10 Tiny Time Management Tips

“I don’t have time for time management.”

I hear this excuse often from those who aren’t taking control of their time and life.

Instead, they use the “too busy” excuse to put off getting organized and being more productive in their daily activities.

If this is you, today I have 10 tiny time management tips that you can fit into your too busy day.

Too Little Time for Time Management?

I don’t buy the “I don’t have time for time management” excuse.

Time management doesn’t (and shouldn’t be) a time intensive effort.

“Time management should save time, not take time.” (Tweet this Quote)  

By investing in your time management skills you should actually have more time in your day. And the best time management habits fade into the background and become part of your daily routine.

Below are 10 tiny time management tips. Bite-sized if you will.

Each are small, and each are immediately usable in your daily activities.

So, if you don’t have time for time management…

Here are 10 Tiny Time Management Tips:

1. Plan Your Day – Spend 10 minutes planning your day each morning. (Set a timer if you must…) These few minutes can save you hours of misfortune and wasted effort. They can prevent missed opportunities, last-minute scrambles, and life stress.
2. Make Your TODAY List – Each day, take your todo list and highlight the “Top 5 Tasks” that you must get done today. This is your TODAY List. You will get these tasks done first and no matter what life throws at you today.
3. Get up 30 Minutes Early – You can be an early bird. Getting up 30 minutes earlier will let you be ahead of the day. Whether that means getting a task done early, getting out the door on time, or even beating the morning commute.
4. Be Early to Appointments – When it comes to meetings and appointments, “10 Minutes Early is on Time.” Leave for your appointments with enough time to be comfortably early. You will avoid being the “always late” one, and in the few minutes ahead of the meeting you can relax or get caught up.
5. Have a Notebook – This is the tool most often missing from people’s time management system. Whether on paper or on your phone via something like Evernote, have a place to capture important information and notes. Avoid using Post-Its and the random scraps of paper.
6. Rule Your Phone – Stop letting your phone rule your life. It is there for your convenience, not that of others. Answer it only when it is convenient. Check it only when you need something. Turn off the chimes and notifications.
7. Stay Out of Your Inbox – Email is not your job. Stay out of your inbox except for a few designated times each day. Instead, concentrate on your priorities, and your email will still be there when you check back.
8. Clean Your Desk – Take 5 minutes and clean up even a few things on your desk. A clean workspace not only lets you get more done, but it reduces stress. Don’t wait until cleaning your workspace becomes an all day affair, do it in small increments every day.
9. Take a Break – To be more productive, you actually have to rest every once in a while. A five-minute break can reset your mind and rejuvenate your energy level. Go outside, walk around the building, or just take a few deep breaths of peace.
10. Don’t Waste Time Complaining – When you catch yourself complaining or being negative… STOP. Instead of wasting your breath and time, do something productive with that time.

Tiny Productivity Tips

The truth is that you do have time to be more productive.

Time management skills will help you get more done with less effort.

Practice these 10 tiny tips and have more time in your day.

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Finding Focus

Do you ever have one of those days when you just can’t seem to find focus? When you fritter away your time on nothingnesses, distractions, wandering without really doing something important?

Or one of those weeks?

focusratings.com

I have those days regularly. I can find myself “working” for several hours, but at the end of those several hours have nothing to show for it. I feel like I’m floating around, with no anchor, no focal point.

So how do we find focus?

Take a step back. Back away from the browser and the phone, and give yourself a moment’s space to think.

What do you really want to do right now? What’s most important? What kind of person do you want to be?

Maybe you have 5 things you want to do. Pick one. Subtract.

Once you’re clear, you need to clear everything. Bookmark all your tabs (Cmd-Shift-D in Chrome), quit the browser if you don’t need it or close all open tabs if you do. Close all programs you don’t need. Have only the window/tab open that you absolutely need.

Now sit there with your task. Dive in. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted.

