Insightful article Thanks Howard Platt.

Enjoy! Janet Schlarbaum

 Personal Development

is achieved through self-discipline, which must remain consistent throughout your life. The secret of making life better is to make yourself better. Your knowledge and skills determine what you achieve and what you are able to share. You will get more and have more to share with the world only as you become more as a person.

Growth through personal development is a natural process that comes from pursuing whatever fascinates you. Discover what your special interests are and use your self-discipline to build your success on those passions. Find your future in the objects of your dreams. Become a person who attracts success.

Nothing will have more influence on your potential for success than the power of self-discipline. Discipline is the force behind forming good habits and good habits determine what we become as a result of personal development.

Be aware that every commitment to a constructive habit, every commitment to practice, and every good intention will be challenged by the seductive appeal of procrastination. Remember, “Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” A strong personal self-discipline holds the power to overcome procrastination.

Resolve to make personal development a life-long commitment. There is no facet of human conduct that cannot be improved by a disciplined program of personal development. Remember, you can improve the world by improving yourself. Your happiness is related to your growth as a person.

Finally, begin your personal development program with a focus on four important areas. You will find in each of these areas an unlimited potential for personal growth. Rely on your self-discipline to accomplish that which is most important and you will develop the needed skills to succeed at all your goals.

1. First, develop your people skills. Getting along with others involves changing yourself, making others feel important, and recognizing the fact that being able to interact well with others is essential to your success.

2. Second, work on your personal communication skills. There is much to learn and much to gain in developing effective speaking and writing skills.

3. Third, learn how to adapt to change. Make change your friend and ally and make your ability to adapt to change one of your secret strengths in achieving your goals.

4. And last, take an interest in the world around you. Make your concerns felt by becoming active in societal and environmental issues. We only enrich ourselves by enriching others. Be a responsible citizen who cares and contributes. Remember, you can make a difference.

To achieve and maintain true personal development use the power of your own self-discipline to follow through with the following life improving exercises:

1. Describe the more complete person you would like to become.

2. Cite three of your personal traits or aspects of performance you would like to improve. Outline the steps you must take to achieve improvement.

3. List two or three subjects or pursuits that fascinate you and that you would enjoy doing full-time for a living. Outline what steps you can take to make these activities your life’s work.

4. Review the circumstances of a bad experience in your life, and list what you learned from the experience that will be helpful in your future progress.

5. Evaluate your progress in the following areas of personal performance, and outline how you can achieve personal development in each:

- Relations with other people
-  Communications
- Adapting to change
- Improving the world

In concluding, let me remind you that the critical secret for improving your life and expanding your world lies in discovering your gifts and developing them to the fullest. Your future may be found in what you love to do most and doing it in a way that helps others.

I will leave you with a final thought: With self-discipline and a strong commitment to personal development, you can accomplish anything you want. Do not settle for less. You have the power and ability to make your life a masterpiece.

Author:  Howard Platt

Placed by Janet Schlarbaum

By James Hunt

Scheduling software and personal information management (or PIM) tools can help anyone become more organized and lead a much more productive business and personal life.

Scheduling software and personal information management tools allow us to store personal records for the purposes of calendaring, contact management, email management, instant messaging, and other personal productivity tools. The latest generation of PIM applications provide for internet connectivity to allow users to synchronize with online calendaring and scheduling tools as well as other online personal information management utilities such as web mail. Individuals who have found PDA (personal digital assistants) useful will be please with the latest generation of net connected PDA aware applications that allow for transparent synchronization of cell phones, PDAs, as well as laptop and desktop computers.

Scheduling software has come a long way since the early days of Microsoft Outlook and Palm Desktop. There are now open source alternatives that are freely available and in many ways as powerful as and in some cases more powerful than their expensive proprietary competitors. Linux users have seen the growth of the Gnome-based calendaring and scheduling software “Evolution” while cross platform open source software enthusiasts have enjoyed the releases of Sunbird and Thunderbird from the Mozilla Foundation’s popular code base.

