The Part Timer

Time Management Tips For Building Passive Income Part Time

As you start working on your passive income, you will realise the importance of time management. You want a steady side income but you must not give up your day time job which gives your secured monthly wages. How to optimally use your 24 hours a day on your passive income and your day time job?

 

Strategy #1: Keep your home and your work desk organised

You spend most time developing your passive income from home after work. Hence, having a messy home and work desk will make you lose time when you have to search for a missing item every now and then. It dampens your working mood and creativity. To be efficient, you not only need to keep them clean and tidy, but also make sure they are organised so that you can find your items at ease when you need them.

 

Strategy #2:  Compound your activities

Do you listen to music while driving or while doing gym? If yes, why don’t try to learn something about passive income and business instead at the same time? How? Listen to motivational and inspiring podcasts on your MP3 that will teach you about business and passive income. They are easily available on the internet! You can also read a motivational business book while on public transport or even in queue. Be industrious!

 

Strategy #3: Spend less time on TVs

If the first thing you do when you come home from work is to switch on your TV and then stick to it throughout the night, you are watching too much of it. Cut down on your TV consumption. Use the free time to work on your passive income. Read and learn about it from the internet or books.

 

Strategy #4: Use time management tool

There are several time management tools out there. One of the techniques is by listing down your tasks according to their priority and urgency. Work on those which are marked as most important and most urgent first, and the least important and least urgent tasks last. Cross them out once you have completed them to have a general idea on your progress. Besides a ‘today’ list, you can also work on a ‘this week’ list or a ‘this month’ list.

 

How To Defeat Procrastination part 3

 Effective Ways to Defeat Procrastination

This is the final post in this series on procrastination. I plan on addressing this subject more later in the year and possibly get a little bit more specific on more ways to eliminate procrastination from your life, but until then, here are some ideas to work on.

1. Recognize the problem, identify the cause and take appropriate action to defeat it

One of the most important things that you should do to defeat procrastination and be more productive in work and life is to recognize the problem and understand what causes it.

More often than not, we face the problem with procrastination when we are not using our time wisely and spend time working on unimportant tasks instead finishing high priority tasks. Putting off high priority tasks that should take center stage, is an easy distraction that shuts down our productivity. Even jumping of social media can keep you from doing things that need to be done.

Here are some things that will help you identify if you are procrastinating.

· You are procrastinating when you are working with low priority tasks instead of high priority tasks that need to be done.

· You are procrastinating when you are skipping around on your to-do list to do all of the low priority tasks as opposed to following a logical order.

· You are procrastinating when you spend hours on social media and it isn't marketing related..

· You are procrastinating when you are starting to work on a high priority task and then suddenly switch gears by taking multiple breaks.

· You are procrastinating when you leave a task unfinished in your to do list for a long period of time, even though you are fully aware that it is very important that you finish it on time.

· You are procrastinating when you are waiting for the "right time" or the right mood to deal with an important task that you are working on.

· You are procrastinating when you are making an excuse not to do what you are supposed to do.

Once you notice that you’re procrastinating, take an appropriate approach to overcome it. One of the best ways to do this is by prioritizing the tasks according to their importance.

Make a schedule of what needs to be done. Create a checklist or to-do list of all your tasks during the day and arrange them according to how important they are. Try to set priorities in all of your daily tasks. You need to prioritize all of your tasks by putting the most important tasks on top and the less important tasks at the bottom so you will be in the right direction and can cross them off as you go down the list.

Set tasks by category such as high priority tasks for important ones and low priority tasks for unimportant ones. Complete those tasks that are in your top priorities first and when done then you can move on to those tasks that are in your low priority. Do one task at a time. There is no such thing as multitasking.  If you get the chance, go back and read some of my past blog posts on time management.

Act now and just do it

When you already have a to do list or a checklist for your daily tasks, start working on the task by focusing on starting it instead of finishing it. Although you may get depressed because of the difficulty of the task and get pressured because of the deadline, do not allow that feeling to control you. If you do so, this will only create fear as well as resistance towards your task that will affect your performance and in turn this will have a negative impact on how you will do your work.

Rather than stressing yourself out or depressing yourself over the difficulty of the task, just focus your attention and effort in starting the task. No matter how hard it is, just do it. Having a to-do list and starting one task at a time are the best ways to defeat procrastination.

Divide the project into smaller tasks

The size of a task is more than enough to frustrate and depress people, which in turn can lead them to have a lack of interest or desire to work on it to completion. However, instead of dwelling on how big the task is, make an effort to break the project into smaller manageable tasks. In this way, you will be able to easily build an action plan to deal with the task more effectively.

More often than not, people procrastinate on big tasks because they do not know what to do next when they start working on it. This keeps them from continuing the work and finishing it. So, to prevent this, take some time to evaluate the task. Break it down into smaller tasks.

