Time management

Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO TIME MANAGEMENT......................................... 3 WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT? ...................................................... 5 ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS ............................................................. 6 GROWING YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS ................................. 9 THRIVE FINANCIALLY.................................................................. 11 LIVE A HEALTHIER LIFE .............................................................. 13 LIVE A HAPPIER AND STRESS FREE LIFE ....................................... 14 THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME MANAGEMENT TO YOUR WORK ............. 16 THE HAZARDS OF PROCRASTINATION .......................................... 21 TIME MANAGEMENT THEORIES .................................................... 30 MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS................................................ 32 TIME MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES .................................................. 40 FINAL THOUGHTS....................................................................... 50

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

Introduction To Time Management Life is very busy, and at times, everyone needs a little help making things come together and makes sense. That is what this eBook is all about - - helping to make things come together and make sense.

Time management is a vital and critical skill that an individual must possess and have a solid grasp on in order to be successful in any field. However, it is particularly important skill and manoeuvre for those individuals who are trying to make a living online.

This eBook was written with those in mind who have a desire to become more organized and more productive. It was designed to help individuals achieve a better understanding and discipline of time management and the important significance that it has both in their business and personal lives.

Throughout this eBook on Time Management and its principles, you will find helpful definitions, explanations, and examples of time management tips and techniques. These strategies will focus on how time management relates to those who own an online business. It will also speak to those who are currently working as Internet marketers.

The Internet is loaded with a lot of valuable useful information that the everyday entrepreneur can glean a lot from. But, it is also loaded with quite a bit of fluff and unnecessary content. The task can be quite strenuous for those who are working online trying to sift through it all in an effort to find good, relevant information for their purposes.

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The successful online marketer has a commodity called Time, and they don’t have very much of it. One of the main keys to being a successful online business owner or Internet marketer is acquiring the skills that they need to sift through the readily available information and find ways to effectively manage their time.

The information contained within this Time Management ebook will show you how to eliminate hours off of your schedule and become more productive. We will share tips on how you can increase your available hours and branch out into other, lucrative and rewarding money- making ventures.

This ebook will also show you ways that you can carve out time for relaxing, time for family, or even time to do other activities that increase your quality of life.

When you properly understand time management and how it works, you can then make a structured plan for your everyday life and find more productive hours. Once you have learned how to properly manage your time, both in personal and in business aspects, every other aspect of your life will improve.

You will then find yourself achieving more and being more successful than you thought was possible.

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What is Time Management?

Time management is a concept that will be reiterated over and over again as you go through your life, constantly reminding you of the necessity of effectively managing the time that you have from day to day. The concept itself is fairly easy to grasp. But the actual concept of time management is much more difficult than simply listing a definition.

What then is time management? The official definition of time management states that it is a myriad of activities and theories that helps us to live a more productive, effective and successful life.

However, a look at the multiple benefits and various techniques, which make up time management, helps you to have a better understanding of what it really is.

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Achieving Your Goals Effective time management allow business-minded individuals to list their goals, giving them a visual of where it is that they want to be and a clear directive on how to get there. It also gives them a way and means to achieve those goals.

But, if you are not at all interested in effectively managing your time, then you do not have an immediate need for goals. You would never be able to achieve your goals without a specific plan or guidelines.

Think about this for a moment: without the activity of time management in your life, then you would essentially jump from one activity to the next with no sense of direction or purpose. Your life would not be very full and you may even experience feelings of selfdoubt and become non-productive.

By instituting a time management plan and life-planning goals and daily activities, setting those goals becomes of the utmost importance.

It is so important that as a business owner, that you set and achieve both personal and long-term business goals.

Without having an established set of goals to guide you, it becomes nearly is impossible to effectively manage your time, because you have no idea where your time would be best spent.

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By setting goals, you will give yourself goals to work towards, and, you will be able to put together a schedule that enables you to achieve those goals. You can sensibly gain a higher sense of self-confidence and self-achievement when you introduce solid, applicable time management techniques into your schedule.

Become More Productive A business owner’s dream is to become more productive and make more use of his or her available time, right? Why then should you become more productive? Because not only does time management help you to achieve your goals and further your business position, but effective time management also helps you in leading a more productive and fruitful life.

You see, when you increase your productivity levels, the benefits are endless; enabling you to achieve a greater amount of work than you ever could before.

For instance, if you delegate responsibilities at home or at work, you are able to increase the amount of productive time that you have on projects, business affairs and even within your personal time.

When you implement strategic time management techniques, you are then allowing yourself to become more productive. You are also eliminating time wasters and time distracters and freeing up your available time for other more important tasks.

