Six Sigma Blogs

When it comes to studying, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. That includes cramming at the last minute. Even with a narrow time frame, you can eke out a passing grade.

It is essential that you approach any studying, especially last minute studying, from a healthy frame of mind. If you worry too much about the potential outcome of an exam, you will only cause yourself undue stress and make it more difficult to remember what you need to know. Remember, the worst that can happen in you will fail one test.

If you understand that in the grade scheme of things, one test will not wreck your grade point average, you will be in a much better mental state in which to study. Come at it from the perspective that you would already be failing the exam, so anything better than an F could be considered a success.

Once you accept your present state, you can approach the material with a clear head and a calm body.

Keep in mind that many of your classmates may be finding themselves in similar situations. You are all essentially trying to swing as high a grade as possible while putting in a minimal amount of effort.

Learning experts agree that the best way to approach such last minute cram sessions is to break down the subject matter into smaller packets of information. Much study material is already subdivided into chapters or subheadings. Pick out the concepts behind the chapters and parse it out from there.

Take the key points from each chapter or section of your material and master those as best as you can. Ignore miscellany and specifics as much as you can. Go through all test subjects in this way until you have completed it all.

Once you have cycled through all the material, you should have a much better concept of what you are to be tested on. Even if you aren’t an expert as a result of this work, you should at least manage a passing grade.

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The quality of our life is determined by how we spend our time. Approximately 80% of us waste 10-15 hours a week on unnecessary interruptions, procrastination, and clutter. Think about how much additional money you could make if those 10-15 hours were used productively. Or think about how much more fun you could have if you had an additional 10-15 hours off each week. Start with these simple strategies if you are ready to maximize your workweek.

1. Create a time management system that fits with your values, preferences, and lifestyle.

Find a successful time management system that works for you. We each prefer to complete certain tasks and activities in different ways, places, and at different times. By honoring your specific preferences, it will make accomplishing more in less time much easier.

2. Establish visiting hours.

You can reduce unnecessary interruptions while offering people the opportunity to communicate with you in a relaxed setting but establishing and enforcing visiting hours. My recommendation is to keep your office door open during established visiting hours and closed at all other times.

3. Optimize your creativity.

People who are creative need a space and a place to record sudden ideas, inspirations, and thoughts that can be distracting during task mode. Keep a tape recorder, notebook, or file nearby to record both simple and complex ideas. The iPhone and many of the other smart phones offer a voice recorder application that makes it simple to record an idea or thought and then quickly get back to the task at hand.

4. Assign a dollar value to the total time wasted in one day.

How much time do you spend per day: Locating papers? Looking for misplaced items? Duplicating efforts? Being annoyed because you can’t find things? Dealing with interruptions that are unnecessary? Total this time. Next, determine what your time is worth. If you earn $50,000 per year and work an average of 40 hours per week, your time is worth $24 per hour. If you’re wasting 10 hours every week, that is worth $240 to you. Type up a sign to post above your desk that says: “Is what I am doing right now worth $24?” You could also word it like this: “Would I be willing to pay someone $24 to do what I am doing right now?” Just looking at that sign throughout the day will shift what you spend your time doing. You will automatically start spending your more time on productive revenue generating tasks and less time on minutia.

5.Think “worst in, first out.” Or delegate unfavorable tasks.

Procrastination is one of the biggest enemies of a well-managed day. Often, we procrastinate because we do not like the task, do not have the right equipment, or we do not have enough information to make a decision. Handle the worst problems first. Get them done, and then move on to the fun stuff. If you continue to procrastinate, delegate the task or hire someone to complete the task for you.

6. Schedule in your tasks.

Make sure you set up specific time slots every day to return voice mail and e-mail, work on important projects, etc. By organizing your work into batches you will get more done in less time. First, make a list of all tasks that need to get done and separate each task by daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Write them down on your calendar in batches. For example, make two “appointments” every day to check and return voicemail and e-mail. Choose one appointment time each week to send out client invoices and so on.

