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Today I will reach to the end with my discussion to Steve Pavlina’s article „10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job“. Here are the final arguments from Steve.

8. An inbred social life

Many people spend much time together with their colleagues. I do not mean only working time, but evenings and weekend as well. Usually you do not choose your co-workers (if you are not at the managerial position) so you will not choose the people you are socializing with. You just get hired to one department and after that you are going to spend much time together with them.

If you are a businessman than you do not have pre-assigned colleagues and you have more choice with whom you are going to spend time together. You have more freedom and you can be together with people you really like.

Actually if you are an employee there is no obligation to spend your leisure time together with your colleagues. For example, I have never spent too much time together with my co-workers from the university. I have always had my friends outside university and I have always preferred them.

The fact that jobs will inbreed your social life applies mainly to people who are not very eager to make friends. It is an easy way to socialize with people, who you are working together with and to participate in all kinds of company parties and activities instead of finding yourself places to go and things to do.

9. Loss of freedom

On many jobs there are detailed job descriptions and employees are strictly told what and when they should and should not do. They may not have control over their working time, they may not choose their working tasks and co-workers. They may even to be told how to dress, talk and move.

On the other hand, being a business man provides you freedom. Nobody will tell you what you have to do. Actually you do not have to do anything (but you will not earn money then). You may wear whatever you like (although what you are wearing will affect your business success).

Although being an employee is more restrictive it suits better to people who are below average in self-discipline, who are not confident to make decisions individually or who want that they are supervised.

10. Becoming a coward

An employee may be dissatisfied with his/her boss, but he usually can’t or does not dare to criticize him much, because it may cost his/her job. Therefore workers may hate their bosses in their hearts but they still will obey them. But this is generating stress and unhappiness. If you are an employee then you will loose your courage.

Fortunately, things are not so dark. Opposing your boss, will not always cost you a job, in some cases it may give you more respect and will have a positive impact on your career progress. You boss will notice you. And even if it costs you a job, then you can get a new one. If you act bravely then it will increase your self-respect which will help you in finding a new job.

To sum all these arguments up, it is not possible to tell what kind of a life should a person live, should he be an employee or start his own business. Everyone is free to make his decision. Being an employee is an easy solution and it is better possibility for people, who are less capable (actually they believe that they are so). Being an entrepreneur requires much effort. Basically every one can do it, if they really want it and if they believe in themselves. But if you do not have enough belief in yourself or will-power then it will not be a good solution for you.

kristjan Business freedom, jobs, leisure time, working time

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Every day we spend our time on different activities. For example our working time may include meetings, gathering information, writing documents, paying the bills, making phone calls and so on. We do not spend the whole day on one kind of tasks, but there are many different tasks to be done in one day. It means that we have to switch from one task to the next task many times in a day.

Many people tend to delay with starting the new task after they have completed the previous one. That kind of pauses will waste a considerable amount of time. For example if you delay the start of a new activity on the average by 5 minutes and there are 12 activities in your day then you will lose a whole hour. But there can be more tasks in your work day and some people waste even more time than 5 minutes before getting to the new tasks, so that kind of time loss can be even bigger.

That kind of procrastination is more likely to happen if the next task is unpleasant, difficult or time-consuming. If we do not like the idea that we have to start dealing with that task then we tend to wait until we begin with it. But procrastination will not make the things easier for us. We have to get started anyway and delaying just wastes time, which means that we get less things done in one day and it causes a threat of missing deadlines.

