waste a lot of time and energy and increase your level of frustration and tension. You do it because you don’t have a clear direction for yourself for where you’re going and what you want to accomplish. You probably have a ball park idea, but it isn’t specific enough for you to actually know what you should be doing when.

When you respond immediately to other people and circumstances you are choosing to allow these people and circumstance to control your destiny. Responding reactively keeps you from following your plan, so your really following someone else’s plan or no plan at all. You can’t get what you want when you don’t have a plan and you allow other people and circumstances to change your plans based on their wants and needs.

It’s a whole lot easier to get caught up dong non-productive low value things than it is to do the real work that people are willing to pay you for. Consequently it feels more comfortable to yourself to get involved in these things. You look and feel busy and like you’re really doing something, but you aren’t. You have to hold yourself accountable for being productive. Doing so will not only improve your time management skills, but it will help you to get the results you want too. To get results you have to set goals. The goals you set must must involve the actual actions you will take. Free up time for yourself by taking action and then moving immediately to the next action. As you get more done in less time the amount of free time you have increases.

But when you don’t hold yourself accountable for actually taking the actions you’re out of integrity with yourself. The more frequently you do this the harder it is to maintain integrity and get things done. Because even while you’re planning to take action your thoughts are on the fact that you didn’t do it when you said you would before, so you probably won’t do it now.

Going off on tangents and automatically reacting happens because you lack focus. You lack focus because you don’t have a clear plan. And because you don’t have a clear plan you don’t know what the right actions are, so you can’t take the right actions.

A poor time management mindset turns into poor time management skills. When you make excuses for yourself or place blame you aren’t taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. Change your mindset and become a time efficient person by having and following your plan and take the actions you need to take.

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

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by Dr. Sabrina
As a business and life coach, I often find myself discussing the importance of saying “no” with busy, stressed out business owners and professionals. Everyone likes the idea of saying “no” more often, at least in theory. But, when it comes to actually doing it, I hear a lot of “yes, buts.” In other words, “Yes, I could say no to that, but then who would do it?” or “Yes, I could say no to that, but they’d be disappointed.”

Why is it so hard to say “no” to others?

Most of us experiencing success in our careers have learned one lesson really well–if you want to be successful, you have to be willing to do the work. Translation, say “yes” to opportunities that come your way–you never know where an opportunity will lead. Well, look where that has led you. . . right to reading this article, looking for a solution to managing the stress from your busy life!

The truth is, we are much better at saying “yes” than we are at saying “no.” Saying “yes” is easy, even if it means more stress and frustration down the road. When you say “yes,” the person asking something of you smiles, thanks you, and you are left feeling as though you have pleased someone. There is a lot of emotional payoff in that.

Saying “no” is not immediately gratifying to us. Although rationally we know that saying “no” will mean we will feel less stressed in the future, when we say “no,” we may feel guilty about disappointing the person who has made a request of us. Or, we may fear the consequences of saying “no.” What’s so good about that? Not much. That’s why
simply telling yourself to say “no” more often is not a very effective means of managing your busy life.

So, what’s the alternative? Contemplate saying “yes” with awareness of what the “no” is in every “yes.” For every task or project we agree to do, we are saying “no” to something else. Our time and energy are precious resources. Yet, we tend to believe we can stretch ourselves thinner and thinner by cramming more and more into our day. This simply does not work in the long-term because you deplete your energy.

Instead, think of your time and energy as being limited. When you say “yes” to one opportunity or project, you are saying “no” to something else in your life. So, when you say “yes” to volunteering on a project, you will be committing your time and energy to that project. What are you saying “no” to? Perhaps you are saying “no” to some relaxing time with your family, exercising, or another important project you have already committed to. It becomes much simpler to say “no” to others when you are fully aware of the impact your choices have on your personal life.

Try this over the coming week: Each time you are presented with a new opportunity, project, or task, ask yourself, “What am I saying ‘no’ to by saying ‘yes’ in this
situation?” Write this question on a piece of paper and post it where you will see it often.

Being fully aware of our choices allows us to make choices congruent with our goals, values, and life purpose. This brings us closer to experiencing balance in our lives.

Business & Life Coach, Sabrina Schleicher, Ph.D. offers a FREE e-course: 7 INSIDE TIME MANAGEMENT SECRETS OF ELITE PERFORMERS plus FREE subscription to her newsletter at http://www.tapthepotential.com

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by Gail Metcalf
For years it was believed that your memory was just what it was; either you had a good one or a bad one, and of course it always got worse with age. Some people even thought that memory was like a physical storage area, and that the reason it got worse with age is because you were learning and therefore needing to store too many things. You needed to purge old memories to make way for new information.

