Time Management Training - Activity Log

Hi Len Foster here with a quick video that can save you loads of unproductive time and turn you into the next rising star.

There is no better or quicker way of finding out exactly what you spend your time on than using an activity log. An activity log is designed to specifically identify how long you spend on high, medium and low value tasks. Think about this; if you spend your time mostly on low or medium value tasks you are or an employer is paying you good money for little return. So, to stop your business going bust or you receiving the envelope with the news you really did not want make sure you know exactly where your time is going and that you are focusing on high value tasks that will make you more productive and valuable. For more time management tips and techniques get my FREE report 11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them at www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com

Hope you enjoyed this video and be sure to look out for more soon.

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Len's Time Management Tools To Do List

Hi everyone

Just finished my latest Time Management Tools video and I'd like to share it with you. If you want to download it you can get it on www.motionbox.com which is a great video sharing site. This video is all about how to create a FREE to do list that lets you prioritize your tasks is easy to up date and makes you 20% more efficient a day. That is 2 hours in an eight hour day and 10 hours in a five day week, that's serious down time. For more time management tips and techniques get my FREE report 11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them at www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com

Please leave a comment and tell me what you thought of the video!



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Confusing Activity with Productivity

Activity as against productivity is a simple issue but causes so many problems because it brings opinions into the equation as well. One person may think they are using their time productively only for someone else to totally disagree.

It’s always obvious to someone else that there’s a certain order or a certain way in which either individual or related tasks should be carried out. It’s called their way. It drives some micro managers completely crazy if you do tasks different to how they believe they should be done.

Why it’s a problem

It’ a problem because active and productive can be perfectly synergised or complete opposites. You may be actively engaged sweeping the floor and even making a good job of it however that’s not productive at a management level.

You can be active doing anything however you can only be really productive by identifying your highest value tasks and setting about undertaking them in an efficient manner that will bring an effective result in as little time as possible.

Anyone working on commission immediately recognises the difference between active and productive because they only get paid for the productive work. They can be as active as they like but if that activity does not, for example, get a sale they don’t get paid.

How you avoid it

If you ever wonder “am I being productive” answer these three questions.

• What are my highest value activities and is what I’m doing now one of them?
• Why am I on the payroll? What exactly have I been employed to achieve, in measurable results and does what I’m currently doing achieve all or some of that?
• What is the most valuable use of my time right now and is that what I’m doing?

If you can answer yes to the three questions above you can be sure you're working on the right tasks, you know what you should be doing and you're being super productive as well.

For more tips and techniques on how to best use your time click here Effective Time Management Strategies and get my free report "11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them"

Remember this, "To have the time of your life create some time for your life"

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The Difference Between Efficient and Effective

To improve your productivity you need to either increase your efficiency your effectiveness or increase both at the same time. To do that, you need to know the difference between the two, because it's pretty easy to get them mixed up.

Efficiency represents the time and effort involved in doing something based on the approach you decide to use. Increasing efficiency means finding a faster easier or less wasteful way of getting the same result.

Effectiveness is very different. It's about whether the actions you're taking actually produce the results you want.

Productivity is a result of both efficiency and effectiveness. You need both to be very productive. If you're effective but not efficient you'll get the results you want, but you'll waste a lot of time, effort and energy in the process.

If you're efficient but not effective, you'll get a lot of "stuff" done, but it may not
produce the results you ultimately want. Efficiency is about doing things the right way and effectiveness is about doing the right things

One of the best ways to increase your efficiency is to undertake short term prioritization and long term planning. As long as you have a plan you have an idea of how you're going to get to where you want to be

Planning ahead makes achieving things so much easier, clearer, prevents panic, loss of focus and lets you enjoy the ride.

One of the best Planning tools I know is the one I use myself to plan all my projects it’s called “Achieve Planner” its pure gold and I couldn't do without it. The best thing of all is you get to try it for 30 days FREE of charge AND you don’t have to give credit card information up front either.

If in 30 days you aren’t blown away with how completely organized you are, simply do NOTHING. Your link will be terminated and that’s that. You really have nothing to lose and everything to gain by just clicking here you'll be amazed at the results

Why Goal Setting Should Be Like Swine Flu

Recently you’ve been able to cast your eyes over the media and see swine flu is everywhere. In the UK there’s been cases reported on a daily basis. Headlines scream “No End to the Pandemic.” It makes me wonder what would happen if one of the best time saving tools known to man or woman ‘Goal Setting’ spread in the same way?

What if suddenly everyone woke up to the power of goal setting and how it can change their life for the good forever? What if instead of people finding reasons why they can’t be, do or have that special something they have always dreamed of they decided “this is my goal and I WILL get it.”

Not just one person but thousands in every country in the world. The media reports would be terrific there would be announcements like “yet more goal setting has broken out in California USA and reports have been received that ‘goals fever’ is spreading to Canada and Mexico as well. Every where you look people are setting goals and going about achieving them. TV stations report a huge drop in viewing figures although ‘Goals for Gain’ is now the top rated show in the USA and Europe” or something like that?

If positive action spread as quickly as a pandemic there would be purposeful change on a global scale in weeks if not days. Millions of people would wake up to the realisation that they, not anyone else are the architects of their future. They would see that failure is nothing to be afraid of it’s just a guide as to what doesn’t work which enables them to try something else.

Only about 3% of people have written goals. Less than that have a system that helps them plan how they will achieve those goals. Consider this; without written goals and a plan to achieve them you never truly know if you’re heading in the right direction. You could waste years doing things that take you away from not closer to what you truly desire.

