Have you ever had a day where you felt as if you were getting work done but you really weren’t? The reason for this post today is because I think there are many people who are concerned with how to manage time in a way that makes them feel satisfied with ending the day with what they have done.

There are a lot of people who like to spend their time interacting with people in forums, tweeting on Tweeter, volleying emails back and forth, and reading or commenting on different blogs. Many experts like Gary Vaynerchuk say this is vital to growing a business and we should spend hours and hours doing this. But what happens when we spend most of our time searching for different threads to comment or reading material that ends up taking more time than usually. Hours may have passed by without us even realizing it. Here are some quick things I thought of and I think will help you out.

Priorities First

Do you ever get those days where you not in a state of flow, so you start making up things to do and pretend that you are working? I get these from time to time because I hate the feeling of having 2 hours pass by without me really “activity doing anything”. So sometimes I will spend my time in forums or reading blogs then lead to another subject, and before I know it, 2 hours will have really gone by and I haven’t really done anything productive. I’ve learned that there is a difference between being productive and being active.

Being active can mean just doing something but it doesn’t really mean that you are producing results. Don’t fall in the trap of trying to make up tasks in order to avoid the tasks that really matter. Before you go to sleep, write down what is the most important things you need to get done tomorrow. If you’re not sure what they are, usually the answer to this question will help you figure them out. If you have only 2 hours to work on something tomorrow, what would they be?

Psychological Tips

Everybody works better under different conditions. Some people focus better at night when everybody is sleeping. Other people work better in the day. For me, I have always found it more difficult to produce content during the day. There’s something about the day that represents time moving faster causing me to rush my mind. When it’s a cloudy day for me, the atmosphere is depressing and time moves slowly. I know these are psychological things that only pertain to me.

I usually feel more alert and focused when I look out the window and it’s completely dark (only the lamp next to me is the lighting the room). To me, this silence feels as if time has stopped. I don’t feel so much in a rush and can produce better content around midnight. So figure out when is the best atmosphere works for you and work on it. You might have to adjust your sleeping schedule, but doing so may help you become more productive in the long run.

Unclutter

Unclutter everything (including your workspace on your desk!). Recently I realized that there were too many icons on my desktop (about 20 to 30) and half of them were ebooks or documents I never even read. So I put all unnecessary icons in a folder. I’m now left with 6 icons that include my main file folder, my broswers, and something to write on (I switch between MS Word and DarkRoom).

As for my inbox, about 50% of the mail happened to be old mail, so I just delete some and put the rest in “past mail”. The desktop and inbox looked a lot cleaner now. Finally, I realized that I needed to unclutter my room. I rearranged the room to make as much clear space possible and for the last 2 days, donated my old clothes (1/4 of my closet is clothes) to the salvation army. It felt good getting rid of that for a good cause.

These were just some productivity tips in my mind today that I thought I’d toss around with you guys. I know everyone is different and works best in different atmosphere. I may need it to be pin-drop quiet, but I know a guy who works the best when reruns of King of the Hill are playing in his background. But back to the main point: don’t do work just for the sake of doing work. Make sure you get the most out of your day by being productive!

What about you? Do you work best in sunny, cloudy, dark, or light conditions? Do you have any personal ways of working productively that you want to also share?

Photo Credit: i.m.indraneel

Concentration is exclusive attention to one object for a long period of time. I believe it’s a state. Anybody can focus, but how long do they last for? When you are in a state where you are focused, but don’t realize how long it’s been since you focused, then you become in a concentrated state.

Here are some examples of common occurrences in our daily lives that take us away from our concentration.

You may have a long distance relationship with your girlfriend or boyfriend and you constantly feel guilty that you are not there for them.

You may live with your parents and have a mother who constantly nags at you which you don’t like hearing, or a father who constantly orders you to do work which you don’t like to do.

You may have a husband who puts less effort in taking care of the kids, but because you don’t want to you make him or her made, you keep your frustrations inside of you.

You may be in constant debt, wherever every day that passes by means another one or two hundred dollars lost because of unpaid property that you own.

You may be in a place where you constantly walk back in forth on the floor, feeling distant from the cold walls near you, as you wonder what the future is going to be like for you.

Whatever situation you may be in or whatever problems you may have, they are occurring to us subconsciously on an hour to hour, day to day basis. The reason I say subconsciously is because you may be working on something, you are thinking about some problem in the past that’s bothering you, whether it’s from the past, the present, or the future.

All this stuff causes baggage and it makes it impossible to stay concentrated when we focus even the tiniest amount of our attention on it. In order for us to enter in a state of concentration, our energy cannot be separated, as the definition of concentration is concentrated energy.

It’s the same thing as you cannot play great music while looking always looking at the notes. Part of your focus is on the notes, rather than just full attention on the music. Or you cannot be a good reader if you are eating sweets at the same time. Part of your energy is focused off of the text, while some of it is focused on sweet taste from your saliva glands.

