by Jacob Schiffer
Some time management tips that you can follow to help you master your time are: break bigger projects into smaller tasks, set your priority, set a deadline, be flexible, and learn to say no.

Managing your time is indeed a very challenging task. It is a constant task of improving and planning your time so you can have a more productive life. If you are able to practice proper time management then mastering your time will be easier. To accomplish your responsibilities well, it is important to learn some time management tips:

Break bigger projects into smaller tasks

Break bigger tasks into smaller activities for you to avoid the overwhelming pressures of large responsibilities. Simply plan the schedule for accomplishing large scale projects into a smaller, gradual, and easier process. In this way, you are given enough preparation to anticipate the next thing that you should accomplish. For example, you can study a whole book by scheduling a fifteen minute session everyday. During weekends, you could try answering follow-up questions in every chapter. During break times, you could ask your friend for a random quick review regarding the book you are studying. Instead of getting worried over cognitive overload by studying in one sitting, gradual and small studying techniques will lessen the pressure. Over time, you will realize that you are reading the last pages already.

Set your priority

Setting your priority defines your lifestyle. This is also the most crucial and important tip that will enhance your time management skills. By setting your priorities you will be able to know what is most important to you. This will also gradually guide you in setting your time frame to finish your activities. Set your priorities well and plan the schedule that you will follow.

Set a deadline

Deadlines are a concrete step to getting your work done. After being able to set your priorities, the given deadline will make you get to work. Make sure that the deadline is realistic and workable enough for you to meet the goal. Appropriately set the time on when a certain task will be accomplished. Provide a leeway for unexpected distractions. Do not overestimate your work, and keep the discipline in following the deadline that you have set.

Be flexible

Also, expect for the possibility of distractions and interruptions. Although it would be better to have a smooth sailing schedule so you can accomplish your task, sometimes dealing with these interruptions can be helpful. Be flexible, and always prepare for the unexpected. This will also lessen the pressure and anxiety in case unexpected situations happen.

Learn to say no

Opportunities will only come once. However, learning on say no will come in handy most of the time. Always consider your priority and schedule first before agreeing to any proposal. Be responsible enough to accept tasks that you are capable of accomplishing.

Never waste time and always seize the day. After all, mastering your time is next to mastering your course in life.

For more time management tips and professional help, visit Best of Time Management today.

Article Source: Article Wagon

by Wayne Messick
Everywhere you look everyone is say thing that they know the keys to success. Dig deeply in what they say and it all turns out to equal the same thing. It all comes down to the way you decide to spend your time. Are your actions taking you closer to or further away from your intended future?

What will your future look like? It will either be the result of the actions you take today or the time you’ll wish you had done the things you are not doing now. It’s just that simple. We all put our efforts into what we feel is important, so if hanging out is more important than making a call on a prospective customer - why would we be surprised with the results?

Setting priorities then is the key. There is never enough time to do everything but there is always time to do the things that are vitally important.

Setting priorities begins with deciding what we really want in life and then organizing the time that we have and the activities we undertake so that we do the things that are the most valuable to us, that take us closer to our objectives.

Coaches are trained to ask the question, “What’s important?” and then sticking with it until their clients dig it out from the recesses of their minds. So, ask yourself the same question and keep at it around everything you put on your list of things to do.

You may find that some of the things you are doing are not important at all. You are doing them because you are doing them - not a very effective way to manage your life is it?

Ask yourself, what are my big goals, what is important to me - today and in the future? What exactly is it that you want to have or be or do over the next five or ten years? Stick with it until you have a list of really important stuff.

Then ask yourself what price you are willing to pay in terms of sacrifice in order to have what you want, fulfil your potential?

Once you’ve clearly decided on your goals for the future you are ready to weigh and balance the things you want against the time and resources available to attain them. You can now set priorities with regard to what you will do and how you will invest your time and money. In other words just what will be necessary for you to do to achieve these goals.