You’ll have the urge to go check something. That’s a nice urge — just watch it and smile. Don’t act on the urge. Just smile. Now go back to what you chose to do.

Do it for 10 minutes, however long you feel is pushing the boundaries of what’s comfortable for a little bit.

Then give yourself a nice reward: a short walk, some stretches, checking the thing you had the urge to check (but only for 5 minutes), meditation, read a book, or have some tea. Now go back.

Repeat. With a smile.


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3 Habits Surprisingly Killing Your Productivity

Yesterday about 6:30 p.m. a gaping sense of panic set in. Did I send that article? Wait, did I finish that article? Hey, did I eat today? Why are the lights off? Did everyone leave? How did this happen to me, again?

I was content with my accomplishments that day, never leaving my workstation.

At one point, I responded to twenty emails, while answering the phone. In addition, I scheduled five meetings, created a beautiful report with splashy graphics and squeezed in assisting a teammate.

Turns out my leg muscles were cramped, two of those meetings were scheduled at the same time and a bewildered client called to inquire why I emailed her regarding my cat, Mr. Whiskers. By the way, I missed the crucial deadline, never having forwarded the article.

Sound familiar? I’m positive I’m not the only one that thinks I’m helping myself, yet in reality, has developed destructive habits that have directly affected my level of productivity.

Take a look at these three top offenders and recommendations on how to counteract these habits.

For Goodness Sake Don’t Skip The Break

We spend our lives wishing for more time. Convinced the only way to add time to the clock is to skip our breaks. Should we honestly wonder why our brains are feeling fuzzy and we are severely unfocused?
Set a reminder on your calendar, don’t ignore it. When it goes off, stand up, stroll around the room. 

Better yet, wander outside, breathe in fresh air. It’s a fact, brains require oxygen. Don’t be opposed to a quick set of jumping jacks just to ensure the blood begins to flow. Consider taking that lunch or break and consuming one of these superfoods that help support an active, productive, and healthy brain.

Provided you followed the above advice, the fog in your head is now clear, allowing your brain to return to creative problem solving. Built up stress between your shoulder blades has finally let go of it’s tight clutch. 

You’re coherent and ready to pounce on that massive project you have been ignoring.

In addition, a quick meditation break also can lower your stress, giving you back a sense of peace and purpose creating a joyful attitude. Come on, cheerful people are so much nicer to be around. Right?

Meet the Zen Master of Multitasking

For years we have all been proudly adding the title “King of the Multitaskers” to our resumes. Delighted we can type 80 wpm, send off a bunch of emails and call fifteen clients, simultaneously!

Turns out, this could be the most destructive habit that numerous people are still guilty of developing. 

Multitasking typically equals mediocre work, including a high percentage of mistakes. Studies have shown that if you are splitting your focal point between tasks, fragments of focus are pointing toward each of the tasks you are trying to accomplish. However, most of the attention is pointed towards the actual act of switching tasks potentially losing up to 40% of your productivity.

This explained why yesterday I dialed the wrong number five times before connecting with the right customer and why my best client received a lengthy email detailing Mr. Whisker’s infatuation with his new cat toy.

Desperate for a recommendation on how to break this loathsome routine? After wasted hours surfing the net (another habit to break), I stumbled on the Pomodoro Technique® . Surprisingly, this not only helped break me of the dreaded multitasking habit. It also aided with time management, forcing myself into those much needed breaks that were being ignored.

The Pomodoro Technique®, created by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980’s, focuses on utilizing twenty-five minute blocks of time to focus on a single activity, taking a mini break after each block and a larger break after completing four blocks of time. For me the key was prioritizing tasks, placing the most vital on the list into the early morning portion of the day. I began feeling exceptionally focused, completing two extra assignments per day.

Um…No?

A co-worker once gifted me a magnet, thinking it captured my attitude perfectly. It reads: “No, No I’m sorry I can’t, No….OK, I will be there Friday at 8:00.” So many of us can be categorized as people pleasers, never wanting to be heard saying no. We also like being viewed as willing to help and first to volunteer. 