There are many ways of reducing procrastination. You will get started to new tasks faster if you apply the following tips:

• Motivate yourself. You have to know why you are going to perform the next task. Although it may be dull or unpleasant, but if you see that it is necessary for achieving success then it is easier to get to that task.
• Reward yourself. It is very difficult to be motivated and efficient if your life is only hard work. If you reward yourself with going to a movies or buying new shoes after successfully completing a project, then it is easier for you to motivate yourself.
• Make a plan. Think through how you are going to perform different tasks. Break them into smaller pieces. Think how you will start and finish the activity. What are the objectives? What is needed for getting a good result?
• Create time pressure. Plan your time and set end times for different activities. For each task plan time necessary to complete it, but avoid leaving to much time for a particular task. If there is a little time pressure then you are more likely to be productive and waste less time. If there is no time to waste with delaying the start, then you have to get going fast.
• Stay fresh. Low energy level causes procrastination. Make regular pauses in your work day for staying energized. During the pauses stand up from the table and do some physical exercises. Eat regularly and healthy. Avoid consuming too much fat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Drink water to keep yourself hydrated and reduce your coffee intake. Have enough sleep in the night. Get to bed early and sleep for at least 7 hours a day.
• Create a “Start now!” habit. If you face a new task, then say “Start now!” to yourself. You may have to fight with your temptation to delay, but as soon as you get into new tasks you feel easy to keep going.

kristjan time management procrastination, time loss, work tasks, working time

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Many people think that speed reading is meant for reading books. Of course, when speed reading was invented then there was no internet or PCs so the only way to read texts was from paper. However, things have changed a lot from that time. At present many of us read more texts from the web pages than they do from paper.

How to speed read texts from the web? Basically, there is not much difference between reading text from paper and from the computer screen. Still, there exist some additional options for increasing your reading speed from computer screen such as the possibility to change the font size.

There are different types of texts, which we read from computer. Some of them are very similar to the written documents. For example, ebooks, newspaper articles, manuals, product reviews etc. are appear usually in exactly the same wording as in the printed versions. On the other hand there are some texts on the web, which are different form printed texts. Blog posts and social media text have somewhat different structure and content. Even the articles published in places such as Ezinearticles.com are not very similar to the ones in printed media.

The amount of blog and social media texts has increased explosively during the recent year or two. This has created a huge information overload, which results in the fact that many people spend far too much time on reading that kind of texts from the web. Many people waste much of their working time on it and often it is not work-related reading. Browsing web and reading blogs is a form of procrastination for some office workers.

While I could just recommend not reading those kinds of texts in order to get more work done then this would not be the best solution. These texts can be a valuable source of information. For example, I get many of new ideas from reading blog posts. You have to be wise on reading them.

You have to be selective when reading on the web. There is a huge amount of low quality content on the web. Read only those sources which provide you something valuable. Therefore following only a limited number of blogs is a good idea. If you are searching for information and find some an interesting article of blog post then you should bookmark it before reading it. If you want to get an overview of some topic then it is better if you search for articles about it then select only the best of them for further reading and later you will read bookmarked pages. It helps you to save time as you will far often end up reading low quality texts.

There is also not too much genuine content in the blogs. Many of the posts are written about common topics and provide the reader too little new knowledge. For example if you read about how to make gifts to your girlfriend or how to loose weight or save money then you can find similar tips for it on thousands of articles or posts. You should actually read only these texts, which provide you new information, which you have not heard before.

How can you find out, which texts are worth reading? For that you have to make a quick preview of the text. It means that you will look through it at fast pace, virtually you will just let the eyes fly over it. When doing it, then focus on the following items:

• Title. Usually the title says much about the main idea of the text. If you have a feeling that the text is not right for you then you can stop reading it after the title.
• Subtitles. Blog posts and web articles have usually many subtitles, which summarize the blocks of texts. Read all of them quickly and you get a good overview of the content. Again, if you find that the text is not right for you then do not waste more time on reading it.
• First paragraph. The first 2-3 sentences usually point out the main idea of the text.

And only if you have found the content worth reading then you can read it. Read less, but more quality texts.

kristjan Speed Reading blogs, computer screen, procrastination, reading books, speed reading, web pages, working time

I have been often asked how do I use my time myself. If I am giving everyone advise on time management, then how do I manage my own time. How does a typical day in my life look like?

