| |
| |
|
Go Back | About | Contact | Web Design News | |
|
|
|
Time Management: Setting up your Schedule for Success
Would you describe yourself as extremely busy? Do you often feel tired andstressed out? Sometimes our ambition is our worst enemy. Many of us with biggoals try to do way too much. We spread ourselves a mile wide and an inch deep.We are involved in many different things, but aren't excelling at any one thing.Beware of mediocrity. Most of us want greatness. If that describes you, then youmust prioritize your endeavors and adjust your schedule accordingly.Assess your current schedule. Make a list of everything in your life that takes time.This includes school, work, extracurricular activities, sleeping, eating, studying,exercising, talking on the phone, hanging out with friends, chores, bathing, etc. ListEVERYTHING. Then note how many hours per week you need for each item to do itwell. Add up the hours. While there are only 168 hours in a week, many of us needtwo or three times that to accommodate our schedule. This is where stress andmediocrity come from.Make your list again, but this time, find a way to limit yourself to 168 hours. Thereare only two ways to do this: reduce the number of weekly hours per item, orreduce the number of items. I recommend the latter. Cutting activities you enjoyout of your life can be painful, but it's necessary. Then, to work more efficiently, try some of the following tips: 1. Make a daily to-do list. This will help you organize your day and preventyou from forgetting important tasks. 2. Prioritize your to-do items. Some tasks are not as critical as others.Assign each task an A, B or C rating. A items are important tasks that mustget done right away. B items are important, but not as important as A items.C items are things that need to get done at some point, but there's no rush.Once you've assigned a rating to each task, re-write your to-do list with allthe A items on top (in order of importance), then the B and C items.Complete the A items first. This may seem obvious, but think about howmany times you've put off an important (sometimes unpleasant) task so youcould call a friend, clean your room or do something else that really didn'tneed to happen at that time. Stick to what's important. 3. Group similar activities together. Make all your phone calls at once. Runall your errands at once. Transitioning from one type of activity to anothertakes time, so group like to-do items together and complete them at thesame time. 4. Overlap. Sometimes you can do two things at once. For example, you canread while you do the laundry. You can write a letter while you're on the bus.Be careful about doing multiple tasks if one of them requires your focus. 5. Identify and avoid time wasters. We all have them. I like to check my email.Some people like to take unnecessary naps. Some people look forthings to clean and organize as an excuse not to work. See what you do thatwastes your time and stop doing it. 6. Identify and avoid distractions. My cat likes to jump onto my lap when Iwork. Some people work with music on, but then start singing. Maybe yourphone rings a lot and you always answer. Eliminate these distractions whenyou need to get stuff done. 7. Find a good place to work. See where you're most productive and focused. 8. Organize your workspace. 9. Keep flat surfaces clean. 10.Use an effective filing system. Make sure you know where everything is. 11.Take pit stops. Sometimes taking a 5 minute snack break or a 60-secondbreathing break can re-energize you and improve your efficiency. 12.Do more during your most productive hours. Some of us are morningpeople while others are night owls. Work during your best time.Many people think they must work harder to be successful. In most cases, they just need to work smarter. Take time to manage time. Otherwise, it will manage you. Motivational speaker Scott Greenberg gives live presentations and workshops all over America. For more information on Jump Start Performance programs and leadership books, visit www.scottgreenberg.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Time-Management - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Making Headway on a Slow Day: 9 Ways to Turn Down-Time into Productivity Time If you work from home, you know the kind of day I mean. You made the calls. 7 ways To Win The Time Crunch Are you working a "day job" while building your home-based "dream business"? Do you find it difficult to manage your time? Follow these seven tips to get more done growing your business, and have the time for other important things in your life, too.