Time Management Apps for Your Web Browsing

Picture this: You go online with the intention to get a specific time management task done. But along the way, you get distracted by email, Facebook, app/software updates, browser tabs you forgot you left open, a tweetstorm from your favorite celebrity, and that other thing you were supposed to do online yesterday.

Wouldn’t it have been great if you had some kind of time management app or web tool that stopped you from wasting 45 minutes before finally remembering what you went online to do in the first place?

Online distractions can be a real problem for those who aren’t mindful or disciplined enough to resist unproductive browsing habits, but there’s no reason why even the most distraction-prone individual can’t train themselves to become more intentional users. Tools like time management apps and browser extensions can be a big help when just getting started.

If you want to start being a more productive web user who has more free time to enjoy, consider downloading or installing one (or several) of the following tools.

RescueTime

RescueTime is one of the most popular time management applications that you can use on both the desktop and mobile web to track your time spent browsing websites and apps. A free membership gets you this plus the opportunity to set goals on how you want to spend your time, as well as weekly and quarterly reports. You can also use the tool to get alerts about when you’ve spent enough time on a certain activity, block specific websites, log achievements throughout your day, and more.

Trackr

Want to see exactly how much time you’re spending on specific websites? Trackr is a simple Chrome web browser extension that displays a nice pie graph and corresponding legend to give you a visual idea of where you’re spending you’re time. According to the developer, it only tracks active time on a web page — meaning if you leave lots of browsers open, it won’t detect mouse movement or any other actions on the web page that counts toward the track. Go F*ing Work**

This one isn’t exactly for people who prefer proper language. Like Trackr, Go Fing Work is a Chrome extension that acts as a website blocker. Just tell the extension which websites you want to block (like Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, etc.), and then every time you try to visit it, you’ll be dissed and sworn at for even trying. You can, of course, put the extension on pause for as little as five minutes or as long as 48 hours, but the extension will ask you if you’re fing sure before doing so! More »

StayFocused

If you’re not too keen on having profane language spewed at you by the previously suggested browser extension, you may want to try StayFocused as a similar, much more polite alternative. StayFocused is also a Chrome extension that works by limiting your access to time-wasting websites. This particular extension allows you to limit access for a specified amount of time — say, for an hour of productive time. You also can set a daily maximum time allowed for access, but when that time is up, those websites will be inaccessible for the rest of the day.

SelfControl

Are you a Mac user? SelfControl is a free Mac app that allows users to block pretty much anything they want — websites, mail servers, or whatever else. Be warned, though: Unlike the Chrome extensions mentioned above, which can be bypassed just by deactivating them, SelfControl keeps working even after you restart your Mac. So when you set a time limit to block distractions, make sure you really don’t need them during that period of time. More »

Forest

Okay, so maybe you’re more of a mobile addict. If you are, you’ll want to check out Forest — a premium app available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices that takes a super nice approach to beat smartphone addiction. Planting trees! You plant a tree whenever you want to focus on your work, and as you do, the tree grows. If you leave the app, the tree is killed. There are also browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox too, so you can grow your forest on the web too! More »

Moment

If you’re an iPhone addict just looking for a simple, free app to help you kick your bad habit of constantly checking your phone and spending way too much time on it, consider Moment. See exactly how much time you’re spending on your phone, set alerts to remind you to get off the thing every X minutes, and set a daily limit that warns you when you’ve reached it. You can also track which apps you use the most to get an idea of what’s most addicting to you. More »

BreakFree

Another smartphone addiction app available for free for both iOS and Android devices is BreakFree, which monitors your app use and then recognizes patterns of overuse so that it can send you a warning to take it slow. It apparently uses an advanced algorithm to calculate your “addiction score,” which you can see maintained in real-time. There’s just one big downside to this one — it needs yourLocation Services to be turned on, which can really suck the battery life out of your device, so make sure you consider this before trying the app out. More »

