Concrete Ideas on How to Save Timeby Dan Petrosini 10/22/2011 Momentum -- Many business experts and consultants stress the big picture or big task/project. Rightfully so, if we don’t accomplish the big things the smaller one usually won’t matter. Because larger scale projects require more thinking and pondering, you can find yourself stuck by over analyzing. What works for me is to tackle a series of small tasks first. The momentum and sense of accomplishment is something I build on. It clears my head, readying me for the larger tasks at hand. Touch it -- Do it. Too often we handle a document, review it, only to deal with it later. A waste, you’ve invested time in it, complete it now; otherwise, you will re-read / re-review it when you actually deal with it. Live by the Touch it Once rule! Email, a huge consumer of our time, is a great place to implement this concept. When you open an email, deal with it, if possible. Even if you need to check another document, email etc. for the answer, you will save time, gain momentum and clear your mind to focus on the next. Only flag the emails that absolutely need input or careful consideration. Read, act, then go on. Shorten and reduce meetings -- We have way too many meetings, wasting the collective time of all the attendees. First, invite only critical persons, too often people are in meetings with nothing constructive to add or learn. (I am fan though of including, at times, junior staff/interns, as a learning experience) ... |
Allow Time to Be on Timeby Sue Becker 10/22/2011 You don’t allow for travel time. The key thing to remember is that you have to consider how long it will take you to get from point A to point B when you’re strategizing about how to get somewhere on time. I always add a cushion to my time estimates to allow for what has almost become the norm: traffic jams. I can drive the same route at the same time on two different days of the same week and experience wildly different travel times. For the happy occasions when I arrive early, I keep reading material in my car. You need to "just finish one more thing" before you leave. We’ve all been there: you’re in the middle of typing an email, paying a bill online, folding the laundry (you do fold it right when you take it out of the dryer, right?), or writing a blog post, and you need "just a minute" to finish it up. More often than not that minute will turn into several minutes, and may even lead to you starting something else, ... |
How to Prioritize Your Tasks To Accomplish More in Your Dayby Daniel M Wood 10/22/2011 The Pareto Principle also called the 80/20 rule states that 80% of all your results will come from 20% of the tasks you do. When you focus on those tasks amazing things happen. I made a reprioritization thorough about a year ago. I looked through my to-do list and saw that out of the 20 things I did every day 4 of the tasks resulted in pretty much all the results I was trying to accomplish. The other 16 tasks were really just noise; they could either be delegated or eliminated without it affecting anything really severely. It was a frightening experience to just get rid of 16 tasks, but what happened was amazing, when I started spending all my time on 4 very important tasks instead of 20 the results I produced just blew me out of the water and my income and career skyrocketed. The difference was incredible and exhilarating. If you decide work more on the tasks that bring real value to your future you will produce much more, with a lot less effort. When you focus your most important tasks you can forget about the unimportant working perhaps only 6 hours/day and still producing 10 times as much as you used to when you ... |
How Are You Investing Each Hour That Passes?by A Horton 10/22/2011 As each hour passes during the day, spend 10 seconds looking back at that hour and ask yourself: Was vegetating in front of the television the most effective use of my time, or could I have invested that time into my spouse or family? Was driving my car mindlessly listening to the radio, which filled my head with negative information the best use of my time or could I have been listening to an inspirational or educational CD? Was pushing the snooze button and having that extra 9 minutes to sleep the best use of my time or could I have woken up and read a couple pages of a good book? Is reading the newspaper that is filled with sensational news and negative information the best use of my time or could I have read a few pages of a good book on self-development? Is visiting happy hour every night on my way home the best use of my time or could I have taken my spouse for a ... |
What to Do When You Have Too Many Things to Doby Mary Segers 10/22/2011 It would seem to be a no-brainer that when you have too many things to do you simply take some things off your list, right? But what? How do you decide what should go and what should stay? It’s important to keep in mind your goals and, furthermore, that not all goals are job-related. For example, one goal (hopefully ongoing) may be to be a great Mom by baking those cupcakes for your son’s class (though in my mind that very activity was why warehouse clubs came into being). Now, with your goals in mind look carefully at your to do list. Is there anything you can go ahead and cross off because it’s simply not part of one of your goals? Ok, with the rest if they are all goal-related there are several things you can do: ˇ Postpone - Many times we can simply move tasks from today’s to do list to tomorrow’s, or even later in the week or month. It comes down to the fact that we only have so much time in a day and only so much of us to go around. ˇ Delegate - Much as we hate to admit it...many times someone else could do a job of ours just as well as we could. Maybe you hate to give up control. Whatever the reason, learn to let go and delegate. Kids can help with household chores, spouses and friends can help with errands. With enough of the tasks delegated you may even get the rest, ... |
