Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs – How to Boost Your Personal Productivity

One of the most common challenges that people face, especially entrepreneurs, is to effectively manage their time. In this information age, there is too much information to sift through and if you let the information control you then you will feel overwhelmed and under-achieve. So what does one have to do to improve their personal productivity? Several ideas have been proposed and here I would like to summarize all the points into 4 main points. So let’s get started.

Point #1: Break free from the Time Management myth: You have to first change your mindset and point of view to understand and acknowledge the fact that Time cannot be managed. Time is time and is a constant. What you have to focus on, instead, is how to manage YOURSELF in time. Stephen Covey once said, “Time Management is a misnomer. The key is to manage yourself.” So from the here on, the focus will be on how YOU can take charge of your time.

Point #2: Tackle Overwhelm effectively: In this age you have too much information coming at you, and one keeps jumping from one topic to the other leading to overwhelm and waste of time. We always move in the direction we look. So if you want to change your direction, then just change where you look. And one keeps looking at different things throughout the day, and guess what they end up moving everywhere – and that means nowhere. So how do you tackle it? Let’s start with you – Don’t complain about too much information. The way you look at it determines how you would react to it. You CANNOT AVOID overwhelm, but you CAN MANAGE it. And this is how you do it:

1. You must form the habit of scheduling everything that needs to be done: You cannot just react to new information. Be a student and not a follower. Your day should have a pattern and everything that needs to be done should be given an appointment. If the newspaper wants you to read it, then you should give the newspaper a specific time to engage you. Your time is important, so everything that takes away your time should be scheduled.

2. Disconnect yourself regularly: Take regular time-offs from your daily grind. Find ways of relaxation and refresh yourself with new ideas and thoughts. Engage in your hobbies regularly. If you like fishing, schedule it every week. It’s said that the most creative ideas come to you when your mind is relaxed. So when once you are back at your work, you are keyed up and raring to go.

Point #3: Avoid the #1 killer of time – Distractions: It’s not social media, emails, etc that causes you distractions; it’s YOU. You are the one who let’s them distract you. You cannot do things when you feel like doing it; you have to schedule it. You have to build a boundary of protection around you. The best solution, what I have experienced, to tackle distractions is to get the most important things done before distraction comes looking for you. That means that most of the distractions start after people have started waking up and getting to work. Roughly after 1000 am things start to take on the colors of distraction. So the best thing to do is to schedule all your important activities early in the morning. By doing this, you ensure consistent productivity. It’s said that great poet Ernest Hemmingway used to finish off all his writing before 1000 am. After that, he used to enjoy life. Use that principle.

Point #4: Choose your environment: My experience shows that I can’t get everything done in front of my work-desk. I also don’t like to exercise in the house. I tend to do better outdoors, sucking in the fresh morning air. What environment you choose is entirely up to you. It helps to assign specific environments to specific activities.

To summarize, if you take a look at the above 4 points, you will see a common pattern – it’s about YOU. It starts with you and ends with you. You have the total power and control to manage yourself and boost your productivity. Try the above techniques for a week, and see how you adapt to it.

All the best and God Bless.

Personal Productivity – Creative Daydreaming Begins Today!

Personal productivity skyrockets when you tap your creativity! And simple, directed daydreaming energizes artists and entrepreneurs, generating fresh, creative thoughts. So rather than judge yourself for daydreaming, encourage yourself to bring your best energies to it.

Research indicates that people generally daydream for a large part of their day. Doesn’t it make sense then, to allow your mind to dwell upon the things you love, like your originality and your artistic impulses?

Smart Artists Journey Inward.

Daydreaming, like flowing water, carries you around apparent obstacles. Your right brain conceives of new patterns and possibilities. How helpful this is when challenges, like marketing, entering competitions, and technical concerns threaten to paralyze you.

Remember, if you daydream, that you are in very good company! Here are just a few well-known individuals who owe their success largely to creative daydreaming…

Wikipedia.com states, “Therapist Dan Jones looked at patterns in how people achieved success from entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Peter Jones, to geniuses like Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci. Jones also looked at the thinking style of successful creative people like Beethoven and Walt Disney. What he found was that they all had one thing in common. They all spent time daydreaming about their area of success.”

It is said that Thomas Edison took a 20-minute nap each day to daydream about his inventions. And more recently, one of the most successful and innovative corporations, 3M, is known for giving many of its employees a fully paid hour every weekday to daydream, doze, or engage in whatever they choose. They have learned that their daydreamers return to their work refreshed and more productive.

Take Time to Envision a Clear Path Into Your Painting.

Let your mind wander as you select a subject to paint. Invite your imagination to guide you. Then, allow the basic design to expand and transform. Play with it! And ask yourself:

1. What is your center of interest?

2. What is the dominant color?

3. Does it appear to be close to you or far away?

4. Is the image sharp and easy to identify?

5. What are the supporting colors and objects?

Nurture Your Aspirations by Envisioning Inspiring Success.

