Tammy's Tips

Tip 10 is on Time Management At Its Best.  There were so many great quotes on time that I have found it very hard to limit this week's Tip to just two.  Let's examine time management from two different perspectives.  (1) How do we manage time to create balance in our life? and (2) How can we manage our time to increase our productivity?

We have spoken about balance before and how important it is to have balance in our lives to increase productivity all around.  Many of us carve out an hour at the gym in the morning or afternoon to promote well being, clear our heads and blow off some steam.  Others carve out one hour a day to do homework with their kids or car pool them to their events. We cannot possible give 99% of all of our energy into work leaving only 1% left for everything else.  Everything else would suffer.  When we do take time off from work to go to the gym or take our significant others out to dinner try to do your best to shut off the rest of the world and give 100% of your attention to what you are doing.  Benjamin Franklin said, "Lost time is never found again."  Just as we carve out time for these things in our personal life we must also apply these to work. 

This same concept applies in our work life too.  Looking at the work day, if we work for 10 hours how can we manage our time so that we are the most productive. Margaret Bonnano said, "Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time."  First I would recommend adding an auto responder to your emails that notifies incoming recipients that you will be checking emails at 9:30am, 2:00pm and 5:00pm.  These are just recommended times, but stick to a schedule that works for you.  Same goes for voice mails and messages.  If you are a morning person I recommend that you use the morning hours for developing, planning and prospecting.  Don't let phones and emails interrupt your flow.  Allocate 2 full hours to concentrate on the projects at hand.  Then in the afternoon do follow-up work, edits and review.  Respond promptly to emails and messages at the designated times of the day that you have selected.  The more you focus and refuse to allow interruptions the more productive you will be. 

“A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life."      - Charles Darwin

Tip 4 is a continuation of last weeks Tip 3 SMART Goals for 2010.  Many of you had a problem downloading the Annual Goal Panning Template so I providing another link Annual Goal Planning Template for your easy access.  For those of you who were able to download the form I hope that you have been very busy planning out your goals for 2010.  Goals are something we intend to happen or are the anticipated results of our efforts. Goals require a strategy which is why we create the plan so that we have a road map to achieve our goals.  Most plans start out as annual or long term goals (accomplished within 1-5 years).  Those plans are then broken down into monthly, weekly and daily goals.  Slowly but surely every day we make progress towards our long term goals.

The Annual Goal Planning Template provided four areas of focus; Career, Financial, Health and Relationships/Family.  Please feel free to create additions areas for goal setting purposes.  Work on one area at a time.  Last week I suggested find a quite place where you could spend one hour of uninterrupted time to brainstorm on your goals.  Write down all of your goals in that particular area.  Keep writing until you have no other goals in that area.  Evaluate your list to see if any of the goals really pop out and you feel passionate about.  When you feel passionate about a goal and it excites you it usually means that you will have what it will take to reach your intended goal, no matter what! Another way to evaluate your list is to see which one would bring the most immediate results.  Immediate results adds fuel to the fire and provides you with motivation to reach the next goal.  Finally, you could evaluate your list to see which one of the goals would provide the greatest impact.  Great impact can catapult you and your goals into the next stratosphere!!!

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"Your problem is to bridge the gap between where you are now and the goals you intend to reach." - Earl Nightingale

Tip 3 is on SMART Goals for 2010.  So what is your burning desire for this year?  If you could have anything you wanted in the area of career, finances, health/fitness and family/relationships what would it be?  This is the time of year that we should all be thinking about what it is we would like to accomplish in 2010.  Goals are really dreams with deadlines.  What I recommend is sitting down in a quiet place and quickly jot down some goals you may have in the areas mentioned above.  After you have a short list then prioritize which goals would bring the most immediate results.  

Writing down your goals gives you the road map for your success.  Attached is an Annual Goal Planning Form to download and start using.  When you write down your goals I want you to write them in a "SMART" way.  (Go to this link Annual%20Template.docx )  Follow these simple guidelines:

S - Specific - the more specific and clearly stated the more likely the goal can get accomplished.

M - Measurable - create benchmarks that can be measured.  Small benchmarks can be acknowledged and provide motivation to stay on track.

A - Attainable - make sure you have control so that you do not set yourself up for failure.  Things you truly want and are passionate about are attainable.

R - Realistic - make sure that the goals you set you are both willing and able to achieve them - no matter what.  The more realistic the sooner you will start making progress toward achieving your goals

T - Timely - create a time frame for achieving certain benchmarks.  Creating time lines makes the goals tangible and therefore more attainable.

Good luck - next week we will be continuing to talk about Goal Setting and Goal Getting.  Tips coming on how to accomplish your goals.