Dependencies on Others Can Derail Your Schedule

Humans are dependent on other humans in so many ways. Your schedule is no exception to the dependencies rule. Planning and scheduling tasks and appointments is an effective way to manage your time. However, planning and scheduling your tasks almost always depends on another person or persons.

When you make a doctor's appointment, you're dependent on the doctor and their staff to be available at the scheduled time. When you take off work to have a service performed at your home, you're dependent on that service provider to arrive at the scheduled time. You are dependent on these service providers to get the things done that you scheduled.

What happens when the people that you depend on are not available at your scheduled appointment time? Or if that service provider shows up late, or not at all? Those dependencies not only derail your schedule, but can cause a loss of income, and definitely causes, sometimes a significant amount of stress.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a car to replace my old car. Part of the deal was that they would have a sunroof installed at a later date. The dealership and I agreed on a day to drop off my car to have it installed so I scheduled the appointment. They were going to provide a rental car for me because it wouldn't be finished until the following day.

Since I didn't know how long it would take to drop off my car and get into a rental car, I didn't schedule anything that I absolutely had to get done that day. I was dependent on the people at the dealership and the rental car company to get these things done as scheduled.

The day came to drop off my car. Everything was going as planned. The service advisor checked in my car, which included giving him my insurance card and asked me to go to the waiting room and the rental car rep would be with me shortly. As I was waiting, I watched a little tv, checked my emails and played games on my phone. Time started to tick away - 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes... I hadn't heard from anyone.

After about 40 or so minutes, the rental car rep came to talk to me. Before he could put me in a rental car, he needed to verify that I had insurance. That required a phone call to my insurance company, another dependency. He couldn't find the phone number so I gave him their 800 number. He left and came back about 10 minutes later and said that he couldn't get ahold of the person he needed to verify my insurance.

Since I had already waited for a long time, and I had things to do, I started getting a little aggravated. I immediately jumped to conclusions and decided it was the fault of my insurance company. The rental rep was there and knew I wasn't happy. The stress set in, how long was this going to take? I called my insurance agent and guess what, I got voicemail! The message I left explained the situation and I'm sure showed the frustration in my voice.

My agent called back as soon as he was able and we got it all straightened out. Overall, I was at the dealership for over an hour just to drop off my car. This is a perfect example of how the dependencies of others can derail your schedule.

Scheduling Tips:

• Don't schedule important tasks or appointments after tasks or appointments with dependencies.
• Factor in additional time for appointments dependent on known service providers wait times.
• Don't schedule back to back appointments, allow time between appointments for unknown situations that may pop up.
• Factor in additional time for unknowns, such as drive time due to traffic.
• Have a plan for tasks you can do during wait times to make it go quickly.

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Clearing Away Crisis Clutter Frees You to Accomplish Your Goals

Time management tips give you lots of power - so how do you feel when others' urgent demands steal that power away? Accomplishing your goals becomes awfully challenging when others' crises crowd to the front of your line.

Maybe family members count on you to be the strong one. Perhaps colleagues confront you with surprise deadlines or frequent crises with ever-higher stakes. If you aren't prepared to handle others' urgency, their agendas will consistently undermine your best plans.

It's frustrating! And fortunately, it's workable. You can turn this dynamic around.

How do you protect your priorities without appearing uncaring and possibly jeopardizing your career or straining significant relationships?

You Have the Power to Clear Crisis Clutter! These 7 Simple Strategies are designed help you both stay on track and clarify your relationships.

1 Remember: Others' Urgency Is Not Your Emergency. Urgency is often a hallmark of strong personalities. But their crises needn't become yours! You control your time. So first, try using that time to do nothing.

• Simply pause. Breathe. Carefully weigh your response. This is a powerful assertion of boundaries in itself.
• By remaining thoughtful and not matching or reacting to frantic energy, you claim full responsibility over your choices and your time.

2. Conduct an Independent Assessment. Use the space you've taken to explore two fundamental questions:

• What is your level of responsibility for the problem? Trust your own fair evaluation here. Guilt is an insidious boundary buster. Don't let it kidnap your time!
• What is your stake in the outcome? Again, remain as neutral as possible as you weigh this for yourself. What is the consequence of staying true to your own plans versus following an urgent agenda?

Now you can decide how much time, if any, to devote to problem-solving. If you do wish to be supportive, consider the terms. Are there opportunities here for meaningful reciprocity?

3. Listen Actively and Compassionately, Without Adopting a Crisis Mentality. Restate the predicament from your perspective. When you re-frame the situation, you:

• Defuse the drama. Summarizing things calmly and realistically deflates urgent energy.
• Confirm that you truly understand the issue. Feeling heard helps people relax and listen to your ideas.
• Find your feet, so you can create a solid base for your own decision. Whether or not the person you are speaking with clings to a crisis mentality is beside the point. (This is a significant boundary issue. You are responsible for your feelings alone!)

4. Create a Broader Perspective. Urgency may engender tunnel vision in others. You needn't join them in that tunnel! You can genuinely empathize from a spacious vantage point. In fact, the more separate you remain, the more understanding you can be. (And you are less likely to feel defensive or resentful when you trust your boundaries and know that your time can't be commandeered.)

5. Offer Alternatives That Work for You. You stand a better chance of succeeding when you articulate everyone's baseline needs and build from there. Be sure to make your parameters clear so that your own projects remain on track.

6. Allow Others Their Responses. This is the hardest part for many! Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is... absolutely nothing. When you set a limit:

• The ball is in the other person's court, and so is the responsibility for her or his own feelings.
• Others may express hurt, anger, indignation or retreat into stony silence. On your end, do your best to cultivate calm openness. Try breathing into your belly if you find yourself becoming anxious as you take this step.

With practice, you'll find it easier to accept others' dissatisfaction without defensiveness. Your openness demonstrates:

• You respect their right to their feelings and
• The powerful, self-referenced fact that your time priorities don't require their approval.

7. Focus on Your Areas of Positive Control. Clarifying your end of relationships takes time. And it rewards you richly. Share what you feel comfortable doing, and specify how much time you are willing to spend doing it. This clarity encourages open communication - and that can lead to genuine progress.

