September 2008

A lot of people in the country are forced to perform multi-task at the same time. Although there are many people who slip into the multi-tasking scheme effortlessly, there are also many who are overwhelmed with the amount of work that they have to finish within a short period of time. If you are one of those people who are stumped when it comes to time management, it would be a good idea for you to start studying means and methods of effectively managing your time. The art of time management can quite easily be learned and mastered so it should not be something that you should worry to much about for the mean time. As soon as you are able to begin developing your time management skills, you will have less problems going through the variety of tasks you need to do, and will be able to accomplish multi-tasking quite effortlessly

Getting Started

One of the first items on your list that you should do to learn time management is to set your priorities and manage your goals Before you tackle the task for the day, you need to make a do-to list and rank these things according to your priorities. The to-do list is a very important step, as this list will be your guide when you start the tasks that you need to do, and this list will also keep track of your progress as you tick of each item that has been completed. The list will also help you analyze and determine which of the tasks need to be accomplished first and this will assist you in prioritizing each individual task.

The Importance Of Prioritizing

Being able to set your priorities for each given day is very important. You will have to set your priorities so that you know what needs to be done first and what can be done later, and to do this you will need to set a criteria for your priorities. When setting your criteria, you will need to consider the relevance of a specific task and the time relevance towards the other tasks. As an example, if you happen to be working multiple projects simultaneously, you will need to determine which tasks in each are critical and which ones are not. Also if you happen to be doing a series of tasks, you need to determine which tasks need to be finished first that is most urgent before proceeding to the next set of tasks.

Scheduling

The ability to be able to schedule your tasks is very important when it comes to time management. You will have to learn ways to be able to split your day so that more tasks can be accomplished. Every minute counts when it comes to time management, and in order to be able to accomplish more, you should give yourself hourly deadlines. For example, you assign yourself one hour to work on a specific task and when the hour is over, move on to the next task on the list.

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A lot of people in the country are forced to perform multi-task at the same time. Although there are many people who slip into the multi-tasking scheme effortlessly, there are also many who are overwhelmed with the amount of work that they have to finish within a short period of time. If you are one of those people who are stumped when it comes to time management, it would be a good idea for you to start studying means and methods of effectively managing your time. The art of time management can quite easily be learned and mastered so it should not be something that you should worry to much about for the mean time. As soon as you are able to begin developing your time management skills, you will have less problems going through the variety of tasks you need to do, and will be able to accomplish multi-tasking quite effortlessly

Getting Started

One of the first items on your list that you should do to learn time management is to set your priorities and manage your goals Before you tackle the task for the day, you need to make a do-to list and rank these things according to your priorities. Making a to-do list is very important. Your list will serve as a guide for you when you start doing your work and will help you keep track of your progress. Furthermore, your to do list will help you see what needs to be done for the day and help you set your priorities.

Prioritizing

Being able to set your priorities for each given day is very important. You will have to setset your priorities so that you know what needs to be done first and what can be done later, and to do this you will need to set a criteria for your priorities. When setting your criteria, you will need to consider the relevance of a specific task and the time relevance towards the other tasks. For instance, if you are working on more than one project at the same time, you need to determine which ones are urgent and which ones are not. Furthermore, if you are performing a series of tasks, you need to determine which task should be done first before you can proceed with the others.

Learn To Schedule

Scheduling your tasks is a crucial part of time management. You will have to learn ways to be able to split your day so that more tasks can be accomplished. Every minute counts when it comes to time management, and in order to be able to accomplish more, you should give yourself hourly deadlines. For instance, you give yourself an hour to work on a certain task and then move on to another task at the end of the hour.

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Productivity Tools
Better in black and white than dreaming in technicolor

That’s just our way of saying that when you read things on paper, you’re able to act logically; this is much more effective than just thinking out how to avoid procrastination.

Putting down things in black and white is even better than brainstorming with another person. Here’s the reason: if you write down what needs to be done, you’re the only one who knows what’s urgent and important.

You focus on this task from the implementation to completion. Once it’s completed, you take it off your list. There’s that sense of accomplishment, no matter how small the accomplishment is.

You go on to the next task, until you actually get used to the idea of doing, rather than procrastinating.

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There is a big difference between scampering and running. Sure, they’re both actions designed to make person move fast, but the difference lies in goal setting. When a person scampers, it is without purpose. A person who is scampering moves to no purpose. It is an action performed instinctively. However, a person who runs does it to achieve a goal. Which one do you prefer to do?

No matter how much effort you make, if you do not have direction, you will be wasting your energy. How can one have direction without a goal? Goal setting is important because it is the first step towards a journey. People may think that we started out without having any real goals, but let us examine life for a moment: When a sperm is first released, it has a goal, does it not? It swims towards the egg. This goal gives it direction.

