Self Improvement with Job

Time Killer Checklist: Are You Suffering From Them?

I bet you’re frustrated over never having enough time to get everything done in the day. There are only a fixed number of hours in the day, and no matter how hard we wish for it that will never change.

Unfortunately, most people find they have too little time to get everything done because they have several time killers in their life – things that take up much more time than they should. Here are 5 common time killers, as well as tips on how you can avoid them.

Poor Equipment

Have you ever had to wait for your computer to start up, or a file you need to open, or even a photocopier to make the copies you need? Perhaps your computer is even crashing constantly, forcing you to restart several times a day.

Often these problems come about from buying the cheapest option, or not maintaining the equipment properly. It’s a false economy to do either – the few dollars you save is vastly outweighed by the cost of the time you lose. Fix or replace any such equipment as soon as possible.
 
Telephone Calls

The telephone is a two-edged sword. When used correctly, it can be a great time saver. But at times it can be another time killer.

Always know exactly what you are going to say before you call someone. Quickly identify yourself, and once you are talking to the right person cover what you need to and hang up. No casual chatting!

If you are receiving calls, and/or have a mobile, decide on fixed times when you will and won’t answer the phone. For a normal phone you can screen your calls. For a mobile, simply turn it off and let the calls go through to voicemail. Then pick a later time to go through all the messages, and only answer the ones that are important.

People who won’t stop talking

We’ve all met them – they love the sound of their own voice, and just won’t stop talking. Unfortunately, saying you have to go rarely works. Your best bet is to avoid them where you can. If you receive calls from them, screen your calls (perhaps using caller ID) so you don’t have to talk directly to them.

Traffic jams

Everyone living in the city has run into traffic jams at some time or another. While there isn’t any way to get through a traffic jam any faster, you do have a few options.

Consider leaving earlier (or later), to avoid the traffic. If that’s not possible, investigate public transport options like the subway. Finally, see if there is something else you can do in the car at the same time – perhaps listen to a training CD, or get a lift with someone else and do your work while they deal with the traffic!

Meetings

Meetings can be huge time killers, especially if there is no clear agenda for the meeting. If possible, avoid going to meetings that you don’t have to attend. If you can’t escape a meeting, encourage the use of a fixed agenda so everyone knows what should be covered. This allows people to (hopefully) gather their thoughts ahead of time, and will limit off-topic conversation.

We all suffer from time killers in our life. The people who are successful know how to identify those time killers, and how to avoid them.

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Time is a Unique Resource

How many times have you thought or said, “Sure, I’d like to (take a course, take a vacation, work on an additional skill or project, etc) but there just isn’t enough time.”  When we say, “There just isn’t enough time,” we’re shirking responsibility. 

Let’s look at time and I’ll show you what I mean.

Time is a unique resource.  It cannot be saved, stopped, or replaced.  It’s interesting, then, that some people seem to “find time” to get things accomplished that others don’t.  Some people seem to be able to “manage time” better than others and are thus able to “better use time.”

The fact is, these resourceful people cannot “find time” or “manage time” any more than the rest of us.  Time cannot be “managed” or “found”.  We all have the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month, and a year.

Everyone has:
 24 hours in a day
 168 hours in a week
 8,736 hours in a year
 613,200 hours in a lifetime (assuming a life span of 70 years)
 306,600 hours left (assuming you’re now 35 years old)

How many hours do you have left in your life?  Take a minute to calculate the time and write your answer in the margin.  Compare the accomplishments you’ve achieved in the time you’ve already lived with the goals you want to achieve in the time you have left.  Are you pleased with where you’re at and where you’re headed?

Ask yourself how you can use the remaining time to accomplish job, career, and personal goals that are meaningful for you.  Ask yourself, “What is the one thing I can do TODAY that – if I did superbly – would have significant positive results in my department, career, or personal life?”

Managing time isn’t about time at all; it’s about priorities.  It’s about achievements that – at the end of the day – are most important to you.  It’s about setting achievable goals and using a planful method for achieving those goals amidst the many forces vying for your time every day.

Align Your Goals With Outside Forces

Have you ever started a diet around the holidays?  Unless you opted to go to a health camp for the holidays, you probably succumbed to the many temptations of tasty, not-very-healthy food found during these times.  The fact that no one else seemed to be dieting didn’t help either!  In short, your goal of losing weight wasn’t aligned with the realities of the season.

The same is true of goals.  Goals are easier to achieve if they are aligned with outside forces.  As an example, if your professional goal is to achieve a lateral promotion to another part of the United States and the company’s goal is to reduce all transfers, your goal is not aligned with outside forces and you will have a challenge meeting your goal.