7. Limit distractions.

When important projects need to be completed, close the door, turn off the phone, and place a sign on the door that reads: “Man or woman at work. Please return at *insert your visiting hour*.” Use this valuable time to complete important projects. Make an appointment with yourself each day to work on important projects. Treat the appointment as your would an important appointment with your doctor. If something else comes up during that time, reschedule the appointment with yourself in the same way you would reschedule a doctor’s appointment.

8. Each day, practice saying “NO” at least 10 times.

Often, saving time means saying “no” to other people. If this is difficult for you practice a variety of responses at least 10 times each day. For example, “I would really like to attend, but I cannot make it this time,” or “I am unfortunately too busy to do your project justice to your project at this time but am flattered that you thought of me,” or “no, thank you,” or simply “No.” Just remember you are honoring your own life and goals by saying “no.

Heidi is a professional organizer, creator of The Fast-Filing Method home filing system, & publisher of Life Made Simple e-Magazine. Heidi energizes her readers’ lives by teaching effective organizational systems to help you accomplish more & GAIN peace of mind! Visit ClearSimpleLiving.com to get a complimentary subscription AND a FREE Home Organization Kit.

If you are tired with all the complications of booking flights, you may be delighted to understand it might be gotten a lot simpler. Picking flight journey schedules doesn’t must be a complex procedure any longer. It’s achievable to now go on the goal to any air travel online website or vacation World Wide Web site and fill within the facts which you are searching for concerning fight schedules.

Via the wonders around the internet, you will need to have all of the info you require in minutes or much less to book your airline. Naturally, you will have the ability to even now make a direct call to a flight or go to some journey agency to perform your booking, but on the net flight journey schedules will provide you with almost everything you will need to obtain you in your way.

A single factor you should be mindful of nevertheless is all air travel schedules are continuously adjusting. You cannot consider an arrival or departure time for granted credited towards the truth they frequently are getting cancelled, altered, combined, rerouted or rescheduled.

Bankrupt airlines and individuals which are close to it are continuously adjusting their schedules with tiny observe.

Extreme storms could also possess a drastic impact on air travel flight journey schedules - some are cancelled for hours. You will discover occasions wherever you may possibly nicely even want or must modify your strategies,

Following determining on the routine to suit your strategies, usually verify with the many flight a minimum of a few days forward of time to produce certain the routine hasn’t transformed.

For any individual who is expecting a friend or loved 1 more than a particular airline, call forward to produce certain the airline hasn’t been cancelled or detained. There’s absolutely nothing worse than driving for miles to an airport only to discover that an airline continues being delayed or cancelled.

Flight journey schedules aren’t only obtainable for the city or nation but in addition globally and are discovered at diverse goal websites. It truly is probable to appear at flight journey schedules globe extensive with no leaving your pc.

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Time is obviously the universal ruler of the world. Humans are enslaved by the idea of time, as we use frequent sayings such as “we don’t have enough time.” These ideas have long been in existence, and this dreadful curse of time has prevented many of us from achieving our goals and aspirations. It is important that we stop and focus on these goals though, and apply the time needed to make them a reality.

Although it can be difficult for busy people to carve out even a little bit of time, if you make it a priority to spend just thirty minutes each day in pursuit of your dreams, it can make a big difference in your life.

Thirty minutes might just be watching half a television show instead of the full one. Some successful people don’t even watch television. They feel as though it wastes their time and energy that could be used on pursuing dreams.

Not all people want to give up television. Deleting just thirty minutes each day of this enjoyable activity is all you need to do to drastically change your lifestyle.

Another way of regaining thirty minutes is to stop using the snooze alarm on your alarm clock each morning. Getting up just thirty minutes earlier can be a great way of getting a jump on the day. Plus, if you get up before the rest of your family does, you will have some quiet time to yourself to spend on your personal pursuits.

