Time Management Tips For Professionals

There is no easy route in perfecting time management. Although the idea of managing time may sound easy, many people are still finding it difficult to follow.

If you are one of those people who find it hard to follow time management, then here are some tips that you can follow.

1. See the BIGGER Picture

Time is a constant and abundant resource that people can't purchase or sell. It is a resource that can be shared with or can be shared from someone else.

And one effective way of managing it is by visualizing a bigger and clearer picture of your goal. Prioritize more the activities that would put you closer to your objective, and prioritize less those that won't. Carefully assess the tasks that need prioritization in order to accomplish activities that are closely related to your goal.

Many successful people today practice different time management forms and techniques, but if there's one thing these business minded people share in common. It's the vision of how they want to spend their business time.

2. AUDITING Time Management (For Professionals)

Ideally speaking, everything that a person should list and follow should be actively valuable towards their desired goal.

To make your auditing faster, the following are sub-breakdowns that many professionals spend their time on. Personal goals may differ, but the general idea of breaking goals down remains the same.

• People and Managing. Managing people can be sub-categorized in to three different areas namely;

1. Managing time across
2. Managing time up
3. Managing time down

If you're currently working as a leader or as a manager in a company, understand that the best way to spend most of your time is by directly supervising your team or co-workers below you.

This is also an effective strategy of teaching your employees while working your personal professional goal at the same time. Cultivating time-leverage upward not only benefits the team and the company, but it can also benefit you by moving closer to your goal.

3. CHARTS for Time Management

Presently, there are lots of these tips that are scattered all over the internet. The approach may vary sometimes, but believe that the basic idea is still there.

One common tip most time management tips share is in building a chart. Building charts are effective in reminding important plans ahead. Creating charts are also helpful in simplifying time management audits, as well as in pitching the whole picture of your goal.

Building a Chart:

a. Start building your chart by writing down the days and weeks in a month. Across its columns on top, write down your major tasks and goals that needs prioritization.

b. After you complete this activity, record the amount of time you spent under each category. This way you can easily monitor your progress and accomplishments in one day.

c. Try to stick to the plan as much as possible.

d. Avoid over doing it by stuffing to much work in one day.

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Ashton Dixon

beng organised, Books, motivation, time management

Today's read: The Simple Secret to Stop Procrastination

There's an old saying that says...

"If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day!"

Brian Tracy says that your "frog" should be the most difficult item on your things to do list, the one you're most likely to procrastinate on; because, if you eat that first, it'll give you energy and momentum for the rest of the day. But, if you don't...and let him sit there on the plate and stare at you while you do a hundred unimportant things, it can drain your energy and you won't even know it.

In Eat That Frog!, Brian cuts to the core of what is vital to effective time management: decision, discipline and determination. In 21 practical steps, he will help you stop procrastinating and get more of the important tasks done...today!

Brian is one of America's leading authorities on development of human potential. He speaks to over 250,000 people a year and has written over 25 books. Eat That Frog! is an international best seller, with over 500,000 copies sold.

We're pleased to say, however, that Simple Truths has taken a great book, and well...made it better! How? We've made it a little shorter; a little more engaging with great graphics; a little more "giftable" with an embossed hard cover, and of course, packaging that can create a "wow" effect! In short, we've turned a great book into a great gift for employees, customers, friends and family.

Here's a small sampling in Brian's chapter titled: Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything. Enjoy!

An excerpt from Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy

The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also called the "Pareto Principle" after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who first wrote about it in 1895. Pareto noticed that people in his society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the "vital few", the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the "trivial many", the bottom 80 percent.

He later discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this principle as well. For example, this principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results, 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits, 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do, and so on. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together.

Number of Tasks versus Importance of Tasks
Here is an interesting discovery. Each of the ten tasks may take the same amount of time to accomplish. But one or two of those tasks will contribute five or ten times the value of any of the others.

Often, one item on a list of ten tasks that you have to do can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariably the frog that you should eat first.

Focus on Activities, Not Accomplishments
The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.

Before you begin work, always ask yourself, "Is this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?"

The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you will be naturally motivated to continue. A part of your mind loves to be busy working on significant tasks that can really make a difference. Your job is to feed this part of your mind continually.

Motivate Yourself
Just thinking about starting and finishing an important task motivates you and helps you to overcome procrastination. Time management is really life management, personal management. It is really taking control of the sequence of events. Time management is having control over what you do next. And you are always free to choose the task that you will do next. Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinant of your success in life and work.

