Time Management Self Improvement

You’re trying too much aren’t you? Trying to accomplish too many projects and tasks at once; too many ideas and directions to go. You’re like the runner at the start line trying to run in all directions at once. It’s exhausting you mentally and physically and the frustration builds daily as you look at one more idea on the Internet, one more product that might be “the thing” you’re in need of.

You know what you need to do. In fact, you know hundreds of things you need to do. That’s not the problem. Deep down you know what you need to be doing and not doing in order to succeed, but somehow you are still sitting there going around in circles and feeling more and more frustrated by the day. Why is this? Why the lack of action and progress even when realizing full well that this type of behavior will not get you to where you want to be.

There are many reasons of course, and if you were to stop and think for a bit and were to type out your answers, you’d quickly uncover enough reasons to get you started back on the course of progress. Actually, I suggest you do take time out from your currently entrenched routine and consciously focus on this for a few minutes. If you prefer typing, you can do this while typing in your word processor, or if you prefer pen and paper, you could take a notebook out to somewhere where you could think and focus; perhaps somewhere where you don’t often go so that the experience will be refreshing.

Maintaining perspective is one of the most important things you can do to ensure overall long term progress toward the success goals you’ve set for yourself. This perspective is easily lost when we maintain the same routine and visit the same places, people, and things. Have you ever noticed how energized you feel after getting away for a few days from home? You come back perhaps tired from the trip, but you feel exhilarated and not bound by your typical surroundings. In fact, you probably feel like your typical environs are somewhat stagnant and stale and in need of a refresh.

This is a positive sign that your excursion was beneficial to your perspective and necessary to reenergize you and bring back your emotional “buy-in” to your long term goals. If you had merely sat in place in your usual spot doing the same thing, you probably would have spent many more hours there and not progressed much if at all. But having gotten away for a bit helped you to reset and reengage your end vision while temporarily forgetting the intermediate tasks; thereby letting you come back to the table fresh and able to immediately see the next steps you must take. This is what makes it possible for you to then make quick progress; quicker than if you had not taken that perspective break.

Once refreshed and having gained some perspective you can then begin consciously deciding on what you will focus on. You must come to a couple of mental decisions at this point:

1. You can only go as fast as YOU can go. E.g. you can only do so many things at once and in a finite period of time. If you try to exceed your personal capabilities you will only end up with a few predictable results. More than likely you’ll end up with many or all tasks being completed in a poor manner. You’ll be frustrated and tired. Or worst of all possible outcomes, you’ll be out of balance in life and burned out. These are not the desired end results you desire.

2. Decide now that trying to do too much is the recipe for substandard results and failure and that a conscious decision to select only those goals and activities that matter most and can be done best are what you will personally handle. If there are other necessary tasks required that you are not best at or that would burn you out trying to accomplish, that you will outsource them so you can focus on your core strengths.

Once you’ve narrowed down to these few tasks and set these decisions in your mind, reinforce the decision with the belief that “less is more”. E.g. quality of results is much more important than quantity of results. Focusing on a few key tasks and doing them well is much more rewarding and inspiring than spreading yourself thin and taking too many actions that bear results close to zero. Build deep as they say not wide.

Trying to do it all will ensure you have none.

© Copyright 2006 David Marcotte all rights reserved

Dave Marcotte runs http://www.fastresponsemarketing.com , a marketing company designed to uncover and share the most efficient and effective methods to market and profit online. Be sure to stop by and share your insights while he shares with you new and insightful strategies related to Internet and viral marketing. Results are what count!

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All great achievers, all successful people, are those who have been able to gain control over their time. It has been said that all human beings have been created equal in one respect; each person has been given 24 hours each day.

We need to choose to give our best time to our most challenging situation. It’s not how much we do that matters; its how much we get done. We should choose to watch our time, not our watch. One of the best timesavers is the ability to say no. Not saying no when you should is one of the biggest wastes of time you will ever experience.

Don’t spend a dollar’s worth of time for ten cent’s worth of results.

