As an Organizer, I work under the presumption that each client and each client’s issues are unique. Thus, every project I undertake is basically a “start from scratch” process. And just like the best cooking, starting from scratch always yields the best results.
Nonetheless, there are some standard rules, diagnostics and processes that I use and/or suggest to almost all of my clients. One of my favorites is based on the theme of 80/20.
There are three variations on the theme of 80/20.
First, it is said that “eighty percent of success is just showing up.” This leads to the conclusion that the other twenty percent of success is knowing what to do when you get there. This is a pleasant thought. You need only be one-fifth prepared and as long as you catch the right bus, you’ll be successful.
The second variation on 80/20 is that “twenty percent of your efforts will produce eighty percent of your results.” Thus, if a person could review the remaining eighty percent of their efforts and determine which of those efforts produced the other twenty percent of results they could eliminate a great amount of wasted work. This would significantly increase free-time and ultimately increase the quality of the person’s life.
Inspired by these two variations, I created the third variation. I call it the “80/20 List.” Simply, the “80/20 List” helps you determine what you really should be doing with your time. This is a highly effective tool, especially when combined with weekly schedule planning.
To create an “80/20 List,” either grab some paper and a pen or open up a spreadsheet program on your computer.
First, write down everything you want to do. It can be something as simple as emailing a friend, buying some new clothes, or reading a book, all the way up to learning photography, buying a new home or starting a new business venture. Whatever you want to do, need to do, or dream to do, write it down.
Now, with the understanding that “twenty percent of your efforts will produce eighty percent of your results” begin to separate your list. Create two columns, one entitled “20” and the other entitled “80.”
In the “20” column, first put everything you must do. If you have commitments with a deadline that must be met or responsibilities that cannot be put off, put those items in this column. After that is done, take a good long look at the rest of your list. Ask yourself: “What on this list is truly and immediately important to me?” This is not to say that anything else isn’t
important, it’s just not as immediately important. Once you’ve determined these items, place them in the “20” column. If you really have a problem focusing in on what is immediately important, don’t be afraid to ask family, friends or coworkers. The “80/20 List” is not a secret to be kept. The more people who know about it, the more compelled you’ll feel to keep in line with it. When first using the “80/20 List” the more leverage you can use on yourself the better.
Now that you’ve chosen your items for the “20” column, everything else goes into the “80” column. Remember, you’re “20” column should have significantly less (think a ratio of 1:4) items in it than your “80” column.
Next, take your “20” column and prioritize it. Give everything in the column a value of 1 (most important) through 10 (least important). Obviously, you can have multiple items with the same value, especially if you have more than ten items in the column. Put the items in order of priority and Voila! You have a to-do list that is customized and prioritized to you and your life.
Repeat this process for the “80” column. As you accomplish things from your “20” column, cross them off and move the top item from the “80” column over to the bottom of the “20” column. Now you will never have to question how to use your time or feel that you’re puttering around unfocused.
An additional benefit of the “80/20 List” is time to decide how serious you really are. If items sit in the “80” column and never seem to make it over to the “20” side, you’re probably not very serious about pursuing them. Make sure you periodically review your list and ask yourself if there are any items that really don’t mean much to you anymore. After all, life is change.
This list is your focus. This list is your desires prioritized by you for you. Live by this list. Combine it into your weekly schedule and watch the quality of your work time, family time and play time grow faster than you ever imagined.
Do it for yourself and the ones you love. Do it for your dreams. Do it now!
And remember: Live each day with the passion of it being your last and the wonderment of it being your first.
© 2005 Erik Luhrs
Erik Luhrs is an Organizational & Business Optimization Consultant, Professional Speaker, Author, and Founder of Progressive Organizing™ Systems. For more information and to sign up for a FREE Time Management System visit: http://www.progressiveorganizing.com
Work more efficiently and be more productive using these time-management tips:
- Use a timer.