With your larger long term priorities in order you can more easily decide on short term priorities. Begin with a pad of paper, a pencil, and you. And have a large eraser handy while you are going through this exercise.

Whenever you feel overwhelmed with too many things to do and too little time in which to do them, what I do at least, is to take a few minutes to list all the tasks that need to be accomplished. Since there is never going to be enough time to do everything - there is always time to do the most important things. Do the #1 thing on your list and stick with it until it’s done, and done right.

Peter Drucker once said that efficiency is doing things right but effectiveness is doing the right things. Maximum effectiveness then is doing the right things and doing them right. And this requires thought.

While you’re at it - thinking about the implications of what you’ve just read, post your comments for the rest of us. Share your experiences here and add to the richness of the subject.

Determined to realize your organization’s potential? Join our free email monthly announcement series at http://www.iBizResources.com/announcements.html and receive a COST OF CONFLICT calculator at no charge. Lawyers, accountants, financial planners and business coaches should http://www.familybusinessadvisors.biz join the brand new directory of professionals.

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by Wayne Messick
Not that I can tell anyway. In fact the more efficient I try to be the less effective I often am. According to the legendary Peter Drucker - as the story goes, efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things. That would mean then that maximum effectiveness, what I always strive for - sometimes more successfully than others, would be doing the right things right every time.

What is working better for me than ever before is to make a list of things that I have to do, and then ask myself, “If I were called up by the Army Reserves (been there, done that) and were put on active duty for a month” and I could only finish one thing on my list - what one thing would that be? What is really the most important thing on the list?

Try it, it’s not as easy as you might think. Because nothing seems to stand alone - everything is part of one process or another, which one thing would you do today, before you went to bed, that would leave you feeling that you actually got the most important thing on your list done?

Then ask yourself, so what if I could get only two things done? What would be the second thing on the list? Go through this process for the first 3-5 things - you aren’t likely to get through them all today but at least you can go to sleep knowing that you got the most important things done.

I am a list person. I have gotten into the habit of setting my daily priorities by making a list on a legal pad before I go to bed at night. What are the top five things I must get through tomorrow. I order them 1-5 and then when I get up I look at the list just to see if the order should be changed before I start working.

By the way, I have all sorts of digital stuff that can and is used to keep my schedules and to-do lists. For me this is critical for those things that I might (would) forget before it was time to do them. But for my daily priorities I write them on a legal pad and cross them off when the get done.

There is a great feeling striking through a completed task. And a lesson to be learned when I look at the list and see numbers four and five crossed off, but not 1-3. Were they not as important or did the other things seem more urgent or easier to accomplish?

OK so I have the list - now I am ready to begin working with maximum effectiveness. If I do not succeed I have only myself to blame.

In order to make sure I am doing the important things, not the urgent I take the priority list to another level. You see I have set in stone objectives, my goals are always front and center, and like you I only have a limited amount of time energy and money with which to accomplish them.

So I use the A, B, C, D, E process I heard about at a seminar 20 years ago. It is simplicity itself, otherwise I could not sustain it over time. I just put one of those letters in front of each task. This helps me determine what, who, and how each should be addressed.

A means that this is very important, something that must be done and will cause bad things to happen if it isn’t accomplished. Typically, not always, this is something only I can do.

B items are also important, meaning they should be done, and have less dire consequences if they are not completed.

C things are the “nice to do” things that I have to fight down on the list to where they belong. They are important but definitely take a back seat to the above categories.

D stands for “delegate” - something I can get somebody else to do for me. We all make choices here, but we usually don’t think about them critically - so we find ourselves delegating things that we don’t want to do, A & B category things that we do not like to do we delegate and do the C things ourselves. This is the road to delayed success if not disaster itself.

E items are eliminated. There are lots of ways to do that. I find that if I ignore E items long enough they will just disappear.

OK so now that you can clearly see than 1-5 things you should be doing and use the above tags - the final step is to “just say no” to every other distraction and focus single mindedly on the accomplishment of your highest priorities.

