by: Simon Buehring
The blessed few seem to glide through their working day, ticking off their daily tasks and contentedly dealing with all the interruptions that come their way. These were the kids who always handed in their science homework a day ahead of schedule, and never forgot their calculator for maths.
Most of us aren’t like this. Most of us have to work at our time management skills, training ourselves to organise, prioritise and get stuff done.
What’s wrong with bad time-management?
Time-management skills are essential for anybody who wants to succeed in the modern workplace.
Gone are the days when you could calculate lunchtime by the position of the sun and plod along behind your oxen without a ringing mobile, a bulging in-box and a spider’s web of a calendar.
If you don’t learn to manage your time effectively then you risk forgetting meetings, deadlines and responsibilities, over-committing yourself, rushing work and dying young of too much stress.
What causes bad time-management?
Two extreme opposites lie behind bad time-management: over-committing and procrastination.
Some people just love to have too much to do. They might complain occasionally (or regularly) that they never have time to relax, or that everybody expects too much of them, or that they are never fully-appreciated, but the truth is that they cannot survive without a diary full of jobs to do and events to organise.
If you are one of these people, then you might be jeopardising your effectiveness by giving in to the challenge and adrenaline of taking on more than one person can possibly achieve. Stepping back once in a while and reviewing what you have to do and how you ended up promising to do it can work wonders for your time-management.
Others are prone to procrastination. If this is you, then you’ll recognise the symptoms straight away: dawdling over e-mails, making yet another cup of tea (which, twenty minutes later will require a bathroom run), always aware of the elephantine deadline that is looming close, but which you don’t have to deal with ... just yet.
The problem with procrastination is that, sooner or later, the deadlines catch up, work has to be rushed, and nobody is happy with the end result. Learning to prioritise your tasks and to stick to your schedule will improve your performance and your job satisfaction.
What can you do about it?
• Make a list of all the things you’ve got to do.
Do include everything: the 30-page report you’ve been hoping would go away; buying ham for your husband’s lunch; taking your dog to the dentist; finishing off the database you started last month.
Do not make this list on the back of an old envelope. Invest in a diary or a notebook. Scraps of paper will only end up in the bin.
• Prioritise your tasks.
Put fire-fighting and foundational tasks at the top of your list. Delegate the distractions. Eliminate time-wasting.
• Schedule.
For long-term scheduline, you definitely need a calendar. You can use a computer-based organiser, a wall calendar, or a personal diary. You can buy a leather-bound diary with gold edging, you can invest in a simple wall-chart, or you can even make a calendar yourself.
Whatever you choose, what you need is a way to divide the year, the month, the week and the day into manageable portions of time. In each time-slot, you must allocate yourself a task.
Bear in mind the importance and urgency of each task and the time taken for successful completion. Under-estimating how much time you need will lead to unnecessary stress, while over-estimation will leave you twiddling your thumbs.
• Reward system.
If you are a procrastinator, then sometimes you’ll need a motivation boost. Make yourself a star-chart, promise yourself a chocolate biscuit or a trip to the cinema or even sometime as simple as a short tea break for the completion of major tasks.
• Delegation
The most important skill that the over-committer will ever learn is delegation. Allow your colleagues to share the workload. Be generous enough to let somebody else try their hand at producing a plan or a presentation or a spreadsheet.
If you try to do everything yourself, then others will end up either resenting you or taking you for granted. Improve the performance of yourself and everybody else in your office by sharing around the tasks!
And finally –
Taking the time to review your goals and appointments will ease stress and make the time you spend working far more effective. At the end of each day, allow yourself a couple of minutes to think about what you have achieved in the past few hours. The satisfaction of meeting your goals will be the best stimulus to continued time-management.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Law of Attraction, A Spiritual Journey
by: Richard Blackstone
My spiritual journey into the law of attraction is the secret to my spiritual growth. It involves the idea that all religion is spiritual but spirituality is not religious. Spirituality information was not part of my life until I woke up to my true, authentic self.