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In other words, you are eliminating distractions and focusing on the task at hand and on the job that you have to do.

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

Growing Your Personal Relationships When you want to know the true meaning and the true character of an individual, you often don’t have to venture too far to get your answer.

Who they really are is often a matter of what their home life is like and what their personal relationships are like.

Determining the true definition of time management could perhaps require you to look a little closer to home since time management is defined as a simplistic way to help nurture, grow and expand personal relationships.

Do you have an excess amount of time to spare? If you do, consider spending this quality time with loved ones in an effort to create a

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thriving balance in your personal relationships. The benefits will be great and the rewards are beyond measurement.

However, if you do not properly manage your time or you are overwhelmed in your business relationships, you might eventually consider taking time away from family and friends to make up for it. In the long run, this can be the worst thing that you can do.

There is only a certain amount of hours in a day that you have to work within. You see, in order to complete the tasks that need to and that have to be done, you must take time from other areas in order to complete these tasks. So, what ends up happening is that time that should be spent on relationship building and nurturing is then used to get these other tasks done.

This inadvertently creates feelings of resentment with your friends and family members and can also lead to hostile relationships with them as well. Those family members may feel as if they are not important to you or worth the time that it takes to nurture their bond with you.

Eventually, a personal relationship loss can also cause depression and withdrawals in other aspects of your life. Another thing that it can also do is to cause you to fall even farther and farther behind in your work, which eventually, can lead to even more and more non-productivity in your business life.

Proper scheduling and a fair assessment and implementation of time management techniques can help you find and achieve any goals that

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

you have set for yourself. You will find that you are better able to foster personal relationships and live a happier, more productive and quality life.

Thrive Financially Thoroughly tested time management techniques and activities will help you be successful and thrive financially.

As you find that you are able to manage your time well, you also see that you are able to complete each and every one of your tasks in a timelier manner and move on to other projects that are either revenue-producing or assist you in meeting your budgetary goals. In other words, when you are organized, you will find yourself saving more money and being cost-conscious than before.

Finance-producing

activities

become

more

important

and

more

attainable when you are organized and better able to assess where you are within a project. Because you can focus better, your energies are best spent on client relationships and retention.

You are able then to seek higher paying assignments or projects, find better paying clients and focusing on building up your customer base.

You are also able to produce better quality products and more of a diverse product base for your online business.

Effective time management helps to make all of these scenarios doable and possible. If they are implemented strategically and effectively,

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

they can help you and your business to become more financially stable and independent.

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

Live a Healthier Life Living a healthier life and having a healthy lifestyle is also a by-product of good, effective time management. When you are better able to control your time and the things that you do with your time, you then have the means to live a healthier life as well.

Stress reduction as a result of proper time management can help you to eliminate digestive problems, get better results from exercising, beat insomnia, cure headaches, and remedy any other conditions that might be the result of stress on your body.

When you have more time, you have less stress in your life, therefore you are ultimately more productive. When there is more time thatn there is a day full of stress, you can also cut back and eliminate stressrelated injuries that can occur with the damaging effects of stress on your body.

When you are stressed, you are more prone to ailments and sicknesses that are almost difficult to gain control of. You may also find yourself re-injuring yourself and more susceptible to injuries or falls.

Having damaging, physically demanding stress is not a good thing and does nothing to help the body in any way. Being able to concentrate and focus on your body’s needs is what you can do to combat the effects of stress in your life.

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

You can also make better physical choices with the choice of foods that you eat and put into your body. How? Managing your time more effectively helps you to stay healthy by enabling you to make healthier meal choices and eliminate convenience foods. This will also give you time to exercise, therefore helping you to be stronger, feel stronger and look younger too.

Live a Happier and Stress Free Life When you manage your time more effectively, you are able to produce a life that is essentially filled with significantly more peace and happiness and definitely less stress.

Exercising time management techniques and activities will allow you to find free time to pursue the things that add quality and substance to your life. With additional time (that has been properly scheduled and allocated), you can make better use of the time that you do have available, therefore leading to an overall stress-free and a much happier life.

When your time is better allocated, you also get to compete tasks in a stress free environment minus the worrying over what to do and when you should do it. You then have more time to attend to the things in your life that demand your attention and give it the quality time that each of those areas deserve.

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What else can effective time management do? With it, you are also able to thrive both emotionally and financially within your personal and professional relationships. When your relationships are thriving and are satisfactory, you find that you sense a much higher level of happiness and peace that will help you be even more productive.