Have the Courage to Reframe Important Relationships. Relationships are often constructed out of unspoken contracts. As you change your end the dance, your "dance partner" may initiate changes in response.

• Others may be called upon to help, as you become less available for last-minute crises. This expands roles and relationships and can be very enriching.
• You may be asked to coordinate schedules and priorities more closely with colleagues. Flexibility and collegiality can grow as a result.
• The road may seem rockier as changes evolve and all parties regain their footing. Ultimately, you benefit. You enjoy more productive, crisis-free time; and, quite often, your relationships grow and deepen.

So experiment, taking small steps as you clear crisis clutter! As you do so, you'll find more satisfaction with how you use your time.

And to move toward your Heart-Based Time Success, sign up for our free gift, The Finding Time Success Kit, which includes "The New Finding Time Boundary Template: 9 Simple, Sequential Steps to Find More Time and Recharge Your Energy!" Using a workbook format this powerful and practical time template helps you progress beyond disappointment and frustration. Discover that 24 hours really are enough!

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Stop Sapping Your Energy With Self-Criticism

Self-criticism is one of the biggest time-wasters going. Why do I say that?

Well, when you're sapping your energy with self-criticism you're working from a scarcity mentality. It's like you're trying to complete a manual task with one hand tied behind your back.

Actually, it's even worse than that, because you are probably simultaneously berating yourself for not working faster and more accurately.

Indeed, self-criticism is one of the biggest time and energy wasters there is.

Self-Criticism Narrows Your World

Time is neutral - it just is. There is no value or value judgment inherent in time. Values and value judgments surface around the choices you make about your time, but they have nothing to do with time itself.

And the choices you make about your time are very important. But approaching those choices with critical energy doesn't help you make better choices. In fact, all that energy does is constrict your field of vision and narrow your range of choices.

Can you see how unhelpful that is?

Values-Driven Time Management vs. critical energy...

When it comes to making time-choices, critical energy is as debilitating as fear of scarcity. You eliminate possibilities with harsh judgments rather than with facts based on observation.

So, what would it feel like to start looking at your time choices with curiosity and excitement rather than with fear, self-criticism, and judgment?

Here's something to try... Briefly document the choices that you make each day as you manage your time. Don't judge, just document.

What factors do you weigh as you make your time choices? What actual facts emerge about your choices? How do you feel about what you observe?

Remember, don't judge or criticize, just look and see. Removing self-criticism from the equation opens up so many possibilities.

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How To Deal With Daily Stress At Home

Dealing with stress, especially in this day and age of hectic schedules and little downtime, can be quite a challenge. This can be especially true at home, since most of us don't have much time to spend at home.

Your career often takes up a great deal of your free time and forces you to sometimes sacrifice activities you want to do with your families and/or friends. This can often lead to you feeling stressed out in your home life, especially if you're dating or if you have a family. As they can sometimes feel neglected if you are spending too much time toward your work and career and not that much time with them. The information below should help you to reduce the pressure you are feeling at home.

Oftentimes, we can't fit everything we want to fit into our lives because we just don't seem to have enough time in our days. This is often due to a lack of good time management, doing tasks in inefficient ways and/or doing tasks that aren't as important, while leaving more important tasks on the "back burner" to do later.

To help reduce how hectic your home life may feel, you need to become better at managing your time. When you are faced with important tasks or projects related to your work, you need to lay out a plan of how to complete these tasks and to do them within the time you have (i.e. by the stated deadlines).

This can help you plan out how much time you must devote to them each day in order to complete them on time or ahead of schedule. By doing this, you can learn how much time must be devoted to work and how much time can be devoted to your family, friends, and yourself.

This points to the fact that you must take time out for yourself and your loved ones. In this day and age of hectic schedules and working constantly for our professional careers, we get the idea that we should be working all of the time and sacrifice everything else. If we do that, we'll burn ourselves out from the undue and unnecessary tension we put ourselves under. It'll certainly lead to fallout in terms of performance and health because no one can endure long periods of great strain without serious consequences.

That's why relaxing - doing some type of activity for even ten to fifteen minutes per day (or more, say thirty to sixty minutes) is another great idea. This can be anything from working out to listening to your favorite music to watching a favorite television program to surfing the Internet. Or you may want to listen to calming sounds (such as lying down, closing your eyes, and hearing waves washing up on shore via a CD or MP3 file).

Whatever you like to do that helps you to relax, unwind, and relieve any stress and tension you're feeling, you should do for a short period of time each day. This will help you to relax, recharge, and be able to focus on the tasks that need to get done. At the same time this should also be giving you the ability to enjoy the quality time you do spend with your family and friends because you won't be stressed out, and thus, won't be irritable, annoyed, and/or depressed when you do spend time with them.

Stress at home can really take a toll on your health, your relationships with loved ones, and your quality of life. By realizing you're stressed out from work and attempting to relieve yourself via enjoying a favorite activity each day, you can help to relieve the tension you're feeling and enjoy a better quality of life and a better relationship with your loved ones.

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5 Tips on How to Stay Focussed

For students, losing focus on the work or goals is a common thing and this usually happens more when they perform those tasks which lie beyond their comfort zone. So, here are some tips which you should follow to train your brain in such a way that you will always be able to complete your work without losing your focus.

1. Time Management:-

"Time is everything", the one who doesn't manage his time deliberately will always lose focus on his work. Now question arise "how", suppose someone has assigned you some task and give you deadline to complete it, initially you will take that task lightly because you know you have enough time to complete it, as we all know time flies, and what happens at the last moment you end up with losing your focus and would not able to put your all attention to that task due to the fear of deadline. So time management is must! Make a TO-DO list and work accordingly.

2. Be Positive:-

Positivity plays a very vital role in keeping you stay focused. If you are doing any work, try to look for the positive sides of that work because it will motivate you to complete that work without any distractions. A positive mind is more creative, hence you will be able to work with your full potential.

3. Have Good Surrounding:-

You're surrounding or environment matters a lot, when you have people with similar goals, you all will support and motivate each other to stay focused on your achievements and also, you will learn lots of new things from each other and this will give you a boost to achieve your goals.