Developers have been paying attention to the Microsoft-dominated personal information management software realm. The software giant out of Redmond, Washington has recently released Outlook Live, which is available as a subscription service that is subscribed to on a yearly basis. The Outlook live service aims to provide a seamless and transparent user experience through the use of a reworked version of their award winning Outlook 2003 PIM client software that has the native ability to handle multiple calendars and built in connectivity and synchronization with the popular MSN website’s feature set (such as the nearly ubiquitous MSN Hotmail services). If you find yourself needing access to your data 2 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year no matter where you are in the world (as long as you have access to an internet connected computer with a compatible web browser installed (Internet Explorer for those of you out there keeping score).

By Constance Knieper

Its incredible how many people are interested in a better scheduling method yet few are willing to do actually do it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If you want different results, you must take different actions. Yes, this does involve change which is overcome by completing adequate due diligence and creating a phased plan of implementation.

If you have taken the time to investigate other scheduling methods you have admitted there is a problem. Investigate other methods thoroughly. This includes testing them out by recreating past days or weeks using the recommendations outlined in the system you are considering relieving any anxiety about its success. You can also use upcoming days or weeks. Once you choose the solution, implement it.

Moving forward with scheduling changes is often waylaid by “what if’s”. These are anticipated objections created by opposition to change within the business or comments received from clients. The fact is that any change can be objected to by employees, clients, or maybe even both. It might even be objected by you.

Prepare responses to the objections you know will arise and address them before they are voiced. A good way to handle them is to create a positive mental picture detailing the benefits to the employees. You might organize them in this way:

1. List each complaint received from employees and/or clients.

2. Record the number of times it was received.

3. Identify the desired solution – this is the solution you determine appropriate based upon the complaints and/or suggestions received.

4. Using the anticipated results of the scheduling method you are considering, identify how it resolves the problem/complaint.

5. Identify the benefits to employees applying the new method.

Using the above information create a picture of the end result in a “what if” scenario but withhold the actual solution for now. The intent is to get employees enthused about the new scheduling method thereby increasing compliance when the implementation process begins. As far as client support goes, by resolving their complaints you gain their support.

Share the chosen solution after gaining majority support. Understand that you may not gain 100% support however you can usually get it over time by phasing the new method into the business. Prepare an action plan outlining the implementation process and finish dates for each phase. This enables a smooth transition and relieves anxiety of those not yet on board.

The biggest stumbling block to implementing a new scheduling method is overcoming resistance to change. These suggestions help to make the appropriate selection of a scheduling method that yields the desired results and increases staff support.

By Luke Blaise

One approach to improving your time management skills is to schedule everything you need to do in a day like an appointment. Schedule everything from eating breakfast, driving to work, to grocery shopping.

The power of scheduling everything, is that you actually see how long certain tasks can take. This rigid scheduling also helps keep you moving from task to task quicker.

When you sit down to actually make your schedule be sure to plan for emergencies. Don’t schedule all your tasks back to back. Additional tasks and emergencies show up no matter what. If it is your boss giving you an additional report to do or your child getting sick, you need to allow some slack in your schedule.

Another thing to do is to buffer your appointments. Buffering means scheduling them longer than you expect them to take. This is commonly done in professional offices because rarely does something end on schedule.

Once you make your schedule, make every effort to stay on close a schedule as possible. When you find yourself running out of time on a task, or a task finishing quicker than expected. Make a note of it.

At the end of everyday, review your schedule and notes you took during the day. Identify areas that could be scheduled better. Then make your schedule for tomorrow today. This is the best time to do it, so tomorrow when you wake up you are ready to go. This is one of the more involved time management tips out there, but it is one that can quickly get your schedule and life under control.

Now, it is more obvious that the time is not that free and unlimited. Furthermore, you cannot turn time back or buy more, even if you are rich. Once the time has passed, there is no more. So, it is obvious that we need to manage our time given to perform a specific task, in a most time-efficient way.

Why we need the effective Time management? The answers are obvious. To achieve better results. To achieve quality of work To reduce stress To reduce errors To improve satisfaction with job To improve quality of private life.

In order to manage our time in a best possible way, we need to learn and utilize Time Management tools:

Prioritization

In every segment of our life activity, in our profession or in the recreation club, there are certain lists of activities that need to be accomplished. Since there are always more activities than we can handle at same time, we need to prioritize. In order to prioritize we use our judgment, common sense, experience or other people’s advices. However, there are more structured tools that can help us in prioritization.