Another trick is to get someone in to help you with small tasks, like a PA or a cleaner, or you could even ask your husband or wife to help out for a while. Sometimes you need to get other people in to help you get to your goal. Don’t feel like you are being selfish as everybody should be able to reach for their dream at some point.

You could work out ways of cutting down time spent on chores. Instead of cooking one off meals, you could make several at the same time and freeze the leftovers. Of when you are at the supermarket, make sure you have a list so you can whizz around the aisles.

Another excellent idea is to do all of the housework in one period of time. You can save quite a bit of time doing every chore one after another for an hour instead of over the entire day.

This author has been publishing commentary with respect to time management for the past two years. Additionally, this writer is fond of publishing articles about other subjects, such as a return address stamp in addition to a stamp dispenser.

No matter where you go, you will likely find people who feel that they are under too much stress as a result of the pace of modern-day life. Our days seem to blur together, and we feel that we have no time to sit down and think about things.

However, such constant stress may be harmful in the long run. Being under chronic stress puts you at risk for health problems like heart disease and hypertension.

To reduce this stress and the health risks that it imposes, we should learn to relax in the face of stress rather than be intimidated by it. Relaxation is an important aspect of both mental and physical health.

It doesn’t seem that we’ll ever get away from stress completely. Some people have actually learned to accept their stress and channel it into more positive outlets. Stress can actually be a great motivator for us to continue working at improving our own lives.

While some use stress in a positive way, most people aren’t so lucky when it comes to stress. They allow it to burden them so heavily that they lose control and it takes over their lives. Instead of realizing the challenge that such stress represents and rising to face it, these people would rather live an easy life, free of worry or obstacles.

I firmly believe that stress can actually be used in a positive way by inspiring us to improve our lives and ourselves. It serves as a motivator by reminding us that we can’t just take it easy; we have to continue working towards our goals.

However, we shouldn’t forget that stress can be dangerous if we let it take control of us, and can easily endanger our health. We will never find a way to live completely stress-free lives, so we must do our best to redirect our stress to a positive outlet.

We face stress at every turn in our lives. Since it’s so prevalent in modern life, we should learn to simply use our stress to better ourselves instead of shrinking in fear of it.

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Remember, if house cleaning is war then cleaning equipment and tools are your weapons. Therefore, don’t compromise whatsoever on the quality when buying these.

However, don’t think that only expensive tools will have superior quality in them. Rather than spending too much of money in these tools, go for their alternatives, which are available at cheaper rates.

Following are the items that should be in the checklist of basic house cleaning equipment:

One of the most commonly found house cleaning tool is broom. You will find it in every house for the purpose of cleaning dirt from the floor. Depending on the type of their usage, these can be bought in many sizes and makes.

For example, a broom with a plastic or straw is ideal for outdoor cleaning, whereas, a rubber broom is generally used for picking small pieces of rugs and hair from the ground.

However, mere swatting the dust particles from the floor won’t be good enough. You need to mop the floor as well to keep it clean. For this, you can use mops, which have micro fibers and are made up of absorbent material.

Large mops are used in schools for example, for cleaning bigger areas, whereas the smaller ones are used to clean up the messy places within bigger rooms.

In addition to these mops and brooms, it is important to have vacuum cleaners as well. These can clean the carpet easily, which was considered to be a Herculean task before. But with the vacuum cleaners, it has become a lot easier to suck all the dust spread over a carpet.

For cleaning up the mess, which is liquid in nature, it is always good to keep cleaning clothes like paper towels, rags and micro fiber cloth in the cabinet. These clothes can easily be washed in a machine and are highly absorbent, which makes the cleaning more convenient.

Maintain every house cleaning tool or equipment you have to get its full value. Rags, carpet sweepers and rags are to be hanged after being cleaned. Moreover, wash the equipment or tool before putting it in use.