4. Learn how to avoid distractions:-

You may think that checking your messages on Facebook, WhatsApp relaxes you but this is not true, actually these things are distracting you from focusing on your core work, you have to manage all these things in such a way, like, first you should complete your work or task more efficiently and then you can reward yourself with virtual socializing.

5. Self-motivation:-

It is the best practice to keep oneself more productive, try to self-motivate yourself whenever you feel like you are losing your focus on your work, there are number of ways through which you can easily self-motivate yourself like:-

· Think about the achievements in your life.

· Determine what other people see as your strengths.

· Listen to music that gives you energy.

· Surround yourself with a positive environment.

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Do You Road Rage? Why We Do, and What We Can Do About It (By Allen Wagner)

Living in a city like Los Angeles requires a commute on some form of Freeway (too many to list), a journey through bumper to bumper surface streets, and possibly a walk. All of this is cemented between our daily stressors of work and family.

It's often common for us to leave home upset around time management issues, conflicts with loved ones, or the dread of going to a place of employment. How can this not affect us? Most of us are also aware that there is an unofficial "Rules of the Road" handbook that establishes polite behavior, which is not followed by many. The perfect storm of impolite driving (unsafe, or self-righteous), and an average person's bad day can lead to escalations that are unsafe for all parties. Most of us would call this sudden explosion of anger, Road Rage.

While the actions of others remain out of our control, we can be more mindful of our own state as we enter our cars. When a person makes a physical check of possible obstructions prior to pulling out of a space, they are hyper aware. Their eyes search all mirrors for people, dogs, and other cars as if life depended on it, and in many ways this is true. We can also look inward, within ourselves. Creating an awareness of how you are feeling prior to starting the ignition, can be helpful in creating awareness of where you are at.

Road Rage is related to the tipping point of our agitation. What is your frustration tolerance at that particular time, on that particular day? Some people appear to always be at a high frustration level, but for others, irritation can sneak up more slowly. What are the daily obstacles we still have in front of us? Maybe there is a specific meeting, appointment, or a time we have to pick up our kids. It could be the time of day we depart such as rush hour, or a work related task that still lingers on our mind. Are we late? There is an infinite amount of possible stressors, and personal drama or what we might call personal crisis situations (hey it seems like a crisis to us!), but when paired with inconsiderate drivers things can explode.

If we were to rank our personal wellbeing on a scale of 1-10, with one being Buddha, and 10 being Hulk, most likely we all live in a 3 most of the time. It's once we cross 5 or 6, that we want to become more mindful of Road Rage triggers, and our own body awareness. This is the time we can course correct, prior to further and potentially more dangerous escalation.

Every person has a different anger response. If we begin to track our outbursts, we become more aware of the patterns in our triggers. This is where we can consciously begin to change patterns and replace or alter behaviors. Tracking body symptoms prior to outburst (twitching eye, flushed face, rapid breathing, warm forehead, watery eyes, itchy shoulders or neck, clenching, etc..), can be helpful in establishing patterns, but we need to work on better planning to implement prior to these escalations.

Listening to the radio, taking deep and purposeful breaths, or talking to a good friend or family member can be helpful. Avoiding conflicts while driving is a good rule of thumb as well. When a person is riding at an 8 or 9, it does not take much to be the straw that broke the camel's back. As our mindfulness and self-awareness increase, it's easier to make better choices, and do the things we need to do to be safe.

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Running Out Of Time?

I'm not referring to your "TO DO" list for today or this week or taking the latest and greatest time-management seminar to get tips on how to manage time (managing time - a myth by the way - but I'll save that and your time for a future article).

Regarding the title - not teasing you with morbidity - just realistic, practical and/or as genuine as possible.

Last year I lost 4 close friends between the ages of 50 and 90 and none of them saw it coming. How about you - could you be next? Again - not being negative or morose - just asking you to consider a simple question - if today was your last day - would/could you leave here; contented, without regret, peaceful, satisfied and with a positive legacy or the opposite of many of these?

While you are reading this, and I don't really care whether you are 25, 50 or 100+ cause the question is the same for all of you - let me repeat - if today was your last one - how would you leave here and what would you leave behind? 

"Tim, it sure sounds morose." - sorry - we are all going to die and none of us has the privilege of knowing when, where or how. So, let's talk a little about how you are living so when it's your turn, you'll be ready if you aren't today.

There are a few life fundamentals that everyone wants in life - happiness, security, health and love (given and received). Yes, there are may others for some people - wealth, fame, power, control, reputation, lots of friends, nice cars and homes, beautiful and handsome spouses and perfect kids etc. Problem is if you haven't figured it out yet - you'll never have everything or all of the ones you think you need - to have a contented, happy, peaceful life. Bet I lost a few of you with this remark!

Don't believe me - tell me one person you know that has it all (and with these people you think that do - do you know what goes on behind closed doors in their lives - do you know what they worry about - do you know their stressors?).

Or, maybe you think you have it all. Well if this is true 1) trust me - either have really low standards, needs, expectations in every or many areas of your life 2) you are perfect or just maybe - 3) you have figured out what it takes (FYI - this one puts you in the minority) to live a contented life and no matter when your time will be up - you will be OK with it.

Some of you might be interpreting this article from a spiritual perspective and that is perfectly legitimate but that is not my primary focus although it is a critical piece of living and leaving with an "I'm OK and ready to go" mindset. But, I'll save that one for another time. For now, I want to focus on what I refer to as "Life's Ten 

Essentials" for a contented life and a positive legacy.

Before I give them to you if you don't know what they are, let me repeat - the spiritual piece of life is vital and even if you have all of the following without it you may find it difficult to live and leave peacefully but it isn't my intent to preach in this article but 

FYI - I do in many others.

OK, here are what I believe are the ten essentials for a contented life (and yes, there could be many others (these are just mine). It's not my intention to tell you how to live, (I don't have - nor does anyone else have that right) for me - I am far from perfect or ideal. Having said all this, if you think any or all of them are on target and you are willing to take a few minutes to clarify them from your perspective - why not jot down a few notes or write a sentence or two about what these mean to you and generally how you think you are doing. At the least a few additional trigger words that come to mind when you consider each of them.

