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How I Squeeze 26 Hours Out Of Every Day!
©
2002 By Willie Crawford
If you're like me, good time management skills and tools
are an absolute necessity. We often have so many
"alligators snapping out our heels" that we don't
know where to start.
Here's my "extreme time management system." Adopt
it as your own and you'll feel like you've gained several
hours a day.
It's how I squeeze 26 hours out of every day.
The system calls for extreme organization and a lot of
discipline. It's NECESSARY for me. This is the system that
allows me to run an affiliate program, manage 22 websites,
publish a weekly ezine, publish 2 daily niche lists, visit
an average of 15 discussion forums a day (3 of which I help
moderate), write 2 new ezine articles per week, process over
800 emails a day, do off-line consulting, fit in a daily
workout, and still find time to spend with my family and
friends.
The system has 2 parts - organization and discipline.
First the discipline. The discipline is nothing more than
following a few simple, self-imposed rules. These rules are
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1) Whenever opening any email (or snail mail) process it
right then.
That simply means replying to the email or adding it to
your "to-do" list (in a specific place) if it will
fit into your schedule better later. Make notes in your
organizer of any correspondence that may need tracking. Add
any new contact to your contact database if appropriate. If
the email contains a gem for an article or post, make a note
in your organizer or even make an online post. If the email
contains any data you will need to refer to later, such as
website urls or passwords, enter them into your
cross-referenced database.
Every time that you read an email, you have to decide what
needs to be done with the information. Making and acting on
that decision once is an amazing time-saver! If you don't do
this, then you have to go through the exact same decision
process the next time that you examine the email.
2) Whenever presented with any task, ask if it makes
sense for you to do it or if you're better off hiring
someone else to do it.
We have to recognize our skills and get others to do those
things that would cost us too much time and energy. Some
things are better done by professionals we can hire or even
family members we can get to pitch in. Learning to delegate
and "farm out" chores is essential to getting any
significant job done.
3) Identify what are the most important tasks you need to
get done FIRST and then do first things first.
Balance is also necessary here because things like
exercise and maintaining personal relationships must be
priorities. I schedule these right into my day. I print out
my to-do list and refer to it often to avoid getting
sidetracked.
4) Learn to say no when appropriate.
Realize that with this system you can do much more
in the same time but, there is a limit to what you should
obligate yourself to do. Don't get into the habit of taking
on more obligations than you can possibly accomplish. As you
get known online you will soon discover yourself being asked
to review numerous websites, ebooks, and pieces of software.
Politely decline when you have all you can currently handle.
This allows you to focus and get more tasks actually
completed!
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After mastering the discipline required, organization is
a MUST. I have one primary tool that keeps me extremely
organized. It's a piece of software called the Internet
Information Manager. If you have ever spent half an hour
sifting through emails looking for a url or password, you'll
find this tool an answer to your prayer. If you have ever
searched frantically for an email so that you could
intelligently respond to another email, you will appreciate
this tool. If you have ever tried to remember the name of an
individual, website, or ezine associated with a particular
project, you'll absolutely love this tool.
What is this Internet Information Manager? It's a piece of
software you install on your computer that allows you to
store all of the information you use frequently in one
place. Everything from projects, to articles, to contacts,
to website urls, are all stored in a cross-referenced
database.
It is my big organization and productivity secret. I've used
it for a while - as I tinkered with the beta version.
It's now such a part of my daily system that I wonder how I
ever got along without it. If my computer is turned on, this
tool is open. You need a similar tool. I use it to:
- Keep track of all ongoing projects
- Manage my to do lists
- Store all of my contacts. These contacts are cross
referenced so that with the click of a button I can go
to an associated affiliate program, website, ezine, ad
campaign, searchengine, or project
- Start an email in my default email program with the
click of a button
- Launch my default browser and whisk me to my favorite
discussion forum. This is how I jump from forum to forum
at dizzying speeds. A cable internet connection helps
too :-)
The key to the system being so productive and so easy to use
is that it's all cross-referenced. So as I surf the boards
and come across an idea for an article, a project, or some
research data, I can quickly plug it into the appropriate
place in my database. This keeps the information always at
my fingertips. When I am ready to write an article or
complete a project, all of the data is in one place (waiting
to be processed).
The other productivity tool that is a must is email
filters. Most email clients allow you to easily filter your
incoming email into folders you create. Use this feature to
store emails on a specific topic, or specific groups of
people, all in the same folder. Use it to filter all
incoming ezines into one place, all orders into one place,
all personal email into another place. I transfer data from
most of my email to my Internet Information Manager, but I
store the original email in my email program
(Pegasus).
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Similar to filters are email aliases. Create special email
addresses for specific purposes. It is difficult to get all
of your contacts to use the correct address but this is a
real time saver. For example, if you have an assistant that
handles your mailing list, use an email alias to send all of
those emails directly to them. There is no need for you to
waste time reading emails you don't need to read if you have
properly trained your assistants. Train them, empower them
and then trust them to get it done.
Speaking of training - it is another tool for increasing
your productivity. Learn to really use software you know you
will frequently use as soon as practical. You'll discover
many tasks this software can help with that you would
otherwise miss. Also, consider time spent training an
assistant to properly do a task an investment. Avoid the
temptation to just do it yourself. It will save you much
more time in the long-run and frees up your time to do the
things you should be doing.
I've shared with you how I squeeze an inordinate amount of
work into my day (when necessary). I'm also careful not to
overload myself and damage my health. This is also something
you need to watch. Success at the expense of your health and
happiness is not success in my estimation.
Adopt this system today and you'll soon be amazed at what
you can accomplish in very little time. You'll also be
pleasantly surprised at the amount of free time you find.
The Internet Information Manager was created by my very good
friend Gary Knuckles. Grab a copy now
at: http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/tk.cgi?garyk
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Willie Crawford has taught thousands the secrets of
operating a successful on-line business through his free
Internet Business Success Course. It's more extensive than
many $197 courses. Sign up today and start building your
*successful* on-line business: http://williecrawford.com/
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