Pick one item on your to-do list, set your timer for 15 minutes and get to work. Don’t worry about finishing, just get started. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and get nothing done at all. Tackling tasks in small chunks helps you stay focused. - Delegate.
Don’t be afraid to enlist the help of others to complete projects that are time consuming or monotonous. Whether you have to hire a professional or your 10-year old son, do it. - Set goals.
It’s much easier to get something done if you know exactly what it is you’re working toward. Set long-term goals first and then determine the short-term goals that will serve as stepping stones toward the larger goal. - Sort mail immediately.
Mail can quickly become beastly, taking over every nook and cranny. When you get your mail each day, open it directly over the garbage can. Most likely, the bulk of it can be dropped right in. For the rest, determine what action needs to be taken and deal with it appropriately. - Make an appointment with yourself.
Schedule at least one hour each day for “catch up” tasks such as work overflow, returning phone calls, answering emailsetc. If you pencil time into your calendar, you’re less likely to let the mundane (but necessary) tasks pile up.
- Become friends with your voice mail.
Don’t be a slave to the phone. It really is OK to let voice mail get it once in a while. - Have an assembly line mentality.
Complete like tasks together such as returning phone calls, answering email, sending out invoices etc. You’ll be much more productive. - Work when you’re most alert.
Figure out your most productive time of day and set your work schedule accordingly. - Use checklists.
For tasks that must be completed on a regular basis, make and keep simple checklists to ensure you don’t overlook important steps in the process. - Give everything a place.
Don’t waste your time trying to find things that seemed to have disappeared. Organize your workspace so that every item has a home. It’ll make locating and storing items a snap. - Be prepared.
Reserve 5 minutes at the end of each day to review your schedule for the next. That way, you’ll have no surprises.
Amy Andrews is the owner of SimplyComplete.com, where businesses & individuals hand off their “got-to-dos” so they can focus on their “want-to-dos.”
Post a project for FREE!
To work smarter all you need is the consciousness of the present. This is possible only when you cast off your emotional bindings, this helps you relieve your prejudice. This is key to work smart. This combined with your “common-sense” completes the puzzle to work smart! I know it is hard to believe that these factors will help you work smart. Try for yourself, the next time you get angry over a shoddy work of your sub-ordinate.
Well, did it work out? Hope it did… if not just mail back, will share my 2 cents 
Now you have started to orient yourself to work smart. Now you need to equip yourself to handle critical situations, which will be take the rest of my blog…
R u lost?
Well, this is the most critical problem.
This means that you do not have a goal. You go along trails of the passing wind. “Any wave is good for a ship that does not know its destination” Take a break and fix this first!!! Set goals for your life, personal as well as professional. This will give you the drive to live your life. btw dont’ get too serious with your goal, just enjoy life as it comes. [another coffee-toffee argument ]
R u busy?
Everybody has 24 Hrs, all you can do is prioritize and perform your duties. It is an balancing act, which comes out of experience.
R u managing?
R u delegating?
R u fixing problems or in a rote?
R u negotiating?
It is pretty late, need to head out to work. More to come in the subsequent posts…
-Ramesh-
In his book, The Future of Success, former Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich rails about how everyone–and he means EVERYONE–can be found struggling today to do more, be more, cram more in. For workers this means embracing the belief they cannot stop for a moment’s rest at their jobs for fear of ending up getting downsized away. For parents this means a 17-year-plus commitment to make sure their kids all make it into college (and that said bills get paid), and for kids themselves it means squeezing in all those extras so vital to their future, like soccer, music lessons, 2nd and/or 3rd language classes, extra-credit homework.
The result of this, Reich asserts, has been that each one of us, no matter what our station in life, no longer has time to smell bagels, let alone coffee or the flowers. We have “no time, no poetry, no realizations in (our) lives.” What we do sniff, he adds, is the “smell of resignation.” Among young people, this means tuning out the whole scene and virtually bagging the idea of success. Among many adults, it makes for a mid-life crisis questioning whatever success has heretofore been achieved. . Is Reich correct? Are we as a society in fact now so time-squeezed that our “vital” work/school pressures threaten to devour us whole? Worse, perhaps they’ve already devoured us… and we don’t even realize it!
