Are You Feeling Overwhelmed And Not Getting Things Done? – 7 Ways To Get More Done

By Leave a Comment

Juggle-time-154x300Time is the great equalizer. Everyone gets the same number of hours to work and play each day. No matter who you are, where you live and what you do you get a 24-hour cycle just like everyone else. One person may be wealthier than another, but that doesn’t earn her a minute more in a 24 hour period than the poorest among us all.

Discovering how to manage your time is part mental reorganization and part creating a system. It can be tempting to use interruptions as an excuse to postpone a project or task. Secretly we sometimes welcome the interlude. How convenient it is to have someone else to blame for not getting to a project. What we are really talking about here is procrastination.

The dictionary defines procrastination is the act of putting off, postponing or delaying intentionally and habitually something that ought to be done.

The lack of action might make you feel regretful for putting things off and not being productive. You become stressed and this becomes a excuse to postpone your actions even further.

Here’s what you may not have thought about, procrastination causes you to have a low sense of self-esteem, feel unworthy and worry that you are not meeting expectations. That’s because when you procrastinate, you are likely to overestimate the scope of a project until the thought of doing it overwhelms you to paralysis and nothing gets done. It’s said that procrastinators are frequently perfectionist who expect too much from themselves and become out of touch with their goals and dreams.

There are a lot of ways to avoid success in your life, but the most direct just might be procrastination. Procrastinators undermine themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. They actually choose paths that hurt their own performance.

  1. According to Dr Gail Saltz If there is something you need to do and not doing it you probably have a conflict about doing it. So the first to do in this case is to write down a list of the reasons you’re not doing the” thing ,” so you can consciously evaluate how valid they are. Decide if its something you are afraid of. Then make another list that hast to do with the first week, make a plan so you can start doing baby steps. When you put those things down clearly conscious on a piece of paper it helps you start moving in the right direction.
  2. Procrastination isn’t a problem of time management or of planning. Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time. Instructing someone who is a chronic procrastinator to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just “let go and be happy.” It’s not going to work..
  3. Procrastinators are made not born. It’s a learned behavior, but not directly. Procrastination can even be a form of rebellion, one which you and only you are controlling the situation. Procrastinators often turn more to friends or family for support, who may unintentionally reinforce their putting things off habit because they tend to tolerate their explanations.
  4. Procrastinators often deceive themselves with self-perpetuating excuses such as, “I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow.” Or “I work best under pressure.” But the truth is you won’t get the urge to get it done tomorrow nor do you work best under pressure
  5. Procrastinators seek distractions, mostly those that don’t require commitment. For example checking e-mail is almost perfect for this purpose. They distract themselves as a way of controlling their feelings. To set yourself up to get things done you need to make sure you remove all distractions. Turn off your phone, Skype, IM, and emails while you’re in focus time. If you work around other people put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door. It’s uninterrupted focus time
  6. There are huge costs to procrastination. Health is one. Impaired immune systems in the form of more colds, flu, gastrointestinal problems and insomnia. If you get sick frequently take a look around you to see if you have been overwhelmed and frustrated recently. Maybe not getting things done. Under optimal conditions, the immune system is much more able to help the body heal itself. However, when conditions are not optimal, guide meditation or focused inner reflection can help the conscious mind perceive what the immune system requires the body to do to facilitate healing.
  7. Procrastinators tend to shift responsibility onto others, causing resentment. Taking full responsibility may not be any fun but it keeps your relationships strong and healthy. Make yourself accountable.

Just like breaking any habit procrastination tendencies won’t change overnight. When the thought of doing something is so overwhelming that it keeps you from taking action, one way to overcome this paralysis is to meditate on the thought itself. Imagine enclosing the dreaded task in a bubble and watch if flow away. What’s left? A thing that simply needs doing. So, do it!

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: , , , , ,

“Who’s the Boss?” 7 Ways to Take Control of Your Mind

By Leave a Comment

MH900284969At first glance, it would seem that positive thinking and time management have nothing to do with one another. But many of us who are natural born clutters develop negative thinking patterns because we become exasperated by our challenges and frequent feelings of being overwhelmed. This negative attitude then makes it more difficult to control our feelings and move forward.

Practicing positive thinking allows you to focus on your accomplishments, which increases happiness and improves motivation. This, allows you to spend more time getting things done, and less time feeling stuck. The following tips provide practical suggestions that you can use to help you shift into more positive thinking patterns:

1. Take Good Care of Yourself

It’s much easier to be positive when you are eating well, exercising, and getting enough rest. Commit to doing something good every day. Start with a single effort, maybe it’s eating just one healthy meal if you keep that up then it will be 2 healthy meals until you choose to eat healthy all the time. Sometime failure comes from trying to make a 360 degree change in one day.