Besides, some of us are under the impression that by being seen as the Yes Man for our supervisors, we are ensuring ourselves an opportunity to get ahead.

However, with today’s packed schedules, that behavior results in becoming bogged down. Trying to juggle tasks and complete assignments leads to sacrificing quality for quantity. We run the risk of pushing our calendars to maximum capacity as pleas for our assistance or requests for meetings flood into our inbox. 

In addition, with today’s economy, we are fearful that we will be out of a job if we use the dreaded “no” word.

Why are we afraid to say no? It could easily be traced to the fact that when most of us are learning how to talk one of our first words is “NO”. Soon after, our toddler selves learn this powerful word, our parents quickly reverse the knowledge insisting we don’t say it. We learn it can be rude, borderline impolite.

Consider this, saying yes can have negative consequences. Potentially sacrificing our own deadlines, turning assignments in late and completing less than superior work. Thusly, appearing incapable.

By trial and error I finally learned “no” is an acceptable response. I always try to include a reason and a possible alternative suggestion. It’s justifiable to state: I am up against a deadline. I have time available to assist you tomorrow.

If your boss asks you to take on an additional project, state your concerns. Share that you value the attention to detailed, quality work and you would feel it’s best to wrap up the current task you are working on before diving into this new assignment. Be prepared that his answer might also be no. If so, ask him to sit down with you and re-evaluate the order of priorities.

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Work with People you Admire

Adding Value 101

The right connection or partnership can change everything. That’s why so much of our focus at Live Your Legend comes back to environment. It’s also why we created our Connect With Anyone course and community (which we’ll be opening again soon).

We all have mentors, leaders, entrepreneurs and businesses we’d love to work with and learn from. So here’s a little idea on how to do it…

Help them.

And I’m not talking about sending an email saying “Thanks for doing the work you do. If I can ever help, please let me know.”

While that’s a nice gesture, it’s pretty much useless – because you’re asking them to do all the work to figure out how you could help them. But how are they supposed to know how you’re qualified to add value?

That’s why emails like that rarely get more than a “thank you” as a reply.

Instead, find a way to help them with something specific that you’re uniquely qualified to do.

Do a little work for them for free.

This connects on all kinds of levels. It shows you care, it gets you noticed, it showcases your talents and passions, it gives you a risk-free way to test out the type of value you can add to others, and if done right, it can lead to the kind of references, referrals, partnerships and careers that are nearly impossible to create through the traditional (and uber competitive) approaches.

I actually learned this one from a few of you, and it’s how I’ve found most of the people on the LYL team…

Three years ago, a reader noticed some typos in my work and offered up her professional editing services.  She ended up editing the first version of Live Off Your Passion for free and knocked it out of the park. Cherilyn now does all of my editing work.

Last year, one of our Connect With Anyone students reached out to offer help in editing some of our videos. He’d been editing broadcast TV for 20 years and seemed excited to work his magic to touch up some of our videos and create some new ones. I loved his work, and now it’s hard to think of having anyone else do our editing. Troyhas been working with us ever since. He’s also done the same to create value and connect with some of his biggest dream connections, which is why he’s one of our star CWA case studies (more about Troy’s story in another post).

A couple of years ago, I got an email from a reader offering to put our Facebook community into mastermind groups – something I’d never even thought of. Her groups changed a lot of lives, so I hired her to do the same for our Connect With Anyone course. Our custom mastermind placement has since become a core part of CWA. She later wrote a 56-page mastermind guide and workbook just for our community. And it turned out she was good at a lot of other things too. Liz is now our Operations and Community Manager at Live Your Legend.

They offered because they wanted to help.

None of these people knew where their first email would lead. Nor did I.

There was no agreement or expectation that I would hire them. They just believed in our cause (and their own talents) enough to figure out a way to do their part to move the vision forward. And after walking the talk, I couldn’t wait to find a way to keep them involved.