Various studies of late have borne this out, of course: The typical number of hours worked on the job today compares unfavorably with the same time-measurement 20, 30 or 40 years ago. This finding seems to get borne out
in survey after survey and industry after industry, again and again. The great long-voiced promise that technology will free us up for personal development, leisure, fun, etc., shortening our workweeks, and make work itself on the job so much easier, apparently had come to land with a deafening thud.
It’s an old adage that rings true particularly well here: Work expands to fill the time. We humans got a knack for filling up our hours, no matter how many laborsaving devices we whip off the drawing board to afford us time to do “fun” things. Yet we keep filling such liberated hours with more drudge.
In the face of such an onslaught, how can we bring poetry back? Is Reich’s lament our inevitable sad, unstoppable song?
Fortunately, the solution is simple, simpler than at first meets the eye. Reverse the tide now by looking up from this page (now!) and gazing out your window. Yes, we’re talking daydream here. Right now. Now! Lose yourself. Be idle. Do… gasp!… nothing.
(Pause while you do so.)
(Pause again while you REALLY do so.)
OK, for that briefest moment, you took ownership of your time and your life. You probably made up a poem of some kind right there in that moment, whether you realized it or not. You absorbed some beauty, grasped it, felt its core.
You made time for poetry.
Ken Lizotte CMC is Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) of emerson consulting group inc. (Concord, MA), which transforms consultants, law firms, executives and companies into “thoughtleaders.” This article is an excerpt from his newest book “Beyond Reason: Questioning Assumptions of Everyday Life”.
Visit ==>www.thoughtleading.com for more info.
Time Management is a myth. You can’t manage time any more than you can manage the rising and setting sun or the pull of the ocean’s tides. Attempting to manage time is like attempting to manage the weather. Time marches on, with utter disregard for the comings and goings of mere humans. Time can not be managed, period.
You can only manage what you can control. While it’s true that time cannot be managed, it is possible to manage yourself within the confines of time. With discipline and diligence, any person can effectively manage him/herself within time’s boundaries.
Where Does It All Go?
The simplest way to begin to manage yourself within time is to evaluate how your time is currently spent. Keep a journal for one to two weeks, and mark down each activity (or lack thereof) to discover where your time goes. Group like activities into categories, and evaluate whether too much time is spent in a certain area. Consider which activities are productive and lead you closer to your goals, or further away from your goals.
By evaluating how time is spent, you will be able to see what activities can be trimmed or streamlined in order to create the illusion of more time. It’s impossible to create more time—each of us has only 60 seconds in each minute, 60 minutes in each hour and 24 hours in each day. By improving the way in which you spend your time, you are able to feel as though
you have more time during the day. This simple shift in thinking can create a remarkably empowering experience.
To decrease your frustration about time (or lack thereof), watch your language while referring to time and time-related matters. Avoid phrases like “I need more time,” “I don’t have enough time,” and “I’m running out of time.” When you use phrases like these, you are fooling yourself into thinking it’s Time’s fault instead of taking responsibility for how you choose to spend your time. Time is a fixed measurement and it’s not Time’s fault if you don’t manage it correctly. Remember, YOU are in control of how you spend your time.
How Much Time Have You Got?
Each of us is born with a finite amount of time on this earth. Unfortunately, no one alive can know the exact amount of time allotted for him or her. Would you live your life differently if you knew you were going to die 27 days from now? If you answered yes, you’ve got some room for improvement in the way you currently manage yourself within time. Get busy doing what really matters to you and remember that you are in control of how you choose to spend each minute of each day.
Amy Grant is the founder of New Success, a resource for people seeking success and balance. Find more articles, helpful tips, tricks, tools and techniques to help you manage stress, manage time and achieve ultimate success at http://www.newsuccess.org.