For about the first forty years of my life I was living my life very unconsciously, what I like to call “sleepwalking.” During the sleepwalking period I always had the deep inner desire to “improve my life.” I have since “discovered” that we all have this deep inner desire because there is a constant and continuous flow of well-being that flows throughout the universe and it flows through us all the time, it never stops.
At the right and perfect time in my life I began the process of waking up to my true authentic self and began the spiritual journey that I continue to travel to this day. This journey was not oriented to religion and didn't follow religious practices. It was a journey of spiritual growth that focused entirely on spirituality information without religious dogma.
Once I started the grand adventure I was so excited I didn't know where to take my new found passion and direct it so that I could run along my spiritual path instead of walk. That is the nature of your spiritual quest; it is so exciting that you want to leap forward and go as fast as you can.
I knew that I needed a solid foundation for this journey so I started focusing my attention on seeking clarity about the principles that would guide me in my journey. I didn't know it at the time but I was invoking the immutable law of the universe known as “The Law of Attraction,” which tells us that you bring into your life that which you put your attention on.
The more I sought clarity about this question of “Who Am I?” the more I was guided to these three immutable laws of the universe. I now live these three laws, or principles, every day of my life and they are my foundation for everything that I experience in my life adventure.
I would like to share these “Three, Simple Immutable Laws of the Universe” with you so that you might use them for your own spiritual journey.
1) LOVE is who we really are. LOVE is at the core of our being and we can tap into it at any time.
2) We are all ONE. We are all spirit children of the source of “all that is.” We are not separate from the source. We are all ONE with the source.
3) We are all here to CREATE the life of our intentions and desires. Each of us has, within us, the same powers and abilities as the source from which we came. We are all CREATORS and are creating our lives through our choices. Who you are, in this moment of now, is who you have created yourself to be by the choices you have made throughout your life.
My observation of life is that most of us, myself included, were conditioned from birth to believe that we are separate from each other, separate from this planet that sustains our very physical life form and separate from our source. That is what I believed when I was sleepwalking.
It is my experience that this concept of separation is a fear based belief system. It is also my experience that you can change your belief system any time that you choose because of our inherent nature called “free will.” You can freely and easily move out of the belief of fear and separation and into the paradigm of love and oneness.
This is a choice. All of life is a choice. Once you make that choice you begin the process of change. All of life is change. We change all the time and because we live within the dimensions of time and space, this process also takes time to shift your belief system. It is not instantaneous; it is a process and a beautiful process indeed.
This process requires commitment but once you make the commitment and begin the process you begin allowing the power of love to guide you in your journey and this newfound power opens you up to a whole new perspective about life, love and the true nature of how this game of life is played out here on the giant stage called planet earth.
I have experienced both paradigms of life. I have lived my life from the fear based perspective of separation and I have lived my life from the love based perspective of love and my experience tells me that love serves me better than fear.
The most valuable tool that helps me in my journey is this: LOVE YOURSELF UNCONDITIONALLY.
My spiritual journey into the law of attraction is the secret to my spiritual growth. It involves the idea that all religion is spiritual but spirituality is not religious. Spirituality information was not part of my life until I woke up to my true, authentic self.
For about the first forty years of my life I was living my life very unconsciously, what I like to call “sleepwalking.” During the sleepwalking period I always had the deep inner desire to “improve my life.” I have since “discovered” that we all have this deep inner desire because there is a constant and continuous flow of well-being that flows throughout the universe and it flows through us all the time, it never stops.
At the right and perfect time in my life I began the process of waking up to my true authentic self and began the spiritual journey that I continue to travel to this day. This journey was not oriented to religion and didn't follow religious practices. It was a journey of spiritual growth that focused entirely on spirituality information without religious dogma.
Once I started the grand adventure I was so excited I didn't know where to take my new found passion and direct it so that I could run along my spiritual path instead of walk. That is the nature of your spiritual quest; it is so exciting that you want to leap forward and go as fast as you can.
I knew that I needed a solid foundation for this journey so I started focusing my attention on seeking clarity about the principles that would guide me in my journey. I didn't know it at the time but I was invoking the immutable law of the universe known as “The Law of Attraction,” which tells us that you bring into your life that which you put your attention on.
