Article by Paula Eder

Time management tips can be your best ally when technology transforms the ways you connect. What can you do to seize new opportunities while still enriching your life off-line?

The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, based at the University of Southern California, has pointed out the challenge this presents. Their 2011 Digital Futures Report cites that fully 50 percent of Americans it interviewed last year said they felt ignored by family members who spent too much time online.

Fortunately, tuning into what works best for you personally can help you create a balanced approach. Your important relationships can then continue to flourish, while you progress with online networking.

Where Do You Stand?

It’s best to start with your own assessment. Do these findings translate out to your life? If so, where do you appear on the continuum? In the first half of the decade, people reported spending an average of 26 hours per month with their families. By 2008, however, that shared time had dropped to about 18 hours. That’s more than a 30 percent decrease!

An easy way to get a quick overview is to roughly track the amount of time you spend with family members and friends. Jotting a daily estimate every evening for a month into a small notebook is all that’s necessary.

* Is this time increasing or decreasing?

* How do you feel about it?

* How will your current patterns affect you if you are faced with a crisis?

* How easy is it for you to develop and maintain effective time boundaries?

It’s key to remember that your time is absolute, concrete, and limited.

To mobilize yourself, assess how satisfying your current balance of online and offline activity is. Think of your three happiest moments over the past month. Would you like to give more time to your favorite pastimes? Where can you find the extra time? For each minute you trim from surfing the Internet (for example) you are gaining new opportunities to spend time in other ways.

If you find that you are sliding into spending more time in your virtual world than is rewarding to you, you may want to step back and make some conscious choices. Here are 3 ideas, for starters:

Structure your on-line time so that you have clear goals and parameters. Before logging off for the day, quickly review the sites you visited. How closely does your list of sites match your objectives? Try using a timer to give yourself an endpoint. If it’s helpful, place it in a different room! Plan together time with your family and make sure it’s in everyone’s schedule.

Creating intentionality provides you with enormous power. Even if you elect not to make any changes at all, you have dignified your choices by making them conscious and claimed. The more you assert that your choices matter, the more care you will take to make sure they address your priorities.

Make time choices that enrich your day from your perspective! Your life is simply too good to waste.

What is your next move to make the very most of your time?

Article by Paula Eder

Time management tips revitalize your projects when you move yourself from resistance to taking action steps. Easier said than done? Absolutely. Always has been and will be, as this ancient saying confirms:

“Talk doesn’t cook rice.” (Chinese proverb)

Taking time to plan out your activities is important, of course. But it is possible to go overboard on the planning front.

Does translating a plan into action present a challenge for you? Take this quiz to find out:

1. T/F __ Beginning a project is my favorite part.

2. T/F __ I tend to create alternate plans for projects, when all I need to do is proceed with my first plan.

3. T/F __ I often question whether the conditions are right to start in.

4. T/F __ By the time I’ve “firmed up” my plans, I’m short on time to put them into action.

If you answer, “true” to any of these questions, here are 3 steps to help you mobilize yourself.

Step #1: Beam your plans back down to earth.

By gently shifting your focus from the pie in the sky to the work that sits on your plate, you prepare your energy for taking action. Become comfortable with the bottom line:

At some point, the thinking and planning and talking must stop, and the doing has to begin.

There is no way around this fact. Between intention and action there is a step. The journey can’t begin until that step is taken! Mentally walk yourself through your project, all the way through to the reward of completing it successfully. Then identify your first action step.

Step #2: Honor the challenge of deepening your commitment.

Moving from intention to action is a big step, because it represents a new level of commitment. You are putting yourself out and taking a risk. It is important to honor the challenge that this can present as you launch into something new. You might plan a small celebration or ritual as you enter this stage of change. You can affirm Kahlil Gibran’s declaration, “Work is love made visible.” After all, committing to your work and its rewards is self-love in action.

Step #3: Pace yourself for success.

Moving from intention to action is an important step. Remember; it is a small step, because it is merely the first step of the many that will follow. The journey, as they say, has a thousand steps; don’t make the first one bigger than it needs to be!

As you proceed on your project, you may encounter any number of small ‘beginnings’ where you can use this advice to remain mobilized. Mantras can also help keep you focused and positive. For example, Anne Firth Murray, founding president of The Global Fund for Women writes, “There is no beginning too small.”

The more consistently you ease your transition into action, the smoother it becomes. By creating a realistic and supportive climate for success, you proceed on sound footing to make the most of your time.

