Management Time Tip - No Time to do Anything!

Management Time tip - No Time to do Anything!

If you find yourself in this type of position. Where you belief that you have no time to do or get anything done besides work food and sleep. Then I suggest you take a closer look at your schedule. Most often the cause of this "no time to do anything" is more of a "I'm too (lazy, tired, bored, unmotivated, comfortable, sleepy, etc you pick what you use the most) to do that!"

This could be for a number of reason, maybe you don't exercise regularly, maybe you don't eat right, or maybe you just don't ave the energy. But I know once you start to do something you will have the energy to do it, if only for a short period of time. AND that this short period of time can be found almost anywhere in your day.

For example do you have a one hour lunch every day from work? Do you actually EAT for a whole hour? DO you drive somewhere then eat then come back? Well what if you brought your own lunch, then you'd have more time. Maybe then you could run to the bank, pick up the laundry, or do whatever else you need to do during you lunch break.

What time do you get up in the morning? Why not get up just 30 minutes earlier and spend 20 of them doing some light aerobic exercises? You'll feel more awake, and be in better shape sooner than you realize. This can actually help to give you more energy throughout the day.

When you get home do you take a nap? Maybe watch the TV for 3 or 4 hours? Well turn off the TV, drink some water, wake yourself up and spend those few hours pro-actively! Do something, if TV is too hard for you to break out of then just take an extra 1 hour, or even 30 minutes to do something before your turn on the TV.

This little pointers should help you to find some time during your day, and if your day is completely booked and you have no free time what so ever. Well then maybe you should think about loosening up your schedule a little!

Management Time Tip - Eating Elephants

Management Time Tip - Eating Elephants
(not literally of course)

Recently it has come to my attention that even I am unable to follow some of my own guidelines and so I will describe what I did to fix them and save my time instead of waste it.

Recently I took on a rather big project it. I studied it, viewed examples, extrapolated some ideas, and got tons of information to help me run it as smooth as possible. However at the end of all my researching I had a huge problem.

I had attained all this information but I had not set up a plan for running it, no step 1. Thus I was in a bind, I had a huge wealth of information and no idea how to go about putting things in their proper place. Stuck in a frozen mind set and confused for the life of me nothing got done. Nothing got done for TWO whole days!

It was on the third day when I was discussing my dilemma when a colleague of mine reminded me that maybe I should just break things down into smaller parts and fully understand the first step before moving onto the next. Having all the information was good, it will allow me to continue moving forward but this way I will be able to START moving forward.

Once again I was reminded of the question, "How do you eat an elephant?" Wow, my elephant was huge, and all I was looking at was the elephant, the whole thing and wondering how in the world I was going to get it all done! How? Well one bite at a time of course.

By setting down and starting, and going no further than step 1, I was able to start moving forward, yes there was still a confused mass of research and information. But NOW I was no longer frozen, AND my project was moving forward. Now that I am a few steps down the road I realize once again how important it is to break things down, and take them one step at a time... or one bite if that's the case.

I hope this little reminder helps you to understand that if you have a huge project on your hand, just slow down. Look at step one, finish it completely, then move onto step two and don't look at the end until you are on your final step. Then you will be amazed, like I am, at the progress and amount of work that get done with just a simple step by step plan.

Management Time Tip - Set Alarms

Time Management Tip - Set Alarms

No, not just for sleeping, although you should probably set that one too. This is more for those who have a hard time keeping track of time. Have you ever said "Where did the time go?" or "Wow, that day went by fast," and upon reflecting on that day you realize you got nothing you wanted to done, or maybe just a few?

I used to say that was my weekends. I would be working all week so I would get ready to do everything I needed and wanted to on the weekends, and what would happen on the weekend? I would sleep in, watch TV, lose myself in the fading dusk. Stay up late watching horror movies. Instead of say, finishing my work, catching up with family, finish building that bench, or putting that coat of paint on the *still white* spare bedroom.

It was at this point that I decided to get a multi-alarm watch. If what I mentioned sounds familiar you should do the same (although now its a multi-alarm cell phone, it still gets the job done). You should do your best to plan out your day ahead of time, preferably on paper. Or set alarms with descriptive names such as ("pain spare bedroom 2pm") then when 2pm rolls around and you hear *beep beep* and look at your cell phone it will remind you to start working on that spare bedroom. But done stop there, set another one for 2 or 3 hours later for something else. If you mix up stuff you enjoy doing with stuff you HAVE to do it will make the day go by faster AND easier. Of course, before you know it it's Monday, again. But this time when you think back to your weekend you will realize all the stuff you got done! What a relief!

This is also a must-do trick for trips or theme parks. People always wonder how they can go see everything, well this is how! Plan ahead and write it down, don't forget to and in waiting in line times!

Management Time Tip - Organization is Key

Management Time Tip - Organization is Key

Have you ever noticed how a person with a clean desk, or a clean house, seems to be more efficient and get more things done in less time.

