Archive for time management
How to keep up with your business reading
Posted by: | CommentsAny business person worth his or her salt is a voracious reader. Books are an inexpensive way to learn new skills, get new ideas, and stay on top of your industry without leaving the office. No need to dress up, drive across town (or across country) to attend an expensive workshop. And if you missed something or didn’t understand it, you can turn back a page and reread it.
And I love books. Forget shoes, for me there’s nothing better than wandering the isles of a good bookstore. It might even rival a computer store for pure fun factor.
There’s nothing more exciting than having $100 to spend on books. Even a spare $20 gets me going. You can’t get anything really exciting at the computer store for 20 bucks.
But there’s a downside to my love of books. There’s so much to do and so much to learn. I just can’t keep up.
The photo attached to this article is my current stack of non-fiction reading. Each of these books is on the go. Only two are library books. The rest I picked up somewhere along the way. And yes, I understand the irony of having Getting Things Done be one of the books I haven’t quite managed to finish.
These are all great books. I’m enjoying the read but I’m not getting through them. One of the library books has already been renewed once. I just spend so much time reading – emails, RSS feeds, websites, my own work – that I just can’t bring myself to read non-fiction for long periods of time.
Hence the stack of on-the-go books.
However, I have discovered a secret to getting through books faster. Read More→
Tips For Effective Time Management
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the greatest challenges many people face in business and in their personal lives is that there never seems to be enough time to accomplish everything they need to do, let alone finding time for things they want to do! They look with envy at those who are able to successfully fit work, family, personal, and other activities into their lives. The reality is that we all have the same 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year – it’s how we choose to spend that time that makes all the difference.
In order to develop a time management system that will be effective for you, it’s helpful to start with some formal or informal assessments to help you compare the way you are currently living your life with the way you would like it to be. Identify the obstacles that are preventing you from managing your time effectively. Become aware of your biological rhythms to determine what type of activity you do best in the morning, afternoon, evening, and late at night. Explore your personality type preferences, and the way they affect the way you perceive and deal with time.
Depending on your specific challenges, some of the following strategies may help Read More→
Can An Entrepreneur Ever Really Take a Vacation?
Posted by: | CommentsI was chatting with my accountability partner on Monday. We were both coming off a week where we got little done. And neither of us felt particularly guilty or frustrated.
As Helene said, “We Canadians have such a short time with good weather we need to take advantage of it.”
It’s not just Canadians. All small business owners need to give themselves permission to have some down time. I know I tend to be a bit of a work-a-holic. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ve seen me write about going two or three days without even leaving the house!
Even when I leave my home office I don’t always stop working. I have a habit of taking my laptop with me when I want to watch the Jays game or a movie and checking email, reading other people’s blogs or catching up with social media.
Now I’m all for multitasking. I do it all the time. But there comes a time when Read More→
Managing Your In-box During Vacations
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever taken a day off work and come back to the nightmare of hundreds of emails in your in-box? Now what happens if you take a week or two of vacation? I know one day last week I took the afternoon off and woke up to 154 messages in my in-box. I was a little scared about my up-coming trip where internet access will be sporadic.
So I decided to analyze the situation. Read More→