If your goals ARE NOT aligned with company goals, you may be seen as a malcontent – a troublemaker.  If your goals ARE aligned with company goals, you are seen as supporting the company and your team is seen as a major contributing force in the organization.

Ask yourself, “Will the achievement of my goals help the company achieve its goals?”  If your goals MIGHT NOT align with the company’s goals, you may wish to revisit your goal (or consider finding another company to work for!).

Anchor Your Goals With Inside Forces

It’s also important that your goals are anchored to your inner forces or values.  If you don’t value the achievement of your goal, or the achievement of your goal goes against your values and principles, your goal will be difficult to achieve.
Ask yourself, “Will the achievement of this goal reinforce who I am as a team member, leader, or person?”  If your goal MIGHT NOT reinforce who you are, you may want to revise your goal.

Link Your Goals With Other(s’) Goals

Finally, achieving a goal is easier if it is linked to another goal that you have or to another person’s goal. You may find that several of your goals may link together nicely; by working on one, you can easily work on several.  Even more powerful is linking your goal to another person’s or department’s goal.

Ask yourself, “Who else might benefit from the achievement of this goal?”  Discuss your goal with this person to see if there’s a possibility of working on mutually beneficial goals.

By aligning, anchoring, and linking our goals, they become easier to achieve.

NOTE: Once you have identified your goals, you will want to record them in a conspicuous place – one where you can see the goals on a daily basis.
Long-term Success Happens a Week at a Time

When you go on a diet, are you “good” every single day?  If you blow your diet by going out one night, do you give up on your goal?  The answer (hopefully) is “no.”  Likewise, if your goal is to get promoted within a year and you haven’t done anything about it today, do you give up on your goal?  The answer is “no.”  Most people focus too much on the long-term goal OR on the day-to-day task.  The truth is that you must look past the day-to-day and before the long-term goal to your intermediate goal.

Think about how you walk.  Try walking by looking down at each step you take.  You may not ever stumble, but you will certainly lose track of where you’re headed.  Now, try to walk by looking at your destination (say a building a mile away); you MAY reach your goal if you don’t fall down the steps or get run over by a truck as you cross the street!  To walk effectively, you must look forward – not a mile forward, but several steps ahead.

To effectively achieve your long-term goals, you must first break them down into intermediate goals, goals that can be reasonably achieved in a week (or for longer-term goals, in a month).

You will want to keep track of these intermediate goals on a monthly calendar.  NOTE: You will also want to keep track of appointments, meetings, and other business action items on this monthly calendar as well; this will enable you to quickly see how packed or free any specific week will be.

Daily Planning

Having long-term and intermediate goals are the first two steps to “managing time.”  The third step is to ACT!  As the saying goes, “The longest journey begins with the first step.”

Many people – all with good intentions – ignore the realities of the day when they first start integrating their intermediate goals in their daily regimen.  They forget that they have meetings they’re supposed to attend, job commitments they’re expected to fulfill, and other things that will tug and pull at their available time.  As a result, they become frustrated with their lack of progress on their goals and become angry with the things – work and family obligations – that are taking all their time.

Take a few minutes each morning to plan your day:

Step 1: Identify your appointments, meetings, and other business action items.
Your first step in planning your day is to transfer appointments and other business action items from the monthly calendar.  These are non-discretionary: you’ve already made commitments to them.  Take time now to transfer any appointments and business action items from your monthly calendar onto your daily calendar in their appropriate places.

Step 2: Plan your daily duties.
Your second step is to plan your daily duties such as phone calls, mail, inbox items, etc.  These are activities that are less defined that action items but still require a portion of your day.  By planning these duties, you allot time for them without letting them drive your entire day.

Step 3: Make appointments with yourself.
Your third step is to “make appointments with yourself” by identifying which intermediate steps you wish to tackle today.  Transfer these discretionary activities (intermediate steps) from your Goal Planning page.  This makes discretionary items non-discretionary by the simple act of recording the item in the daily plan.  You move the future into the present so you can act upon it now!

Here are some tips to help you “manage time” and achieve long-term success:

• Limit the number of activities you plan for a day.  Commit to – and complete – a few activities rather than overcommitting.

• Make a habit of planning for 15 minutes every day.

• Do your priority first.  Period.  Include a quiet time to accomplish your
top priority.

• Take a long-range view of your commitments.  Does your calendar fill up quickly?  Should it?  Space your non-discretionary time carefully week to week.

• Take a medium-range view when planning time for your intermediate steps. “What is the one thing that I know if I did superbly THIS WEEK would have significant positive results in my department, career, and/or personal life?”

• Use your time management system to keep important information such as your department, career, and personal goals and intermediate steps; your appointments, business action items, and other commitments; and your contacts.