Back to the title - regardless of how much time you may or may not have how do you want your legacy to read?

They are in no special order;

Appreciation or I Deserve This -

Gratitude or You Owe Me -

Other or Self Focused -

Integrity or Whatever It Takes -

Giving or Greed -

Humility or Prideful -

Forgiveness or Blame & Anger -

Letting Go or Staying stuck -

Balance or Single focused life -

Faith or It's All My Doing -

Learn anything?

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7 Tips to Conquer Procrastination

Many of us have put off something that needs to be done. Procrastination is seen in many different ways, such as laziness, having a faulty sense of time, or simply wishing to avoid an unpleasant situation. In many cases, they try to avoid stress related situations, but the actual delay in taking action can in fact lead to more distress in the long-term.

Procrastination can result in general poor performance, health problems and increased stress. Those that procrastinate the most are likely to live with greater stressful regret and have more sleep related issues. Also, they are likely to have more self-critical thoughts that further increase the likelihood of putting off tasks.

However, there are a variety of practical solutions that can help to conquer procrastination, from breaking up projects into smaller tasks to make it feel less overwhelming to finding the most appropriate time to engage in a particular activity.

Here are a few useful tips to help conquer procrastination:

Know when to work

A lack of focus can be eliminated in many situations if able to establish when you work best. Try to identify the time of day you are the most creative or do your best thinking. You can see a significant increase in your focus and concentration if able to work during the most productive hours of your day.

Don't get involved in multitasking

Multitasking has the potential to diminish your productivity and is mentally exhausting. For this reason, a large-scale project should be broken down into several pieces that includes a start and end point, and has no interruptions in the flow of work. There is less risk of being interrupted when it gets close to completing a project.

Be more disciplined and develop routines

There are plenty of times when workloads can become unmanageable. An effective way to avoid missing timelines and procrastination is to be a lot more disciplined and develop specific routines. Proper time management is essential in many environments and increases the ability to meet deadlines.

Try to understand why you are procrastinating

Finding the root cause of what makes you procrastinate is certain to make you more productive in your day-to-day life. There are plenty of reasons which can range from a resistance to hard work, fear related issues, or even self-sabotage. If you are able to appreciate your reasons for procrastinating, that can become useful knowledge when looking to make changes and make your life more focused and productive.

Identify your most important priorities

Take a moment to list the most important professional and personal priorities in your life. Any day started without a plan can lead to a lot of time wasted doing little or unimportant task. In the worst case situation, you can easily spend the entire day on tasks that have little meaning or value to you.

Create a list of distractions that impact your daily life

A useful way to avoid procrastinating is to create a list of anything that is distracting to your daily life or stops you completing a project. Put these distractions on hold until the more important things are complete. Anything that may be causing a distraction can be used as a reward or inception to get something done in a timely fashion.

Use an accountability coach or buddy

Many people have difficulty focusing when they have so many priorities and tasks to complete. Or, there is the risk of freezing up when something arises that you would prefer not to do. A common fear is that a task won't turn out as desired or achieve the desired result. You may start to create excuses to avoid any distress which leads to being less productive. A great method to being productive is to have an accountability coach. They are great to share emails with and set out clear guidelines on future tasks and goals.

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How To Eliminate Procrastination

Procrastination - the act or habit of putting off or delaying acting on something pertinent, especially something requiring immediate attention: "She was smart, but her constant procrastination led her to be late with almost every assignment... " "The time for procrastination and delay is over," - J. F. Kennedy.

Are you a self-identified or is someone you know a procrastinator? True procrastination has many aspects of putting off something that one knows is necessary to achieve a desired goal.

Habitual procrastinators irrationally postpone what is in their best interest to achieve the goal they claim to desire. Although, the procrastinator acknowledges the tasks involved to achieve their goal are important-fear, anxiety, conflict, etc. blocks their ability to jump in and 'just do it.'

Procrastination is the most self-defeating and dis-empowering trait-resulting in poor grades, lost opportunities, low success achievement, being fired, missed events, the theft of time and the list goes on.

Joseph Ferrari, a DePaul university psychology professor, who has studied procrastination for over 30 years, states there is a difference between procrastination-which leads to the unfortunate outcomes listed above-and delay. Delaying something to gather more information to make a decision is a good strategy. However, waiting and/or delaying because you are frozen with fear, anxiety or conflict is debilitating and creates undesired consequences.

The age old question: How to Overcome Or Eliminate Procrastination is unique to each individual, yet, it boils down to debilitating fear, anxiety or conflict. Fear is complex-fear of failure, fear of success and fear of fear.

A lot of procrastination comes from a misunderstanding of how to overcome it. More often than not, when procrastinators are pushing to finally get going on a task, they want to 'repair' their mood by doing something nice as a motivator. Such as: Taking a nap or other distractions-that 'give in to a feel good moment.' These 'feel good moments,' are not effective since it prompts feelings of guilt and shame for having procrastinated once again-i.e. procrastination on top of procrastination.

The best approach is to discover the emotions that drive or distract from setting a plan and working the plan to accomplish a task/goal.

Three powerful techniques that will prompt a procrastinator to act are:

Forgive yourself: All spiritual teachings posit that if you forgive yourself for any perceived wrong doing-such as procrastination, you have a greater willingness to push past the fear, anxiety, conflict, etc. that blocks your ability to move forward.

Review previous successes: Reflect on how awesome you feel when you have accomplished a task and/or goal; and how much it benefited you and others.

Start with the easiest step first: An immediate mood boost comes from doing what you intend to do-the things that are important to you. Do the smallest item of what needs to get done, even if it's just reading about the task at hand.

Success is One Step and another and another: Einstein did not discover the Law of Relativity with one thought. Edison did not invent the light bulb with one experiment. Edison has been quoted that he knew 1,000 ways how not to make the light bulb, and voila`; we know an experiment produced the light bulb, which is currently still in use today in part.