Tips for Delegating Work to Improve Personal Time Managementby Mary Segers 10/22/2011 I don’t really understand why someone would have problems delegating tasks because, while I’m far from lazy, if I could find someone to take over... say, task #572, then I could get on with task #573. It truly is a no-brainer... though I know it doesn’t feel that way. I’ve never delegated just because I was lazy and didn’t want to do something but because the more I could delegate the more I could get done...and quicker. I’m assuming with the prevalence of this problem, however, that not enough people think that way. Maybe you feel that you’ll be perceived as lazy or skirting your responsibilities. You’ve got to leave these dysfunctional beliefs behind. So, here are some tips to, hopefully, make it easier for you to delegate some of your tasks. Know that the more you do these the better you’ll get at delegation. Not only that but you’ll get quicker at recognizing what can be delegated and what to save for yourself to do. With that said, here are 4 tips to help you start delegating work: 1. Begin by looking at your day. See what you have to do from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. 2. Get it in your head that you’re actually doing everyone a favor by delegating. You’ll get more done, feel more productive, be less stressed, and be overall happier. Most times people want to help. Don’t you like being helpful? Begin with that mindset. 3. Now that you’re in the right ... |
Time Management for Improving Productivityby David L Mount 4/17/2011 Here are just a few simple tips to improve your level of time management skill: Set Goals Before anything else, the first step in improving productivity is to set specific goals. You cannot just say, "I want to be more efficient". You must to state your goal as specifically as you can, like "I want to finish two reports by 1pm on Wednesday" or "I want to finish cleaning my room this Saturday". This way you can come up with specific action to insure that you do accomplish your goals. The more precisely defined your goal the easier it is to break down and accomplish step by step. Even if the goal is very simple you will be surprised how defining it completely will improve the quality of the result and the speed of execution. Think of painting a room, most of the work is in the preparation. Sanding, masking the floor, ceiling, and moldings take most of the time in the over all job. ... |
The Importance of Using Time Wellby Susan Kersley 4/17/2011 Do you feel frustrated when you get to the end of a day and realise how much time you’ve wasted in doing trivial things. How much better it would be if every day when you finally close your eyes at the end of the day, that you can say that you have truly used your time productively and well and achieved many things. What do you have to do to make better use of your time? If you want to end each day knowing that you’ve achieved what you set out to do that day, or even more, then what you must do is: 1. Make a definite plan of what you want to achieve during the day. When you know what you want to get done then you will make good use of your time and do what you have to do. When you are too vague about your outcome each day then you are more likely to fritter away the hours and feel frustrated at the end of the day. 2. Divide what you plan to do into reasonably sized steps. If you think you will be able to concentrate on one task all day long then think again. You may want to have short breaks for meals or a change of scene or activity during the day and that is fine so long as you have small steps to smelt before the next time you do something else. 3. Keep going until ... |
How to Make Time For Yourselfby Susan Kersley 4/17/2011 If you find that most of your day is taken up with doing things for other people then here are some tips to enable you to make time for yourself. This is important because it is vital to address your own needs for self care which can only happen when you have the time to do this. If you only look after others then not only do you not have the time for yourself but also there is a high possibility that your own health and welfare will suffer. 1. Plan what you want to do for yourself. When you have a definite project in mind and you put it in your schedule or diary then you more likely to actually be committed to it. Many people are rather vague about doing something ’when I have the time.’ 2. Set realistic boundaries. Decide how much time you will be engaged in doing things for others each day. Their demands may be endless but however obliging you are there will always be a cut off point when you have to say ’no.’ Make sure that the point for stopping leaves you enough time to do things for yourself. 3. Engage others who will be affected. Unfortunately if you are a caring and helping sort of person, other people expect you to be available at all times to carry out their needs. However if you can explain how things will be different and what you why ... |
Five Steps to Eliminating Time Wasters and Increase Your Profitsby Sydni Craig-Hart 4/17/2011 Time. It’s the most precious asset we have as entrepreneurs and the one thing we can’t get enough of. Many service professionals struggle with using their time effectively and find it hard to consistently market the way they should. While we can’t literally add hours to our day, we can use the time we have much more efficiently so that on a daily/weekly/monthly basis we are connecting with ideal prospects that want and need what we have to offer. If you want to change the results you are seeing in your business, you have to change your actions. The truth is, you DO have the time to market consistently. You just need to "buy it out" from other activities and use it to work towards your goals. Follow these five steps to eliminate the time wasting activities that are holding you back from success: 1. Be honest with yourself. You won’t be able to overcome this challenge until you acknowledge how you’re wasting time. Take stock of your work day. Are you chatting with family and friends? Watching television? Surfing the web aimlessly? Running errands? These are all time wasters that can eat up your productivity, which is cutting into your profitability. Once you identify how you’re currently using your time, you’ll be able to see which activities are eating up your work day. 2. Identify the cause. What are the real reasons you’re wasting time? Are you getting distracted by having your email inbox open and responding to each message as it ... |
