The right amount of sleep will help you be more productive. Entrepreneurs often think that if they are sleeping, that they are wasting precious time. Successful entrepreneurs know that sleep is what helps keep them successful. Sleep is your body's time to recharge. Here are our five steps to better sleep:
What are your tips and tricks for getting a good nights rest? Please share them with us by commenting.
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“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.” In a digital age it is easy to neglect the pen and paper for a keyboard or stylus and a computer. However, it is important to recognize the importance of writing things down. Here are 5 reasons you should write things down:
These are all reasons why we utilize a paper planner system. Time Managed isn't just a planner; our quarterly planners are a notebook and planner combined (with plenty of room for notes and mind mapping). “When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.” We have thought of some things that are not your traditional tips for effective time management. Time management is all about being more efficient in every day tasks. We would like to share these to encourage and motivate you in your daily tasks.
Have you ever had that great idea for something but no time to execute it? So you just let it sit there in your head; distracting you from the work at hand. We call that wasting time. New ideas pop into our head all the time and if we acting on them all, we would truly never get anything done. This is where "back burner" items come into play. Use the last page of notes in your planner as your "back burner" log. Write down those great ideas that you don't have time, or it's not a priority to execute. You may find that the "great" idea that you put on the back burner list wasn't such a great idea after all. You may go back to it when you have time and have even more improvements to the already great idea. The whole point of writing it down, even when you can't work on it, is to get it out of your head so you can focus on the task at hand. Don't let your thoughts distract you; get them out of your head. Keeping in line with the theme from our last post; there is no such thing as work/life balance. We want to share with you the P.R.I.O.R.I.T.I.E.S. wheel of fulfillment. We believe that you need to prioritize each of these facets and decide what areas you need to improve on in order to live a fulfilled life. So here is what the acronym stands for:
We suggest you rate yourself in each of these areas. 1 being worst and 10 being best. What steps do you need to take to get to a 10 in all of these categories. Side note: This assessment is what we base our custom project management and increasing productive capacity planner on! What would you say is your biggest distraction? Likely your biggest distraction has something to do with technology. Emails popping up. Facebook messages causing you to change browser tabs. Cell phone vibrating constantly with alerts. With every distraction you are losing valuable time and productivity. How do you manage your environment? If your desk looks anything like the one to the left then you are likely not even attempting to manage your environment at this point. Here are some tips to help you get started managing your environment:
**How to turn off automatic email updates on your iphone: http://email.about.com/od/iphonemailtips/qt/et_checking.htm "People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that are there. You have to pick carefully." -Steve Jobs Priorities Activity: Write down a list of your priorities. Now pick the top 8. Next write down the top 8 things that occupy your time in a week. Then write down the top 8 things you envy in others. Finally, eliminate 2 items at a time until you are left with 10. And those are the priorities you should focus on. Now that you know your priorities. How do we set boundaries? Some suggestions: time blocking, create a daily focus, and don't answer the phone just because it rings. Boundaries in 7 Steps:
Why we say yes...
ALL of these are FALSE BELIEFS! How to say no:
"No" Scripts "I can't commit to this as I have other priorities at the moment." "Now is not a good time as I am in the middle of something. How about we reconnect at (x) time?" "Let me think about it first and I'll get back to you." "This doesn't meet my needs right now, but I'll be sure to keep you in mind." "I'm not the best person to help on this. Why don't you try (x)?" The week after Christmas and before the New Year is the perfect time to reflect on what has happened in your personal life and business in the last year. What has gone right? What areas need improvement? The other part of these questions is what can you do in 2014 to make it the best year yet? Flip back through you planner... Have you been utilizing your time properly to achieve your goals and dreams? We encourage people to prepare and reflect before and after each meeting, before and after each day, week, month, quarter, and year! Now is the time to spend on your time management and goal setting plan for 2014. Success magazine had an article in the November 2013 issue about "tiny habits." The principle is worth teaching. The basics are:
The article also suggests breaking goals down into steps. For example, your goal is to run everyday; start the first day by just putting on your running close. On the second day put your running clothes and shoes on. On the third day put your running clothes and shoes on and step out the door. And so on, breaking it into small steps daily help to solidify the habit. Also, don't forget step 3, CELEBRATE IMMEDIATELY, our brains can't recognize when we wait too long to celebrate. By celebrating immediately we are rewarding the behavior in a way our brains recognize. Block out the time that you intend to use for social media; a lot of time can be wasted on this method of communication if you are not careful. We all know people who compulsively troll Facebook or Twitter. There are also those that spend hours on YouTube. Social media is a great place to market your business but it can also be a huge drain on your time. It is important to schedule the time you spend on these activities. For instance, blocking 15 minutes twice a day to review friends post and respond. Just like with email, if you are constantly checking it then you are wasting precious time. Schedule it and you will spend less time on it. Want to save time but be consistent with your posts? We recommend using Hootsuite. You can literally set up your posts for months at a time; and set them to go to multiple social media streams. Schedule life. Block time out for date night. Schedule time to cook dinner, do laundry, and play with your kids or pets. There are many urgent and important (not to be confused) tasks that we need to get done; but don't forget to live your life too. We like to even block time for social media and emails. It is important to focus on the task at hand and by blocking out your time you can do just that! |
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