Work life balance is the new Holy Grail; that search for nirvana; the need to find peace and contentment, the desire to achieve that fine sense of equilibrium that we can be happy with.
For some people that means not working at all but, for many it means being happy with the amount of hours they spend at and think about work and are equally happy about their none working hours; whether that be time spent with family and friends or time spent participating in sports, music or other hobbies or indeed just relaxing doing nothing in particular except just being!
However, the achievement of this perfect balance seems to escape so many people and I believe that’s because the important things and I mean the truly important things, get overtaken by the urgent stuff! Of course important to you may be different than important to me, but I bet neither of us would wish the sum total of our lives to be an accumulation of the achievement of stuff, trivia and emails!
So many people say that vacation time is important yet they rarely take a vacation; so many people say their health and “keeping fit” is really important to them yet they rarely do any exercise and eat on the run most of the time; so many people say its really important to plan their time effectively yet they fire fight from day to day.
So what can you do to get one step closer to your particular version of a good
work life balance?
Put simply – decide what’s important in your life. Once you have really thought about that, the rest is easy.
If you say spending at least 2 hours a day with your family is really important to you then make it so. If you say making time each day to speak with each of your team members for 15 minutes is important then make it so. Other things may crop up that may seem important but most of the time the urgency of them is either determined by someone else or only appears more important because it is happening at that moment in time.
It is up to you to make a conscious choice about the importance or not of everything that shows up in your life be it at work or in your personal or social life.
Do you really want to get to the final years of your life, look back and say well I least I got all my emails done!
“Make decisions from the heart and use your head to make it work out.” Sir Girad
©2005 Beverley Hamilton About The AuthorBeverley Hamilton is the author of Take Control of Your Time: 7 Straight Shooter Strategies for Success. To learn more, subscribe to Quickstart her free ezine and get more tips, tools and articles visit at One Step Further
NOTE: You’re welcome to reprint this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered including the “about the author” information at the end.
Our society consists of all types of people with traditional beliefs, modern ways, structure, gender, roles, class, and occupations and so on. To create a time management scheme that works we have to consider many factors, since we are involved with other people all the time. Often our world has hidden messages, as well as obvious resources that help us to see where we are going with our plans.
The best solution then for setting up a time management scheme is finding out first if your goals are obtainable and what information is available that can help us to achieve our goals. When we set short and long-term goals, we have to include many factors into the scheme. For example, if you see your self in five years living in the beautiful state of Colorado on the mountain, in a log cabin.
What plans do you need to lay out that can help you reach this goal, and what actions do you need to take to reach this goal? It should be obvious that you will need financial resources to achieve this goal. Therefore, in your time management plans you will need to include a financial savings that will help you to achieve this goal in five years. Sometimes we can meet our five-year goals, so we may have to include setbacks in the plan and how we can divert another strategy to achieve our goal.
Financial obligations such as house payments, car payments, college tuitions, bills, and so on are obstacles and responsibilities that can delay our ability to achieve this goal. In your time management scheme you want to include budgeting then since if you want this goal you will have to make sacrifices.
Budgeting
IF you do not already have a car, and plan to purchase a car…do you need an expensive car? Expensive cars cost more for maintenance and often are just a mechanism for showy displays. Why not save yourself some expense and purchase a car that offers economical savings, as well as low maintenance costs. Insurance and car payments on expensive cars are also higher than economical cars.
If you are paying $700-$800 per month for a car payment, and making payments on high rated insurance polices, you are spending a thousand you ordinarily wouldn’t spend if you made a wiser decision. Since the system is diverse many of us try
to keep up with the ‘Smith and Jones,” failing to realize that we are who we are. In addition, if you have a home mortgage and paying $700 per month, is it possible you had the mortgage long enough that you could take out another loan that provides resources for vacation packages, lower interest rates, lower mortgage payments, overpayments or underpayment plans?
