I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed how some of the tags I associate with a post are not showing up in the Technorati index.

There appears to be no rhyme or reason to it and I know I’m not alone - to save you time (if you have come across this problem and are scratching your head for a solution), you may want to check out the following article:

http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/2005/06/technorati-tag-pages-problems.html

Bottom line?

There are problems, you may want to contact Technorati to see if they can give you a clue as to what’s happening in your own particular situation:

support@technorati.com

It could save you quite a bit of time.

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
technorati tag problem, technorati tags problem, time management

I don’t know about you but I love to use Firefox rather than good old Internet Exploder [sic]. I’ve just come across a tip provided by Jason M. Hanley that will save me valuable seconds each day - and I’ve managed to speed it up some more too!
We all have our habits when opening up browsers and yours truly is no different. If you don’t want to go through the rigmarole of opening up multiple windows or tabs every single time, here’s what you need to do:

1. Create a new folder on your toolbar (Right click, “New Folder…”).

2. Add the pages you want to startup to it (bookmark them or drag and drop them from your existing bookmarks.

3. Select Tools -> Options… -> General -> Use Bookmark - Now select the new folder (I called mine Startup rather originally

4. Save it and next time you start up Firefox, your favourite sites will instantly be loaded.
Nice one Jason!

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
Mozilla Firefox Start Page Web, mozilla firefox, productivity tip, time management tip, Jason M. Hanley

Maybe I’ll write this blog post…

Oh I dunno, maybe I won’t…

I bet you put things off - “on the long finger” as it were.

A humourous quote oft heard to justify procrastination goes along the following lines:

“Why do something today if you can put it off till tomorrow”

Well, it’s kinda funny but if you use this mantra as part of your daily life then you’ll likely find yourself under an increasing amount of stress as things start to mount up more and more. Somethings got to give and that something will inevitably be you.

So what can you do to get control of your time?

1. Set yourself a specific deadline —a task without a deadline can be put off and off, and off…
2. Reward yourself — (only after you accomplish the task mind!). Make the reward applicable to the task. If you’ve cleaned your email inbox out, that might be worth a glass of wine this evening (if it really is unruly) - it doesn’t warrant a Ferrari though!
3. Have accountability — try to get someone you know (who doesn’t mind kicking some butt) to follow up with you on a task you have committed to. You might want to give them an incentive for catching you out - that’ll keep them and you on their/your toes.
4. Hardest Top Priority First - Make sure you get the most difficult and high priority jobs finished early in the day - you have more energy to do so and you will feel a justified sense of accomplishment.
5. Break it down - How do you eat an elephant? - One piece at a time - not that I condone eating elephants but you get the idea regarding splitting the task into manageable bite-sized chunks.
6. Do it now — What are you waiting for?

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
overcome procrastination, montreal, london, paris, increasing amount of stress, accountability, top priority first,time management

Have you ever asked yourself the above question (perhaps spelled differently or indeed differently worded .
I know I have, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…

I certainly am responsible for the cock-ups I have brought upon my own head, we all are.

Fear not, here’s a very useful little exercise you can apply to make sure you are on the right track to achieve your goals - or at least ensure you are able to stop at the next station and get off the train! .

1. Take 10 minutes out for yourself (no distractions).
2. Ask yourself each of the following questions and write the answers down (don’t worry, it’s just for your eyes only so be honest):
Why did I start doing what I’m doing?
Why am I still doing this?
Why should I keep doing what I’m doing?
3. You will definitely see things a lot more clearly or as a wise man I know oft told me: “Tom, I can’t give you certainty but I can promise you clarity…”
4. Remember the reason regularly why you started doing this to reinforce your actions.
5. Rinse and repeat the above - it doesn’t take long but it could save you a whole lot of time in the long run.

A very useful checklist to bring you back on track.

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
achieve your goals, why did i do this

I do it, perhaps you do it, I know many others do it.

You get up in the morning and before you know it, you’re in bed without having achieved very much during the day. I have called it “working on the infrastructure”, perhaps you have called it something different, like “wasted time”.

The only thing we are all equal in is we have a set amount of time each and every day to accomplish the tasks we need to do most.

Far too often, we get distracted and before you know it, another SO-SO day has passed

So, as an entrepreneur, what tips can you specifically apply to get things done?

1. All the P’s - Preparation &amp Planning Prevent Piss Poor Performance. Plan your activities during the working day, you may want to take a look at the Block Method for more info. Be ruthless with your time! Leave that email alone!!! Time-box your activities and make sure they are prioritised.