Anybody can enter a state of concentration. But it takes effort. Some people are better at it than others. Many people may argue that concentration is not a skill like cooking or doing business. But it definitely is. If one can master the state of being completely focused, anything they do, they will succeed. This is because they are no longer thinking, they are being.

What could this possibly mean you may ask?

I believe that we have a physical body which we can control from our thoughts. We have our thoughts which controlled from our mind. But I also believe that there is something that goes beyond this. What if it is our mind that is actually controlling us? It actually does.

This happens when are focus is divided. Just like the examples above, at one point you may be reading a book, but then half your focus is on the worries of the problems of the world. You may feel guilty if you don’t care of angered if you care too much. But the point is your mind is governing your thoughts and you feelings, and if your focus is directed away from this, you will never know.

When you’re in a state of full, absolute, undivided, undisturbed concentration in anything you are doing, it would be absolutely impossible for be taken out of that state even if the world was on the brink of destruction. But how often do we find ourselves to be distracted by something like a cat meowing outside?

Pay attention to how easily you get distracted. If you’re a person who gets easily distracted, then it is going to be hard for you to enter a state of concentration. But it is possible, and it starts with simplicity.

If you want to enter a state of concentration, next time take whatever you do and try this out. Focus on something for sixty seconds. Sixty seconds may sound like no time at all, but when you start doing this without giving it your all, it will appear very difficult to do. You’ll find that it’s going to be hard to focus because you can’t stop thinking and feeling.

But if you keep focusing, whether it’s reading one line of text as best as you possibly can or looking at an object and appreciating it’s detailed beauty, whatever it happens to be that your focusing on, eventually sixty seconds will turn into two minutes, and two minutes will turn into five minutes, and five minutes will turn into ten minutes, then to thirty minutes, then before you know it, an hour will have passed by and you won’t even have noticed.

When you get things done, and you don’t even notice it, congratulations. You have just entered a state of concentration. Master it and you’ll start to see things that you couldn’t see before.

photo credit: MissTurner

It is a bad thing if we constantly obsess over time. But sometimes, we need to be conscious of it. The reason for this is simply because we don’t get time back. Whatever position you happen to be in, ask yourself some serious questions. In the past, have you used time wisely? On a scale of 1-10, how much do you put value to time? Do you go about the day not even worrying about the time that passes by?

Most people won’t worry about time passing by. This is because we do not wish to let time pass by. We grow older as it passes by and not everybody likes this, and not everybody wants to know the future.

But I think if we use our time wisely, it will make us more confident of our future. Whether you like it or not, whether you choose to ignore it, time will pass by anyway no matter what. If you think about it, anything can be exchanged for. I can exchange money for an item, and I can exchange an item for money. But I cannot exchange money for more time, and I cannot exchange an item for more time.

Everybody more or less has time. Not everybody has a nice house and not everybody has a nice car, but everybody has time. It’s really what we do in that time that seperates successful people from unsuccessful people.

If you’re a busy person than you probably have a busy schedule such as going to work from 7 in the morning to 5 in evening, coming home and having dinner with the family, doing some paper work, watching some TV, then going to bed at 11 and then waking up at 6. I know some people who go to school and work at the same time and have only a couple of hours of the day for “free time”.

But there are people who just wake up in the morning like at 11 or 12, eat brunch or lunch, go on the internet or maybe watch some TV for a couple of hours, eat something that makes them tired so they take a 1 or 2 hour nap, wake up and receive a phone call to go out with friends for dinner, come home late, go on the internet or play computer games until 2 or 3 in the morning, then go to sleep.

This is an example of not using time wisely – duh.

What I’m trying to get across is that if you’re trying to make more money, or set some type of business, or just have a project that you have in mind that is going to be a lot of hard work, time is your best friend.

Whatever project that you have in mind, chances are that there’s a good chance that hundreds of thousands of people that you don’t know about are doing the same thing, except they are using time in doing it while others are wasting their time not doing it.

All I’m saying is be aware of time. Time is leverage.

If you have more time to do something than another person, that is worth so much.

People don’t value time these days, because, well, it’s not money. It’s not something that you can touch or hold in your hands. You can’t really see time. You can see time passing by on a clock… but that’s not too exciting is it? Although passing time isn’t that big of a concern to most people, time in fact is one of the most precious things we as human beings have.

Time really is more powerful than money. With 10 hours work, one can get $100 worth on money. But with $100, one cannot get 10 hours back in his or her life. Those 10 hours are gone forever.

Each hour that passes by is an opportunity to make money. Notice I didn’t say each hour that passes by that you will make money, but each hour that passes by you can use that hour to build something that will make you money in the future.

If you work in a job that basically gives you, for example $10 an hour, then you’re basically trading an hour of your life for $10. This isn’t a bad thing at all, but if you are complaining about not having enough money, realize that you are the one who has accepted trading 1 hour of your life for $10. There are many ways to earn more than $10 for 1 hour of your time.

For example, if you spent 10 hours making a website that was promoting a product or service such as a… I don’t know sleeping nightime CD’s for people who have trouble sleeping and these CD’s cost $20 and you got 50% commission or $10 for each time helped promoted this item, a person who is working 10 hours will get $100, and if you’re just working on the website for 10 dollars, you will get $0.