This will help you to repay your mortgage sooner if you make a wise decision and not jump into another commitment spontaneously. If you cut back on your expenses, you will see that you have more money to save for the short-term goal you planned in your time management strategy. If you are spending $150-$200 per month for groceries, is it possible you could buy cheaper produces and products to cut back on your spending? What about your selection or attire? Are you buying clothes to impress or to dress? There are many second-hand stores, rummages, and other sources that offer very nice looking clothes that are affordable.
If you don’t want second-hand, there are stores that offer low cost attire and often the garments are brand names. Don’t let this diverse world influence you to spend more than you make. If you are spending money on course to obtain a long-term goal, it is important to cut back on expenses since tuitions are often high. Then, we can see that sacrifices are a part of time management as much as realizing that we all are different and have our own budgets.
Unless you are a rich individual that can obtain your short and long-term goals right now, you will have to learn sacrificing traits in order to achieve your goals. Time is just as important as money, so if you are investing a lot of your time in sports and entertainment and not making money doing it, then you need to sit back and find a solution to increase your time on important areas that lead you to your goal, rather than wasting time.
© 2005 www.your-offical-guide.com; All Rights Reserved
Steve Hall is the owner of http://www.your-official-guide.com, your one-stop location for getting the information you are looking for on a wide ranging and ever-growing list of subjects.
Need to get more time? Try the Soundview Executive Book Summaries.
Learn to Manage Your Time Effectively ==>Click Here
Fact:
* There are 60 seconds in 1 minute
* There are 60 minutes in 1 hour
* There are 24 hours in 1 day
* There are 7 days in 1 week
* There are 365 days in 1 year (usually)
So what is the point of all this? The point is that time is a definite in life – there will never be more than 60 minutes in any given hour, never be more than 24 hours in a day. Therefore wishing that we had “more” time is fruitless … there will never be “more” time .. there will just be the time that already is.
“If you want time make time. You will never find time.”
If you have no time to exercise – make time.
If you have no time with your family – make time.
If you have no time to rest – make time.
Firstly, assess what is critical and what is not. We have a habit of treating everything in life as equally important when if truth were known half of it could wait another day or even a week!
Secondly, block out time in your diary for the things that you need to make time for. Lock them in as if they are a business meeting and treat them with the same amount of respect … essentially you have a meeting with yourself!
Do you struggle to have quality
time with your spouse? Create a “sacred night” to ensure quality time together even when you are at your busiest. Mutually agree on one night a week that is 100% for you as a couple to share. Don’t work late that night, don’t make plans with friends (unless you both agree to), and don’t do chores. It may sound regimented to have to schedule time for a relationship but it is very effective. When life is at it’s most hectic that is exactly when you need to make time for those you love.
Time may be a definite in life but how much time you get in your life is not. Make time for the things that are important to you and don’t waste time on all the stuff that is not.
Linda Anderson is a Certified Professional Coach working with Small Business Owners and Professionals in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Linda helps her clients succeed in business and in life by creating strategies to overcome their obstacles to success. In 2002 Linda and her partner sold all their belongings, hit “pause” on their respective careers, and spent 365 days traveling the world. Linda brings this passion for challenge, new experiences and adventure to her coaching.Visit Linda at http://www.a2acoaching.com
Need some inspiration? Sign up for a free weekly email http://www.a2acoaching.com/inspirations.html
Do you need to get more hours in the day? If you’re the sort of person who plans Christmas like a military operation you may already have everything well under control. If you’re not so good at managing your time then here are a few tips to help.
Daily Planning. Spend the first 10-15 minutes every day planning your tasks and actions for the day. What do you need to complete this week to keep you on track? When are you going to do these? Plan the time in your diary. Book out an appointment with yourself for specific projects. Break large tasks into smaller more manageable chunks.
One diary. Whether it’s paper-based, electronic or on your computer – keep all your personal and business appointments in one place – that way you won’t forget important dates, children’s activities, school events, social gatherings etc.