But as scientists learned more about the brain and how memory actually worked, they realized that there were things once could actually do to improve not only their short-term memory, but to help recall facts that were stored in their long-term memory as well.

These tips can be as easy as paying closer attention to details, such as when meeting persons for the first time. Nervousness or distraction may mean that you’re not really listening when a name is said, making it harder for you to recall it moments later.

It’s believed that it takes about 8 seconds of attention for a memory to travel from short-term to long-term storage, so quickly glossing over information you’re hearing for the first time will only hinder your ability to recall it later.

“Over-learning” is another common technique for strengthening memory. This is what a person does when they repeat a bit of information over and over again — they are over-learning it so that there is more of a chance that it will be stored in long-term memory.

Other techniques can be somewhat complicated — until you learn them, that is. Like knitting, driving, or the rules of American football, once you learn the “whys and hows,” you never really need to think much about them after that. Memory techniques become just like memories themselves — once they’re burned into your brain, they become a natural process.

So armed with all this information and what should be some confidence that you can indeed improve your memory, the only question that remains is, Are you ready?

THE LINK METHOD.

The link method is probably one of the easiest and simplest ways to remember these short lists. The link method involves linking each item on the list with a certain visual or auditory clue that starts with the same letter, sounds the same, or in some other way will provide a clue as to the item on your list.

For example, suppose your list of needed items from the supermarket is:

milk
butter
eggs
bread

You may link each of these to the sentence “Men bet everything big.” Now you have the initials — m, b, e, b — to help you remember. If you try to walk out of the store without milk, you know that you didn’t get your “m” or “men” item.

In the above example, you may run into complications when you have two items with the same first letter, as in the case of bread and butter. What to do then?

It may be helpful to tailor your sentence to reflect this. For example, your sentence may be “Michelle bugs everybody’s brother.” By having the first two letters the same as the first two of your items (bugs = butter, brother = bread), you know what they stand for, and won’t leave the store with bleach and baskets rather than bread and butter.

Linking works also for visual clues, meaning that you attach a mental image to each item or to the list itself. For the example above, you might imagine a farmer milking a cow with one hand while buttering bread with the other, with an egg cracked over his head. It’s a silly image, but one that you won’t easily forget. Each part of the image — the cow, the bread and butter, the egg — is a reminder of what you’re in the store to purchase.

THE STORY METHOD.

When using the story method, instead of a simple sentence you would instead construct a small paragraph in story form, the main characters or happenings in some way relating to the items on your list.

For example, using our list above, your story might be:

“Michelle [milk] went to her broker [bread] after she eloped [eggs] but was busted [butter].”

Picture a girl named Michelle sitting in her broker’s office with a new wedding ring, getting the bad news of her financial bust. This brings the story to life for you.

Again, you can use words that have the same two letters of list items that begin with the same letter, and try to make the story as unusual as possible. This way you won’t confuse it with real memories or stories.

It also helps to use people you know to better help you visualize. For example, if you know someone named Michelle, you can picture her doing exactly what the story entails (avoiding anything that Michelle might find offensive, of course!). This helps to keep the story fresh and vivid in your mind.

Turn your dead time into learning time! Learn more about your memory with audio books online. 

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by Roice Krueger
Most people believe that the secret to time management is doing more things in less time. This is simply not true. The secret to time management is doing fewer things!

This may sound strange, but it is still true. It is so important that I will say it once again.

The secret to time management is not doing more things in less time, it is doing fewer things.

At the beginning of each year, sit down and ask yourself the following question: “If I could do just one thing this year in my business and nothing else, and looking back at the end of the year I would say to myself, ‘What a terrific year!’ what would that one thing have to be?”

Then take it one step further. “If I could do just one more thing, and looking back at the end of the year I would say to myself, ‘This has been the most productive, profitable, and rewarding year ever!’ what would that one more thing be?”

Then do these two things and nothing else.

You will have an amazing career. You will become a business legend.

Then do the same thing in your personal life. Find the two most important things.

Do those two things and nothing else.

You will have an amazing life.

Then do the same thing with your philanthropy. Find the two most important things.

Do those two things and nothing else.

You will make an amazing contribution to humanity!

