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Archive for the ‘Time Management’ Category
Do You Filter Information? (Like You Filter Coffee)
Two of my favourite topics, good coffee – and information!
Coffee first… I much prefer the taste of percolated and shop bought coffee.
When I set up the coffee percolator the other day I missed adding one of the parts that is absolutely critical to make good coffee – the filter. Impatiently I waited, wondering why the coffee was taking so very long. Yes really, it was so slow… I wasn’t just being an impatient coffee drinker.
I turned off the coffee maker and pondered on it for a moment as I swished the very dark and grainy coffee around in the bottom of the pot. It looked very much like a swamp would look when it’s got a lot of algae… except that it was brown.
My first thought, “Oh no, my coffee machine is broken!” I very quickly decided that nah; that absolutely could not, would not be the case and blindly went in search for the problem.
Oh dear… you have probably guessed it by now…
I had forgotten to add the plastic filter insert to the coffee percolator. That explained it. That would definitely, 100% be the cause of dark brown coffee with chunks in it.
Rather than wasting it, I offered it around to all my family (lol, no way!!!). Nah, I ended up disposing of the whole 10 cups (and what a waste of coffee that was).
Mmm, now to start again… add the filter… watch the coffee as it streams through to make sure it’s doing what I want for it to do this time. Looks good… and tastes perfect!
Your probably wondering what any of this has to do with filtering information?
Think about the masses of information on the web – and offline as well actually.
Every single day we are provided many opportunities to stumble upon more and more information. Some is really good information… some is useless… and some really just shouldn’t be out there.
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
You might know the saying ‘Stop, Revive and Survive’. It’s a well known motto in Australia that reminds us not to drive when we are tired. It reminds us to periodically stop, have a break, stretch and maybe even stop for a coffee so that we can last out the journey.
This motto made me think of work. In particular it made me wonder how many people sit there for 12 hours a day or longer, in front of the computer without barely a break. It also made me wonder how many people work seven days, burning the candle at both ends so to speak. We can sustain for a time, but where does this leave us long term?
It is important for our health in so many ways to take a periodical break. It could be to break for morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea. It might be to go for a walk to the post office to post or maybe collect the mail, or to drop by the corner store to stock up on our milk supply… after all plenty of exercise and fresh air is great for an active brain!!
You are probably thinking here, but wouldn’t this mean that I would be procrastinating?
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Admin & Time Management for Business
I found the definition of Time Management on Wiki to be quite interesting. I also found it to be a bit long-winded and partially confusing when I was reading through it. Is it really that complex? I think it probably is!
The time management methods that one person might use aren’t necessarily right for the next person. Also, those methods used seem to be forever changing, because it is continually evolving as people learn and implement their new ideas. Books about both how to grow our business and life balance seem to emphasize time management as being a key skill that needs to be learned and mastered. When the book or coach does not speak directly about time management; for example they might speak about leadership, or marketing, or lead generation…, but the mechanism that makes these models either successful or non-successful I would have to say is the overarching administration or management of each of these methods.
So what am I saying? That if we are looking at developing a model of leadership, or client fulfillment, or a marketing method, we should also look at our time management skills, and we would need to develop a good administrative system in view to maximize the opportunity for these models to work effectively.
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10 Tips for More Effective Time Management
1. Record how you currently spend your time to give you an idea of how you can utilise your time more effectively.
2. Use the time log to help identify what time of the day is your “prime time” so that you can plan those more important tasks around this time.
3. Plan Your Work. Work Your Plan!
4. Set a bit of time aside each evening to plan for the next day, you might;
- Check you diary to see what is coming up.
- Get your things together for that meeting you will be attending, or the presentation you will be giving the next day.
- Plan what you would like to achieve for the day and allocate times to achieve those items.
Think of it this way; that small amount of time you spend this evening will go a long way towards you feeling more in control for tomorrow.
5. A question to ask yourself when you start something is “Why am I doing this right now”. This will help for you to not waste your time, or another persons time. If you are procrastinating then it will help get you back on track.
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