Effective, productive people discipline themselves to start on the most important task that is before them. They force themselves to eat that frog, whatever it is. As a result, they accomplish vastly more than the average person and are much happier as a result. This should be your way of working as well.

To watch the movie for Eat that Frog! or to look inside the book, just click here

beng organised, Success, time management

"Semi-Productive" – How to stay productive and still take a break from "work"

Productive things to do online when you are bored and lazy

You don’t always have to work hard to be productive. Productivity can simply be the side effect of doing the right things.

So here’s a list of 29 semi-productive things I do online when my mind is set on avoiding ‘real work.’

beng organised, Meetings

Using motions to keep meetings focussed

Use motions as a discipline to keep the chairman and the participants in the meeting focussed. If discussion has to be limited to the motion under consideration then it should stay focussed, and this is a great vehicle for the chairman to use, and for other participants to use to remind people who digress from the subject under discussion.

If they have a different suggestion for implementation, and it is too far from the motion under discussion for an amendment, suggest it be discussed as a different motion either at this meeting or at a more appropriate time.

beng organised, Success, time management

Five Simple Steps to Improve Productivity

[by Diane Chinn]

What happens when you hear the phrase process improvement? Do you groan or sigh? Do you think "this is going to be a lot of work and take a lot of time?" Typically, this is the natural response to the concept of process improvement. But, it does not have to be that way. Here are five (5) simple steps that you can take to improve the productivity of you business

There are certain basic tasks that must be done to make a business successful. Sometimes it is useful to take a fresh look at these basics to see that the organization is still on track. If there are fundamental problems in the daily operations of your business, changes in other areas may not lead to improvements. Concepts like orderliness, cleanliness, discipline, and managing costs and prices are examples of fundamentals in any organization. Also, when employees' basic needs are not being met, we cannot expect to make meaningful improvements in other areas. Taking care of the basics can lead to improved productivity, safety, and employee satisfaction. Adopting the 5S philosophy of Kaizen (Japanese taken from the words kai, which means change, and zen, which means good) is one way to take care of the basics. This is a frequently used tool from the LEAN Six Sigma tool box.

The 5S model includes:

o Sort: Clear out unused or rarely used items from the work areas
o Straighten: Create a place for everything and everything in its place
o Shine: Keep things clean, no dirt or trash in the work place. Regularly look for and remove things that could interfere with quality, timely work.
o Standardize: Develop systems and procedures to maintain productivity and quality work.
o Sustain: Use regularly management audits to maintain a stabilized workplace

Example:

The number of claims by third part administrators because of errors was a serious problem for one hospital. Incorrect claims led to additional work for claims staff and delays in reimbursements for the hospital. A process improvement team was established to address the issue. They interviewed claims processors and others in the business office. They found that noise levels and constant interruptions made it difficult for claims processors to complete an entire claim transaction without disruption. Disruptions led to missed steps in the claims process Simple changes were made to correct the problem. Employees who liked to listen to music while they worked were asked to use headphone and each claims processor was given a block of "protected time" each week. During this protected time, they could forward their telephone calls to a co-worker and were not available for meetings. With these simple changes, the volume of returned claims decreased by 40%.

Kaizen is a good starting point for process improvement that is quick and easy and will result in measurable and sustainable productivity improvement.

Diane Chinn is an organizational development consultant and writer. I have more than 20 years of experience in many aspects of business operations, employee and management development, information technology, and business communications. Please visit my website at http://www.whenwriting.com or you can contact me at diane.wrties.com

beng organised, life balance, time management

Thought for Thursday

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Goethe

beng organised, time management

Thought for Thursday

Avoiding the phrase “I don’t have time...”, will soon help you to realize that you do have the time needed for just about anything you choose to accomplish in life.

Bo Bennett

beng organised, Goals, house and home, visualisation

How to Create a Design or Inspiration Board

We need all the help we can get to keep our goals in the forefront of our minds, to continue creating and refining actin plans. An Inspiration Board is a great tool to achieve just that.

A design board, inspriration board, color board, concept board – call it what you want. A design board is a wonderful way to put all of your design ideas, concepts and colors for a project down in one place. Design professionals, such as kitchen designers, interior decorators and the lot use them to make presentations to clients, but you can do the same to help you consolidate your plans. How to make your own design board and more examples after the jump!

and the instructions are here ...http://bit.ly/4Tsgb9