If you have never organized before then this might be difficult. Plus efficient organization will speed things up and a non organized organized mess will makes thing more difficult. Let me explain, if you put all your pens, pencils, paperclips, notepads and such into a drawer by just tossing them in there it will be a horrible mess. Then when you want a pencil, you will need to dig past pens, paperclips, notepads, and god knows what else in order to get to the pen. BUT if the draw is organized, with pens in their own section, along with everything else, maybe you could get a pen case, or divider to help separate everything. This way instead of searching for five to ten minutes for a pen or pencil it will only take you a couple of seconds.

The same goes for files, have you ever wondered where that last electric bill was? Or how much your cell phone cost you a couple months ago? How easy would it be for you to find these things right now? Well what if you had a binder for each month of the year where you stored your monthly bills? That would make things very easy.

When tax time rolls around you will have all your bills and any other relevant information you need to get your taxes done and god forbid you ever get audited you wont have to spent countless hours finding everything because you will have everything nice and neatly organized.

Hope that helps!

Management Time Tip - Stay Focused!

Management Time Tip - Stay Focused


In today's busy world it is sometimes hard for us to stay on task. With so many distractions on TV< the Radio, and even billboards whether you are driving or walking, or just relaxing at home there are tons of things to distract you from whatever it is that you are trying to do.

This is why in order to stay on time and manage your time efficiently you have to be able to stay focused and not let yourself be distracted by these kind of things. Although it might be amusing to see that commercial about the office workers fighting each other, or entertaining to view the latest movie trailers. These things take time, time you have not set aside for during your current task.

Some of you might say "well yeah, but a commercial is what like 30 seconds, maybe a minutes tops and movie trailers are only like 5 minutes!" The problem is not watching one, its watching just one. Too often we get distracted and then don't realize that not only have we watched an entire episode of some odd show that just happens to be on TV, but we have actually watched the two after it as well and are now 3 hours behind. This little distractions add up and TV, billboards, and even the Internet is designed to keep you from staying on track. Instead of paying attention to what you are doing they specifically want you to look at it and nothing else.

SO just remember, especially in today's day and age, that if you are trying to get something done do not leave the TV on. Don't temp yourself to just surf for five more minutes on the Internet, leave the radio off, and stay focused on what you are doing and you will get everything you need done in the right amount of time!

THEN you can go relax, watch TV, surf the net, but first finish what you need to do and stay focused!

Management Time Tip - Keep it Simple

Time Management Tip - Keep it simple

This is a common advice. Simplifying your life means a simpler, uncluttered way of living. Get rid of grit and gunk from your house. This will also give you more freedom of movement and time, how does this help save you time? Well you no longer have to spend the time moving things around to get to something important, or spend hours searching through clutter for possibly something relatively un-important.

When your house overflows with objects, it tends to distract you. And we all know what happens when there is too much distraction. It prevents you from thinking and acting intelligently, and then you procrastinate and are un-able to manage your time efficiently.

Go around your house and make a list of everything you don’t really need. For instance, do you really need three toasters in the kitchen? One hasn’t been working for months. You either dispose of it or have it fixed (if you have three I suggest you either give it away or get rid of it, who REALLY NEEDS three toasters?)

Ask your husband/wife and children to do an inventory of clutter. Your husband can do the garage and the basement. Your children can do their bedrooms. Stipulate that you need their lists in three days, no later. Explain to them why junk has to be eliminated from the house. If you explain your intentions clearly, they will understand and would be more willing to cooperate. Tell them that the house needs a much needed airing, and when all the junk disappears, so will the distractions.

Encourage your family not to replace old junk with new junk It can be a vicious cycle. Just as we managed to clear the house of unwanted bric-a-brac, in come new ones. Explain to your family that there was a specific reason for clearing junk. Old clutter should not be replaced with new clutter. Encourage them to think twice before acquiring additional material possessions.

Examples:

• Will I consult this book more than once, or is it just for one school assignment? Maybe I can borrow it from the library instead?

• The hubby loves tools. He spends his weekly allowance on them. He just filled up an entire wall with all kinds of tools. Ask him which ones he hasn’t used for 6 months and ask him to throw them away.

• The clothes in your closet. Which of them have you not worn for six months? Call the Salvation Army or the recycling center.

As soon as the closet is half-full, and you can finally see the wall of your closet, you’ll be inspired to re-organize your whole bedroom: dressers, commode and night table drawers – shoe racks included!

I hope this helps you to organize and manage your time and household more efficiently, and always remember that every little bit helps.

Time Management Tips - Big Projects

Time Management Tip for Big Projects!

Have you ever heard the question "how do you eat an elephant?"

This should come to mind anytime you are given or have to do a big task. If you don't know the answer I will tell you at the end if you haven't figured it out.

The "Big Picture" is always nice to have in mind but it can also be very daunting. I mean how can you fathom how to finish something or even start if you are too busy looking at the big picture instead of where you should start.

To save time, and stress and headaches, you should always break big projects up into smaller ones (that you have ideally set a time constraint for). This way whenever you have to do a big task all you have to do is break it down and work on you much smaller task.

It is much easier to make a table by getting the wood first, then measuring, then cutting, then attaching, and finally putting the finish on. Then it is to try and figure out how to get there when you don't know how to begin.

For example how do you eat an elephant? Well you can't eat it all at once! But you CAN eat it one bite at a time!