Now, how will you bring your plans to fruition today?

Article by Paula Eder

Time management tips are lifesavers in stressful times. They are like paddles that move your kayak safely through the rapids. Each day will surprise you. Each challenge calls on you to respond with strength and flexibility.

But how much have you been taught about developing flexibility? Could mastery of this skill have helped you through past crises? Well, you can enhance your flexibility now.

The more you develop a core understanding of how to flex, the more motivated you will find yourself to exercise this strength, day after day.

Let’s return to the metaphor of the kayak. Envision yourself expertly guiding a kayak around eddies and rocks on a cool spring morning. Sense the exhilaration as you successfully navigate each obstacle. Maintaining this sense of centeredness, feel yourself develop agility in this moment to bring to today’s challenges. Here are some underlying principles of flexibility:

5 Flexibility Fundamentals:

1. Agility Improves Balance

The more agile you are, the more you can keep your balance. Which way is the boat pitching? Can you be at one with the motion and feel the dance? At times like this, you may feel more attuned and more alive.

2. Befriend change by anticipating it.

Since everything changes, your plans must change, too. Life surprises us all, as these times prove beyond a doubt! Old expectations are torn loose from their moorings, and we must swerve around them to avoid collision. You must know what is essential to hang onto and what can be eliminated. Difficult as these times are, they invite us to develop our core strengths. To keep afloat in troubled waters, identify what can be thrown overboard. Each good decision strengthens your self-reference and resilience.

3. Cultivate Relaxed, “Open Focus”.

Focused alertness guides you best. Immerse yourself in the moment. Sense where you are, and what appears just ahead. Resolve to engage fully, and see how you can replace fear with curiosity.

4. Viable Priorities Keep You Agile.

Clear priorities are the backbone of flexibility. Your priorities tell you who you are. They guide all your choices. Although it’s human nature to want to have it all, you define your strengths when: You identify just how little you need. You declare what comes first. You maintain what’s foremost in your life.

5. Gracefully Letting Go Supports Optimal Balance.

In Scott Peck’s classic book, The Road Less Traveled, he identified balancing as one of the 4 essential disciplines to living well. “Balancing is discipline, disciplined,” he states. That is, without the flexibility to give up one benefit to preserve another more valued one, we become rigid, encumbered, and eventually topple over.

All schedules, plans and time management strategies need to be tempered with flexibility. Become such a good friend to yourself that you can immediately identify what’s most important to you, and what you can let go. Support yourself in this all-important endeavor. It will strengthen your humanity, your grace under pressure, and your sheer pleasure in life.

As a final exercise, ask, How can you start clarifying your priorities today to cultivate flexibility and find more time?

Article by Paula Eder

Time management tips help you make the small changes that create profound transformations. It is always daily, manageable steps that move you from where you are to where you’d like to be. Yet making this progress is also some of the hardest work you’ll ever do. Why is that?

The vison that fuels your enthusiasm absolutely must be maintained. Protect it like a sacred flame. You know the adage, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Indeed, our great cities are built brick-by-brick. Imagine the challenge of keeping sight of the goal while stacking bricks for months or even years on end! So it is for us, very often, as we build toward our goals.

Commit to these 3 Golden Rules as you implement the action steps you’ve so carefully laid out to achieve your dream of success.

First Golden Rule: Begin immediately, and also take all the time you need. A life journey isn’t a race!

Beginning immediately and taking all the time you need is no contradiction. When you start out, remember that finding time to reach your goal probably involves many steps, including:

* Changing your time priorities.

* Setting time boundaries.

* Letting go of some old habits around time.

This can all feel quite disruptive at first! Give yourself and your loved ones the much-needed time to adjust as you make this transition in your life. After all, you are changing your life and making space for a new, more effective you to emerge.

Second Golden Rule: Reward yourself as often as needed, so you can maintain your forward momentum.

Llife journeys, like marathons, require constant sustenance. You will feel so much better about the expedition if you validate and reward every accomplishment of any size that moves you closer to your ultimate goal. This is vitally important! It’s so easy to feel like you aren’t getting anywhere at the beginning, or even the middle of an important venture. You may well feel like all you are doing is carrying bricks. Don’t worry – your success will begin to take shape. Each step along, give yourself plenty of pats on the back!

How often? This is so important, I’ll repeat it. Validate and reward yourself as often and as generously as you need to maintain your momentum. Whenever possible, align your rewards to reinforce your goals, as well. If you resist this highly practical step, simply ask yourself, “What is it worth to me to meet my goals?” Chances are, it is worth the manageable investment of time and healthy treats you will provide yourself. Furthermore, you will enjoy your journey far more!