Make sure to take care of the vulnerable times in your days. These vulnerable times are the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. I have heard a minister say that what a person is like at midnight when he is all alone reveals that person’s true self.

Never allow yourself to say, “I could be doing big things if I weren’t so busy doing small things!” Take control of your time. The greater control you exercise over your time, the greater freedom you will experience in your life. The psalmist prayed, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom (Ps. 90:12).

People are always saying, “I’d give anything to be able to…” There is a basic leadership principle that says, “6×1=6.” If you want to write a book, learn to play a musical instrument, become a better tennis player, or do anything else important, then you should devote one hour a day, six days a week, to a project. Sooner than you think, what you desire will become a reality. There are not many things a person cannot accomplish in 312 hours a year!

Remember the future arrives an hour at a time. Gain control of your time, and you will gain control of your life.

- John Mason, from the book An Enemy Called Average (Want to purchase this book? Go to http://www.freshword.com/resources)

John Mason is a national best-selling author, nationally recognized speaker and book coach. You can visit his site at http://www.freshword.com/signup to receive this nugget and ones just like it in your email inbox every week. Very inspiring!

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Balancing a busy personal and professional life is quite a challenge. Trying to keep current, whether that is with technology, your industry, changing expectations at work, or simply meeting your personal obligations, is becoming harder and harder. More than ever, managing time well is a key skill. Time is most precious and limited resource one has. In spite of best efforts, time is unyielding no one can stop it; slow it down or save it. It is the rare person who has enough time to do all the things that he or she wants to do. For some reason, we keep adding just one more thing and forget to eliminate others.

Considering how important goals are rember goal-setting is not taught in schools one have to make it .First own. The biggest dreamers and most successful people in sports, the arts, business or science started with a dream, a driving purpose and inspiring vision.

Big-picture dreams are wonderful things as they inspire and excite, but left alone they rarely create. Turn your dreams, intentions, and desires into firm, achievable goals. Specific, measurable, realistic plans are the building blocks to living your dreams. Goals do make it easier to stay on track and stand firm temptations that may sidetrack you in directions you do not wish to go. www.acting-international.com Plan yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily, the secret to successful planning is to allow extra time for unexpected situations and not over-book one self. Establish priorities on your activities so that at the end of each day, you have done the most important things. Planning long projects by breaking them down into bite-sized pieces will help you dedicate a few minutes each day to important high-value activities that carry future due dates. By getting ahead on projects, you are less likely to have last-minute crises and time crunches.

Beware of creeping bad habits that can incapacitate your best efforts. Recognize subconscious patterns that can make one own worst enemy. Whether it is trying to keep everything in one head or making a list, being constantly late because one wanted to do just one more thing before leaving for the meeting or being easily distracted, one can change habits. Keep one job in front of you at a time. There is a fantasy that people multi-task. Actually, what people do is one task interrupted by another. It is nearly impossible to do two things equally well, concurrently. www.property-in-majorca.com The best way to save time is not to speed up and attempt to stuff more and more into a crowded schedule. The best way to do more is to do less. Saying no and delegating more are two important strategies. Saying no will allow www.mcsweb.in one to say yes to ones priorities and to participate fully when you volunteer. Eliminate unnecessary and inappropriate activities. Those can creep in if you do not pay attention. Identify those areas of greatest stress, and begin to make changes. A continual high-stress high-rush style can cause health problems like sleep and interpersonal difficulties. Rarely does delay improve the quality of the choice. Over-analysis can be seductive and also stress producing. Keep in mind that nearly all decisions must be made with imperfect information.

The application of time management skills has tended, in the past, to be thought of as something that is for business life only. Though, time management is something from which we can all benefit in our personal lives as well, and in the art of marrying our working lives with our home and social lives.
Those benefits show in a number of ways, including health, well being and satisfaction with our lives overall. Manage your time well, and you can feel in control of your life, rather than letting events control you. There is no single method of time management, either in business or personal life. However, there are various time management tips and techniques, practices and theories which it is worth knowing about.

Acquiring time management skills is something we can set about doing in a methodical way. Really, we all practice time management whether we know it or not. It is more a matter of whether we do it well.

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