But on the 11th hour, you might make a sale and get 10 dollars, while the other person working will also get 10 dollars, and 11th hour you might get 20 dollars, while the other person gets 10 dollars, and on the 13th hour you might get 30 dollars, while the other person gets 10 dollars and I think you get the idea. If we were going by this scale, by the time the other person has worked 20 hours, they will receive $200. By the time you reached 20 hours, you will have made $550.

Of course this is only an ideal case. But you can see how valuable time is if you use time wisely. Even if you aren’t making money in a set amount of time right now, you can always be able to produce something of value with the time you have and exchange that for money later.

The most important thing I think we should understand is that time is going to pass us by anyway so we have the option to choose to let it pass by and just let it pass by with nothing really happening, or choose to let it pass by but knowing that something positive will result in the future because we are doing something right now.

And it doesn’t have to be just for money, it can be for a skill that you want to learn like playing an instrument or any other type of goal you wish to achieve such as losing more weight or gaining more muscle. Whatever it happens to be, understand that time doesn’t wait for us. It always continues. And it is what you choose to do with time right now that will ultimately determines the outcome of your future.

Photo Credit: Michel Filion

Have you ever had an idea? It’s a really great idea. Then suddenly you put that idea aside and look for a new idea. When people are uncertain of the outcome or are impatient to get a result done, they will search for the fastest and quickest way to getting to their path.

Weight loss is an example of this. You constantly hear these types of questions all over the internet. What is the fastest way to lose weight? What is the newest weight loss fad? What is the secret to weight loss? How can you implement all ideas together to create the fastest and quickest way to lose weight? Overweight people who want to lose weight but have no discipline or control over the fact that good amount of effort is needed will always find themselves going in circles trying to find a new way to lose weight, while looking in the mirror and seeing more or less of the same thing every day.

Blogging is also another of this. Some people blog aimed at getting traffic. They find new strategies to get the traffic and as a result, their obsession with this causes their content to suffer. Some people obsess over their content, and hope that hundreds of people will miraculously visit their blog without promotion. Others might force themselves to develop a type of personality to fit their blog’s personality, so they over think things when really blogging in the first place was supposed to be about writing a simply entry for fun.

How many people do you know go in circles? They say they’re going to do one thing, then you see them doing something else, and the next thing you know, they are back at the same place again, doing the same exact things. When you have too many ideas at once, it makes it impossible to simplify, especially if you do not have an organized plan.

You’re just kind of roaming from “chunks of ideas” to “chunks of ideas”. I’ve been through this before and it feels like a mess. It feels like you’re going nowhere. Everything feels ambiguous, there’s no clarity, you can’t see where you’re going with this, and you constantly feel a mixture of anxiety, because you don’t know what’s going to happen, and irritation, because in the meanwhile, you’re wasting your time.

What I discovered is that many people go from thinking about point A to point B to point C and then back to point A. All this thinking causes one thing to happen.

Nothing.

Instead of thinking about one idea or one plan then going to another idea or another plan, stick to 1 idea. And even if you have 3 of 4 ideas at once, don’t just memorize all of them because it will drive you crazy (like it did to me). Get a piece of paper and combine those ideas. Write down the dates, what you need to do on each date, and what you expect to accomplish by those dates.

This plan can be a span of a week, a month, six months, of a year; it doesn’t matter as long as you know that there is a clear path to where you are going right now. You’re not just randomly going from what feels good at the moment and then jumping to another idea. So, I always like to spend some time in a quiet place to really think of what I want to achieve within a deadline and what needs to get done by those dates. It helps me clarify my life.

I think many people rush to get things done because they feel like something just needs to get done. This behavior pattern usually will cause one to just go around in circles. Carefully plan out what you need to get done in the future and look at it every day. By doing this, you won’t find yourself going in circles, but more finding yourself going in a straight and steady line.

Photo Credit: quapan

You know that feeling of how sometimes we plan on doing something but never end up doing it? This is analysis paralysis. What happens is that we spend so much time thinking about how to take action that it begins to become the action itself. The thinking part replaces that doing part as the action. This is a cycle that you do not want to get yourself into.

So what does this analysis paralysis happen to us? It’s really something that tricks the human mind. A lot of the times, we think of doing actions to accomplish a goal we have in mind. But what happens is that sometimes doing those actions makes us uncomfortable or some degree of fear is involved.

So in order to remedy this, we start to analyze the situation of taking action because doing so makes us feel good inside. It makes us feel like the action of analyzing is at least somethingproductive.

So once the plan is made, we go forth and do the action that we have on a piece of paper. As the action is about to take place, something happens that stops us. It is an emotional that holds us back for whatever reason it happens to be during that moment.

So we go back to our rooms, or wherever we feel most comfortable in, and spend more time, more hours, creating and devising a plan to take action again.

This time we make analyze the last situation of why we didn’t take action and we devise a better plan. This time it is perfect.

