There's no such thing as an urgent email

It’s time we put email in its place. It’s not urgent. When is the last time you received an email saying “Your child is stuck in an elevator between floors at the TD Centre Tower? Please come immediately.” Or “Honey, my plane arrived early. Please pick me up right away at Terminal one.” In those cases and others I’m sure you would receive a telephone call instead.

Let’s face it. Email is simply another communications tool, like memos or voice mail or faxes. Rarely would one use it to communicate something truly urgent that required instant attention. We have been exaggerating its importance and urgency for so long we are becoming its slave. I have talked to clients who check their email continuously throughout the day in the event their boss may request something. I have talked to one executive who prides himself in the fact that he can email any of his managers on the weekend and get an almost immediate response. Some people check their email before they get dressed in the morning and before they retire at night. At least one woman I read about takes her BlackBerry to bed with her.

Hardcopy mail is delivered only once per day. You can easily receive electronic mail two or three times a day. But checking it twenty or thirty times a day is a huge timewaster. And a habit you want to avoid.

 

How To Use Goals As A Time Management Tool

You’ve heard the saying, “If you do not know where you are going, how will you know when you get there.” Imagine the aggravation of traveling by automobile to another state for a conference, meeting or preferably a vacation, without a map as a guide, the convenience of map quest or have the privilege to have On Star in your automobile to determine the best route to take to get to your destination. You would travel unnecessary routes, waste time and increase your stress level 100 percent. Why would you do this to yourself?

Well, you do it to yourself in your business if you do not have clearly defined goals which pave a way to your desired destination or outcome. Let’s explore three simple ways to use goals as a time management tool.

Define Goals

The Webster Dictionary defines goals as a purpose; objective. I define goals as a route, plan or series of steps to get to a desired destination or outcome. You must have clear goals stating what you would like to accomplish in your business. What are your goals? What would you like to accomplish within the next three, six or twelve months? If you do not have a least five concise, clear goals written down you must do it now. Define your short term and long term goals. Without a direction or plan you will spend your days and time aimlessly without being productive. Don’t get stuck working in your business, work on your business.

Know The End Before You Began

Upon completion of defining your goals, it is best to know the end before you began. What will be the desired result of your goal? For example, one of my goals was to have a monthly e-zine, the monthly e-zine is the desired result, the end. In order to reach that result, I had to brainstorm on the necessary steps needed to get to the end. I studied other e-zines publications, auto responders, researched topics and wrote articles, created and included an opt-in box on my web page for subscribers. Those steps became my road map, my atlas to get to my desired outcome. It also broke my goal down to smaller reachable tasks that I could include in my daily schedule. How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time!

Take Daily Action Steps

You must commit to completing daily tasks towards your goals until successful completion. You’ve defined your goal, mapped out the steps, now get out your planner and block time everyday to work on your tasks. Do not add the tasks to your “to do list”, actually put it in your schedule so that you are expected to work on it no matter what else is going on. If I schedule writing articles from 9:00 am – 10:00 am, I will not do anything else during this time, I will not answer the telephone or check email messages. Time blocked on your schedule should be uninterrupted time avoiding all time wasters. Develop a habit to plan your next day’s schedule at the end of your current work day, this will keep you organize, monitor your time and increase your productivity.

Beat Procrastination

Procrastination, a long word. Is this bothering you? I believe that procrastination is something or a condition that bothers almost anyone at one point or another. Usually the way I fight procrastination is to give myself the extra 'push' to do what I am suppose to do. For Example, if it is a jog which I want to do, then I just put on my jogging attire, my music and get out of the house. The longer I stay not moving out of the house, the probability of not going for that jog will get higher. This article shares some steps which you may find useful to help you fight procrastination.

It’s a New Year with probably yet another long list of resolutions. But will you actually do them? Or are you the type of person that has the best of intentions and sets goals but can never seem to get started on them, or you half-start them and never find the time or motivation to finish them?