Offering your talents is not a sales pitch. It’s not manipulation. It’s just a way of helping a person, cause or business you believe in. And when done right, that gets your foot into some pretty interesting doors.

The way you do this is pretty simple:

1. Find a person or organization you’d like to work with.

You probably already have plenty in mind. Think of authors, mentors, brands and businesses you respect. List them out and pick your number one.

2. Figure out where they could use help.

Based on what you know about what they’re creating and your experience with their work, business, community, whatever – brainstorm some ideas. If you know enough about them (and your own craft), you probably already know where they need it most. Odds are that they’ve mentioned it before or their community has asked for it. As a customer and fan, you know more than you’re giving yourself credit for.

3. Find a way to align your talents with what they need.

Only offer to help with things you’re uniquely good at and excited about. Review your past projects, experience, expertise and strengths, and get clever with finding a fit. This might be obvious up front, but oftentimes it takes some creativity to bring steps two and three together. Focus on what’s unique to who you are, where your talents lie and the difference you care about making. That’s what connects and gets someone to say yes.

4. Offer help.

Send a short and specific note about how you can help, your specific expertise and what the benefit will be for their community, business and bottom line. Tie it to results. Give them a timeline and exactly what you will deliver. Explain why it won’t be a burden or time suck on their end. Ideally tie your offer to something time sensitive like a product or book launch. Make it seem so useful that it’d be ridiculous to turn you down.

Tell them why you believe so much in what they’re doing and why you want to be a part of it. And make the subject line crystal clear. Don’t expect to hear back right away. Follow up. And if you still don’t hear, then reach out on a few different channels. If you’re convinced you can make a massive difference, you won’t be afraid to be persistent.

5. Deliver ridiculous value.

Make this your best piece of work yet. Fumbling the delivery will leave you worse off than before you ever reached out. Whatever you said you’d do, do it 10x. Keep them updated on progress but don’t expect much guidance (if any). Blow them away with value.

6. Don’t expect more, but encourage it.

Remember, you didn’t do this just to get some job. You did it because you wanted to help. Odds are that if you nail #5, then something more will come of it. Let them know you’d love to do another project and eventually work more consistently with them. Feel free to let them know you usually charge for work like this but you’re happy to do a little pro bono because you love what they’re up to.

Don’t be pushy about it, but be open to new projects. Ideally suggest some other specific ways you can help. Good talent is really hard to find and every entrepreneur has more to do than they’ll ever have time for. So if you show results, they’ll be excited to have more.

7. If you don’t hear back or get a yes, consider doing it anyway.

People are busy. Especially entrepreneurs and leaders. They won’t always have time to reply. Or sometimes they’ll say no simply because they don’t want to deal with managing another commitment. Depending on the project, sometimes it might make sense to do it anyway. You’ll have to feel it out, but if you know enough about what they need and you’re confident you can provide something that will make a huge difference, then why not give it a shot? Worst case is that you’ll do some good and have another project in your portfolio.

Adding value is the new job security.

If any form of job security still exists, it’s being able to add massive and specific value to a group of people. Do that and you’ll always have something exciting to work on.

Pay attention to where people need help – because everyone does.

Recognize how you can provide unique value to the people you respect – because everyone can.

Then start helping the people who have been helping you for years.

That’s when things start to get pretty interesting.

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5 Signs You're Betraying Your True Calling

So many people I coach in New York City come to me feeling like they fell into their line of work and made it a success, but no longer find it easy to show up with enthusiasm, embrace growth in your role and feel passionate about your job. The money they make is good, but their heart isn't in their work.

Is this success? Materially, perhaps. Externally (based on what others think)? Probably. But what our hearts know is that true fulfillment, and nothing else, is the real measure of success.

When we work with joy, we are at one with the universe. We do so much more than create our greatest work when this happens; it's how we become our happiest, our wisest and our most loving self. When all is said and done, this is all that truly matters — to love your work and be true to your life's unique and individualized assignment.