Well, it is pretty difficult to describe a typical day for me because every day is unique to some sense and probably there is more variety in daily time use for me than for an average person. I am not a 9 to 5 employee and my working hours are not the same every day. I do not have a single job, but instead of that I have many different jobs. I am an associate professor of economics at the university, which means that my work tasks include giving and preparing for lectures, seminars, doing research and writing scientific articles, participating on conferences and other events. At the same time I am involved in many business projects. First, I am a speed reading and time management trainer. Second, I have an investment and insurance company. Third, I have a network marketing company, which is mostly specialized on selling different health relate products.

That may seem pretty much, but it is no problem if you plan your time well and work efficiently.

If I think about my ordinary day, then there are basically three types of days, days I work at home, days I work outside home, days I do not work (or work only a little). I always try to work at home as much as possible. For example, in the university you will basically see me only when I am giving lectures or attending meetings. But when I am doing research or preparing for lectures then I do it at home. Why? Because I can be more efficient in that way. My colleagues at the university are pretty talkative and they are not so good time managers. Then will often disturb me when I work there and I try to minimize my stay at the university building as much as possible. I also have to work outside home when I have to give training or meet people for business reasons. When possible I prefer to communicate with my business partners electronically for saving time, but it is not always the best solution, so there have to be some face-to-face meeting.

I am a morning person and my most efficient working time is before 11 AM. Therefore I try to get up early and start working early. I usually start working at 8 AM and usually I start my day behind my computer at home. I start my working day with some simple and short tasks to get myself going and create positive emotions. For example, I write my blog posts in the morning. It will usually take about 30 minutes for one post and it gives me a good emotional charge if I complete it. On some other days I may start with other simple tasks such as sending some mail, checking some information from the internet, filling some forms etc. It is important that these tasks do not last long, not more than 30 to 40 minutes. It is good if I can get many small tasks completed in that period.

After that I am warmed up for more challenging tasks. These may include doing some scientific research, preparing for lectures and trainings, solving some problems for my businesses, working out strategic plans etc. From 9 to 11 AM I do hard work behind my computer. Of course it is not possible on all days, as for some days I have to give a lecture at 9.30 AM.

If I have done enough hard analytical work then I will check my emails. I read them the altogether and for every mail I make a decision, how I am going to respond to them. In most cases I write the answers to some mails immediately, but when I have to do some work with that issue before I can reply to that mail, then put these thing into my “To do list”. After processing mail I usually make some phone calls. I make all the calls in a row if possible for saving time.

Before I go to lunch I will take up some easier and more routine tasks as I am tired already. Still I will be doing them at fast pace. If I can stay at home then I do not go out to lunch (if I do not have a business meeting on that day), but will prepare lunch for myself and at the same time I will be still doing some simple work tasks.

After I have completed my lunch, I stop working on many days. If my stomach is full then it makes my sleepy and I can not be that efficient. On some days I have meetings or appointments after the lunch. But if there are not any, then I will do something else like go shopping, go for a walk etc. My girlfriend works in my investment and insurance company as a sales agent, which means that she can choose her working time on her own. So we often spend time together after the lunch.

I spend a lot of time on practicing sports. I try to perform physical training six days a week , however on some weeks I have to be on business travels of trainings and I do not always manage to stick to that rule. Twice a week I have soccer training, once in a week there is a soccer match, twice a week I will do bodybuilding in the gym and one a week I will go running. The soccer practices will start at 8 PM, gym and running usually about 4 or 5 PM.

After the training I feel refreshed and I have energized myself to work at full power again. Therefore I often work for a couple of hours in the evening for example from 8PM to 10 PM. I do not do it every day, but usually two or three days a week. I will usually work with my business projects on the evenings or do some scientific research. Those evening hours are my second efficient working time in the day besides the morning hours.