Well don't worry, you're not alone! We all suffer from procrastination at some point in our life. The good news is that there is a cure. Just think “SNOW” and follow these 4 steps:

STEP 1: STOP

The reason you procrastinate is because the emotional force or feeling isn’t strong enough to propel you to take action forward. A positive feeling is being counteracted by a negative feeling, making you feel neutral, unmotivated and leaving you sitting on the fence. The problem comes when we feel guilty about it. This adds to the emotional hot pot! So the first step is to simply STOP rather than struggle.

STEP 2: NOTICE

Be observant. What is it that you’re actually avoiding? What is driving the negative emotion or feeling for the activity at hand? What are you afraid might happen? Writers are notorious procrastinators. With good intentions they’ll sit down in front of the key board, but will quickly become distracted by the pile of washing in the corner, that layer of dust on the shelves and those dishes that need washing. For writers, usually it’s the fear of not writing anything readable that stops them from writing at all. This is the counter-force. Notice what your counter-force is.

STEP 3: ORDER

When you bring order into a situation, it is incredible how it can make things feel a little simpler. So the best thing to do is to is take out a piece of paper and simply write a list of all the steps involved. The secret is to break them down into really detailed small steps (e.g., take the file off the shelf, place it on the table, open it to page 10, etc.). You’ll find yourself whizzing through your list and it’s this momentum that carries you through the rest of the task.

STEP 4: WHISTLE

Yes, you read correctly. Once you’ve written your list, simply take the first step and whistle while you work. Try it doing it now without smiling! You’ll notice that it quickly shifts your mood and makes you realize how ridiculous you’re being. It’ll help you take that all important first step, and then motivate you to move on to the next one. By taking small steps forward, before you know it you’ll have finished completely. And what’s more, you would have done it with a smile on your face too!

Finally, don’t let procrastination hold you back from reaching your goals and highest potential this year.

How To Use Goals As A Time Management Tool

You've heard the saying, "If you do not know where you are going, how will you know when you get there." Imagine the aggravation of traveling by automobile to another state for a conference, meeting or preferably a vacation, without a map as a guide, the convenience of map quest or have the privilege to have On Star in your automobile to determine the best route to take to get to your destination. You would travel unnecessary routes, waste time and increase your stress level 100 percent. Why would you do this to yourself?

Well, you do it to yourself in your business if you do not have clearly defined goals which pave a way to your desired destination or outcome. Let's explore three simple ways to use goals as a time management tool.

Define Goals

The Webster Dictionary defines goals as a purpose; objective. I define goals as a route, plan or series of steps to get to a desired destination or outcome. You must have clear goals stating what you would like to accomplish in your business. What are your goals? What would you like to accomplish within the next three, six or twelve months? If you do not have a least five concise, clear goals written down you must do it now. Define your short term and long term goals. Without a direction or plan you will spend your days and time aimlessly without being productive. Don't get stuck working in your business, work on your business.

Know The End Before You Began

Upon completion of defining your goals, it is best to know the end before you began. What will be the desired result of your goal? For example, one of my goals was to have a monthly e-zine, the monthly e-zine is the desired result, the end. In order to reach that result, I had to brainstorm on the necessary steps needed to get to the end. I studied other e-zines publications, auto responders, researched topics and wrote articles, created and included an opt-in box on my web page for subscribers. Those steps became my road map, my atlas to get to my desired outcome. It also broke my goal down to smaller reachable tasks that I could include in my daily schedule. How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time!

Take Daily Action Steps

You must commit to completing daily tasks towards your goals until successful completion. You've defined your goal, mapped out the steps, now get out your planner and block time everyday to work on your tasks. Do not add the tasks to your "to do list", actually put it in your schedule so that you are expected to work on it no matter what else is going on. If I schedule writing articles from 9:00 am – 10:00 am, I will not do anything else during this time, I will not answer the telephone or check email messages. Time blocked on your schedule should be uninterrupted time avoiding all time wasters. Develop a habit to plan your next day's schedule at the end of your current work day, this will keep you organize, monitor your time and increase your productivity.