Imagine what it would be like if you get to the end of the year, and looking back . . .

You launched the most successful product in your company’s history.
You recruited five of the most talented people in the industry to join your team.
You built your dream home.
You found and married the partner of your dreams.
You took 150 orphans to Disneyland.
You sponsored an emergency medical team to fly to a region wracked by natural disaster.

Then imagine to yourself a life made up of 30 more years just like this one!

Roice Krueger was a co-founder of FranklinCovey, the world’s largest training and education company. Amazingly, Roice has consulted for 80% of the Fortune 500 companies. Those companies know that Roice delivers the goods, and they continue to beat a path to his door when they need help! Visit Roice’s 101 E-Book Library at http://www.IdeasThatCanChangeYourLife.com.

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by Gail Metcalf
Being able to memorize a list is a good thing, but what happens when you need to memorize more than one, or groups of items?

For example, suppose you want to remember the states of the U.S. that are commonly referred to as “New England states,” comprised of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

You could simply use the Peg System to remember each list individually, coming up with a simple sentence to assign each word, however, there is another technique that many recommend for these types of lists.

THE ROMAN ROOM TECHNIQUE

Imagine a room in your house that you know well, be it your living room, kitchen, bedroom, or office. Imagine all the different objects in that room — furniture, decorations, linens, appliances, lamps and other lighting, and so on.

When using the Roman Room technique, you associate an object, person, or word with something in each of your rooms so that when you need to recall that word you simply remember its association.

For example, you’ll use your living room for the New England states. What is the main piece of furniture you sit on? That is now associated with Maine. What is the newest item in the living room (you don’t need to be technically accurate, just choose something newer than most). This will be associated with New Hampshire.

Now imagine the baseboards running along the floor of this room. You want to keep them sealed so that no vermin will get in, so the baseboards are now associated with Vermont.

What is the largest item in the living room? The television or TV cabinet? Whatever has the largest mass will be associated with Massachusetts.

Do you have a small table or other object that sits by itself in the room? Picture this small item as an island, and it will be associated with Rhode Island.

The hallway that leads to the next room connects the two together, so it will represent Connecticut.

And there you have it. Now go back and think about the items in your living room. You’re picturing your favorite chair … why? It’s your main place to sit. The hallway represents what? The baseboards are sealed because … ?

By using a room that you know very well and doing this simple association technique, you can quickly and easily remember these groups of information.

HOW TO PRACTICE

We can practice this technique by using Ivy League colleges, namely, Brown, Columbia, Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton.

Choose another room in your house that you know very well. How about the kitchen?

The easiest college to remember might be Brown. What in your kitchen is brown? How about coffee? The coffeemaker now represents Brown.

Columbia might be a big harder. But do you have blinds on your kitchen window, or a door to another room? Are the blinds or the doorjamb in a straight line — like a column? Anything in your kitchen that goes up and down like a column will represent Columbia.

Look at your sink’s faucet. If the water came out too hot and burned you, wouldn’t you yell? So the hot water faucet represents Yale.

Cornell may be a bit easier as well. Do you have corn cob holders? Or a can of corn in the cupboard?

How about Dartmouth? There are probably a lot of round things in your kitchen, such as a dinner plate or large platter. A large round object looks a lot like a dartboard, so that will represent Dartmouth.

Butter kept in the refrigerator is hard to spread, and something that’s hard can represent Harvard.

The pens or pencils you keep by the phone represent University of Pennsylvania.

And as for Princeton, you might think of a chair that’s in your kitchen or nearby, such as a high chair for the baby, or the one you sit in while eating. Your chair is like your throne … fit for a prince.

THEY DON’T NEED TO BE EXACT

By now you’ve probably realized that the Roman Room technique doesn’t use exact words or phrases from the lists you’re trying to remember, and this is a key point.

If you’re trying to use the exact word, you’re probably going to get hung up. After all, who has something in their house with the word “Harvard” on it, unless you went there and bought a sweatshirt?

The point is that you want to remember something that will remind you of the word or item you’re trying to remember. The word hard can bring to mind Harvard; the word yell can remind you of Yale, and so on.

This is also something to remember for virtually all of the memory techniques we’ve discussed so far. That woman in the wedding dress at the bus stop from the last section should remind you of salad dressing, and of course you can substitute anything that works for you. Imagine a man trying to tame a horse (on a ranch) if you’re shopping for Ranch dressing, or imagine the woman at the bus stop was eating pasta — for your Italian dressing.