Cold Turkey

Cold Turkey is another all-in-one time management tool built for the desktop web. With the free version, you get to set a maximum block period, create multiple custom groups for block lists that cater to specific occasions, and also enjoy the convenient work/break timer. The pro version gives you a lot more including a scheduling tool, the ability to block applications, the opportunity to set up wildcards or exceptions, work/break intervals, and something called “frozen turkey” for locking yourself out at specific times of the day. More »

Freedom

If you’re willing to pay for a great time management app that really covers everything, Freedom might be the app for you. You can try it for free and then decide whether you want a monthly, yearly, or permanent subscription. Freedom can cover all devices including those that run on Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows. Block any apps or websites that you want, schedule “Freedom” sessions, and build new habits with lock mode. The app is super clean and simple, but also a very powerful tool for helping you become more productive.

Remove Malware – Free

free-malware-removal.sparktrust.com

3 Ways To Stop Dementia

theunbreakablebrain.com

10 Ways to be Awesome in Managing your Work

Are you one that pays attention to your time in managing your work? If you stress the words pay attention, I would answer yes to this question. Especially if we were discussing a topic like managing your work.

Related: To do what you love, you must be so good they can’t ignore you.

Nothing else can be managed if time is not managed. Pretty tough quote by Peter Drucker, but if you think about it carefully, you will agree. Managing your work doesn’t come easy and it starts and ends with productive use of time.

Managing your work is all about the ability to plan and control how you spend the hours in your day to effectively accomplish your goals. Poor time management is related to procrastination, as well as problems with self-control. Skills involved in managing your time include planning ahead, setting and prioritizing goals, and paying attention to what you have accomplished.

Before going further in telling you how to be more productive in managing your work, let me tell a story to set the stage. The story is really an effective analogy and here it is:

This story is about a big game prize. Your prize winnings are in the form of a daily deposit by your bank into your account. Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use.

However, this prize has rules :

Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.

You may not simply transfer money into some other account.

You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.

The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, ”Game Over!” It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

So what would be your plan of action?

You would buy anything and everything you wanted right?

Not only for yourself but for all the people you love and care for. Even for people, you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?

You would try to spend every penny, and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right?

ACTUALLY, This GAME is REAL …..

Each of us is already a winner of this “prize”.

Only instead of money, this prize is TIME.

game changing ideas — **Game-changing ideas.**

Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.

And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost.

Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING …

So, what is your plan of action for this precious commodity each day? What is your plan of action for getting things done with your time?

Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. Think about that and enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

Start spending ….. But spend wisely.

It often feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things we want to accomplish, let alone find a moment to relax. The demands of work and social life, combined with our basic needs for sleep, food, and exercise, can quickly add up and overflow, producing the sense that time is constantly slipping away.

Time may be limited, but it doesn’t have to always feel that way. New research suggests that our state of mind can change the way we perceive and experience time, and in turn, make us happier and more successful in getting things done.

In addition, follow these 10 ways to help you in managing your work done:

Know yourself

Know the details of your personality. Make sure you appreciate how putting things off will affect you.

What to do

Pay attention to all the insights into your habits and use these insights to muster as many self-corrections as possible.

Establish your plan

In order to have your priorities lined up for each day, make a list of things that you have to do the night before and evaluate the importance of those projects. By committing your priorities to paper, you psychologically enter into a contract with yourself because it creates a greater responsibility in your mind to manage your tasks.

What to do

Make sure the plan you establish doesn’t overwhelm you. It definitely needs to add some flexibility.

More time management

Coming up short on time toward the end of the day? Get started 30 minutes early. It will give you some breathing room in the day and start the day with important alone time. There’s nothing better than starting the day fully organized and ready to go. It could also give you some time to re-think today’s priorities.

What to do

Estimate time goals for each of the day’s tasks. See how well you do and use the feedback for better planning and learning.

Change perspectives

Plan to spend at least 50 percent of your time engaged in the thoughts, activities, and conversations that produce most of your results.

What to do

Reevaluate what interests and affects you. Apply this to reassess all work tasks.

