Three Tips on How to Learn Better and More Efficiently
As a lifelong learner, I’ve had to “squeeze” my education into some fairly tight time constraints at times. I’ve learned some very efficient ways to learn and I’m sharing them with you in the hope that they will save you time and energy.
1. As you read through, even your first reading, start jotting down notes and questions. These questions will eventually become a list of good questions with which to study – some you’ll eliminate, some you’ll expand upon and some you’ll keep just as they are. Throughout the course, pull these questions out at lunch time or during coffee break or riding the bus and answer them in your head. It’ll keep the material fresh in your mind.
2. For any new concept, write out 60 words explaining the concept – ONLY 60 WORDS. If you can explain any concept completely in 60 words, then you really understand it and it will stick your mind. This does take several revisions of what you write the first time. Your first attempt may result in 1500 or more words. Keep cutting it down until you get to 60 words. You’ll be amazed how effective this method is!
3. Focus when you study - no music in the background, no email or Facebook or Twitter, no games, etc. – just you in a quiet environment focusing. Focus for periods of one hour at a time and then go for a walk for 20 minutes to let your brain process what you have just studied. Study for another hour and take another walk for 20 minutes and process that bit. You’ll get more out of these two hours than you will studying with distractions or sounds competing for your attention – your brain can only process one thought at a time. You’ll be amazed how well you learn. It’s not a good idea to study for more than 3 hours at a time. With this method, a lot of time is saved and more information is absorbed in less time.
Hope these tips help you to learn better – they will certainly help your efficiency!
How can you use time management when you’re learning something new?
Many people are starting classes after the long Labor Day week-end – people of all ages are flocking back to classrooms or on the internet to learn something new.
I’ve been a life long learner – I can’t remember a year when I haven’t been learning something new. People often tease me about my thirst for knowledge. They don’t ask me how I’m doing, they ask me what I’m learning now! I love to learn.
Over the last four years, I’ve been learning to build a business on the internet. I started with eBay and have now journeyed to blogging which suits me best. Here, I can communicate with people and that’s what I love to do. The internet is fabulous for meeting new people and learning every day
Time, though, is the key factor in any learning endeavor if you want to get the most out of it:
First thing to do before signing up is to look at your schedule and see if you have the time to attend classes and do the assignments. You’ll have to give something up - there is absolutely no question. Generally, for every hour of classroom time, you need to allocate at least 3 hours of study time and even longer if you are having to write papers then the time increases to four to nine hours per classroom hour or more depending on the complexity of the subject matter and how quickly you research, write and learn. That’s a big chunk of time in a week.
Second is to ask yourself if you can truly sustain that schedule for the duration of the program. Understand that exams generally happen around Christmas time and other holidays – can you manage the studying and the activities involved with those events?
Third, consider the people in your life. If you have people at home – spouse, children, parents, etc – will they be affected? If so, how? How can you mediate the impact? Can you delegate chores? Can you get their cooperation? Will your friends understand that you won’t be able to see them as often? There’s little room for spontaneity when your schedule is compressed.
Think about it carefully:
There are 168 hours in a 7-day week (7 x 24).
Work consumes 40 hours plus commuting time – at least 45 hours per week. For many people, it’s far more.
Sleeping is good – in fact, that’s the one thing everyone should be disciplined about more than anything else – 56 hours (8 hours/night x 7). Without sleep, your brain and body will slow down and cost you valuable time.
That’s 101 hours already gone.
If your class takes up 3 hours per week plus 18 hours of study time per hour of classroom time (median 6 hours x 3), that’s 21 hours plus commuting time of at least 2 hours per week, that’s 23 hours.
Say you spend 1 hour per day grooming and self-care – 7 hours/week
Exercise – 1/2 hour per day – 3.5 hours/week
Food preparation, shopping, and consumption – average 4 hours per day – 28 hours/week
Chores – 1 hour per day averaged – 7 hours/week
Time for yourself/rest - 1/2 per day – 3.5 hours/week
Relationships – average 1.5 hours per day – 10.5 hours/week
For a total of: 183.5 hours per week – which means a deficit of 15.5 hours per week. And this number of hours does not include anything unforeseen happening nor hobbies nor special events!
Something has got to give and the time available must be carefully managed. For instance, can you car pool and study on the way to work? Can the food preparation, shopping, and chores be shared? Can you hook up exercise time with relationship time? Can you study 1/2 hour during your lunch hours at work?
There are so many variables in people’s lives – no two lives are exactly the same – but if you like to learn as I do, there’s way to keep learning while.
