Monday, August 31, 2015

Tips for Change "Surprising Time Management Secrets"

Hi Webbers,

tim thomas, life coachHow has the week been. Are we ready to rock it? I just had a great dinner with my daughter. If there is one thing I have learned at the age I am now there is no second chances. If you miss the moment it is gone so if you have to shuffle things to make room for something better. You better find a way. Check out or crazy surprise picture.

If you haven't heard Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, the best-selling self-help guru and author of 30 books, died late Saturday, his family and publisher said. He was 75. You can red more here . May he rest in peace.

Now for this weeks Tips for Change.

Surprising Time Management Secrets



One certainty in life is that time is limited. While no one is sure how many years they’ll be given to finish doing what they want to do, everything is equal for each day you are given. Everyone has the same 24-hour day to dream, determine goals, and complete tasks that will help them meet those goals. But doesn’t it seem like some people are just better at time management than others? Surprisingly, there are some time management secrets that make you feel like you have hours more in your day.

* Set Priorities - There are really only four choices:

1. Most important
2. Most urgent
3. Least important
4. Least urgent

When you identify tasks and set your priorities carefully by what is important over not important, as well as avoid having issues of urgency each day, you can get a handle on your time in ways that you never thought possible.
tim thomas, life coach

* Learn the Power of No – Saying no is probably one of the most important things you’ll ever learn to say. The problem is our parents disciplined the word “no” from our vocabulary. It’s time to learn how to say no again. If something is not right for you, is too “urgent”, causes you stress, or you just do not want to do it and it doesn’t fit in with meeting your goals, say no. Saying no will free up untold amounts of time to focus on your priorities.

* Disconnect from Technology – Unplug the phone, turn off email notifications, and for goodness sakes get off Facebook. If you’ve not completed the most important tasks on your daily list, you have no business messing around with technology. The idea of multitasking is overrated, so unplug and tune in to the tasks at hand. You’ll work faster, smarter, and gain the time you need for other things.

* Schedule Everything – Your priorities need to be added to your calendar. Everything from the 15 minutes you need to use social media for marketing purposes, to the one hour you take your kids to the park, needs to be put into your calendar. If you have a project due in a week, you should have five days of scheduled time to work on the project prior to the due date. This helps avoid those urgencies mentioned earlier.

* Ignore Interruptions – Unless the house is on fire or a child is bleeding, the telephone ringing and the knocks on your office door are not important. They are interruptions. Check your email at scheduled times during the day, explain to your children, spouse and family when you are working, and otherwise ignore the door bell ringing. If you didn’t schedule it, you don’t need it.

* Outsource – Whether it’s the housework, cooking, or customer service, it’s important to outsource
what you can afford to outsource. There are huge payoffs to outsourcing the things that are simply time suckers from your day. If you can’t afford to outsource, your kitchen will not explode if a few dishes pile up, and everyone can do with eating a salad for dinner. And, you can automate a lot of customer service issues if you work from home.

* Once and You're Done – Multitasking is not really a bastion of efficiency. Instead, seek to touch each task only once and finish it. For example, when you check the mail immediately throw out the trash, schedule bills to be paid, and deal with any issues that came up with a letter - right then. Of course, your mail time should be scheduled as well so that you can stay on track.

* Check Your Schedule – At least twice a day, set out the time to check your schedule. Usually the morning is good and at the end of the day is good. Ensure that you have your priorities in order, add anything new to your schedule that needs to be added, and remind yourself of what is expected the next day. Checking your schedule helps you feel accomplished at the end of the day, and reminds you of what’s coming up tomorrow.

Finally, it’s important to be very serious about following your schedule and calendar. Use technology to help such as Google Calendar or Outlook, synced to your smartphone to help you remember what it is that you should be doing now, and next. It may seem geeky to be so serious about a schedule, but it’s this one factor that makes these surprising time management tips work.

Webbers I hope you enjoyed this weeks Tips for Change.

