time management – Personal Growth Cafe

July 4, 2018January 8, 2018

Find More Time with These 9 Time Management Strategies

In this day and age, we all just seem to get busier and busier. How many times have you said to yourself, “I wish there were more hours in the day?”

Is there some magic formula that can help you get more done each day? No, of course not!

But there are specific things you can do that will help you become more organized and efficient.

In return, you’ll get more time to do the things you always wish you had time for.

Not everyone has the natural ability to get organized and, for some of us, it takes a serious amount of effort and a lot of trial and error to develop organizational skills.

If you’re one of those who weren’t born with the instinctive sense of organization and time management, here are some tips to help you find more time in your day.

If one doesn’t work, simply try another until you find the ones that fit best with your personality and lifestyle.

1. Plan & Schedule Your Day

This seems rather simple, but seeing everything on paper can help you feel in control.

Instead of letting an entire day get away from you and feeling like you’ve accomplished nothing, planning will put some order and structure into your day.

Use a family calendar or personal planner to organize your errands and appointments.

2. Write a Daily To-Do List

Put the most important tasks at the top of your list and get them done first, that way there’s no last minute rushing around.

The majority of your time and energy should be spent on accomplishing these important tasks.

Keep your lists a reasonable length so you’ll feel productive crossing off completed tasks.

3. Don’t Waste Time on Nonessential Tasks

As humans, our tendency is to do the easy jobs first, but these quick and simple jobs may not be as necessary as you once thought.

Before setting your mind to do something, ask yourself “Will this help me reach my ultimate goals or will it keep me from them?”

Cut down your time on unimportant tasks and use those minutes to do something fun for yourself.

4. Delegate Tasks

Delegation isn’t about “passing the buck,” it’s realizing that you can’t do everything by yourself. There is nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it.

Delegate chores to your family or hire professionals.

5. Break Large Tasks Down into Smaller Jobs

This will prevent you from getting overwhelmed. Just focus on each small job, one at a time, instead of trying to paint the whole canvas at once.

Need to reorganize your kitchen or basement? Start in one little corner and focus your attention there until it’s clean and organized.

6. Limit Distractions

I know this can be hard, but if at all possible turn off the phone and close your email program. Simply focus on the task at hand without constant interruptions.

Schedule your most important tasks at a time that offers the fewest disruptions.

7. Live a Healthy Lifestyle

This may seem out of place in this list, but studies show that people who eat right, exercise and get plenty of sleep have more energy to accomplish more during the day. The quality of your work will also improve when you feel healthy.

You don’t need to start a strict training regimen to regain your energy. You’ll see changes quickly by just making simple dietary changes and walking everyday.

8. Take Breaks

When you start to feel too stressed out, get up and take a little walk or do some stretches. When you’re stressed about something your energy isn’t being used on productive work. Instead you become scattered and un-focused.

A well-timed break can actually help you do more in a shorter amount of time.

9. Keep a diary of how you spend your time for several days.

By simply writing down how you spend the minutes in your day, you can re-evaluate the way you do things. Maybe there’s a way you can cut some minutes here and there to allow more flexibility in your schedule.

Effective time management is a key principle to a less stressful life.

Making some simple changes in the way you manage your time can have a huge impact on your overall well-being. So go get started!

How can effective time management impact your daily activities?

What are things you are unable to do because you feel you lack the time to do it?

Talk about that in the Personal Growth Cafe Community!

Also, as your gift for taking this to heart – and this is profoundly important… to us ALL – go to UnitingPlanetEarth.com/ignition/ and do the Uniting Planet Earth 7-Day Quick-Start Ignition Program… and Allow it to Transform Your Life.

Before you leave…

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July 19, 2012July 19, 2012

Improving Your Time Management Skills

Strengthening your time management skills is always a good idea no matter what your current skill level is. Life is always moving and changing, and you’ll want to keep up with the latest time management techniques.

Evaluate Your Current Skills

A good place to start is by identifying your current time management effectiveness. When you struggle to get things done, what do you think the cause is? When you successfully manage your time, what do you do differently? If you know what to work on, that’s half the battle right there.

For instance, you might have good time management in your home life, but lack the ability to get your tasks done at work. Since you’d like to improve your skills at work, you can go further by figuring out the reasons why your work projects don’t go as quickly as planned.