2. Curb Distractions! - As with email, the phone can be a big distractor, you need to avoid “chatting” like the plague. Personal phone calls and activities need to be kept to a minimum. You can’t just stop and drop everything just because a friend or family member calls - again be ruthless and tell them you’ll phone them back in the evening. Make sure they know you have fixed working hours during which you would rather not be disturbed.

3. Where’s you business plan? If you haven’t already got a copy of Michael Gerber’s EMyth (Entrepreneurial Myth), then get yourself one - it will save you untold heartache if you follow it’s advice (I’m learning . Before you know it, you’ll have operations manuals for all your tasks.
4. Get your head straight - You’re not an employee anymore. You’re a business owner and you have to do lots of other things a business owner has to do. You need to motivate yourself now, no one will stand over you watching anymore.

5. Get Rid Of It - Outsource as much as possible as soon as possible. Every conceivable task associated with your business must be outsourced (which truthfully does not need your input). This is the only way you will gain control of your life and scale your business.
6. Take A Break - All work and no play makes Tom a dull boy (I should know). It is far too easy to slip into the “I’ve just got to get this finished” mode and let your health and family life suffer in an effort to build your business empire. Guess what - keep up with that approach and you can guarantee one thing: failure.

So, in summary - you have to be ruthless and disciplined with your time. If you’re not, time will be ruthless in it’s second by second disciplined way with you! The time it took you to read this article can never be reclaimed - but the time you invest in your future moving forward can yield dividends through proper time management.
Make sure you check out this free time management software to help you during your day and definitely follow these other time management tips to help you get through the day efficiently.

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
time management, entrepreneur problems, time management tips, time-box, michael gerber, emyth, entrepreneurial, operations manuals, motivate yourself now, outsource, business empire

This is a bit ‘techie’ but will save you a lot of time when subscribing to blogs around the blogosphere.

As you can see, I Got Off My Assets is made up of multiple categories where I post. You can subscribe to the blog itself (and thus get every post to every category) or you can subscribe to individual categories.

So, if you’re interested in the Time Management category, what you need your RSS reader to subscribe to is the category URL followed by “/feed”.

For example:

http://selfhelptips.com/wordpress/category/time-management/feed

Likewise if you wanted to subscribe to business:

http://selfhelptips.com/wordpress/category/business/feed

I know this isn’t a hugely well known tip to save time so I am sure it will help you keep your RSS subscriptions to a more manageable level.

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
wordpress rss category feeds, wordpress rss category, time management, tip, time management, blogosphere, RSS reader, tip to save time, rss subscriptions

Ok, here’s a link to a free piece of software I personally find invaluable, it’s called “Cool Timer” and you can use it to provide a countdown timer for whatever you’re doing online.

So, if you need to spend 10 minutes or perhaps 30 minutes doing something, there’s no excuse now to ensure you stick to the allotted time.

Click Here For Your Free Time Management Software - Cool Timer

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
free time management software, cool timer, countdown timer

Distractions.

We all have them every day - the phone, email, the TV and in the online world there is for all intents and purposes, a limitless supply of attention distractors.

My “favourites” at the moment are You Tube, Google Video and Myspace - they are highly addictive and hyperlinking has never been so insidiously used (when it comes to wasting time).

That said, the first thing you can do in combating any time leech is to recognise it. I am getting better and better at recognising the time leeches which crop up in my life and am also getting better and better at taking remedial action.

Here are the top strategies I now employ:

1. With email: I unsubscribe from as many lists as I can. You know the feeling of “Oh, if I unsubscribe now I’ll miss something good” - uhhh, no. You’ll most likely never read the good message due to a full inbox - besides you can always resubscribe and or find an RSS feed.

2. Again with email, have specific times to check your email and allot only a certain amount of time to do the checking.

3. RSS feeds - Get a good reader, I used to recommend FeedDemon (a paid client) and it’s still a great choice but if you want to go for the zero cost option, you can’t beat the Flock browser (built using the same codebase as Firefox). Concentrating on getting your news/info via RSS means you’ll get through a whole lot more information, a whole lot quicker.

4. Allow yourself the odd 5 minutes on Google Video or You Tube or Myspace for that matter!

The last point needs further explanation as it is totally the wrong thing to do if you do it wrong!

