Be A Better You: Time management

Showing posts with label Time management. Show all posts

Bring Innovation Into Your Life

Image by donjuanna via Flickr

By Michael Cobb
http://www.be-a-better-you.com

Bring Innovation Into Your Life

It's a talent that everyone has, yet they think they don't. The power of innovation. If you've ever marvelled at somebody's creative prowess, guess what, you can create and innovate too. It just takes time. Everyone is born creative. The box of crayons in kindergarten were not limited to those who possessed potential; because the truth is, everybody has potential.

You know how long it took to learn to ride a bike or drive or to never commit the same mistake again? It's the same with innovation. It takes a bit of practice and a lot of time before this mind function comes easily when called. This article will teach you a few tips on how to bring innovation into your life.

Don't listen to what other people say. Follow the beat of your own drum. Allowing for the input of other people will only bring cacophony to the music you are trying to make. If you have an original idea, don't waste your time and effort trying to make people understand. They won't. And the help you will probably get comes in the form of negative feedback. If all those geniuses listened to their peers, we would probably still be living in the middle ages.

Spend time on it. I cannot stress that enough, although, please do not mistake this tip to tell you to quit your day job entirely. Do not. This involves some tricky time management but with a little discipline you'll be able to squeeze both in.

Exercise. Take a walk. Run a mile or two. Send all those endorphins coursing through your veins. Exercising certainly clears and relaxes your mind and allows for anything to pop up.

Record your dreams. Aren't some of them just the craziest things that your conscious mind would never have thought of? If you've had these dreams before, and I'm sure have, this only shows you the untapped innovative power you have lying within. So jot down those notes. Those dreams may just create an innovative spark in you.

Find your own style. You can always tell a Van Gogh from a Matisse. You'll know Hemingway wrote something by the choice of words on the paper. So it is the same with you. People will appreciate your innovation more because it is uniquely yours and that no one else would have thought of what you were thinking. That will let people see how valuable an asset you are.

Don't hide behind nifty gadgets or tools. You don't need the most expensive set of paints to produce a masterpiece. The same way with writing. You don't need some expensive fountain pen and really smooth paper for a bestseller. In fact, J.K. Rowling wrote the first book of the Harry Potter Series on bits of tissue. So what if you've got an expensive SLR camera if you're a crappy photographer? Who cares if you've got a blinging laptop if you can't write at all? The artist actually reduces the number of tools he has as he gets better at his craft: he knows what works and what doesn't.

Nothing will work without passion. What wakes you up in the mornings? What keeps the flame burning? What is the one thing that you'll die if you don't do? Sometimes people with talent are overtaken by the people who want it more. Think the hare and the tortoise. Ellen Degeneres once said that if you're not doing something that you want to do, then you don't really want to do it. And that's true. Sometimes you just want something so bad you become a virtual unstoppable. And that is passion. Passion will keep you going.

Don't worry about inspiration. You can't force it; inspiration hits when you least expect it to, for those unpredictable yet inevitable moments you should prepare. An idea could strike you on the subway, yet alas, you poor unfortunate soul; you have no sheet of paper to scribble down a thought that could change the world. Avoid these disasters. Have a pen and paper within your arm's reach at all times.

I hope this article has helped you bring more innovation into your life. Keep in mind that you're doing these things for your own satisfaction and not anybody else's. But soon enough they will notice, and everything should snowball from there.

---------------------------------------------------
Article provided by Michael Cobb. Visit Michael's Self Help, Self Improvement, Motivation and Personal Growth website at http://www.be-a-better-you.com/articles or the Self Help, Self Improvement, Motivation and Personal Growth Blog at http://be-a-better-you.blogspot.com for more great articles, tips and resourses.
---------------------------------------------------
This article may be freely used and distributed in its original
form on the condition that the above resourse box (including
links) and this paragraph are left intact.
---------------------------------------------------

4 Key Elements to Effective Stress Management

Image by elycefeliz via Flickr

By Michael Cobb
http://www.be-a-better-you.com

4 Key Elements to Effective Stress Management

We all have this favorite expression when it comes to being stressed out, and I wouldn't bother naming all of them since it may also vary in different languages. But when it comes down to it, I think that it is how we work or even relax, for that matter that triggers stress. Ever been stressed even when you're well relaxed and bored? I know I have.

