The Law of Forced Efficiency By Brian Tracey

This law says that, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."

You Always Find the Time
When you run out of time and the consequences for non-completion of a key task or project can be really serious, you always seem to find the time to get it done, often at the very last minute. You start early, you stay late and you drive yourself to complete the job rather than to face the negative consequences that would follow if you didn't get it completed within the time limit.

Rule: "There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do."

You Are Already Overwhelmed
The fact is that the average person today is working at 110% to 130% of capacity. And the jobs and responsibilities just keep piling up. Everyone has stacks of reading material they still have to go through. One study concluded recently that the average executive has 300-400 hours of reading and projects backlogged at home and at the office.What this means is that you will never be caught up. Get that out of your mind. All you can hope for is to be on top of your most important responsibilities. The others will just have to wait.

Deadlines Can Be Counterproductive
Many people say that they work better under the pressure of deadlines. Unfortunately, years of research indicate that this is seldom true.Under the pressure of deadlines, often self-created through procrastination and delay, people suffer greater stress, make more mistakes, and have to do redo more tasks, than under any other conditions.

Often the mistakes that are made when people are working under tight deadlines lead to defects and cost overruns that lead to substantial financial losses in the long-term. Sometimes the job actually takes much longer to complete when people rush to get the job done at the last minute and then have to redo it.

The Key Question You Should Ask

The key question you can ask is: "What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?"

This is the core question of time management. This is the key to overcoming procrastination and becoming a highly productive person. Every hour of every day, there is an answer to this question. Your job is to ask yourself the question, over and over again, and to always be working on the answer to it, whatever it is.

Do first things first and second things not at all. As Goethe said, "The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of the things that matter least."The more accurate your answers to this question, the easier it will be for you to set clear priorities, to overcome procrastination and to get started on that one activity that represents the most valuable use of your time.

Action Exercises
Take a few minutes each day and sit quietly where you cannot be disturbed. During this time, let your mind relax and just think about your work and activities, without stress or pressure.In almost every case, during this time of solitude, you will receive wonderful insights and ideas that will save you enormous amounts of time when you apply them back on the job. Often you will experience breakthroughs that will change the direction of your life and work.

For more great time management tips get your FREE copy of “11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them” at
http://www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com/


Len Foster

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Seven steps to success

Hi again

Today I want to share with you a time saving recipe for kick starting success in anything you do.

1 Take immediate action

Write down everything you want to be different in your life from this moment on. As a guide I have listed some topics below use these if you want to but be sure to add lots of your own. Don't rationalise just write. e.g. be in control of my life, live with less stress, stop feeling guilty when I have to say no, doing more of what I do want to do, doing less of what I don't want to do, be better at managing my time, feel happy and joyful, enjoy life to the full, make the most of opportunities, have more confidence, have better work life balance, have more energy, find inner peace.

2 Create the change
To get different results you will need to think and act differently. Remember "if you do what you've always done you'll get what you've always got". Write down 10 ways you can be a different person today, one that will do and have the things you wrote down in your list from step 1. Examples would be:
more loving
grateful
confident
in control
healthier
think clearly

When you write them down start with Today I am e.g. in control of my life. Then when you have completed your list take some time in a quiet place and read them again and after each one think deeply, really imagine what it would be like to experience this in your life. What would you sound like, how would you look, where would you be, who would you be with and what would you be doing? Really go to town with your imagination.

3 Develop a game plan
Decide where you can put these changes into your life today. You could for example decide to eat more healthily, you could take a little time to think of all the things you are grateful for in your life, remember "what you think about and thank about you bring about". If you are attending a meeting you could decide to behave more confidently. You could resolve to think clearly about things before you form an opinion.

4 PrioritiSe
From the list of changes you want to make decide which is most important and rank that number1 then rank the rest 2, 3, etc. When writing down the change also write where you will implement it and why e.g. Confidence - at the meeting today I will voice my opinion because what I have to say has value.

5 Review
When you start to believe in and value yourself more you will find other values and beliefs surface that you were not previously aware of. Use these for positive change where appropriate e.g. to boost your self esteem.

Take your new confidence and develop it to make a better contribution at work and socially. Value yourself and you will attract others that value you also.