On the weekends I will usually enjoy my life, meet friends, have parties etc. Still, I usually work a little on week ends, about 2 to 3 hours a day. If find it inefficient to spend the whole day on leisure as does not really spoil your day for example if you work from 8 to 10 AM. I can still enjoy most of the day and I can use my most efficient working time.

kristjan time management efficiency, time management, working at home, working time

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An average person, who has not learned speed reading techniques, is able to read at 200-250 words per minute. You can test yourself here  in order to find out your own reading speed. By learning to speed read most people are able to at least double their reading speed if they practice regularly. Regular practice means that they perform speed reading exercises every day for at least one month. There is no need to spend several hours on it each day. 45 minutes per day will do, but it has to be regular.

A typical office worker will spend about 25% of his/her working time on reading. In case of a standard 8 hour work day it is 2 hours. If you double your reading speed then it allows you to save one hour each day. If you triple your reading speed then you will save one hour and twenty minutes. So if you are reading initially at 250 words per minute, then increasing your reading speed to 500 words per minute gives you a huge gain, but taking your speed up to 750 words per minute does not help you that much.

The best speed readers can read at speeds above 1000 words per minute. Reaching so fast speeds takes a great deal of practice, but the practical value of reading so fast is not so striking.

Doubling your initial reading speed will give you the biggest efficiency gains and it can be achieved by sensible amount of practice. Being a super-fast reader may be effective and you can impress your friends with it but if you have to work very hard for it then there is actually no necessity for that. So getting the basics of speed reading and putting it into practice will be enough for us.

Speed reading it self is not a goal, it is only a means to being more productive in mental work. To be a productive worker, being able to read fast is not enough. If your time management skills are poor, if you are procrastinating and wasting your working time then it will not help you much if can read very fast. Although rushing through your papers at 1000 words per minute, can save you valuable minutes, but if your coffee brakes are half an hour long or you waste your working time surfing internet then at the end of the day will not end up with that much work being done

So, I would recommend you to be sensible with speed reading. What you need to do is to learn speed reading techniques, practice them and apply to your job-related reading. Do not go crazy about speed reading, but practice it regularly. If you do so you will get the most from it with sensible effort.

kristjan Speed Reading productivity, speed reading, speed reading test, working time

Most of us are spending a considerable portion of their working time reading and writing e-mails. An average office worker spends 1-2 hours daily, dealing with email, which is up to 25% of working time. We may have tens or hundreds of emails waiting for us when we arrive in the office and it may take a lot of time to deal with them.

But what if we could handle our mail faster? We will have more time for other work tasks then and we could finish our day earlier. Following I will give you some tips how you can save time on e-mail communication:

• Decide when you read your e-mails. Having certain times during a day to read emails is a good time management practice. Checking e-mail twice a day is enough for most of us. The advantage of dealing with incoming mail on a certain time is that you will deal with a large number of mails together. In total, it will take you less time to read your mails in comparison of checking mail for every hour and dealing with only a small number of them at one time.
• Deal with one mail only once. You should open a message only one. After opening it read it through immediately (if is worth reading) and make a decision what are you going to with it. Are you going to reply to it, forward it to others, are there any actions to be taken by you? Make that decision at once.
• Learn to speed read. Speed reading techniques will enable you to work through you mail faster and you will save a lot of time.
• Send less mail out. Avoid sending mail when there is no need for it. In many cases making a phone call is more efficient than sending an e-mail. Before writing a mail ask yourself is it better to call or send mail on that occasion. Do not send jokes, videos and other funny stuff to other people. It wastes your and their time.
• Keep you messages short. Writing shorter messages will cost you less time, but you will also save the time of the recipient. Write a clear heading to the mail, so that it could be understood at once what the message is about. A good email starts we a call to action, it means that you tell at one what do you want to achieve with this mail, for example organize a meeting, send a report, ask for permission etc. Next, there should be the details of the issue in the middle part of the message, where you present the relevant information. Finally, the message should have a clear conclusion, where you summarize main points and repeat the call to action.
• Delete spam immediately. Do not waste your time on reading junk mail. Usually the mail program can send that kind of mail automatically to the spam folder and you should not waste time on reading these mails. Still, some times may happen that the spam filters send mails that you need to the spam folder. Therefore before deleting spam you should check the sender and title of these mails.
• Teach others to send you less mail. You are likely to receive 80% of mail from 20% of addresses, which belong to the people you work in close relations. If you tell them not to send unnecessary mail, then you can reduce the amount of your incoming mail.