Third Golden Rule: Correct your course instead of abandoning it.

Rewarding yourself to maintain your morale is essential. It is also of prime importance to stick with your plan, even if it needs some revising. This strengthens your capacity to succeed in 3 ways:

* Remaining on your chosen path builds focus, and focus is required to achieve your goals.

* Faithfulness to your carefully planned schedule develops self-trust.

* Unswervability translates into resilience. Each time you stay on course, you reinforce your vision.

You are your life companion, and your quality of life depends on remaining true to yourself. Certainly, If you notice that you or your results are veering way off track, take the time to assess what is happening and why. Maybe you do need to adjust your plan. It’s important to do this consciously and logically. If you simply ignore your initial plans and change course without checking in with yourself, you increase your reactivity. This can lead to your overreacting to smaller and smaller setbacks. Instead, build your confidence for your next goal, too!

These 3 golden rules are simple: not always easy, but always powerful. So fuel your incentive to find and stay on the path that transforms your intentions and goals into realities! As you proceed, you will discover that this path of transformation is one of the most exciting and doable journeys you will ever take!

Now, what is your next small but powerful step to reach your destination?

Article by Paula Eder

Time management tips really help you manage yourself when you are stressed, rushed, and caught in a time crunch. Those are, after all, the times when it’s hardest to make your best time choices.

It’s hugely helpful to know your particular stress profile. What are you most likely to do when pressure mounts? Do you freeze, plunge ahead blindly, revert to old work habits that don’t work so well? The better you know your patterns, and the more you are prepared to treat yourself with respect and compassion, the sooner you can step in and replace old default settings with a fresh approach. Add these techniques to your mindfulness based stress reduction regimen to broaden your effectiveness.

Here are 5 Stress-Reduction Steps to Take the Crunch Out of Your Time

Stress Reduction Step #1: Work Within Your Limits.

It sounds easy, doesn’t it? It is not so easy. You want so much for this project to reflect your full range of talents. Take a deep breath. Recognize the reality: you lack the time to accomplish all that you had hoped to. Straightforward as it sounds, you need to let go of important options! In The Road Less Traveled, author Scott Peck counts “balancing” as one of four essential disciplines that can solve all life’s problems. Balancing requires letting go. There are significant gains, of course, that accompany this loss. You assume more positive control by reducing demands on yourself to a workable level. Having simplified your demands, you can succeed!

Stress Reduction Step #2: Prioritize Decisively.

Prioritizing also strengthens your skills at letting go. You must say no to any number of possibilities to create one constructive outcome. Quickly make or revise your to do list (on paper) with “must do” items at the top and things that you can let go of at the bottom. This assures that you don’t miss a key task. Why do I stress writing (or keystroking) your priorities? Recent studies confirm that your brain is simply not engineered to store lists. Translating your plans into written, easily implemented “next action” steps is a priceless stress reduction tactic.

Stress Reduction Step #3: Assertively Ask for Assistance.

Are you surprised to see this on the list? Don’t be! It’s OK to ask for help, and it’s important to be calm and clear when requesting it. Remain firm and friendly, not frenzied, as you reach out. This keeps the stress level at a minimum for everyone (yourself included). Know that you may be called upon to give help in turn, down the road. This reciprocity helps create social capital for all concerned, if done well. If assistance can’t be obtained, return to step one and reduce your list further.

Stress Reduction Step #4: Give Thanks.

Once you’ve completed whatever was possible, given the time available, be sure to thank everyone who pitched in. If you carried the day on your own, validate yourself warmly for your outlay, and thank yourself too. It was a choice, after all! Expressing appreciation provides an opportunity for gratitude to restore balance and perspective. Balance and perspective are great stress reducers.

Stress Reduction Step #5:Review and Revise.

This step is often overlooked. But reviewing and revising rewards you richly. When you have a moment to yourself, review what happened that left you in a situation with too much to do in too little time. Then, ask yourself these 3 questions in a non-judgmental way:

* Was procrastination involved?

* Were there unexpected changes in your day that threw a wrench in the works?

* What can you do to avoid a situation like this in the future?

Time management skills can’t address every eventuality. You will, of course, be faced with demands to squeeze too much activity into too little time. Still, your best is more than enough – doing your best will strengthen and direct you in difficult times to come.

Now, what is your next move towards stress-free effectiveness?

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