(1) Make and use a 'to-do' list daily. Writing a Thank You Letter for Meeting I have a habit of sending a thank you letter for meeting after any meeting I attend. People often tell me it is not serious and out of contest but I believe a thank you letter for meeting is necessary for any decent business man. Because Its Been Years Since Youve Seen a Blank Calendar If you have ever missed an appointment, forgotten to pick the kids up from soccer practice, or lost a sticky note with an important phone number on it, this is your year to get organized. There is no better time than now to recommit ourselves to bringing some order to the chaos that is our modern lives. Save Yourself Hours of Time in One Easy Step If you have spent any time at all working at marketing on the web, you will have a long list of affiliate programs and membership sites that you have joined. You may also have a long list if websites that you run. Time Management: How To Get More Done If you can regularly ask yourself "Am I regularly and consistently working on those items that will move me towards my clearly defined goals?" and honestly answer "Yes" then you are probably doing ok.If not, here are a few time wasters to be aware of and some strategies for protecting your time (priorities). The Myth of What We Manage Perhaps it is merely semantics, but an underlying problem I find that people have as it relates to the success in their life lies in a proper understanding of what exactly it is that we manage. Think about it. The Rule of Three It's amazing how many sayings there are in our culture about the number three. Think about it: "Good things (or bad) come in threes;" "Third time's the charm. The Power of Limited Time The most powerful resource that we have is time. Everything we do is time-dependent and changes forever with the passage of time. Isn't It Time For You? Does it seem like there is never enough time in the day? Why is there plenty of time for everyone and everything but ourselves? The fact is that you only get one shot at this life so it is important to spend it doing something you love. The good news is that you have a choice, you can continue to go on being overwhelmed letting time and life slip away, or you can make the time and start living the life you really want. Being Busy Does Not Equal Being Productive How many people do you know who are so busy being busy that they never seem to get anything worthwhile done? Does that describe you, maybe even just a little bit?Being busy all the time, through necessity, is a curse. Being busy all the time, for the sake of it, is madness. Controlling Family Chaos - Time Management for the Family Balancing a family's varying schedules can be near impossible. Soccer, hockey, dance, skating, Brownies, Scouts, skiing, swimming, school activities, homework, not to mention play and sleep time, fill our children's lives. Doing Things We Dread As I sit here in front of the computer I am breaking through on something that I have been tolerating for weeks now? actually sitting down to write this newsletter. I wasn't blocked for ideas - I had a list of them. What to Do When Your Alarm Clock Doesn't Wake You Up Tring - Tring the alarm rings?but did you fail to wake up? You have a crucial meeting tomorrow. The last thing you do while sleeping is to set the timing s of your alarm clock, retaining full confidence in yourself of not making the blunder of getting late this time. Put Yourself First Are you too busy to put yourself first? If a plane losesoxygen pressure for any reason, oxygen masks will drop downfrom a small overhead compartment. If the oxygen masks comedown in a plane and you have children, you are alwaysadvised to put yours on first before helping your children. Winning The Fight Between You And The Clock "Slaves to the clock" was the cover story in the March issue of CEO magazine."You can never out work a problem, you have to out think it. Priorities: Dont Dry Your Dishes Do your dishes really need to be dried, or could you just let the water evaporate? If you spend just 5 minutes per meal drying dishes, that equals a quarter of an hour per day, or 91 hours each year.Imagine spending almost four days in a row standing at the sink drying dishes. Six Foundational Reasons for Managing Your Time Most of us know how to manage our time. It is pretty simple really. 10 Time-Saving Calendar & Scheduling Tips Nowhere is the line drawn more clearly between 'Industrial brains' and 'Electronic brains' than when it comes to the way people prefer to keep and use their calendars. These scheduling tips will really make your calendar talk to you, whether you use a packaged set, print out a computer calendar because you like the paper 'view' for better planning, or you synchronize your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with your laptop and office computer and it never hits paper. Balancing Your Work, Family and Social Life Balancing Your Work, Family and Social LifeBy Gene Griessman, PhD Many of us have an image of personal balance as a set of scales in perfect balance every day. But that's an unrealistic goal.
|
ChicagoAnimation's Acquisitions: Market Polls - 1pennyStock.com
Sponsors: Paving | VTL's | Religious Statues