Ok, so we all know these videos and social networking sites can seriously eat into your time, but the trick is to minimize how much of your time is “eaten away”. What better way to do this than to reward yourself for carrying out the tasks you had on your to-do list that day.

Start out small and increase the work to reward ratio as time goes on. I guarantee you will find yourself making significant inroads into your work whilst still enjoying the odd detour along the way.

If you’re really disciplined, maybe you might want to do leave your “rewards” till the end of the day.

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
you tube, google video, myspace, driven to distraction, wasting time, time leech, time leeches, time management top strategies, time management rss feed, feeddemon, flock, social networking sites, to-do list,

Denise Landers, author of Destination Organization recently published an article on the Website HealthyWealthyNWise.com. In it she made the analogy of building blocks (the block method) and how we need different granularities of time management.

To me this article was a solid piece of time management training material.

Large Blocks:

“Make your day’s foundation an uninterrupted block of time when you can focus on difficult, involved projects. The ideal length is an hour and a half, approximately twenty percent of an eight-hour day. If you cannot possibly find that length of time, try for an hour. Even with 45 minutes of uninterrupted time you can get a significant amount of work completed because you are not requiring twenty additional minutes after each interruption to get back into the “flow.” As you develop this routine, aim for the hour and a half each day.”

Medium Blocks:

“Group as many like activities as possible since you are four times more productive when you can focus on one type of task rather than switching back and forth among assorted tasks. Constant multi-tasking slows you down. Activities that can be grouped include returning non-urgent telephone calls, processing your email inbox, filing, and reading.”

and last but not least small blocks:

“New items and lower priority tasks can be worked on between the other blocks. These might include requests for help from a colleague, quick answers to questions, filling out forms, and other project components that did not fit into your major blocks, but that you still have time to work on.”

The big thing which jumped out at me from this article was the “four times more productive” element of medium block grouping. That’s a fantastic increase in productivity by anyone’s book. I’m not sure where this statistic is from but no doubt Denise has all her sources quoted in her book mentioned at the end of the article.
For the article in full, click here.

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
time management training material, denise landers, destination organization, healthywealthynwise, time management, multi-tasking, increase in productivity

I have just read an article By Lakshimi Devi Ramakrishnan of courtesy of the Malaysian News agency.

In it, a young man by the name of Jiwa Mohan recounted how he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN).
He was quoted as saying:

“Getting enough sleep can be a problem at times as we train every morning of the week. So, combining early starts with late nights completing assignments often makes it hard to stay awake in lectures” and he believes in the motto that with “sacrifice comes great opportunities.”

Similar to the quote from Uncle Ben in Spiderman “with great power comes great responsibility”, this got me thinking about the recent demise of the most energetic of men Steve Irwin - the international conservation hero.
It shows how fragile a hold on life we really have and how quickly things can change. It doesn’t matter how busy you are in your life right now, by making the effort to delay gratification for later reward, you will get to where you want to go a whole lot faster then you ever thought possible.

Counterintuitive?

Kind of, but it’s a tried and tested method which has worked for all the great successes through the ages.

All the best,

Tom

Technorati Tags:
time management, time management studies, steve irwin, mechanical engineering, completing assignments, stay awake in lectures, spiderman,international conservation hero

Just a quickie to save you some time:

http://www.harmonyhollow.net/ct.shtml

All the best,

Tom

GrabACoffee.com - Free eBooks for your Health, Wealth & Happiness
SelfHelpTips.com - Your #1 Resource for Self Improvement
PDQProspects.com - Prospects To Customers

Technorati Tags:
time management, time management tool, timer

It doesn’t matter whether you have right brain time management or left brain time management skills (is there such a thing?), the following resouces - both by Derek Franklin of Search Automator fame are a must bookmark:

The first is a general search site called WhoNu.com.

The second is specifically aimed at those in the Internet Marketinng community looking to earn money at a site called: MoneyLaunchPad.com.

Why would you want another search tool - isn’t Google good enough? Well, no Google is a shotgun, these resources are online rifles.

Check them out, they’re free and well worth bookmarking - but only if you want to save yourself serious time online and indeed make some money.

All the best,
Tom
GrabACoffee.com

Download PDF Version here (right click and select “save target as”)

86400 seconds in a day but there’s never enough time. I don’t know about you but there’s always more on my to-do list and as for information overload - well it’s just not funny.

The one thing we all have in common - no matter our background or current circumstance - is we have the same amount of time to do ’stuff’. Time utilisation is a skill in the same way that driving a car is a skill. There are some people who are much better than others and by studying them we can learn to make our own use of time more effective.