So we go and perform the action again with more energy and motivation. And as we start to take that action, we feel the emotion again that creeps back in our minds, “Go away,” you tell yourself, but it becomes to become more and more overwhelming. “Go away, I mean it. I need to do this!”

By this time, you start to talk to yourself more and more. Ultimately, the moment is passed, and you head back into your comfortable area again, devising yet another plan to take action the next time. And this cycle continues over and over again until we reach the point of mental collapse, where the goal we initially had in mind is now put on hold until it is forgotten or never sees the light of day.

There are many things that cause each of our own analyses paralyses, but I believe that there are two primary causes that inhibit our ability to take action and remain stuck in analyzing mode.

• Fear
• Perfection

The first one is obvious to why we spend so much thinking about performing action and that is fear. Have you ever been told that if you want to meet somebody new, you will have to approach a stranger in public and go from there? If you have never done this before, you will probably go through a minor case of analyses paralysis, where you spend a lot of time writing down what you will say, what your first line will be, what the last line will be, where you will meet the stranger, what is your back up plan if the stranger rejects you, how you will gather the courage to approach the stranger in the first place, etc.

Some people turn analyses paralyses into an obsession. Something that takes a minute to do, takes about an hour of analyzing and talking in the head before doing it. Since the emotional burden of it is not worth the results, usually they just end spending more time to analyze a better plan or quit all together.

Secondly, analysis paralysis can come from the want to be perfect. You’ve probably heard of perfectionists who need to have a perfect plan before they start to take action. They want and need to know every step of the way before taking any action. It’s like having a perfectly outlined strategy guide before playing an adventure game. What fun would it be to know all the answers to something before doing it? Once can always create the answers from trial and error experience; but what happens is that usually these people are never satisfied with the guide before it is never “perfect” enough for them to take action.

So, in essence, this is what analyses paralysis is. It is a mind trap. And it could well be one of the worst possible habits one can develop when it comes to getting things done in life.

I’ve been through analyses paralyses before and I’m sure everybody has. If you happen to find yourself in this stage a lot where you’re looking for a way to find a cure for it, there really isn’t a big secret to solving analysis paralysis. It’s simply just to take action.

Stop constantly worrying about the fear that something wrong is going to happen; most of it is just going on inside the mind. And stop worrying about the perfect plan… you can have the most perfect plan for anything on earth, but if you never apply it in real life, then there’s no point.

Taking action doesn’t require emotional baggage, but most people who suffer analysis paralysis make it that way when they attempt to do something new. Just make it a habit to take action regularly without always analyzing the situation and it will become a piece of cake.

Photo Credit: Avenue G

We all fall victim to multitasking. We want to do so many things at once. For example, we might want to get our most important task done during the day. But because this task is usually the most grueling and take the longest to do, if we have short attention span and no way to stay patient for hours in a moment, then we often “cheat” by thinking we can get multiple things done at the same time.

What happens is that are focus and our attention become separated into different areas. I’m a victim of this too. Sometimes as I’m writing I am tempted to look at ways to improve my blog, dealing with emails, checking up information on the internet, and doing writing all at the same time. I will have like 4 to 5 websites tabs open in my web browser that stretches my focus into different areas and the result is I barely get anything done.

Perhaps you also go through your daily basis with the same problem: getting little things to no things done because you spend most of your time focusing on multitasking everything.

I believe the reason we end up multitasking is subconscious because of two things.

• Fear
• Anxiety

Fear in the fact that we fear that we won’t get all the things done on time or at the end of the day. Our expectations of our tasks are so high (sometimes we want to fulfill five or more tasks during a day) that we would rather feel “safe” by doing them all at once, thinking that if we can do everything little by little then eventually everything would get done. This thought helps release that fear.

Anxiety in the fact that we feel jittery and uncomfortable when things are not done. Even during these times we get tempted to get distracted by things such as talking to friends, getting something to eat which turns to watching TV, surfing on the internet, etc. It makes us feel comfortable that we are doing the things that are “easy” rather than “difficult” or “challenging.” Thus, doing the little-easy things helps us release our anxiety, even if it’s not something of our top priority.

Some people can pass for multitasking. But for most people that cannot focus well and stay disciplined, or having trouble thinking for long periods of time, multitasking can be more harmful rather than beneficial. You can get a lot more done if you focus on one task, get it completed, then focus on the second task, get that completed, and so on.

Tim Ferriss, the author of the 4-Hour Workweek, says that we should have simple notes that hold exactly what we need to get done during the day:

I use a standard piece of paper folded three times to about 2″ x 3 1/2″, which fits perfectly in my pocket and limits you to noting only a few items. There should never be more than two mission-critical items to complete each day. Never. It just isn’t necessary if they are actually high impact.

Try making it a habit to have two or three must-do things you have to accomplish that you think have most importance or value to you, then do them separately first. As Tim’s methods, it’s a good idea to just jot down some notes on a simple, non-fancy, piece of a paper, and keep it with you until it’s done.

By not multitasking, not only will be more engaged in doing your most important task, but you’ll be a lot more productive in the long run.