Over time these people often end up making a stash of cash, too, because abundance flows to connected, happy and energetic people. And we secretly know this — every one of us.

Here are five key signs that you are not doing your real work, your life's work, here on earth:

1. You dream of something else.

Are the books you read, the subjects you love to talk about and the topics you research aligned with your work? These things are all big signs about what interests and motivates you.

2. You have a niggling feeling that you're wasting your time (which means you probably are).

Our soul knows when each new week, month, year rolls around that we are wasting ourselves by not activating the special gifts within us that wants to surface. It's like a quiet, unsettling voice that won't be silenced. It worsens over time.

3. You self-medicate.

When we neglect our inner guiding system, we find alternative sources to make us feel good and allow us to be disconnected from our source. This may be in the form of alcohol, overeating, drug use and overspending. These cheap forms of "borrowed happiness" give us momentary respite from a much larger issue. We masquerade our misery but it never lasts — hence a vicious, repetitive cycle that can be self-destructive

4. You are tired and sluggish.

Low physical energy is a significant symptom that you are uninspired. When we do what we love we access energy resources we did not know we had. This is why many wealthy and successful people are highly prolific even into their very mature years. I was just at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards and Sylvia Earle, 79 (active marine biologist) was the most charismatic and passionate winner of the evening. So if you're feeling tired frequently and waiting for the day to pass — its proof its time for change.

5. You are not among your tribe.

Look at the people around you at work. Are you collaborative and passionate about spending time with these people? Are your interests similar? When we are doing work that we love to, we naturally gravitate toward others who are like us and who are doing the same thing. When you have found your tribe, you know it. The line between work and play is positively, beautifully blurred.

I am here to tell you that you can change your life. The universe supports you when you take the necessary steps to fulfill your dream. I have seen it unfold in many cases when we apply time, dedication and action. This is your one shot on the planet! 

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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The 3 Decisions that will Change your Financial Life

There’s nothing worse than a rich person who’s chronically angry or unhappy. There’s really no excuse for it, yet I see this phenomenon every day. It results from an extremely unbalanced life, one with too much expectation and not enough appreciation for what’s there.

Without gratitude and appreciation for what you already have, you’ll never know true fulfillment. But how do you cultivate balance in life? What’s the point of achievement if your life has no balance?

For nearly four decades, I’ve had the privilege of coaching people from every walk of life, including some of the most powerful men and women on the planet. I’ve worked with presidents of the United States as well as owners of small businesses.   

Across the board, I’ve found that virtually every moment people make three key decisions that dictate the quality of their lives.

If you make these decisions unconsciously, you'll end up like majority of people who tend to be out of shape physically, exhausted emotionally and often financially stressed. But if you make these decisions consciously, you can literally change the course of your life today. 

Decision 1: Carefully choose what to focus on.

At every moment, millions of things compete for your attention. You can focus on things that are happening right here and now or on what you want to create in the future. Or you can focus on the past.

Where focus goes, energy flows. What you focus on and your pattern for doing so shapes your entire life. 

Which area do you tend to focus on more: what you have or what’s missing from your life?

I’m sure you think about both sides of this coin. But if you examine your habitual thoughts, what do you tend to spend most of your time dwelling on? 

Rather than focusing on what you don’t have and begrudging those who are better off than you financially, perhaps you should acknowledge that you have much to be grateful for and some of it has nothing to do with money. You can be grateful for your health, family, friends, opportunities and mind.

Developing a habit of appreciating what you have can create a new level of emotional well-being and wealth. But the real question is, do you take time to deeply feel grateful with your mind, body, heart and soul? That’s where the joy, happiness and fulfillment can be found. 

Consider a second pattern of focus that affects the quality of your life: Do you tend to focus more on what you can control or what you can’t?

