Archive for January, 2009

by Mark Darlington
Get Things Done

Why is it when we have so much to do, we end up doing so little? Is it because when we’re confronted with so many tasks, we find ourselves so overwhelmed that we end up doing none of them? If so, how do we turn this thing around?

It can be simple. We need to get rid of that feeling of being overwhelmed, or at least, overcome it. The way to do that is to prioritise.

Look ahead

The first step of prioritising is working out what needs to be done, as well as the order that these need to be accomplished. A lot of people make the mistake of concentrating on easy tasks. You may get a lot of things done this way but not the really important things, the ones that actually make a difference.

Make a list

Make a list of all the things that need to be done. Now, organize these activities by urgency — must do’s, should do’s, and can do’s.

Must do’s are urgent and highly important activities that need to be accomplished right away to avoid consequences.

Should do’s are important but not urgent activities that can wait a while before you have to face the consequences of not fulfilling them.

Can do’s are activities that would be nice to do at some point, but won’t affect you if you don’t get around to doing them.

Reward yourself

You’ll find that you get more things done if you’re looking forward to something. For example, if you finish all the must do’s by lunch time, treat yourself to a nice lunch. Rewards don’t have to be expensive or time consuming, but it has to be able to create anticipation and motivate you towards reaching your goals.

Mark Darlington is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Success Coach with consulting rooms in Ewloe, Flintshire and Ruthin, Denbighshire. You can telephone him on 0800 043 1946 or visit http://www.markdarlington.com Each week Mark shares a life enhancing tip, tool or technique for you to experiment with.

Article Source: Get Things Done - How to prioritise quickly and easily

by Simon Hemmings
Welcome to my beginners guide to saltwater aquariums, this is where you will learn the basic information that you will need to understand before you buy your first Aquarium.

Keeping a salt water aquarium is an fascinating hobby, no longer do you need to go to ocean to see these amazing fish, coral and other wonderful creatures, we can bring the ocean to our homes with a saltwater aquarium.The first thing on our list when we begin with our salt water aquarium is RESEARCH, without this we will fail and another factor that you must ask yourself right now is are you willing to invest not just money but time into this hobby?

Once you have decided that the money and time required is acceptable then we can start looking at what type of saltwater fish you like.

clown fishProbably the most popular type of fish would be the “Clownfish” or its more common name “Nemo” this fish is a popular starting fish for all aquarist’s.

There is an unlimited amounts of fish and other inhabitants that you can look into, once you have chosen your favorite look into whether they can be together in one aquarium as every single species has it’s own requirements.

Now you have a basic idea on what type of inhabitants you want, look into what type of aquarium tank will suit these, there is tonnes of designs , shapes and sizes to choice from, so make sure you select the correct one for yourself.

Saltwater Aquarium provides information and tips on getting the best Saltwater Aquarium around and offers other information including Saltwater Aquarium Beginner Guide

Article Source: Saltwater Aquarium Beginner Guide

by Smash Frog
I have always been a particularly firm follower in free printable greeting cards for everybody. Mull it over ; if you wished to tell somebody in real life that you adore them, do you have to pay a 3rd party for it? Yet somebody come along ( cough*Hallmark*cough ) and brilliantly realized they could benefit from the ordinary human need to express love and care toward others. It’s unhappy, but most folk just went together with this. Here we are, several years and billions of greenbacks later. The difficulty is not the greeting cards themselves. The issue is the ticket attached to each greeting card.

Granted, there must be some type of cost for the paper the cards are published on, but here we are in the year 2009, where cards can surpass $5. At this point, it’s no longer about providing people with the words to claim when they are not able. That’s the reason why I am on a mission to supply the best free printable greeting cards to everybody. First, I’m hoping that you may find cards that actually appeal to you and give you lots options than you would find in the shop. I know I used to spend a lot of time just trying to get a card that was close to what I would have liked to say, but finished up having to just agree on one.

Having more greeting cards to choose between can only provoke us all to provide more selection and higher quality. 2nd , I’m hoping that the greeting card giants take note that folks are getting wiser to their tricks. They should by this time, considering the indisputable fact that both Hallmark and Yank Greetings have experienced enormous drops in profit in 2008.

Why are their profits down? Because folks know now that they can print free greeting cards, instead of going waste their valuable time looking thru stores. I’m hoping that if enough folks realize they do not need to pay for cards, the expensive card giants might stop raising their costs. So if you’re trying to find free printable many thanks cards or free birthday cards to print, you should look no further.

www.print-free-greeting-cardsen.wikipedia.org

Article Source: The Card Revolution

by Lucile Taylor
Getting organized is one of the many things we all would want to be. As varied as the way things are in the world, there are a number of steps in how to get organized. One particular avenue would be that of Time Management.

As a step in how to get organized, the value of Time Management stands high, as with the active and practical application of time management excursions, people are exposed to a world of more versed productivity, in lesser amounts of time.