These basic house cleaning equipment and tools will make your weekly or daily cleaning tasks easier.

Today steam cleaning appliances are becoming more popular and it is no coincidence as they turn the laborious cleaning tasks a complete breeze. Get more info on the numerous carpet steam cleaners available out there.

There are 24 hours in a single day, of which the average person spends eight hours at work and eight hours sleeping…

That makes 40 hours per week of free time that you can do with as you wish during the work week plus an additional 32 hours of awake time on the weekend.

The average person actually spends twice as much time away from work than at it. So what should you do with all of your spare time? Over 72 hours a week in all!

First, you should realize that most successful people do not work forty hours a week. So you may start by applying at least eight of those 72 hours toward your work or furthering of your career.

If you have your own business, it will be easy to spend an extra eight hours of work productively. If you work for someone else you can take your work home and show the boss you put in the extra effort that other employees do not.

Better still, you may want to use this extra time to start a business of your own…something that fits in with your hobbies and can be fun as well as profitable, like car detailing, or karate instruction.

You could start a mail order business, or maybe a part-time consulting practice to sell your knowledge.

The possibilities are endless; and if you spend enough of your extra time developing them, you may well find you create another career for yourself. This is how many successful companies originated.

At least one hour a day should be spent in furthering your knowledge of your business or industry through reading, courses, and seminars. This takes another seven hours from your free time but still leaves you with just over fifty-seven free hours.

An absolute minimum of ten to fifteen minutes should be spent on planning for the next business day. Reviewing your plans for the day should be the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do when you leave work at the end of the day.

You still have over fifty five hours of free time to spend as you please, but rather than continue eating into your free time, let’s take a look at how you can better use your work time.

Work Time

Many people complain of a lack of time to do all the required daily business tasks. The best way to resolve this is to plan your days in advance, in blocks of time, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute.

By writing down how you plan to spend your time, you will instantly become far more productive. More productivity means more money and more success.

You must use your time wisely. Time is the only thing you have to sell to your company or business. How much of the time you spend at work is really spent working? The truth of the matter is very little of it is spent working effectively.

Instead you are probably spending the day as most people with poor time management skills do: putting out fires that other people started, writing memos, shuffling papers around, and sending your fifth email about the same subject because you werent clear enough the first four times.

Here is a simple eye-opener that will let you see just how much work you are really accomplishing. Show up at work tomorrow with a stopwatch and write down how you spend all of your time in five-minute intervals. Keep the sheet and stopwatch in front of you at all times.

As you start each new task, write down on the paper what that task is and start the stop watch. As you change tasks — phone calls, interruptions from co-workers, etc.– write down what the new activity is and how long you spend on it.

At the day’s end, write these 4 key headings on a separate piece of paper.

1) Meaningful work

2) Wasted time (this includes interruptions, unimportant phone calls, etc.)

3) Dealing with problems.

4) Low priority/low return work.

List underneath each of your headings the tasks you have dealt with that day. Then add up the total time spent in each category.

Now you will have a shocking picture of just how few of the hours you spend at work are spent on high-priority, money-making, business growing, or goal-oriented tasks.

Instead, what you will probably find is that looking for information, interruptions, and wasted time are the winners in the battle for your precious time.

Create a Time-Efficient Office Space

This means to have all your tools and resources in working order and at your disposal. More of your time is lost through disorganized paper management and searching for misplaced documents and reports than through any other cause.

Make a habit of keeping all your work areas and desks free of all paper except what is needed for the task at hand. When you are finished with the work at hand, immediately remove it, mail it, file it, trash it, or do whatever action is applicable, but do not leave it on your desk.

Start Each Day With a Clear Plan

If you truly want to get the most out of every day, it is essential that you begin each with a clear plan. I usually plan the next day’s events the night before. Take a day planner and write down all those tasks you want to complete the next day.