As we mature in life, our goals get bigger and more ambitious. However, we still set goals. Goal setting is an inherent part of life. It answers the question of purpose. It tells us why we have to live, if only until the next day.

As mentioned before, goal actually gives us direction. For without goals, where would we direct our efforts to? Goal setting is the key and essentially gives us the first step in our individual journeys.

Think of it: When you set a goal, you try to follow the most direct route towards it. So you take the first few steps towards achieving that goal. In setting a goal, you will always have the first step. However, in life, we encounter little detours. Sometimes, in order to reach our set goal, we must first accomplish another one.

Goal setting is the key to achieving success in life. If you set goals, you will be able to know which steps to take. Setting goals does not mean you make a list on what to do or what not to do. That would merely be the semblance of goal setting. True goal setting involves commitment.

In true goals setting you need to be able to put your heart into it and commit yourself to achieving that goal. From the moment you set a goal, every effort you make will be directed towards the achievement of that goal.

Goal setting is important in life because it allows you to measure yourself. Nobody knows why measuring one’s self is so important. Perhaps it has something to do with self-improvement. Sometimes it has something to do with the realization that you are doing something in life. However, goal setting will allow you to measure yourself by how close you are to achieving a goal. Through proper goal setting, you will be able to see just how far you’ve come and how far you will still be able to go.

Another importance of goal setting is that it allows you to know your purpose in life. Goal setting will prevent you from questioning your existence. Sure, some people find wisdom in questioning the meaning of life, but people who do not find answers to this question often end up in despair.

Goal setting gives you order.

If there is one thing that people seek in life more than food, clothing, or shelter, it would be order.

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Opposites attract is a law of attraction, at least where electromagnetism is concerned. But are there laws about attraction between two people? In a world that is full of strangers as a line in a famous song of the 1980s goes, is there a clear set of rules that allows two people to fall for each other?

Law on Human Attraction
Maybe. According to scientists, the attraction between animals of the opposite sex is all about chemicals called pheromones. The effect of pheromones in behavior of insects is the most studied to date. It has been observed, at least in some experiments, that pheromones are responsible for communication among same species and colony of ants. The horrible odor released by skunks to ward off enemies is said to be a kind of pheromone. Some species of apes rub pheromone-containing urine on the feet of potential mates to attract them. Some scientists believe that animals (usually the females) such as insects and mammals send out these chemical signals to tell the male of their species that their genes are different from theirs. This gene diversity is important in producing offspring with better chances of survival. The perfume industry has capitalized on pheromones as a means to increase ones sexual attractiveness to the opposite sex. Animals such as the whale and the musk deer were hunted down for these chemicals.

Lately, scientists are looking into the existence of human pheromones and its role in mate selection. There are many conflicting views in the realm of biology, chemistry, genetics, and psychology. Most scientists would assert that these do not exist, or if they do, do not play a role in sexual attraction between a man and a woman. But new researches such as that conducted by Swiss researchers from the University of Bern led by Klaus Wedekind are slowly making these scientists rethink their stand. Their experiment involved women sniffing the cotton shirts of different men during their ovulation period. It was found out that women prefer the smell of mens shirts that were genetically different, but also shared similarities with the womens genes. This, like in the case of insects and other mammals, was to ensure better and healthier characteristics for their future children. But researchers also cautioned that preference for a male odor is affected by the womens ovulation period, the food that men eat, perfumes and other scented body products, and the use of contraceptive pills.

Human Attraction
Yes, but so does your perception of a potential mates personality. According to a research conducted by Klohnen, E.C., & S. Luo in 2003 on interpersonal attraction and personality, a persons sense of self-security and at least the persons perception of his/her partner were found to be strong determinants of attraction in hypothetical situations. What does this tell us? We prefer a certain personality type, which attracts you to a person. But aside from the actual personality of the person, which can only be verified through close interaction through time, it is your perception of your potential partner that attracts you to him/her, whether the person of your affection truly has that kind of personality or not. This could probably account for a statement commonly heard from men and women on their failed relationships: I thought he/she was this kind of person.

Self Improvement Info
You have probably heard that attraction is a prelude, or a factor towards a relationship. Most probably, at least in the beginning; but attraction alone cannot make a relationship work. It is that attraction that makes you notice a person from the opposite sex, but once you get to know the person more, attraction is just one consideration. Shared values, dreams, and passions become more significant in long-term relationships.

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Time management is about taking charge of oneself.  It is about accepting responsibility for our lives and what we choose to do with our time.  Perhaps you have no problem acknowledging that you are, in fact, in control of your time, but in real life practice you may find that this is a bit more difficult to accept. 

