Archive for the ‘Time Management’ Category
June 11th
Dumb Little Man is a site dedicated to providing “a handful of tips that will save you money, increase your productivity, or just keep you sane.”
Tired of dealing with endless emails every day? Does emailing back and forth seem to be most of your job now? This article will help you cut it back.
Here are a few other tips:
- Call instead of email.
- Check your email early in the morning, at noon, just before you leave the office. Try not to check during the rest of the day - leave it for work, meetings, socializing in person.
- Be brief in your email.
- If you use a Quo Vadis Agenda Planning Diary, you can note your priority emails for the week in the dashboard box or in Daily Notes. Take care of them first.
June 9th
In addition to more space for Sundays, a reader (and student) from New York City recently suggested that we add more time slots between 10-12 PM, when college students in particular are often still busy and scheduling plans. What do you think—could you use these extra hours? Let us know in the comments!
June 6th
Are you going on vacation this summer? Will your kids be traveling solo, or going away to camp? If so, you might want to check out Forms4Parents.com, a website created by New York based lawyer (and mom) Linda Kagan that can help you organize your child’s and your summer travel. Here, Linda talks about what you’ll need to get ready:
Summer is here. Our children will begin to travel with grandparents, on their own or with a teen travel organization, and likely to other countries.
To make the experience better for our children (and those daring enough to travel with them), it’s best to make sure the proper travel and medical forms are in place. That way, you’ll know that you won’t be called on suddenly to sign a medical authorization, and that your children won’t be stopped at the border because a notarized authorization is not in hand.
The key is having comprehensive information about your children’s doctors, allergies, medicines, special needs, insurance, etc. on the forms that will accompany your children as they (or you) travel. In addition, it always helps to have the family rules clearly outlined for your children and their brave caregivers to minimize the endless negotiations about which tv shows, computer games, bedtimes, chores they can watch and must do. You should also provide contact information for each parent.
To make it easier, I created a website that allows parents to create necessary travel, medical and other types of authorizations, as well as a Family Rules form, online in a matter of minutes. It’s called Forms4Parents.com, and it’s dedicated to helping you organize your child’s and your summer travel.
Happy travels!
June 4th
In college, as they say, you learn the skills you need for the rest of your life… here are some great time management tips for students that were brought to our attention by a reader:
• Write things down. With so much going on it’s hard to remember every little thing you have to do — unless you write it down of course. Get a student planner or a notebook to take down all your important engagements, assignments and more.
• Stay organized. You’ll save yourself loads of time later by staying organized from the get-go. Instead of having to hunt around for notes, assignments and misplaced papers, keeping them all in one place makes studying and doing homework easier and less stressful.
• Focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking may seem like a good idea, but really you’ll get more done by focusing your energy on one task at a time. Once you’ve finished one thing you can check it off your list and move onto the next.
You can read the full list at this website… I dare say some of it’s useful to us non-students, too!
May 29th
In a comment to Karen’s post about the ABP1, one of our readers asked for advice on how to manage forward planning with a day-per-page calendar format. Since both Karen and I use weekly planners, we don’t have many suggestions. Perhaps someone else can help?
What do you think? How do you manage your week when you take things one day at a time?
May 28th
Should workplaces be “pet-friendly?” Would you be a happier, more productive employee if you could bring your dog to work?
Advocates say a pet-friendly workplace is a cost-free benefit to help employees maintain a life-work balance. Allowing pets at work helps reduce stress and boost morale, as employees take a break from the computer to play with one of the office dogs. And, when a dog starts wagging their tail you know at least someone is happy to see you!
On the flip side, people who don’t like animals, don’t want to brush hair off their clothes and furniture, and don’t want to endure endless begging for a piece of their lunch, or find their garbage has been nosed through thoroughly are less than thrilled with the idea of animals in the workplace.