Time management is always about thinking ahead. So decide how much you want to spend in each area of your life to keep your quality of life while learning something new!
Save Time Money and Energy Learning How to Sell Information Products Online
The Trick
The internet is like the wild, wild west – mostly untamed, unbridled with a few tsars thrown in there for good measure!
As exists in the non-online world, there are all kinds of people on the internet. There are those who are honest and provide good value and others who would sell anything to make a buck. I’ve learned one important thing: when they ask me for a lot of money to teach me the basics, I run! Why? Because it’s never worth the money!
Learning the basics is critical but it shouldn’t blow your entire budget on one course nor strap you with huge credit card debt! One course won’t do it – it will get you started and that’s it – you’ll need to continuously keep abreast of the latest and greatest and the internet does move fast.
The good news is that there are people out there who are really making good money on the internet, know how to teach others and offer their programs at a reasonable cost. The trick is finding thembecause they are not always the “high flyers” of the internet putting out launch after launch after launch.
What constitutes the “best” instructors?
First, the best are those who are making money online every day as their primary means of making money; the educational component of their business is only one of the many add-ons they have created.
With the information obtained from these real practitioners, you can get started in a realistic way and have the best chance possible of making money.
Second, they can teach. They are skilled at crafting instructional materials which are clear, to the point and from which anyone can get started immediately building their business of choice.
It’s a lot of work starting an internet business and it takes a lot of time, energy and money to build a business online as it does to build a business the old fashioned brick and mortar way. The nice thing about the internet is that you can learn bit by bit without investing a lot of money upfront and you can change your mind.
Information Products
What are information products?
They are products which can be delivered electronically or as a digital good. They are knowledge-based products.
They range from downloadable reports, files, PDFs, eBooks to CDs, DVDs to information delivered by email such as mini courses, etc.
Why should you be interested in information products?
They are a good source of income especially if you like to write, have expertise in a few areas which you would like to share and are seeking extra income.
Is it difficult?
Not really. But like any other business, you need to know some basics and you need to know the pitfalls:
how to create a PDF
how to manipulate images
how to write for instructional purposes
how to protect your work
how the sales process works
how the delivery process works
where to find products you can sell if you don’t want to create your own
and a host of other details
Though it’s not that difficult, it does take work and attention to detail. It is the details which can derail your best laid plans! You do need to know how to make all the details work in tandem so that you can sell your products.
Why would people want to sell information products?
Information can be created with little or no money and produced in quantity
Production costs for products delivered electronically are zero; no problems with inventory, shipping, shipping costs or packaging
Delivery is quick for downloadable products
People like them
It’s easier than selling other types of products
Generally, people selling these types of products like to write and read so this is a perfect avenue to make money
Or sellers would like to add this type of product to enhance the products they are currently selling online
How can you get started?
I know someone who has produced information products of all description on line for many years and continues to successfully produce and sell new material. He’s quite prolific and has created many information products, successfully promoted and sold hundreds of thousands and is a great instructor. I have some of this material. You’ll find his material being sold on Amazon, on eBay and other sites.
His material is clear, concise and he tells you everything you need to know.
The bonus: his materials are reasonably priced and comprehensive!
If starting a business selling information products online appeals to you, check this out.
Do you want to learn how to sell online using websites?
Want to Save time, money and energy?
If you do, you’ve come to the right place – unquestionably!
real quality, real value, and real training!
The instructor of this training struggled to find anyone to teach him when he started out. He was willing to pay the big bucks to get someone to help him. He just couldn’t find anyone who could show him how to make money on the internet. There was always something not properly explained or not explained at all, parts missing and confusion at every turn.
Even the simplest processes were made difficult – What was happening as it happens more often than not, people know their field but can’t explain it to others so it can be understood. This has been an issue plaguing the computer world since computers started to arrive on our desks. In reality, anyone can learn most common processes on the computer or internet it if it taught effectively, openly, honestly and clearly.
He persevered. He kept asking questions and spending money. He worked very hard and long hours. He learned! Boy, did he learn! And with that knowledge, he started to teach others. He found thousands of people were in the same boat as him and he helped more and more and more people until it turned into a business for him. He had started with his own product – a book on how to make money with pictures.
He is an excellent communicator – an excellent instructor – a talent honed from years in the entertainment business.
He is here today to help you too - at a reasonable price – all that he has learned and is still learning is available to you today
everything you need to know how to earn money online using websites -
everything on his site is ready for you – hundreds of videos, PDFs, guest interviews, webinars, a forum -free ebooks
it’s all there – stay on that site for a while, and you’ll learn everything you need to know.
and . . . one price gets you everything – every single thing on that site – it’s all there for you!