Procrastination presents a set of questions that are much deeper than all that. Many personal transformation consultants facilitate 'Time Management programs.' Time Management is a fallacy-time can't be managed, time simply is. You can only manage yourself.

When you notice yourself procrastinating... Ask yourself: What is stopping me? What am I afraid of? What is the first thing I need to do? When you understand what is driving your propensity to procrastinate, you will discover what you need to do to take the first step to accomplish the necessary tasks to accomplish the goal.

Remember the mistakes you made are stepping-stones to accomplish success going forward. There are no mistakes in life. So called mistakes are opportunities to learn what works and what needs a different approach or fine tuning.

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The Pain And Gain of Self Discipline

In life, no attribute, trait or ability is more critical in accomplishing anything than personal discipline. A broad sweep of history and the modern era reveals that the most accomplished in every field had one thing in common: discipline. Whether you're looking at the most renowned philosophers, scientists, politicians, and sportsmen, from Aristotle, Einstein, George Washington, to Babe Ruth, the one thing they had in common was discipline, sometimes called self-mastery.

No matter what you know, if you do not exercise the discipline to do, execute or implement what you do know, you'll accomplish very little. Here are some of the things that discipline can help you accomplish:

Holding yourself accountable: 

Holding yourself accountable means knowing and understanding that your destiny is in your own hands. You can decide to blame the government, you can decide to blame the unfair system, you can decide to blame everything under the sun, but ultimately, the capacity to surmount all the odds and triumph requires holding yourself accountable. Babe Ruth once said, "you just can't beat the person who never gives up."

Focus: 

Focus means pursuing your dream, vision, and passion until it becomes mission accomplished. Only discipline can help you do that. Without discipline, you look for excuses to give up at the slightest setback. Les Brown said "it's not over until you win."

Being ethical: 

Being ethical is at the centre of our character and integrity. It's about what you do when no one is watching. It's about being true to yourself. Needless to say, without discipline, it's near impossible to follow the straight and narrow path for overcoming temptations.

Being faithful: 

Whether you are looking at being faithful to a cause, or being faithful to your marital vows, nothing in the world prepares you more than self-discipline.

Being incorruptible: 

As a leader, you're assailed by all manners of temptation. You're tempted to be partial, you're tempted to cut corners, you're tempted to reap where you didn't sow. But with iron clad discipline, you can overcome and leave a legacy worthy of emulation.

Learning new things: 

Whether you're looking at learning a new language, whether you're learning to start afresh after a massive setback or learning something as mundane as operating a personal computer, you require discipline.

Reading a book: 

Charlie "Tremendous" Jones is quoted as saying, "The two things that will have the greatest impact on your life are the books you read and the people you meet." When you read a book, you mastermind with hundreds of people, if not thousands. Imagine reading three books in a month, in a year you would have read 36 books and in ten years three hundred and sixty. While reading may not necessarily make you richer, it will certainly make you wiser.

Time management: 

Time is the essence of life. The most accomplished in life are those that manage their time well and channel their efforts towards worthwhile endeavours. Managing time is not something abstract but it's the one discipline that separates those who came, saw, and conquered, from all others.

There you are. First you suffer the pain and after you enjoy the gain of discipline. Archimedes said, "give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Only self-discipline can lead to the accomplishment of such tall orders. If you want to stand out from the crowd, if you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time, discipline yourself, discipline your mind and with the self-mastery, you'll gain the world.

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Pain-And-Gain-of-Self-Discipline&id=9528312

Tips For Implementing A Hyper-Productive Time Management

Hyper-productive Time Management

What are the productivity habits behind the most successful people? If you are constantly looking at your watch and wishing you had more time, here are some ways to add more hours to your day.

Successful time management means giving the right proportion of your time to overall planning, it involves honing your business skills and using techniques to ensure increased efficiency throughout your day.

There are many skills you can learn to help increase productivity. The very core of this skill lies in the understanding of many techniques available, and adopting them. Less stress and more efficiency is a path for continuous improvement.

Highly successful entrepreneurs, sales executives, and sales representatives achieve incredible results by staying focused and overcoming distractions. They maximize the amount of energy they have throughout the day by prioritizing their task and working in a non-crisis atmosphere.

Procrastination is the thief of time; and we often avoid mentally challenging tasks which need to be done sooner than later. It takes a strong resolve to control procrastination. Distractions are prevalent throughout the day, from people who require your opinion and time, and also from useless time we often spend, on Facebook or Twitter which results in a constant need to change our schedule that excludes an important task.

Less stress gives more energy, it is important that you develop effective strategies to balance your time management by relaxing and exercise or sharing problems with friends.

There are fascinating insights in which you can cultivate habits in working exponentially faster, crushing your goals and sustaining more energy throughout the day.

Take breaks throughout the day, this is a sure way of improving your focus and productivity. The reason being that our body clock ticks in two forms.

Circadian Rhythms, which run in 24-hour periods, dictating when we are energized or exhausted.

Ultradian Rhythms: which is a recurrent cycle that runs in 90-minute periods, and creates the ebbs and flows of energy throughout the day.

Taking into consideration these two rhythms it is proved always advisable to work in 25 minute intervals followed by a 5 minute break. This reduces fatigue, increases focus, and helps sustain energy throughout your workday.

Another tip used by highly productive people is to optimize their computer skills for speed, by increasing the speed of the mouse, learning keyboard short cuts for the programs that they us frequently, and using tools to quickly find apps that switch between programs. And lastly by increasing your typing speed to over 80 words per minute by typing through speech recognition.

For long-term goals the best way to start is by defining your purpose, your personal mission statement breaks down to smaller goals or a to-dot list which in turn is your initial purpose.

Focusing only on things you specialize in and outsourcing mindless tasks, like inputting data, cleaning, ordering groceries, can be insanely productive, as these chores that are outsourced can be done for much less than the cost of your personal time spent doing it, by releasing you to have more working hours and more income.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Tips-For-Implementing-A-Hyper-Productive-Time-Management&id=9393386

Time Management Tips for Students of All Ages (By Tonya White Johnson)

It's a brand new school year, and I am having loads of fun watching and hearing all of the first-day school stories and seeing the pictures of students heading back to school. And while the first few days of school are always fun and exciting for both student and parents it's important to get a jump start on what's important.