Make commitments

Oftentimes, we don’t do the essential things that need to be done because we get sidetracked — in many cases by tasks we’d rather be doing.

What to do

In order to avoid this trap, it’s important to keep the focus on the plan of attack on your priority tasks.

Be realistic

When you’ve created a plan and a schedule, it’s important to be realistic about what you can actually accomplish in a workday and prioritize accordingly.

When you can visualize how you plan your day to go, you can cut back the downtime. Got enough work done? Put some time in the gym or talk to your family.

What to do

If you can schedule and plan accordingly, you’ll never run out of time when well managed.

Schedule time for interruptions

Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing. It will happen, as it happens to us all.

What to do

Accommodate these interruptions in your plan with good flexibility.

Break up big tasks

Break up all major tasks into the smallest subtasks possible. Understand the relationships and dependencies of the subtasks.

What to do

Keeping up with an organizer that holds every subtask plan effort will permit better work management. Most people think they can get away with just creating mental notes, but that’s not good planning. Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing.

Avoid distractions

Easily the hardest thing to do all day at work is to be able to focus at all times. We all struggle with distraction, but being able to get back on the horse and stay focused is a great talent.

What to do

Learn how to improve your ability to say no effectively.

Anticipate and plan for the unexpected

Remember this: everyone in the managing work tasks business will tell you the same thing – “anticipate and plan for the unexpected.”

What to do

It is very difficult to manage your work until you have established your own sense of priority and purpose. Get the details of your plan worked out as early as possible.

Do you have a lesson about managing your work better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s work management skills, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas for running or facilitating a project management workshop?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way

Managing your Work: 10 Fundamental Laws to Keep Steady

Peter Drucker once said: Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed. Are you one that pays attention to time in managing your work?

If you stress the words pay attention, I would answer yes to this question. Especially if we were discussing a topic of managing your work.

Nothing else can be managed if time is not managed. Pretty tough quote by Peter Drucker. However, if you think about it carefully, you will agree.

Managing your work doesn’t come easy. It starts and ends with the productive use of time.

Managing your work is all about the ability to plan and control how you spend the hours in your day. The game plan is to effectively accomplish your goals.

Poor time management is related to procrastination, as well as problems with self-control. Skills involved in managing your time include planning, setting and prioritizing goals. The skills also include paying attention to what you have accomplished.

Before telling you how to be more productive in managing your work, let me tell a story to set the stage. The story is an effective analogy, and here it is:

This story is about a big game prize. Your prize winnings are in the form of a daily deposit by your bank into your account. Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use.

However, this prize has rules :

Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.

You may not simply transfer money into some other account.

You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.

The bank can end the game without warning. At any time it can say, ”Game Over!” It can close the account, and you will not receive a new one.

So what would be your plan of action?

Would you buy anything and everything you wanted? Why not, would be my question.

Not only for yourself, but for all the people you love and care for. Even for people, you don’t know. You couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, could you?

You would try to spend every penny, and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right?

This GAME is REAL …..

Each of us is already a winner of this “prize.”

Only instead of money, this prize is TIME.

Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.

And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost.

Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING.

SO, what is your plan of action for this precious commodity each day? What is your plan of action for getting things done with your time?

Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. Think about that and enjoy every second of your life. Time races by so much quicker than you think.

Start spending. But spend wisely.

It often feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. We want to manage time effectively right? We desire to accomplish all the things we want to accomplish, let alone find a moment to relax.

The demands of work and social life, combined with our basic needs for sleep, food, and exercise, can quickly add up and overflow. It certainly produces the sense that time is constantly slipping away.

Time may be limited, but it doesn’t always have to feel that way. New research suggests that our state of mind can change the way we perceive and experience time. This makes us happier and more successful in getting things done.

So to help, follow these ten ways to help you in managing your work:

Know yourself

Know the details of your personality. Make sure you appreciate how putting things off will affect you.

What to do

Pay attention to all the insights of your habits. Use these insights to muster as many self-corrections as possible.

Establish your plan

To have your priorities lined up for each day, make a list of things that you have to do the night before. Evaluate the importance of each of those projects.

