Living Life In A Time Starved World

Written by Stephen Fairley


Recently I saw an advertisement for a time management booklet: "Shorter deadlines, competing priorities, endless meetings, interruptions and even higher quality expectations are just some of today's time challenges. And yetrepparttar number of hours inrepparttar 104185 day remainsrepparttar 104186 same."

As entrepreneurs we all struggle sometimes with managing our time effectively. I once heard an entrepreneur say that ofrepparttar 104187 people he knows, his entrepreneur friends arerepparttar 104188 worst people when it comes to managing their time and priorities. Too often we fall prey torepparttar 104189 misguided notion that being busy isrepparttar 104190 same as making progress.

There are many areas involved in effective time management: • your attitude • goal setting • setting priorities • planning • scheduling • analyzing your progress • dealing with interruptions • meetings • paperwork • delegation of tasks • taming procrastination • time teamwork

KEY PRINCIPLES

Here are some key principles I have found to help me manage my time more effectively:

1. Good habits arerepparttar 104191 key to good time management. The essence of good time management is creating good habits. A good habit to develop is to focus on results. Setting goals and striving to reach them must become a habit. Before your next meeting, think to yourself-what is my goal in doing this or meeting with this person? What specific results would I like to see come from my time? You must learn to place a high value on your time. There are a million things, advertisements, books, media events and people vying for it. You must distinguish between what and who is important and what or who is not. This might sound a little harsh at first, but focusing on results in developing your habits will help you focus yourself and your time.

2. Good habits start with setting goals.

There are several points to remember when setting good goals.

First is to write your goals down. Studies have shown that you are much more likely to accomplish your goals if they are committed to paper. As someone once said, "A short pencil is better than a long memory."

A second point is to break down your goals into three categories: short, intermediate and long term. I would advocate that you should have a separate list for your personal, professional and life goals. The personal goal list would cover areas like: personal relationships, use of free time, personal growth activities, reading up on a particular topic, taking continuing education classes or seminars, etc. Your professional goal list should be clearly focused on building your business, increasing revenues, cutting costs, strategic planning, marketing, employee management, creating partnerships and meeting beneficial business contacts. Your life goals would coverrepparttar 104192 broader picture of what you want to accomplish in life and what who you want to be remembered for.

3. Pursuing specific goals isrepparttar 104193 key to reaching success.

Setting good goals requires some planning and concentrated effort. Far too many entrepreneur have good intentions for their business, but lack goals that are specific enough to help them achieve success. Most entrepreneurs who fail to reach their goals do so because they fail to make specific, or S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Finding Balance In A Tilted World

Written by Stephen Fairley


I was recently talking with one of my entrepreneur friends. He has started three businesses inrepparttar last several years—a budding entrepreneur. He was relating some ofrepparttar 104184 joys he has experienced in those enterprises: a sense of freedom fromrepparttar 104185 corporate world, pursuing his dreams and passions, setting his own schedule, controlling his destiny and a large potential for financial rewards.

However, he did mention a few downsides: little to no outside accountability, lack of consistent capital, feelings of loneliness, no steady revenue stream, feeling disconnected from others who don’t understand his drive to succeed, constant struggles to survive and a severe lack of work-life balance. Sound familiar?

I think most entrepreneurs struggle with similar issues, especially balance. There are many reasons they can give for their lack of life balance and low satisfaction: “I have too much work to do. I just need a few more hours to finish this project. I need more money. I have bills to pay. My business depends on my hard work. My family needs more income. I am solely responsible for developing, marketing, selling and servicing my product or service.”

Any or all of these reasons may be true, which might lead entrepreneurs to find great difficulty in managingrepparttar 104186 two sides of entrepreneurship—balance and success. How often do you struggle with working longer hours than you know you should to try and securerepparttar 104187 next sale? How many times has your family and friends tried to pull you away from your office this last month? Take a moment and count uprepparttar 104188 actual hours you have spent working this last week or month. There is alwaysrepparttar 104189 temptation to do a little more, work a little harder, talk to one more potential customer in hopes of making one more sale.

What specific things are you doing to take care of yourself: physically, emotionally, and spiritually? Many entrepreneurs overlook these vital areas of life in search of professional success, yet these areas are full of potential for sparkingrepparttar 104190 creative, outside ofrepparttar 104191 box thinking that leads entrepreneurs like yourself to discover life changing products and services and find a new perspective on your business venture.

ASSESS WHERE YOU ARE

Take a moment and write down these 8 life areas:

• friends & family • fun & recreation • physical environment & home • romance & significant other • fitness & health • career • finances • personal & spiritual growth

Next to each area assess where you currently are. On a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being “completely dissatisfied” and 7 being “completely satisfied” mark how currently you are satisfied in each area. Add uprepparttar 104192 totals of all eight areas before reading further. The scoring is atrepparttar 104193 end of this article.

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