There are people of all ages and all levels of technological ability.
I was awed by what I found on this site. Things I had struggled with for a very long time were explained clearly in minutes. Eventually, I watched the videos and worked along with each video. I applied what I learned immediately. All this “stuff” which had been so difficult, all of a sudden the dark clouds of confusion started to lift and I started to understand. I had the problem to unravel all the confusion and anxiety which had built up over a long period of time from misinformation I had been given along the way by some very “high-priced help”!!!!
Making money using websites seemed to be such an insurmountable obstacle for me – the work, the cost, and the sheer terror of having someone else in control of my site – how would I update it myself? How did it all work? What if I wanted to change a picture or add some words or delete some words – how could I do that? How would I know what to expect from someone selling me a site? I needed to know in order to make intelligent decisions.
I found out – and I’m not scared of anything any more – I’ll do it – because I know how – in this case knowledge is not only power to control presence online but to understand the processes of making money online.
I had to start all over again – but slowly and surely – it began to sink in – Allelujah! Eureka! Yahoo! You will be amazed what you can learn in one month!!! Actually, you’ll be amazed what you can learn in one afternoon!
For you, if you’re just starting out, this is the place to learn – the place to be –
you’ll never regret this decision if you are serious about making money online.
You’ll learn everything you need to know to be successful online – step-by-step and I do mean step-by-step.
It won’t take you a year either - 21 days to success – you can take longer or take less time – but in the end you’ll have the confidence to create an income online for yourself because you’ll know how.
You’ll see that it won’t cost you an arm and leg either – you won’t have to spend thousand of dollars, not even hundreds.
I know it sounds so unbelievable because you’ve probably seen the promotions – wow! The cost are unbelievable for those programs – you’re broke before you start!
You don’t have to go broke here. Even if you’re on a limited budget, this is affordable.
If you work very hard, you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish in a very short period of time.
But . . . don’t get me wrong – this is not a get rich quick scheme – this is solid learning over a period of time – at a extraordinarily reasonable cost -
I’ll be very excited when you send me your success stories – and I know you’ll have success if you put your heart and soul into it!
I promote this product as part of my business model – I just can’t help it -
this is so extraordinarily exceptional especially today on the internet!
it’s number 1 in the ratings – ratings by real people and you’ll be adding one of your own!
Please . . . . do yourself a favor . . . . . go now . . . . look & see – learn —- if you do sign up –
It’s $4.95 for the first month-yes, it’s not a typo – $4.95 for your first month - and you’ll be amazed at what you can learn in a month!!!
if you want to stay after the first month, it’ll be $37 per month – you heard right – no tricks, no added fees, nothing – and you don’t even need to stay for the second month!!! It’s whatever you feel you need!
You know that this won’t break the bank – you know it – and there’s so much here for you!
and $37 for every month you choose to remain a member – over 500 videos available – webinars – forum – you just can’t lose!!! There are no catches here – none – it is what it is! And every month, there is something new!
Save Time Money and Energy Learning How to Make Money on eBay
The Traps
I’ve been on the internet long enough now to understand one very important thing about learning to do anything on the internet: when they ask me for a lot of money to teach me the basics, I run! Why? Because it’s never worth the money! Learning the basics is critical but it shouldn’t blow your entire budget on one course nor strap you with huge credit card debt!
Those who offer these high-priced courses are careful not to make any promises which hems them in but you’re hemmed in! Somehow the guarantee of returning your money runs out before you discover that they haven’t taught you enough to make any money. Most often, the people who offer programs don’t know how to teach. Even more tragic, some of them don’t even know how to make money online themselves! (those pictures they show you online aren’t always real for them!)They may or may not know their stuff but can’t or won’t pass on what you really need know to make a buck.
The good news is that there are people out there who are really making good money on the internet, know how to teach others and offer their programs at a reasonable cost. The trick is finding them because they are not always the “high flyers” of the internet putting out launch after launch after launch.
Learning from the BEST
I’ve also learned that the best people to learn from are those who are making money online every day as their primary means of making money; the educational component of their business is only one of the many add-ons they have created. With the information obtained from these real practitioners, you can get started in a realistic way and have the best chance possible of making money.
It’s a lot of work starting an internet business and it takes a lot of time, energy and money to build a business online as it does to build a business the old fashioned brick and mortar way. The nice thing about the internet is that you can learn bit by bit without investing a lot of money upfront.