Prioritise. What must get done today? What else needs to be done? Doing the important tasks first can avoid them becoming urgent later on. Be realistic about what you can achieve each day – don’t set yourself up with a massive to-do list and only do a few things. Start small and build from success. Be aware of ‘time-wasters’.
Delegate. Do you really need to do everything? Who else could help you out? Give the job to someone else to do – cleaning, gardening, paperwork. Assign tasks to other family members or work colleagues. If you can’t afford to pay someone to do the work for you, what could you do in exchange?
Avoid interruptions. Sometimes we’d have so much more time if we didn’t get interrupted. If you have work
to do and need some undisturbed time – switch off the phone, ignore the incoming emails. If you’re at work, book a meeting room and lock yourself away for a couple of hours. If you can – work from home for the day.
Give yourself a break. Make sure you plan breaks into your day – even if it’s just a few minutes. You will be fresher and better able to concentrate. Get up and stretch, take a few deep breaths, get yourself a drink. Take a proper lunch break – you deserve it!
Learn to say No. Eager to please and to be seen to be helpful, we often take on things we’d rather not do or don’t really have time for. Learning to say No can be useful to stop getting overwhelmed or feeling guilty. Be clear and direct. Your time is yours, you are entitled to a say in how you spend it. Don’t be misled by other people’s expectations – whether that’s family, friends or your boss.
Reward yourself. Don’t forget to reward yourself at the end of a busy and productive day or when you’ve completed a particular project. Include it in your plan – how will you treat yourself?
Are you stuck in the day-to-day routine of work? Get organised, get a new perspective. Talk to Clare Evans today.
Clare works with individuals and small business owners to help them plan and organise their time more effectively. Learn how to prioritise, plan and delegate. Spend your time doing what matters and stop worrying about the things that don’t.
Sign-up for a free monthly newsletter at http://www.clareevans.co.uk and receive additional free tips on managing your time.
Unlimited Autoresponders: Unlimited Sales!
Can you imagine if you had to make every sale personally? If someone wanted your product at 2am you would need to get up and sell it to them? For many people they are not using the full resources of the net. I know for some they wanted to make money on the Internet because it offered a chance for more time with the family and less time working.
So, how are you getting more time with the family if you are on the computer all day long trying to get leads, capture leads and sell to them? How can you save time if you are constantly doing that? More importantly, when will you get worn so thin that you pull your hair out and quit. Are you spinning your wheels? Let me pull you out of the mud.
What you need is automation. That is a system in which you get leads, capture their contact information and sell to them. You can set up pages to capture guest’s information. These sites are called splash pages, landing pages, capture pages and squeeze pages. It is an eye appealing site, with only enough content to get an email address for your real offer.
After you have the contact email, how are you going to sell it to the prospect? The easiest way is to set up an autoresponder. This is a tireless salesman who will take those 2am calls for you. He can sell while you are sleeping, eating and even golfing. The neat
thing about the web is that you can get an unlimited number. You can tell the autoresponder when to mail your prospect, how often and what you want the prospect to know about you and your offer. This is like having a massive sales force working for you round the clock. Once you set it up you can work on just sending leads to your offer. That will cut your work in third. In my resource box you will see a site where you can get all of this at one stop.
How do you know if your autoresponder is working out? If the sales are not there you may need to change your pitch. What you need is an ad tracker. This is also available at that one stop shop. This tracker can tell you which autoresponders are working out and which ones may need a bit of tweaking. You can also get stats on when they opt out (after which letter). If they always leave after the third email, maybe you want to change that one.
One way to automate getting leads is to host an FFA page. This is where people link to your FFA (Free For All) page and then you send them a confirmation note with an offer for them. This is a good way to get extra leads. All of these processes can be automated and you can spend more time with the family, or generating leads other ways. Unlimited Autoresponders, unlimited salesmen, unlimited sales. Take it to the limit and push over.
Mike Allen
Get All the Tools mentioned above at http://www.trafficwave.net/members/mdallen