6 Lose the negatives save the positives

Remember you can change the way you believe about you or anything else if you decide to e.g. you may have changed support for a political party because you stopped believing they would deliver on their promises. Take the negatives from your old beliefs and ditch them. Save the positives and use them to reinforce the new you. (if you want a sure fire simple way of doing this drop me a line at len@lenfoster.com and I'll send you the super formula)

7 Be in control

Constantly question what's going on in your head right now (call it mind chatter, head gremlins whatever you want) is a positive or a negative influence on what you are trying to achieve. If you decide it's negative replace it immediately with positive thoughts of your desired outcome.

What would a more positive belief be about what you want to achieve or be? Attach strong uplifting emotion to the belief. Create a new rule for negative mind chatter e.g. "any time I have a negative thought I will think of e.g. 10 positive ones to replace it with". Mindset dictates success so, be the person whose cup is always half full and you will succeed

To get your FREE copy of “11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them” go to
ftp://effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com/index.htm

Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life

Hi everyone - OK this may not be popular however, it's true. You can moan, whine and bitch all you like about how everyone else has all the luck, wins all the prizes, gets all the freebies and has the easy life if you want. REALITY you create and are responsible for everything that happens in your life and, you should be really glad you have the opportunity to do so, read on........

One of the biggest mistakes made in our culture is to think we are
entitled to a great life - that someone, somewhere (definitely not us) is responsible for mapping out a life filled with great career opportunities with wonderful salaries, unlimited happiness a family life others can only dream of and personal relationships that are unsurpassed.
The reality of this myth is that there is only one person responsible for your quality of life and that’s you.

It is the easiest thing in the world to lay blame on any and everything because you haven't got the job you or the relationship you want. It's also easy to justify your non action in going out and getting the things you want e.g "they would never pick me for that job anyway so what’s the point of trying", or "it's obvious she would turn me down if I asked her out so why bother".
We have become almost conditioned to blame others for the things we don’t have parents (it's in my genes), family, friends, spouse, weather, star sign - just about anyone but us.

If you want to create the life of your dreams you have to be prepared to give up all excuses, all thoughts of laying blame with others, all the ways of justifying why you do nothing to help yourself. These kind of thoughts and feelings must be banished forever.
You may as well realise it now, you have always had the power to make a difference in your life. There is not one problem or hard luck storey you have that someone somewhere else has not had and overcome it to produce a positive result.

Who knows why you have not succeeded in the past? It may have been fear of trying, lack of knowledge or awareness, ignorance of a situation, whatever it was thats in the past, you cant change it and it wont take you forward if you keep living there.
The main thing now is to choose to be the solution to everything in your life. That means you choose to act as if you are responsible for everything that does or does not happen in your life. No one else just you! From now on you are the master of your own destiny.

There is a great formula that describes how 100% responsibility works. It is this E + R = O (Event + Response = Outcome). The idea is that any event that has happened in your life that has resulted in success or failure (outcome is directly related to your response at the time.
You can blame any event for your poor outcome. You can blame your boss, the car, the weather your tools your golf clubs, race, lack of education, just about anything you can think of. On the other hand you could simply change your response (R) to the event (E) until you get the outcome (O) you desire.

If everyone gave up because they did not get the outcome they wanted first time around we would not have the myriad of products that resulted from inventions that endured numerous failures before eventually being successful.
You decide how much and what you eat, how much TV you watch, how much or little time you spend on educating yourself, what you read, who you socialize with and how you use your time. If you are prepared to act as if you are responsible for everything in your life then you will soon realise that you can determine your own path to the things you really want, the job, the relationship etc.

If what you are currently doing was going to get you what you really wanted it would have arrived by now. The fact it hasn’t means you need to do something else (different response) to get the outcome (O) you desire. Be wary of hanging around with moaners, blamers and people who generally have a cup half full mentality as it will rub off on you.
You will never have success while you continue to blame someone else for your lack of it. After all you are more than happy to recognise when a decision you made came off or turned out better than expected so take responsibility for the ones that didn’t.