If you go on a car journey 99% of the time you decide where it is your going first then use either sat-nav or a map to help you get there (set the goal then devise the plan). You don’t just get on any bus you get on the one that takes you to where you want to go and to do that you have to have decided on a destination. We do this type of mega short goal setting and planning all day long without even thinking about it.

I ask you this; can you honestly say your life would be worse if you had written short, medium and long term goals and a step by step plan of how you were going to achieve them? Didn’t think so! Start today; don’t waste any more time being your own rudderless ship. Take action right now and encourage others to do so as well and maybe we can spread something good?

PS

If you wouldn’t know where to begin with how to set meaningful life changing goals just drop me a line using ‘Help with goals’ as the subject matter to len@lenfoster.com and I’ll send you a foolproof method that gets the job done completely Free of charge.

If you would like more FREE time management tips and strategies download my FREE report 11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them at http://www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com/

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Fail To Plan And You Plan To Fail

People who fail to plan, plan to fail, of that I am convinced mainly because I have seen it happen so many times. One of the main reasons projects totally fail, fall behind or are completed late is lack of or poor planning. Planning is one of the most important management skills I know.

A plan is applicable to just about any task or project. Without a well formed plan there is no idea of how long a project will take, what the sequence of operations are and where the critical path lies.

Why it is a problem!

Planning is one of the most critical activities in time management. The general rule is one minute spent planning can save three in execution. This rule however does not stop people from planning poorly or ignoring the need to plan at all.

You get every excuse under the sun for why people don’t plan. Not enough time, work too complicated, it’s not for me, it’s too constraining or I do this all the time so I don’t need to plan.

All these excuses are actually people’s ways of justifying why they don’t plan. It’s what they tell themselves to rationalise why they are failing to do something so fundamental to their success. The actual reason people fail to plan is usually attributed to one of the following

1) Because people don’t appreciate the value of planning they are happy to work on the assumption it has none. Nothing could be further from the truth.

2) People say they do well without planning. REALITY CHECK. They are doing well despite their lack of planning however, if they were to plan more and measure the results they may well do a awful lot better than just ‘well.’

3) Planning takes time and you don’t see the results strait away – no instant gratification. You can put together a great programme for a project that’s well thought out, logistically sound and work is phased for maximum output. It’s only after about a month or so that you see the evidence of just how well that plan is coming together.

4) Planning is a skill that is learned like any other skill. It can be done well or done badly. Just because someone can make a list or knows A goes before B does not mean they can plan effectively. Not being able to plan effectively is one of the main reasons people don’t do it. Keep the plan simple; use the KISS method – “Keep It Simple Stupid”

“It’s a simple task to make things complex, but a complex task to make things simple” (Meyer’s Law)

How you avoid it!

One of the most fundamental things you can do to help you become an effective planner is take the time to Plan what you have to do in advance of actually doing it.

You can design your ideal day for maximum productivity and Plan your weeks to balance your important long-term projects with your pressing short-term tasks.

Having a Plan means you can separate your projects from your tasks. This helps you focus on outcomes and not just actions.

If you work with multiple projects create a master plan to capture, organize and manage ALL of your project requirements in one central place.

Having a Plan means that when you wake up each morning, you’ll KNOW exactly what you need to do that day and you’ll know where and how to get started.

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Use your cell phone as a time management tool

The only people I know who dont use a mobile phone on a regular basis are either dead, are a hundred and something and live in mountains in Tibet or haven't learned to talk yet. So this tip by Phil Starn is great for the rest of us

ENJOY!

Use your cell phone as a time management tool

by PHIL STARN on AUGUST 5, 2009

Many cell phones allow you to set an alarm or a reminder at a certain time or date. Even if you don’t own one of the latest smart phones that come with killer time management applications, it is possible to use your cell phone as a time management tool (even if it’s 5 years old like mine). The following cell phone tips are usable on just about any cell phone – the only features it needs to support are alarms and reminders.

You could use your cell phone alarms and reminders to:

• Remember birthdays

My cell phone is recent enough to come with a basic calendar, which I use as a reminder of my friends birthdays. I’ve always been horrible with dates, so I even setup an alarm to warn me one day before the birthday. I set the event to be recurrent every year, so I don’t have to bother setting it up again for the next year.

• Make sure you don’t miss an important deadline

You know the kind: “How am I going to remember that!” you tell yourself. And before you realize it, you missed it. If you have an appointment or deadline you are predisposed to miss, set up an alarm to remind you of your appointment a few hours before it happens.

• Take a medication

Remembering to take a medication every day can be a real pain, especially if you are somewhat active – never home at the same time at night and sometimes sleeping all morning, it’s easy to forget. Simply set up an alarm on your cell phone to remind you to take it (especially handy when you carry your medication on you).

• Know when you’re available

You’re receiving social invitations left and right and can’t seem to figure out when you’re available? Simply mark all your events in the calendar on your cell phone. You’ll see right away if you’re available when someone invites you to an event.

• Organize your day

Respect your time budget throughout the day by setting alarms on your cell phone to warn you of different time periods. Never miss a break period again!

• Alarm clocks anywhere

Whether you’re traveling alone and dozing off at the airport, are afraid the (sometimes complicated) hotel room alarm clock doesn’t fire off, or are having a lunch nap at work, your cell phone alarm clock is often overlooked and can be used just as that – an alarm clock.

Have you found any innovative ways to use your cell phone alarms and reminders? Share your cell phone tips with us in the comments below

To get your FREE copy of “11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them” go to

http://www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com/