Wayne Messick is the author of dozens of articles for mainstream businesses, emerging professionals and association executives and now in phase III of his career spends hours each week creating articles from his experiences. Visit his web site to receive them at http://www.WayneMessick.com Professionals should http://www.familybusinessadvisors.biz join the brand new directory of professionals.

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by Paula Eder
Time management tips can open doors to timelessness. What if you could find time every day to emerge from your workday corridors and recharge your energy? To open these special doors in your mind, learn how to enter the realm of strong time.

Living in strong time requires that you set down the daily demands to walk on unfamiliar ground. Because time’s promise can be tapped through opening to your unexplored potential, I call these tips The 3 Secrets of Creating Strong Time.

The 3 Secrets of Creating Strong Time

Step Number One: Create a vivid image of what your best time feels like, and give it a name meaningful to you.

Author and philosopher Mircea Eliade did just this in his landmark book, The Sacred and the Profane. He divided human experience into sacred time and profane time. And he encouraged readers to transform their lives by embracing sacred time.

He created another useful name for sacred time; he called it “strong time”. Eliade describes strong time as more “real” than profane time. Profane time is linear and geared to practical problem solving. Time spent managing logistics can’t provide the experience of depth offered through strong time.

Anyone can partake in strong time. To identify its role in your life, ask yourself these three questions:

* What special moments fill your heart with wonder and appreciation?
* When do you feel both deeply rooted and free to explore?
* When do you embrace solitude yet feel deeply connected with others?

Those are your strong times.

Every time you fully immerse yourself in the moment, you provide yourself with an opportunity to connect with strong time - the deepest experience of integration and renewal.

Step Number Two: Identify what activities bring you strong time.

Strong time is not about duration but about depth. Use these valuable nuggets of time to make you strong in the following ways:

* Turning inwards to deeply relax.
* Tapping your creativity by broadening your perspective
* Appreciating yourself and others, simply for being.

Again, draw upon your personal experiences to enhance the relevance of strong time to you. Although some restore themselves through deep quietude and introspection, you may personally access your timeless “zone” while swimming, running, performing music, creating art or during moments of profound, wordless connection with others.

Step Number Three: Schedule strong time into your life.

To invite strong time into your life on a daily basis, try creating some form of tradition or ritual. These can be family rituals, rituals involving spiritual traditions, or simple, personal practices, like following the flickering flame of a candle, or meditating. Even the moment you stop to hear the wind moving through the trees can expand your day.

Remember, the length of time is not as important as its regularity.

Resolve to open new doors in your mind to view the limitless expanses. You can harness your power with time management daily, and treat yourself to strong time.

In fact, ask yourself right now: how can you schedule strong time today to replenish your strength and rejuvenate your outlook?

Coach Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert, has 35 years of success helping individuals and small businesses align time with values. For free Time Templates + Time Tips, visitFinding TimeEnjoy our blog! TheTimeFinder

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by
The pace of modern life in the age of information means that we are all under pressure to read faster, but there is so much information that we have to read and process. Sifting through information is one thing and understanding it is a different thing. The gap between these two processes is often the driving force behind the desire to increase the reading speed.

It is important to increase your reading speed, because cognitive tests have concluded that we memorize facts better when we read then many times using a process called “speed reading”. Memory works by sending sensory information to the short term memory where it is coded and then transferred to long term memory. Short term memory is wiped out by new information, but long term memory can hold facts for a life time.

To increase your reading speed it is necessary to understand how vision and peripheral vision works. Educational psychologists devised the tachistoscope, a machine designed to flash images at a screen, at varying speeds.

The experiment was initially conducted with large aeroplanes flashing onto a screen and then the image was reduced and the speed increased until it reached one five hundredth of a second. Incredibly after an initial training period most of the people tested could recognize very tiny aeroplanes at the fast flickering at the fast rate.

