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Make the Clock your Best Companion
Managing time is not easy specially that Christmas  season   is  fast approaching. It is not flexible, it is not negotiable and it is definitely not infinite. When it comes to time management, you have to make adjustments. The idea is to maximise whatever is given you. Instead of working against time, make it work for you. Here is how:

Set your priorities. Initially, you have to determine what your goals are. Always bear in mind that when it comes to time management, it is not only the time allotted to your business will be considered. In setting priorities, it is important that you have factored in the amount of time you are willing to utilise for business purposes vis-à-vis the time that you are dedicating for your personal and social life. Since your 24 hours per day includes the time to spend for personal and social matters, it is essential that the amount of hours you commit to your business is firmly set. You should be definite when it comes to setting your priorities; this means that if you prioritise your work over family and personal activities, make sure that you will adhere to it as planned. Otherwise, it is best to check which among these choices your real priorities are.

Create a schedule. A schedule is your daily, weekly, monthly and annual road map in achieving your dreams. Once you have formulated a schedule, make sure that it has ways and means in which any future deviations can be rectified accordingly without making any noticeable impact on the plans that was previously set. Schedules must be practical, humane and realistic.

Determine your capabilities. With limited time, it is so easy to see if a certain schedule or plan is doable; otherwise you are fooling yourself in believing that you can magically perform physically and mentally impossible tasks. To consider performing errands that requires you to be in two to three places at the same time is absurd. Multi-tasking is not only a waste of energy it also depreciates the quality of work that you will deliver. Trying to squeeze in a lot of information in your head in a limited time is also consuming, mentally and health-wise. Know what your body is capable of doing given the limitation of time and choose the things that need your attention. Do not attempt to become a super-businessman; even Peter Parker who has super powers cannot cope up with the high demands of being super, what made you think that you can do better than him.

Look for alternatives. If there are things that need to be done given the limited time, there are practical ways to deal with it. You can re-plan your activities in such a way that you will give extra time to your business and taking away some time allotted to other aspects of your life, you can rearrange your activities by removing less important matters to your schedule or you can get extra help. Either ways, the idea is to find a solution that is economical, physically-possible and one that will not put at risk your welfare, your health and the future of your business.

Delegate. Acceptance that you cannot do everything is vital to be able to lead well. Having so many limitations makes it impossible for anyone to do a “one-man” show and become successful. While it may give you a lot of peace of mind knowing that you are able to greatly perform tasks based on your own standard of greatness, you can actually accomplish more by delegating other stuff to others. This will be possible if you are able to train them to think and do things the way you will. Proper delegation involves being able to delegate the tasks accurately with set expectations and troubleshooting methods in case the expectations are not met.

To achieve everything you are capable of achieving, and to be able to concentrate on those few tasks that can make the greatest contribution to your life and work, you must become excellent at delegation. Whether you are a boss or an employee, it is a universal key to success. You must be continually seeking ways to outsource, delegate and get other people to do things that pay you a lower hourly rate than you desire to earn.

There are several ways that you can become more effective at delegating and outsourcing, or hiring other people to do parts of your work so that you can do the parts of your job that pay the most.

When to Delegate

1. Instead of You?
Ask the question, “Who can do this job instead of you?” Remember, you have to delegate everything possible in order to have enough time to do those few things that are most important.

2. Better than You?
You should ask, “Who can do this job better than me?” One of the characteristics of effective managers and successful leaders is that they have the ability to find people who are superior to them in specific tasks. You should continually be looking for people who can do certain parts of your work better than you.

3. At a Lower Cost?
Evaluate the job and ask, “Who can do this job at a lower cost than me?” Many companies and individuals are finding that they can outsource major parts of their operations to companies who specialize in that area. Companies that specialize in a particular function can usually do the job cheaper and faster than a company that does that work as part of its other activities.

4. Can It Be Eliminated?

Ask yourself and others, “Can this activity be eliminated altogether?” What would happen if the job were not done at all? Many of the routinized tasks and activities in a company or business could be quite easily eliminated with no loss of productivity and great increases of ineffectiveness.

It is amazing how many activities go on in business and private life that could be quite easily discontinued completely, with no loss or inconvenience to anyone. Rooting out these opportunities for increased efficiency can dramatically nd profitability for an organization or department.

Six  Ways  to successful Delegation
To delegate effectively in your work with others, there are six steps that you can take. If you neglect any one of these steps, you run the risk of miscommunication, misunderstandings, demoralization and poor performance.

1. Match the Person to the Job
Match the person to the job. One of the great time wasters in the world of work is delegating the task to the wrong person. Often the task is delegated to a person who is not capable of doing it properly or getting it done on schedule.

The only accurate predictor of future performance is past performance. The rule is that you never delegate an important task to a person who has not performed that task satisfactorily in the past. It is unfair to expect a person who has not done a job before to perform at a sufficient level of quality when they are given the job for the first time.