Replace negative with positive, can't with can, wont with will, probably with definitely. The moment you accept that you are responsible for what you are going to get out of life it removes all the chance, the doubt the what ifs and maybes because now its in your control.
Take a good look at your life write down all the areas that you would like to make changes in e.g. Health, Emotional, Spiritual, Money, Family/Social, Vocation, Self Development, Partner. When you have done this write down what you would really like in the ones you have chosen then consider what, you would need to do to achieve the result (outcome) you desire. What does your (response) need to be?

Try it, you will feel so much better for taking positive action and in a short while you will see that it becomes the only way you want to live your life. You will gradually become an action taker (remember there’s nothing like action for getting things done) and wonder why you spent so many years waiting for things to just materialize when with a bit of effort you could have made them happen yourself.

To get four free copy of "11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them" go to http://www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com/index.htm

Thats all for now

Len

Eliminate The Interuptions

Hi Everyone

In this post I want to focus you on being more productive by prioritizing and limiting disruptions.

When you are planning a day’s work, prioritize. Your list of things to be accomplished will include those that are crucial and those that can wait. Make sure you do not spend all your time working on tasks that really aren’t as important just because they are smaller and easier to complete. Work your list in order of importance. Do no procrastinate. If you are tempted to put an item off, break down the task into smaller manageable pieces.

According to Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, the average person gets 50 interruptions a day that take about five minutes a piece. This means that we spend over four hours each day dealing with unplanned events. Sorting through the deluge of paper that crosses your desk in a single day can be exhausting.

Between e-mail printouts, telephone messages, mail, memos, advertisements, and faxes, your work area can quickly become overwhelming. Try to stick to the rule of handling each item only once (single handling). If you don’t need it, get rid of it. If you can’t handle it in a few minutes, consider delegating it. If it is your responsibility and will take time to address, schedule it on your calendar and put it away.

Get into a routine. Good routines can increase energy and save time, while mindless routines can curb creativity. Make sure any routines you use are serving a purpose other than just to fill up time. Plan times to accomplish certain tasks every day.

Repetitive tasks, such as answering email or completing paper work, can be scheduled to be completed during a certain time period each day. This will allow you to devote your full attention to these tasks once a day, instead of partially addressing them several times a day. Set start and stop times for all major tasks during your day. Focus on getting one task completed before moving onto the next otherwise you will become overwhelmed by having lots of tasks started and non finished.

To get your FREE copy of "11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them go to

http://www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com/index.htm

That's all for now

Len Foster

Time Saving Tactics

Hi Everyone - here's a simple no cost tip that will help you create time to do the things you really want to do!

Everyday people are heard saying I wish I had more time. They run through from task to task and event to event at light speed, trying to find ways to do and accomplish more.

Some people seem to accomplish far more than others in their day, week, and lifetime. Benjamin Franklin was a successful author, politician, scientist, philosopher, printer, inventor, activist, and diplomat. His accomplishments are astounding. He was a scientist known for his theories and discoveries and gained the recognition of fellow scientists and intellectuals.

He was a political writer and activist, and served as a diplomat during the American Revolution. He was a newspaper editor, self published author. Postmaster General, and started the first American library. His credits go on and on.

Benjamin Franklin is even credited for the statement; ‘Time is money.’ How did he find the time?
The good news is there is no more time! How can that be good news?

In this respect, the playing field is level.
Everyone gets the same twenty-four hours in a day.
Your competition has no more hours in a day than you.
The richest man cannot buy even one more minute of time in a day!
You can only manage yourself and activities more effectively.

In a typical forty-hour workweek, it’s estimated that the average person spends:

1.7 hours looking for things
1.0 hour rescheduling appointments and tasks

1.4 hours wasted because of rescheduled appointments and tasks
2.2 hours wasted because of disorganisation and lack of priority This is a total of more than 6 hours wasted due to poor planning and a lack of organisation.
When people are asked why they are not organised, the number one reason given is:
‘I don’t have the time.’

The fact is, people choose to be disorganized. Most people could save this wasted time by spending just two hours a week organising and planning. In just two hours of planning, you could free an additional three to four hours every week of prime time. Use this simple no cost strategy and give yourself time with your family, time with your friends, time to relax or whatever it is you want to do? Remember to FAIL TO PLAN is to PLAN TO FAIL!

To get your FREE copy of "11 Fatal Time Management Mistakes and How To Avoid Them" go

http://www.effectivetimemanagementforpropertydevelopers.com/index.htm