Please call on me. I am here for you. Schedule time with me today.


tim thomas life coach


If there is a time other than that listed please send me an email and I will see where I can accommodate you.

I hope this helped you or you pass it along. Especially if you know someone who needs to make some changes in their life! I am here 2-help-u with your success. I want to be your coach! After all it is your life, live it by your design.

THANK YOU!

The finest compliment I could ever receive is a referral.

PS - I am curious how many people read my blog. I am giving away a special gift to everyone that reads my blog. All you have to do is send an email to info@aionnh.com and say you read my blog in the subject line. Out of those I will select one recipient at random for a special gift. Curious? 

tim thomas life coachTim Thomas
Life Coach
A Life by Design Company
PO Box 4327
ManchesterNH 03108
Tel: 603-682-4980

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Tips for Change "Setting Priorities for Managing Your Time"



Hi Webbers,

tim thomas, life coachHow is the week going? I had an amazing Saturday I got to train with Master Lee exploring HanPul
at Boston Martial Arts with Mark Davis. We had a great time and it was exciting to look at the basics of HanPul, There was a lot of energy, twisting and turning slashing and piercing. The training was tiring and I have a few wounds to lick.

Setting Priorities for Managing Your Time


One of the hardest parts of time management is learning how to set priorities. Sometimes it can feel like every last thing you need to do is an emergency. But the truth is, there are ways to organize your time and manage the tasks that you need to do so that you get them finished right when they need to be done without feeling overwhelmed or rushed.

Thankfully Stephen Covey’s time management grid is here to save us from ourselves. It looks like this:


The way you use the grid is to designate each item on your to-do list to a colored square. Instead of quadrants like Mr. Covey’ has assigned, they are different colors here.

* Purple: Needs to be done immediately
* Green: Needs to be done but can take longer and needs more strategic planning
* Pink: Distractions, but needed by others
* Light green: Not at all important and often used in order to procrastinate

Use the grid to help create your daily to-do list by prioritizing the importance and urgency of each item you have to pick from. It can be as simple as doing the purple things first, then the green, next pink, and finally the light green items. But, if you do it this way you might miss out on something important you can learn from the time management grid.

Eliminate Urgency from Your Life

By focusing on green you can eventually lessen the purple items on your list. By learning to say no to others you can virtually eliminate the pink things, too. Finally, by getting your schedule under control the light green will eliminate itself because you won’t feel the need to procrastinate anymore.

Learn to Say No

As children we are taught to not say no. Unfortunately, this transfers over to adulthood in a bad way, especially for females. If you determine something is in the pink or light green area, you can use that to determine whether or not you should say no. If it’s something that your client wants that takes five minutes, but it’s not that important, you can do it. If it’s something you just like to do, you can always do it after you’ve done three purple or green tasks.

Assess Your Time Expenditures Now

Now that you have Dr. Covey’s time management chart, you can go back and re-evaluate the things you are currently doing each day to find out what color they are. Knowing their color will help you label each thing that you do throughout the days, weeks and months ahead so that you can prioritize them.

Finally, when you are assessing any task, make sure you label it, then ask yourself if it fits in with your core values and goals. If it does, it’s going to be in either the purple square or the green square. If it doesn’t, it’s probably in one of the other squares. As you learn to use this system it will start becoming more automatic so that you can say yes or no faster and put your time management on auto drive.

Webbers I hope you enjoyed this weeks Tips for Change.

Please call on me. I am here for you. Schedule time with me today.


tim thomas life coach


If there is a time other than that listed please send me an email and I will see where I can accommodate you.

I hope this helped you or you pass it along. Especially if you know someone who needs to make some changes in their life! I am here 2-help-u with your success. I want to be your coach! After all it is your life, live it by your design.

THANK YOU!

The finest compliment I could ever receive is a referral.