2. Be Unceasingly Grateful

Daily Stressors won’t seem quite as bad when you are constantly reminding yourself about the things that are right in life. Take just one minutes every day to stop and appreciate the good things will makes an enormous difference.

3. Avoid Absolutes

Have you ever caught yourself saying (or thinking) to family or friends “You’re ALWAYS late!” or criticized a good friend by saying “You NEVER call me?” Thinking and speaking in absolutes like ‘always’ and ‘never’ makes the situation seem worse than it is, and programs your brain into believing that certain people are incapable of delivering.

4. Disconnect From Negative Thoughts

Unfortunately, most of us have had the wrong kind of programming most of our life. Year after year, word by word, our life scripts were etched. We begin to believe what we’ve been told by others and most of it negative. Now here’s the good news your thoughts can’t hold any influence over you if you don’t judge them as true. If you notice yourself having a negative thought, disconnect from it. Don’t argue with it don’t judge it as bad just notice and let it go.

5. Practice You’ve Got That Lovin feeling – Give a Hug

You don’t have to be a genius to know the value of a good hug. Positive physical contact with friends, loved ones, and even pets, is an instant stress buster. Giving a hug serves to benefits, first you get instant stress relief, second you make somebody else feel mighty good!

6. Get Out and Get social

By increasing social activity, you reduce loneliness, and keep your mind on things other than yourself and your challenges. Surround yourself with healthy, happy people, and their positive energy will affect you in a positive way!

7. Volunteer Give a Hand To Get a Hand

Everyone feels good after helping somebody else. You can volunteer your time, your money, or your resources. The more positive energy you put out into the world, the more you will receive in return.

We all want to be more productive. But that can be pretty tuff when you don’t control how you spend your time. One of the biggest time wasters is the inactivity that occurs when you feel stressed and ruminate on all the negative things that may come into your day. Positive thinking is more than just a good thing to do, it’s emotionally healthy and can make you financially wealthy.

Filed Under: positive thinking, Time management Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Eliminate Time Clutter – Create A Not To Do List

By Leave a Comment

MH900104872 If you’re busy and overwhelmed like most people you’ll likely have some sort of to-do list going. It could be in the form of a notebook, a computer, mobile device or even heaven forbid a piece of paper. But some days looking at the list just makes me feel crazy. There is so many things to do that sometimes I get the feeling the list has “legs” of its own like a centipede.

In others words the list seems to keep growing and growing without my help. In my experience at some point the list becomes an alligator…one that bites.

So how do you get control of your to-do list?

How about creating a not to do list instead? Because we’ve either heard and use these terms so often a great deal of our thinking comes from, No I won’t, don’t know how, cant get it done, part of our brain. I sometimes use this same concept with my list. Here’s how it goes.

Take this article for instance. Most people would write on their to-do list get an article written by a specific date. Instead I might put on my not to-do list something like:

Not to waste time doing things that is not going to be of value to my clients. That forces me to focus on what I need to do first which is to add value. Because quite frankly, saying to myself write an article is not always an effective motivating factor for me. But when I think about giving value that can have an affect that motivates me to take appropriate action. In this case the action I take will provide the most value for my clients.

Let me give you another example. Maybe I need to clean the bathroom and let’s face, it that’s one of my least favorite jobs (maybe it’s your least favorite too). I change that thought to “not to have my bathroom unprepared for company.”

Here’s the deal. Our mind if a funny thing. It’s so use to the negative, it can be difficult to continuously focus on something positive. In fact, it would take an extraordinary the effort to focus on something positive all the time. And this of course causes stress

So here are some ideas of what to put on your not-to-do list:

  • I am not going to get distracted from the most important thing I can do today (whatever that thing is). If I think about not getting distracted that automatically makes me think about the things I need to focus on.
  • I am Not going to get confuse and buy into the idea that activity equals productivity. Instead do something that you know will move you closer toward your goals
  • I won’t going to attend events including teleseminars or teleclasses that I not willing to take the actions directed by the trainer. Instead carefully select the events you plan to attend.
  • I won’t confuse eating fewer meals with losing weight. Instead accept it’s all about the actual food choices you make when you eat.
  • I won’t look at and respond to each email when it arrives. Instead select a time of day such at 9 am 12 noon and 4:30 pm and spend only 15 – 30 minutes reviewing and responding to email.
  • I am not going to work through lunch. Instead plan your lunch and take a break away from your work.
  • I can’t work non-stop for hours on end without a breather. Instead I use a 30 minute hour glass to time my activities, then I take a break. One quick stress busting activity is to simply take a deep breath. When your body is under stress, breathing becomes shallow. You might even notice you hold your breath. Taking a deep breath releases tension instantly. Oxygen immediately starts to flow to the cells. Energy is free to move throughout your body. Taking a deep breath after 30 minutes of deep focused work just might make you work a little bit smarter.
  • I am not going to give up on my goal even when I feel tired. Instead remember why you had the goal in the first place.

