Time Management 101 Part 2

Last month I wrote a post about some basic Time Management techniques that work for me.  I just had another epiphany that I thought was worth sharing.

I dont know any “perfect” people.  I dont care how self-aware, self actualized, together, integrated, synergized, etc you might be, just about every conscious person is regularly working on themselves, working to improve on who they were yesterday.  Richard Branson is no different. Jack Canfield is no different. I’m no different.

So, today I noticed something different about my own productivity.  It is President’s Day here in the US and  the stock market, schools, banks and many businesses are closed.  In my world, that means two things:  I am not paying any attention to my portfolio and I have way less emails to “deal with.”

I got into my office this morning and just dove into work, productive and (theoretically) income producing work.  Not the usual time sink I find myself in for a typical Monday through Friday.

Often dominated by the markets and email.  Most books on trading I have read suggest that you really can spend only a few minutes a day (unless you are day trading) managing your portfolio.  You must have a system (which takes time to establish and discipline to implement) that includes taking profits and protecting losses with limits and stops.

Email should be addressed ruthlessly and quickly and only a couple of times a day.  I am “usually” good about this but not always (refer back to my comment about everyone can improve).  Somedays I am more “lonely” than others (working by and for yourself has it’s own drawbacks) and really am looking for someone to talk to.

The whole point of this is that because of an outside condition (President’s Day), I am able to free myself from distractions that I should be able to do on my own any darn day I want to.

Something to think about.

Of course, I could always do another blog post.  Or no….WAIT!  The spot market for gold is open in London.  Let’s go there!

Time Management 101

Educator and speaker Stedman Graham says that the 24 hours in a day is what makes us all equal. It’s what we do with it that makes the difference.

Most of us are text book time wasters and procrastinators. Does not work if you want to make progress in your life, be a success in your business, etc. So, here are a couple of ideas.

Break whatever tasks/goals/to do’s that you have for the day into 15 minute chunks. Focus for that 15 minutes on getting one thing done. After the 15 minutes, look back for a few seconds, acknowledge what you did, what you learned, what you are going to do next. For bigger project, it may be just continue on with the job.

Yes, you can get totally lost in your work and hours just disappear. Most people who work for themselves or at home dont have that problem.

Tip number 2: get a cheap-o digital timer/alarm. I bought one on ebay for $1 (I think the shipping was $4 … funny business model where your profit center is on the shipping markup and not the product itself)

I use the internet for all kinds of things - research, online marketing, blogging etc etc. Continuously available source of distraction. When I open up my browser, all bets are off for how long I will get lost in all of the amazingly cool stuff you can find “out there.”

I put 2-5 minutes (depending on what it is I’m in for) on my digital baby sitter alarm and when it goes off, if I have got what I wanted, I get out immediately. If not, I get it immediately and get out.

You can use the timer in association with the 15 minutes idea as well.

Amazing what you can get done.