Telephone interruptions

We hardly consider how much time we waste on telephonic conversations each day. Many of us are quite glued to our phones and don’t even realize how we waste a potent portion of the day conversing on phone. While working keep your phone either in silent mode or switch it off. It’s a big interruption while working.

Extended lunch breaks

While working at office, lunch is definitely not just a matter of eating, but also unwinding oneself. At the same time, extended lunch break filled with gossiping can actually prove to be a serious hazard. Keep lunch break relaxing, but not too addictive that you wish to carry it on and on for hours.

Frequent coffee or smoke breaks

At work place people are often seeing taking too frequent tea, coffee and smoke breaks. These are highly addictive and time wasters. You may think it’s a great way of unwinding yourself, but when done too frequently it’s more like a bad habit. You may end up socializing during these breaks and wasting lot of time.

Small naps are never small

People are often seeing taking small naps in-between work. But in reality they are hardly small ones get extended and definitely waste lot of time. They are addictive too, you may soon start regular naps. Rather than taking naps in between work, try to finish work first and then sleep with a relaxed mind.

Socializing on the job

People often socialize too much at work place, indulge into gossiping and waste big amount of time in a day.

Television watching

Television is one addictive medium, which results into severe time wastage. If you wish to watch something particularly on television, make sure you watch it only and don’t keep the television on for extended long hours. It results into huge time killing.

Social networking websites

These days a major chunk of the professionals, students, even home makers devote a large portion of their daily schedule in social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, Hi5, MySpace and the like. They are highly addictive and cause serious damage to work schedule.

Poor planning
Ill planning of daily schedule or inability to set priority of work can land one into grave problem. Start planning your daily work, set a priority ladder of most important work towards least important ones. Work on the same, accordingly.

Multi tasking

Don’t try to juggle between too many works. Work on a specific job at a time. Too many works at a time can distract you from your goal and shared attention results into average quality work.

Divide and remember

At times it’s very difficult to remember names and numbers if they are too long like 9910288479 or Padmaramaswamigovardhan. What you can do is divide these numbers and words into parts and remember them effectively. Like, 99-102-88-479 or Padma-rama-swami-govar-dhan. All you have to do is divide the words or numbers into smaller parts and remembering them in bits and pieces. Breaking them and grouping few together always works. Try it.

Rhyming

Rhyming helps especially when it comes to memorizing names, words or phrases. It not only helps in memorizing, but also makes one creative and increases power of vocabulary. There can also be words which sound similar but carry different meanings like Rome/Roam, Scene/Seen.

Pen down whatever you wish to remember

It’s often said writing makes things memorable and perfect. It’s true. If you tend to forget things, try to jot them down. You will not only remember things, but also your spelling gets better. Try to write many times. It will help you to remember. Carry the writing with you or make sure it’s on the wall before you so that you see it many times. Seeing will make you believe in it and remember it.

Recall and recite it before going to bed

Before you go to sleep at night, recall whatever you were supposed to remember. Recite things and also plan what you have to do next day. In sleep, our mind arranges things, synchronizes into a meaningful and systematic way; making things easier to remember.

Relax

Don’t panic if you tend to forget things. Don’t try too hard to recall. Take it easy. Rather relax and don’t try. When you are relaxing, things will automatically come to your mind and pop up in memory. If you are anxious, stressed or too worried to recall, you tend to forget even more.

Mediate and exercise

Meditation early in the morning, followed by some light exercises not only keeps one fit, but also soothes nerves, mind, body and soul. A relaxed mind stays calm and remembers more.

Practice these and see the difference.

But, why people got involved with virtual assistants, if their works were successfully done by regular employees, and whom the employer can monitor from the comfort of his office? This question quizzes everyone who has never used a virtual assistant for his business and for these people only I have written this article. Read it to the end and you will know why to use a virtual assistant.

Why to hire a virtual assistant

Low cost

By charging less and allowing extra cash to sit in the employer’s pocket, a virtual assistant gives a competitive advantage to its employer which is hard to match using a regular employee. A small business owner hiring a virtual assistant has an unfair advantage. He can attack the competitors by lowering the price below the industry’s norm. He can do it as his operation cost is low.

Comparable quality

When compared, the output produced by a virtual assistant is same as the output of a regular employee of the similar capability. If both of them produce comparable results then why to hire one who costs more?

Operational flexibility

A company that runs an online business could keep his operation manned 24X7 by hiring a person from across the globe. If you are in the United States then you can hire a virtual assistant from Asia, so that your virtual assistant works when you sleep and sleeps when you work. This way you could keep your online shop open and manned the entire day.

Use as a Swiss knife

You can use a virtual employee as a Swiss knife by making him do all kinds of administrative and promotion jobs. Unlike most of the regular employees, a virtual employee keeps himself involved in many fields.