Once you have a plan, start working on smaller tasks that are easier and faster to finish. Doing so will greatly help you to have a sense of achievement and motivation each time you accomplish a specific task. And this leads you to work further on the task.

I also use this technique with goal setting and it works well.

Beat your fear and love what you do

Having a lack of desire for something will greatly prevent you from working at your best. This will lead you to procrastinate. In order for you to work effectively and productively, you should love what you do. See the tasks not as a problem you need to solve, but rather as achievement you need to work on.

Don’t be afraid that you will make mistakes in completing the task at hand. Accept the fact that you will make mistakes once in a while and eliminate any fear that you feel. This will help you to be more productive. 

To overcome procrastination, the first and most important thing that you should do now is to decide whether you want a better life for yourself or let it be this way – allowing procrastination to take over your life and affecting everything you do. If you want to get rid of procrastination in your life and experience a better life from this day forward, act now. Procrastination can't thrive if we act now and on the things that matter.

This will surely help you to overcome procrastination.

For even more help Click Here!

How To Defeat Procrastination part 1

 

I know that I have covered this in previous posts, but procrastination is one of the biggest problems that keep us from moving forward in business and in life.

Procrastination is a typical problem that a lot of people experience. In fact, this is one of the lead reasons that I never accomplished anything of value for years. Procrastination through fear, through laziness, though boredom; the reasons for procrastination is vast and we all have our excuses for why we procrastinate.

Learning how to defeat procrastination as well as laziness can serve as a big help for you to increase your effectiveness and improve your productivity in both work and life.

Procrastination is a psychological behavior that is associated with those individuals who develop and acquire a bad habit of delaying tasks. More often than not, we’ve been through a point where we have experienced delaying things needing to be done on time. Everyone had been affected by the habit known as procrastination up to some extent.

However, for some, this undesirable problem has become a part of their daily life, which turns out to be their source of continuous anxiety and stress and this has greatly affected their performance and progress in work and life.

As a result, they miss a lot of opportunities, wasted a lot of work hours, experienced resentment, stress and guilt for not finishing what they are supposed to do. Sad, but true this can happen to anyone once they allow procrastination to take over their life, instead of the other way around.

The truth is most procrastinators know what they need to do. However, for certain reasons, they keep repeating this bad habit which prevents them from finishing the job that they need to do. Before, you can know how to defeat procrastination, it is very important that you know the characteristics and common causes of this problem.

Understand them as they are imperative in overcoming procrastination.

Characteristics Of A Procrastinator

More often than not, procrastinators possess a positive view of their ability to finish the work on time. This line of thinking results in a detrimental delusion in time management and creates unexpected delay in their task until there is no time left to finish the work at hand. In turn, this act is followed by a burst of anxious, last minute efforts to complete the work that often gets accompanied by an innate excuse to justify their action, blaming it on “lack of time” or, should it meet a deadline and work, you might hear “I like to work under pressure."

The common characteristics that procrastinators have are:

· Unorganized

· Stubborn behavior

· Manipulatory

· Low self esteem and self confidence

· Inability to cope with pressure

· Fear of failure

· Fear of change

· Fear to face the unknown

· Stressed, tired and overworked

· Perfectionism - A very common one used by entrepreneurs

· Indecisiveness

· A feeling of being too busy all of the time

 

Even though this problem might not seem to be that serious, this can cause disturbing effects to the life of an individual. Procrastinators often experience the feeling of helplessness and weakness together with the frustration of not having the ability to control their life. Or, on the adverse, they take on a cocky attitude, nothing is ever their fault, others can just deal with it, it's part of their personality, so get over it, etc.

I was one that fell into the procrastination excuse of "paralysis through analysis" and very seldom pulled the trigger on anything out of fear I would not do it right. Then, if it was something that needed to be done, then I would rush through it at the last minute and it would become a self fulfilling prophecy because I would end up messing up or not completely something properly.

In the next few posts, I hope to show you that procrastination isn't just a personality trait and can be changed.

I usually end with "here's to your success" but I think now I will say, "work on your success" especially if you are having issues in the area of procrastination.

For even more help Click Here!