In one’s quest in how to get organized via time management, two books are available offering comprehensive aid to those who wish to learn the dynamics of active time management. There’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Time and Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. These two books are sure ways in how to get organized with one’s daily schedules.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Time

Bearing with it the standard set by all guides of its class, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Time is one book certain for one’s “how to get organized” activities. Basically, the book illustrates to readers how they could actually achieve a more productive day, week, month or year.

With the help of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Time, readers are exposed to a world where weekends aren’t meant for making up for lost work time, but rather days for recreation and fun with friends and family.

Now on its Third Edition, the 360 page paperback book is sure to set readers into how to get organized, resulting to a more organized lifestyle.

Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Brian Tracy leads readers into how to get organized with Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. A legendary productivity expert himself, Tracy brings offers 21 practical and easy to do steps in how to get organized and easily manage one’s time schedule, with no problems at all.

Translated into 23 languages and already having sold over 450,000 copies, Eat That Frog is one book those seeking steps into how to get organized.

In how to get organized, tackling one’s time and schedule activities is one path worth considering, getting more done in the least time required. The two books mentioned, would be great resources for one and all.

Visit AllContent.com for more information about Attraction and Creativity.

Article Source: How to Get Organized: Learn The Steps Using Time Management

by Lucile Taylor
Employee time management is crucial for any business owner because naturally they want to make sure that their workers, whose time in the office is paid, are doing their jobs. Developing an employee time management plan is one of the best ways to improve efficiency in the work place.

Because increased productivity translates to increased profits, an effective employee time management plan is indeed important to the success of a business. Such a plan will teach employees how to use their time better so they can meet or exceed their daily targets. All workers should learn proper time management and all business owners or managers should consider setting up a program to help them develop this skill.

You may wonder if there is a real need to develop an employee time management program to teach workers about using their time wisely. You may think that time management is something that your workers should already know by now but the truth is managing time is one of the hardest skills to learn. It requires strategic thinking, commitment and discipline.

You can set aside a day for an employee time management course and require all employees to attend. You can hire an expert on time management or ask one of your managers who is knowledgeable about time management principles to handle the course.

An employee time management course will teach your employees about getting organized, setting priorities and making the most out of their time at work. There are plenty of tools such as books and CDs that you can use as reference.

A good thing about setting up such a meeting is that it creates a perfect venue for your employees to share their opinion about their work environment and what changes they think are necessary to improve time efficiency. You can ask them what activities or tasks are eating up a lot of their time. Then, you can come up with a way to deal with these time wasters to make your employees more productive.

You can also discuss a future project and try to find out from your employees what they think would be a realistic deadline. If they are telling you that they would need more time than the usual, then ask them for their reasons and consider these when you are preparing the project schedule.

By offering an employee time management course to your employees, you are equipping them with knowledge that will help them improve how they perform their jobs, thereby, improving your business.

Need help with Happiness and Innovation? Get answers at AllContent.com.

Article Source: Why Employee Time Management is Very Significant

by Lucile Taylor
Family time management is crucial to keep your family together. However, if you are a working parent family time management can be very difficult. These days, you will find fewer families where one parent works and the other stays home to look after the children. In addition, most people work more than eight hours a day and these frequent overtime adds to the difficulty of family time management.

Typically, the main money earner will leave the house before the kids wake up and will arrive home just in time to say goodnight to them while the secondary earner works part-time just to be able to take care of the kids and household chores. This is a big challenge for most families.

To achieve good family time management, you need to consider two factors, which are:

1. Goal Setting — Good family time management is all about setting goals. You will simply go round in circles if you have no goals or plans at all. You should always consider all of the things that you wish to achieve. Aside from your goals in your career, you should also give time to yourself and your family. Whatever you wish to accomplish for you and your family, write them down.

2. Set a Timeframe — Setting a timetable for your plans is also a key to good family time management. After you have identified and written down your goals, make a timetable on a 24-hour basis outlining your daily activities.

After you have done this task, you can clearly see how much time you spend in taking care of your family or just simply being with them. If your family is your priority then this should be evident in your daily schedule. You should not just squeeze in your family time wherever possible in your schedule. Instead, make time for your family. Eat breakfast with them everyday or set aside an hour every night before your kids go to bed so you can spend some time with them.

When your priorities are clear to you then you can start your day knowing that you are in control of how you will use your time. Before the day ends, go over your accomplishments and see whether you were able to take care of your priorities as you planned. The information that you will gather from your assessment can be used to plan your actions for the following day. Always remember that we don’t live just to work. It is important to know how to spend time wisely so you can benefit from better relationships with your family and loved ones.

Learn more about Goal Setting and Grief Loss at AllContent.com.

Article Source: Achieving Good Family Time Management Tips

by Goal Seeker
Concentration and staying focused are possibly the most difficult things to control. You are inundated daily with so many distractions. Open your mail box and a hundred ‘Gurus’ are offering their latest sure fire way of being successful. In no time at all one or two hours have drifted by and are gone forever.

No matter whether you have written goals or not, it is so easy to slip into the,’Just have a look at this one’,mode and before you know it you do not have time to carry out the very thing you had originally set out to do.