2. Agree on what is to be Done
Once you have selected the right person for the job, take the time discuss the job with that person and agree upon what must be done. The more time you take to discuss and agree upon the end result or objective, and achieve absolute clarity, the faster the job will be done once the person starts on it.

3. Explain How the Job Should Be Done
Explain to the person your preferred approach or method of working. Explain how you would like to see the job done, and how you or someone else has done it successfully in the past.

4. Have Him Feed It Back
Ask the person to feed your instructions back to you in his or her own words. Have him or her explain to you what you have just explained and agreed upon. This is the only way that you can be sure that the other person actually understands the job or assignment that they have been delegated to accomplish.

5. Set a Deadline
Set a deadline and a schedule for completion of the task. At the same time, arrange for regular reporting and for periodic inspection. Invite feedback and questions if there are any delays or problems.

6. Manage By Exception
Manage by exception whenever possible. Managing by exception is a powerful time management tool that you can use to work more efficiently with other people.

If the job is on track, and on schedule, managing by exception means that the person does not have to report back to you. If you don’t hear from him, you can assume that everything is going well. The individual only has to report back to you when an exception occurs and there is a problem with getting the job done on time, to the agreed upon level of quality. However, it is imperative that the person should always report  what  he or she has done at the  end of the day for your track.

Delegation is the act of assigning tasks and responsibilities, together with the necessary authority (Leadership) to carry them out, to your employees. Effective delegation can save you time and motivate your team by demonstrating that you trust them and value their abilities.

Common mistakes managers make when delegating

• Don’t give enough freedom
• Don’t communicate clearly
• Aren’t open to new ideas

How to Delegate
First concentrate on the most important matters yourself. You should be doing activities that only you can do (that involve a high level of skill and, ideally, that you enjoy doing. When delegating, set broad controls and allow your team to make mistakes.

Communicate Clearly
Take the time to make your requirements know n to your team member. Give a clear picture of the results you expect, the time limits involved and the authority being transferred to that team member. Also make sure other people in the organisation know about the delegation so they can support it.

Encourage Participation
Employees are least satisfied and least motivated when they can’t inject their own ideas into the project. They need to be able to display their own talents .

Examine results not methods
An effective delegator needs to accept differing approaches to achieve results. Since no two people approach a solution in exactly the same way, you need to concentrate on whether the desired results are being achieved or not  or whether they are being achieved your way. A poor delegator says, “This is what we want to achieve and this is how we will proceed“. An effective delegator says, “Here is the result we have agreed we want to accomplish“  and give me your best recommendations as to how w e can get those results.

Show trust
Allow your team members to get the job done without micro managing. Excessive checking will convince the employee that they are not really responsible for the job.

Delegate credit only
You cannot delegate blame. Remember that you bear the final responsibility for the actions of your team

Know your team
You need to know what and how much you can delegate to a person. You should gradually increase the level of responsibility and importance of the tasks as results are successfully achieved.

Things to avoid
Don’t let the chain of command get too long. If there are too many levels of responsibility some information will never trickle all the way to the bottom .
Don’t ask one subordinate to report to two people. It will be impossible for the subordinate to decide whose work comes first.
Don’t make fuzzy job assignments. Grey areas between positions simply invite overlap, conflict and duplication of effort.
Don’t be too rigid. Try to maintain flexibility to provide for situations that inevitably crop up and need nonstandard solutions.

Exercise
Make a list of three things you are doing today that you should be delegating. Identify who you will delegate them to and write down how you will go about doing so. Then delegate.

“Success doesn’t come to you…..you go to it”
By Marva Collins

We’ve all had them. Those days when discouragement threatens to defeat purpose and conviction and start us down the steep, slippery slope of self-doubt.

The early days of entrepreneurship are filled with activity, busy-ness, a whirlwind of activity. Once that initial phase passes and things settle down to a more or less predictable routine, when our fantasies of fantastic wealth have not materialized after six months of endeavor, when someone is critical, when those orders just aren’t coming in, no matter what we do or how many hours we work … we get discouraged and begin to question whether we really do have the right stuff for this business, after all!

So, how do you get through those times of self-doubt and back into the saddle? The first thing is to prepare for it. KNOW there are going to be “days like this”. If you expect them then you
will be better able to recognise them for what they are and not give them greater prominence than they deserve. Nine times out of ten, things really DO look better in the morning!

Next, get right back to basics. What motivates you and keeps you focused? What is your motivation and purpose in starting your own business? The strength of your purpose will ultimately determine your level of motivation and hence determination. Is your purpose clear in your mind? If not, maybe you need to remind yourself of the reasons why you want to work for yourself. You may find your reasons aren’t strong enough motivators. If not, find some that are.