Organize Your Computer

One way that you can get organized is to make your computer an organizing assistant. You can print up schedules and also keep a calendar with a list of what you have to do each day. You can get email updates as to your daily activities and appointments. Once you get used to using the computer to be organized, you will wonder how you ever got along without it. You can also use your computer for your banking. You can arrange to have all of your bills paid online, which saves you time and makes sure that you are not missing any payments. It is safe to bank online as banks use a special security and encoding system to prevent hacking. Another way that you can use the computer to get and stay organized online is that you can keep track of your bank balances. Make sure that you have the money that you think you have in your bank account. When you get automatic payments to your bank account, the money is available right away. You do not have to worry about cashing checks, waiting for checks to clear or possibly using them. The computer organizer isn’t just for the office, you can print up schedules to hang on the refrigerator, menus for the week, chore assignments and even plan a party using these tools. You must make use of this technology in order to stay organized because it alleviates so much time and stress. Organizing your life is more than just being able to keep a clean house and keep things in order. It also involves planning. For example, you can print up a grocery list and check the items that you need when you go shopping. If you go grocery shopping without a list, you not only end up spending more money than you would usually spend, but you also spend more time rummaging around the store. Let’s not even mention the times that you get all of the way home and realize that you forgot something that invariably leads to another trip to the store. The computer is a wonderful tool for staying organized and planning out various aspects of your life. You can even go online and get quick and easy recipes, for free. If you have a business, you can do your payroll and organize your finances on programs that will help you figure your income taxes and business taxes due. You can also go online and find forms that you can use to apply for certain benefits. If you are on social security, you can use the website to find out where your checks are and other benefits. You can use a pin number and discover information that you would otherwise have to wait for by mail. Paying your taxes? It is easy to do right online. Not only will you be able to get your taxes sooner, but you will also get your return much quicker. And you can have the refund directly deposited into your bank account. This saves you time and helps you stay organized, especially if you have been using computer programs to help you keep track of your expenses and income throughout the year. You can use programs like Excel when you are trying to create spreadsheets. This is not a difficult program to learn and you can use it in business to create graphs and also keep track of payments due. Most offices require that their employees use this program. Take advantage of computer technology to remember birthdays and special occasions so that you can send cards. There are even websites that will send cards to those on your list automatically, mailing them for you and thus saving you even more time. By using the computer, you are taking advantage of the latest tools to stay organized. You can plan, print and do both home and business work right on the computer as well as keep track of your finances. This is one tool that you cannot do without when it comes to being organized. You will find that there are so many uses for the computer that can simplify your life and make it easier.

Organization: The Top 100 Best Ways To Organize Your Life

Power Question: What is one change that you could make to your lifestyle that would give you more peace?

The Importance Of Routines

 

Organization is like any other positive habit, it involves developing routines when it comes to cleaning out clutter, closets, and drawers as well as cleaning your home in general. You are better off to have a schedule or some sort of date in mind when it comes to cleaning or your work will never be done. If you get into a habit of cleaning and organizing on a regular basis, your home will not only look cleaner, but also you will feel much more relaxed. This is also true for the office, or at least your section of the office should you be in a cubical type setting.

 

Whether you are cleaning by yourself or with a partner (or partners), you should develop a routine as to when you do your cleaning. You can take one job a day to make it easier, or you can clean your entire house from top to bottom in one day.

 

I have found that the average house can get cleaned to the point where it looks pretty presentable within two to three hours. Start with the basics by dusting and sweeping. My room of choice to start in is always the kitchen, emptying things out of the refrigerator before they become science experiments, cleaning the counters, sink and wiping down the cabinets. Then I take the mop out and clean the floor last. The entire room can be done in a half an hour, usually.

 

After that, I go to the living room, straighten the couches, dust and vacuum. This is another project that only takes about a half hour. I , then, move to the bedrooms and then head off for the bathrooms last. The reason for this is that the bathrooms have to be scrubbed down and disinfected. With the use of proper cleaning supplies and doing this on a regular basis, the cleanliness will easily last a week.

 

I am often sorely tempted to clean my daughter’s room as she often leaves her room like a tornado whipped through it, but as this would not be teaching her anything, I bite my lip and my wife or I will go in and ‘help’ her do it. Never do it for them if you can help it. No matter how old they are, it they are at least helping in the efforts to clean their room, it develops independence as well as a sense of accomplishment.

 

The main thing is to have a routine. I know just how to get started and when it is over. By developing this routine and doing it in a repetitive way that I come to expect, it gives me a great satisfaction when it is all over, the house is clean for a while and I know that next time, I will do it again.

 

If I just cleaned whenever I felt that the house needed it, I could be cleaning all of the time and my work would never be done. I would find myself cleaning certain areas more than once while not touching other areas but every two to three months. The routine gives me a sense of accomplishment and also allows me to relax and not worry about cleaning again until the next week, unless something happens to interrupt the routine - like someone spilling something on the floor.

Routines are not just about cleaning your house, they are a way for you to maintain order and organization in your own life. In addition to cleaning, I also have a cooking routine. I plan out my meals when I go to the grocery store. By organizing your menu for the week and having an idea of what to cook, you not only save time, but save money. Eating out all of the time can be expensive and who wants to fret over what they are going to eat for dinner every night?