The best way to achieve goals is when you are relaxed and able to think clearly and more focused. As you manage your time better, you can do this in more ways because of your clear thinking. If all of your many needs are being taken care of with good time management, the final result will be complete satisfaction and happiness.

So again, what is time management and how effective is it on my life?

Although there are many definitions, varied based on the situation and in relative communities, the only way to truly explore the essence of good time management is to: 1. see how it (and the absence of it) affects your life.

2. implement the necessary steps to achieve a productive lifestyle.

3. see what strategies you can implement that are workable.

4. set a long-term plan to continue working what is working for you.

Although time management is a defined way for anyone, an individual, corporation or a business owner to become more productive, the end result should be to achieve goals, thrive financially, create stronger and better relationships, and live a healthier, happier life.

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When you fully understand the whole definition of time management, you can then appreciate how ultimately important time management is to any online (or offline) business that you may have and to your life in general.

The Importance of Time Management to Your Work Earlier in the book, we discussed how time management can help you as a business owner to be more productive in your business and also how it can shift your available time to have more time to experiment with other avenues towards financial profit and independence.

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Time Management | Complete Guide http://www.designhealthylife.com

For any online business owner or Internet marketers, the ability to manage your time is significantly much more of a challenge than those who are in a traditional or regular work environment.

Essentially, individuals who are freelancers, contract labourers and self-employed haven’t anyone who oversees their progress or who charts their activity for them from one day to another.

Since these loners haven’t a boss or a supervisor with which to be accountable to, they often experience a great deal of stress and frustration when they are trying to manage their time. It is simple and often easy to put tasks off until they become so overwhelming that they have no other choices with which to get them done.

Since there is no accountability with them, and the frustration levels mount quickly, they then become victims of poor time management which then in turn mount frustrations even higher and cause even less productive time.

Alternatively, it is also quite easy for individuals who work from home online to become so entrenched with their work and finding profitbuilding activities, that they forget (or do they just not have enough time?) to forge the necessary time for themselves and for their personal relationships.

Although it is good and admirable to be a dedicated, focused independent worker, these same qualities can also be a haunting,

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negative plight against the worker who is trying to meet goals and build their businesses.

If you are an online worker, it is of the utmost importance that you set clear, defined and reachable goals everyday. This gives you a sense of satisfaction and allows you to move your daily to-do’s around as you deem necessary.

When you have a strict schedule, or at least a workable schedule, you can stay on track to get things done in a manner that is relaxed and comprehensive yet allowing you to feel focused and as if you have accomplished a lot.

When you allocate your time in an efficient manner, you can then carve out more time to partake in other activities or find new projects that you’d like to begin, but perhaps lacked the necessary time or interest that you would have otherwise needed.

If you work from home, then you can certainly appreciate the importance and the benefits of beginning new projects that are going to significantly help your business in the long run.

For instance, if you are an Internet marketer, you may find that you want to conduct research surveys on new marketing strategies that are on the scene. You may have been reading material and articles about the strategy, but just didn’t have the time to pursue the information that you uncovered. Properly positioned and strategized, you can do this research, gain new insights, new clients and new leads

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and feel as if you’ve accomplished much progress in the short span of a day.

Let’s say that you have begun your day by focusing on a non-essential project that is promising to take up quite a bit of your time. If you focus heavily on the portion of your work that is of no consequence (at least not immediately) then you risk ruining that space of time that could have been better spent on other projects and in other venues of your business.

You also run the risk of missing other important deadlines for work that you have to do. A deadline to reach?

Then why work on social networking articles without giving regards to actually meeting your deadline? Sure, those venues need attention,

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but if you have a profitable, money-making demand that is on your time right now, it is far better to satisfy THAT deadline than it is to make possible new ventures.

Good time management activities and strategies can help you to adequately define what the most important tasks each day are and make the necessary time to complete each one of them. It can also leave you with extra time for enjoyable activities sprinkled throughout the day.

When you establish an effective time management protocol and a workable schedule, you are instilling the best possible strategy that is conducive towards the effective use of time for your business. As such, doing this and implementing workable skills should be of the utmost importance.

When you have a good time management strategy in place, you can get more done in less stressful environments, and thereby become more profitable online business owners or Internet marketers.

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The Hazards of Procrastination Why procrastinate? Because it’s just easy to do!

There really isn’t a good reason (if there can be a good reason) why anyone should procrastinate. Procrastination does nothing to advance your personal or professional goals and also brings with it it’s own set of frustrations and anxieties.

Procrastinating is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make on your quest towards effectively managing your time and carving out a quality life towards time management. In the end, you want to be sure that you are being proactively engaging with the time that you have allotted in each day. Don’t ruin it with procrastinating.

