7 Powerful Time Management Tips
(by Prof. Paul J. Cline)
Learn to Speed Read – I can't begin to tell you how much time learning to speed read and save me over the years. It must be in the thousands of hours by now. I used a quick and simple system which only took me about 15 minutes a day for just 12 days (eight days for the basic training and four additional days for advanced training). I did this through a program called EyeQ (about $200, but $250 will get you 10 licenses!), which I found to be fun, quick and easy. You should easily double or triple your reading speed with this program, some people can even go 10 times faster.
Take Only Productive Action – One of the largest time wasters is people's unwillingness to review the day, month and year to get a full evaluation of how productive they been and see where they are time could be more productively spent. This simple process of self-evaluation can give you back years of time that would have otherwise been wasted. Don't put it off do it today!
Before You Start The Day – Plan The Day! – Study show that by simply planning out the day on paper you will typically save 25% of the time that you would have spent that day. This is a huge amount of time savings for something that typically takes 5-10 minutes. This planning will also make sure that you have all the necessary resources available to you that you will need during the day.
Networking – Its been known for a long time that people typically progress in life in direct proportion to the number of people who know them and like them. By gathering a larger network of friends and associates you can increase your resources exponentially, saving you a huge amount of time and money. Just remember, it is important to be a good friend to your network by seeing how you can help them before you ask them for help.
Voice Recognition Software - I love voice-recognition! You don't actually think I'm typing this article by hand do you? Voice recognition software is now at the stage where it can easily type 80-100 words per minute accurately versus 25 words per minute doing a quick hunt and peck. Windows actually includes the software for free as part of their package. I do recommend that you max out your computers
Get Mentors - Most people can pinpoint a small handful of people who account for most of the success they've had in their lives. For most people this is only about two to four people in a lifetime. How much farther ahead would you be if you had 5-6 powerful mentors currently, and ultimately utilized about a hundred over the course of your lifetime? Most people that are currently doing great, have great mentors. Mentors can save your huge amount of time and money, while supplying you with valuable networks and resources.
Train Your Staff in Time Management - I'm not sure how most companies miss this, but training staff in time management is one of the best (if not the best) return on investments a company can make. What would your company profits look like if all your staff suddenly became 15-50% more efficient? Most companies can get their staff trained in time management for $30 or less per person. If the average staff person only makes $15 per hour, the company would only have to save 4 hours per year in labor to double their money. Typically good time management training will save the company 200 or more hours per employee per year. How's that for return on investment? The question then becomes: Is your staff trained? If not, what are you waiting for?
Paul J. Cline MA CAGS