 

In addition to helping you with the house, routines will also help you when it comes to raising your children. Little kids thrive on routine. You know how important it is for babies to be fed regularly and changed. Babies thrive on routine as it gives them a sense of security. The same goes for children. I wouldn’t ever be too strict when it came to mapping out each second of their lives and never would them to live in an environment where they had no time to just play or be kids, but a healthy routine teaches them that there is a time and place for everything.

 

Set a bedtime early on for you and your kids. Before bed, have a routine for settling down. This was something that your children will look forward to every night. When they are younger, this is a good time to read to them and get them to enjoy reading. As they get older, begin to have them help read the books. This inspires a love of reading and allows a steady transition into them reading to you which then moves into them reading on their own. You are probably wondering how and why I moved on to this rabbit trail, but setting up routines that lead to your children being self efficient, will lead to you having more time to yourself later which leads to you having more time to organize your own thoughts and prepare for the next day.

 

People with dogs also know the value of routine. If you have a dog, the secret to getting it housebroken and becoming a well-behaved dog is routine. Dogs, like children, thrive on routine. Cats don’t care as they are in a world of their own, although it does matter to them that you regularly feed them, change their water and clean their litter box.

 

Kids and dogs, however, are not the only things that thrive on routine. Adults also feel a sense of comfort at enjoying routines. It does make them have a more organized life as well as a healthier life. If you go to bed the same time each night and wake in the morning at the same time, it is better for your body. If you watch a certain program on TV before you go to bed or read a certain amount of time, you will feel as though you have something to look forward to each night. Most of us all have an innate desire for some sort of structure in our lives.

Routines, however, are not etched in stone.

 

There are times when routines are broken. This happens now and then and you should not get anxious about it. Simply fall back into the routine when whatever situation drove you out of the routine has calmed down. For example, bedtime routine are going to get broken on many occasions such as holidays, parties, overnight trips and vacations. While you want to establish a routine that will make everyone feel more secure and yourself more organized, you also do not want to feel like you are running a boot camp. Becoming so rigid in your routine that you cannot alter it now and then will not make anyone feel more relaxed as you will be so worried about the routine that you skip things that break into your schedule.

 

So, while the secret of good organization is routine, it should not be one that is so rigid that it defeats the purpose and actually causes anxiety. Learn to try to stick with a routine as much as possible, but do not pop a vessel if something happens to upset the schedule. Just go with the flow and get back into the groove when you can. The routine should be a tool you use to stay organized, not a prison that confines you to a rigid schedule.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:.

What’s one thing that you would love to do before you die?

Cleaning Out Your Closets

 

OK, we’ve already talked in the last chapter a bit about cleaning out our closets. The two-boxes in the garage method is a good way to get rid of things that can be donated and those things that need to be tossed out. I have found that the same rules apply when you are getting rid of things in other closets, like utility closets or coat closets, etc.

 

The best way to clean out your closets for organization is to make sure that you are maximizing all of the space in your closet. If you have a basement, you can put up shelves and use containers for storage. If you have a small home, however, you may not have a lot of closet space and have to trim down what you decide to keep even further.

 

There are closet organizers that can help you keep your closets, not only more organized, but also give you more use of the space. When you look at the inside of an empty closet, you see that there is a lot more space than a traditional closet allots for. The shelves at the top, for example, are often used to toss up different items like sweaters and shirts. The poles hang clothes. Closet organizers can make more use of this space by installing shelves and even baskets in your closets so that they look neater. However you still have to clean out these spaces on a periodic basis otherwise you will find that the closet is filled with clutter, no matter how you hide it in drawers and baskets.

 

Cleaning out a traditional closet should take you about two hours. I have found that the easiest way to do this is to toss everything out of the closet and put it on the bed or the middle of the floor. Make sure that the closet is completely empty. Then start going through the items that you want and those that you no longer use. If you have clothes that you have not worn for two years or more, guess what? You’re probably not going to wear them again. The exception would be evening clothes that are still in style; these still fit you and you might be able to wear them again if you are invited to a wedding or a fancy occasion. Sentimental items should also be kept as well, but preserve it somehow. Don’t have it intermingled with the everyday items, making it so that you have to move it around to get what you want to wear.

 

Get rid of shoes that you no longer wear, have holes in them or are missing a mate. Once you are finished with your clothes and have sorted out what you want and what you want to get rid of, use the two boxes method to separate the good from the trash and then dispose of them accordingly.

 

You can do the same thing with any closet in your home. Once you have cleared out the items that you are keeping and place those back in the closet, you are then left with only the items that you are getting rid of. So you can then easily put those items that you are not keeping out without having to dig through it multiple times. I would try to do this twice a year, usually when the weather changes. The proverbial ‘Spring Cleaning’ and a Fall cleaning schedule is always good to have and get the entire family in on the act if possible. Even small children can help organize their toy chest and closet.