By committing your priorities to paper, you psychologically enter into a contract with yourself. This will create a greater responsibility in your mind to manage each task.

What to do

Make sure the plan you establish doesn’t overwhelm you. It needs to add some flexibility.

More time management

Coming up short on time toward the end of the day? Get started 30 minutes early. It will give you some breathing room during the day.

It will allow you to start the day with important alone time. There’s nothing better than starting the day fully organized and ready to go.

It could also give you some time to re-think today’s priorities.

What to do

Estimate time goals for each of the day’s tasks. See how well you do and use the feedback for better planning and learning.

Change perspectives

Plan to spend at least 50 percent of your time engaged in the thoughts, activities, and conversations that produce most of your results.

What to do

Reevaluate what interests and affects you. Apply this to reassess all work tasks.

Make commitments

Often, we don’t do the essential things that need to be done. Often this is because we get sidetracked. Sidetracked in many cases by tasks we’d rather be doing.

What to do

To avoid this trap, it’s important to keep the focus on the priority tasks.

Be realistic

When you’ve created a plan and a schedule, it’s important to be realistic about what you can accomplish. Provide a feedback loop and update accordingly.

When you can visualize how you plan your day to go, you can cut back the down time.

Got enough work done? Put some time in the gym or talk to your family.

What to do

If you can schedule and plan accordingly, you’ll never run out of time.

Schedule time for interruptions

Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing. It will happen, as it happens to us all.

What to do

Accommodate these interruptions in your plan.

Break up big tasks

Break up all major tasks into the smallest subtasks possible. Understand the relationships and dependencies of the subtasks.

What to do

Keeping up with an organizer that holds every subtask plan effort will permit better work management.

Most people think they can get away with just creating mental notes, but that’s not good planning. Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing.

Avoid distractions

Easily the hardest thing to do all day at work is to be able to continuously focus.

We all struggle with distraction, but being able to get back on the horse and stay focused is a great talent.

What to do

Learn how to improve your ability to say no effectively.

The bottom line

Remember this. Everyone in the managing work tasks business will tell you the same thing. Anticipate and plan for the unexpected.

It is very difficult to manage your work until you have established your sense of priority and purpose. Get the details of your plan worked out as early as possible.

Looking to create a smashing brand image?

Do you have a lesson about managing your work better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s work management skills, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas for running or facilitating a project management workshop?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

More reading on business challenges from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Adaptation … 5 Awesome Business Examples for Study

9 Secrets to the Chipotle Culture and Employee Engagement Success

How to Change the World … 9 Amazing Ways

Time Management: Beware of These 16 Deadly Mistakes

It is pardonable to be defeated, but never be surprised. A famous quote from Frederick the Great. Are you often surprised by time management issues?

Not a good thing, is it? There are many deadly time management mistakes that can surprise you and kill your productivity. We will discuss many of the most significant in this article.

Check out our thoughts on team leverage.

No matter where you are in your career, all of us need all the help we can get managing your time.

Even when you’re working hard, you could be wasting a tremendous amount of time either by trying to multitask or by focusing too much on minute details.

In those cases, you will be surprised often.

Related: Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks

Let’s dive into a discussion of these mistakes that can be deadly no matter where you are in your career:

Not managing priorities

Time is all about priorities, isn’t it? In fact, I would conclude none of us really run out of time.

If you didn’t finish something by the time it was due, it’s because you didn’t consider it urgent or enjoyable enough to prioritize ahead of whatever else you were doing.

Think about it. How many times is this issue for you?

Time management … forcing your pace

Work more when you are on a roll and in the zone. Back off your pace and relax more when you’re not. Simple enough, isn’t it?

Some days you’ll be off your game, and other times you’ll be able to maintain your focus for 12 hours straight. Take advantage of those times.

Time management examples … not planning for unanticipated events

Everyone needs to build in some buffer time in their plan. As the founder of Ruby on Rails and Basecamp, David Heinemeier Hansson said, “Only plan on four to five hours of real work per day.”