Do one thing at a time

A survey that Sam Geist mentioned in his Quick Bytes newsletter showed that 89% of Americans think that text messaging while driving is dangerous and should be outlawed. Yet 57% admit to sending text messages while being behind the wheel. We know from reading the research that multitasking is not a time saver. Yet most of us still persist in doing it.

In our zeal to get more things done in less time we are sabotaging our efforts. I suggest you ignore the recommendations contained in many time management books to double up on tasks. You don’t have to listen to your voice mail while reviewing your e-mail or take reading material to meetings or collate papers while talking on the phone. Instead, identify the priorities and work on them one at a time. Time management is not about doing more things; it’s about doing more important things. Many of the things that we are now attempting to do simultaneously could probably be eliminated altogether. Give your full attention to the important task at hand, and don’t be distracted by the trivial many. Whether you are jumping from one task to the other and back again or doing two jobs simultaneously, you are still multitasking. In the latter instance your mind is jumping more frequently while in the former case your mind has been away from the first task so long it has trouble remembering where it left off. In either case, it’s inefficient.

 

Making Time Work For You: The importance of having a mission statement

A company’s mission statement tells everyone what is important to your company. It states what you believe in, strive to accomplish, and plan for the future. It guides your decision making, goal setting, and daily operations. If you are an entrepreneur, your mission statement should say what it is you do, who you do it for, how you do it and why you do it. Here are five advantages of having a mission statement.

1. Helps to keep everyone focused on what you consider to be important.

2. Provides direction and purpose for yourself and your organization.

3. Reminds you why you are in business and keeps you from being distracted or sidetracked by other opportunities.

4. Helps you to draw up meaningful goals.

5. Helps prioritize the things you do.

Once you have a mission statement, you can develop specific goals that help you to further your mission. Your goals tells us what it is you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it. Your mission statement explains why you are doing it.

 

Secret #61 Stop Reading Newspapers

  According to a communications industry forecast reported by the Center for Media Research, in 2007 American adults will spend about a week reading a daily newspaper.

Think about that for a moment.

A whole week every year over the course of a lifetime is a year and a half!

At the risk of being misunderstood, let me ask you this question: Might there be a better, more efficient way to get news?

If you really want news, you may want to quit reading newspaper's altogether. USC's president, Steve Sample, wrote a very stimulating book called, The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership. In the book, Sample tells of a personal experiment he conducted: He quit reading all newspapers for six months. Sample writes, "I undertook this experiment in order to see what deleterious [harmful] effects, if any, my being insulated from the popular news media would have on my ability to carry out my responsibilities as the leader of a large and complex institution."

What did Sample discover?

1. He got news in a fast and accurate manner--from other people. And people were eager and downright happy to tell him what was going on. As a result, Sample writes, "I was stunned to find out that, within twelve hours of a story's first appearing in the popular press, I was often better informed...."

2. "The man who reads nothing at all is better informed than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." This is a maxim that Sample attributes to Thomas Jefferson.

3. "I realized that I (along with nearly everyone else in America)... had given over a big chunk of my intellectual independence to a group of editors and reporters whose core values and interests were not necessarily congruent with my own" (page 61).

I am NOT suggesting that you live an uninformed life! I am suggesting that reading a newspaper for news may be a waste of your precious time and life.

Just a thought.

What do you think?

 

Secret #60 Don't Let Time Slip Away

"If you love life, do not waste time for that is the stuff life is made of."
--Benjamin Franklin

 

Secret #59 Have Fun!

Life is just too short to NOT make a splash... and a memory!

 

Secret #58 Take a Vacation!

One of the best uses of time is a relaxing vacation. Keep reading to determine if it's time for you to take one!

The picture below has two identical dolphins in it.

A closely monitored scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins.

The more differences a person finds between the dolphins, the more stress that person is experiencing.

Look at the photograph below. If you find more than one or two differences between the two dolphins, you may want to take a vacation.



No need to comment on this blog... I'll be on a looooooong vacation!

 

Secret #57 Don't Confuse Being Busy with Being Important

The thought of saying NO to things screaming for our time and attention creates tension in our hearts… doesn’t it?

Why is that?