Every day life presents us with obstacles and issues that may conflict with our goals or with our schedules and it is easy to feel that you lack the control factor in all of this.  But regardless of what happens to you that may affect your time management goals, you are always responsible.

At this point your goal is to overcome these daily obstacles with an attitude of a consultant.  When you are faced with many choices of what decision to make, what path to turn to, or which way to handle a situation, pretend that you are a highly-paid consultant.  I’m not talking about consulting other people, the key here is to be a consultant to yourself.  When there is a decision to make that disrupts your daily schedule then ask yourself: “What does Mike have to do next?”  “What would be the best use of his time, right now, within the current situation?” 

By referring to yourself in the third person, you will be able to derive different answers for those that would come from thinking to yourself “What should I do next? How can I overcome this obstacle and still keep my time schedule intact?”  Instead, by asking yourself in the third person, you will automatically visualize yourself mentoring another person, and the advice given will not be based on fear of what can go wrong, but rather from a neutral mindset.

Going back to time management and making the right choices, let’s quickly cover the subject of taking action once you have made your decision.  Again, once you have hit a roadblock in your daily schedule, quickly assess the situation and visualize yourself as the consultant. 

Then once you have come to the conclusion of what you need to to in order to rectify the problem, visualize then yourself quickly tending to the task at hand with vigor so that you can get back to your time schedule, and then do it!  Take action immediately.  Do not waste any thoughts wishing that you could be doing something else.  Do not curse the fact that  your daily planning is now off balance.  Simply follow through with the issue and get back on track ASAP.  Time management means to effectively handle surprise knocks in your daily schedule, not just handling the goals that you planned on paper the night before.

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Do you want to know how to make the most out of your time?  Are you searching for a way to get where you want to be in life faster than the speed you are currently going?  The key to succeeding in these areas involves understanding and implementing time management strategies that high achievers use every day of their lives to make more money, increase time spent with family, and achieve all around happiness in life.

Regardless of your daily schedule, whether you work for someone else or yourself, your goal is to compete against yourself to see how much you can get done that contains the most value every day.  Think of it as a personal game that you are playing.  Each day when you set your personal deadlines and making the most of your schedule, work to race against those set time goals.  Work faster, beat the clock, and accomplish your tasks earlier than expected. 

Keep the mental vision of yourself as a super product individual in your mind at all times.  To help keep this mental picture alive in your head you can use a  technique that works for thousands of successful men and women all over the globe.  And that technique is to remember a time when you were the most productive in your life.  Remember how effective you were at handling those tasks at that time.  Consider how efficient you were.  You were doing all of the right things and at the right time and at record speed.  In addition to accomplishing more, remember how good you felt about yourself and the confidence that properly managing your time did for you.

Now take a look a few years from now and imagine yourself as being the most productive and successful people in your career field.  What would your day be like?  What would you look like?  How much work would you accomplish each day? What hours would you be working?  These questions are to be written on paper to help you create a vision for yourself.  Doing so and taking a look at your vision every day on paper will do more for your time management needs than anything else.

Once you have created a clear mental picture of the our future self, continue to visualize your ideal self as if you already had the time management traits that you desire to have today.  Strive to act as if you had the urgency of the “you-of-tomorrow” in everything that you are working for today.  Remember that the person that you see in your vision can and will be the person that exists today, so long as you keep that vision regardless of the circumstances.  “So starting today, set the same goals, work with the same vigor, and feel as though you were making the most of your time as you are with your future-self and as you did in the past.

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By making time management a lifelong study around forming productive habits each day, anyone can transform their lives from mediocre to supreme that will affect their lives in a very powerful way.  To help get you started on your way to mastering time management, we are going to cover three very specific tips that will help you achieve all that is possible for you.  You can learn all three of these disciplines through repetitive practice until they become a natural part of your everyday living.

1.  Daily goals:  The term “goals” is used so often throughout every self development book and audio that you can find, and for good reason.  You see, setting goals is the cornerstone to achieving everything you want in life, and this is especially true for building positive time management skills.

Every morning of the day you should take about fifteen minutes to write out your ten most important goals on paper.  Be sure to write them in the present tense.  When you make it a habit each day to write out your daily goals then you are programming your subconscious mind to accept these goals as attainable.  Your mind will be stimulated and you will feel more alert.  Amazingly, you will start to see more and more opportunities being attracted towards you.