Photo Credit: CarbonNYC

Have you ever wondered how is that some people can memorize so many lines in a drama play without messing up a word? How is it that some musicians can play for hours just on mere memorization without messing up on a note? Or how about people who have the ability to memorize information right before a test an ace it, while others spend all day studying and still fail?

It is because these people understand how to tap into their long-term memory banks. They have mastered how to take something that seems impossible to memorize to the average person and have stored it in their memory for those necessary moments. There is no “special ability” between people who are gurus at memorizing information and people who aren’t that good at it. You can be a memorizing guru to if you wanted to.

Being able to store things quickly and have it ready for later not only increases your memory, but helps tremendously in your work ethics. Whether this is taking information from direct sources such as books and websites, or taking information indirectly such as passing something you see on the street, memorizing things will help you add material to you work and make your work life easier.

Let’s take a quick at look at how information is stored in our brains. Each of our brains has about 1 billion nerve cells that are scattered around. Each of these nerve cells have fibers called axons and dendrites that have the ability to connect one nerve cell to another nerve cell. When a nerve cell “connects” with each other, information is processed.

But where does this information go? Well, it is either stored in the short-term memory bank of the brain or the long-term memory bank of the brain. The long-term memory bank of the brain is called the Neocortex and when information is stored here, usually it won’t be forgotten for a very long time, even years. The part of the brain that decides if or if not information is put into the Neocortex is the part of the brain called the Hippocampus. This part of the brain usually gives information only a limited time before it is forgotten. So how does the hippocampus which information stays and which information goes?

It’s determined by the “strength” of the connection of nerve cells. As stated above, nerve cells connect with each other when information is stored. However, if the bond is not strong enough, then usually the Hippocampus says, “Toss!” But if the bond is strong enough, then the Hippcampus says, “Keep!” It then places it in the long-term memory bank, which leaves us to the final question - How can we cause nerve cells to not just connect, but make a “strong connection.”

Although here are many things that contribute to making a stronger connection, such as using your five senses, making an experience intense, making something stand out, exaggeration something, using your creativity, and so on, I only use a couple of techniques that I believe are the most helpful when it comes down to quickly storing information and using it for later when it is necessary. I’ll share the process that I use.

Focus on What You Want to Memorize

The first step is to focus on what it is that you want to memorize. Pay attention to it and do not get distracted by anything else. By paying attention, you’re consciously accepting that the object in front of you, no matter what it is, will soon be stored inside your memory bank. So take a deep breath, relax, and make sure you are paying attention. Even if what you’re about to memorize seems like a huge task, you still need to focus on it. Remember it’s okay if something seems huge; the brain see it in that way if you do not let it. This brings us to the next step.

Small Chunks at a Time

Once you’ve put your undivided attention on what it is that you want t focus on, the next step is to break it down into small pieces. The main reason why people do not begin to memorize something is because they look at the quantity of it, and it’s too overwhelming for them. It scares them off because their body feels tense, telling the mind, “Abort! Give up now! It’s way too much and you’ll never memorize the whole thing!” Don’t listen to your body when it is giving you negative signals; trust that you can do it by breaking whatever it is that you are memorizing into very small pieces at time, ignoring that bigger picture that might scare you off. Even if what you’re memorizing is extremely smal, it’s still one step towards completing the final picture, and plus, you can memorize small things right? It’s easy!

Repetition

The next step is repetition. When you have broken down whatever it is that you wish to memorize, you need to repeat it over and over again until it is stored in the long-term memory bank. This is probably the most important step for memorization. The key here is to test yourself. For example, if you wanted to learn ten new words a day to improve your vocabulary, you should make flash cards. Look at one word and the definition of the word; go to the next word and remember the definition of that word, then go back to the first word and repeat that definition (seeing if you did memorize it). If you can’t repeat the first word, then you’ll know that you didn’t have it memorized. That’s okay; that is the purpose of ”testing yourself” and increasing memory through small steps and repetition.

Visualization

Visualization is used here because most of us are using memorization for work purposes. If you were playing piano, all you need would be to hear and listen carefully. Here, you need to be able to picture images clear in your head. Taking the vocabulary word example from above, if you wanted to learn a new word, you might associate a word by visualizing what it looks like. Whenever you see the word, you’ll also see an image of what the word means, and this will help you bring out the definition of the word. So provide yourself with a crisp, clear, and detailed imaged of what it is you want to memorize in your head; you’ll see that memorizing something will become a lot easier this way.

Emotional Impact

Once you have used the steps above, you can also use emotions to help you memorize things and make a stronger connection in those nerve cells. Say you are memorizing something but it gets boring, what you could do is create associate memorizing that thing with an emotional? Things such as it need to memorize something in order to pass an important test would bring out a sense of urgency or memorizing something makes you feel happy just of mere enjoyment of gathering more knowledge would make the make the memorization natural process for you. Whatever you can think of to bring the process of memorization more emotional in a positive way, the funner it becomes even when the going gets touch.

