On What have We Spent Our Time?

By Fantasticate

Once a friend of mine told me that he always felt that he has done nothing although three or four hours were past when he was surfing on the internet. So he wonders that on what has he spent his time? Do you also have such trouble? I also was troubled by this before, but I overcame it by using time log that the time I have spent is recorded each fifteen minutes. Here is the process of how do I write my time log. There are four steps as followings:

# A Countdown Timer for Fifteen Minutes Countdown

I often work via the computer and I choose the application software of countdown timer that will send the prompt tone when time is up. Then I will recall what have I done during this period of time and record it to the table I will mention below.

# A Table with Time Listed for Recording

I will write what I have done in such fifteen to a table with time listed. This can be recorded on a kind of notebook that the table is set with each hours of a day listed and it is also available for some applications on the computer.

# Time Recording

Now I can get down to recording what I have done during each fifteen minutes. Below is an example of mine:

09：00-09：15 email writing

09：15-10：00 proposal writing

10：00-10：15 breaks

10：15-10：30 customer contacting

This time log can contribute a lot to concentration of what one is doing, through the using of which one can pull himself back to what he is doing if his mind is wandering.

# Do Remember to List the Time for Rest

I will also remind myself for rest with other ways. I will drink water, do exercises or go to washing room during this time. We shall remember that a good rest is good for a good work.

Time recording is part of effective and efficient time management. To have a good time management, we also need to record the time we have spent to know how did we spend our time and then we can work more effectively and efficiently.

Feeling Overwhelmed and Stressed? 12 Ideas to Fix the Pressure

Stress can happen because of a lot of different things that we have to deal with daily. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out why stress exists and what triggers it, and it can be hard to find ways to relieve yourself of it. This article can help you learn how to deal with your stressful situations. Stop feeling overwhelmed and stressed; fix the pressure and relax. Here is how.

1. If you have problems with a particular class, a tutor can be very helpful. A tutor will be there to help you understand the material better so you don't feel stressed when you have to take an exam. Being prepared is the best feeling you can have on test day and it is important to feel that way if you do not want to be anxious.

2. Be sure to inform all the people in your inner circle that your stress has nothing to do with them. Surrounding family members often feel responsible for contributing to your stress, most especially children. Deal with stress on your own, and be sure you never blame it on others.

3. Smile more, and you will feel naturally less stressed. When smiling, the muscles used trigger your limbic system, your emotional center that is located in the brain. Smiling will tilt your limbic system to a calmer state, which is a great way to lower your stress levels.

4. Don't use the word "stress" so much. If you keep telling yourself you are very hungry, before long you will be famished and the same is true for feeling stressed. Find another way to look at your situation. If you keep using the word stress, you will end up making it worse.

5. Stress can relieved with the help of pets. There is research that indicates that simply petting an pet for a couple of minutes lowers stress levels.

6. One great way to relieve stress and feel great is to take a long, relaxing bath. Try some of the many wonderful scented soaps or oils available that can add a touch of luxury to your bath Read a book or listen to soothing music. You can recharge your mind and body and let your stress drain away when you indulge yourself in a long, hot bath.

7. Always make sure you take a moment for yourself every day. It can be as simple as enjoying a cup of joe, or reading a book you love. It just needs to be something that lets you fight the stress and calm down.

8. A simple and easy way to reduce stress is to smile. People smile naturally when they are cheerful and calm, and if you force yourself to smile, you will actually start to feel like that, too. Force yourself to smile and you will feel better after a while. Smiling in the midst of a stressful period can really help you relax and unwind.

9. Make sure you are organized in all aspects of your life if you would like to reduce your stress levels. Perhaps your stress comes from procrastinating or simply forgetting about what you need to do. Stay organized; your stress level will decrease when you feel in control.

10. An excellent method of calming down when you have a stressful day is to do a special act for another person. Consider buying a little treat or toy for your child, or surprising your partner with their favorite meal. By placing your focus on someone else, you draw attention away from your own stress.