2.  Daily activity planning:  The heart of time management, whether it is for your personal management or your work management, lies in the ability to effectively set priorities on all of the daily tasks that lay ahead.  Each night before you go to bed is the perfect time to plan out the next day’s activities that you want to accomplish.  Set each one with a priority level that matches the importance of when those tasks are to be finished.  Start with the most important job first and work singlehandedly until that project is finished, then move to the next.  Be sure to also set time limits within your daily plan.  Have a deadline for each and every activity that is on your list, even if it is as small as 10 minute jobs.

3.  Proper exercise and daily quality nutrition:  What does exercise and diet have to do with effective time management?  Good health has everything to do with getting more quality time out of your life while seeing your work through at a faster pace.  You see, time management is a lifestyle, and if anything in life is to be obtained, then it can only be enjoyed by having your health.  Your health is the most important quality in life that one can have.  And by disciplining yourself to eat nutritious foods while maintaining a daily workout routine,  you will  promote the highest possible levels of health and wellbeing in your life for years to come.

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Effective time management means getting rid of bad habits that kill your time.  Probably the most common of these bad habits is procrastination.  It is the most common and most readily admitted self-inflicted time robber in our lives.  Some men and women experience procrastination as a seldom bother, while others experience procrastination like a never ending headache that just seems to pound them day in and day out. 

There are essentially two types of procrastination:

1. Conscious Procrastination:  Conscious procrastination is definitely the easiest to identify in people as well as the simplest form to offer solutions for.  This is where we are “awake” and aware of what we are doing.

2. Unconscious Procrastination:  Unconscious procrastination is where we are almost totally unaware of our actions and behavior.  This form is a bit more difficult because we must catch ourselves doing it as opposed to being conscious of our behavior.

Either way, the bad habit of procrastination carries with it a huge expense of your opportunity in every area of your life.  “Putting things off” more than likely has caused more failure, heartache, and misery, than all of the other time management problems combined.  Everybody wants more time but wastes away what they do have.  Let it be known that opportunity knocks just as often at the door of the procrastinator as it does at anyone else’s door.  The difference is that the procrastinator does not answer and misses out.

How come people procrastinate?  Why do we waste our time and put things off?  Perhaps the most common reason is that the tasks that lay ahead of these items may seem unpleasant or like an inconvenience.  Life is full of tiny little monotonous tasks of which we put off.  For example, most people do not like balancing their checkbooks, filing taxes, meeting new people, or exercising.  By doing these things it is necessary to move out of our comfort zone.  And moving out of our comfort zone day in and day out is the hallmark of high-achieving men and women.

The natural response to unpleasant tasks in life is to block them out and stay within what is more convenient at the time.  But by putting those things off, we then are letting the events control us.  And what happens next?  Our productivity drops and so does our confidence and self esteem.  The only way to escape this time-wasting habit is to put energy into controlling our lives, even if it means being inconvenienced or feeling unpleasant while doing it.  Eventually you can train your mind to perceive getting things done as positive tasks.

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What is time management and how can it help you get more done in less time?  This question has many different answers to many different people because time management is not a type of cookie-cutter course that everyone can use for their lives.  With each individual comes different needs.  And although you can learn time management skills and techniques, you must approach it with your own style, your own goals, your own visions, and  your own unique motivations.

In today’s article we will discuss motivation and how it can help you manage your time better so that you can get more work done, spend more time with your family and friends, and have a better sense of accomplishment in your life. 

The term motivation itself contains “motive”.  And without a clear understanding of your motive (why exactly you are doing what you are doing) then you will be forever lost in the cycle of doing more and gaining less.  You must be absolutely clear about the reasons “why” you are undertaking all of the tasks in your life.  This is not limited to your work and career choices, but your personal and family choices as well.  You can never effectively manage your time if you are not motivated enough to do more and at faster speeds.  And this motivation comes from understanding the underlying reasons why you are doing whatever it is you are doing in the first place.

Take out a pen and a piece of paper and start this little time management mental exercise.  Simply ask yourself the following questions and write your answers down:

Why do you work as much as you do?  Why are you involved in the tasks that you are involved in today?  Why do you work so hard?  What is it that you are trying to achieve?  And what is the fastest and most simple route to get you from where you are now to where you want to go?

Now that you have started to put your thoughts on paper, your next step is to start gaining the additional knowledge and skills that you will need to perform your best and with the greatest productivity.  Your goal is become an expert in time management.  And in order to become an expert in any subject, all  you need to do is read and study the principles outlined within that material each and every day. 

Read books on time management for thirty minutes each morning and again at night.  Listen to time management audio tapes and CDs in your car while driving and at home in your spare time.  And back up all that you see and hear with action.  Back up your studies of time management with practice and I promise you that you will start to see and feel changes not only in managing our time, but in all areas of your life as well.

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