So those are some memory techniques to help you increase your memory. It is said that humans only use 2% to 3% or their brain capacity. If you think about this, the limits of how much information that can be stored in our brains is almost limitless. All it takes is being aware of what want to memorize, breaking it down into small pieces, repeating it enough times, and adding visualization or an emotional impact to help make the process easier.

You can memorize anything you want – big or small. Hopefully, this can help you gather more knowledge, increase your memory, and make better decisions in life.

Photo Credit: thelastminute

It seems that as human beings, we are always in a battle against time. Everywhere we go, there are clocks reminding us how much time we have remaining to finish our assignments, projects, and tasks.

There are hundreds of things we need to get done in our weekly lives, and much of the work, especially for home business entrepreneurs, is revolved around finishing the work on the time that we assign ourselves to finish by through due dates or time management.

However, because we constantly obsess over time, sometimes it affects our work in a negative way. Hopefully, this article will show you that to manage your time well, you really don’t need time management, or time at all.

One of the things I realized is, the more you try to control time, the worse your work turns out to be. Have you ever been given an assignment which takes one hour to finish, but the due date for it is a week?

What most people say is, “Okay… I have a week to finish this, I’ll do this later,” then head over to the couch and turn on the TV.

When the day before the due date comes, they realize the assignment is harder than they thought and since they put if off until the last second, they just worry about finishing it on time.

Once they get their assignment back, they realize that the grade they wanted wasn’t what they expected because the quality of their work wasn’t that great.

Or, have you ever been given an assignment where it takes like one hour to finish, but the due date for it is actually one hour? What do you do? To get rid of the worry, anxiety, and stress, you do everything you can to finish it on time.

Great! You’ve finished it on time, but the quality of work isn’t so great. Who cares you say, at least you finished it. When you get the grade back, it’s not as good as you thought it would be.

Finally, have you ever tried to plan out a full day schedule for yourself? You made up something that looked like this.

6:00 Wake up.

6:00 – 6:30 Eat breakfast.

6:30 – 7:00 Take a shower and get dressed.

7:00 – 10:00, Work on task #1 which must be done.

10:00 – 11:00 Watch two episodes of TV.

11:00 – 12:00 Work on task #2.

12:00 – 1:00 Have lunch.

1:00 – 4:00 Work on task #3.

4:00 – 4:30 Take a break.

4:30 – 5:30 Work on task #4.

5:30 – 7:00 Take a break and eat dinner.

7:00 – 9:00 Work on task #5 work.

9:00 – 10:00 Check email and get ready for bed.

10:00 – 6:00 Sleep.

You tell yourself, man if I could follow a schedule like that, I would be able to get a lot done during the day. On paper, it looks great and so does the productivity of it. So you write it down, stick it on the wall, and tell yourself that you will stay committed to it everyday.

Then something starts to happen when you actually go through it. You start becoming more aware that it becomes harder and harder to try and maintain with these time limits. Not only do see do you start to seeing the system breaking down, but you start see yourself break down as well.

I used to also think that these time management plans rocked, but then I would see the same thing happen over and over again.

The 1st  day goes well and I give myself a pat on the back, then the 2nd day goes by but I accidentally missed an interval by 5 minutes, then the 3rd day goes by and I accidentally didn’t do a project or didn’t want to do it, then the 4th day goes by and I decide that it is okay to wake up 30 minutes later because I more tired than usual, then the 5th goes by and I decide to spend an hour hanging out with my friend who called, then the 6th day goes by and my entire schedule is pushed back by 2 hours, finally when the seventh day hits, my entire schedule is ruined.

What happened is we become so obsessed with following our time management schedules to the second that being on time that it becomes our main concern or priority rather than the work itself.

We try our hardest to follow these strict time schedules, and even though the thought of being perfect feels great, inside following a schedules turns us into an automated robot and makes us feel miserable.

Even worse, when we fail to achieve our schedule we feel like we have failed and also feel like a failure. This is what time does to us if we try to control it.

A better way to deal with time is not to control it, but be with in sync with time. By being in sync with time the better your work will turn out to be and you won’t have to be constantly wary of time’s presence.

For example, have you ever done something where or you’re so into it that time flies by?

Sure, we all have.

These would include things such as watching an inspiring movie, talking to a friend about a deep subject, or even studying something you thought was interesting. If you think about it, one of the best ways to be in sync with time is simply just to enjoy what you’re doing.

Here are some of the benefits I found with enjoying what you’re doing.

1. Time is there but it doesn’t really affect you.

2. You’re completely focused on what you’re doing.

3. You don’t realize how fast time flies by.

4. The quality of your work becomes better.

5. You get things done on time.

Finally, when you enjoy what you’re doing, you become happier with yourself and your work.

If you don’t like you’re work, you may have to fake it at first. But if you keep on believing in your work, focusing on your work, and practicing your work, you’ll be so engrossed in it that eventually, as ridiculous as it may sound, you’ll learn to like it.

I used to hate AP US History and Pre-Calculus in high school, but towards the end of the year, you get to a point where you so deep into the subject that it actually becomes interesting for a change, or maybe I’m just crazy.