11. Single out your main sources of tension, and find ways to minimize or eliminate your exposure to it. For example, you may have a friend that consistently drains with their negativity. You may benefit from limiting your exposure to this negative influence. Cutting out the stress factors in your life can improve your physical and emotional health.

12. When managing stress, it is vital that you also understand how to control your anger. Anger can be damaging to your body, so it is very important to remain calm even when you have feelings of anger. In order to keep your stress from getting the best of you, it can be extremely helpful to learn some strategies for managing your anger in a healthy way.

Feeling overwhelmed and stressed is not pleasant, and it can do long term damage to your health. However, when you implement the ideas you've learned in this article, you will be able to better manage any stress that life has to offer.

Please click the STRESS link below in the resource author box.


Larry L. Taylor - About the Author:

Thanks for reading the article. Please visit http://www.HealthyBodySupplements.com for more articles that may help with STRESS

Stress and Your Health

In my last article, I talked about "stress stupidity" and how it causes us to make mistakes and lose time. It actually does more than that:

A recently released Yale University study, published online the week of January 9, 2012, in the journal Biological Psychiatry, shows that stress causes the brain to shrink because the stress hormones eat away at brain tissue, literally making holes in your brain.

One highly-stressful episode, such as our remote ancestors suffered when they ran from ravenous beasts, doesn't necessarily produce the "holes in the brain" phenomenon. Instead, it's the steady daily diet of stress with which many people live in the 21st century that causes the problem.

This steady onslaught of stress, which may be low-level but persistent, is similar to drops of water dripping onto stone: a slow wearing down.

Lack of focus, concentration problems, inability to set priorities, and difficulty in making decisions are more behavioral signs that signal the presence of "stress stupidity." The very qualities that we need in order to be successful in life are impaired; you may come to believe that there is no way out of your stressful life.

Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman describes this psychological state as "learned helplessness"; the inability to find the "way out" of your dilemmas. Not only do your problem-solving skills suffer, but so does your motivation.

The dogs in his initial experiment, who were given shocks that they could not escape, and were then put in a box where there was an escape route, failed to see the escape route, even when shown! They simply lay down and absorbed repeated shocks.

"Learned helplessness" has been identified as a psychological pattern associated with many of the most severe illnesses. It does not start as a result of the illness; it is in place years before the illness develops.

Here are some ways to avoid developing learned helplessness.

Take frequent mini-breaks during the day during which you take a deep breath and ask yourself, "In the long run, what really matters here?"

When you make mistakes, learn to laugh at yourself instead of getting more stressed. Use the phrase "Stress makes you stupid."

And when you feel blocked, say to yourself, "There is a solution. I just can't see it right now."

Then take a break, take a walk, talk to a friend, spend a few minutes planning to do something special for yourself later on. Because a brain is a terrible thing to lose.



Lynette Crane - About the Author:

Lynette Crane, M.A.(Psychology) and Certified Life Coach,is a Minneapolis-based speaker, writer, and coach. She has more than 30 years' experience in the field of stress management. She currently works to provide stress and time pressure solutions to harried women, those women who seek "Islands of Peace" in their overly-busy lives. Her talks to groups of what she calls "harried women" are receiving rave reviews. Visit her website at http://www.creativelifechanges.com/ to see more in-depth articles and to view her programs.

Strategies to Fight Effective Debt Crisis

By Debtfreeleague

Surveys and research studies in several developed and developing countries have revealed that there is a small yet significant percentage of population that suffers from the stress of debt loans. The surveys show that the families take a loan for personal purposes and then fail to pay back the premiums and loan amounts every month. Today's era is highlighted by high inflationary conditions and successive recessions. Companies are often confronted with the idea of how to downsize its employee list and how to do it in a subtle manner. As soon as the job goes out of hand, the means to pay back the debt reduce further pushing the person into remote levels of depression and stress. This is where debt reduction companies and debt reduction programs conducted by several companies come into the picture. Here are some useful tips that you could use to fight your debts and handle your credit card settlements effectively.

