Oriented x’s 10
We’ve all heard the sayings, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” or “He/She is stuck in her/his ways” and “A leopard can’t change it’s spots.” Well, we all have the power to change. Much of the article from Mindtools related to self confidence has to do with measured and increasingly progressive steps we can take to become more self confident thereby increasing successes in a number of ways. For some of us, it’s hard to imagine that we can put our minds to achieving a major outcome or result for ourselves, yet we do it everyday for work and when we’re called upon!! Believing, practicing and then actualizing the outcomes we want to improve our circumstances is possible and now there’s more proof than ever that no matter how old, how set in our ways or how ill prepared we are, we can do something about it!! Thanks to what’s known as “Brain Plasticity.” Dr. Mike Merzenich Ph.D, the creator of Posit Science gives us a nice synopsis of what Brain Plasticity is!
Basically our Brains Can Change!! Many of us have learned that as children our brains are like sponges. We are able to absorb, and apply information as we receive it. We also learned that as adults we slow down, don’t retain as much information and are slower on the take. Well, this may be true, but what is also true, is that we can alter this. We can either learn something new in which our physical brain becomes wired or we can forget what we learned, which also changes how our brain is wired. We can re
I’ve combined the top suggestions for Time Management from three sources “The Mayo Clinic,” “Dale Carnegie Training” and “Entrepreneur Media Inc.” below…:
Combined Time Management Suggestions from, The Mayo Clinic, Dale Carnegie Training and Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
1. Be Mindful of How You Spend Your Time. How? Record all of your activities, thoughts, conversations, demands, competing priorities, and tasks for a day, three days or a week. This will help you evaluate where your time is going. It will help you narrow down the unproductive thoughts, conversations and tasks.
2. Any of these items that will directly lead to your success should be given a time assigned to it. Schedule these appointments in acalendar– including when you’re going to start it and by when you’re going to finish it. Put yourself on the calendar for projects you need to work on and have the discipline to carry out these appointments. Mind over matter. Brain plasticity at work. Watch how good you feel following through to completion.
3. Prioritize these activities, thoughts conversations, demands, competing priorities, tasks and action steps so that your spending at least 50% of your time engaging only in the ones that will produce the most results. Considerthe 80/20 rule – sure we know it’s impossible to get everything done, focus on which 20% of the items will get you 80% of the results.
4. Plan your day. Take the first 30 minutes of everyday to schedule your schedule. Remember the 80/20 rule. Think of items also that may affect another persons ability to complete a task and don’t forget to place time frames for items you’re working on and deadlines.
5. Limit Distractions. If you have a big project, block out the time, close your door, do not check email or text. If possible limit the use of your phone unless it’s necessary or a part of your work and reduce any other distractions during that time period like social media sites. For regularly scheduled appointments, do not immediately jump to respond if you’re still in the middle of your project.
That oh so important task you’ve put that star next to a dozen times and it’s still there, undone, incomplete and making you feel miserable! It happens every time you think about it or every time you’re asked about it!!!
There’s a whole psychology of why we procrastinate! According to the authors of “Procrastination” by Jane B. Burka, Ph.D and Lenora M. Yuen, Ph.D, people who procrastinate are often perfectionists. This seems contrary and far fetched for the person who procrastinates because if that were the case it would seem that things would be sewn up completely and done all the time on time. So how could that be? They explain that “Psychologist have identified two types of perfectionists, adaptive and maladaptive. If you are an adaptive perfectionist, you have high standards and you believe your performance lives up to them. More info. about adaptive perfectionsim by Nathan Collier can be found here. This kind of successful perfectionism feels like an essential part of your identity and is a basis for self-esteem. However, if you are a maladaptive perfectionist, you, too, have high standards, but you are disappointed in yourself. In maladaptive perfectionism, (click here for an article about maladaptive perfectionism by Alina Tugend of the NY Times)there is a discrepancy between your standards and the way you view your performance, so you are prone to be self-critical…” This leads to many unhappy moments and threats to self-esteem. This cycle no doubt affects self confidence and it can be built or developed through repetitious successful completion of tasks! To learn more about procrastination and ways to overcome it, definitely get this book! Don’t feel bad if you do get the book and you let it sit on your shelf for 10 years like I did. In fact, when I did go reach for it, I realized how much my imagination of the heft of the book took hold of me. I thought it’s actual size was about that of one volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica (May you forever treasure your set if you still have them or at least one) but it turned out to be way, way smaller!! Needless to say, loaded book!!
Back to re-wiring our brains to improve on Time Management. It can also begin with a few quick tips like these offered by Jim Bird the Ceo of WorkLifeBalance.com and author of the article “End Procrastination: Throw Away Your To Do List and Take Advantage of More Effective Time Management Tools.”
1. “Pick the right time management tools from the start by using planners or calendars of a size that you can keep with you at all times.”
2. “Throw away your to do list…” ask “…when am I going to do this?” and put it in a calendar.
3. “Every time you decide to do something in the future, take 3 additional seconds and answer the magic question, When am I going to do it?”
4. “Open up your planner every day, one of the most important of all time management tools.”
More info. can be found at www.worklifebalance.com.