This experiment had implications for skimming words, rather than reading them slowly and enunciating the words. The increase in reading speed and comprehending what had been read was achieved by improving the visual process. Training your peripheral vision can increase your reading speed by three hundred percent.

Evelyn Wood developed the “Wood method” of speed reading in the 1950’s; she began by trying to train herself to improve her own reading skills. Her personal frustration allegedly led to a breakthrough, discarding the book in temper her hand swept the page. She realized that the hand could act as a pointer, and it focused the eye which resulted in a natural increase in the speed of reading.

Normally when you read the eye moves backwards and forwards, but the finger focuses the vision. To test this find a newspaper column or other reading material that is not very wide, six or seven words is ideal, and run your finger down the center of the page. Most people will find that one technique alone will improve your reading speed, and then that the width of the columns can be increased.

In real terms there is no such thing as a normal reading speed, some people read more easily, confidently or faster than others by utilizing a series of techniques.

These techniques include not vocalizing every word, breaking the reading material into chunks and skim reading the central parts of the passages and identifying words without formulating each individual letter. Sub vocalization is the art of reading something whilst saying the word and this decreases the ability to read fast.

However, those that to this, often do it often do it subconsciously without thinking. Unlearning how an to undo an unconscious act can be difficult but some people find good results from reading to music. The music forces them to concentrate and focus on the words and reading and not on vocalization of the words.

There is no doubt that the techniques work, but once you start to practice there is a trade off, and not everyone achieves a hundred percent comprehension. Speed reading is such an imperative part of life these days than many universities actually teach the skill.

The student who masters the techniques can improve their learning skills, because they can read through text books at an incredible rate, but also improve their memory skills. Skimming a text three or four times generally means that mot people remember the text better than when it has been read once and each word enunciated. So speed reading is not only faster reading it is smarter reading.

To learn how to speed read, click here.

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by Paula Eder
‘Take time to be deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.’
Napoleon Bonaparte

Time management tips increase your real power in real time. You focus on what you can do right this minute, so realism is your strongest ally. Seize this opportunity to wage war on pointless perfectionism.

How often do you feel the frustration of trying to get something ‘just right’, only to feel your day slipping away from you? Attention to detail can assist you as your valued servant. But all too often, it rages as a tyrant that deprives you of perspective and genuine pleasure over your very real accomplishments. Instead of allowing perfectionism to commandeer your life, learn to recognize these 3 messages as danger signals and regain positive control over your time!’

Perfectionist Message #1: ‘I need to wait for just the right time to get started.’

What exactly is the ‘right time’? Perhaps you believe the right time will arrive when:

* You feel inspired.

* You have more free time.

* There will be no distractions.

* There will be no demands placed on your time.

* Your friend makes good on the promise to help you clean out your garage.

In any of these instances, you are giving yourself the message that something additional is needed before you can begin. This automatically makes you feel less powerful and diminishes your incentive.

Time-Wise Response: ‘The right time is right now.’

‘Now’ is what you have to work with. So envision yourself successfully completing the project and feel you pleasure. Now work backwards: break the task into manageable increments that you can complete in a single session. If any portion of the project feels overwhelming, break it down further. Schedule each work session on your to-do list and start in. Like jumping into in a cool lake, once you take that plunge, you can enjoy the swim!

Perfectionist Message #2: ‘It is not perfect yet.’ If this is something you often say, ask yourself these questions:

* What do you consider perfect?

* Is it attainable?

* Whose eyes are you trying to see the project through?

* Are you anticipating criticism?

* Are your expectations for this project realistic or inflated?

Time-Wise Response: ‘Done is better than perfect’ or ‘It is good enough.’

Reinforce this message by actively validating yourself once the project is completed. The more you look to yourself to provide rewards, the more autonomy you develop.

Remember that the pleasure of accomplishment increases your self-confidence and satisfaction in your work! And the less dependent you feel upon others for approval, the less vulnerable you will be to anticipating criticism. As a side benefit, you may enjoy increased creativity.

