Does your day seem to disappear before your eyes?  Critical tasks left undone? Desperate for a solution?  When you launched your business were you prepared for everything you had to do to make it thrive?   Productivity and profitability do go hand in hand!

Maybe when you began your business you thought you just needed to learn skills to make you an expert in your field and "Voila"! you'd be a sought-after success!

It's not so easy, is it?

To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to know about all sorts of things—like product development, budgeting / branding, marketing, networking, social media, video, and so much more!  Then, if you get that all figured out, did anyone ever teach you how to successfully combine your business with the rest of your life?

The truth is every performance gap, every little inefficiency, every lack of organization or productivity, not only reduces the effectiveness of your business, it also steals time from your personal life! This is TRUE FOR all BUSINESS owners!

Wouldn't it be great if you could find everything you needed to learn in ONE place?

I'm inviting you, as my guest, in an extraordinary program designed specifically towards the unique needs of entrepreneurs who want to excel in business and in life … Fire Up Your Biz - Enrich Your Life!   Stephanie LH Calahan of Calahan Solutions, Inc. has pulled together some of the best experts on productivity, mindset and business growth that you can find -- over 20!

Sign up by clicking here today!

Warmest Regards,
Michelle Panzlaff

PS
This program offers a TON of value. Don't miss out!  Stephanie tells me that the goal is to be all content and no fluff!  This is not a series of sales presentations.  They are even taking your questions to get answered, so you know you'll get solid value.

It's time to stop feeling exhausted at the end of each day.

Tip 1: To be 'on-time' more often try to determine your 'Target Arrival Time' first. To determine this you'll need to figure out what is latest time you could arrive, (without feeling stressed), and the earliest possible time you want arrive, (That wouldn't leave you waiting an unbearable amount of time). The time in-between will be your 'Target Arrival time'.

Tip 2: Determine how long it 'really' takes to get where you are going, so you don't miss your target and end up late. Be sure to factor in time to warm up car or park it, etc. Use this information to schedule your departure time. (Recommend adding 15 minutes to your estimated travel time for transitional activities)

Tip 3: When attending a lecture or workshop try sitting at the front of the room where you can resist more distractions. Focus on the instructor, listen and take good notes. Immediately afterwards, review your notes. (Forgetting is greatest within 24 hours without review)

Tip 4: Ask questions to clarify things and engage with others. By showing outward interest and listening you can self-motivate and the dialogue may help you remember things later on.

Tip 5: Take good notes by noting dates, headings of topics, names, actions and due dates as applicable. When taking notes first record thoughts, then cut the clutter and circle the best points. Review those points and reflect on outcomes, then review again.

If you found these tips handy and think you know someone that can benefit from them or may enjoy getting TidyTimes and the free gifts for signing on, please pass it on this webpage to them. 

Have you ever heard the expression
‘Why do today what I can put off until tomorrow?’

When we put things off, we are procrastinating. Maybe it’s putting off cleaning the car, organizing the closet or paying a bill or… the list goes on and on.

So how do we beat it? Here are three ideas:

1. Break big tasks down to smaller ones. If your goal is to read a long novel for example, set small goals to read chapter, by chapter. A small goal to read a couple chapters is less overwhelming than telling yourself you have to read the whole book.

2. Don’t think about it, ‘just do it!' Stop worrying, just start doing. Getting started is half the battle. Don’t wait to get inspired to start a task. Feel the fear, and do it anyway!

3. Get the help of a friend. Maybe you’ll be more motivated with a friend at your side. Like with studying, meeting with a study buddy means you are far more likely to commit to the task.

Rely on external resources and help, such as self-help books, training programs and of course professional organizers. All of these options can help you deal with procrastination. Your success and piece of mind is important, if you need help and want to see just how much fun it can be to ‘get it done’, I am here for you.


TIME SAVING TRICKS

Less stress and a smooth running day can be yours if you use your time wisely. Here are some suggestions to help you save time.

 * Make lunch the night before
* Always leave your keys & wallet in the same place
* Clean your home one room a day, or every other day
* Use a calendar to keep track of date specific tasks
* Make a ‘To-Do’ list everyday
* Try running a load of laundry while making dinner
* Set your alarm 15 minutes early
* Set our clock 5 minutes ahead
* Cook large meals on weekends that carry a few days
* Lay out your clothes the night before
* Run errands on the way home from work

Other tricks to help you manage time:
 
* Make a checklist of tasks for each week & month
  that happens on a regular basis. This will save you
  having to write out repeating tasks on your to-do
  list every time.

* Observe how you spend time for a couple weeks to
  see where your time really goes. Make notes of
  when your energy levels are high and when you feel
  most tired.

* Use your time tracking information to plan a master
  schedule for each week or month. Include routine
  tasks and room for creative fun time too. Schedule
  sedentary tasks for times you know you generally
  have less energy.

* Review all outstanding action files, goals and ongoing
  projects every week. Friday afternoon can be a good
  time to clear your head for the weekend.

Go ahead and ask, you won't be the first...

If you want to know what simple activity can consistently make someone better organized, I will answer 'The ability to make quick objective decisions'.