Write each task down and number them in the order of importance. Start with the most important task and stick with it until you have finished it or reached the point you wished to reach for that day. It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to line out each task as it is accomplished.

After an overall list of tasks for the day, I plan the day’s specific activities in 15-30 minute intervals using a daily planner. Plan all of your phone calls and meetings. Proper daily planning has allowed me to write 20 books on marketing and also manage a golf marketing company and a resort management company.

Be sure to always set a time limit on meetings, especially with people who are don’t pay for your time. Stick as closely as possible to your time-lines.

If you schedule 15 minutes to talk to an advertising rep, then let them know that is all the time you can spend with them. They will make their points faster, thus allowing you to save time.

As you near the end of your allotted time for a given task, give a two minute warning. Try to bring your business to a close quickly and efficiently.

Be Sure To Write Things Down

Keep a pen and paper by your phone. I can hardly believe the number of companies I call only to be asked to hold while the employee finds a pen and paper.

A pen and paper are the world’s most vital business tools, and you should NEVER be without them. I keep my appointment book open on my desktop at all times and keep notes as I speak to people. I note why they called my business and how I’m supposed to follow up with them with the information they request.

In that way, I have a record of the time, date, and purpose of their call so I can refer back to it if necessary at a future date if I need it. I also always write a person’s phone number under their name. In that way, I never have to search further than my appointment book for names and addresses.

Don’t Waste Your Time

Treat each minute as the valuable and precious resource it is. Every single person in this world starts out each day with the same amount of time in which to accomplish tasks and objectives. The only part that differs from person to person is how that time is used.

Successful people try to squeeze every second of opportunity out from the day, while those at the lower levels simply waste it away.

If you want to make $100,000 dollars a year, you must make $40 dollars an hour. That is exactly .66 per minute! If you spend 20 minutes on the phone talking to your buddy down the street about Monday night’s baseball game, you have just wasted $13.20 of your very valuable time.

If you take an hour long lunch instead of a 30 minute lunch, you have just lost $19.80 of your important time. Once lost, time can never be regained.

The next time you find yourself involved in a situation that waste your time, ask yourself the following question. Do you think I would pay my friend down the street $13.20 in cold hard cash out of my wallet, right now, to listen to me talk about last night’s game?

The answer, of course, is no. Yet, that is what you are doing. Wasting $13.20 of your cash, which should be dedicated to reaching your goals and serving your clients or business.

If you are working on a project and are interrupted by a call that takes ten minutes, it often takes you another ten minutes to get back to what you were doing. Instead of being interrupted twenty times a day, schedule 30 minutes a day for returning phone calls that are not important.

These are calls from college buddies, telemarketers, salesmen,or other people who are not actual customers. Your time at work is far too valuable to allow constant interruptions. By setting a specific time, it also eliminates annoying games of phone tag and keeps you focused.

If you wanted to earn $60,000 a year you would need to make $5,000 per month. This works out to be $1,153 per week, based on a 48-hour, six-day week, which we will say is typical for most successful people.

This breaks down further to be $192 per day or $24 per hour. You now have a powerful tool to help you reach your goals. You know exactly what you must make each and every hour that you are working in order to reach your desired income level.

Now let’s see which of your daily tasks really produce that desired figure of $24 per hour?

Advertising your business or yourself to others.

Increasing your inventory of skills.

Researching marketing information and using it for your business.

These are some of the tasks that really could help you produce $24 per hour. Good advertising makes the phone ring. Selling, whether it’s a direct sale of your products or getting someone to give you an interview for a better job, definitely pays off.

Marketing can keep other companies involved in the life of your company and brings new blood in the form of contacts and prospects. Increasing your skills makes you more valuable to yourself and others, and this will pay off quickly.

Then, of course, there are the tasks that do not produce $24 per hour.

Paying bills.

Ordering inventory.

Typing letters.

Adding to a database.