kristjan time management email, phone call, sending mail, speed reading techniques, working time

For working at maximum efficiency, you have to find a steady working flow. If you can get well into your tasks and concentrate on them then you can finish your tasks in short time. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to keep that kind of work rhythm as you can get interrupted constantly. A telephone rings and you are going to answer it. A colleague steps in asks you to help him. A friend comes to visit you and starts talking and talking and there is no sign that he will leave soon. All that kind of interruptions waste your work time. The do not only take the time of a phone call or talking to the visitor, but they also disturb your work flow. It means that even if the interruption has ended, it will take you some time to achieve the working pace you had before the interruption.

If you want to work fast then you have to minimize the number of interruptions. You have to defend your time. How can you do it? The basic thing is that you have to learn to say “no”. If the visitors are going to drop in then you have to send them a way. Say them that you are busy, if you feel that you still want to meet them then suggest a suitable time for you. Keep in mind that in many cases your co-workers are stepping in not really as they cannot solve their problems on there own, but some people just want to talk. Most problems your colleagues are asking for help are not so difficult that they cannot find the answer on your own. If other people will try to find solutions to their problems on their own then they will often develop more.

Still, if their problem is something that you can solve in two minutes or less then you may still do it, but if it will take more time then you should make an appointment for that. If you decide to make an appointment with them then set a time limit. You can say that we can discuss it for 15 minutes at 10 AM tomorrow. If possible then plan all your visitors to arrive in a sequence. If you can deal with three visitors in a row in one hour, then it is far better than if one visitor is going to step in for 20 minutes in the morning, the second at noon and third in the afternoon.

If you set the time limits for meetings with visitors then you have to stick to them. If the time is up then you have to send your visitors away. Tell them that you have to start doing the next task. If you cannot solve the problem during the visit then make a new appointment on other day.

It may seem to be too radical, but is it really better than letting the interruptions ruin your work day. Do you want to work in the evening or weekends become you wasted your working time on chatting to other people? Do you want to achieve professional success or just pass your work days without doing much useful?

It is a good idea to set some hours from the day as a period when no-one can interrupt you. Put a “Do not disturb” sign on the door and set you telephone to the silent mode. For example, you can decide that from 10 AM to 12 AM you will not communicate to anyone (except there is an emergency). During these hours you can concentrate to the most demanding tasks. If you can work with out distractions for two hours a day then it often happens that during these hours you will do more work during the rest of your day.

kristjan time management Add new tag, appointments, concentration, efficiency, visitors, work flow, working time

In 20th century most people worked as employees and only about 10% of employed were entrepreneurs. Traditionally the job an employee has been restricted both by time and space. The wage earner worked from 9 AM to 5 PM 5 days a week. He had a working place provided by his employer. His boss told him what exactly his tasks are, gave him these tasks, monitored his performance and evaluated him. Usually the employee received a fixed pay, for example $2000 in a month. In same cases he may have earned premiums or bonuses for good performance or just for Christmas. Still the fixed pay made up the biggest share of his earnings.