One reason is because in our culture busyness is a deeply held VALUE. Why? Because in our culture busyness suggests importance, competence, success—and even spirituality.

But does being busy really mean you’re important, competent, successful, or spiritual? Not necessarily.

Think about it. Being busy may mean you’re chicken to say no and that you have boundary issues. It may mean you don't have a clue about what’s really important in life. It may mean you've placed your identity and self worth on the thin ice of performance.

Don't confuse being busy with being important, competent, successful or spiritual. They may NOT be related at all.

Just a thought.

Secret #56 Squeeze the Day

"Planning your day, rather than allowing it to unfold at the whim of others, is the single most important piece in the time management puzzle."
--Alec Mackenzie

 

Secret #55 Prioritize Your Priorities

Once you have a personal breakthrough to the biblical idea that your self-worth is NOT based on busyness—you can begin to give yourself the gift of saying no to the right things. But how do you decide what to say yes to and what to say no to? This is where Proverbs 24:27 comes into play: “Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that build your house.” In other words, do the most important things first. In the day in which Proverbs was written, getting the fields ready first was critical because it meant food and income for the family. What good is a nice house when you don’t have any food to eat or income?

So how do you decide what’s first and most important?

Try this: Make a list of all things you need to do today. Now ask yourself this question: “If I could only do one item on this list, which one would it be?” Mark that item as #1. Go back through the remaining items on the list and ask the question again. Mark that item as #2. Get the idea? Once the items all have a number, start with #1—and do it until it is completed. Cross it off the list, pause to feel the endorphin rush of accomplishment, and celebrate. Then go on to #2.

Some of you are be thinking, “But what if I don’t get to everything on my list?” To you I say two things: 1) You can take great satisfaction in knowing you did that which was most important, and, 2) Give yourself the gift of saying no.

 

Secret #54 Put Off Procrastination

My teachers always told me I wouldn't amount to anything because I procrastinated so much.

I told them, "Just you wait."

 

Slowing down the speed of life

We are all living in a high-speed society. It seems everyone wants things right away. The names of companies are indicative of what the public wants – Kwik Copy, Federal Express, Speed Queen, Minute Maid. Many people are obsessed with speed.  Even drive-through restaurants are not fast enough. Eating itself has become an inconvenience.  We’ve gone from fast foods to microwaves to handheld breakfasts. People are having breakfast as they drive to work – Egg McMuffins, pop tarts, granola bars. Speed-eating has evolved into a fine art.

We have to watch we don’t buy into this rush-rush-rush mentality because it can be non-productive as well as stressful. Rushing frequently produces errors. It’s better to slow down and do it right in the first place. It seems like those who don’t have time to do it right always seem to have time to do it over again.

Eat slower, walk slower, talk slower, and yes, even try to work slower.

 

Emptying your in-box

When you do check your email, make sure that you have enough time to dispense with all the email messages in your in-box. You might want to allow a half hour for instance every time you check your email. Handle it only once where possible and never leave it in the in-box. With paperwork we call it the FAST method. File it, Act on it, Schedule it or Toss it. With email, we call it the FADES method. Here are the five things you can do with email in order to prevent it from accumulating in your in-box.

1. Forward it to someone else to handle.
2. Answer it if it can be done in a few minutes.
3. Delete it if you don’t need it.
4. Export it or empty it into the appropriate electronic file.
5. Schedule a time in your planner to work on it and move the email to an “Action” folder on your desktop or onto your To Do list.

When you are finished, your in-box should be empty. If you can’t do these things, and leave your in-box empty, you don’t have an email problem, you have a decision-making problem.

 

The Secret of an Efficient Secretary

Arnold Bennett, the British novelist, had a publisher who boasted about the extraordinary efficiency of his secretary. One day while visiting the publisher's office, Bennett asked her: "Your boss claims you're extremely efficient. What's your secret?"

 

"It's not my secret," said the secretary, "it's his." Each time she did something for him, no matter how insignificant, she explained, he never failed to acknowledge and appreciate it. Because of this, she took infinite pains with her work.