|
|
|
Get Off Your Butt and Create Your Financial Future…Now!
Most people have no idea where their money goes. They earn it and they spend it.
That's fine if you want to live from week to week and are not concerned about your financial future. However if you want to increase your wealth and have more...
How Protected are You? Safeguard Your Small Business from Computer Viruses
The fact is, every time you log onto the Internet, send an email message, open an attachment, or insert a floppy disk, you risk infecting your computer system. Computer viruses are out there just waiting to wreak havoc on your data, documents,...
Make Your Small Business Look Big
Use the following tools and suggestions to give your small business a touch of professionalism.
Make Your Small Business Look Big
Our business friendly culture, the improvements in communications, and the abundance of Internet resources...
Parenting and Running a Home-Based Business
An Ann Landers column "Parenthood is not a job for the weak at heart" caught my interest.
Job Description for a Parent
Position: Parent
Job Description: Long-term player needed for challenging, permanent work in chaotic environment....
Strategies For Finding Topics To Write About
What possibly could I have to write about? I never was good at it anyway. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I just sit and stare and stare at a blank screen.
Sound familiar? Don't worry. We all have gone through this. It happens to me...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Taming the Time Bandits - 15 Tips to Take Charge of Your Time
Taming the Time Bandits - 15 Tips to Take Charge of Your Time
by Ed Duvall
How many times have you said to yourself, "Where did the time go.I
don't feel like I accomplished anything, or at least not what I set out to do?
A lot of times we may set out to do some specific tasks, whether it's
internet marketing or just taking care of some needed chores around
the house.
It's particularly easy to get distracted and lose some time that should be devoted to working through your task especially when you're involved in an internet business. Today's information age is a time when we are drowning in data, facts, figures, junk mail and it seems if it an electronic item its got some kind of message it's delivering to you. All of these, plus some, can tend to keep you from your goals and accomplishing all that you should.
I've found that working in youir own online business, is that there are a whole lot more possibilities for distractions than you could ever imagine. If you think about it, not only have you lost the time from the distractions but it generally takes another 5-10 minutes regaining your focus on what you were originally working on before the call.
It doesn't seem like a lot of time but over the course of a day, like a
cowboy getting on his horse, it can really mount up.
Take for instance when I was wriiting my article on reciprocal linking
you can read it here:
http://www.cashway.com/secrets_of_reciprocal_linking.htm
I wanted to be sure to include some information on automated linking strategies. What I thought would take less than an hour led to several hours that were filled with information that wasn't quite relative to the contents of the article. I ultimately left the automation part out of the article. It wasn't a total loss though. It taught me a lesson about better defining the type of information I was after and how to
recognize whether or not it was pertinent to the project.
Or how about this....
You're looking for ways to automate and improve your online business. So your're checking the search engines for information and products when you all of a sudden find yourself looking at vacation packages to the Bahamas! It's winter and ohh how nice it would be to be sipping Margaritas on a sandy beach.
Boy, how did that happen?
Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about taking a brief break from work...as long as its a planned break that doesn't interfere with you accomplishing what you set out to do. When it happens several times a day it can amount to a lot of lost time that could have been better spent.
So how do you accomplish all of the tasks you set out to do without
extending the amount of hours you're working in a day?
(Emergencies excepted of course).
Adding some basic structure to your day like limiting the number of hours your're going to work can help. There are also a few quick and easy ways to tame the time bandits without having to sacrifice the quality of your work.
Here's my 15 Tips to Take Charge of Your Time
1 - At the end of the day make a "To Do List". Setting up
your list of tasks at the end of the day will help you get an early focus on starting your day and moving in a positive direction. When you get the hang of this you'll be able to make your lists up a week in advance.
2 - Break down larger tasks on your To Do Lidt into smaller more
"accomplishable" task that won't be so overwhelming.
3 - Keep you long and short term goals in focus and develop your daily
goals from them.
4 - Set a limit on how much time you're going to work on a task. You
know as well as I do that if you have an online business or website it's
easy to be distracted. It's the nature of the beast and you have to set
your limits and follow them.
5 - Schedule the harder or more complex task early in the day
when you are fresh and your energy level is high.
6 - If you get tired and don't seem to be making headway then
switch to another task. Doing this can sometimes give you an insight
into the task you were trying to accomplish before.
7 - Don't take on new tasks that are not essential to completing your
goals. You have to realize that taking on another task may overload
you and won't help you accomplish anything that you set out to do.
8 - Recognize and delete tasks that don't provide a payoff that will
help you reach any of your short or long term goals.
9 - Remember that time is always of the essence. You can never
manufacture anymore of it, so don't waste it.