Hire a virtual assistant and see your profit skyrocketing. I have seen many small and mid-size businesses transforming themselves by hiring one to do the works for which the presence of an employee in the office is not required.

1. Most important criteria for effective time management is organized self. Initially it may be difficult. But try to build up daily ‘to do list’. Such daily planner will keep you organized and disciplined too. Also prioritize events with star mark, which need to be done first.
2. Get rid off your lazy attitude and pushing things for the next day. What needs to be done in the morning should be done, rather than unnecessarily pushing it to evening or next day. Adhere to your time table, it will keep you stress-free.
3. If your job asks for big decision, take it as soon as possible rather than avoiding it. Avoiding problems won’t solve them. Act now. Examine the problem, go to its root cause, find solution and execute confidently. Don’t be afraid of risks.
4. If you are a team worker and you have authority to delegate work, do it effectively. Keep those tasks for yourself which seek your special involvement and attention. Less important tasks you can distribute among your team members. It will help you in managing work pressure and also perform better with good team involvement. Distribution of work load and responsibility will keep all happy.
5. Take good care of your health. You can perform your duties effectively only when you are mentally and physically fit. So don’t neglect your diet, sleep and mental well being. If your hobbies or your family keep you happy, spend your spare time with them. It will keep you at ease. Don’t forget, happiness is key to success.
6. Stress is integral part of daily life. But physical activities like sports, exercises, swimming, yoga, cycling, and running help one reduce stress and stay fit. Include them in your daily life. If a spa indulgence or massage helps you to de-stress, go for it.

With these tips you will find time is your best friend and it’s so easy to walk hand in hand with it.

It is fear of getting the idea stolen. Yes, fear of idea theft is what keep entrepreneur awake at night. These days no one much care about the capital as much as one care about idea, because the latter is scarcer than the former. And our economy is based on nothing but breakthrough idea.

Do it better or do it different?

These are the two different aspects of a coin. “Doing it better” will fetch us incremental benefits, but “doing it different” will lead us to entirely new future.

“Doing it better” is what developing and undeveloped countries are after, and “doing it different” is the goal that entrepreneurs in a developed country chase. That is why major breakthroughs come from developed country.

You can say that “doing it better” will at best get incremental technology; for example, a more energy-efficient air conditioner, better soap, good shoe at less price, etc. But “doing it different” will get us disruptive technology—the technology that ends the previous ones while giving birth to entirely new industry. For example, instead of making better typewriters and calculators, computer was invented; instead of making faster and faster main frame computers, PC was invented.

All innovations are disruptive in nature, and it is the innovation that keeps the ball in the developed economy rolling.

Which one is better?

Both.

Both of them have different use in our lives, and both of them are important. There are times when we need a better product, and there are times when we need a new solution to the same problem.

Innovation is important, but so is improvement.

-Make sure you get enough oxygen.  Typically when you are ready to go to sleep at night your body slows down the breathing process.  Because you’re not doing any activity you take fewer, deeper breaths, which helps to lull you to sleep.  If you’re feeling tired make sure to keep your breathing up, oxygenating your muscles and helping them feel awake.  A few quick deep breaths should do the trick.

-If the meeting is one of those you have to be there, but nothing really important happens affairs, the task of staying awake can be especially daunting.  Try taking pen and paper and make a list of something you have to do later.  Or make a list of things you’d like to do this week, or after work.  Anything to get your brain thinking.  Plus those around you will just see that you’re taking notes on the meeting, so you look informed and you stay awake.

-Bring a bottle of water with you, and if you’re feeling tired take a few sips.  Or even chew some gum quietly.  Anything to get your body moving and using energy.  Both of which will help to keep you awake.

-Finally, if you just can’t keep yourself going, then at an appropriate moment excuse yourself.  Excusing yourself is a much better solution than risking falling asleep.  The ultimate goal here is to not look slack enough to fall asleep at work, and excusing yourself accomplishes that, even if you anger a few folks in the process.

And the first thing you should be doing, is just being a healthy person in general.  Eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep, and maintaining positive social relationships are all key to being a healthy human being.  The better you feel from a health perspective, the better you’re going to feel in all the other parts of your life.  So personal maintenance is key to professional maintenance.

Make sure you keep yourself well organized at work, that way if you’re asked for a report at an unexpected time, you can find the necessary materials quickly.  That way you remove the pressure of having to slap something together at the last minute, by always being well prepared with a well organized desk environment.

Keep spaces open in your organizer so that you have time to do things for yourself.  It may sound a little silly, scheduling time for you to read, but this way you make sure to have the time available.  Making sure your personal time never gets ignored in favor of work ensures you stay more relaxed, and staying as relaxed as possible under pressure is the name of the game.  You’ll perform better, and you’ll find yourself to be a happier person.