The point is, whatever your work is, don’t obsess over finishing it within a time limit but rather learn to be interested in the subject, want to learn more about it, and finally just enjoy it.

In conclusion, realize that time is just time. There’s conflicting theories about whether it exists or not, but that’s not the most important thing.

What’s important is that it is here to stay and will remain there forever. You can’t add more time, you can’t decrease time, and you can’t change the way time acts.

But you can change the things you do. Don’t be constricted within the limits of time’s world, but let time be a small factor that exists in your world. With that said, just try to enjoy what you do, and the rest will fall into place.

Photo Credit: DesheBoard

There are 24 hours, or 1440 minutes, or 84,000 seconds in a day. How much of that time do you spend focusing on what needs to get done? I believe that focus is one of the most important concepts in achieving any type of goal. I’m sure you’ve heard that to stay focused on something, you should write down a plan, follow a schedule, check off the tasks that you have completed, and so on.

Although these are some good tips, I see focus somewhat differently. Focus, to me, means being conscious of your thoughts at all times. Your mind is sort of like a “thought slate.” Whenever I’m conscious of my thoughts, I’m aware that either I am thinking about nothing, many random thoughts are going through my mind, or there is only one set of focused thought(s) that are going through my mind.

I believe that to stay insanely focused, you must be completely focused of your thoughts at all times. By doing this, you’ll be in a moment or mental process where nothing else around you can bother you.

This however, is a very hard thing for many people to do.

I ’m still not a master of it yet. It’s hard to stay in this conscious phase of mind for a long time, but I’m getting better and better at it, and whenever I implement this strategy, I feel like nothing outside of my mind can bother me, allowing me to get anything I want done really quickly and efficiently.

The longer I can implement this focus, the more I can get done. So I wonder what if you could stay conscious of your thoughts 24 hours a day.

If you had this power, you would be more alert, you would view things different, your state of life would completely change, and you would be able to get anything done two, three, four, five, maybe ten times faster than you normally do. It definitely feels different to be in a stage where you are always conscious of your thoughts.

But due to human nature, we let other emotions and feelings influence our thoughts. And once we lose conscious of our thoughts, and start drifting into other thoughts that are unproductive, then we lose our focus and return back to a state of a weak, lazy mindset rather the move towards developing a strong, disciplined mindset.

To prevent this from happening, I’ve figured out some ways that can help you maintain your focus and use it to a full advantage.

Don’t Allow Other Emotions, Feelings, and Thoughts Bother You

The first thing you need to be aware of is blocking out anything that may take down your conscious awareness.

Think of your conscious as two walls. Between these two walls are your thoughts. Anything that is outside of these two walls is trying to get in and invade your thoughts.

Your walls are rather weak starting out and can be easily broken through stronger forces such as things that produce high emotions, feelings, and thoughts. These things can be as subtle as just sitting on your chair, not be conscious of your thoughts, and letting your mind drift into space.

Other things can distract you depending on what type of mood you’re in, from other people talking, the music from the radio, the television being on, or any your five senses of touching, seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling.

When you’re focusing on doing a task, whether it is boring or not, if that thought does not provide you with a high level of feelings, then it’s going to be harder to be conscious of it, and as a result, can be easily remove by other higher feelings, such as the ones that can be produced by any of the actions listed above.

If this happens, your initial focused thoughts will be completely replaced by other non-productive thoughts. This is the essence of procrastination or failing to get things done once your “walls” are broken.

Thus, not only is it a good idea to work in a place where other feelings and thoughts cannot distract you from your focused state, but you have to consciously block out these temptations that will subconsciously come at you, each time by putting up a new and stronger wall.

In the beginning it will be hard, but to help you from maintaining better focus, be conscious of your very moment. What is going on? What are you thinking about?

Then, when you subconsciously start think of something that isn’t related to what you’re supposed to be doing, do your best to catch yourself immediately. The more conscious you are of this habit, the stronger your walls will be at blocking out temptations and the easier it will become for you to work at a steady flow of pace.

Lack of Energy

If you’re at your full energy level, you will always be able to be conscious of your thoughts and block out other feelings, emotions, and thoughts. People take their state of energy for granted.

Energy is like a rechargeable battery. Every second that passes by, your energy level drops. Once it gets to zero, your body will tell your mind to shut down making it almost impossible to block out other feelings and thoughts, no matter how disciplined you think your mind is.

When you are tired, your body wants to go to sleep and your thoughts want to wander freely. Being completely conscious of your thoughts would be the opposite of dreaming. You want to be at the part of the spectrum where you have the most energy to be in control of your thoughts, not being at the part of the spectrum where you have no energy and your thoughts are running loose.

Being tired drags you down to that spectrum.

But many people take this for granted because being energy conscious is not a big deal to them. A person with full energy would have a huge advantage over a person with a lack of energy because even if a person with full energy is having trouble focusing, they still have the potential to do so, rather than letting something physical like tiredness influence their thought process.