Negative Financial Effects How can a life of procrastination have a negative financial effect?

When you procrastinate and sloth around on a daily basis, then it could invariably lead to significant financial problems. You can spend (or not spend) so much time avoiding the things that you need to do that you lose sight of the things that require your attention.

When you put things off, delay them or just avoid them altogether, it becomes increasingly difficult to complete things or bring closure to open projects. It is hard to get very much productive work done.

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Falling behind can cause you undue stress in running and maintaining your online business.

What happens when your productivity is reduced? You run the very real risk and the very costly risk of losing clients or having clients demand refunds on work that you’ve already done for them. When you are distracted with clients leaving or in the process of refunding them for projects, you lessen the time that you need to explore any other lucrative money making ideas.

In addition to financial stresses, procrastination can also cause other problems in your life that can be detrimental. When you delay other imperative life activities like paying bills, shopping or even car maintenance, you essentially are affecting your family’s happiness and comfort and the health and well-being of your business. What you put off or procrastinate over can end up having you pay out exorbitant amounts in late fees.

Consistently paying late fees on your credit cards can upset your credit ratings, your ability to get new credit and even your ability to work within the business sector, since you often need to use credit to function.

Negative credit ratings can become a huge problem, especially if you need credit in order to run your business or household. Once you begin receiving negative ratings on your credit report, it affects your ability to get more credit, secure business loans and can even keep you from getting personal loans for homes or vehicles.

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When you procrastinate, you’re also hindered from saving money and setting aside money to take care of emergency situations. If you’re unable to pay your bills in a timely manner, you will also be unable to put aside money for savings for business and/or personal expenses.

Since internet marketing businesses that are operated online do not consistently produce the same monthly income, a healthy savings account is often necessary in order to ensure that things are run in a smooth manner. If you don’t have a savings account, or at least money to earmark for a savings account, you decrease your chances to save and add to your business.

If you are a procrastinator, it’s likely that you are not saving a lot (if any) and can be affected in the long term. If you need to pay bills once your business slows down or if you have a dry period, your bad habits of procrastination can become an undesirable place to be.

Damage to Your Health What are some of the physical health conditions or manifestations that are associated with poor time management and procrastination?

1. Depression 2. Weight Loss 3. Weight Gain 4. Loss of Sleep (Insomnia, too much sleep) 5. Overeating

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6. Under eating 7. Emotional Instability 8. Paranoia 9. Frustration 10. Nausea, Upset Stomach

These are possibly some of the most common health problems that are associated

with

procrastination.

There

are

surely

many

more,

dependent upon each individual and their tolerance levels, but many of the 10 types listed above are experienced at least once by those who are under significant stress.

Do you find that you are constantly and hurriedly on the go, trying desperately to recover from all of the procrastinating you have done?

If you find that your personal relationships (friends, family, children, spouse) are also failing, you can often attribute that to poor time

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management as well, simply because you are not able to give them the time that they so richly deserve.

What is the answer?

For one, it is far simpler to maintain a conceivable, working schedule than it is to try and recover from any negative affects that result from the delays and process of procrastination.

How are the physical effects related to procrastination and poor time management?

When you experience one of these symptoms, you can end up in a foggy, dazed state, simply existing and going from one point to another not realizing or understanding how to remedy your situation.

When you are always oblivious or in a constant semi-alert state, you are more prone to feeling more physical effects and experiencing more physical conditions that not.

You also do not have the time to focus on these physical conditions, since you are already distracted; therefore the process becomes like a domino effect and keeps going and going and going. You can become increasingly frustrated and tired as time goes on.

A person who has a traditional day job with set working hours may be more likely to take time off work, or sick days, or even vacation days to fully recover from their physical ailments.

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But, internet marketers must always and consistently maintain their work if they want to remain profitable in their businesses.

As a business owner operating an online business, the flexibility to work when you want, how you want and be too relaxed just is not affordable. As a freelancer, you must work odd hours, maintaining schedules that are essentially in line with what your clients want and NOT with what you want.

You CAN avoid these potential problems and create a seamless work life if you apply basic time management techniques and look for creative, workable ways to position projects and deadline work into your busy lifestyle.

Although there are going to be some problems that are of course unavoidable, there are some things that as we mentioned earlier, you simply cannot afford to procrastinate on. They could cause you your business and ruin your reputation. It’s not worth it to risk it by being sloppy with scheduling and putting things off until the last minute.

Inability to Succeed Being a constant procrastinator makes it essentially impossible to succeed in life and virtually in any line of work that you as an online marketer or worker will choose. If you want to be successful, realize that it takes hard work, dedication, and determination.