This simple way of thinking helps you stop and think about what you’re doing that might be getting in the way of reaching your objectives. It also relieves you of the constant burden of trying to think positive all the time.

So what are you going to put on your not to do list?

Filed Under: goals, positive thinking, stress free living, Time management Tagged With: , , , , ,

Stress Free Living – Using Self Talk To Conquer Fear

By Leave a Comment

Fear of failure, fear of change, even fear of success can hold you back from creating a   life by design.  Uncertainty and doubt can and will erode your  self confidence and lower your  self esteem.  The one thing in life you can be sure of,  is we all have fear.  Being afraid is a normal part of living but letting fear hold the key to your happiness will undoubtedly affect your joy for living.

The first step to eliminating fear is identifying the cause. Self talk is ineffective unless you understand the root of the problem. When fear overrules your life it effects both your   mind and body.

We talk to ourselves all day every day.  Except most of the time we say negative things to ourselves.
“Nobody likes me”
“I can’t get anything right”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me”
“I’m so dumb”
Does any of this sound familiar?
Self-talk is more then just positive thinking and positive talk.  Thinking about something and never taking action is just thinking.  Yes you’ll feel better but it will have a limited impact on your life unless you take that thinking and add a quotient of action.

So when you look at it that way, self-talk at least effective self-talk, is action talk.  You can say to yourself all day everyday for a year “I’m successful”  but if there’s no action behind the words it’s pretty meaningless.

Do not let fear control your life. Self-talk will help you to do anything you want when your use positive thinking. Some people are afraid to climb over a fence. To overcome this fear of going over the fence, tell yourself you can do it. Face it and force yourself to go over the fence to the other side. Overcoming a fear systematically and self-talk your way through each step will help you to accomplish this fear. Think positive you can and will do it to succeed.

The key is to talk small steps every day.  When a negative thought comes into your mind reverse it with something positive.  And most importantly take an action step to reinforce the positive self-talk.

You are in control of your own desitiny, by the actions you take each and every day.  Be self-aware, and  self-confident to improve your self-esteem.

Filed Under: positive thinking, self improvement, stress free living, Time management, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Stress Free Living with 10 Daily Management Tips

By Leave a Comment

Time management isn’t a seminar you attend or a book you read. Time management is a process that must be engaged every day to be effective. Some of the most frustrated, disorganized people in any office are the ones with the most time management books on their shelves.

It’s not that these books were ineffective. Rather in their frantic workday, these people “didn’t have time” to read the time management books! In the interest of keeping it simple, these tips could set you on the way to getting serious about time management as you see the value unfold:

  1. Get a day planner and use it faithfully. No more sticky notes with reminders and appointments scattered around your desk, car and refrigerator at home. Keep all appointments and reminder in just one place, your day planner.
  2. Create a daily “to do” list. If you do this on your computer, you can easily move around items as you prioritize the day. If on paper, you can code the items with numbers or letters for: Urgent, Need to Do Today, Can Do This Week.
  3. Read your To-Do list first thing in the morning. Don’t touch newspaper, open email or answer the phone until you see the road map for your day.
  4. Review your To-Do list at mid-day and end of day to see what was accomplished and what remains to be completed.
  5. At the end of the day, transfer the items remaining to tomorrow’s or Monday’s list. If possible, remove any items that are not significant.
  6. Delegate as much as possible to an assistant, colleague or associate. If you work independently, consider hiring a Virtual Assistant for a few hours per week. The price is right and there’s no obligation as with hiring an employee. This is particularly effective if you travel or spend much time outside the office.
  7. Attend only the meetings that are absolutely necessary to do your job. Avoid any meetings that you can. Unless a meeting is run well with an agenda, there is usually wasted time chatting.
  8. Close your door when you are focusing on a task or put up a sign on your cubicle asking people to stop by later when you are finished with this work.
  9. Let voice mail answer your phone while you are focusing on an important task.
  10. Say “no” as often as possible when you have reached your work limits. That means saying no to overtime or taking work home. When you are mentally or physically exhausted you don’t do your best work and you need to say so.

