If you're new here, you'll want to be sure to get your free report and subscribe to the monthly e-zine and, perhaps, subscribe to the RSS feed, as well. Thanks for visiting!

As I mentioned in the May 5th post, one way you can effectively manage your office is through prioritizing and time blocking. In this post, I’ll delve into that topic a bit more.

Task Lists
One commonly proffered piece of advice is to create a task list. I like to do this in a spreadsheet like Excel so I can have columns that categorize and prioritize each task. I even include columns for start and end dates. Then, when I change categories or priorities, I just click on “sort” and the list re-sorts itself.

This also helps in the initial brain-storming phase. I can just type in all my tasks as I think of them and organize them later.
Continue Reading →

What motivates you to get up in the morning and start working? And, when you aren’t getting things done like you think you should, where did that motivation go?

First, let me tell you that you can still get things done if you aren’t motivated — it’s just more of a challenge to get started. If your motivation seems to be on vacation, tackle your to-do list in smaller chunks. Just start, with a goal to work on that task for a set amount of time. You may surprise yourself by finding the motivation in the act of doing.

Most time management advice advocates creating a schedule and sticking to it. However, if unforeseen things come up, this can really screw with your mind. It can also drain all the motivation out of you. You start to think, “What’s the point?” So, here’s an idea that can help: Create two to-do lists. On the first you list the things you HAVE to do. On the second, you list the things you’d LIKE to do.
Continue Reading →

Procrastination is a real schedule buster. At times it can be so easy to put things off until later, but if you do that too often, nothing gets done.

There are plenty of reasons people procrastinate:

• Feeling overwhelmed
• Dislike of the task
• Mis-alignment of task and person

I’d like to talk a little about each one and provide some tips and advice for overcoming them.
Continue Reading →