Of course, this won’t work for when you’re trying to remember numbers, which need to be exact. Getting a phone number “close” isn’t going to help you, so how do you remember numbers, especially when they’re very long?

Turn your dead time into learning time! Learn more memory techniques with our audio books online. 

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by Girish Kumar
Procrastination is the single biggest factor causing people to fall behind in their work, miss deadlines, and turn in shoddy efforts.

Having a daily to-do-list and then assigning yourself various tasks throughout the day in one-hour increments-helps you stay on track and avoid putting things off.

Breaking tasks into one-hour sessions, and then juggling the schedule to work on what interests you most right now helps overcome procrastination: When you get tired or run out of ideas on one project, just switch to another.

Give yourself rewards for accomplishing tasks, If you work for a solid hour on budget that’s slow going, reward yourself with a break to read your mail or walk around the office building. If you stick with your schedule for the whole morning, treat yourself to your favorite food for lunch.

The best way to make every hour of everyday productive is to have an hour-by-hour schedule. People who have such a schedule know what they should be doing every minute and therefore, do it. People who don’t set a schedule tend to drift through the day, stopping and then starting, tasks, jumping from job to job, without getting much done.

I have followed the techniques below for years which have helped me a great deal in overcoming procrastination:-

1) Think positively - Imagine how great you’ll feel when the chore is completed. Think positively about its outcome.

2) Offer a Reward - Create an incentive by promising yourself a special reward for getting the job done. This will work as a motivating factor.

3) Break tasks into small parts - If the project is complex or overwhelming, break it down into a series of steps to be entered on your “Things to do” list. Then setup a specific time and date to begin working on the first step, and follow through as if it were an appointment. Promise to spend 60 minutes a day on the task until it’s done, and schedule these daily segments at the same time each day — preferably for a quiet period when there will be no interruptions.

4) Avoid perfection - Realize the task doesn’t have to be done perfectly. Some attempt is better than no attempt. Maybe you can get away with doing only part of the job and then passing it along to someone else for completion.

5) Delegate Work - Delegate or outsource segments of the work you find boring or distasteful. You can gain precious hours, energy and enthusiasm by passing along mundane, peripheral, or partly finished work to subordinates or co-workers.

Girish Kumar is a personal development expert, internet blogger, entrepreneur and a technology geek. You can find more information about these and much more at his blog http://www.girishk.com/

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by Jim Peake
We can’t always depend on public relations working however if you can master the media it can be very powerful for your bottom line. If you are a small business owner PR is your number 1 guerilla marketing tactic.

Rule #1) is to go local! The reason you want to go local is that many media outlets are owned by bigger corporations and if your story has national implications there is the possibility of getting it picked up in the national press. Your local news media is much more willing to listen to your story pitch than is the national media or is Oprah.

Rule # 2) Learn how to select the right media outlet, newspapers, radio, TV or the Internet. What happens a lot is the big newspapers publich a story and it is followed by television. TV follows newspapers for the most part. Depending on the breaking news aspect television can be better for live breaking news. How is the visual appeal of the story, what it it like? My Success Gateway, LLC has been covered in all major media and if we can do it so can you.

Rule # 3) Find the right person to speak to. I always like speaking to the actual reporter especially in the newspapers since they tend to know about their subjects i.e. environment and climate change. In TV you can always ask for the assignment desk or the assignment editor. I also find show producers helpful.

Rule # 4) You have to be current with the news that is happening in your area. make sure that you don’t forget the hook! For example let’s say you are a chiropractor and evey year there is a big marathon in your city. Set up a chiropractic station at the finish line to treat the athletes post race with their back pain. Now you want to get on the phone with the news media and let them know that X % of runners experience back pain (hook) and that you are treating them at the finish line gratis.

Rule # 5) You have to make the story promotable for the news outlet. How many times do you see the nightly news say, “stick around for the next story of the Hollywood celebrity X who is dating X, you won’t believe it!” make sure that you tell this to the assignment desk, they will know that you are assisting them in doing their thinking for them and making their job easier.

Rule # 6) There has to be something in it for the viewers, we call this a payoff. Because the marathon has a lot of visability in the town and most people know at least a few participants, the payoff for the atheletes is that they can solve their back pain with the proper care and treatment. The television station would love to do this type of a story since it benefits members of their community.