So make it a must to get enough energy throughout the day, whether it’s getting enough sleep during the night, hydrating yourself with water, or providing your body with nutritious food, because being “thought conscious” also heavily relies being “energy conscious.”

Focusing on One Thought at a Time

When you learn to block other thoughts, emotions, and feelings that distract you and have a full set of energy, you need to learn how to create what thoughts you are having in the moment.

Do this simply by having a thought in your head or the process of doing so.

One example is already having a visual image in your mind, such as seeing yourself with a slimmer, fitter body or the thought of successfully approaching someone and talking to someone new.

Another example is focusing on the material that is already presented to you. This is like reading a book, doing math problems, or reviewing paperwork.

Then there is focusing on creating material. This is when your mind is blank and when you’re in the process of creating a thought. Doing this may be harder for people that lack imaginative skill because you start out by focusing on nothing.

The key here is to insert thoughts that may lead you to your desired outcome and throw away thoughts that don’t. But never allow unproductive thoughts and feelings to tempt you and distract you from your focus.

So, if you’re having trouble focusing, first start with one visual image in your head (any thought you want), be conscious of it, and keep it there.

Changing Thoughts at Will

Depending on what you need to get done, most of the times you’ll need to change through multiple thoughts while not doing much “action.” This requires more effort than having one thought in your head and doing lots of action like having the thought of a sculpted body while your stretching, running on the treadmill, then doing sit ups.

Something like this would be easier to do than doing a little bit of action, such as typing or writing, but constantly needing to going through multiple thoughts in a period of time. It’s a hard thing to do to have to separate thoughts at the same time in your “thought slate” or between your “two walls.”

If you were studying for a math test, having the visual picture of getting an A on the test along with focusing on the actual problems itself, would divide your focus in half. That’s why it’s important to have thoughts in your mind, but be able to change different thoughts at will.

Our brain naturally processes hundreds and hundreds of thoughts per day. You need to learn to keep the ones that you need and quickly discard the ones you don’t need.

Think of it like using a remote to change the channel. Be able to have a thought in place, but also be able to switch them quickly like switching a channel. As you are focusing on your thoughts, be conscious of them.

Whenever you are thinking, ask yourself what it is exactly that you are thinking about. When you answer that question, ask yourself if that thought is productive. If not, discard it.

When you’re focusing on searching for answers, sometimes your mind will come up with no thoughts and that’s okay.

As long as you repeat the process of using the thoughts you need when one comes up, and then discarding the ones you don’t need, then you will get things done faster.

Following Through

Following through is basically following your thoughts with the actions of your thoughts. If your actions are congruent with your thoughts then not only are you using focus, but you are now applying focus to use on productivity.

So ask yourself, are your actions congruent with your thoughts?

For example, you are thinking about checking something in the online dictionary but when you go online, you immediately check your mail. Your thought and actions are incongruent, and if you are conscious of this, you will be able to catch yourself while doing so.

You probably do this many times a day. I know I do.

That’s why you should try to limit yourself of these mistakes. The more you can follow through your actions with your thoughts, the easier you will be able to get work done at an efficient rate.

When you’re conscious of your thoughts, when you’re in the moment, and you follow through, your actions will be able to just flow like water.

Time is Irrelevant

If you’re truly focused on whatever it is that you need to get done, time shouldn’t even be part of your thoughts. Yes, time management is important but it should be the least of your priorities.

Most of the times, people have really stressful schedules. They use all their focus and obsess about time. This just harms them because their focus is on time, rather than on whatever it is that needs to be done.

Time can be a negative factor when dealing with focus.

Too much time given to finish a task and you won’t even focus. Too little time to finish a task, then you’ll focus part of your thoughts on time, rather than the task.

Time doesn’t care when your thoughts are drifting away; it just continues to move on.

Don’t let the feelings or thought of time break through your two walls; instead, continue to be conscious of the things you need to get done.

Letting Your Mind Rest

To be conscious of your thoughts all the time takes a high amount effort, energy, and self-discipline. When starting out, you may not be able to maintain focus for that long.

Let your mind rest longer between your focused states. It’s important not to fry your brain by constantly being conscious of your thoughts, but give your brain a “treat” by giving it short breaks where it can freely wander to whatever you want.

When you do this long enough, those “breaks” will actually be more meaningful to you.

Most people allow their minds to rest and wander freely throughout the entire day.

But if this time is limited, then something as simple as these thought breaks will be something to looking forward to during the day. Also, you’ll look forward to going to sleep and dreaming as this will be the biggest state where your mind can rest.

Once you’re done letting your mind breathe and relax, you can then go back to your focused state of consciousness again.

In conclusion, there are many good mindset techniques out there and focus is among the most vital of them all. If you are consciously aware of your thoughts at all times, not only you will get stuff done quicker and more efficiently, but your state of mind will seen from a totally different perspective. It’s a hard process to start at first, but if you keep practicing at it, you’ll soon be able to master how to be conscious of your every thought and have a deeper ability to stay insanely focused on anything you want.

Photo Credit: johntrainor