Engage in a debt reduction program

These programs are usually organized by debt settlement companies to attract those who are stuck with a high debt loan to pay back. This is basically a negotiation session where the credit along with the collector will be present to discuss ideas on how the debt can be reduced for you to pay back. A counseling session will help you in understand what kind of a debt relief option you would want to go for. Here, the settlement company will first analyze your returns and financial figures to assess the situation. The second step is when you stop making payments to the creditor but instead open a trust fund account where you will be depositing monthly savings. When the savings reach the loan amount, they are transferred to the creditor's account. The debt reduction program can give you a huge relief from stress and tension.

Do not panic The thing that you should never do during a debt ridden stage in life is panic. When you panic, you lose the state of your mind and you end up making a lot of wrong decisions, resulting in anything but more debt. When you realize that you have a huge debt to pay back or a credit card settlement pending for years, you need to sit down and think wisely. Panicking can only make things worse. Take the help of debt experts.

Snowball method of debt reduction

This is a method that can often be employed to clear debt loans. In this method, you are first advised to arrange your debts from those with lowest balance to the one with the highest balance. After paying the minimum premium on all your debts, start by making an extra payment on the one with minimum balance. As soon as the debt is cleared on the first one, go to the other. This is a method that works with credit card settlements as well. These are three user friendly tips that can restrict debts to a significant level where it would not trouble you anymore. Having an organized list of the debt payments and premium will help in balancing accounts and eliminating treachery.

Effective Interviewing – 5 Steps

By Sahzaidi

Most managers conduct job interviews without any structure or strategy or method. I am also guilty of this on many occasions because I felt it was going to be quite easy to assess the job applicants. Now I know that I was wrong. Without a strategy and methodology, you end up selecting a person based on an overall impression and intuition rather than a diligent scrutiny of the applicant's abilities and potential. This can often lead to the wrong person in the job. So how does one ensure better selection?

Well, there are no guarantees of course but here are 5 things you can do to ensure the odds are tilted in your favor. …

1– Write down your Questions Beforehand

Without prepared questions, you are almost certainly going to forget some things you wanted to enquire about from the job seeker . You are also likely to deviate from your agenda based on how the conversation flows. Thinking about questions during the interview is Ok but it isn't a substitute for a prepared list.

2- Probe Technical, Functional and Personal Areas

You must make it a point to address all these three following areas in your questioning:

Technical: these will be skills related to the work domain and expressed as nouns such as finance, sales, operations etc

Functional: these will be typically people handling skills and expressed as verbs such as organizing, planning, communicating, delegating etc

Personal: these will be essentially personal qualities expressed as adjectives such as ethical, professional, team worker etc

3- Use Behavior Based Interviewing

Ask candidates to describe past experiences or situations that can help to provide some clues about their competence in each of the three distinct areas above ie. Technical, Functional, Personal.

So for example to assess the Technical component, a behavior based question to a person being interviewed for a sales job might be:

"Give me an example of a time when you were able to acquire a new client. How did you identify and then approach the client? "

An example question to assess to assess the Functional component might be:

"Please tell us about a situation where you had to get your team to put together a conference? How did you plan this and how did you delegate the tasks? "

The answer to this question might reveal some clues about the candidates organizing and delegating capability.

For the Personal category, the question might be:

"Can you provide an example of ethical behavior that you demonstrated during a situation involving one of your colleagues"

4. Experience is King

Applicants will present different various credentials in their CV and interview to impress. These will include academic qualifications, courses attended, languages spoken, certifications and so on. But remember – these are all important and need to be considered however experience is what will really matter. Unless you are deliberately looking for a freshie, relevant experience has to be at the top of your scoring sheet. There is no degree or certification or course invented yet that can substitute for real life experience.

5. Differentiating and Open Questions

Asking the following kinds of questions and assessing how applicants answer these can sometimes reveal insights about the applicant's preparation, confidence, maturity and communication skills.

"Why should we hire you? What is your greatest strength?"

"What is your greatest weakness?"