Perfectionist Message #3: ‘I know I can make it better.’ You may have certain weak areas. Here is where endless time can be wasted tweaking something until you can’t even see it clearly anymore!

Time-Wise Response: ‘I will ask for feedback.’

This is powerful in 3 important ways:

* Others can see mistakes and oversights with fresh eyes.

* Delegating frees up your time so you can move on to your next task.

* You are embracing others’ viewpoints. The more you welcome challenge, the less you fear their responses. This is one of the most powerful ways to fight perfectionism.

Notice how countering these 3 illusions will help you at each stage of your project. You will become less and less likely to procrastinate when it’s time to begin, you can proceed to each step rather than obsess on details halfway through, and you can establish a realistic criteria for when your work is “good enough”.

There is one “perfect” you can safely retain. Affirm that you are perfectly capable of keeping perfectionism from bullying you into paralysis. Instead, celebrate your power to be productive, and enjoy your success at finding time!

What is your next step to enjoy productivity without placing unfair demands upon yourself all the time?

Coach Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder, has 35 years of success helping individuals and small businesses align time with values. For free Time Templates + Tips, visitFinding TimeEnjoy our blog! TheTimeFinder

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by Paula Eder
Time management tips are most effective when you share a strong, coordinated team ethic, whether at work or at home. Fostering cooperation can be challenging under any circumstance! You might find it especially difficult when others relate to time quite differently than you. Perhaps each of you defines your values around punctuality, planning, and procrastination in ways that appear completely incompatible.

However difficult this seems, approaching these differences proactively can enhance cooperation in ways that may surprise you.

First, abandon any assumption that there is a “right time style” and a “wrong time style”. Yours is, of course, the correct one. But astonishingly, others seem to feel the same way about theirs. So your best strategy is to capitalize on the conflicts by exploiting the diversity.

What potentials do differing time styles with others present? You can view contrasting time styles as the opportunities they truly are:

5 Golden Opportunities that Time Conflicts Offer to You:

Conflict Opportunity #1: Clarify what’s of prime importance to you.

Pare it down and negotiate for it. The strength you build makes you more resilient and decisive. The more focused you become, the more you impel others to clarify their goals, as well. This leads to better understanding of one another and enhances your capacity to identify areas of mutual self-interest.

For example, if your colleague is only willing to devote extra hours to develop a presentation if it provides recognition of her talents, and your goal is to delegate more responsibility, you may discover that realigning your working relationship transforms a power-struggle into a productive alliance.

Conflict Opportunity #2: Attune yourself to others’ varying approaches to time.

Genuinely accepting individual differences in time styles carries 5 significant benefits:

* Truly accepting that others won’t change for you spares you the frustration of repetitive and fruitless efforts to control them. You can direct your efforts to more rewarding pursuits.

* When people notice you are not trying to change them, they feel more relaxed and receptive. You in turn can find out more about what shapes their attitudes about time.

* When your colleagues feel your respect and interest, they are increasingly likely to negotiate successfully with you. If you, in turn, share what has contributed to your own time philosophy, they learn more about the contexts in which your approach works especially well.

* Effective compromising increases flexibility and clarifies lines of power and responsibility. Different time styles often reflect different priorities. Explore how this can work to your mutual advantage. For example, one of you might accept added responsibility if you can make your own hours. The other might hold down the fort 9:00 - 5:00 in return for not taking work home.

* The more clearly you identify the payoffs to others’ time approaches in certain circumstances, the more flexibility you can build into your own style to meet new challenges.

Conflict Opportunity #3: Commit to creativity.
Thinking outside the box carries negotiations beyond rigid power struggles. For every problem, there is a resolution that honors the integrity and needs of each person. Diversity of approach genuinely opens new options, so appreciate this benefit.

Conflict Opportunity #4: Present the challenge in terms of shared goals.
The more you have followed the guidelines above, the clearer your understanding of where your interests overlap. Keep the focus on the rewards you and your colleagues will enjoy. This stimulates cooperation.