Pet-friendly policies vary by company, but they usually include several basic components: the needs of people who have allergies or don’t want to work near animals should be accommodated; pets must be kept on a leash or under control; pets must be housebroken, and employees must clean up after their pet outside.
What do you think?
May 19th
I depend on my little Sapa X to help me organize my work-week, but when it comes to weekend planning, I don’t tend to do much more than jot down notes about parties and social engagements.
Many of our readers, however—students in particular—have requested more space for Sundays. Since we just got another email to this effect, I thought I’d reiterate a comment I posted here last fall… There’s good news for Sunday planners: Quo Vadis’s sister company, Exacompta, is currently in the process of finalizing a new format called the Horizon 7, which has a full seven days’ worth of planning space (8 am - 9 pm), a daily contact area, and space for more notes on each page. It’ll be introduced in the 2009 calendar year, so you don’t have to wait much longer!
May 13th
This morning at Slate, the editors tackle a topic that’s near to everyone’s hearts with a special report on procrastination. (Of course I read the whole thing before I started composing this post.)
My favorite piece: Emily Yoffe’s tale about trying to use online support groups and self-help books to stop procrastinating. Yoffe sounds like a woman after my own heart; “For me,” she writes, “Small tasks—getting the dry cleaning, checking the downspouts—have a way of inflating like helium, floating the day away.” Here’s her attempt to understand the psychology of procrastination:
Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University… divides us into two general behavior types: arousal procrastinators and avoidance procrastinators. Arousal procrastinators seek the excitement and pumping stress hormones of having to finish everything under duress. (I’m this type.) Avoidance procrastinators make their work the measure of their self-worth and so end up putting it off out of fear. (I’m this type, too.) I talked to Ferrari and discovered that after 20 years of studying us, his sympathy is wearing thin. “I don’t understand this, why they’re consistently like this. I don’t like cutting the grass, but I do it.”
In the end, the best advice comes from her 12-year-old daughter—stop taking so many breaks, and stop making excuses for yourself. Easier said than done, of course, but never mind…
May 12th
The Farm in Southold, NY uses the Stella Natura calendar. The Farm’s crops are bountiful, delicious and healthy. Last summer, when overabundant rains compromised many other farmers’ and gardeners’ tomatoes (including mine!), The Farm had a great crop.
The Stella Natura is a biodynamic agricultural calendar that had its beginnings with Austrian philosopher-educator Rudolf Steiner in 1924. Sherry Wildfeuer popularized an English language edition, and has edited the calendar for the last 32 years.
Biodynamics is a holistic system of agriculture whose practices are designed to harness the forces of the sun, moon, planets and stars and focus them on the earth and its plants. Its both an ancient and modern practice of preparation and cultivation.
The calendar is meant to be used with common sense and an eye to the weather. The charts can assist you in choosing optimum times to sow seeds, transplant, cultivate your crops and harvest them for storage.
May 9th
Did you know that the average person thinks around 60,000 thoughts each day? (Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but never mind.) According to Sharon Melnick, clinical psychologist and life coach, the key to success and accomplishment is to make sure those thoughts are directed positively, towards your goals. On her blog, she recently wrote about how to let go of things you obsess over.
The situation unfolded the way it did. That’s now a fact. But when you explain to yourself why it happened that way, you have made the situation to be a confirmation of a long held belief you have about yourself (e.g. I am not good enough; I’ll always be a “B+” kind of player; I’m a loser”, etc.)
To start moving forward, what you want to do is start to trace “what it means about YOU” that the situation happened the way it did. Write down on a piece of paper the explanation(s) you tell yourself for why the situation happened this way. With each answer you give, dig a little deeper to answer the question “and what does that mean about me?” This analysis will lead you to the root of what is making you ‘hold onto’ the situation. You want to see if you can come up with a personalized meaning that confirms your deepest fear or doubt about yourself.
The next step, of course, is to analyze the problem more objectively and stop blaming yourself… Easier said than done, of course, but that’s no different from most good advice.