PS - I am curious how many people read my blog. I am giving away a special gift to everyone that reads my blog. All you have to do is send an email to info@aionnh.com and say you read my blog in the subject line. Out of those I will select one recipient at random for a special gift. Curious? 

tim thomas life coachTim Thomas
Life Coach
A Life by Design Company
PO Box 4327
ManchesterNH 03108
Tel: 603-682-4980


Monday, August 17, 2015

Tips for Change "Set Aside Dedicated Areas for Various Aspects of Your Time"

Hi Webbers,
tim thomas, life coach

It is Monday!!! How are we doing. I am already playing catch up to the week and I worked through the weekend. Can you say BUSY!!! My wife and daughter are on vacation. I am busting a hump. What are you doing this week. I do get to pound some golf balls tomorrow. I play in a charity event - hope I don't break a club!! Should be a blast. However the work still needs to get done. Do you dread taking time off because one way or the other the work still needs to get done. I can guarantee I will not be working hard this Friday.

It is official Webbers I start my ICF accreditation tomorrow. 6 months and I should be there. The final step in my coaching practice. Are you moving forward? If you are not we should talk. I hold free sample sessions all week. It just may change you life.

Lets look at this weeks Tips for Change. Do you set up specific areas to handle things
I do I have little spots to tackle different aspects of my projects from design to concept. I hope this makes sense for you.


Set Aside Dedicated Areas for Various Aspects of Your Time


One way to help yourself manage your time better is to keep things separate. If you have a specific area to accomplish a goal, you’ll be able to get your mind dedicated faster to that one task. It might seem like a pipe dream, but if you really want to be creative, find a space that makes you feel creative and go to it each time you need that extra creative spark. In that way, you become more in charge of how your time is spent.

* A Reading Cubby – You may have had one in elementary school, a little place that you could go for quiet reading time. You can do this at home easily by just setting up a chair in the corner of a living room, bedroom or office that is set up with good light for reading and if necessary the proper electronic components if you want to read by laptop or Kindle.

tim thomas, life coach
* A Mail Checking Station – This works especially for snail mail and is best if it’s close to the trashcan. Get the mail in, and immediately go through it, tossing the trash, and then taking the mail to the computer in order to schedule, process and pay bills.

* Games Only – Some people cannot afford this but it is something that will truly help you manage your time better. Separate your work computer from your fun computer. At the very least create different sign-ons to your computer: one for work, one for games. This way you won’t be tempted to check work when you’re having fun, or play games when you’re supposed to be working.

* TV Time – It’s very different to get work done, or even read a book with the TV blaring. Having technology in the bedroom is also not conducive to a good night’s sleep. Consider having the TV in only one room in the house and only using the TV during limited hours.

* Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner – Eating is a very important part of your day and should be treated as such. If you eat all over your home and office there is no true break or time to digest your food. Take the time to set the table, and eat at the table or breakfast bar in order to differentiate the time spent on eating, versus working, versus play.

* Resting and Sleeping – There is nothing wrong with taking a nap on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but you want to be very careful about sleeping and resting during the work day. Plus, you want to avoid working when you’re supposed to be resting and sleeping. Make your bedroom a peaceful oasis away from the rest and go there when you need a break.

* Being Social – So often, the internet becomes a substitute for true social gatherings and due to this easy access to a social life, it can be all too simple to flow from work to being social accidentally. Like with gaming, set up specific times to be social - whether it’s out of the house, outside of business hours, or on the computer.
tim thomas, life coach
* Exercise – If you don’t have time and space set aside for exercise, it’s unlikely you will ever do it. Set aside the time, and the space, even if you have to go to a new space. If you get to the new space, you’ll automatically reach your exercise goals because your surroundings will inspire you.

Setting up different areas to get various activities done will help you differentiate your time better, be more organized, and get more done than you thought possible. Creating dedicated areas for specific activities is an excellent time management tip that will work for most people.

Webbers I hope you enjoyed this weeks Tips for Change.

Please call on me. I am here for you. Schedule time with me today.


tim thomas life coach


If there is a time other than that listed please send me an email and I will see where I can accommodate you.

I hope this helped you or you pass it along. Especially if you know someone who needs to make some changes in their life! I am here 2-help-u with your success. I want to be your coach! After all it is your life, live it by your design.