Conflict Opportunity #5: Invite others to contribute ideas.
The more invested everyone is in the problem-solving process, the more dedicated they will be to making it work. And the more directly engaged each group member is, the stronger the results within the time frame you share.

Negotiating different approaches to time use will challenge each of you to grow. Rather than framing needed changes as a sacrifice, consider the benefits of identifying and honoring the baseline needs of everyone. You will develop vitality and confidence to encounter challenging conditions in ways that improve morale, promote effectiveness and save you time.

What is your next step to creatively negotiate for more productivity and more time?

Coach Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder, has 35 years of success helping individuals and small businesses align time with values. For free Time Templates + Tips, visitFinding TimeEnjoy our blog! TheTimeFinder

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by MIKE SELVON
The importance of an events calendar is irrefutable. Think of the many times that clients approach an events planner, requesting their services. It is only natural that he would document their various requests somewhere.

This is an ideal way to keep the clients well attended to and making sure that he does not disappoint them by any delays or giving them a different experience from what they expected. The calendar of events acts as a guide to the planner, who is able to schedule his work and employ more help in case the job involves more than one person can handle.

A calendar to keep track of upcoming events is much more like an ordinary diary; it aids the modern event planners who are under pressure from their job related demands. It is an important planning tool, which many use. Older versions of calendars involved manual work and one having to look back at the pages constantly to avoid missing events, yet the modern calendar is more sophisticated.

Courtesy of technological advancements, the special events planner just lists everything in the calendar-enabled gadgets. The reminder enabled gadgets act as good prompter tools and one can set the time to be reminded of an upcoming event.

An events calendar usually acts as a deterrent to forgetting any approaching event. To have an effective calendar, a planner should strive to type in complete details beside the event entry. The details should include the date and nature of the event, the client’s preference for the venue, such as a garden for an outdoor wedding, the client’s specifications on entertainment and food, as well as guest speakers.

The planner can ease his job by listing all the requirements he will need for securing the location and getting everything in order for the event, as per the calendar entry. If the ordinary calendar provided in the cell phones or PCs cannot handle as many details as the planner wants, he can opt for event management software. The program is custom made specifically for the busy professional.

Every entrepreneur who owns an event management company knows the value of satisfying the needs and demands of paying clients, by providing superior services. Apart from building a solid customer base, an events calendar helps in planning and organization, and to establish the company as one that provides superior services. Apart from that, the calendar allows the planner ample time to consult with the client about details.

Did you enjoy this article ? Why not visit us and learn more party planning tips, on how to throw the perfect party that everyone will talk about forever.

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by Sharon Melnick
When you get to the end of the day and have not completed the most important tasks you needed to for that day, you will have to deal with yourself for not having done it. Commonly I hear people beat themselves up about it. Do you do that? But do you really know why you procrastinate? If you did, you might have a more constructive response towards yourself. Read on…

When you procrastinate essentially you are seeking relief.

First, if you think actually doing the task will be an unpleasant experience you will want to prevent yourself from having to experience that. Maybe you think you will be bored by it. Maybe you think it will take a lot of effort to pull together all the info you need to get started or that it will be too long or too complex to do, so the thought of engaging is overwhelming. Maybe it will remind you of how much you have let things pile up and it will be hard to face. Maybe you do not really know what to say to a person you need to call, so you do not want to put yourself in a situation where you do not know what to do.

Second, it might be the case that you do not think that you can perform well on the task you have to do, and by not doing it you are protecting yourself from having to face and deal with your perceived deficit.

Third, (and this happens a lot!) when you procrastinate what you are doing is trying to prevent other people from criticizing or rejecting you. The idea is that if you do not put your work out to other people, then you are preventing the opportunity for other people to comment on it negatively. Know this: its not just other people criticisms that you are trying to prevent - even more important is that you might be afraid that if you get negative feedback from other people, you will take it personally and end up doubting yourself. That would leave you in an non confident place, and stuck. By procrastinating you get to take control of the process - if you do not think you will handle their criticisms well, your logic is: then I just will not give them an opportunity to criticize, I will just put it off.