Is it because other people are getting in the way of your completing your work? If so, you can strengthen your communication skills too, so everyone works together more effectively. Maybe you’re just bored with your job. If that’s the case, you’ll want to find ways to fight the boredom and motivate yourself.

Better Time Management

Try these techniques to strengthen your time management skills:

1. Avoid procrastination. If you make a habit of procrastinating, you’re just wasting precious time. Ask yourself why you’re putting things off, and try to tackle the root problem. When you do, you’ll get back on track in no time.

* It’s possible that you’re expecting too much out of yourself and feel overwhelmed. It’s okay, and even more productive, to take breaks and make time to relax. Then, when it’s time to work, you’ll feel refreshed and motivated to get the job done.

2. Get organized. It’s easy to waste time if you can’t find things, or if you aren’t sure what task you’re supposed to be working on at the time. Organize your workspace and eliminate clutter. Then move on to keeping checklists and goal sheets, enabling you to use your time more effectively.

3. Set deadlines. It’s always a good idea to start your projects with a time goal in mind. Without a clear goal, you might give yourself a week to complete a task that should’ve only taken a day. Set attainable deadlines and then stick to them.

* Schedule your time to maximize your productivity while still remaining relaxed and happy. Avoid stressing yourself out with unattainable deadlines, or you’ll run the risk of burnout.

4. Learn to delegate. When it’s appropriate, delegate certain tasks in order to save yourself time for things that you must do on your own. At work, this might mean passing out jobs to your employees or colleagues. At home, this may mean sharing tasks with your spouse or assigning chores to your children.

5. Have a daily to-do list. At the beginning of each day, make a to-do list and plan the tasks that you hope to accomplish. Keep flexibility in mind, because plans might change.

* Cross off the items as you complete them. In doing so, you’ll be motivated to finish the rest.

* Choose a ranking system where you prioritize which items on the list should be completed first. You might want to start off your day with the most important ones, or establish momentum with some quick, easy tasks. Find something that fits your personal style.

If you have the will to change, you’ll be able to strengthen your time management skills. Practice these strategies each day and soon you’ll be a master at time management.

July 18, 2012

“Relaxing with a Mental PDA” Your 5 minutes daily program to 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 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. 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.

July 17, 2012

The Key to a Better Life

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.

June 27, 2012July 3, 2012

Speed Reading for the Rest of Us

Wouldn’t you love to dramatically increase the speed at which you read and comprehend? Imagine how many more books you could get through or how much time you could save!

Speed-reading isn’t some magical process. Instead, it’s largely good habits coupled with effort. Nearly everyone can increase his reading speed to over 1,000 words per minute when reading content of average difficulty.

If you want to learn to read faster, you’re in the right place. But before you get started, you should measure your current reading speed. You can only assess your improvement if you know where you started.

Grab a book that’s of average difficulty for you, set a timer for 5 minutes and read. When the timer goes off, count the number of words you read and divide by 5. That’s how many words per minute you read currently.

Techniques for Speed-Reading

1. Cultivate chunking.Chunking is the idea of reading more than one word at a time. Slower readers tend to read one word at a time, while fast readers can read 5 or more words per glance. So someone reading 5+ words per glance is only looking at 2 or 3 spots per line of text.

• Obviously, this is much faster than reading a single word, moving your eyes, reading another word, moving your eyes, and so on.

• How do you get better at chunking?Start with two words at once, then move up to three words, and continue in this manner. This technique is more of a habit than anything else. With a little practice, you’ll be reading several words at a glance.

2. Avoid sub-vocalization: This occurs when you say to yourself the word that you’re reading. It can be silent (in your head), or you may actually move your lips as if you’re saying the word very quietly. This is very slow, and interferes with speed-reading; the average person can process words in their mind much more quickly than they can speak.

3. Keep an eye on yourself.Slower readers tend to have undisciplined eye movements. They are all over the page:they backtrack and re-read the same words, and they tend to lose their spot. This is simply bad habits and poor concentration. Good reading speed requires intent and focus. Force yourself to concentrate and keep moving forward.

4. Set your intention.One of the best ways to learn to speed read is to simply read faster. Even though at first you’ll be reading slightly beyond your ability to comprehend the reading material, pushing yourself trains your eyes and brain to work at a higher rate.