9 Time Management Tips To Achieve A Balance Lifeby Eddy Sg 4/17/2011 To be able to achieve a balanced lifestyle, we need to be able to manage our work commitments with career goals, and our responsibilities at home and the wider community. These 9 tips for balancing work and family give you back your quality time with those that matter most. 09. Value your time Time is a precious commodity. Take control and decided how you should spend the day. Spent time on thing that can add value to your life and the people around you. Distractions are plentiful and they are everywhere. The next time you feel yourself getting distracted, acknowledge the distraction in your mind. Tell yourself that you have a choice not to response to it and focus on getting more important work done. 08. Make a List Create a list of things you need to do the night before. By creating a list you will have a clear picture of how much work needs to be done the next day. More importantly you know if are over committing yourself by having too much to do. If you feel overwhelmed by the task at hand, pick and choose those that important, prioritize them and delegated the rest to other people. 07. Goal Oriented When you set goals, you give yourself a focus.. It creates a sense of urgency and clarity. Things are accomplished faster because it always on your mind. 06. Create Good Habits Create good time management habits. Get your things organized. Do you take a lot of time to search for things in your house ... |
Is Your Indecision Sabotaging Your Time Management?by Will Eisenbrandt 4/17/2011 Have you ever spent hours in a restaurant trying to decide between the chicken and the fish? My guess is that while you may weigh both options, by the time the server arrives you have made your decision. So why is it that when a truly important decision comes up you hesitate, or wait for someone else to make the call for you? All major decisions involve some conflict or risk. It is in our nature to be cautious and we worry about making the right choices. But more often than not, we know the right choice - even if it is just a gut feeling. In the end, your indecision is triggered by your fears. Making decisions and accepting the consequences will help you stay in control of your time and your success. The good news is that with practice, your decision making skills will improve. In order to achieve more in your life, you need to display the confidence of a leader and overcome those fears that are holding you back. Being indecisive puts your whole life on hold. Every day your challenge is to be able to move on from the current situation and start the next project. Here are a couple of strategies to help you be more decisive and improve your time management: Identify the problem to be solved. The best decision makers are great at identifying problems. Most of the decisions that fail are the result of trying to solve the wrong problem. Don’t let yourself be distracted ... |
What Is The Meaning Of Success?by Chris D Cruz 1/22/2011 The meaning of success can be very broad as everyone looks at it very differently. In the end, success can only be up to whether or not it brings happiness to your life or not. It must bring a feeling of satisfaction to your life because if an individual does not feel like they are happy and content with what they are receiving in their life. Career desires. A career can make you want to get the best out of it. Individuals usually look for a way in which they can feel they have reached their career peek. When someone is experiencing this kind of feeling they will normally look for issues like a promotions opposed to issues related to money. They will like to receive that title that will make them feel like they have actually achieved something great. The most important thing for this kind of an individual is to feel like they re not in the same place they started us. It is usually a very big disappointment to feel like they still on the same level and the people they started with are already advanced to other senior positions. For these individuals they can try and work extra hard and to try and advance their skills if they are to reach this kind of dream. Personal development For other people success is about feeling like they have grown personally to a mature level. In this they want to look for issues like financial success. They want to feel like they ... |
How to Become Successful - Practice Persistenceby Avdhessh Arya 1/22/2011 I had read this beautiful quote some where on the internet "Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up" and you know what, I liked it, I really liked it because it has some substance to it. When we are facing difficult times, we feel like giving up. But does giving up solve our problems and leads us to success? I seriously doubt it because giving up only adds to frustration and depression. I have seen many turbulent years in my life, suffered pain and misery and felt like giving up but there was something inside that always said ’"Persist". I think this word ’Persist’ makes all the difference between a success and a failure. I agree that persistence alone is not the answer to all our problems and we must develop a life plan to achieve success but we can not ignore the importance of ’press on’. Persistence can help you become a winner, it can overcome obstacles, create new opportunities, make new and better friends and ultimately lead you to success. I know it can be really hard to keep going when the circumstances and conditions are forcing you to quit and consider yourself a loser. But this is a test, if you come out of this clean you shall be called a winner and it is just a matter of pressing on for some more days, weeks or may be years. (The bigger the goal the more time it ... |
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