Is this the way you plan and manage your time and activities?

*Time management mistakes … multitasking***

I can think of nothing worse for time management than multitasking. It is just not the best way to use your brain.

When you multitask, it kills your focus and productivity.

There have been academic studies that found the brain expends energy as it readjusts its focus from one item to the next.

If you’re spending your day multitasking, you’re exhausting your brain.

Not breaking big tasks into smaller ones

The action plan you need to finish may be intimidating at 8 in the morning. To reduce the stress, get your mind on the right path with easy tasks interspersed between the big ones.

An example is how you handle answering important work emails and telephone calls.

Take the big, tough tasks and break them into smaller ones.

Time management techniques … setting too much time for tasks

Work always seems to find a way of filling the space allotted for it, so set shorter time limits for each task.

Not taking advantages of constraints

More work hours doesn’t mean more productivity. Use constraints as opportunities.

Don’t kid yourself into thinking that sitting at your desk will somehow extract work from you.

Do whatever you can to finish your current task by the end of regular work hours instead of working into the night.

Not mixing brainless and strategic tasks

Ideally, you can brainstorm your ideas and then execute them.

If you’re constantly stopping your flow of work to rethink something, you’re slowing yourself down. It is much better to move completely to the next task.

Do another iteration of the old task at a later time.

Not working iteratively

Expectations to do things perfectly are stifling. So don’t set your goals to be perfect. A better approach is to do tasks in an iterative fashion.

Gen. George S. Patton once said, “A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”.

Not organizing important meetings in advance

Not scheduling meetings and communication by email

You’ll disrupt your flow if you’re reaching out to people throughout the day.

The time leading up to an event is often wasted. If you have an important meeting scheduled for 4 p.m., it’s easy for anxiety to set in and keep that meeting at the front of your mind.

Try to get them over with early so you can work without worrying about them.

Not working around procrastination

Procrastinate between intense sprints of work.

Try Francesco Cirillo’s “Pomodoro Technique.” “Pomodoro” is Italian for “tomato,” and it refers to the tomato-shaped cooking timer Cirillo used to break his work into 25-minute increments with 5-minute breaks in between.

You can use the same idea with your own time increments, as long as they inspire bursts of hard work.

Not appreciating priorities

No two tasks ever hold the same importance. Always prioritize. Be really careful with to-do lists.

Daily to-do lists are effective ways of scheduling your day. Just do what you can to keep bullet points from making “clean desk” on par with “file taxes.”

Not delegating

One time management issue for many of new workers is lacking action to delegate. Learn to make use of other people.

To be truly efficient, get over the fear of handing work off to someone else. “If something can be done 80% as well by someone else, delegate!” says John C. Maxwell, author of “How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life.”

Not letting go of yesterday

Only ever think about today and tomorrow. Don’t distract yourself with either the successes or failures of the past. Focus instead on what’s in front of you.

Can be tough to do but nothing is more essential.

Not setting deadlines for everything

Don’t let tasks go on indefinitely. Spending too much time on a project or keeping it on the backburner for too long will lead to stagnation.

Get things done and move on.

Not taking notes

Always take notes. Don’t assume you’ll remember every good idea that comes into your head during the day.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a notebook, whiteboard, or an app like Evernote — just write stuff down.

Write down any unrelated thoughts that pop up when you’re in the zone so that they don’t linger as distractions.

You’ll get them out of the way without losing them.

The bottom line

Remember this: everyone in the time-management consulting business will tell you the same thing – “learn to say no.”

It is very difficult to say no until you have established your own sense of priority and purpose.

Procrastination is not a time management problem.

However, if you’re procrastinating, chances are you’re managing your time very poorly. Why?

It’s because you haven’t clearly established the priorities important in your life – your purpose and meaning.

Need some help in capturing more improvements in your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of a business. Find him on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks

Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking

Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision

The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture

Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.

Wouldn’t it have been great if you had some kind of time management app or web tool that stopped you from wasting 45 minutes before finally remembering what you went online to do in the first place?