EBay
I learned eBay. I thought it would be great to sell other people’s stuff and get a commission. So, I paid a supposedly reputable company a lot of money to teach me. They couldn’t. They didn’t have a clue how to teach someone. Some of their coaches were making money on eBay but just couldn’t pass on the information properly. Later, I found out that many people who had also signed up for this company’s offerings were in the same boat.
Then I found someone who did know how to teach. Successful on eBay, a Titanium Power Seller, the instructional material I received was simple to follow and truthful – no magic mirrors – no promises of high earnings – just a realistic approach to starting a business on eBay. The tools were explained properly. Further credibility was added when this person was featured on eBay radio.
When the dust had cleared, eBay was not my bag after all so I didn’t pursue it as a business though I still do sell on eBay on occasion – it’s fun for me and it’s turned into a hobby.
One of the key things about good teachers: they’re accessible – after the sale – they will answer questions and they do have newsletters so you can keep learning from them.
Before you jump into eBay or any other online business, consider this:
a) Are you ready to do some intense research on products before you decide on what you are going to sell?
b) Are you prepared to take the time to understand the process by starting small, step-by-step and then building over long term?
c) If you want to ship a product yourself, do you have the space to store the product, wrap and ship the items and the equipment needed to complete orders?
d) Are you customer oriented or do you not like dealing with people problems? If you don’t like dealing with customers, quit while you’re ahead!
e) Are you prepared to learn and keep learning, live in ambiguity for a long time and yet push on until you arrive at your destination?
f) Do you understand that selling on eBay is not free? There are fees to be paid to eBay and to PayPal.
g) Do you understand that there is a whole new language on the internet you’ll need to learn and some will seem odd and confusing at first?
h) Are you prepared to put in the time, energy and money to build a successful enterprise?
The benefits of starting an eBay business:
a) You don’t have to spend a huge amount of money to get your feet wet in creating an internet business. You can learn bit by bit what it takes to become very successful in business online. You can start with drop shippers who have integrity and are willing to work with small retailers. This is one area in which it’s important not to rush – take your time. Spend the time reviewing the videos, reading the PDFs and understanding what’s required. Read contracts before you sign them. Again, click hereto get the suppliers and education you need- you’ll be glad you did!
b) Once you have a few successful sales, then it’s time to reinvest and keep moving forward.
c) There’s a lot to learn – everything from taking pictures, editing them and uploading them in an attractive way to creating good descriptions, return and shipping policies, building a store on eBay and extending your eBay presence outwards into the rest of the internet so people can find you in other ways than just through eBay. How long will that take? It depends on how much time you have to learn, how versed you are in computer technology, how much money you have to spend to get going, and a host of other variables too numerous to mention here.
d) It is a business. Building a business whether on the internet or brick and mortar takes time. The advantage of the internet, if you don’t like your business or location, you can move without it costing a ton of money or move on to another business or have several businesses going at once.
e) And, yes, even on the internet, you need advertising dollars. That’s another thing you’ll have to learn – CAREFULLY! Many people have been caught advertising before they completely understood how it works. That’s why it’s a good idea to start on eBay – you get your feet wet before you need to pursue internet advertising avenues.
Would I recommend starting an eBay business even today? Yes.
It is a good training ground for starting a business online and whether you have a job or will be getting a new job or want to do this full time, it will always be a source of income if you learn methodically and apply what you learn.
And, yes, I do earn a commission if you sign up for these recommended suppliers. As you will be doing, I’m earning from what I learned. I only recommend the best and the people with whom I have had successful dealings. I’ve kissed a lot of frogs in my journey on the internet – the products and services I recommend are solid – tried and true – real people with real businesses who are honest and run ethical businesses. It has cost me a lot of money, effort and time to find these gems. If you’re smart, you’ll start with these people. Eventually, you’ll find others. The key here is that you’ll have started with a good foundation. Just like building a house which will last for years - a good foundation will make it last!
Sourcing Products to Sell
In order to sell on eBay, you need to have something to sell. They say start with things from your home which are in good condition and for which you don’t use any longer. It’s good to get half a dozen listings and practice but you’ll soon run out of things. As with any business, you need a steady supply of product to sell.
If you want to get an education on sourcing products and have a reputable company giving you a legitimate and carefully researched groups of companies to buy from, then I would recommend you click here. It’s the only company which has built it’s own list of suppliers, has tremendous teaching tools and, again, the owner is accessible – that’s always a bonus. The bonus truly is the education – tons of videos, PDFs and other material – you won’t believe how much you learn here – at no cost to you! Incredibly valuable knowledge especially if you are brand new to retail. And the annual fee to become a member is incredibly inexpensive – you’ll be surprised!