 

The same goes for the utility closet. Go through it once in a while and get rid of things that you no longer need. Think of your garage as a large utility closet. Again, I have found that the easiest way to get rid of clutter and junk in the closets is to empty them and then put everything back in, discarding things that you no longer want or will use. It makes it easier to find things that you really do need when you need them.

 

With your garage, pull the cars out to the curb or low enough in the driveway that you have space to pull things out. Don’t be surprised if you get total strangers walking up and rummaging because they think that you are having a garage sale though.

 

In addition to cleaning out closets, also go through your drawers. We all have at least one drawer in our house that holds a variety of all sorts of items. From batteries to coupons to instruction guides, we have everything stuffed in these drawers. Holding on to coupons that expired three years ago is a waste of space.

In the kitchen, think of the pantry as another closet you want to organize. Try to do this once a month or every time that you purchase new food items and make sure that everything is neat and all the empty boxes get tossed into the recycling bin.

 

Organizing your house is much more than just getting rid of the things that can be seen by visitors, it’s also the things that are hidden away in closets that are jammed with items that you haven’t worn in years or things you no longer need or can use. The hidden parts of the home, like under the bed, under the sinks and anywhere else things have an ability to accumulate if left unchecked must also be organized in order for you to have a truly organized home.

 

By doing this, you make more room for when you acquire new things and you also feel better when you need to open your closets or drawers as everything is much more neatly displayed. It gives you a more relaxed feeling, not to mention much more space and a greater ability to find items that you may want to wear or use with much greater ease. Some may refer to this as home making zen.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

Ok, I have asked you what your really loved, now I ask; what do you hate? What thing out there is it that makes your blood boil just thinking about it (or him/her)? How can you change that emotion? Ok, so that was two questions in this one, but they go together and I know you can handle it.

Time Management - Time Is Money

Putting in 16-hour days trying to figure out how to develop and launch a new ministry, product or service is not uncommon for most people when first starting out. But do you really understand the value of your time? I initially didn’t, that’s for sure!

 

Ask any on the clock employee and they will tell you their time is worth $8.00, $12.00, $15.00 or whatever per hour. Hourly workers know the value of their time. Those who are successful commissioned sales personnel, know the value of their time, and successful salaried workers know the value of their time as well.

 

What about you? It's a different story for the minister! You definitely work more than eight hours, day and night, weekends, and holidays and then there is the occasional counseling thrown in just to make sure that you don’t have too much down time. If it's a passion of yours then it is even more challenging to figure out the value of your time. This isn’t even getting into the whole feeling guilty because you are contemplating actually placing a value to your time because you are minister.

 

Maybe you don't know the value of your time. Trust me, many people in your position don't, so you are not alone. But knowing the value of your time will help you manage your scheduled and make better decisions.

 

To figure this out take your monthly salary and divide it into your total hours worked. It's not a perfect calculation because it doesn't account for the hours that you spend thinking and it doesn't account for your personal expenses, but you are busy enough that a general estimated calculation should provide you with enough information. Now that you have the hourly wage, divide that by 60 to give you an approximate idea of what your minute is worth.

 

For most new ministers the value of their time will be just a few dollars an hour, or even less. Don't feel bad if that is the case with you, it will rise quickly once you learn what works and does not work.

 

Now you have a baseline from which you can measure your progress. Improvement in time value will be more objective and less subjective. Time Management is the key for improving your bottom line, and spending more time with people you love and not the book keeping and mundane that is often connected with heading up a ministry.

 

When the bible speaks about stewardship, money is just one thing that we are to be good stewards with, yet most people stop there when talking about stewardship. Time is our greatest and most precious asset.  Time is the great equalizer of all us human beings.  Why then do we not recognize and treat it with the respect it deserves?

 

Whether you are rich, poor, healthy, ill, or just humming along in your life somewhere in between, we all have only 24 hours in each and every day to invest wisely.  We often spend a great deal of time and energy thinking and worrying about, or working to earn and pursuing the more trivial things in life.  However, while we are doing that, sometimes we are missing the greatest gift of all - our time to experience the life that we are each given.  A wise teacher once said to me, "You can always get more money but you can never buy more time."   Good point!

 

We constantly take note of how we invest our money, but how often do we consciously think about how we invest our time?  I consciously use the word invest because the way we choose to spend out time is truly an investment in our lives and ourselves. 

 

Based on my observations over the last several decades, however, you would never guess the true value of this time commodity by the way people act and speak.

 

First, let's look at the common ways people dishonor time with their actions.  Do any of these choices look familiar?

- Spending ‘hours’ in front of the TV.