Rule # 7) Go for the close! Ask to pitch them! That’s right, tell them you have a quick story pitch, would they listen for 30 seconds? If they say yes, I usually take about 3 minutes and I don’t stop. At the end they will either agree to it or not. If they agree they will ask for more information. Or they will call you back. It is this simple.

In conclusion, press is the best form of free advertising. Knowing how to talk to the news media, knowing what they are looking for is all you have to know. THe rest is up to you to make the contacts.

If you want to brand your company and get on the local radio news learn from a PR Trainer how to be a PR Machine with Home Study Course on PR or listen to the Free Interview

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by Lorna Luck
Have you ever wanted to learn how to build your confidence levels? Boosting self confidence is a relatively simple task, but it all starts and ends with being able to control your mind and how you think. But thinking can be hard work - or at least it can seem that way when getting started - and so most people prefer to leave their emotions and reactions up to the intuition.

To discover how easy building confidence levels can be, you need to spend some time getting to understand how your mind works. You can then start to change your habits and thoughts to bring about long lasting and empowering changes in your life.

Change Can Be Easy - If You Really Want It

The good news is that these changes you need to make to your habits can be very easy. I’m going to explain how you can identify what needs to change to help you overcome your limiting emotions, and exactly how to change them using some very simple mind control techniques.

Our senses are processing data and information every second of the day. This information is passed into our brain, where past memories dictate how we respond and react to them.

As this data is fed into our brain, we automatically react based on what memories we have of the particular events. If we have experienced an event or situation before, our mind recalls that experience, and we automatically react in the same way we did last time. This then becomes our habit of how we will continue to react - unless we consciously decide to change it and react in a different way.

Our automatic habits like this can have a positive or negative impact on us, depending on the type of stored emotions we associate with them. The positive impact, like driving a car, allow us to perform certain actions without too much conscious effort. Have you ever driven somewhere then wondered how you actually got there when you arrived? That’s an automatic habit.

So in the case of driving a car, these habits are good. But when it comes to weak and debilitating behaviours, these automatic habits are bad. For example, if you have a habit of being nervous or stressed when you have a lot of tasks to do at work, then this habit is weakening you and holding you back. Or if the thought of having a dinner party fills you with fear and anxiety, this is a weakening habit that is disempowering you.

Your habits are controlling the way you automatically react to all these situations - and you instinctively go along with it without asking yourself why you are reacting that way. But the good news is that weak and disempowering habits and emotions can be changed - and fairly easily too.

To get started on your path to controlling your habits reactions, you simply need to become aware of how you are reacting to these events and situations. Once you start to become aware of your reactions, start to ask yourself some questions like “how would I prefer to feel when confronted with this situation?” and maybe “why am I reacting to this situation in this way?”. When you know how you want to react or respond, you can start to visualise the desired result. Visualise yourself responding in a positive way and feeling confident and in control.

The trick to controlling how you react is knowing what you want the end result to be. You can then ask yourself “how can I start to feel this when I encounter these situations?”

So every time you feel you are reacting in a negative way, stop and thing for a second and ask yourself how you would prefer to feel. Then focus on feeling that way, and having the positive emotions you would prefer. Keep practicing feeling better about the situation until it becomes second nature - or a new habit.

Using these techniques on a regular basis is a great way of building confidence levels and empowering your life. By deciding to feel good about something, even when that situation used to make you feel negative, you have started on a path to creating new and empowering habits in your life that will remain with you forever (or at least until you decide to change them again).

Loren Luck is a self confidence and personal development coach . Here she explains some simple techniques for building confidence. Grab your copy of her free Magic Hats personal development program over at http://magic-hats.com

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by blueboy
I am a big fan of audio books that I find on the Internet. I use them for entertainment and for new information. One area that I have been looking into lately is a way to improve my time management skills.

It may be suprising that time management skills are more important for people who work at home than those who go to a traditional workplace. I recently made the transition to do telecommuting, and found myself looking through the audio book selections on the Internet to find a good tutorial on basic time management skills.

My first audio book was very encouraging, and promised me that I am already using time management skills every single day.

And it is true that even though I’ve never had a class on time management, I have a way to plan each day. Typically the items that have a time requirement get put in first: the time the kids must be at school, the time work starts, and the time the kids need to be picked up.

Of course, my work time has become more flexible than before. Other things just make sense, like serving breakfast after everyone gets up and before they leave the house. The instructor on the audio book said to review how I already scheduled each day, and make sure to keep the good parts of these as they were.