THANK YOU!

The finest compliment I could ever receive is a referral.

PS - I am curious how many people read my blog. I am giving away a special gift to everyone that reads my blog. All you have to do is send an email to info@aionnh.com and say you read my blog in the subject line. Out of those I will select one recipient at random for a special gift. Curious? 

tim thomas life coachTim Thomas
Life Coach
A Life by Design Company
PO Box 4327
ManchesterNH 03108
Tel: 603-682-4980


Monday, August 10, 2015

Tips for Change "Put It in Writing: Set a Schedule for Managing Time and Stick to It"

tim thomas life coachHi Webbers,

How goes the week. It is time for our weekly Tips for Change. What are you doing differently this week than you did last week or yesterday. I hope you are. There is plenty of time to make a shift.

This past week I was busy with working on a layout and storage for the website. We should be releasing it the end of this week. Stay tuned.

Put It in Writing: Set a Schedule for Managing Time and Stick to It


The hardest part about time management is making a real commitment to following a schedule. It can be especially difficult for people who want to work for themselves to work on any type of schedule. It can feel wrong somehow to keep a schedule as an entrepreneur. However, keeping a schedule is going to increase your success exponentially. Putting your schedule in writing will help you follow it.

* Use Your Smartphone – Today’s cell phones are really mini computers. You can have your entire life on there, including your work schedule with alarm reminders and everything. If you see a popup on your phone every time you go to use Facebook, reminding you of tasks that need to be done, you will not have much of an excuse for not doing them.

* Try Google Calendar – If you have a Gmail account, then you already have access to a powerful system that can help you put your time in writing, while helping you keep track. You can easily set up different calendars for different aspects of your life and color code the entries. Further you can print out a calendar each day or sync to your smartphone so that you don’t forget anything.

* Try a Project Management System – Project management systems like Basecamp can help you put your schedule into writing, and organize it too. You can use this system whether or not you outsource tasks to others by just assigning the work to yourself if you don’t have others to assign them to. You’ll get an email reminder before the task is due.

tim thomas life coach* Use Evernote – This nifty little program can be used to help you keep track of your schedule, notes for projects, and more. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get used to it you’ll enjoy using it to keep track of many tasks.

* Try the “Old-Fashioned” Date Book – The old Filofax still exists and many people prefer it to using technology. If you’re one that does, don’t despair because many people stay better organized with everything in writing in one single notebook. If that’s you, you can still do it that way.

* Use a Large Whiteboard – The great thing about having a large whiteboard on your office wall is you can’t escape the tasks that need to be done since they are very obvious. You can also feel accomplished as you erase things as they get done.

* Use Time Tracking Software – FreshBooks.com comes with time tracking software that enables you to keep track of what you’re doing easily once you set up names for them. Make entries for using social media, making phone calls, even doing the dishes, and you’ll soon figure out where you’re wasting time. You can’t get time back, so it’s nice to know where it all went.

* Create a Contract with Yourself – Actually put your promises and goals into writing in the form of a contract. Write down in black and white what you will do, what your work hours are, and what you plan to do during those work hours. Then sign it.

Setting a schedule and sticking to it requires commitment to your business as if it is a job. This isn’t to say that it won’t be more flexible than a job. But, if you have to move the two hours you wanted to work on a particular project, due to a family emergency, you need to then take time from elsewhere to replace the two hours you were going to work. Seeing the schedule in writing will help you schedule things the best by making a visual representation of your day.

Webbers I hope you enjoyed this weeks Tips for Change.

Please call on me. I am here for you. Schedule time with me today.


tim thomas life coach


If there is a time other than that listed please send me an email and I will see where I can accommodate you.

I hope this helped you or you pass it along. Especially if you know someone who needs to make some changes in their life! I am here 2-help-u with your success. I want to be your coach! After all it is your life, live it by your design.

THANK YOU!

The finest compliment I could ever receive is a referral.