Since stress is unavoidable in life, it is important to find ways to decrease and prevent stressful incidents and decrease negative reactions to stress. Here are some of the things that can be done by just remembering it, since life is basically a routine to follow like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast. You can do a few of them in a longer span of time, but as they say-- every minute counts.

Managing time

Time management skills can allow you more time with your family and friends and possibly increase your performance and productivity. This will help reduce your stress.

To improve your time management:

· Save time by focusing and concentrating, delegating, and scheduling time for yourself.
· Keep a record of how you spend your time, including work, family, and leisure time.
· Prioritize your time by rating tasks by importance and urgency. Redirect your time to those activities that are important and meaningful to you.
· Manage your commitments by not over- or undercommitting. Don't commit to what is not important to you.
· Deal with procrastination by using a day planner, breaking large projects into smaller ones, and setting short-term deadlines.
· Examine your beliefs to reduce conflict between what you believe and what your life is like.
Build healthy coping strategies

It is important that you identify your coping strategies. One way to do this is by recording the stressful event, your reaction, and how you cope in a stress journal. With this information, you can work to change unhealthy coping strategies into healthy ones-those that help you focus on the positive and what you can change or control in your life.

Lifestyle

Some behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your stress level. They may not cause stress directly, but they can interfere with the ways your body seeks relief from stress. Try to:

· Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations.
· Have a sense of purpose in life.
· Get enough sleep, since your body recovers from the stresses of the day while you are sleeping.
· Eat a balanced diet for a nutritional defense against stress.
· Get moderate exercise throughout the week.
· Limit your consumption of alcohol.
· Don't smoke.

Social support

Social support is a major factor in how we experience stress. Social support is the positive support you receive from family, friends, and the community. It is the knowledge that you are cared for, loved, esteemed, and valued. More and more research indicates a strong relationship between social support and better mental and physical health.

Changing thinking

When an event triggers negative thoughts, you may experience fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness. These emotions trigger the body's stress, just as an actual threat does. Dealing with your negative thoughts and how you see things can help reduce stress.

· Thought-stopping helps you stop a negative thought to help eliminate stress.
· Disproving irrational thoughts helps you to avoid exaggerating the negative thought, anticipating the worst, and interpreting an event incorrectly.
· Problem solving helps you identify all aspects of a stressful event and find ways to deal with it.
· Changing your communication style helps you communicate in a way that makes your views known without making others feel put down, hostile, or intimidated. This reduces the stress that comes from poor communication. Use the assertiveness ladder to improve your communication style.

Even writers like me can get stressed even though we're just using our hands to do the talking, but having to sit for 7 or 8 hours is already stressful enough and have our own way to relieve stress. Whether you're the mail guy, the CEO, or probably the average working parent, stress is one unwanted visitor you would love to boot out of your homes, especially your life.

Time Management: The 80/20 Rule

By Michael Cobb
http://www.be-a-better-you.com

Time Management: The 80/20 Rule

Time management is basically about being focused. The Pareto Principle also known as the '80:20 Rule' states that 80% of efforts that are not time managed or unfocused generates only 20% of the desired output. However, 80% of the desired output can be generated using only 20% of a well time managed effort. Although the ratio '80:20' is only arbitrary, it is used to put emphasis on how much is lost or how much can be gained with time management.

Some people view time management as a list of rules that involves scheduling of appointments, goal settings, thorough planning, creating things to do lists and prioritizing. These are the core basics of time management that should be understood to develop an efficient personal time management skill. These basic skills can be fine tuned further to include the finer points of each skill that can give you that extra reserve to make the results you desire.