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Usually, people who procrastinate and “put off til tomorrow” almost never portray the traits that are desired to be successful for the long haul. When you become a slave to procrastination and avoid the principles of successful time management, realize that you are setting yourself up for failure as a business owner.

The inability for the procrastinator to truly buckle down and get work done, meet his/her goals and finish projects is the very reason why they are unable to successfully produce a fair and decent income for themselves. They may often whine and complain that they cannot get a break or get their business started, when in essence they are saying that they don’t “feel” like doing the work that’s necessary to get their business started.

There are successful and productive online business owners and online marketers who have found the key to success and solid business principles. They have employed the strategies of good, fail-safe time management activities that place them on the correct pathway to accomplish their goals.

As an online entrepreneur and a perpetual procrastinator, you must first readily acknowledge that there is room for you to work on the things that need improving and that you are willing to make changes to your life in order to see those improvements. You must be willing to put forth the effort to truly make changes in your lives.

If you are unwilling or unmotivated to cease the habit(s) of procrastination and seek a better way, then it is utterly impossible that

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you will ever be a professional in your field or recognized in a significant way in your area of interest.

If you put off a task until it becomes insurmountable, you feel overwhelmed and rushed to complete the job. You can then make mistakes or not do as well as you normally would have. And, you then will have invested twice as much time to perform the task that should have only taken half the time to do.

Realize that failure is imminent if changes, whether they are subtle or dramatic, are not made in someway to the lifestyle that brought you to the threshold procrastination; you will experience defeat over and over and over. This certainly is nothing that an entrepreneur wants to face or should face. There are ways to avoid procrastinating and ruining your hard work.

Ultimately, there isn’t any real reason why you as an entrepreneur should create or have any undue stress in your life. The lifestyle of an entrepreneur is hectic enough without additional pressures of any sort.

If it is your ultimate desire for you to enjoy a successful online business, it is important that you set some precedents at the beginning of your journey. Take the necessary time that you need to learn tips, tricks and information and develop habits that will lead to a lifelong pursuit of effectively managing your time and projects as you strive towards success.

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Loss of Your Ability to Enjoy Life When you procrastinate, you also lose the innate ability to truly enjoy your life. It seems that when you are unfocused or frustrated, things are overwhelming when they should be simple, argumentative when there is no contention and the least of things seem to make you uncomfortable.

Procrastination can make it possible for you to lose your desire and the ability to truly enjoy your life. Granted that no one’s life is in absolute perfection, but a person does in fact want to enjoy the life that he or she has built for themselves. Even if you are in pursuit of a particular lifestyle, fruitless efforts are enough to make you want to discard everything and abandon your life.

There may be feelings of angst and overwhelming emotions that make it impossible for you to fully grasp life and make a go of it. If you are a procrastinator and forget to pay your bills in a timely fashion, you are then overwhelmed with harassing phone calls from creditors and debtors who are vying for your attention.

As a business owner, you HAVE to work in order to create an income for yourself and for your family. If you don’t have any income, or your income is severely reduced due to procrastinating habits, you risk losing clients and decreasing your income even further thanks to the debilitating habits that you have formed.

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Even when all of this happens, you still have the plight of failing personal relationships and the possibility of those failing as well. This may seem or sound melodramatic, but the variability’s and the possibilities are quite real and quite possible if your schedule is neglected.

Having a workable, viable schedule in your life is very, very important to say the least. If you do not have a daily schedule in your life, you will never know what needs to get done and what has to be done. This is the

best way

and the

most

progressive

way to

invite

in

procrastination and keep that overwhelming feeling going on in your life.

When you get behind on properly maintaining your online business, you fall into bouts of depression, hopelessness, frustration and sometimes even paranoia.

Time Management Theories Now that we’ve delved a bit into what time management is, how you can exercise good control over it, what to avoid, how to avoid certain styles and what benefits there are to living procrastination-free, let’s look at the various theories that are involved in the time management lifestyle.

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After you have explored a variety of time management theories, you can then apply principles to processes and find out what works best with your lifestyle and with your situation.

There

are

several time

management

theories

that

have

been

developed and tested and can attest to their validity in helping individuals find the lifestyle that they want for their personal use and for their businesses. Let’s review a few of them‌

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory that is built on the basic premise that there are five specific needs that a person initially needs to have met before any other needs can be met.

Those needs start with the basic needs like shelter and food. They then work themselves into a process of self-actualization or the fulfillment of everything that you as an individual is capable of.