The more I sought clarity about this question of “Who Am I?” the more I was guided to these three immutable laws of the universe. I now live these three laws, or principles, every day of my life and they are my foundation for everything that I experience in my life adventure.
I would like to share these “Three, Simple Immutable Laws of the Universe” with you so that you might use them for your own spiritual journey.
1) LOVE is who we really are. LOVE is at the core of our being and we can tap into it at any time.
2) We are all ONE. We are all spirit children of the source of “all that is.” We are not separate from the source. We are all ONE with the source.
3) We are all here to CREATE the life of our intentions and desires. Each of us has, within us, the same powers and abilities as the source from which we came. We are all CREATORS and are creating our lives through our choices. Who you are, in this moment of now, is who you have created yourself to be by the choices you have made throughout your life.
My observation of life is that most of us, myself included, were conditioned from birth to believe that we are separate from each other, separate from this planet that sustains our very physical life form and separate from our source. That is what I believed when I was sleepwalking.
It is my experience that this concept of separation is a fear based belief system. It is also my experience that you can change your belief system any time that you choose because of our inherent nature called “free will.” You can freely and easily move out of the belief of fear and separation and into the paradigm of love and oneness.
This is a choice. All of life is a choice. Once you make that choice you begin the process of change. All of life is change. We change all the time and because we live within the dimensions of time and space, this process also takes time to shift your belief system. It is not instantaneous; it is a process and a beautiful process indeed.
This process requires commitment but once you make the commitment and begin the process you begin allowing the power of love to guide you in your journey and this newfound power opens you up to a whole new perspective about life, love and the true nature of how this game of life is played out here on the giant stage called planet earth.
I have experienced both paradigms of life. I have lived my life from the fear based perspective of separation and I have lived my life from the love based perspective of love and my experience tells me that love serves me better than fear.
The most valuable tool that helps me in my journey is this: LOVE YOURSELF UNCONDITIONALLY.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Nokia 5530 XpressMusic
General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Announced 2009, June
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2009, Q3
Size Dimensions 104 x 49 x 13 mm, 68 cc
Weight 107 g
Display Type TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 360 x 640 pixels, 2.9 inches
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Handwriting recognition
Sound Alert types Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone Yes, with stereo speakers
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Detailed, max 30 days
Internal 70 MB storage, 128 MB SDRAM
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB, 4GB included
Data GPRS Class 32
HSCSD Yes
EDGE Class 32
3G No
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB
Camera Primary 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash
Video Yes, 220 x 176@15ps
Secondary No
Features OS Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5
CPU ARM 11 434 MHz processor
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games Yes + Java downloadable
Colors Red on black, Blue on white, Grey on black, Pink on white, Yellow on white
GPS No
Java Yes, MIDP 2.0
- MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player
- MPEG4/WMV/3gp video player
- TV-out
- Voice command/dial
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- T9
- Photo editor
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh(BL-4U)
Stand-by Up to 336 h
Talk time Up to 4 h 54 min
Music play Up to 27 h
Nokia N97
General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - American version
Announced 2008, November
Status Available. Released 2009, June
Size Dimensions 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm, 88 cc
Weight 150 g
Display Type TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Handwriting recognition
Sound Alert types Vibration; MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone Yes, with stereo speakers
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Detailed, max 30 days
Internal 32 GB storage, 128 MB RAM
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB, buy memory
Data GPRS Class 32
HSCSD Yes
EDGE Class 32
3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB
Camera Primary 5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, video light
Video Yes, VGA@30fps
Secondary Yes, VGA@15fps
Features OS Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5
CPU ARM 11 434 MHz processor
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS, Visual radio; FM transmitter
Games Yes + downloadable
Colors White, Black
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support; Nokia Maps
Java Yes, MIDP 2.1
- Digital compass
- MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+/MP4/M4V player
- MPEG4/WMV/3gp/Flash video player
- TV-out
- Voice command/dial
- Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF viewer)
- Video and photo editor
- Flash Lite 3
- T9
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh (BP-4L)
Stand-by Up to 432 h (2G) / 408 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 9 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 6 h (3G)
Music play Up to 40 h
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