• If you’re pushing yourself to 1,000 words per minute regularly, when you fall back to 800 words per minute, you’ll feel like reading is a piece of cake! Just keep pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.

5. Regularly measure yourself.Once a week, measure yourself to see where you stand. Keep in mind that some books are tougher to read than others. Be sure you’re comparing apples to apples.

Speed-reading is really just a collection of good reading habits, intention, and concentration. Anyone can dramatically improve the rate at which they read. Start practicing today and you’ll read faster in no time.

June 27, 2012July 4, 2012

Planning an Inspiring Summer

As the seasons change, we tend to reflect on how we’veprogressed the past few months and what we’d like to do now.Would you like to feel motivated to learn new things,do something interesting andaccomplish worthwhile goals? You can use this summer to bring these desires to life!

How will you ignite your passions as the weather heats up?

Explore these ideas for planning your most inspiring summer ever:

1. Take a personal inventory.Think about what you want and need in your life right now. Do you desire closer relationships? Perhaps you want to develop knowledge in a particular subject area. Maybe the one thing you seek most is more adventure in your life. This summer is a good time to try these things out.

• For example, if you’ve been working a lot of overtime, maybe you’ll conclude that what you really need is more quality time with family and some fun in your life. Think about what’s missing emotionally for you right now and promise yourself to include it in your life this summer.

2. Ask yourself, “What do I really want to do?”Make a list of the short-term and long-term goals you wish to accomplish. This is the time for some serious soul-searching. When making your list, decide whether to focus most on your professional or personal life.

• If it’s a personal list, you might include items like, “Keep my cool when dealing with my teenagers” and “Exercisefive times a week.”However, plans such as, “Save for a trip to Italy next year” and “Walk a section of the Appalachian Trail in September” might also appear. Consider this list your short-term bucket list.

• On your professional list, list entries like, “Research topic X” or “Complete a quarterly report on my achievements for the boss.” Also, “Resolve negative feelings toward Jane Doe at work” and “Talk with my manager about taking on Project B” may appear.

• When writing your professional list, keep in mind that your ultimate goals are to ignite deeper interests, resolve troubling issues, and promote your work life this summer.

3. Discuss summer schedules now. For many, becoming inspired will involve other people. Tell your spouse or friends that you’re planning a summer that will be stimulating, motivating and full of accomplishments. Share your intentions. Listen to their ideas.

• If you’ve got a close friend, they might want to jump on board to plan their own inspiring summer along with you and share some of your activities, too.

• Schedule time with people you learn from and admire. After all, getting inspired is a spiritual journey you take with the help of others.

4. Plan a trip this summer.Speaking of journeys, even if it’s only a long weekend, nothing inspires us like seeing brand new sights. When you travel, your mind is removed from the more mundane tasks of everyday life. You’re physically and spiritually transported to a place where everything is new and different.

• Maybe you’ll outline that novel you’ve always wanted to write or create a master financial plan for the next 20 years. Taking a vacation will invigorate your thinking and deepen your interests in new people, places and things.

5. Select three short-term goals to accomplish by summer’s end. Clip them from the list. Stick them on your refrigerator. Place a second copy on your bathroom mirror. Stash them in your car. Gear up to achieve success.

If you take time to assess what you want and how you intend to get there, you’ll experience one of your most inspiring summers ever. Don’t delay! Start today to plan your bestsummer ever.

June 24, 2012July 4, 2012

Deepen Your Relationship by Having Fun Together

Although maintaining your own sense of individuality in your relationship is important, enjoying time you spend together is the glue that holds your relationship together. Most people want to be around those they have fun with. Keeping the good feelings flowing strengthens the loving bonds you have and draws you closer.

Having a good laugh, sharing a new experience, and being spontaneous build a relationship that’s enjoyable as well as enduring. Make it a goal each day to bring fun into your relationship.

Try these ideas to infuse more merriment into your time together:

1. Plan a day to play hooky together. Schedule a day to take off from work and other tasks. Re-discover the love and frolic in your relationship by spending the entire day alone together. Behave as if you don’t have anything else to do but look into each other’s eyes.