Keep in mind that one level of needs must be met in order for a person to move on to the next level. The levels of needs as listed in this theory are:  Basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, etc.)  Safety needs (financial security, health, personal security)  Social needs (friendship and intimacy)  Esteem needs (self respect, self-esteem, etc.)  Self Actualization (The state achieved when all of the other needs are satisfied) By working through this hierarchy of needs theory, you will then be able to clearly see what needs are being met, and which needs need more attention and clarity.

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The knowledge gleaned from this hierarchy can be successfully used to create a daily schedule that will set comparable, steady goals for you to work towards. This can be the foundational groundwork for your everyday life, for your business and in helping you to achieve the things that you need to in order to become more successful.

For example, if within your online business you find that your basic needs are being satisfied, like security, or food and shelter, then you can refocus your energies in a different direction.

You can focus on more complex, integral needs as they relate to your personal desire and your business desires. The hierarchy would inevitably have you focusing on social needs and esteem issues for the next step. ~ Do you need confidence to approach the next potential client for your business? ~ Do you have the confidence that you need to approach a networking group at a luncheon and make small talk?

The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory allows you to lay down a definitive plan that targets the goals for your personal life and for your business life.

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The theory will aid you in making your business more successful and in the end, feel and act more satisfied and more complacent with the decisions that you make both for yourself and for your business.

Pickle Jar Theory Pickles…sound unappetizing? Probably so.

But, the Pickle Jar Theory is an effective and relatively easy time management theory that anyone can use to make a structured schedule for their personal or business use.

Although the premise of the theory may sound simplistic, it is anything but simple, if fact it is quite comprehensive enough for the average individual to completely maximize their use from it.

The Pickle Jar Theory of course is centered on a pickle jar. If you take a pickle jar, placing three nice-sized rocks in it, at first glance you would think that no more rocks could fit into the jar.

However, if take small pebbles and shake them into the jar around the large rocks, you could immediately see that you would be able to fit them in comfortably around the rocks. There IS more room in the jar, especially if it could accommodate the pebbles.

Now, looking at the jar full of large rocks and small pebbles, you may decide that the pickle jar is in fact now full. Nothing else can get into the jar, right? Take a look at the jar again.

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Now, if you take some loose sand and shake that into the jar, filling up the spaces, you can immediately that the sand fits quite nicely among and over the large rocks and the small pebbles.

Is there anymore room for anything else? Can anything else possibly fit into that pickle jar?

First glance, your answer would be NO. It’s now fill of rocks, pebbles and sand. But take a closer, harder look and let’s add one more thing among the sea of rocks and pebbles.

If you were to add water to the inside of the jar until it fills up, you would see that there can in fact be one more thing added to this already full jar.

So, how does the Pickle Jar Theory relate to time management and life principles in general?

Your business life and your personal life can be equated to the principle behind that pickle jar. The three big rocks symbolize major priorities that you have and commitments that must be honored.

These are the things that are usually non-negotiable and absolutely must be done, no matter what.

The pebbles represent hobbies that you have or things that are more leisurely than your responsibilities. These pebbles represent the things

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that you try to fit around your big tasks without having them interfere with your large tasks.

The sand is indicative of things like chores and other necessary evils that you HAVE to do in order for your life to run smooth. Those responsibilities, like the sand, simply fit in when they can and wherever they can.

And what is the water akin to? It is like distractions that force their way into your daily schedule, wreaking havoc and not apologizing for it.

Within the course of an average day, there are many things that you need to accomplish in order to be successful. But if you can arrange your day in a productive, flowing manner, you can be like the pickle jar and feel accomplished and satisfied each day. You can find the time that you need to schedule room for everything that you need to do.

The purpose of the Pickle Jar Time Management theory is to help you in scheduling your time more effectively and arranging it so that it can yield the maximum results possible.

When you are making a schedule with this theory, you want to be sure to list the largest priorities first, and then deftly mix in the other small tasks around them. Let’s look at an example of this application.

If you need to develop a new marketing article that you will make available to your clients or potential customers, you must first layout a plan that you will use in order to get to the finished product.

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First, as a pressing priority, you would need to flesh out the particulars of the project with the client. Next, you will need to create a website for the project on the client as it relates to the marketing concept.

You would then perhaps set a deadline date to have the material finished by so that you can ensure that everything is completed by that date.

In addition, you will fill in the project specifications with other light distractions in order to keep the project interesting, but not too much that it will take you off focus and keep you from completing the tasks at hand.

Pareto’s Principle Vilfredo Pareto was an economic specialist who developed a math equation to detail the unequaled distribution of wealth in Italy in 1906.