But there is more skills involved in time management than the core basics. Skills such as decision making, inherent abilities such as emotional intelligence and critical thinking are also essential to your personal growth.

Personal time management involves everything you do. No matter how big and no matter how small, everything counts. Each new knowledge you acquire, each new advice you consider, each new skill you develop should be taken into consideration.

Having a balanced life-style should be the key result in having personal time management. This is the main aspect that many practitioners of personal time management fail to grasp.

Time management is about getting results, not about being busy.

The six areas that personal time management seeks to improve in anyone's life are physical, intellectual, social, career, emotional and spiritual.

The physical aspect involves having a healthy body, less stress and fatigue.

The intellectual aspect involves learning and other mental growth activities.

The social aspect involves developing personal or intimate relations and being an active contributor to society.

The career aspect involves school and work.

The emotional aspect involves appropriate feelings and desires and manifesting them.

The spiritual aspect involves a personal quest for meaning.

Thoroughly planning and having a set of things to do list for each of the key areas may not be very practical, but determining which area in your life is not being giving enough attention is part of time management. Each area creates the whole you, if you are ignoring one area then you are ignoring an important part of yourself.

Personal time management should not be so daunting a task. It is a very sensible and reasonable approach in solving problems big or small.

A great way of learning time management and improving your personal life is to follow several basic activities.

One of them is to review your goals whether it be immediate or long-term goals often.

A way to do this is to keep a list that is always accessible to you.

Always determine which task is necessary or not necessary in achieving your goals and which activities are helping you maintain a balanced life style.

Each and everyone of us has a peek time and a time when we slow down, these are our natural cycles. We should be able to tell when to do the difficult tasks when we are the sharpest.

Learning to say "No". You actually see this advice often. Heed it even if it involves saying the word to family or friends.

Pat yourself at the back or just reward yourself in any manner for an effective time management result.

Try and get the cooperation from people around you who are actually benefiting from your efforts of time management.

Don't procrastinate. Attend to necessary things immediately.

Have a positive attitude and set yourself up for success. But be realistic in your approach in achieving your goals.

Have a record or journal of all your activities. This will help you get things in their proper perspective.

These are the few steps you initially take in becoming a well rounded individual.

As the say personal time management is the art and science of building a better life.

From the moment you integrate into your life time management skills, you have opened several options that can provide a broad spectrum of solutions to your personal growth. It also creates more doors for opportunities to knock on.

Two Proven Techniques that Successful People Do to Double or Triple Their Time in a Day

By Michael Cobb
http://www.be-a-better-you.com

Two Proven Techniques that Successful People Do to Double or Triple Their Time in a Day

They say that time is much more important than wealth. Most effective people think so. They know how to get more time in a day, and they have mastered the art of utilizing time effectively to do more productive things that contribute to their advancement or success. So how do they do it?

Proven Technique Number 1 - They delegate and assign simple routinary tasks to other people so that they can have more free time to do as they please.

This is very elementary but of great significance. If you have the money, hire people to do the housework, the repairing, and even some of your office jobs. Let others do the research. But of course, you have to reward them accordingly so they will get motivated to render their services again.

You can then focus on the more important things in life, like planning and managing your activities.

Proven Technique Number 2 - They plan seriously.

The less time you think you have, the more critical it is for you to plan. By planning carefully, you’ll be able to manage your time better and avoid costly mistakes that eat up much more of your time.

You might say that you’re so busy you don’t even have time to plan. Maybe you can insert some time planning while doing your other activities. The planning phase is very important in organizing your thoughts to carry out the desired effects.

You might say that this is boring stuff, but you should never underestimate this process. This is like a guideline to steer you into the right direction.

Your plan will be your road map. Spend enough time to ponder through the different approaches and activities, and you will soon realize that you can save a lot more time by doing this.

It will be best if you can choose a quiet place to make your plan.
Your mind can focus and think more clearly this way.