I am not suggesting that any of these things are not important to the overall success of your business. Rather, I’m suggesting that you can find someone else to do these kinds of tasks for just a few dollars an hour, allowing you to focus on the important high-return tasks.

The Word No ” The Most Powerful Word in Time Management

The simple act of saying, “NO,” will save you more time, energy, and effort than you can ever imagine. In an overexerted effort to try to please everyone, we often find ourselves taking on more and more responsibility, activities and stress.

At some point, you simply have to say, “NO, I am sorry but I can’t.” Try it; it’s not that hard, and the people asking get over your refusal very quickly. In fact, they are already calling someone else.

Put aside X amount of time in your weekly plan to help your church, school, community, or friends. Once that time is used up, it is gone, and there is no more.

Remember the words of Napoleon who said, “You can ask me for anything you like… except my time.

Andrew Wood is the world’s leading expert on golf related marketing. He is the author of over 20 marketing books including his new book Cunningly Clever Marketing. He speaks worldwide on sales and marketing topics and is in high demand as a copywriter and marketing consultant. He is also the CEO and Owner of multiple golf marketing companies including Legendary Golf Management Company.

How can 20% add to increased productivity and less work hours for your business? 20% can make momentous impact towards the success you want to achieve.

Try These Five Strategies to Help You Increase Your Productivity

1. Attain Organization

People loose about 7 hours each week due to disorganization. Organize your office into productive environment. As a business owner, you can create your work environment. It’s critical toward your long term success to work in an environment which supports you.

2. Create time synergy

Some people are night owls other are early bird. When you know which type you are, you can schedule your task and projects more effectively around your energy cycle.

3. Go Into Super Focus Mode

Limit access to yourself… turn off the phone, email and twitter. No interruptions. Set a timer and stay 100% focused on the task at hand. Group your tasks in bunches. Return emails and phone calls at the same time. Do all your writing in chunks, dedicate certain days for project, etc.

4. Take Care of Yourself

Self neglect can cause tension on any business through increased stress and strain. Keep personal health a priority as it is effective in good business management.

5. Relax and refresh

Sometimes when you feel overwhelm and pressure, take a brain break. Let your mind wander for a few minutes. Taking a quick break almost always leads to a boost in productivity.

Choose one strategy at a time to complete, take time, assess, and have flexibility and realism to projected goals.

It’s true; make it to your junior year of college and the hard part is over. It’s just a matter of time until you graduate.

In fact, get through your sophomore year successfully, and you’ll almost certainly return for your junior year, according to a large body of research.

Freshman year is the one that provides the biggest hurdle for most students. At some college, more than half the students who do not graduate leave between their first day on campus and what should be the first day of their sophomore year. To avoid being one of those “early leavers”, pledge to follow the five rules below.

1. Attend all scheduled classes. There is a reason this is the first rule listed. If you think it’s OK to miss classes, remember this; you’re just a freshman…you don’t know anything yet. You only think you do.

2. Manage your time intelligently by making a schedule and having the self-discipline to stay with it. Do not ever study or sleep fewer hours than scheduled.

3. Don’t get behind. Review the syllabus in each of your courses, be aware of when assignments are due, and know when the busiest periods of the semester will be for you. That way you can do your best work without having to cram or be under the kind of stress students feel when they have not stayed on top of their coursework.

4. Remember the “all things in moderation” speech that your parents or teachers gave you? If not, as painful as it may be to hear again, ask them to repeat it. That’s because it’s true. If you stay up all night, drink too much, and spend more time seeking romance than looking for the answers to your math problems, you could be joining the work force before you planned to, and in a different position than the one to which you aspired.

5. Get involved. Don’t return to your hometown every weekend. Take part in events and activities on campus. Be open to new friendships. Join at least one student group. Be an active part of the college or university community. You’ll never regret it.

Nobody can guarantee that you’ll enjoy college. And, certainly, nobody can promise that you’ll earn a degree, but following the five rules above will make you a good bet to be both happy and successful.