- Sacrificing a healthy amount of regular sleep in an attempt to steal more time. (You may be awake for more hours, however being in a fog and loaded up on caffeine does not translate into quality or "more time".)

- Working ineffectively and/or spending so much time at a job that you have in effect handed over your life to someone else. 

- Existing in a state of stressed out or burned out.

- Spending hours aimlessly surfing the internet or endlessly communicating on social media sites for the sake of doing it, which leads me to the next one.

- Participating in gossip or the rumor mill.

 

Now, let's take a look at the language we use when we discuss our precious friend, time.  Do any of these comments look familiar?

 

- I wish it were Friday already! (Usually spoken from a Monday through Thursday point of view)

- I'm just wasting time; or, this is a waste of time.

- I have some time to ‘kill’

- I'll get to enjoy my time when I retire.

- I'm just counting the hours until the end of the day, or the days until the weekend, retirement, etc.

 

So, how often do you wish away your life? How often do you let time simply pass you by?

 

While it may sound cliché, the phrase Carpe Diem has a great deal of merit.  It means, seize the day. I can still remember my first real experience with this term when Robin Williams challenged his young students in the movie Dead Poet's Society to do just that - seize the day.  He used it as a call to arms where every student in his class should make each day a day that was truly explored and lived to it’s fullest.

 

Where Does the Time Go?

A Challenge for You

 

Do you know where all your time goes each day? What parts of your life are most important to you?  Are those the parts of your life that receive the greatest amount of your time and attention?  Or, do you find yourself doing the same things today that you did yesterday simply because that is what you did the day before that?

 

For the next month, take stock of where your time and your life go.  At the end of each day, write down the number of hours spent in each of the main areas of your life.  An example of what those main categories might look like could be:

 

Areas of My Life     

Physical Health & Well-Being              

Primary Relationship, Spouse, Significant Other              

Friends, Family, Children, Relationships               

Career/Work               

Finances and Money            

Physical Surroundings (home, work, etc.)                

Spirituality (connecting with a power greater than yourself)                      

Fun and Relaxation                   

Making a Difference in your Community and the World                    

 

 

After the month passes, total up the hours spent in each category and take the calculation that you came up with earlier and multiply the number you came up with to the number in each category. Now reflect back on how you spent your time.  Did "reality" surprise you? Or, was it what you expected? Did you spend or invest? How does the way you invest your time on a daily basis make you feel?  Is it in alignment with your values and what you really want from your life?

 

Take some time to take stock in how you invest your most precious asset - time.  Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one. Carpe Diem.

 

I have one more for you in this short series on time management. Keep an eye out for it, I will have something special for you.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

What would be the biggest impact from achieving your goals?

 

Time Management - Pareto’s Law

Time management is an efficient tool of performing the tasks within a given time limit. In this context, Vilfredo Pareto found a law i.e., 80-20 law.

 

The origin of the 80/20 rule

 

The law finds its roots in the year 1906. Vilfredo Pareto was working on finding the explanation to the economic disparities in the world. His theory had many takers and backed by various experts of that era.

 

Meaning:

This 80-20 rule lays emphasis on the lesser of anything. It says that the greater portion of anything is usually the least important. As Pareto’s findings state, there is a small group (20%) who owns a major share (80%) of world’s wealth. As per the law, the most significant are less in quantity. And what is in ample amount is generally the least significant.

 

Detailed Analysis

The time and the task management ensure that this theory fits perfectly in any condition. The stress is on the need to manage the few. This significant part would ensure the attainment of the larger part. This could be well interpretive in the super star theory. According to which efforts must be directed to manage the 20% to achieve 80%.

 

Obviously, this is in overly intellectual speak, so in layman’s terms, if you concentrate most of your efforts on the 20% and spend less time on the 80% then the 20% will lead to the 80% getting taken care of.

 

Steps To Adopt the Theory

This law, as it pertains to time management, can be applied in day-to-day life. You do have to take these points into account though for it to work:

 

1: Avoiding Useless Tasks.

 

The most important part of time management is to avoid tasks that take up a lot of time with little to show for it. This is general chat on social media sites when you have a project with a deadline due, surfing the internet while supposedly typing up a proposal, etc.

 

2: Foresight.

 

While planning, the tasks must be selected diligently so as to ensure secure future returns. As today’s solutions have definite impact on tomorrow’s outcome.

 

3: Keep an Eye on Highly Valued Task.

 

The overall efforts must be streamlined in order to concentrate on the most important 20%. If you work in this way over a period of time, the outcome can’t help but become beneficial.

 

Time management works on this 80-20 principle. Maybe not exactly, but close enough that if you try to concentrate on the most important actions first, you will find that things are getting done and you are having more time in the day to work on the other 80%.