Save Time, Money and Energy Learning How to Make Money by Blogging
What does that mean?
It means that finding the best possible instruction right from the beginning of your journey making money online through blogging will save you time, money and energy not to mention frustration! When you have the right instructions with the right approach at a reasonable cost then you’ll be ahead of the game!
You learn best from someone who is:
doing it now . . . and. . . who can teach
these are important criteria - many might know how to blog but few can teach it. Many pretend they know. Many are really good salespeople with an expertise in mumbo jumbo! So save yourself a lot of time and money by starting learning from the best. Why should you trust me? No reason really. I’ve been down the “search” road and this is the best I’ve found. I’ve spent a lot of time, money and energy. I will tell you one thing I’ve learned: if you don’t start the right way at the very beginning, the “deprogramming” to learn the right things for today’s market will set you back. Many bloggers are teaching the “old stuff” – very little of it works today.
Is it Easy?
No. Absolutely not. Why? Because it’s complex – the devil is in the details!
Yes, the most popular platform, WordPress is free but . . . you need to know more and it’s the rest of what you need to know which slows you right down to a crawl or worse, stops you dead in your tracks.
Getting Trapped
I’ve been trapped. I know what it feels like to have a burning desire to be successful at something only to be sidetracked into the wrong territory! I’ve learned this much: when they ask me for a lot of money to teach me the basics, I run! Why? Because it’s never worth the money!
These “big ticket” sellers are careful not to make any promises which hems them in and somehow the guarantee of returning your money runs out before you discover that they haven’t taught you enough to make any money. Most often, the people who offer programs don’t know how to teach. Even more tragic, some of them don’t even know how to make money online themselves! (those pictures they show you online aren’t always real for them!) They are good at something though: making you believe it’s easy, fast and you can make a lot of money without much work.
Basics are basics – there is no need to charge thousands to get someone started. The learning curve is huge for most people. Once you have the basics, then you’ll know enough to make the right decisions as you progress.
So what do you do?
Start simply, relatively inexpensively with people who know what they’re doing and have good teaching ability. They not only teach you during their program but long after by delivering very valuable information. Heck they’ll even deliver you valuable information BEFORE you sign up!
Blogging is creating valuable content for people who are interested in your area of expertise. You make money when you build trust. It’s a business and like any other business it takes time. In the case of the internet, it’s not as simple as getting an ad in a newspaper – there’s a lot to learn!
It’s not for everyone especially people who don’t like to write. If don’t like writing, then check out a great instructor for creating a business with simple websites on the left sidebar.
Yes, you can hire ghost writers but there are a multiple number of issues with that approach not the least of which that you lose touch with your business and your customers. They hear someone else’s “voice”, not yours. There is no need to write perfectly and if you are a poor speller, well, you always have spell check!
So how do you make money?
There are a hundred and one ways!
By offering products and/or services which match your particular line of expertise
Selling ads
Selling other people’s products
etc – let your imagination soar . . .
What’s the difference between a blog and a website?
A blog platform is actually a website. The difference is that a website is relatively static while a blog, if you are to be successful, is dynamic. It means you’ll continually need to add new content
Sounds easy, why should I get someone to teach me?
Try it. Very quickly it will become quite apparent to you that it’s not so easy. You’ll find that you’ll create content and nothing will happen. You’ll discover all kinds of information everywhere only to find out that some of it is so outdated it causes problems that are not easy to fix.
What’s the solution?
Get the right instructor! Especially at the beginning, this is crucial – get the basics under your belt properly and the rest will follow.
There are many who are offering to teach you how to make money blogging – few really know how to teach and even fewer know how to earn money from blogging today. Times have changed and continue to change every single day on the net. If you don’t have a good foundation getting started, you’ll be overwhelmed – very quickly!
I went through a lot of blog sites, free courses, PDFs, newsletters, etc., asked a lot of questions, contacted a lot of people, took some courses, etc. trying to learn how to do it. It was so challenging!
And, then, one day I found something incredible. I took a course. My expectations were rather low by that point. But . . . I was taught things that no one else could before – it was so easy when I was taught the right way – step-by-step – I could understand the process. With time, I became quite good at the basic processes. I signed up for newsletters – I learned even more – I have continued to learn. As part of my business model, I promote the products because I believe in them – I believe these products will help anyone who is serious about earning money blogging on the internet.