Remind yourself of your purpose when you need to motivate yourself. If you’re a mom, perhaps your purpose in starting your home business was so you could be home with your children rather than in the paid workforce. So, when you’re feeling discouraged because you didn’t land that account you wanted or didn’t make that sale, remind yourself why you’re doing this in the first place. Picture your children. Visualise your purpose as vividly as you can. Then harness that motivation and turn it into energy you can direct back into your business. Use that energy to examine why you didn’t land the account or make the sale and then change whatever needs to be changed. By making changes in response to such stimuli, you are increasing the odds of being successful next time around.

Your response to setbacks will also be determined by your personal confidence level. A confident individual is more resilient in the face of setbacks whereas a less confident person is more likely to react to a setback as an indication that he or she is not really capable of being successful. Your response to setbacks is critical to the future success or failure of your business. If you’re someone whose self-talk is positive, you will tell yourself, “well, that approach didn’t achieve what I wanted. I’ll have to try something different”. If, on the other hand, your self-talk is pretty negative, you are much more likely to tell yourself “well, that obviously didn’t work. I just don’t have what
it takes to be a success at this”.

*The difference between the two is, the positive self-talker, refuses to internalise a setback as a personal failure. The negative self-talker, on the other hand, doesn’t view the setback as just part of external environment in which the business operates but rather, internalises the setback as a personal failure.*

So, watch your self-talk. The language you use in your thoughts makes an enormous impression on your subconscious. If you impress upon your subconscious that you are not deserving of success, your subconscious will busily go about proving the truth of that statement. Similarly, if you impress upon your subconscious that you are a successful, confident person, it will work just as hard to validate that presumption. The important point is this: your subconscious DOESN’T CARE where it takes you. It will literally take you WHEREVER you program it to go.

One highly effective technique to help remove the negative self-talk that can be so harmful to long-term success is self-hypnosis. There are many good induction tapes available that will guide you into a state of deep mental relaxation and then provide you with positive suggestions. If you are in a state of deep relaxation when you receive a positive suggestion, it will be absorbed much more readily by your subconscious, where those nagging self-doubts emanate from in the first place. Choose a tape that deals with issues such as self-confidence or positive thinking. By programming your subconscious with positive messages of confidence and success, it will actively go to work integrating those qualities.

Do not underestimate the value of positive programming and the danger of negative programming in determining the ultimate success of your business. It may very well mean the difference between stunning success and whimpering failure.

Do you feel stressed and overloaded?
If so, then you may need to brush up your delegation skills!

This is reality..you can’t do everything that everyone wants, and this can leave you stressed, unhappy, and overloaded.

To delegate effectively, choose the right tasks to delegate, identify the right people to delegate to, and delegate in the right way. There’s a lot to this, but you’ll achieve so much more once you’re delegating effectively!

This is why delegation is such an important skill, and is one that you absolutely have to learn!

Would you rather be focusing on all of the things you have to do, or do you want to use that time to get results that really matter to you?- by Tony Robbins

The power of delegation

As an entrepreneur, your time is your most valuable asset, that is why Delegation is so important, because as a leader, your job is to concentrate on those things that only you, as the leader can do. This is where the effectiveness of an organization increases exponentially Effective delegation is the secret to successful leadership. The purpose is two-fold: to accomplish the task at hand and to develop the employee charged with its completion. If applied properly, it’s a technique that saves time, money, and morale, while increasing the capabilities of your human resources. Mishandled, delegation can be a catastrophic failure resulting in poor performance, resentment and inefficiency.

Keeping Control

Take time to explain why they were chosen for the job, what’s expected from them during the project, the goals you have for the project, all timelines and deadlines and the resources on which they can draw. And agree a schedule for checking-in with progress updates.

Make sure that the team member knows that you want to know if any problems occur, and that you are available for any questions or guidance needed as the work progresses.

We all know that as managers, we shouldn’t micro-manage. However, this doesn’t mean we must abdicate control altogether: In delegating effectively, we have to find the sometimes-difficult balance between giving enough space for people to use their abilities to best effect, while still monitoring and supporting closely enough to ensure that the job is done correctly and effectively.

The Importance of Full Acceptance

When delegated work is delivered back to you, set aside enough time to review it thoroughly. If possible, only accept good quality, fully-complete work. If you accept work you are not satisfied with, your team member does not learn to do the job properly. Worse than this, you accept a whole new tranche of work that you will probably need to complete yourself. Not only does this overload you, it means that you don’t have the time to do your own job properly. Of course, when good work is returned to you, make sure to both recognize and reward the effort. As a leader, you should get in the practice of complimenting members of your team every time you are impressed by what they have done. This effort on your part will go a long way toward building team member’s self-confidence and efficiency, both of which will be improved on the next delegated task; hence, you both win.

Key Points

By delegating effectively, you can hugely expand the amount of work that you can deliver.

When you arrange the workload, and you are working on the tasks that have the highest priority for you, and other people are working on meaningful and challenging assignments, you have a recipe for success