"What did you not like about your former organization?"

In the question above, we want to see how professionally and tactfully the candidate handles this question.

"What do you know about our organization?"

"Are there any questions you want to ask us?"

The Simple Solution

Not long ago, it was my pleasure to help a medical practice with a thorny issue in their partnership group. There was one partner, a skilled surgeon and talented physician, who was not really playing 'by the rules.' In this case, the 'rules', by non-written but well understood agreement, were that each doctor in the practice would manage his/her practice for the greater good of not only the patient, but the practice. Another way of saying this would be the time honored concept of 'rising water floats all boats'.

This particular doc had over time developed his practice as though it were a walled off compartment within the group, and did things like using physicians from other practices to assist him in surgery rather than keeping those funds inside the group. He also recruited administrative workers away from their responsibilities and set them to work on personal projects. The doctor marketed his practice as though he was solo and independent, and was frequently hostile and disruptive during partnership meetings.

Clearly, things were headed in an ominous direction. The physician partner who contacted me sketched out a doom laden near future in which they might well face the lengthy and incredibly expensive and painful task of de-partnering Dr. X. He was tired, angry, and even despairing. They had been recommended to me by a financial consultant to the practice who suggested a coaching intervention as last resort before they started dialing lawyers' phone numbers.

After I heard the story, I asked a question I was almost embarrassed to ask, because it seemed so simple, so obvious, I just knew the doctor would laugh at me for asking. But I have learned in 30+ years of consulting with people and their problems that so very often, the simplest, most obvious solutions are the ones most often overlooked.

"Has anyone asked Dr. X to stop doing these things?"

Dr. Y looked dazed for several seconds while he collected his thoughts, then said, "No, not in so many words..."

I went on to propose that Dr. Y and I meet with X after a list of grievances had been compiled. We would then meet with X, explain to him the nature of the meeting, explain to him that the goal was to avoid de-partnering, and keep the practice intact to the benefit of all.

Y was stunned at the simplicity and ease with which the problems were addressed, X was humbled and thankful that such trouble had been taken in his behalf, and corrections were soon to follow. They never had to file a suit or retain a lawyer.

Was the outcome perfect? No, not by a long shot. X continued to need reminders and dialog from Y, continued to use outside assistants from time to time, was still difficult in meetings when he felt threatened, but in general, the outcome was positive enough that no lawyers were called and the practice remained intact.

Point of the story? To me it is this: wherever humans gather together in mutual effort, whether it is family, community, workplace, or nation, most will cooperate to the greater good, while some will diverge. This always causes problems which the majority must address somehow. Often, these problems will require highly complex, difficult to reach solutions.

But it never hurts to start with the most painfully obvious intervention and work upward from there. It may be that at some time in the future, Dr. X will once again become a problem for his partners, and will require another intervention. And if I am called back, I will once again start with the simplest solution, the most overlooked one, and ask the partners to sit down together and try to work out their problems before resorting to more exotic solutions.

CRM Success by the Numbers - Part 5: 0-Sum Game

CRM Success is not a zero-sum game. By definition, in a zero-sum game, the sum of the winnings and losses of the various players is always zero. Basically, it's winner-take-all.

In contrast, if the CRM Success game is played right, everyone wins. The attorneys get more Clients, the firm makes more money, the Clients get better service, and the Marketing Department and CRM manager get to keep their jobs. The problem is figuring out how to play the game… especially when there are no written rules. This is where some game strategy can come in handy.

While CRM can't be everything to everyone, it can help some key law firm constituencies with some challenging issues. On a good day, CRM can be pretty effective at improving communication, coordination, Client service and business development – things that all seemed to be important in the law firm the last time I checked. In fact, I bet if you asked almost any attorney in the building if any of those things is on their "important-stuff- I-need-to-do" list, at least one of these things is somewhere near the top.

But those same attorneys would never be able to tell you how CRM can help them – because most of them have no idea what it does. Some of them don't even know what it is. But that’s ok because it’s not their job to know. It’s ours...