 

Keep an eye out for my next installment in this series when we discuss time and money.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

 

By now, you have at least one goal that you are working on for the new year, so in what way could you make this goal (or all of your goals for that matter) more specific or measurable?

Organize, Organize, Organize!

When you go on a diet, are you “good” every single day?  If you blow your diet by going out one night, do you give up on your goal?  The answer (hopefully) is ‘no.’ Likewise, if your goal is to get a master’s degree in theology and you haven’t done anything about it today, do you give up on your goal?  The answer (again, hopefully) is ‘no.’ Most people focus too much on the long-term goals or too much time on the day-to-day tasks and ignoring the long term all together. They expect the long term things in their life to work themselves out.  The truth is that you must focus most of your concentrations on the in-between, look past the day-to-day tasks, but not get overwhelmed with the long-term goal. Concentrate on the intermediate goals that need to take place in order to accomplish the long-term goals.

 

Think about how you walk.  If you can physically do this exercise, then try it. If not, then just imagine yourself walking. Only walk by looking down at each step you take.  You have been walking for so long now that you may not stumble, but you will certainly lose track of exactly where you’re headed.  Now, try to walk by looking at a destination far off; you might reach your goal if you don’t fall down the stairs or get hit by a car as you cross the street!  To walk effectively, you must look forward – not a mile forward, but just a few steps ahead. It is vital that you treat your goals and the effective use of your time the same way that you walk.

 

To effectively achieve your long-term goals, you must first break them down into intermediate goals, goals that can be reasonably achieved in a week, couple of weeks, a month, etc.

 

You will want to keep a detailed monthly calendar. This will allow you to see your goals in print. Day Timer has a two page calendar system that you can get that allows you to keep track of goals, journal your progress and break down tasks. I like physically applying my goals to paper; something about writing it down makes it more solid in my mind. I also can physically mark a line through it, so that I can still see it, but I know it is finished, which gives me a since of accomplishment. If you are, however, so inclined to be a part of the modern world and take things digital, there are numerous digital calendars out there. I personally like Google Calendar myself. You will also want to keep track of appointments, meetings, and other business action items on this monthly calendar as well; this will enable you to quickly see how packed or free any specific week will be.

 

Daily Planning

 

Having long-term and intermediate goals are the first two steps to “managing time.”  The third step is to ACT!  As the saying goes, “The longest journey begins with the first step.”

 

Many people – all with good intentions – ignore the realities of the day when they first start integrating their intermediate goals in their daily regimen.  They forget that they have meetings they’re supposed to attend, job commitments they’re expected to fulfill, and other things that pull at their available time.  As a result, they become frustrated with their lack of progress on their goals and become angry about the things like work and/or family obligations that are taking up all their time.

 

Here are 3 steps to take that will help you to organize your schedule better, so take a few minutes each morning to plan your day like this:

 

1. Identify your appointments, meetings, and other business action items.

 

Your first step in planning your day is to transfer appointments and other business action items from the monthly calendar into the daily calendar (most digital calendars will do this for you automatically).  These are the non-discretionary things that  you have already made commitments to do. 

 

2. Plan your daily duties.

 

Your second step is to plan your daily duties such as phone calls, mail, inbox items, etc.  These are activities that are less defined than action items but still require a portion of your day.  By planning these duties, you allot time for them without letting them drive your entire day. Many people find themselves answering emails up to 4 and 5 times a day. Let’s not even get to how much time is sucked away by social media sites.

 

3. Make appointments with yourself.

 

Your third step is to ‘make appointments with yourself’ by identifying which intermediate steps you wish to tackle today.  Transfer these discretionary activities (intermediate steps) from your Goal Planning page.  This makes discretionary items non-discretionary by the simple act of recording the item in the daily plan.  You move the future into the present so you can act upon it now!

 

By simply taking more control of your daily schedule, you will find that you have gained more control over your time. Here are just a few more tips to help you “manage time” and achieve long-term success:

 

• Limit the number of activities you plan for a day.  Commit to, and complete, a few activities rather than over committing yourself. This will lead to frustration, irritation, and self-deprecation when you miss a targeted goal.

 

• Make a habit of planning for 15 minutes every day. I generally suggest that you take 15 minutes the night before to plan the next day’s activities.

 

• Do your priority items first.  Period.  Include a quiet time with absolutely no distractions in order to accomplish your top priority for the day.

 

• Take a long-range view of your commitments.  Does your calendar fill up quickly?  Should it?  Space your non-discretionary time carefully week to week. Just because you can squeeze another project in, doesn’t always mean that you should.

 

• Take a medium-range view when planning time for your intermediate steps. “What is the number one thing that I can do THIS WEEK that would have significant and positive results in my department, career, and/or personal life?”