PS - I am curious how many people read my blog. I am giving away a special gift to everyone that reads my blog. All you have to do is send an email to info@aionnh.com and say you read my blog in the subject line. Out of those I will select one recipient at random for a special gift. Curious? 

tim thomas life coachTim Thomas
Life Coach
A Life by Design Company
PO Box 4327
ManchesterNH 03108
Tel: 603-682-4980

Monday, August 3, 2015

8/3/2015 Tips for Change "Managing Your Emails So They Do Not Get the Best of Your Time"

Hi Webbers,

Wow I tell you before we get into this weeks tips for change. I have to tell you I had a great weekend of Martial Arts study. I got the chance to visit with my teacher his teacher and lots of friends over the weekend. I am a bit sore today. Strangely I am rejuvenated and excited about my training. I would love to expand more but for today let's get the tips out.

Managing Your Emails So They Do Not Get the Best of Your Time

Email is great, and saves a lot of time. You no longer have to wait three or more days for someone to get a message from you. You can use it to be more organized, set tasks, and more. But, email can also get out of control and suck up a lot of time if you’re not organized.

* Use Rules, Filters, Labels and Folders – Remember that simple is better than complicated so don’t go too crazy with these, but do create labels and/or rules and filter to help you organize your mail better.

* Read Emails and Act Immediately – When you open an email, take care of it immediately. Read it, then act. If it requires nothing, delete it; if it has something interesting you want to note, use a note-taking program to save it. If it has a task, copy and paste into your to-do list and calendar.

* Set Specific Times for Checking Your Email – Don’t keep your email notifications on all day long so that you’re constantly dealing with email. Instead, choose specific times during the day to check email, at the very least first thing in the morning, after lunch, and about an hour before the close of business. Let your people know your schedule.

* Create Separate Email Addresses – The great thing about email addresses is in most cases you’re not limited to how many you can have. Don’t go nuts, but do create a separate email for unimportant information such as business that requires an email sign-up to view information, or non-relevant newsletters. Separate customer service addresses are good too.

* Be Free with the Delete Key – It’s tempting to save all those cool newsletters with great points and things to learn, but the truth is, you’re not likely to ever read them again. Use your note-taking tool to keep the most important points, and then delete.

* Create a Swipe File or Hot Keys with Automatic Replies – If you find yourself saying the same things over and over again, which is not uncommon, create a swipe file or hot keys that enable you to answer those questions again and again. Another way is to create a FAQ on your website and link to that specific answer.

* Keep Email Replies Short and Simple – You don’t want to write really long emails to anyone. If you do, people will get confused and not really understand your answer. At the most an email answer should be about three or four paragraphs. If you include bullet points it will be easier for the recipient to act on.

* Copy Tasks to Your Calendar Immediately – Use your calendar to its fullest advantage by copying and pasting anything with a date in it to your calendar immediately. If it’s a task, copy and paste to your project management system too in order to stay on track with your activities.

A final idea is to outsource anything to do with customer service to someone else. That way you don’t even need to deal with it. Using these tips and tricks can help you manage your emails so that they don’t take up too much of your time and effort. Taming the email monster will pay off in many ways and give you back more time each day to use on more important tasks.

Webbers I hope you enjoyed the read.

Please call on me. I am here for you. Schedule time with me today.


tim thomas life coach


If there is a time other than that listed please send me an email and I will see where I can accommodate you.

I hope this helped you or you pass it along. Especially if you know someone who needs to make some changes in their life! I am here 2-help-u with your success. I want to be your coach! After all it is your life, live it by your design.

THANK YOU!

The finest compliment I could ever receive is a referral.

PS - I am curious how many people read my blog. I am giving away a special gift to everyone that reads my blog. All you have to do is send an email to info@aionnh.com and say you read my blog in the subject line. Out of those I will select one recipient at random for a special gift. Curious? 

tim thomas life coachTim Thomas
Life Coach
A Life by Design Company
PO Box 4327
ManchesterNH 03108
Tel: 603-682-4980