I have to warn you, that just like that you will look up and half the year is gone. It's around this time that my coaching and tutoring line starts blowing up. The first semester is typically okay. The second one is where the struggles begin. Time management can make all the difference in a successful or unsuccessful year for a student. Here are a few time management tips that are paramount to passing classes and being promoted to the next grade or next level.

Make a to-do list-I encourage my middle schoolers and up to purchase and use a scheduler. It's important to know where you are supposed to be and when. It's also important to make a schedule and see what tasks are to be completed on a daily basis. Checking these tasks off as you go helps you see how productive your day is.

To do list evaluation-Students that are old enough and responsible enough to review their task list can do it on their own at the end of the day. However, it is important to be very honest and make sure that all tasks are getting done and not just checked off. For younger children, parents should be a part of evaluating their daily to-do list; this helps to teach them responsibility and accountability. It's also an excellent time to chat and catch up with your little one while reviewing the to-do list. I encourage parents to make sure they get started with a to- do list with their middle schoolers and above but some parents have helped their children use daily planners in elementary school with much success.

Use your time wisely-most people would be amazed at the time that is wasted throughout the day. One way to understand how much is being lost is to keep a log of your time. There are many distractions to choose from including social media, text, video games and more. The unfortunate part is that we have these distractions at our fingertips now. Gone are the days when you had to wait to get home and watch TV or call your best boyfriend or girlfriend. Our phones and tablets are attached to us and are everywhere present. It makes it very easy to check your phone 100 times a day. The problem is that each time the phone is pulled out the clock is ticking and time is being wasted. The first time I did this exercise I was amazed at how many times I looked at my phone during working hours.

If you are not already, parents should consider limiting cell phone and TV watching time. While there are many valid arguments for taking a phone to school these days, there are also valid questions as to how much distraction is a phone. Gone are the days when half of lunch was spent reading, or catching upon the next day's homework. Make sure your student is using their time wisely. Talk to them about censoring themselves to spend less time on their cell phone and more time on school work.

Communicate your schedule to others---make sure your friends and family know your study hours. Phone calls and text can be very distracting when doing school work and are huge time wasters. Simply communicating to your friends that you are not available for a period of time would help tremendously. Being able to do homework for an entire two hours versus 30 minutes can greatly enhance and improve grades.

Time yourself--- My final time management tip that is great for all ages is the kitchen timer. There is an actual story behind the Pomodoro (from which this method originated) that I won't' go into at this time, but I typically encourage my students to get a simple kitchen timer to use as a time management tool. It is used just the same way your mother or grandmother uses it in the kitchen. You set a time preferably, 25 minutes, to complete focus on your school work and when the time goes off, you stop. You would be amazed at what can get done in 25 minutes of focused time.

No doubt about it these time management tips are beneficial for all ages. However, it is especially gratifying to see young students learn these habits at an early age. I have personally seen some great success with students of all ages when they use these time management skills.

Learning these good time management habits are life skills that are beneficial in college, career and beyond. Some argue to let kids be kids, but I am a firm believer that as parents are given a responsibility to train up our children in the way, they should go. We are given a one-time opportunity to teach them life skills. When we start certain methods is an individual choice. However, research has proven that those things learned in our formative years are likely to stay with is for a lifetime.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Time-Management-Tips-for-Students-of-All-Ages&id=9499375

Common Time Management Mistakes

Time management is a skill and there are many ways to sharpen this skill. Yet, there are certain methods of time management practised that cause your time to slip away unutilized rather than helping in saving it. Here is an eye opening article for some of the most common time management mistakes in practise.

Too much of Planning

It is good to make the "to-do" list. Also, it is a good idea to maintain an excel sheet of your work every day but scribbling a notebook with pen with how every hour of your day is spent is definitely not appropriate.

Too much of planning wastes time. You will need to use your sensibility to understand how the planning should be done. You cannot go on making chart about what you are going to do in the after-hours or re-write time and again the things that need to be done during the day. It will leave less time for you to do some actions.

Hence, stick to a basic planning procedure for the day, month, etc and do not over-do it.

Not Considering Logic

There is a joke which is said to distinguish between an intelligent person and a logical person. An intelligent person once asked a question that if one woman takes 9 months to deliver one baby then why cannot 9 women work together and produce a baby in one month. On the other hand, a logical person is well aware that the question is not worth thinking upon let alone asking someone.

Likewise, time management requires application of logic. Take only that much works in your hand that can be delivered in best quality. While making a time table remember that you are but a human and you will need a couple of minutes to relax. You will be drinking water, eating meal and going to washroom. Even if you can control the pin of your wrist watch you cannot control time.

There will be time that you have to wait for the lift, bus, taxi, dentist list, etc. Be a little flexible.

Unnecessary Multitasking

It sounds cool to do more than 2 tasks simultaneously in any given time but what about efficiency? Most of the people think that by multitasking they will manage to produce more work.

The simple example of it can be observed in an office. During lunch time a man do editing of a certain report with the one hand while chewing onto his sandwich (because it is lunch time), is attending a call explaining a certain figure to the person on the other end. In between he is using the other hand to right down what he wants to do on the weekend.

Now, the phone call could have been combined with any of the tasks but why write about the weekend party plan? Most of the psychologists agree that doing one task at a time with full concentration helps in increasing the work quality within a small time frame. Also, multi-tasking should only be performed if necessary.

Lack of Balance in Life

The idiom, "all work no play makes Jack a dull boy" has not been said without any reason. You will need to introduce a balance between your personal and professional life. 24/7 life too may keep you high but not for long. It will leave you exhausted as a person. Hence, divide your day or keep certain days just for work and certain just for fun.

Time management is a trick but you need not to be a magician to perform it. Simply recognize your priorities and make an action plan accordingly.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Common-Time-Management-Mistakes&id=9498562

Time Management Tips for Working Mothers

Working mothers truly juggle with a lot of balls at the same time. Being a working individual, the women already has to deal with so many things like and when kids get added to the family it may seem as if you have taken up another job, a job which is supposed to be done round the clock, 24/7.