In 21st century the jobs will be different. The situation of employees will be come more similar to the situation of entrepreneurs. First, the employees will not have so strictly limited tasks than before. The employees are expected to find creative solutions to problems rather than dealing with specific tasks. It means that employees will have more freedom and responsibilities like the entrepreneurs have. Additionally, the jobs will become more time and space flexible. For example, if the firm expects the employee to design an advertising booklet for his client, then it is really not important when and where the employee does this job. Of course, it is important that he will finish the booklet by the deadline agreed with the client. But it does not matter how much time the employee spends for that project or what time does he work on it, it is irrelevant whether he works on it on Monday from 9 AM to 5 PM or Saturday night from 1 AM to 7 AM. Similarly, it makes no difference if the works on it in the office in London or on Mallorca beach. What matters is the result. It does not even matter if he designs the booklet himself or if he outsources that work. That kind of developments mean that the employee will have more control over his time and activities and the boss will control him less then in the past. What matters is achieving excellent results on time.

Second, if the employee’s job becomes more results-based, then his monetary rewards for it must be also more results-based. Traditionally employers have paid their employees previously agreed fixed pay. That kind of stable pay has been relatively risk-free for employees as if the employee’s performance is at least satisfactory then he has always received his pay check. That kind of pay system is not very motivating and it does not drive the employees to work with efficiently and find solutions for earnings more revenues for the company. The entrepreneur has never had a fixed income, for him it has been always necessary to put in effort for offering better products and services, but if successful there have been chances for him to earn a big fortune. Now the things have started to changes as pay systems, where the wages are related to performance are more widely used. That kind of trend is likely to continue in the future. It is also possible that employees are offered more profit-sharing schemes in the future.

What does it mean for you? It means that in future you have to be able to manage and plan your time and work efficiently for being successful on your job. The employee has to think on his own how he will reach his goals, what kind of resources he will use for that, at what time does he work, how much does he work and whether he work himself or outsources some of the tasks. There will be not so many so called warm places in the future, where the employee has little work to do and it is possible to earn wage without effort. Those kinds of job are inefficient and harmful to economy. For private businesses, they lead to high production costs, which will force the firm out of business if the competition becomes more and more global and intense. In public sector, the existence of these jobs wastes the tax payers’ money and cause budget deficits.

What kind of news we hear everyday in relation with the global economic crisis? The companies are downsizing, governments are cutting cost. Firms are restructuring their processes, making them more efficient and productive. This will change the nature of the jobs too. In efficient jobs will abolish, there will be no easy options for earning money for lazy employees any more. Is it good or bad? For those who like doing nothing it is sad news, but it is also a good opportunity for those who like pursuing higher goals. Future jobs will give employees more freedom and responsibility; they will offer more possibilities for personal development and give good pay according to the employees’ performance. The chances for successful employees to earn very high wages will increase. So far those kinds of options have been privileges of entrepreneurs, but soon they will be more and more available for wage earners.

kristjan Business earnings, flexibility, job, wages, working time

Have you ever been bored and tired from having to stay long hours in the office? Has it happened sometimes that you cannot leave office at 5 PM because you are behind your schedule? For most of the people the answer to both these questions is „Yes”.

Long working hours itself are not always frustrating. If you are working on a job assignment, which is interesting for you to perform or if it is a critical task, which will give you an award after being completed then it may happen that you work long hours intensively and you even do not notice how the time flies. And if you can succeed in your task then you will feel you self satisfied and relieved despite the long hours and fatigue. Unfortunately, not all long work days do provide you success. It can happen that although you spend long hours on your assignment, but you are still not able to complete it.

In many cases the fact, the you have to stay long at the office is caused by the fact you have been working slowly that day and probably you have wasted lots of time on unnecessary tasks. It may be the result of poor time management, for example you do not have clear work plans or schedule, or you have procrastinated a lot because you did not have a clear vision, how you should perform you tasks.

Besides poor time management, working slowly can be caused by the fact that lack of skills or knowledge is slowing you down. You may waste time because you are unfamiliar with the new software package, new legislation or Spanish language. But you may be slow because you are a slow reader.