 

• Use your time management system to keep important information such as your department, career, and personal goals and intermediate steps; your appointments, business action items, and other commitments; as well as your contacts; this will give you your entire day at your fingertips.

 

Next time I want to discuss Pareto’s law (the 80/20 rule) as it applies to time management. Talk to you then.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

What are three things that you are doing regularly that doesn’t support or serve you? In other words, what are three things that you selflessly do for others on a regular basis?

Time is a Unique Resource

 

Time management is not about squeezing more into a day or eliminating distractions.  It’s about managing activities to achieve goals.  This article shows you how.

How many times have you thought or said, “There just isn’t enough time in the day.”  Reality is that when we say this, we are actually saying, “I just don’t have the ability to organize my time wisely enough to account for all I need to do.” 

 

By taking a brief look at time, you will see that I am correct in what I am saying.

 

Time is a unique resource.  It cannot be saved, stopped, or replaced.  In fact, it is the only resource that can never be regained once it is spent.  This then makes it interesting to see that not very many people actually organize their day out better..  Some people seem to be able to manage the time they are given better than others and are subsequently able to make better use time.

 

The real fact of the matter is, these people cannot ‘find time’ or even manage time any more than the rest of us.  Time cannot be “managed” or “found”.  We all have the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month, and a year.

 

24 hours in a day

168 hours in a week

8,736 hours in a year

 

With the current average life expectancy for a man being 76 and women being around 81, figure out how many hours you approximately have left in your life?  Take a minute to calculate the time.  Now look back at your life spent so far and compare the amount of accomplishments you have achieved in the time you’ve already lived with the goals you want to achieve in the time you have left.  Are you pleased with where you are? What about the time you have left, are you focused on how you will spend your remaining years? What are your goals and how have you planned the achievement of those goals?

 

Ask yourself how you can use the remaining time to accomplish job, career, and personal goals that are meaningful for you.  Ask yourself, “What is the one thing I can do TODAY that would have significant and positive results in my department, career, or personal life?”

 

Truth… managing time isn’t about time at all; it’s about managing priorities.  It’s about those achievements that are most important to you when all is said and done.  It’s about setting achievable goals and using a set and proven methodology for achieving those goals amidst the many forces out there vying for your time each and every hour of each and every day.

 

Align Your Goals With Outside Forces

 

Have you ever started a diet around the holidays?  Unless you opted to go to a health camp for the holidays, you probably succumbed to the many temptations of holiday treats and foods that seem to show up and stick around during these times.  The fact that no one else around you seemed to be on a diet didn’t help matters much either!  In short, your goal of losing weight wasn’t aligned with the realities of the time frame in which you started.

 

The same is true of any goals or objectives.  Goals are easier to achieve if they are aligned with ‘outside forces’ or what’s going on around you.  As an example, if your professional goal is to organize a missions trip to another country but that particular country is looking at reducing or halting the amount of missions-based groups it is giving visas to, your goal is not aligned with the outside forces of the country and you will have a challenge meeting your goal.

 

Furthermore, if your goals ARE NOT aligned with that country’s goal and you try to force the issue, you may be seen as a malcontent or a troublemaker and not only guarantee your visa application revoked, but others as well.  If your goals ARE aligned with country’s goals, you are seen as being in support of their decision and your team is seen as a contributing force willing to work within their guidelines and you are more likely to have your visa go through at a later date.

 

Ask yourself, “Will the achievement of my goals help others achieve their goals?”  If your goals MIGHT NOT align with the goals of those around you, you may wish to revisit your goal.

 

Anchor Your Goals to Inside Forces

 

It’s also important that you have your goals anchored to your inner forces or values.  If you don’t value the achievement of your goal, or the achievement of your goal goes against your core values and principles, your goal will be difficult to achieve because self-sabotage will kick in.

Ask yourself, “Will the achievement of this goal reinforce who I am as a person, leader, minister, or person?”  If your goal does not reinforce who you are, you may need to revise your goal or change it all together.

 

Link Your Goals With Other(s’) Goals

 

As alluded to earlier, achieving a goal is easier if it is linked to another goal that you have or to another person’s goal. You may find that several of your goals may link together nicely; by working on one, you can easily work on several.  Even more powerful is linking your goal to another person’s goal.

 

Ask yourself, “Who else might benefit from the achievement of this goal?”  Discuss your goal with this person to see if there’s a possibility of working on mutually beneficial goals (win/win situations).

 

By aligning, anchoring, and linking our goals, they become easier to achieve.

To quote Zig Ziglar, “You can get everything out of life you want, if you help enough people get what they want.

 

Next time I will discuss in more detail, ways to better organize your day to help eliminate wasted minutes, which add up to, wasted hours. Join me.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

In a previous post I asked about what you wanted more of in life, so now I am asking, What do you want less of in life?