Shopping for kids, dealing with their problems at school and otherwise too, spending quality time with them; there is a possibility that you may miss out on something or the other due to your own tight schedule.

More importantly, working mothers hardly have any time for themselves. Here are some ways to manage your time well.

Be Organized

It is important for the working mothers to get organized but most of them end up becoming control freaks. The idea is to have a systematic approach to life and follow the same schedule every day.

You may use a small notebook to keep track of what needs to be done for the day. Use mobile alarms to remind you about parent-teacher meetings or any other important events of your child.

Tell Kids you Need their Help

Even though they are your kids and you want to pamper and spoil them you must let them know that you need their help sometimes to keep things running smoothly.

Teach them to pack their school bag, place dirty clothes separately, brush their own teeth, dress up for school, etc. Whatever task you believe that your child is capable of doing, as per their age, ask them to do it.

If they become too dependent on you then it will only increase your burden. By division of labor you will be able to churn out some time for other errands.

Stay Away from Procrastination

Try to cut down spending time on gossip and stuff you know well doing which is a total waste of time. Stay away from procrastination by getting into a habit of doing things now.

Instant Healthy Foods

One thing every mother is worried about is that their child should eat a nutritious diet. The hectic lifestyle of today leaves no room for cooking full meals. A lot of urban population relies on ready-to-eat meals.

If you are not able to cook proper meals for your child then choose quick healthy recipes over lengthy preparations. Muesli, rice flakes, corn flakes and similar types of foods can be used to serve out quick and healthy dishes which hardly take any time.

No Harm in taking a little Assistance

Whether you are doing it together with your spouse or you are a single parent, taking a little assistance from your own parents is not going to make you look like a looser.

If the grandparents of the children are willing to do baby-sitting while you are preparing a presentation for the next day at office; there in no harm in it.

Try not to bring work to Home

This is the most common issue with working mothers. Your ambition may tempt you to bring work home and get it done before the next day. But this is the time that you need to spend with your family.

Develop such an attitude that your boss does not ask you to take work home and learn to say no when asked.

You should be proud that you have the courage to manage both your child and your work. Do not see it as a disadvantage at any point of time.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Time-Management-Tips-for-Working-Mothers&id=9498547

Getting Things Done Make Life Easier

Getting things done brings a lot of advantages. It can create certain benefits that will help you along the way. When you get things done, you are able to see a different side of you that makes you appreciate the best things in life.

When you are given any task and you are able to finish it till the end, you are building your character as well as molding yourself to be better than yesterday. However, finishing things might be easier said than done. As you can see, when you try to accomplish something, there are many elemental things that you need to observe.

For instance, time management. This factor and aspect is crucial to your personal development and the attainment of your goals. If you implement time management, you can actually see yourself accomplishing something and that is something that can enhance your inner self greatly.

When you want to finish any given mandate, you need to strategize at all cost. It is vital that you seek the things that can do you good rather than cause you harm. The great thing about having plans and putting them into action is that it enables you to grow as a person.

Try to implement certain measures that can improve your time management, your planning skills, your perception and motivate you to get things done and finish them with flying colors as well.

There is a difference when you get things done accordingly and finishing them because you are required to do so. When you finish things with dedication as well as genuinely, it can create a variant result that renders positivity.

Never settle for less when it comes to doing your responsibility. Try man up and do things accordingly. Do not shun responsibility but face them head on so that you can see the bigger picture and find yourself successful in this world.

Our society is always fast tracking things but if you want to do well, getting all things done is one way to do it. Finish each task with positive outcomes. Owing to your desire to do great things, great rewards will follow.

When you live your life in mediocrity, you will lose yourself in the process and you will lose your value as well. Indeed, doing great things is not easy, and getting things done does come with a price. It comes with perseverance, patience, commitment, gladness, and even the willingness to counter all hurdles blocking your path. The road is not easy but the price that comes after it is priceless.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Getting-Things-Done-Make-Life-Easier&id=9351375

Why We Procrastinate - 5 Reasons That You May Not Know

Procrastination is an emotional issue, not a time management issue.

We almost always procrastinate when our logic is overpowered by our emotions.

Logically, we know we should eat healthy food.

Logically, we know we shouldn't check emails first thing in the morning.

Logically, we know we should pursue our passion or start a business.

Logically, we know time is precious and we should say "I love you" while we still can.

But we don't because we let our emotions in the moment override our rational thinking, thus we procrastinate on things that should have been done.

Below are the 5 common reasons why we procrastinate that you should pay attention to.

#1 The task requires effort, it doesn't feel good to do it

As humans, we are hardwired to seek the easy, painless and quick path. Our brain craves for instant gratification.

When things are difficult and require effort, we procrastinate.

When we procrastinate, our brain releases the "feel good hormone" called Dopamine. Dopamine encourages us to continue the current behavior and therefore we keep doing the same activity and avoiding the hard work.

That's why it's easy, addictive and tempting to procrastinate.

#2 The task isn't interesting enough

We are social creatures who love to have fun with others.

To many people, playing World of Warcraft, watching Game of Thrones or immersing in the virtual reality of Pokémon GO are more fun than creating a life-changing 3 day seminar workshop that inspires others to take action.

Thus most people aren't "motivated" to do the work necessary and they are controlled solely by their pleasure-seeking nature.

The truth is while successful people also love to seek pleasure, they delay their short-term gratification and they focus on building their long-term, bigger, better real life pleasure.

#3 We don't feel the importance and urgency of it

When we don't have a big enough "why", we lack the emotional fuel to take action.

When we don't set deadlines with consequences, we feel like we have all the time in the world to "do it tomorrow" until it's too late.

A big enough "why" and a sense of urgency is crucial to make things happen in life.

You lack either one of these, you procrastinate till the last minute.

#4 Fear of Failure/Fear of Success

Strangely enough, fear of failure or success stem from the same thing - Fear of not being loved.

We are afraid that people might laugh at us when we fail.

We are afraid that people might judge us when we succeed.

