By Bob Brolhorst
A Guide For Time Management September 2001 By Bob Brolhorst
Stop giving in to the clock and start controlling your own life again! No, don't set the clock back 24 hours to get more time. Learn to control the time you have and you won't find yourself exhausted at the end of every day. It's extremely exhausting trying to cram a great deal of activity into one day. If you sit back and take a deep breath and control the time you have, you'll feel much better when you get home and maybe even have energy left to do some of the things you see others doing and wonder how they do it!
1. Listen to -- and heed -- your internal clock. If you are not a morning person? Don't schedule important meetings or activities for the morning. You don't have to get up at 6 or 7 or even 3 a.m. with the rest of the world. Perhaps you need to sleep until 10 or get up at 8 and take it slow getting started. If this sounds like you, you're probably the most effective in the late afternoon, evening, and up to midnight (or even beyond!). But don't shortchange yourself on rest. This is not the time you must control. You must let your body determine the amount of rest and sleep it needs.
2. Make an appointment and get a physical. You must take care of yourself if you're going to take control. Make sure you're in good health and there are no underlying medical problems. If you're taking medication, have it re-evaluated regularly. As your body changes with age, you may react to medications differently.
3. Don't try to be everything to everyone. If you are a small business and on a limited budget try calling a local college or university for inexpensive part time employees. Students will usually jump at this chance because it not only will give them some necessary extra income it may also help with some expiernce in the field that they are studying. The greatest time waster is having to do so much of the paperwork yourself. Hire a person with intelligence, talent, and skill, and someone you know you can work with, someone who knows how important they can be working at your side, and pay them well. Nurture their professional growth by mentoring them. Keep them challenged and never let them doubt their value.
4. Delegate as many of the details as you can, not just to your assistant, but to others as well. It's hard to let go of something you enjoy doing, but how much is it costing you to do it yourself? I have kept a thing or two I enjoy doing. I look at it as a trade-off. But don't trade too much or you'll have to go back to Step 1.
5. Don't make the same mistake so many people take for granted. I will tell you right now that customer service has to be the first thing on your list. If your email software program has the capability to filter out junk mail, then make sure you use it, but respond to your email as soon as time permits. Check your email first thing in the morning and then right before you end your day. Don't be one of these people that reponds to each peice of email immediately when it comes in, believe me if you approach answering your email in this mannner you will find yourself just answering email Keep your Outbox full. Keep your Inbox empty. Enough said.
6. Another mistake that i used to make is to keep all the business magazines that I subscribe to just because they may have contained an article or two that I may have thought would be helpful. Take my advice and cut out those articles and either save them in a file or get a scanner and save them in a file on your computer, preferably the latter. You'll be surprised as how much room you will gain and how much more efficient you will be.
7. If you plan to end your day at a specific time each day, then make it a habit to quit thirty minutes prior to that and take the time to clean up and oraganize your office so when you start the next day everything that needs to be in its place is.
8. If your assistant needs an assistant, let her/him hire one. Trust your assistant to know what's best to handle your workload. Don't forget that word delegate. It not only helps you, but it will also give your assistant or other people that work for you a sense of accomplishment and keep them interested in their job.
9. Read time- and paper-management articles whenever you see one. Every time I read a new article on these subjects, I learn at least one new thing. If I hadn't taken the few minutes to read it, I would be wasting all the time the article just taught me to save!
10. Use your daily calendar in your email program to set up and above all remember all of your appointments. This one of the most important things you could do. The appointment that you forgot could have made you thousands or the negative word of mouth, because you forgot about the appointment could have lost you thousands.
Bob Brolhorst
Wave 5 Marketing
bbrolhorst@wave5marketing.com
http://www.wave5marketing.com
By Anonymous
May 28, 2004 -- Parallaxis releases Cuckoo Clock 4.7, virtual Cuckoo Clock for your computer.
New in version 4.7:
- Quick Setup Wizard is added for your convenience, allowing you to set up basic features of the program;
- new exciting themes created for the new version, now Cuckoo Clock includes 4 themes;
- new medium and lite editions were created for those who need simplified program version;
Changes in version 4.7:
- graphics performance is increased by about 100%, now it consumes minimum CPU resources;
- some annoying bugs which caused incorrect themes display were fixed;
Parallaxis Software has released Cuckoo Clock version 4.6, featuring all the benefits of a real Cuckoo Clock, on a computer desktop, without having to wind it up or set it. This program features all your timekeeping needs in one neat package: see the time right on your computer desktop; hear chimes on the hour, half-hour and quarter; set alarms for appointments and deadlines; have your system clock set automatically using free atomic clock. Customize alarm/clock sounds and messages. Download new free themes, skins and collections as they become available.