In each of these cases, you are seeking relief from an unpleasant emotion or feeling about yourself. When you procrastinate you think you are getting relief, but when you procrastinate do you really feel free and easy, like you are truly relieved? Probably not! Usually you feel bad about yourself, and feel stressed you are not getting things done. If relief is what you are seeking, I want you to have relief!

If you are going to procrastinate, then at least be intentional about it: Do not surf the net or hang out by the water cooler but feel that niggly voice in the back of your mind knowing you should be doing something different, that is not relief. Either get the task done and give yourself a real reward or else let yourself have the time off to truly enjoy, and make sure when you are back from your break you follow through to do the task.

If you are procrastinating because you are worried about other peoples reactions, then the best use of your time is to focus on continually improving your core competence and on building confidence in your own value.

If you are going to seek relief, then at least get real relief. If not, then seek results!

Sharon Melnick, Ph.D. helps talented and successful people get out of their own way. She is a psychologist and executive coach for fortune 500 companies. Listen to her free training or grab a seat in her upcoming teleseminar: How to Stop Wasting Time http://www.endwastedtime.com

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com

by Paula Eder
Time management tips to find time and stay on track seem straightforward, right? You have your eye out for the really big distractions. But maybe it’s the small time wasters that throw you off.

Consider These Common Time Wasters:

Time Waster #1: You plan to go to bed early, but there is an exciting basketball game on TV. The next thing you know, it’s the end of double overtime and you are in bed much later than you had planned.

Time Waster #2: You are going to the gym before work but check your home e-mail before heading out the door. You get caught up in reading and responding, and run out of time.

Time Waster #3: You are on your way to an important meeting in an unfamiliar area. You pull over at the sight of an inviting restaurant to order a cup of coffee, decide to call a friend while waiting, and are late for your meeting.

What Do These 3 Scenarios Have In Common?

Issue #1: Your focus shifted and you tried to fit a new activity into your schedule.

Issue #2: You probably thought you were being flexible and going with the flow.

Issue #3: You may have felt victimized by the consequence.

Issue #4: You have undermined your trust in yourself to follow through on your plans.

Important Distinction: Being flexible and “going with the flow” are NOT the same!

In each of these examples, being flexible would mean making a conscious choice to stay on course or to change it. When you do that, you are recognizing and mindfully navigating the choices that your day presents. This is a very empowering distinction to make for yourself!

5 Tips for Taming These Time Wasters

Tip #1: Make an effective To-Do List and keep it nearby for reference. This is the course you have committed to for the day. When you are tempted to change your plans, ask yourself, “What goal am I putting at risk?”

Tip #2: Weigh the consequences of putting your prior plans at risk before coming to a decision.

Tip #3: Make a list of your own particular time wasters, and notice what feelings precede an impulsive choice that wastes your time. Are you feeling anxious, bored, or angry? What is an effective way to resolve what is bothering you without becoming diverted from your plans?

Tip #4: Schedule a specific time every day for spontaneous pleasure. The more consistently you enjoy this special portion of your day, the easier it will be to reject impulsive choices.

Tip #5: If you genuinely value flexibility, make a list of situations in which you wish to ‘bend your schedule’ - such as helping a friend in need, extra time with your child, etc. and create buffer time into your day to accommodate these events.

Consider your options the next time a temptation crosses your path. Take a deep breath, affirm what you value and have planned, and make a conscious decision.

The choice is yours… and each time you make it, you are finding time!

What is your next step to tame the choices that steal your time?

Coach Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder, has 35 years of success helping individuals and small businesses effectively align their time choices with their values. To receive Paula’s free weekly Time Tips & the monthly, award-winning Finding Time Ezine, visit

Article Source: PLJMagazine.com