He used what he called the “80/20 principle” and the application of this theory is still in use today.

This theory states that 80 percent of the riches of the world are owned by a mere 20 percent of the people in the world. His assessment of this was founded upon his extensive researching and observing the natural flow of human behavior.

During the 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran took Pareto’s idea and made what is now called the Pareto’s Principle, which is a simple time management theory. The principle is actually centered on the belief

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principle that 20 percent of the actions in your life really make a difference, and that almost 80 percent of the things that you do in your life do not.

Using this theory, you can then decide if 20 percent of your actions are important and which actions will produce results. When it becomes clear to you, you can then focus mainly on them and give them the attention they need in order for you to become optimally productive.

However, the only discrepancy with this line of thinking is that it does not leave very much room for adjustments or emergencies in your schedule. You may in fact feel a little frustration even in trying to get it to work.

However, there is a workable remedy or an alternate solution to this challenge. If you are able to make a schedule that shows 20 percent of the actions that make a significant difference, leaving room for distractions and interruptions, you could very well see some success in this theory.

As it relates to Internet marketers and online business owners, focusing on the actions that have made significant money for you or the actions that have helped your business progress the most, then you will find that this is where you can be most successful.

By contrast, if you only focus on the insignificant things that bring success, leaving no time for rest and rejuvenation, you will find

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yourself continually frustrated and your life in a state of clutter and distraction These are just some examples of various time management theories that will help you to better understand how time management works.

These theories can help you lay a firm foundation for your own time management schedule.

Once you find a certain theory that works well for you, you will then be able to create a strong schedule that allows you to maintain a good time management and a structured business and personal life.

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Time Management Activities Not

participating

in

or

taking

advantage

of

good,

solid

time

management activities on a daily basis will end up in your schedule controlling you. In other words, you will find that you working on a triage basis; whatever is on fire get the water first!

Many people set goals of achieving time management processes, but often do not know about the various time management activities that they can and should try. This can be a huge roadblock on the road to properly managing your time.

When you work from home, you must watch your time and your schedule very carefully. Your time can quickly get away from you and you can lose focus with the goals that you are trying to accomplish as well.

What can you do to remedy this? Let’s look at a few things that you can try.

List Your Goals As a first step, listing your goals is an important tool because it provides you with a basis of things to work from as you schedule your day and set things in a workable order.

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It’s important for a work at home entrepreneur to adequately list the goals that he or she is trying to achieve. First, make a succinct list of the goals that you have set for your online business. This gives you a clear assignment of direction and shows you at a glance the things that you need to do to get there.

Without goal setting or goal achievements, there is nothing to motivate you to work towards something. You cannot achieve time management without it. Your goals can be as simple as establishing one new client this week, making one marketing call per week or even making it a goal to work a set number of hours per day.

Whatever your goal is, whether it is large or small, goal setting will invariably help you to achieve your purpose. As you clearly list your goals and define where you want to go, you then establish a general idea of where your time is best spent each day. This way, you can use creative scheduling techniques to focus on your main business goals, using them to sort through and schedule in activities around the highest priority ones.

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Recognize Where Your Time is Wasted Try this activity: On a sheet of paper list everything that you did on a particular day (preferably the same day or the day before).

Next, separate your day into half hour blocks and include all activities, whether you deem them important or not. This would include things like driving, eating, sleeping, children and anything extracurricular.

When you do this and by visually dividing your day into smaller, more manageable blocks, you can then clearly see how you have spent your day.

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Now, after you have compiled this list, you want to go back and look at the list that you have just made so that you can begin eliminating.

What will you eliminate? You will want to cross out and eliminate activities that are not necessary.

In addition, any activity that does go directly to your bottom line of productivity will also be cut out or reduced. Look for activities that have helped you in furthering the achievement of your goals. In some fashion that’s easy for you to grasp, circle them as you will refer back to them later.

By using this process and utilizing this time management activity, you will be able to see how much time was wasted each day doing the things that were not productive and did not help you meet your goals.

As an aid, make a mental or written note of those time wasters or distractions that you have experienced and make it a point to cease the activities that relate to them. You will find that you can free up hours of time in your schedule.

Make a schedule One way to get a significant jump on the quest to managing your time more effectively is actually a simple one‌make a schedule and stick to it. Do this on a DAILY basis as it is only effective with the things that have to be done and finished on that day.

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Pay close attention to time-sensitive appointments or projects that have to be completed within a particular time frame. These are the appointments or projects that if handled properly, go directly to your profitable bottom line for your business.