Begin each day with thoughts of a pleasant experience. What a gift to give yourself!

You can visualize something you’ve already experienced or richly imagine your dreams and desires. In this space, there is no one intruding on your daydreams and creativity.

Your daydreams can take you as far and as high as you can imagine. You are unfettered and confident.

Do you remember an exceptionally rewarding time? Maybe it was when you sold a painting before the picture was even hung or the show had begun. Would you like to experience that feeling again? Daydream about that special moment and then jot down the steps needed to enjoy a fresh success like that again.

Draw Upon Your Resourcefulness During Major Life Changes.

Everyone encounters setbacks and apparent dead ends. During these times, it’s especially important to tap your wellsprings of creativity. You may find it difficult to remain focused on goals and how to achieve them when everything seems turned upside down. In stressful times, you may find your emotions hard to adjust to. This is an ideal time for daydreaming.

In other words, daydreaming makes bad times bearable and even opens up life-giving possibilities. In good times, daydreaming relaxes you and helps you retain the big picture. So, use your daydreams to imagine a more capable and confident you, art that stretches you, and successful solutions to troublesome problems.

Increasing Personal Productivity

When it comes to achieving your goals, one of the best things you can do is to increase your personal productivity. People who get more done in a day aren’t exactly smarter than everyone else, they just know what to focus their limited amount of time on and cut down on things that waste their time. These people are simply just more efficient. When you become more efficient, you will produce more and that in turn will allow you to achieve more.

There are lots of ways to improve personal productivity like having a list, prioritizing it, and checking the tasks off as you complete them. Here are some other things you can try as well.

Schedule a set amount of time during the day to work on your most important task. Many times, the thing that we have to do most is the thing that we least want to do. In order to ensure that we get it done and not procrastinate on doing it will be to set a specific time where you will do nothing but that task. Typically, you want to set a time in the morning. After lunch, as you know, can be a tiring time to work on anything important.

When you are actually working on this task, you want to make sure you get rid of all disturbances. That means, put your cellphone on silent, let your phone calls go to voice mail, and inform everyone around you to not interrupt. By doing this, you will have a solid hour or 2 of focus time. This will allow you to finish what you need to do efficiently because you won’t get side tracked or lose focus. With other tasks that are of less importance and don’t require much concentration, you can tackle that while doing other small tasks at the same time.

Increasing productivity isn’t exactly rocket science but it does take a little bit of experimenting. Some things will just work better for you than others. For some, having this focus time won’t work since they need interaction and movement to get things done. What you want to do is measure your results in order to find out what’s working or not. You can do this by simply keeping time of how long it takes you to do certain tasks. When you find one way of doing it helps you get it done faster, stick with that strategy.

5 Reasons Personalized Products Are Hot in Today’s Marketplace

In today’s market personalized products are a very hot commodity. There is not much to not like about personalized products. Technology has revolved to the point where the common product that come in every shape and size from small pens to vehicles can be taken and personalized to make unique and special products for the consumer. With the help of the computer anyone can bring these hot products into their home at a very affordable price.

1. Technology – The technology for personalization has been around for many years. The cost and convenience of the personalization was usually costly and had to be sent away only to be returned to the customer weeks later. Today that sort of shopping usually does not work well for the average consumer who is use to the quick shop and go. So now with software that in now available at prices that small business owners can afford along with the convenience of laptops and printers has brought the system to physical locations shared with customers.

2. Personalization for all Products – So many different items can be personalized. A company can use personalized items to be given away promoting any special event to having their vehicle wrapped in personalization. Non-profit organizations and special event gatherings can use personalized items as gifts and mementos. Food can even be personalized; birthday cakes and such have been doing it for years. But now candies are joining the personalization campaign, names and small messages can be added to the candy. Perhaps the largest section of personalization is in the gift category.

3. Personalization brings Uniqueness – As mentioned earlier, the gift category is where we see personalization used at its best in many different item categories. Baby and children clothing, toys, educational and entertainment items, adult items, household and yard products, the list goes on and on with what can be personalized. In today’s economy the educated shopper looks for uniqueness as well as a good value. When faced with making a decision on a purchase one can never go wrong when choosing the product that comes with personalization. It shows thoughtfulness with a unique twist to the receiver of the gift.

4. Online Presence Brings Personalization into Every Home – For the most part the internet and its services are available to just about everyone who desires it. And with that presence the world grows smaller and easier to find access to items that aren’t available to those who don’t live in areas with Wal-Marts and malls. A quick Google search and any personalized item that one thinks can appear on their screen as fast as their internet connect allows, this modern technology is beneficial for both the small business owner and customer.

5. Price – Another reason that personalized products are hot is because the price point for these items aren’t that much more then a similar product without the personalization. Years ago when the technology for personalization was young prices were high and product was had to make and find. However, that is no longer the case and makes personalized products the answer to an affordable, thoughtful and unique gift.