So here’s my recommendation to you – if you want to learn the basics of blogging and don’t want to spend an arm and a leg doing it at first, then go check out this course.
You’ll be glad you did because you’ll have such an incredible foundation, you’ll be amazed how much you’ll learn, how easily and how fast you get underway!
Could you do it on your own?
Yes, if you have all the time in the world – you can – all the information is free on the net – it’s finding the right information, in the right sequence – separate the piles and piles garbage to find the gems and, by then, well, who knows what you’ll do.
This person is extraordinarily successful on the internet – starting from humble beginnings going through all the trials and tribulations of starting a new business in a new medium – there’s an understanding, therefore, of what it’s like to be at the starting gate. That helps. Mix in great teaching and you have, at the very least, a very good chance of creating a nice little income for yourself on the net.
If you think blogging interests you and that’s how you want to earn your money online, then don’t hesitate – go now – learn! Save yourself a lot of time, money and energy – connect:
People wish themselves into stress – they wish they were here and they wish they were there. They wish things were different and they wish they were somebody else. They wish and they wish. It would seem that some have spent their whole lives wishing.
Today, one of my neighbors said she had changed her mind about a trip she was about to take. The weather is so beautiful now that she decided to stay home and wait until worse weather comes along. She said she could change her mind about departure day because she was retired now.
It struck me as odd why she thought she couldn’t have done it when she was working. As a manager, team members often wanted to change their booked vacation time for whatever reason. If it was possible, of course, a change in plans was fine.
What’s even more odd is that we don’t always get to do what we want to do when we want to do them in any case, retired or not – life just isn’t like that. How many times have your plans been changed due to unforeseen circumstances – weather, accidents, illness, tragedy, etc.
Let’s say she decides on a day to leave. She gets into her car and a few minutes down the road a truck hits her car – she won’t be able to go on her trip.
If your work is so stressful as to cause you to “wish”, be unhappy or paralyzed to live your life as you would like to live it, find another path. You may never get to retirement and, if you do, you might not like what you find!
More and more there are retired people living in our complex. At first, they’re happy. Within a year, the “shininess” of the “new life” wears off. They twist themselves into balls trying to figure out what to do with themselves next. There is only so much golf they can play, and only so many trips they can take. Often isolation sets in as friends move away or die, family members are working and busy, and grandchildren grow up.
The happiest retirees are the ones who were ready with another “job”. They work at another full-time, part-time or seasonal job or a small business of their own, do what they love to do and are happy to be involved as they always have been throughout their adult lives. Often, they volunteer too but, sometimes, that doesn’t last too long either because they are asked to come on staff.
This is my advice to you today: make every day a “retiree” day – do what you want to do. What does that mean? It means that you do what you do because you know why you’re doing it. For instance, if you’re working at a company five days a week, you’re working there because you like working there or the pay is exactly what you want or the benefits are the ideal for you – the payoff is now – today! Know why you’re doing something – the bigger picture of your life – and focus on the why – you’ll find yourself much happier, you’ll feel freer and better able to cope with the downsides – there is a downside to everything.
And you’ll find that you are able to ask for what you want. You may not always get it but you’ll feel free to ask. I think it’s that freedom which people crave – they’ve always had it though they just never thought they did.
If you are not doing what you want to do because there is not good reason to be doing it, stop. And stop wishing things were different. Change course. Make and work on a plan to get you in a place where every day is a day you’re doing what you want to do and you know why.
This today is all you’ve got – make the most of it!
Can you produce magic immediately in your time management strategy?
What do you think would do that for you? Is there a word or a system or gadget which could magically add time to your day and satisfaction to your soul?
Yes, there is. It’s tiny. It’s something we don’t do well and often enough. Added consciously into our time management repertoire, it can give back a lot of time.
What is it?
N – O – that’s it “no”. Most of us hate saying it – no matter how we “frame” it – our first impulse is to say yes. It is those many “yeses” which eventually create havoc with our time management.
People want our time. They need to get something done and they would like y help. They ask. We accept. Another chunk of time is taken out of our schedule – could be 5 minutes or an hour – it all adds up!
Your boss wants us to work late. Your children want us to attend an event – our spouse wants to go out to dinner – our parents need help with their eaves – our siblings each need help with something we’re good at doing – our friends want hang out time –
think about it – all these people want a chunk of our time and yet we’re just a party of one with only 24 hours in a day!
How could we ever possibly fit all the demands into our schedule?
The answer: we can’t – it’s impossible though most of us try to do it – we try to please everyone by acquiescing to everyone’s demands for our time. Is it any wonder that people get short on time?