2. During holidays, do fun, silly things together. Take advantage of unique opportunities to enjoy some levity and good times. Dress up for Halloween as Brangelina or Lucy and Desi. On Independence Day, plan to wear red, white and blue and serve only foods at your cook-out that are red, white or blue.

• Sharing silliness enhances the emotional intimacy so important to love relationships.

3. Have a picnic. Pack food and beverages and take off to a nearby park. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate feast – just something simple for lunch that you can munch on while talking and savoring the wonders of nature. Having such picnics once a month or so as long as the weather permits will encourage you to share special feelings.

4. Rediscover your playful side. Hold hands when you’re shopping or taking a walk. Share a joke at dinner.

• Laugh out loud. Who doesn’t feel drawn to a person that makes them laugh and laughs with them? Remember when you used to play games together when you first started dating?

• Have a Canasta tournament. Get out the Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit board game and delight in a new pastime.

5. Schedule a special dinner to discuss next year’s vacation. What a way to share special feelings of excitement and anticipation! If you’re planning a trip to Mexico, dine at a Mexican restaurant. Do everything you can to make your vacation planning talks special and pleasurable. You’ll feel even more drawn to one another as vacation time approaches.

6. Avoid television one evening weekly. When you refrain from watching television just one evening a week, it can open up so many possibilities to bond and have fun. Discuss how you could spend this extra time together. You’ll discover more about what your partner enjoys.

7. Play your favorite music and dance. You’ve probably got an MP3 loaded with music you love. Turn it on and dance together. Most people find dancing to be one of the most physically intimate, fun activities to do together. You’ll definitely connect emotionally when you dance.

8. Experience occasional intellectual pursuits together. A spirited discussion about something in the news will expand your minds while you delight in sharing your opinions with one another. You’ll learn something about your partner and maybe even be inspired.

As you focus on taking pleasure in your partner’s company, think about how you’re forging strong connections and truly listening to the love of your life. Ensuring you have fun together will deepen your relationship in more ways than you can imagine.

June 24, 2012July 3, 2012

5 Strategies to Enjoy Your Free Time

Free time is good for the soul. Your best opportunity to re-charge your emotional batteries is to take advantage of those precious non-work hours.

Depending on how you spend it, free time allows you to truly express who you are and who you strive to be. You’ll feel at peace and content with your life when you begin to utilize non-work time doing the activities you love.

Try these tips on how to use your free time to your best advantage:

1. Ask yourself, “What do I really long to do?” Make a list. Include simple and complex projects and activities you’ve always wanted to do.

• Your list might have items on it like “do yoga 3 times a week, ” “watch those DVDs I bought 6 months ago,” “read at least one novel a month,” or “spend 2 hours making a scrapbook from last year’s vacation photos.” What makes your heart sing?

2. Take a look at your calendar. It’s good to get a visual of how much free time you have in a given week. It can be exhilarating to realize you have 20 hours of free time each week. When does most of your free time occur? In the evenings from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.? Or only on the weekends? Or both?

• If you use a paper calendar, highlight the time blocks when your free time will happen in the coming week. You’ll feel a little excited and happy when you do this step. It just feels great to know you’ve got some “me time” coming.

3. Plan desired activities by writing them into your schedule. It might be unusual for you to consider using your calendar to “schedule” free time. However, if it’s written in the calendar, you’re more likely to follow through.

• For example, you might reserve 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Tuesday to read a novel. From 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. you could schedule “work on vacation scrapbook.” From 9:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., maybe it’s “call my sister in TN.”

• It’s not necessary to schedule every unscheduled bit of time you have. However, if it’s written into your schedule, it will be a great reminder for you to begin doing many of the things you long to do. You’ll get focused and feel more fulfilled once you start doing the activities you choose.

4. Gather necessary supplies for favored activities in advance. You’ll be prepared to jump right in if you already have the supplies you need. Use shoe boxes or plastic bins to store supplies so everything will be at the ready when free time rolls around.

5. Regularly update your list of desired activities. This is the wonderful thing about enjoying free time: you have free rein to change your mind and develop new, exciting interests at your whim. Life is incredibly enriching when you realize you can spend spare time taking part in activities you find stimulating, interesting, or just plain fun.

To feel content and develop a real enjoyment of life, use spare moments to your best advantage. Do every single thing you desire. Enrich your life by enjoying your free time!