Choose a career where you’re motivated by your own will to succeed, opposed to being driven by a paycheck.  You’ll find yourself much more stressed if you end up in a job you hate, and are only working long hours to make ends meet.  Sometimes this can be fairly unrealistic depending upon your personal situation, but try to gravitate towards jobs that you actually want to carry out.

Learn how to know when it’s time to call it quits.  Killing yourself for an extra four hours everyday isn’t going to get that much more work done, and is only going to cut into your life, and make you feel more stressed.  You always pay for the stressful years of your life later on, from health problems, to social problems.  Know when it’s time to tell your boss or company a polite “no” when it comes to compromising yourself for your job.  Get your work done, and do it well, but no job is worth compromising who you are.

1. Know your audience
2. Avoid common grammatical errors
3. Focus on your readers
4. Chop off useless sentences
5. Don’t preach

Know your intended audience, as you will be writing for them.  So if you’re writing a piece of information about cycling for example, you would want to include some insider knowledge involving the latest bicycle tech or other equipment.  Showing that you are in the know regarding your topics validates your opinions to your readers, and keeps them coming back for more info.

Avoid commonly made grammatical mistakes.  Nothing frustrates a reader like their inability to quickly skim through your writing because of grammatical errors that should have been caught before the final draft.

Put your focus to your audience.  If you are trying to demonstrate a point, or act as a guide for any topic stay away from using the word “I” in favor of “you”.  For example, you wouldn’t want to write “I do this, so you should too.”.  You want to gravitate towards more of a “you should do this, and here’s why” to create a dialogue with the reader, and show them why what you’re writing is important to them.

Never rephrase the same sentence a few times in one of your works just to act as filler.  That’s repetitive and will put your reader to sleep.  You want a short concise, well edited, grammatically correct piece of work.  Get to the point, but make sure the road to that point is engaging.

Never preach that your method is the best because it’s your method.  That will turn off a reader faster than you would think.  Nobody wants to read a self inflating brag fest that does little more than bloat your own ego.  People want to read how what you have to say applies to them, not that they should follow your example because you’re so awesome.

Firstly, think about changing your computer’s power use settings.  If you don’t do a lot of work, or leisure activities that require a lot of your computer’s processor power, consider setting your computer’s level of use lower.  This way you’ll conserve power without compromising performance.  Or if that is not an option, configure your settings so that your computer will go into hibernate/sleep mode when not in use, thereby greatly reducing the energy you use to keep your machine turned on.

Try to print paper less, as no matter how many people are good at recycling renewable resources like paper, there are far more that aren’t as good about conserving resources.  Consider options to use less of that paper in the first place.  Try to send as much of your paperwork as possible digitally, through email or the internet, so that everyone is still receiving the documents that are needed, but without using up any of the paper resources that don’t need to be consumed.

For any software upgrades, or if you purchase videogames for your computer, consider downloading the programs online, instead of buying a disc from a store.  Most companies offer downloads through their websites for software, and there are many services for downloading videogames.  This way you’re still able to buy the software you want, and you can avoid wasting any of the resources that don’t need to be wasted in the form of the boxes/discs that you’ll just end up tossing at some point anyway.

Finally, watch out for your power draining peripherals.  Some peripherals like speakers and computer monitors continue to draw power in their standby modes, even when your computer is off.  So make sure that you turn all devices off, or just switch off the surge protector that everything is plugged in to, when your computer is not in use.  Not only with this conserve a lot of energy, you’ll also be saving money either for yourself, or your company.  And saving money is always a good thing.

Such as leaving your iPhone on all the time.  Take advantage of the sleep mode, and don’t turn your iPhone off when not in use, as it takes more extra juice to turn the unit on and off than if you had just left your iPhone on in the first place.  Also try to consolidate your personal and business emails into as few email addresses as possible.  This way there are fewer email addresses to check, meaning your iPhone won’t have to burn energy tapping into the network to keep up with them.

Edit your brightness settings so that your auto brightness is turned off, this way you won’t burn power by keeping your device monitoring your surroundings and automatically changing the screen brightness accordingly.  You also want to keep your screen brightness as dim as possible, but so that you can still see everything just fine.  This way you aren’t consuming any extra power by lighting the screen more than is necessary.

And finally, if you rely on Wi-Fi often for many of your iPhone tasks, make sure that you use it sparingly, and remember to turn Wi-Fi off after use.  Keeping an internet connection like that is a huge power drain on your little iPhone, and you’ll find the battery dying very quickly should you leave Wi-Fi on for long periods of time.  But make us of it sparingly and you’ll be fine.

Beyond that you just want to ensure that at least once a week you’re using up almost all the battery power in your iPhone’s battery to just about the point it runs out of juice.  Then you want to charge the unit until it’s back at 100% power, that way you’ll extend your battery’s long term life, and will consistently reset the device so that your battery won’t lose it’s charge as quickly as it would otherwise.