If you want to start being a more productive web user who has more free time to enjoy, consider downloading or installing one (or several) of the following tools.

Are you one that pays attention to your time in managing your work? If you stress the words pay attention, I would answer yes to this question. Especially if we were discussing a topic like managing your work.

Related: To do what you love, you must be so good they can’t ignore you.

Nothing else can be managed if time is not managed. Pretty tough quote by Peter Drucker, but if you think about it carefully, you will agree. Managing your work doesn’t come easy and it starts and ends with productive use of time.

Before going further in telling you how to be more productive in managing your work, let me tell a story to set the stage. The story is really an effective analogy and here it is:

This story is about a big game prize. Your prize winnings are in the form of a daily deposit by your bank into your account. Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use.

However, this prize has rules :

Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.

You may not simply transfer money into some other account.

You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.

The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, ”Game Over!” It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

So what would be your plan of action?

You would buy anything and everything you wanted right?

Not only for yourself but for all the people you love and care for. Even for people, you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?

You would try to spend every penny, and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right?

ACTUALLY, This GAME is REAL …..

Each of us is already a winner of this “prize”.

Only instead of money, this prize is TIME.

Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.

And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost.

Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING …

So, what is your plan of action for this precious commodity each day? What is your plan of action for getting things done with your time?

Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. Think about that and enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

Start spending ….. But spend wisely.

Time may be limited, but it doesn’t have to always feel that way. New research suggests that our state of mind can change the way we perceive and experience time, and in turn, make us happier and more successful in getting things done.

In addition, follow these 10 ways to help you in managing your work done:

Know yourself

Know the details of your personality. Make sure you appreciate how putting things off will affect you.

What to do

Pay attention to all the insights into your habits and use these insights to muster as many self-corrections as possible.

Establish your plan

What to do

Make sure the plan you establish doesn’t overwhelm you. It definitely needs to add some flexibility.

More time management

What to do

Estimate time goals for each of the day’s tasks. See how well you do and use the feedback for better planning and learning.

Change perspectives

Plan to spend at least 50 percent of your time engaged in the thoughts, activities, and conversations that produce most of your results.

What to do

Reevaluate what interests and affects you. Apply this to reassess all work tasks.

Make commitments

Oftentimes, we don’t do the essential things that need to be done because we get sidetracked — in many cases by tasks we’d rather be doing.

What to do

In order to avoid this trap, it’s important to keep the focus on the plan of attack on your priority tasks.

Be realistic

When you’ve created a plan and a schedule, it’s important to be realistic about what you can actually accomplish in a workday and prioritize accordingly.

When you can visualize how you plan your day to go, you can cut back the downtime. Got enough work done? Put some time in the gym or talk to your family.

What to do

If you can schedule and plan accordingly, you’ll never run out of time when well managed.

Schedule time for interruptions

Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing. It will happen, as it happens to us all.

What to do

Accommodate these interruptions in your plan with good flexibility.

Break up big tasks

Break up all major tasks into the smallest subtasks possible. Understand the relationships and dependencies of the subtasks.

What to do

Keeping up with an organizer that holds every subtask plan effort will permit better work management. Most people think they can get away with just creating mental notes, but that’s not good planning. Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing.

Avoid distractions

Easily the hardest thing to do all day at work is to be able to focus at all times. We all struggle with distraction, but being able to get back on the horse and stay focused is a great talent.

What to do

Learn how to improve your ability to say no effectively.

Anticipate and plan for the unexpected

Remember this: everyone in the managing work tasks business will tell you the same thing – “anticipate and plan for the unexpected.”

What to do

It is very difficult to manage your work until you have established your own sense of priority and purpose. Get the details of your plan worked out as early as possible.

Do you have a lesson about managing your work better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s work management skills, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas for running or facilitating a project management workshop?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way

More reading on continuous learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

10 Ways Personal Development Can Improve Long-Term Success

Creative Ideas to Build Collaborative Teams in Organizations