Perch this Cuckoo Clock on your desktop and you'll never look at time the same way again. How many times have you seen a beautiful - and expensive - Cuckoo Clock on a friend's wall collecting dust? Could it have been waking a family member at night? Not this bird...you can easily teach this Cuckoo when - and how late - to sleep... you won't hear another peep out of it. Friends will even ask where you have the Cuckoo hidden! The rich sound has fooled many a clock collector. Variety is the spice of life and as much as we wish it were so, not everyone wants to hear a bird squawk all the time, so breathtaking graphics - and sounds - including Classical Clock, Futuristic Clock, Office Clock and yes...even Big Ben are included.
And now the question you're dying to have answered: Yes, it does tick if you want it to. Fact is you can turn just about every aspect of Cuckoo Clock off or on...it's your Cuckoo - make it sing your way. The real test of value in a piece of software is how often it's used. This refreshing change to the normal mundane PC clock is a change you'll use for hours and hours every day. You're already staring at the most expensive part of Cuckoo Clock...your PC. Why not add a touch of elegance and utility to that screen now with Cuckoo Clock.
Cuckoo Clock 4.7 costs $29 (US) and can be purchased online at:
http://www.pxcopany.com/cuckoo.shtml.
Site licenses, quantity discounts are available.
For more information, contact:
Neil Younusov,
Email: neil@pxcompany.com
Internet: http://www.pxcompany.com
This article courtesy of http://free-bunk-bed-matopsites.krapoo.info/.
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By Jeffrey Mayer
"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." said A.G. Lafley, Proctor & Gamble's CEO."
Too much to do. Too little time. It's a universal problem. From the CEO to the newest hire.
We're bombarded with information. E-mail, faxes, voice mail, overnight deliveries and old-fashioned snail mail. Unexpected phone calls, impromptu meetings, and emergencies that force us to drop everything.
So many projects, tasks, problems, opportunities, and people are fighting for our time and attention that it's almost impossible to separate the important from the urgent from the unnecessary.
With so much clutter it's easy to lose track of long- and short-term goals. And... the proposal that's got to be finished by 3:00 p.m. this afternoon.
It's easy to spend eight, ten, or twelve hours each day doing things that don't have any real payoff.
And we wonder why we feel like we're stuck in quicksand. The more we struggle the deeper we sink.
"P&G's Lafley says, "I'm here by 7:00 a.m. so that gives me a stretch of uninterrupted thought before the workday officially swings into action and the phones start ringing." "
Time is the one thing that limits us. The common lamentation is 'If only I had more time.' That's the wrong premise.
The problem is we're using our valuable and precious time, in unproductive and non-rewarding ways.
Busy... yes. Productive... NO!!!
Think differently. Don't manage your time.
Do come in early so you can get some work done before everybody else arrives? Before the phone starts ringing? Before your meetings start?
Before the day - and your schedule - falls apart because of the many fires you must put out?
Fires! Fires! Fires!
Someone didn't do what they were supposed to do, when they were supposed to do it. Now it lands on your desk.
You're forced to drop everything and put out the fire. Your whole day goes up in smoke and you don't realize that somebody's guilty of arson.
To be successful in today's highly-competitive world you must be focused. You must have long and short-term goals.
When you know where you want to go, it's easy to determine whether or not the work, tasks, and projects you're working on will take you there.
Here are three strategies you can use to leverage your time:
1. Block out time for yourself. Close the door. Turn off the phone. And give yourself an hour of uninterrupted time each day.
2. Work on your most important work, tasks and projects. Only do the things that have value. Eliminate everything else.
3. Use your Prime Time. There's a time of day when you do your best work. When you've the most energy and enthusiasm. Tackle your most important work at the time of day you're at your best.
Set your goals. Leverage your time. And you'll become more successful than you ever dreamed.
(c) 2004, Jeffrey J. Mayer, SucceedingInBusiness.com
About the Author
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey Mayer's SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter. Jeff helps individuals, business owners, corporate executives and sales professionals set their priorities, get focused, and achieve their goals; so they can grow their business, get ahead in life, and live their dreams. To subscribe to Jeff's free newsletter, visit http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com
Jeff@SucceedingInBusiness.com