To Decide or Not to Decide. 
Learning to ‘make decisions’ on everything, as soon as it crosses your path, and dedicating time and energy to follow through on your choices, are two important aspects to staying organized.

Not being able to make decisions, and putting things ‘here for now’ is a challenge that plaques many, for various reasons. These reasons, or shall I say ‘Obstacles’ are mainly due to what I will call ‘technical error’.
 
Technical Error is not having a proper, easy to access ‘home’ for things. Then again, sometimes the 'obstacle' leading to this 'decision making challenge' can be related to fears or even perfectionism. Yet anyway we slice it, learning to make objective decisions about what we keep, where we keep it and whether or not we act on it is very important in my opinion.

So to help you and those you know make better choices about what to keep and what to do with it, here are some tools to share.

To help you make quick decisions I have a free copy of the '4 Decisions to Make with Tasks and Mail' for you on my site.

Then if you want to take a look at thinning out or eliminating any piles of business cards, magazines, brochures and over stuffed files you can find great 'Tips to Weed your Tasks and Paper' here.

And if letting go is hard, stay objective by asking yourself these questions about your stuff:

When it comes to Paper:
Is it a duplicate?
Is it current?
How often will I refer to it?
Can I get it elsewhere if I need it?
Do I have time to read it?
Do I want, or truly need this?
Is replication very difficult?
Does the law require I keep it?

When it comes to Clutter ask:
When was it last used?
Is there a specific date I will need this again in future?
How hard would it be to replace again if I needed it?
How does it make my life more purposeful or better?
Is it beautiful or loved?
Does it reflect the person I am now?
What is worst case scenario if I toss it?

Now, if you still struggle a bit with the questions above and/or still need a little help to decide where to put things, take a closer look at the information in my 2010 article The-top-questions-to-ask-yourself-about-your-stuff


OK, all good? Ready to tackle it alone? Great!

Not looking forward to going it alone?
Just don't have the time?
Or is being objective impossible because you can’t see the forest through the trees?

Call me, its my passion to help. 

I am happy that spring is just around the corner, and I am excited about my coming new tele-seminar on Time Management coming up in April. As I work on a few more details to have everything ready to go by launch date, I find myself having to manage my time carefully to get the important things done.

You can learn how to do this too, and I would love to help..

In today's high tech, fast paced world, where we are experiencing distractions more than ever before. Our mobile phones, our email and the urges to multitask in an effort to get more done are adding up, and for many this is bringing on a feeling of overwhelm. Getting anything truly significant done in this environment is a wonder.

One trick to actually accomplishing some of the greater tasks on our plate is to give ourselves a big enough buffer. We need to accept the fact that interruptions will come, and e need to block out enough time in our day to accommodate them.

So what's a good guideline?

Well that's hard to say, as it depends on the task. A good starting guideline would be that if you had a task that you estimate will take 2 hours, try blocking 3 instead. Throw a short break in the middle of it too if needed. 

Yes, you can probably expect interruptions, just don't encourage them. When you schedule your work sessions you should turn the ringer on the phone off, shut the office door and ignore email as much as possible.

(Did you know that for every interruption you experience you automatically lose 5 minutes or more of concentration? This can add up very fast.)

If your working on task and giving your concentration to the task a good 1 or 2 hour session may be a good enough chunk of time to get some significant progress going on, and then you can break for a time to make sure no fires have broken out.

Another trick is that when you are in the middle of work and an idea or thought comes into your head that you absolutely can not forget about, just take one minute to write it out and put away to deal with at a more appropriate time. The idea is to just clear your head of the distraction by getting it in a place where you know you can find it later and then quickly get back to what you were doing.

Please enjoy these ideas gathered from 'The Disorganized Mind. Coaching your ADHD brian to take control of your time, tasks, and talents' by Nancy A. Ratey. Forward by John J. Ratey, co-author of 'Driven to Distraction'  

This truly informative and inspiring book has a lot of great insights and strategies to share. Today I would like to share some great strategies taken from Nancy's chapter on 'Time Mismanagement'. I encourage everyone to check this book out soon to learn more on time and task management and to share it with others.

Hear the Passing of Time
Try wearing a sports watch that is set to beep every hour. You can also use a PDA and consider the vibrating feature if you like a silent alarm instead. This technique will help you become more conscious of time and the length of an hour.

Divide your day into 'Quadrants'
Sometimes too much detailed schedule planning is not the answer. If you don't react well to detailed time management systems try dividing up your day into sections and then plug in a list of a few goals to acomplish in each. For example, these blocks could be 9-11, 11-2 and 2-5.

See both the big and little pictures
Keep a monthly and a weekly calendar. This way you will see the larger picture while still having a view of your more pressing weekly commintments.

1. Choose your best calendar and stick to it  
2. Enter tasks to Tiger Tables or Time Matrix to get priorities in order 
3. Enter all 'important' tasks over 20 minutes to your calendar  
4. Break down larger tasks to smaller bite sized pieces            
5. Create work schedule for each day 
6. Do your best work during times of day you are most creative and focused
7. Time your tasks to get realistic timelines to work within
8. Ensure that 'ALL' tasks & appointments are entered to your lists
9. Determine physical needs for organizing your paperwork and resources
10. Get documents organized into holders and sorters as needed

& Reward yourself along the way!