10 - If your life is also busy outside (ha-ha) of your online pursuits
then opt for an organizer to keep track of other areas of your life.
11- On that subject above it would be a good practicve to always
keep your organizer and To Do List with you at all times.
12 - You may want to consider farming out or eliminating tasks that
eat up a lot of your time but produce little or no measurable results
in accomplishing your goals.
13 - Give yourself a pat on the back or a reward for a job well done
when you've worked through and completed one or more tasks.
14 - Pause to reflect. One of the things that sets us apart from the
other species is that we are able to think and learn. You can do that
by simply reflecting on your days work. Look at what you accomplished, what you didn't get one and work on improving your strategy to accomplish more.
15 - And finally....Take A Break! You can always take frequent short
breaks during the day but also take time to enjoy your family, friends
and hobbies.
Gaining control of your time is a subjective process. You 're the one
in control (hopefully by now anyway) who will ultimately decide how
to best tame your time bandits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About the Author
Ed Duvall is webmaster for http://www.cashway.com and
http://www.instantnettraffic.com providing internet marketing
tools and resourcesto help you with your online business.
Reprint this article as long as resource box remains intact.
Copyright 2005 cashway.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
|
| United States Small Business Administration |
| An electronic gateway of procurement information for and about small businesses. Search engine for contracting officers, marketing tool for small firms, ... |
| www.sba.gov |
|
| SBA |
| The Small Business Planner includes information and resources that will help you at any stage of the business lifecycle. ... |
| www.sba.gov |
|
| Main Page - SmallBusiness.com - Small Business Resources |
| Find Small Business plans, advice, tutorials about organization, corporations, entrepreneurship, and smallbusiness. |
| www.smallbusiness.com |
|
| Yahoo! Small Business: Domain Names, Web Hosting, E-commerce ... |
| Yahoo! Small Business provides products and services that enable you to establish and grow your business on the Internet. Services include domain name ... |
| smallbusiness.yahoo.com |
|
| Small business advice business start up small business finance ... |
| business start up small business finance start up advice. |
| www.smallbusiness.co.uk |
|
| Smallbusiness.gov.au redirect to business.gov.au |
| Business Entry Point - Helping small business in big ways. An Australian Government initiative. The content from this website has now been consolidated into ... |
| www.smallbusiness.gov.au |
|
| Business & Small Business |
| Online and print small business publication. Information to help start, grow or manage a small business. |
| www.entrepreneur.com |
|
| Microsoft Small Business Center |
| Your home for information about Microsoft's small-business products and services, tailored business advice, technology tools, and more. |
| www.microsoft.com |
|
| The Small Business Advisor - advice for starting and operating a ... |
| Advice and assistance for starting and operating a small or home based business. |
| www.isquare.com |
|
| SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" |
| A nonprofit association dedicated to encouraging the formation, growth, and success of small business nationwide through counseling and mentor programs. |
| www.score.org |
|
| Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource |
| IR-2006-2, January 3, 2006 - Temporary and proposed regulations will significantly reduce tax filing burden for nearly 950000 small business owners. ... |
| www.irs.gov |
|
| Welcome to Small Business BC your business resource in British ... |
| BC Business Services offers assistance and resources for those running or starting a business in British Columbia and Vancouver. |
| www.smallbusinessbc.ca |
|
| Small Business Service | Home |
| Provides information and advice to help small businesses realise their potential. |
| www.sbs.gov.uk |
|
| NSW Small Business |
| A site developed by the NSW Department of State and Regional Development for small businesses. Topics include management, resources, current issues and ... |
| www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au |
|
| Business Management & Advice: Small Business Resources & Information |
| Looking for business management and advice? Our website includes small business resources and information that can help you. Visit the small business ... |
| www.businessweek.com |
|
| Small Business Lawyer, Attorney, Law, Legal Help - FindLaw for ... |
| Information and legal sites relevant to small business. |
| smallbusiness.findlaw.com |
|
| Small Business Funding Opportunities (SBIR and STTR) |
| Links to Small Business Funding Opportunities and SBIR / STTR Applications. |
| grants.nih.gov |
|
| Microsoft bCentral Small Business Directory |
| Directory categorized by industry with company business card feature. |
| sbd.bcentral.com |
|
| Our site has moved! Please update your bookmarks! |
| Facilitates the sharing and exchange of information among small business development centers, the small business administration and other business-oriented ... |
| sbdcnet.utsa.edu |
|
| Small Business Development Corporation |
| Our business information services provides guidance to improve business skills and knowledge on advice on starting, buying, selling and expanding a small ... |
| www.sbdc.com.au |
|
|