Here’s one tip that will help you do more with less time. Have you heard of these three little letters: RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary depending upon who you are talking to. It’s definition is irrelevant though - what you do need to know is that it will help you save time.

How can this help you save time? RSS acts as a ‘funneling system’ helping you find specific information quickly. Is it difficult to get to grips with? Not at all, if you can cut and paste, you can use RSS and as for the cost - well you can use this technology for no cost whatsoever.

RSS Benefits

• Unlike email, RSS is anonymous - you never have to divulge any personal information, you are a subscriber to an information source, the publisher may know how many subscribers he/she has but they won’t know who they are.
• You can unsubscribe successfully - 100% guaranteed. Again when compared with email, this is a huge benefit because not all email subscriptions are easy to cease for a variety of reasons. This is not an issue with RSS, you are fully in control of subscribing or unsubscribing at any time.
• Information is automatically brought to you - You don’t have to go hunting for information from websites anymore, with RSS you set up your feed (each subscription is called a feed or channel) subscription and the information automatically comes to you.
• Review much more information - Every RSS message comes with a concise summary, rather than wading through an entire email only to find out you should have saved your time by not reading it in the first place! In addition, if you’re surfing the web looking for information, you are distracted by ads/graphics etc all vying for attention and your time. By reading only the concise summary, you decide whether you delve deeper into the message or skip on. This means you scan then dig deeper rather than wasting your time.
• Highly and easily customised for you. If you’re interested in a specific product, you can receive information for that product only. If you’re interested in specific companies, you can receive information only on that company. If you’re interested in specific books/TV programs/films/celebrities, you can receive information only on those things that interest you. It’s the equivalent of having a rifle and sniping the information you want rather than using a shotgun and trying to blast information from the Internet. Some RSS newsreaders (more on that in a minute) will even let you keep a watch for specific keywords/phrases in any number of RSS feeds! What you track is limited by your imagination.
• It’s “open” - this is not a proprietary technology. It is universally accepted and the standards are widely known and distributed (granted there are different versions of RSS and an alternative called ATOM - but you as a user don’t need to know about these things). The benefit of this is that you can get your information delivered to you in your browser, in your RSS reader, on your PDA, on your mobile phone - you can be ‘ahead of the competition’ by being up to date on whatever topic you choose, whenever and wherever you choose.
• New User Benefits - RSS is relatively new, those people that adopt, use and maximise their use of the technology will have an advantage over those that don’t. If you rely purely on email or active searching of the net yourself, you are relying on 20th century technology and ways of doing things. RSS is one of the first 21st century tools you need to know.

How you can save time

To subscribe to an RSS feed, you need to have an RSS reader. This can be a dedicated program on your computer like the one I use (this one does cost money but is more feature rich and saves me more time than free readers) or you can use one of the many free readers out there like the Pluck reader that ‘plugs-in’ to your browser. You can also have integrated RSS feeds for your Google, MSN and Yahoo accounts for free - check your accounts for more details.

RSS and Email

Does this mean that email is dead? Not at all, RSS is a lot newer than email, only geeks and early adopters will fully embrace this technology for some time to come. Widespread adoption will take time.

There is a drawback for those of you subscribing to RSS blog feeds that have mailing lists delivering the same information - a matter of timing. In the case of SelfHelpTips.com for example we have a main mailing list (which if you’re reading this from an email - you’re on it which will also have much of the same content as our blog - I Got Off My Assets.

Such information is normally delivered at regular intervals but not so as to deluge your inbox. You need time after all to digest and assimilate the information contained within.

With RSS feeds from blogs however, you get whatever is posted immediately with no interval so you could be snowed under with information that should have been delivered and digested in a more leisurely fashion.

Now this is a problem but there is also a solution - subscribe to both the RSS feed and email lists! “What is he on - I thought he wanted to help me save time” - I hear you but bear with me:

You should only subscribe to RSS feeds and email lists covering the same content on an infrequent basis (otherwise you’ll become inundated with information to wade through), which ones you do so are up to you. I suggest you do so when the information being delivered deals with content you want to learn and master self help tips being a great case in point .

Remember you will remember more through repetition.
Remember you will remember more through repetition.

Wishing you the best of success,
Tom O’Brien

Editor

http://www.SelfHelpTips.com

© 2005 www.selfhelptips.com Time Management Skills - Self Help Tips - Helping you, help yourself, help others