A typical office worker spends about 25% of his/her working time on reading. So if you are a slow reader, it will really matter. If you work slowly you have problems with keeping up with the deadlines and it is likely to generate stress. You have to work longer hours, which means that you will get more tired by working.

In addition, reading faster itself can make your working more pleasure. If you can read faster, then you can think about the topics you read faster. According to a study by Emily Pronin and Daniel M. Wegner http://www.photoreading.co.uk/2006FastThinking.pdf the thinking speed affect persons mood and happiness. In this study, there were made experiments with people, who had to read given statements at different speed. The results indicate that when the survey participants read the statements at faster speed then the participants were more likely to experience positive mood.

If you read and think faster then it can give you more confidence. You will feel that you have the control and you are less stressed by the fear that you cannot finish on time. Fast reading and fast working may create excitement.

So, it means that speed reading skill will first give you an opportunity to save your working time and prevent you from working late hours. Second, it will give you a possibility to get more happiness from the work process itself.

kristjan Speed Reading, time management fatigue, office worker, pleasure, speed reading, stress, time management, working time

Every work day starts from its beginning. The way be start our day is very important. Frequently, the very first activities of the day will affect the efficiency of the whole day ahead. It is mostly related to psychological factors. If we start our day successfully, then it will give a positive charge for the rest of the day. But if the start of the day is a failure, then it will have a negative influence on our following activities.

Good work day is a day when we know exactly what we are doing, what is waiting us ahead and in which order we carry out different tasks. It is wise to plan your day on the previous day. It is even better if we play through the next day in our mind on previous evening or in the morning before starting with our work. If we have visualised the upcoming tasks then we can quickly get on to our activities and we avoid wasting time in the morning and thinking what and how we have to do today.

Our work efficiency is not the same on different parts of the day. Although it does not apply for everyone, but still a big number of people are most productive in the morning. Usually we are fresher in the morning than at the end of our work day. If this is true for you, then you should not waste your time in the morning. It is also bad to use your most efficient time of the day on routine or repetitive tasks or activities, which do not require much effort or creativity. It is not sensible to use that time for compiling standard writing invoices, writing a routing monthly report or filing documents. You benefit more is you use your best working time for more sophisticated tasks like doing different analyzes, writing articles, brainstorming etc.

Still it is not a good idea to choose the very first task of the day a long-lasting and complicated work. It is important to get a strong positive emotional charge at the begging of the work day and to get in to a good working rhythm. Therefore is wise to start your day with some small tasks, which you can finish in a couple of minutes. These tasks are like a warm up for more difficult challenges.

One possibility to get a good start for your day is to send out e-mails to the people you want to contact. If it is in your mind what do you want to write them, then you can compile a number of e-mails during a short period of time. I mean sending out e-mails and not reading the incoming messages, which can be a relatively time consuming process if you receive a lot of mail. Early morning hours may not be the best time for reading and answering incoming mail as if you have checked your mail at the end of the previous work day, which is a good idea, then you may have not so many unread messages at the start of your work time. If this is a case, then it is better to deal with incoming mail a bit later as then you will have more incoming messages and you can process more e-mails during one block of time. Paying your bills, asking for price offers, making some database queries of searching some simple information in the internet are also good choices for starting your day.

In that way you can finish five, seven or even ten small tasks during the first 30 minutes of your work day. From the emotional point of view it is very important that we get a number of tasks completed at the beginning of the day as the more tasks we have accomplished the better we feel ourselves. Every task we manage to finish, gives us a positive charge that we have again succeeded with one thing.

Now you are ready for the most demanding challenges of the day. Now you are warmed up and fully in your working mood and have received plenty of positive emotions. You know exactly what you have to do now as you have planned it yesterday. Now get on to new tasks right away. Do not make pauses or waste time as it is important to maintain a stable working pace. In that way you can achieve the most demanding tasks successfully and efficiently.

kristjan time management emotional charge, time management, time of the day, wasting time, work efficiency, working time