Do you work hard to save time, only to lose the time you have found? This is where task templates will help you. Task templates are simple, flexible systems for managing your time and shaping your schedule. Once you start using them, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them!

Time management is highly prized by most people - and finding time is even preferred over earning more money, recent studies report. But if you don’t use your time effectively, you simply lose the time you have found.

How To Optimise The Tiny Little Fragments Of Free Time That We Have
By Mohamad Latiff

You have most probably heard of this quotation that goes something like, “If you want to know the value of one second, ask the athlete who came in second place; If you want to know the value of one minute, ask the worker who missed his train to work.”

I have not the memory nor the space nor the time to quote it here fully, but I wish to acknowledge the fact that we do get that occasional amount of precious free time, ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes (depending upon your level of productivity and efficiency in whatever it is that mostly occupies your day).

The Day I Found the Lump
By Alex Blackwell

Part Three in the “Coming Into Your Own” Series

Sometimes in life we are given circumstances and conditions that are unwelcome and unfair. Going through particularly hard times can make us bitter and can cause us to feel victimized. However, there are no accidents without value. What this means is no matter what happens to us, we can find value in the event.

There’s no question it is difficult to find the meaning or value in an uncomfortable situation as you are encountering it, but when you step back and look at the outcome it produces, you can almost always find some measure of value.

The enemy waits and listens for your desperation. When you are at the end of your rope and can no longer see or feel what hope looks like, the enemy of your soul pounces on your confidence, shreds your dreams, and will cast a very dark shadow of doubt over what you want to be or do in your life.

The enemy does not want you to be successful. It delights in breaking you down to the point you surrender and exclaim things like, “What was I thinking, I can’t do something like that,” or “There is no way I will ever be able to [fill in the blank].”

You may not have come across this highly effective technique in your previous time management training. Even though “project mapping” sounds scary it’s so easy a child can do it, and it really simplifies things that on the surface may seem complicated. You can use this technique to get things done whether those things are projects, goals, events or any activity or task.

The key to this time management training idea is to quickly get everything that’s important for the project down on paper. Begin by writing a project name in the center of your horizontally placed paper. Please recognize that this isn’t an exercise that requires neatness or beauty. Rather it’s an exercise that gets all your important thoughts down in one place for quick reference and easy organization.

In our current overworked and stressed out society, it is easy to believe that you are doing something useful and worthwhile when in fact, you could just be doing what amounts to busywork. While you do get the rush and feeling that you are doing something, you have got to ask yourself if that is really what you should be doing. What if - whatever you are busily doing is just - activity designed to keep you busy?

How are those piles impacting your time management? Some people are naturally neat and tidy while others are comfortable with a far more relaxed environment. It really isn’t a matter of cleanliness, or your comfort level for tidiness it’s a matter of efficiency. Even though you may not realize it, disorganization can be the source of your time management struggles.

Is your inability to manage time draining you financially, mentally, physically and emotionally? Maybe the issue is not as much as knowledge and skills, but rather attitudes and habits.

Have you been to a time management training course? Are you still using the knowledge and skills? For many, the new knowledge and skills gained in most time management training programs is lost within six to twelve months. The reason more often than not is attitudes and habits.

That’s it! You’ve had it! If another person asks you to do one more thing you’ll scream. Your desk is a mess and there just don’t seem to be enough hours in a day. The days fly by, it’s 5 o’clock before you know it and you haven’t done a third of the items on your “to-do” list.

If you are a church secretary and any of these things sound familiar, just take a deep breath and relax. Here are 4 quick ways to get it all under control and keep your sanity:

1. Put your daily routine on autopilot.

“Achieve more by doing less” said Dr Wayne Dyer. It sounds nonsensical at first but there is a powerful truth behind this statement and it is a key time management and success strategy whether successful people use it consciously or not.

There are several ways to achieving more by doing less and becoming super-productive. Let’s take a brief look at three ways this goal can be achieved.

1. Do things in a calm, relaxed manner

Have you ever noticed how frenetic some people are in doing their activities? When you work in a calm, relaxed manner you achieve more in less time.