Very often, we tend to wander, wasting our time from boredom or other distractions. These time wasters are the things that lead immediately to procrastination an poor time management. To offset these distractions, you can vary the work you do from hour to hour or from one block of time to another.

One of the most integral components that is often left out in making an effective schedule is adding in breaks and periods of rest and time for distractions or emergencies. You need breaks when you are

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working long periods of time so that you can rejuvenate and five the project your optimal performance.

By weaving breaks into your busy schedule, you essentially ensure that they are taken and that your day’s plans are not disturbed in the process.

What can you do to ensure that you will stick to the schedule no matter what the consequences are? Enforce some type of negative reinforcement that will help you positively meet your goals.

There is not anyone that is immediately available to you as a home business owner to ensure that you will meet your goals. As a lone work from home business owner, you don’t have the luxury of a supervisor who motivates you or even punishes you.

Learn How to Delegate Delegating is an essential component of learning how to manage your time effectively. The process of task delegation can dramatically reduce the time that you need to spend doing those things that do not help you meet your business or personal goals.

What kinds of tasks can you delegate easily and rest assured that they’re done?

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Personal tasks: Doing laundry Yardwork Doing dishes Cooking meals, vacuuming Business tasks: Emailing newsletters Making cold calls to prospective clients Sending emails, responding to clients Shipping products By delegating particular tasks to other people, or groups of other people, you are then freeing up your time and making your productive work hours more productive. Go through your list of delegates and tasks to see what things can be given to others and what should not be given to outside sources.

Hiring part-time workers for your business can be a plus for it in terms of

effective

time

management.

Consider

hiring

a

part-time

administrative assistant or secretary to help with your inter-office needs. This will allow you to spend more time on profitable tasks, letting someone else handle the mundane daily tasks that can often be time grabbers.

When you do delegate tasks, make sure that they are goals that can be satisfactorily accomplished and those that are appropriate as well.

For instance, you wouldn’t ask your secretary to do your household

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laundry, nor would you have your 12-year old run your client email marketing campaign. Make sure when you delegate duties, that the person has the skills and understanding to appropriately complete the tasks.

Once you have learned how to successfully delegate, you will be able to spend more time working aggressively towards your specific business goals, and less time engaged in things that do not improve your business’ situation.

Eliminate Procrastination While putting off important tasks for a couple of days may free up time in your immediate schedule, it can also cause other potential problems down the road. Eventually, you will have to address the task and get it done right away. When this happens, and eventually it will, you will find that you cannot put off the task any longer as it will become overwhelming.

While yes, it is important not to procrastinate, you should also try not to accomplish everything at once without taking breaks or periods of rest. You need to be able to complete your tasks with a clear mind and with clear thoughts. Trying to complete tasks right away or putting off tasks that should have been finished can prove to be damaging as well as forming a bad habit of procrastinating.

To avoid any delay problems or scheduling issues, decide when you need to have a task completed by and then work it into your daily

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schedule. You can and should then complete small portions of the task each day, not putting off other tasks, but by wholly concentrating on the task at hand and making sure to complete each phase as you go along.

Learn to Say No While it is important to delegate tasks whenever possible, it is important as well to avoid loading up on tasks that are too cumbersome for you to effectively do by yourself.

If you are approached and asked to take on more duties and to do more things that will add layers of work to your already busy schedule, simply say no. You must learn to say no.

When you learn to say no, you will keep yourself from being overworked. You are also avoiding disappointment and letting others

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down who may be dependent on you. Your needs, especially physical, should always come first and be of high priority. You must be working yourself in an ideal optimal state in order to produce quality work and materials.

Avoid Distractions and Consolidate Your Time Finally, when you are working on or consumed with a large task, especially when you are working from home, it may be advantageous to work in large chunks of time, especially in one to two hour blocks.

While working on large, complicated tasks, it helps to group tasks together and work in blocks of time. You feel more like you’ve completed a “project” of sorts, and pieces to a puzzle have been put together. To continue a task until you have finished it is much more effective than all-in-one-sitting when you are trying to manage your time.

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Final Thoughts As an entrepreneur and an online business owner or Internet marketer, it is extremely important for you to utilize and put time management practices into an effective process for your personal life and for your business.

Working online each day creates a lot of distractions that you have to work through as a work at home entrepreneur. These distractions pull you away from the tasks that you need to complete and the goals that you are trying to reach.

By following the tips and techniques found within this eBook, you can learn how to effectively manage your time, leading a more productive and a more fulfilled life.

Freeing up your schedule, finding more workable time and doing the things that lead to a productive life can help you to become a profitable entrepreneur from the comforts of your home!

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