It’s essential that we all become very comfortable with saying NO. And sticking to our guns – no means no!
It’s a word that most people don’t know how to use very well because we’ve been told that we must:
- keep our jobs at all costs
- keep our spouses happy
- spend time with our children
- spend time with friends and family
and soon . . . we run out of time and everything suffers. Why? Because no choice is consciously being made – it’s just a blanket acceptance. Yes, of course, everyone uses “no” once in a while but, generally, not often enough.
One day, we wake up on empty. We’re tired, frustrated and feel deprived – life is passing us by and our goals seem further and further away.
Becoming comfortable with saying “no” allows us to CHOOSE – it’s the only way –
Are the choices easy? Of course not, otherwise we’d all know which option to choose easily, effortlessly. Let’s face it – to someone else, what they are asking for is important to them – sometimes it’s urgent – sometimes it’s an emergency – to them! Is it urgency or an emergency for us?
To get to the point where choices are easier to make here is a tip:
Take your schedule for an entire month and book in everything YOU need and want including travel time to work, work, exercise, meals, rest, sleep, hobbies, etc. each and every day. These are non-negotiable – don’t give any of this time up for anything or anyone else failing a true emergency. Now, you know exactly how much time you have available for everyone else – book accordingly. You’ll be amazed how creative you’ll become! More than anything, you’ll feel so good about your life!
Do we need to connect socially online for personal and business reasons? Millions of people seem to think so or do they? Is it the “herd” mentality that is fueling the latest and greatest or is there some purpose, some real purpose to connecting through social media sites? Are we connecting – really?
The internet, is, even today, the modern “wild, wild West”. People uncomfortable with chaos find the internet a mystery and, often, find using the internet more time consuming than helpful. They find a lot of junk on the internet and have to wade through massive amounts of sites before actually finding the answer to their question – most times it’s easier just to call someone you know might have the information.
500,000,000 people have flocked to Facebook. The irony here is that only half that number are regular users. (think how small 250 million is since our world population today is approximately 7 billion people – that’s only really 3.5% ).
It’s the same for other social media sites – so many people have signed up because “it was the thing to do” and also discovered “the thing do do” was a maze to get around and very time consuming. For instance, there is an expression on Facebook, “fan page”. People would go to Facebook and want to set up a “fan page”, but they couldn’t find it. To get to a fan page, you’d have to get out of your account and go to the sign up page of Facebook and find the link there – for most people, how would they know to do that? Would it have made sense for Facebook to put it in your profile as an option or on the menu along with Wall and other menu items? That would be too simple!
Another person I know was urged to start a group on LinkedIn. After the experience of setting one up which she was told would only take a few minutes, she doesn’t want anything to do with setting up another group anywhere – it consumed so much time because the steps simply were not clear to her. The group is set up and working but to her it was not worth the effort. It has provided no real benefit to her business but regularly eats up her time.
Many small business people have given up – it’s just way too time consuming to learn, figure out and keep up with all these social media sites. There are major differences in how they operate and the lack of clear menus, clear instructions and lack of help in most cases makes it an exercise in futility often.
Why are social media sites so confusing? In my opinion, it’s because all these sites are being set up by young “techies” with no life experience outside the technological world, no understanding of how to relate to non-techies. As the popularity grows because it’s discovered to be the latest and greatest, so does their staff but they are still all technologically focused - not consumer focused. What makes sense to them simply doesn’t to the rest of the world – it’s an insular world. Even Google, a milestone in internet research, merely reflects a numbers game today which can be manipulated. Often, the worst sites get top ranking not because of their great content but their owners know how to manipulate the factors involved in getting ranked.
There’s a huge reliance on forums as a help alternative. It doesn’t work because it’s a big waste of time too. Search for the forums – then search within the forums – and read post after post which simply doesn’t give you the answer you want. Why? Because you didn’t use the right word!!! Oh, yes, a person needs to have exactly the right “word”, otherwise, it’s a maze of finding one simple answer. Time consumed on forums can be enormous.
And the FAQ syndrome – there are few which are helpful. It’s another maze of a few questions with a few answers which generally doesn’t give you what you want.
People give up on social media. They have an account but never, ever use it. The refrain is always the same: “I’ve got an account but I don’t use it. It’s so confusing. I don’t see the point and I’m doing fine without it.”
Do we need social media?
Obviously, the answer is not really. People are still conducting business quite successfully without social media as there are many businesses who successfully promote their business.