Urgent/Important matrix

This tool helps us to filter tasks as per their urgency and importance. Urgent is something that needs attention – Now. Important is something that is related to results, goals and value. When we pair these two scales of importance and urgency, we get a matrix with four quadrants.

Pareto

Pareto principle is prioritization tool which states that 20% of our results comes from 20% of our effort. 80% of our revenue comes from 20% of our customers. 80% of our success comes from 20% of our effort.

This principle does not have to be in exactly 80:20 ratio, but essentially shows that there are certain activities that create most of our success, therefore we should give priority to them.

Fight Procrastination

Many people procrastinate (delay) accomplishment of tasks. In fact, everybody is procrastinating to some degree. To the most extreme situation, procrastination can totally block some process or destroy someone’s career.

In order to fight procrastination first we need to understand the degree of our habit of procrastinating. Second is to understand why is this happening. Third step is to take action to suppress habit of delaying or procrastinating task accomplishment.

Time Planning

While Prioritization is vertical dimension of Time Management, Time Planning is it’s horizontal dimension. Simply, by time planning, we position our activity in time. I order to track implementation of task planning through time, we conduct tracking in several time scales:

- Milestones are related to annual planning, project planning and seasonal events.

- Scheduling of Tasks is related to Monthly, Weekly and Daily scale, by recording incoming tasks and events in desired time format ( notebook, scheduler software, etc. )

- To Do List is a simple form of daily planning. It enables us to work better, serves as a reminder and helps us with task tracking. It also motivates us to do what we need to do and helps us to focus on priorities.

To Do List Tips:

1. At the end of a day spend 5 minutes to plan a next day.

2. Unfinished tasks from today schedule for tomorrow.

3. Include both, daily tasks and long term tasks in daily To Do list.

Reputation Management

By Constance Knieper

How many times have you looked at your schedule and wondered how you were going to fit everything in? How many times have you made the comment “this should have been scheduled here”? Do you have days where you’re empty at noon but the schedule dictates that you keep going until 5:00 pm? Do you dream of days that consistently flow smoothly AND you have accomplished everything intended – on time? Creating a scheduling template can solve these problems and change your life.

A scheduling template is a blueprint of your ideal day prepared in advance. It coincides with a prepared appointment guideline based upon individual desires and appointment history. The concept is similar to “painting by number”. Every possible or desired appointment is reserved in advance for up to one year at a time. Appointments are scheduled by referencing the guideline then locating the next available appointment of that kind.

Regain control of your time. The greatest benefit realized is the return of control over how your day is scheduled. Everybody seems to want everything yesterday or last week. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to respond that quickly, yet we are often forced to try. This is especially true if others are scheduling your appointments without a clear and specific set of instructions. A natural byproduct of the scheduling template is the development of a very clear set of scheduling instructions.

The formation of a plan for scheduling is a huge benefit. As stated, this is a natural byproduct of the template. Once created, it is easily learned and followed allowing anybody to schedule an appointment simply by referencing the guideline. People can be taught quickly, it is easily understood so they can begin scheduling immediately.

Incorporating personal desires with professional desires is often challenging. In fact, it is common for personal desires to be overlooked or skipped due to lack of time. A scheduling blueprint is a reflection of personal and professional desires. When creating the template, both are coordinated so that the ideal day includes time allocated to accomplish both.

Eliminate stress and fatigue. The scheduling guideline identifies all possible appointments including a list of all activities that can be completed within each one. Reviewing each appointment to ensure the time allocated is adequate for the activity aids in removing problems experienced routinely in the past. The ideal day is constructed using the guideline to reserve each predetermined appointment eliminating conflicts through the day. Since they conflicts are resolved in advance, stress and anxiety are reduced or eliminated.

Once the initial template and guideline are created they are easily updated. This is important since technology is improving at an astounding rate giving the ability to complete more in less time. Modifications to the template are easily incorporated and can be applied immediately or to subsequent years.

Generally, creating the ideal day carries forward to the ideal week, month, and year. Since the template is arranged to plan up to one year (can be longer if desired) it practically eliminates haphazardly scheduled days. The advance planning and development of a scheduling template has simplified the process of scheduling and resulted in more productive days.

Reputation Management