Tag Archives: time management

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What Will Your Choices Be for 2018?

      Life is about the choices we make.  It is easy for people to get caught up in negativity, considering the current political climate. I have decided that I will choose joy every day.
     Demands are put on us at work, by significant others or spouses, children, and pets that use up the precious time we have.  Please take some time and ask yourself,  “What do you want?” for 2018.
     The answer to this question can lead to significant changes in our personal lives and businesses.  One concept made clear to me in the past year is that less is definitely more.  Freedom comes from making deliberate choices about the most meaningful activities for me.  Simplify your life in order to avoid the noise.
Write down your plan.
     When doing your planning for this year, get out your calendar and put in all the important dates right now. Schedule that vacation that you know you want to take.  What business conferences do you want to attend?
      Next, think about your main goals for the year and write them down. When you write your action plan, be specific on your calendar and set dates, then engineer the steps that will get you where you want to go.
     Think about what word you will use to describe your goals for 2018. Last year, my word was Focus. This year’s word is Momentum.  I am excited for what 2018 will bring and I have been writing down my plans. So I can be of the best service possible to you, please click on the following link and answer the two questions that you find there: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XTX8R76
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Rise Above the Noise

Take Time for What's Important to You

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Have you had it?  Everyone wants a piece of your time, your day, your life?  Making a conscious effort to disconnect will help contain the barrage of continual requests for your time and attention.  Scrutinizing those requests could help eliminate them.

I just finished reading a condensed version of Essentialism by Greg McKeown. “Essentialists create a space to design, a space to concentrate, and a space to read.”  The space to design is a place you make for yourself where you can go to get away from everything and think about how you want your life to be.  The space to concentrate is where you go to think about where all the information you have been taking in fits into the bigger picture.

Basically, you have to figure out what is really important to you in your life and gear your choices around that.  You may be involved in places that are good, but not necessarily the right place for you now.

Evaluate Your Level of Involvement

In light of what is truly important to you, evaluate all the places where you are connected to see if they are a good fit for you right now.  You may have to gracefully exit from demands that you have let others place on you, with a graceful “No”.  In today’s world, it takes a great amount of energy to live a simplified life.

I agree with Greg when he suggests that we all need to be aware of the present in the moment we are in, take time to play, and get enough sleep.  Don’t be afraid of missing out on something because you are sleeping.  Luebeck University research showed that sleep increases brain power.

When you look back on your life, what are the major goals that you would like to have accomplished?  If you start now by living the life you have envisioned for yourself, you will not be disappointed.  I challenge you to find a quiet place, think about what is most important to you and write it down.  You may be surprised at what you find.  Now go make plans to do it!

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How to Find More Time

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When we don’t manage our time, our time will manage us.  Many people use the word multi-tasking and are proud to say that they can do it.  However, research shows that as much as we would like to think that we can do it, our brains are only able to focus on one task at a time.  You can read about it here in the Harvard Business Review.  What is really happening when we are working on two tasks at once is that our brain is rapidly switching between the two and this will slow us down.

There are a couple of productivity strategies that I have found to be  valuable.  Time blocking can help you make more sense of your days and weeks.  I like to look at the week on Sunday and plan out the rest of the week intentionally.   This involves concentrating on only one main task for certain periods of the day.
Reserve your most productive time for your most important tasks. I am a morning person, so I reserve the morning hours for writing and planning tasks that require me to be the most focused.  Also, for that one thing that has been nagging me that I have been putting off, I tell myself to “just do it’ so I don’t have to think about it anymore.
Then I look at the days and see where the appointments are and also where I can fit in other tasks like business accounting, filing, marketing projects, and meetings.  Think about your meetings to see if they are truly necessary since they can be time wasters.
Some people like to designate certain days for the same activities each week so they don’t have to worry about getting them done.   Also, block some time for yourself for exercise, going out to do something fun, or just relaxing with your family.  It is more likely you will do it, if you feel you have time.
The 90 Day Year
Another productivity concept I want to discuss is something I read about called “The 90 Day Year” by Todd Herman.  Entrepreneurs and business people can especially relate because of all the projects and time constrictions they have.  I encourage you to try it for two weeks and see what happens.
We each have certain blocks of time to work each day.   You have started on Task A, but then you get a phone call and you switch to Task B on the second day.  Then someone called you for a different reason, you have a meeting, and you feel you need to work on Task C on the third day.  Task A is still waiting to be finished, and the distractions keep coming.
In this version of organizing your time, you would start with Task A and make it your primary focus of every block of time, with the others secondary, until you get it finished.  Then the confidence that you have received from completing that task will propel you on to the next.  At the end of a month you will look back and see the projects that you have completed instead of a varied amount of tasks that are in different parts of completion. I challenge you to try this and see if you accomplish more.
Managing your time brings more freedom to do what is most important to you.  Live each day with zest, spend time with the ones you love, and do great things that make a difference!
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Four Ways to Achieve the Power of Focus

Focus on the task at hand.
Busyness is not better.  Work less by working smarter not harder.  We have heard these expressions before.  But are we listening to the point that we need to focus?
If we seek to understand the power of laser focus, we will accomplish much more.  The term multitasking is very popular, but not a good way to use our energy.  Our brains are wired to do one thing at a time.
Stanford University research has concluded:
“Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.”
Write down your plans.  A written plan helps give you clarity and propel you in the right direction.
Remove distractions.  Cell phones, email, people with questions are all important, but when you are trying to accomplish a task, they can be annoying.  So make a plan to deliberately check your email at certain times of the day, and then leave it alone.  Unless you are expecting a very important phone call, your cell phone will take messages until you can get done with the task at hand.
Establish a quiet zone time during the day when your staff knows you will not be available unless it is an emergency.
The extra time you gain to work on your most pressing projects will help your productivity and reduce your stress.  Keep focused and prosper!