Entelechy’s Time Mastery Tip

“What is the one thing I can do TODAY that – if I did superbly – would have significant positive results in my department, career, or personal life?”

Thank you very much for reading our article we hope you found it interesting
please click to visit our website:
http://timemanagementtipsonline.com
Get your free Time Management ebook
Also check out  http://alainbalanche-jacquet.com

7 Quick And Easy Steps To Manage Your Time More Effectively

The internet is one of those things in life that borders on the verge of a good versus evil battle. It can be the greatest money making tool in existence, or the most malicious time waster. When people venture into the business of internet marketing, they often think it’s going to be a piece of cake. Most people who decide upon internet marketing as a business venture love the internet to begin with and want to unleash its evident power to their advantage.

Sometimes these web lovers are sorely disappointed because it seems that they work for hours upon hours and don’t get anything accomplished. That, my friends, is the nature of the beast!

If you intend to do business on the internet, you absolutely have to be disciplined in order to manage your time. Here are 7 steps to doing a better job of it:

1. Set work hours

It is so easy to waste time when you should be working and to end up working unreasonable hours. Internet work can seemly turn into an addiction overnight if you don’t set specific work hours and stick with them.

2. Schedule play hours

Don’t spend your work hours playing – surfing the net, visiting internet forums or participating in chat rooms. Set aside leisure time for such activities if you are prone to them.

3. Schedule communications

Set specific times during your work hours to open email. This should usually be the first thing and the last thing you do each work day. If you open your email periodically and respond to it, your work hours can be eaten up in a hurry! Turn off any indicators that tell you you’ve got new email.

4. Block the SPAM

Use a SPAM blocker to isolate or block SPAM email and keep it up to date. Use a separate email address for your business and personal email. Open personal email during your leisure time and business email during your scheduled communication time within your work hours.

5. Make a long-term plan

Make a long-term plan of what you wish to accomplish through your internet marketing. Having a vision with milestones and deadlines will keep you focused and working purposefully day after day.

6. Plan your days

Plan your days ahead of time with a “to do” list that ensures important things will get accomplished. Always plan a little time for unexpected interruptions or demanding little emergencies.

7. Kill the messenger

If you use messenger programs such as MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger, log out during your work hours. If you conduct business communications through the messenger program, open separate accounts or block contacts so that only your business associates that you need to be available to can contact you via the messenger program during your work hours.

Implementing these 7 simple tips will help you to master your time and will skyrocket your productivity!

Thank you very much for reading our article we hope you found it interesting
please click to visit our website:
http://timemanagementtipsonline.com
Get your free Time Management ebook
Also check out  http://alainbalanche-jacquet.com

3 Quick and Easy Steps to Time Management Mastery

Time management is one of the least-mastered and most-desired skills in out fast-paced modern world.  Time management truly is critical to becoming successful, doing everything you want to, and achieving ultimate success.

What do you need to do to DOUBLE your time management ability?

Do these things NOW:

1) Eliminate time wasters in your life.  Time wasters are things that interrupt you and you spend time doing, but you wouldn’t have chosen to do them given the choice.  Eliminating these time wasters is critical for time management:

• Email—If you are spending more than 30 minutes per day on email (unless that is your business) you are spending too much!

• Telephone—If you answer the phone live more than 5 times per day during your productive time (work, work at home, etc.) you are sacrificing time management and efficiency.  When you answer the phone, you interrupt your current productive flow and this kills your productivity.

• Television—This must be limited for you to achieve ultimate control over your time.  My recommendation is 30 minutes per day, especially if you are not getting all the things done you need or want to.

2) Make a list of what is genuinely important in your life and just start doing the    things on your list.  One of the keys to time management is prioritization—you absolutely must know what you want to accomplish and then go do it.  Today’s world has too many distractions and when you allow those distractions to become priority, you sacrifice time management.  Follow these steps:

• Make of list of what you want to accomplish

• Set time frames for accomplishing each item

• Organize each item in order of importance

• Create a game plan for achieving each of your goals in its respective time frame

3) Begin to focus on time management throughout the course of the day.  Your consistent focus must be on managing your time.  Once you have determined your goals and your priorities, start focusing on simply getting those things done.  If something isn’t on your goals list for this week—don’t do it until all your goals are done.  When you prioritize every interruption that occurs and put your goals last, you will not accomplish your goals.  Instead, you will be a slave (as you probably are now) to interruptions and probably feel like you never accomplish enough.

Thank you very much for reading our article we hope you found it interesting
please click to visit our website:
http://timemanagementtipsonline.com
Get your free Time Management ebook
Also check out  http://alainbalanche-jacquet.com