You set off chasing your goals with such enthusiasm and vigour determined to spend a certain time each and every day making it or them come to fruition. Then life gets in the way. There are times even when you are knocked off track by a personal or family illness or emergency or an unexpected bill lands on our doormat.

Dont they just give you a great excuse as to why you didn’t do this or that to bring your goals to completion? If only that hadn’t happened, if only I had more time. Your goal lies on a piece of paper somewhere to appear again when you will have more time.

I will now let you into a secret, now I am hoping you will not broadcast this to everyone - Life gets in the way but the more successful individuals have developed techniques for keeping their focus on the goal DESPITE what is happening around them.

I had the experience last week of watching a Premiership Footballer in the UK playing with all the positive determination of a true professional, his fans were not aware that he had been woken at 2:00am that morning to learn of the sudden death of his younger brother in a car accident. Now that is focus.

On a lesser scale watch any true professional who can hold their concentration despite what may be happening around them. I well remember when I was learning to play golf. The guy I played with, played off scratch {if you do not play golf - that means he was good!}, as I started my back swing he would cough or noisily open a bag of crisps, carefully designed to put me off - well yes - but he also taught me to ignore what was happening around me and concentrate on my swing. So that my subconscious took over when I needed inspiration in negative circumstances.

Watch your son or daughter play a computer game and see the powerful force of concentration on their faces as they destroy the baddies. My son even at 19 yrs of age, when home from university, doesn’t hear a vacuum cleaner or me come into his room when his concentration, set on his goal of saving the earth, is successful.

Listen to this - now look at your goals. Is your journey one of successful completion or do you drift from thing to thing, even to the extent that you do not make the goal at all!

There is a supreme secret in goal planning that will guarantee that you never drift off course, so that you will always have time to work on your goal achievement each and every day to accomplish all you commit to achieve. It is your choice, you are ready for success aren’t you?

Ask yourself why do you drift off course, why do you fail to achieve your goal? The clue to achievement of all your goals is on this page. As Napoleon Hill said in his wonderful work; ‘Think and Grow Rich’, the secret to wealth is within the pages. He did not tell you what the secret was as he wanted you to discover it for yourself, that is a positive powerful form of leadership.

The secret to goal achievement is in this article, but you have to find it.

For when you do you will achieve everything you want in life.

Because of the pressures of daily living you may not have time to commit to do everything you WANT to do, but with focus you will have plenty of time to do everything you NEED to do. Goal setting is a simple formula of setting out what you want in life and making the decision to commit to achieving those goals. And once you know the SECRET you will have focus and power to achieve what you may have thought was impossible.

Do it now! That saying can affect every phase of your life. concentration is the key to success. It can help you do the things you should do but don’t feel like doing. It can keep you from procrastinating when an unpleasant duty faces you. But it can also help you do those things that you want to do. It helps you seize those precious moments that, if lost, will never be retrieved.

In The First Stepyou will discover the secret of successful Goal Setting and Achievemment.

Article Source: What Do You Mean You Have No Time?

by Vincent Harris
I used to suffer from one of the most pitiful maladies known to man. It was what I call “I’m going to itis” This is where you tell everyone you know about all of the plans you have, and what you’re “going to do.”Problem is, more often than not, much of what you were “going to do” never materializes, and, after a while, you have more proof than you need that each new goal will die on the vine. Not only that, but you can almost feel people rolling their eyes behind your back after you’ve told them your latest life transformation plan. When they finally realize you didn’t do what you said you were going to do, they lose faith in you, and you begin to lose faith in yourself. I call this having to eat crow.

I long ago adopted a habit that changed my life. I tell only a handful of my closest and most supportive colleagues about my plans or goals-if anyone. Most of the time, unless I’m going to need the assistance of someone along the way, the first they’ll know about my goal is after it’s been accomplished. After my book The Productivity Epiphany was published, many of my closest friends and family members were shocked. I heard “I didn’t know you were writing a book!” Why give people a chance to derail your inspiration?
Now, how do you accomplish those goals in the first place? One thing I’ve found useful is to, as author Brian Tracy say’s, “Eat That Frog!” Tracy refers to the things that we need to get done each day that we’d rather not do, as “frogs” we know we have to eat. Eating a live frog is never going to be pleasant. If that’s true, then why not eat it first thing in the morning and get it over with?

When you climb out of bed and do the things you’d rather not do FIRST, the sense of command and confidence you will generate are out of this world. By eliminating the need to “eat crow” by not talking about what you are “going to do”, and developing a healthy taste for early morning “frogs” and tackling the things on your list you’d rather not do first thing in the morning, you’ll find yourself walking a little taller and putting more money in the bank in no time.

Vincent Harris is a Body Language Expert and The Author of “The Productivity Epiphany” Get his FREE “Advanced Body Language” Ebook valued at $29, and his “Step by Step System for Achieving Any Goal” Ebook valued at $39 at www.vinceharris.info

Article Source: Increasing Productivity: I’d Rather Eat Frogs than Crow