Either way, we are scared that we will become the loneliest person on the planet and not get loved whenever we do something.

Thus, we try to avoid making mistakes by a procrastination strategy called perfectionism.

Perfectionism can be an attempt to avoid failure. Perfectionism can also be a method to avoid success.

The point is we keep procrastinating so we don't actually create any kinds of results - neither failure nor success. Weird right?

#5 Fear of Uncertainty

Whether you succeed or fail on your endeavor, the final reason why we procrastinate is that we are scared of asking ourselves the question, "What's next?"

We hate being thrown into the unknown. We don't want to feel losing control and not knowing what to do. Thus we try not to reach the end for fear that we might go insane.

Which of the 5 reasons above have you tried to delay making a decision? Which one or more have been your current procrastination strategy to avoid taking action?

http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-We-Procrastinate---5-Reasons-That-You-May-Not-Know&id=9486230

Five Simple Tips to Make Your Day More Productive

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why we call it The Present"

I'm pretty sure you might have encountered the feeling of getting frustrated with your routine at one point or another. Ever wondered why does that happen? I mean no one has forced you to follow it. In fact, you own the whole sole responsibility of taking that on your own. When you wish to do everything, the only thing that can fail you is improper time management.

The expanding scope of growth makes settling harder and therefore, our greed of achieving more exceeds and trust me there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, the will to achieve is something that drives us towards success.

When our free mind opens its door to ideas and we let them settle in, our wish is to grow with them. But while doing this, there comes a stage when the heap of ideas grows too large and it becomes harder to figure out where to start or more importantly how to do that. But it's not as complex as it sounds, is it?

I often struggle with the same problem and get stuck at a point of choosing between these ideas. But facing the situation, again, and again made me look out for the bigger picture and that's when I understood-

All you need for 100% productivity is a foolproof process

In order to get all the right things done at the right time, I've listed out some effective points from my personal experience which are as follows -

• Begin with small things - Ideas are always useful. No matter how small they are, they demand to be worked upon. Whenever the light bulb in your mind blinks, make sure you catch the light in the moment itself. Pen down your latest ideas or thoughts every day, mind it- every single day.
• Move on step-by-step - A list is worthless unless it is re-read and revised. Pre-planning is the key here. The list of ideas should be sorted and made ready for application by the end of the day. Once you complete working on your list of today, you can secure your tomorrow for it. Also, if something can be addressed in the moment; there's no harm in it. You have to figure out what fits best for you.
• Do not settle for less - You might pick only two best ideas from yesterday's list but make sure you give your heart and soul to them today. The level of perfection of your mind should match the level of satisfaction of your heart. That's the whole point of successfully moving forward with the plan. Till then just work, work and work.
• Learn time hacks - When it comes to you, there's no one else to help you organize your time. You need to utilize both hard work and smart work. Consume your energy timely and give yourself the freedom of short-breaks too. Shift on to something interesting during these times like reading, exercise, meditation or anything that is capable of changing your mood. For me of course, writing steals the show.
• Don't kill your creativity - While doing your job, you might want to dive in with the deepest sincerity but sometimes when you take all the workload on your shoulders it kills the enthusiasm after a while. There's a solution for this too! Along with your basic work you should also look in for gaps and fill them with your inner creativity. For instance, if you are a technical writer, for a change, try writing a funny story sometime. Allow yourself to fit in but don't forget to explore what's outside.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Five-Simple-Tips-to-Make-Your-Day-More-Productive&id=9432757

Better Time Management - Using A Little Neuroscience

While distractions may be a welcome source of creativity in some lines of work, most of us need periods of focus to be able to do our jobs to the best of our abilities.

In the social media age, where the potential for distraction has never been greater, this presents quite a challenge for professionals and their organisations. How do you switch off the 'noise' and ensure that you are diverting all your brain power to where it's needed - at the right time?

Neuroscience has some interesting insights that may be able to help answer this question.

Is this your typical work day?

Do you start the working day by checking emails and browsing a few web pages as you settle in for the day? Then, do you leave your email and social media channels open all day while trying to focus on the tasks at hand?

Many of us try to multitask, believing that it is possible to prepare that report for the boss, while chatting to a customer on the phone and messaging back to a friend about dinner plans.

In reality, unless we really can do the task on 'autopilot', like brushing teeth for instance, this is more likely to lead to mistakes, omissions, and possibly messed up dinner plans!

Why? Because the human brain is not able to multi-task. Neuroscience has shown that what we think is multitasking is actually 'switching' rapidly between activities. The brain can only focus on one thing at a time, and so when we juggle tasks, we are really asking our brains to switch frequently between activities. This is not only liable to cause errors; it is also energy-sapping for the brain. So, the more we try to juggle, the less 'fuel' our brains have, and the less likely we are to be successful at ANY of the tasks we are trying to complete.

This is why it's so important to prioritise, manage time, and schedule our activities and breaks through the day.

Managing time and taking proper breaks

When we ask our brains to do more as the tasks pile up, what we may really need is a break, to allow our brains to recharge. That overworked people get stressed and 'burnt out' is no surprise, but few people think about the effects on the brain that help to cause this.

Studies from neuroscience have found that people who take 15-minute breaks every two hours are more productive than those who try to plough on. These breaks should not be reading emails or engaging in more social media; they need to involve 'wandering' of the brain... a short walk, listening to music, or chatting with friends about last night's TV shows.

What we find is that social media or emailing tends to 'feed' the tendency towards short attention spans and constant 'brain shifting' from one task to another. Studies show that, with each interruption presented by a new email or a new chat message (for instance), it can take over 20 minutes to return to the task at hand.

When we return, we may be in a stressed state because the brain has still been switching between tasks rapidly, rather than being allowed to wander.

Social media and the 'always on' communication channels present a great challenge to workplace performance because we always have one eye on the things that are most important to us; increasingly these things are available to us through online activity, so the tendency to self-interrupt is high.

Scheduling times to check emails and social media, and being disciplined about sticking to pre-set periods for these activities, are therefore key to preventing distractions from hijacking our performance at work.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Better-Time-Management---Using-A-Little-Neuroscience&id=9460558