If you focus on what you can’t control, you’ll have more stress in life. You can influence many aspects of your life but you usually can’t control them. 

When you adopt this pattern of focus, your brain has to make another decision:  

Decision 2: Figure out, What does this all mean?

Ultimately, how you feel about your life has nothing to do with the events in it or with your financial condition or what has (or hasn't) happened to you. The quality of your life is controlled by the meaning you give these things.

Most of the time you may be unaware of the effect of your unconscious mind in assigning meaning to life’s events. 

When something happens that disrupts your life (a car accident, a health issue, a job loss), do you tend to think that this is the end or the beginning?

If someone confronts you, is that person insulting you, coaching you or truly caring for you?

Does a devastating problem mean that God is punishing you or challenging you? Or is it possible that this problem is a gift from God? 

Your life takes on whatever meaning you give it. With each meaning comes a unique feeling or emotion and the quality of your life involves where you live emotionally. 

I always ask during my seminars, “How many of you know someone who is on antidepressants and still depressed?” Typically 85 percent to 90 percent of those assembled raise their hands.

How is this possible? The drugs should make people feel better. It's true that antidepressants do come with labels warning that suicidal thoughts are a possible side effect.

But no matter how much a person drugs himself, if he constantly focuses on what he can’t control in life and what’s missing, he won't find it hard to despair. If he adds to that a meaning like “life is not worth living,” that's an emotional cocktail that no antidepressant can consistently overcome. 

Yet if that same person can arrive at a new meaning, a reason to live or a belief that all this was meant to be, then he will be stronger than anything that ever happened to him.

When people shift their habitual focus and meanings, there’s no limit on what life can become. A change of focus and a shift in meaning can literally alter someone's biochemistry in minutes. 

So take control and always remember: Meaning equals emotion and emotion equals life. Choose consciously and wisely. Find an empowering meaning in any event, and wealth in its deepest sense will be yours today. 

Once you create a meaning in your mind, it creates an emotion, and that emotion leads to a state for making your third decision:

Decision 3: What will you do?  

The actions you take are powerfully shaped by the emotional state you're in. If you're angry, you're going to behave quite differently than if you're feeling playful or outrageous. 

If you want to shape your actions, the fastest way is to change what you focus on and shift the meaning to be something more empowering.

Two people who are angry will behave differently. Some pull back. Others push through.

Some individuals express anger quietly. Others do so loudly or violently. Yet others suppress it only to look for a passive-aggressive opportunity to regain the upper hand or even exact revenge.  

Where do these patterns come from? People tend to model their behavior on those they respect, enjoy and love.

The people who frustrated or angered you? You often reject their approaches.

Yet far too often you may find yourself falling back into patterns you witnessed over and over again in your youth and were displeased by. 

It’s very useful for you to become aware of your patterns when you are frustrated, angry or sad or feel lonely. You can’t change your patterns if you’re not aware of them.

Now that you’re aware of the power of these three decisions, start looking for role models who are experiencing what you want out of life. I promise you that those who have passionate relationships have a totally different focus and arrive at totally different meanings for the challenges in relationships than people who are constantly bickering or fighting. 

It’s not rocket science. If you become aware of the differences in how people approach these three decisions, you’ll have a pathway to help you create a permanent positive change in any area of life. 

This piece was adapted from Tony Robbins' new book, Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom.  

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7 Eccentric Rituals of Outstanding Leaders

If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur you have to think from a different angle.

You can’t think outside the box, you have to think as if the box doesn’t even exist.

Here are 7 amazing entrepreneurs that are leading the way in their fields using unorthodox rituals to change the game. Here they share their innovate approach to handling business.

If you are aspiring to succeed in business you may want to practice making some of these rituals part of your daily routine.

1. Richard Branson

2. Arianna Huffington

3. Jeff Bezos

4. Elon Musk

5. Warren Buffett

6. Michael O’Leary

7. Mike Parker

These awesome pictures were designed by Next Generation.

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