For most, it’s still much easier to put an ad in the paper to put one on Facebook or Adwords or any other medium and a lot less stressful. I find a lot of businesses advertising on Craigslist and Kijiji as well as other classified sites – it’s easy for the advertiser to put up an ad and easy for potential customers to find you based on a search – they don’t have to be your “friend”. And big business is still advertising in magazines – have you noticed how large some popular magazines are – loaded with advertising. Why? Because it reaches a vast audience of people interested in that particular sphere, not just people who have chosen to sign up or not. It could very well be that newspapers will see a revival for that reason alone – ease of use and the ability to reach far more customers for their particular type of business.
People stillmeet with one another, text,email one another and talk on the phone because people have found it easier to communicate using those basic, useful down-to-earth, easy-to-use mediums for connecting.
Personally, I like parts of social media and I do believe it has a place in promoting business. It also has a place for personally to share pictures or stories. Social media mediums have a long way to go in simplicity of use and simplicity of connecting.
Some have said that these mediums are for those who have grown up with it. That’s not true either. A couple of teenagers I know went with the crowd using Facebook but found their cell phones were much more useful in connecting with their friends – it’s immediate! They’ve abandoned their Facebook except for sharing pictures, invitations or general stories; they meet friends at the mall or talk on the phone for hours – as it has always been. They text too and that’s it. They don’t have to login hoping someone is online too – they text and the other party is immediately notified of the message.
Social media is a useful tool but it has a long way to go before it becomes the norm either personally or in business. Is it for you? Ask yourself:
Is there a return on the time invested? Is that return make enough of a difference to warrant the time required?
It may be. Could a simple website do the same thing? Perhaps. Would offline promotion work as well? Perhaps. Today, likely the answer: a combination online and offline promotion. Networking, face-to-face remains the best connection of all, bar none as it is connecting personally – face-to-face is always best!
Do any of us really need social media? Only you can answer that question. If you want to discover the possibilities, I would suggest getting some help to get started because the time consumed learning it on your own far exceeds its usefulness especially for a small business person.
Start with YouTube for video training – it’s the best place and it doesn’t cost a thing. Beware of people who want to charge you a lot to teach you or to take on your social media “involvement”; one university wanted $450 for a course on LinkedIn – ridiculous!
Go to Youtube, follow along with the video and use the social media for a while to see if it’s for you. YouTube has videos containing information from how to sign up to advance uses. If you try to get the help on the social media sites themselves, you might end up pulling out your hair!
If you have questions, please contact me at info@wizetime.com.
Why? Can you think of any reason to constrain the little time that you have to be free?
I use to think, “I’ll do what I want when I want”. I love to be spontaneous. However, I soon found that spontaneity has a downside too – sometimes, I would spend the week-end doing what I want only to be left with an unsatisfying feeling on Sunday night because “things didn’t work out” as I had imagined!
When you’re working, “staying alive” keeps you hopping along all week long — getting ready for work, getting to work, working and attending to personal needs and responsibilities such as exercise, family matters, finance, eating properly, etc. We even add a little socializing in there! No wonder that we look forward to Fridays!
Week-ends should give you more of what you want – right? Right! It’s possible with your friend, time management!
Answer this:
WHAT DO I really, really WANT FROM MY WEEK-ENDS?
Do you want to spend time with your friends? Do you want to sleep in Sunday morning? Do you want to play some sport? Do you want to visit relatives? Do you want to entertain? Do you want to work on your hobbies? Do you want to sit on the beach?
What is it you want to do? And they ask yourself why. When you know the why, you’ll understand the reason you want to do these things and it’ll become very easy to “choose”. Did you find some things are related to what people expect of you? Is that satisfying?
If you use time management, it’s actually possible to combine the many things you want to do! For instance, say you want to see your friends and you want to spend the afternoon at the beach too. Plan to do both together – you could even invite a relative or two! Why plan? If you don’t, others likely have filled their time and simply are not available to be with you. Make sense?
Fit in everything into your week-end that you want without going crazy, though. Some people try to cram so much into a week-end, they’re exhausted at the end of it and still haven’t really done what they wanted to do! Each and every week-end is a special time to do what you want to do – use it wisely!
Why should you use time management on week-ends? To nourish and satisfy yourself, your soul, your being – the fabulous you! And when Monday morning arrives, you want to feel great about how you spent your week-end!
September 8, 2010 | Posted by wizard 
Three Tips on How to Learn Better and More Efficiently
Categories: Time Management Tips | 
Tags: education, how to learn better, how to learn more efficiently, lifelong education, time management, Time Management Tips | 
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