Every individual has his unique perception of a well-made plan. There are no specific rules in making it. But in case you're in a tight situation, let me give you some tips.

1. Write down your objective. This is a precise definition of your target.

2. Brainstorm the strategies & tactics you will employ to accomplish your objective.

3. Assess the advantages & disadvantages of carrying out those strategies & choose those tactics where the pros outweigh the cons.

4. Set a timeline or deadline in completing your mission.

5. Make modifications & back-up plans in case Plan A doesn't work.

6. As your plan evolves, you will gain experience. Learn from your mistakes.

Most important of all, don’t delay. Start applying what you have learned today, and have lots of great time!

Use Your Time Wisely!

By Michael Cobb
http://www.be-a-better-you.com

Use Your Time Wisely!

When I was small, I have never considered the importance of time.
I would just laze around, watch TV, lie in bed, and play video games. As I grew older, I thought about the things that I have achieved. To my surprise, I haven't accomplished a lot.

I resolved to myself that I will do things that will contribute to the benefit of mankind. I studied very hard and learned a lot of lessons from my experience. I lack self-confidence before, so I want to help other people overcome this predicament. I want to help anyone in need because it feels so good to solve other people's problems.

I urge you now to make the most use of your time. It may be joining a fundraising organization. You may also learn new skills or crafts. Create a goal and go for it!

Don't be a couch potato. Don't just sit around and be contented with the monotonous patterns of your daily activities.

Do something nice and give all your best to the fulfillment of a worthwhile endeavor. It will give you a very deep sense of happiness and satisfaction.

Some people complain that they don't have enough time to take action on their goals. They have to go to their 9 to 5 job, then when they go home they feel so tired all they can think about is watch TV, relax, and sleep.

I'm not saying that leisure is a no-no. In fact, everyone should take time out once in a while to recharge and revitalize their energy. The key is to have a balanced life. Set aside a fraction of your time to carry out your dreams and ambitions. Reserve some time to establish healthy relationships.

Ok, I hear you. You're saying that you really just can't budget your time?

Don't panic. Here are some time management tips.

1) If possible, do more than one thing at the same time.

Exercise while watching your favorite TV show. Listen to educational tapes while waiting for the bus.

Be forewarned! Never do this if it puts you at risk or in danger; for example, don't text while driving.

2) Don't do something later if it can be done concurrently with an activity at present.

If you're going to the market to buy some eggs, think of the other things that you have to purchase so that you don't have to return again.

If you have an appointment with the dentist today and you also have to go to the bank (which is near the dentist's clinic) at any day, schedule the two activities on the same day.

3) Be organized in everything that you do.

Put labels on bottles. Put similar files on one folder. Make a list of things you have to do for the day.

You can also use your mind to organize things you have to remember. Studies have shown that you could only retain information that fit between 5 to 9 categories at a time. This is the 7+-2 rule of Neurolinguistic Programming.

If you have many things to do, try to group related things together. You can combine activities such as reading books, listening to educational tapes, and watching training videos into a category such as "Education." Then you can group swimming, playing basketball, and paying fees for the gym in a category called "Fitness." Get the picture?

Time is one of our most valuable resources. Once lost, it can never be reclaimed. We must use time wisely for our development and advancement; so that when we are old, we can look back and recollect the pleasant memories and deeds that we have achieved. Time well spent is worth much more than gold.

Be A Better You

Categories

Bring Innovation Into Your Life

4 Key Elements to Effective Stress Management

Time Management: The 80/20 Rule

Two Proven Techniques that Successful People Do to Double or Triple Their Time in a Day

Use Your Time Wisely!

Search This Blog

Archives

Be A Better You

Categories

Bring Innovation Into Your Life

4 Key Elements to Effective Stress Management

Time Management: The 80/20 Rule

Two Proven Techniques that Successful People Do to Double or Triple Their Time in a Day

Use Your Time Wisely!

Search This Blog

Subscribe To

Archives