It’s easy to stay on track with time management once you commit to changing your daily habits. Just put the above tips into action and you should see more free time throughout your day.

Filed Under: stress free living, Time management Tagged With: ,

Stress Free Living – 7 Signs You’re Experiencing Time Management Stress

By Leave a Comment

Living stress free requires time management skills.  The most difficult part of time management is to resolve that you actually do want to manage your time. In life, you quickly learn that your days fill up incredibility fast. You find yourself hurried and rushing to do all that you have on your to-do list. Constantly putting out fires, dealing with last minute crisis, and taking care of the unending details leave you little spare time for anything else and quite frankly exhausted and unable to think clearly.

If you never seem to have enough time to get anything finished you might feel constant, chronic stress. Have you ever seem to notice an hour might fly by like it’s five minutes or crawl by like it’s three hours. Sometimes your workday is over in a flash, and sometimes it feels like 5:00 P.M. when it’s only 11:00 A.M.

Fortunately, managing your time more effectively is something you can learn. Maybe you don’t experience time-related stress. Let’s find out. Take a look at the following list and check off what seems to describe you.

  1. I feel that I don’t have enough time for myself, my family or my friends
  2. I feel I waste too much time
  3. I find myself always rushing
  4. I find I don’t have the time to do the things I really enjoy
  5. I find I frequently miss deadlines or late for appointments
  6. I find I procrastinate too frequently
  7. I virtually never work with some type of priority or to-do list

Stress Free Living- 7 Signaling You’re Experiencing Time Stress

Checking off one or two items on this list indicates your time management skills require a tune up. If your time is organized and you are able to devote your full concentration to one task at a time, times seems to expand in quantity and quality. You get something finished. You feel a sense of satisfaction. The time won’t creep by, like it does when your enduring something painful.

Learning how to manage time efficiently takes some practice, but if you have a plan, time management is easy.

1. Begin Small
2. Identify your time management issues
3. Concentrate on your top three
4. Just say no
5. Let it go

You can begin living stress free today.

Filed Under: stress, stress free living, Time management Tagged With: , ,

Managing Time Or Doing Time

By Leave a Comment

Managing your phone time especially when your doing business online at home can be a date with disaster. No matter what type of business you’re in, you’ll find a number of reasons you need to use a telephone.  You may need to reassure a client who needs to hear a real human voice or  talk to a colleague about a situation that requires more immediate attention. The problem is, however, that phone use, can be stressful and cause you plenty of problems, especially if you let it get out of control.

For many of us, nothing seems simpler than calling someone up to chat.  While we may intend for the call to be short and professional, there is a good chance that you’ll spend a lot longer on the phone than you thought you  would, and before you know it, the day has sped by and your efficiency has gone out the window. The work you intended (your intentions are always good in the beginning aren’t they?) to get done is put off until later.  Have you ever experienced this?  Most of us don’t think about the phone as a source of stress.  But if it’s effecting your business and the bottom line then the phone use may be out of control and a cause of stress.

How much time are you spending on the phone?   When you’re on the phone, you’re breaking your concentration. Once you finish the call and head back to the task at hand, it takes about a half an hour to refocus on what you were doing prior to the call.  If you put together all the time you devote to calls during the course of the day, from getting the number, to talking on the phone, to getting back to work how long does it take?  The time that you actually spend “on the phone” just might surprise you.

If you have to be on the phone to do business i.e. call prospects frequently just the opposite is true.  You can evaluate your productivity by how much time is spent avoiding the phone. Even if you live with your phone in what seems like attached to your ear. In order to combat the time wasting telephone and start making your phone calls and make your other tasks more productive for your business, try putting this practice into place:

  • Determine how often do you take calls
  • Are the number of call detracting you from your work or contributing to your bottom line
  • Does the phone ringing distract you and you feel the need to find out who’s calling

Here are some tips control phone use:

  • Turn the ringer off if the phone ringing is distracting
  • Set up the times when you will make your calls
  • Set up a rough call time limit based on your average call time
  • Make sure you know  what topics need to be discussed before you call

The phone is a tool to make your business more productive.  If that’s not happening, it’s time to develop a better use of this invaluable tool.   Remember, your time is precious and your business is important, so don’t let the telephone distract you anymore than it has to.

Filed Under: self improvement, stress management, Stress Management Tips, Time management Tagged With: , , ,