The biggest challenge for anyone with undeveloped time management skills is the day without imposed structures. The audio book program suggested tackling a typical Saturday, where most of the time requirements of job and school are gone for the day.

There might be some soccer matches or dance classes, but there are large chunks of time that can be used for things that are important to my family. One important reminder from the audio book instructor was to make sure to schedule seemingly unimportant things that are still very meaningful, such as my nightly evening walk with my family.

This particular activity is so beneficial to us, since we get exercise, we wind down after a long day, and we get to talk with each other without any distractions from TV or homework. It is also a high priority for me since it carries on a tradition started in my family when I was a little girl, nearly forty years ago.

Another tip from the audio book instructor is to involve your family in the scheduling process. It might be best for each family member to make their own list of things they would like to schedule into a Saturday, and then come together to talk about them.

Even the youngest members have a suggestion or two on what they would like to do. When your family comes together, realize that there will be too many ideas to fit into one day. Don’t hold too tightly to your own list, and keep an open mind for new suggestions.

One of the main emphases of the audio book program was that good time management skills were to be used to create an enjoyable life, not one that was highly efficient with as many activities crammed in as possible.

The audio book program ended with this advice, and I end with the same advice: the end result of a good time management program should be a life that is truly satisfying, meaningful, and enjoyable.

Talking Book Store is a fast growing audio book website offering both free and paid audiobooks. Their ever-growing catalogue contains over 8,000 titles.They make it easy to discover the engrossing world of Personal Development and Self Help through the MP3 and WMA audio book formats.Numerous Time management titles can be easily downloaded without subscriptions at the site.Steve Hill also has a website at:stuttering treatment

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by Karla Brandau, CSP
Because of thunder storms in Atlanta, the flight from Dallas to Atlanta had been delayed twice. On the third attempt, we were boarding and I felt hopeful of actually getting off the ground. My hopes faded fast when the tired-looking flight attendant came down the aisle quietly announcing that if we were not permitted to take off in the next 15 minutes, the crew would have exceeded their 16-hour work day and we would have to taxi back to the terminal and await another flight.

We were not given permission to take off, the crew’s time expired and as we taxied back to the terminal I felt mixed emotions. I kept thinking, “But we were right there…ready to take off. How could 1-1/2 more hours matter?”

Just as airlines are concerned about overworked pilots and flight attendants, employers should be concerned about overworked employees. Why? Errors, accidents, and low productivity for a start.

My mixed emotions as we taxied back to the terminal are similar to the signals our culture sends today about long work hours. In one breath we agree with employees having a pity party about how hard they work and with the other breath, we award employees a “red badge of courage” for having the guts to go the extra mile.

A study by the Families and Work Institute concludes that overworked employees should be taken seriously. Employees who are overworked are more likely to exhibit anxiety, make mistakes at work, harbor angry feelings about their employer for expecting them to be on the job for long hours and resent coworkers who don’t pull their share of the load. The study documents that nearly half of employees who feel overworked report that their health is poor and 8 percent of employees who are not overworked experience symptoms of clinical depression compared with 21 percent of those who are highly overworked.

What can the organization do to help employees feel less overworked and leave work on time to pursue their personal lives? Train employees in time management and goal setting principles. Make a concerted effort to grease the wheels of productivity, and not be the stick that gets caught in the tire spokes, catapulting the rider from the trail.

Using time efficiently at work is an individual and an organizational issue. On the organizational side, managers can reduce the feeling of being overworked by:

- Discouraging the practice of eating at the desk and working through lunch
- Insisting on employees taking appropriate vacation time
- Permitting flexible work hours as needed
- Encouraging non-interrupt zones in the day when workers can focus

To encourage efficiency, managers can:

- Have clearly stated goals with built in and mutually understood deadlines
- Insist on employee making a daily “to do” list
- Make sure equipment works properly
- Ensure proper supplies are available
- Train employees on software packages that assist workflow

A less stressed worker is a better worker. Making sure the above items are taken care of is essential to help employees leverage their time in the office to be more efficient, effective and less-stressed. Even though employees can’t actually manufacture an extra hour every day, attending to these issues will help employees will feel as if you helped them “make” an additional hour a day.

Productivity Culture ChangeTo implement a productivity culture change initiative in your organization that will reduce the overworked, overwhelmed feeling of employees, contact Karla Brandau at 770-923-0883 or visit her website at www.KarlaBrandau.com Her comprehensive system involves time audits, time management training, reinforcement and instruction in Microsoft Outlook.

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