The almighty scratch pad: a few simple pieces of paper.

You doodle on it. You make notes. You throw it away. 

Is there a more effective tool for staying organized than the scratch-pad? 

 The answer is yes –of course.  Organized tasks lists, project management software and to-do lists should be utilized whenever possible.  However, the scratch pad does have its place and can serve many useful purposes.

A scratch pad is a handy, temporary solution to help you in your project, task, or objective.

Always carry a scratch pad of some sort with you no matter where you go because you never know when a task or an idea is going to hit you.

• During a meeting you often develop new ideas or bring forth ideas of things to be done. It could be calls you have to make or things you need to remember to do when you return to your office.
• When you’re on the phone talking to a client and a list of things to do for that client hits you – what do you do? Exactly, you grab the scratch pad.

A scratch pad isn’t just limited to work. Keeping a scratch pad in your vehicle is a great help when you’re out running errands and think of something you need to remember.

This is a simple yet effective tool for time management. After all, how many times have you sat around trying to figure out what is was you needed to do or needed to get while you were out? It’s also very easy to transcribe these notes onto your computerized task list, software or into your personal planner.

You never know when or where you run into someone and have a conversation that will lead to some task you need to complete. Often you’re not carrying around all of your project files with you or your computer and you may not have access to all of your lists. So having a scratch pad handy at all times is vital.

Getting rid of your completed scratch pads is also as vital as having them with you. If you don’t get rid of the scratch pad lists once you finish with them you could risk getting them mixed up with other lists, you could forget what has been done and what hasn’t, and you’ll end up with more work then you wanted. Make it a habit of getting rid of each sheet as you finish the tasks on them. Draw a line through each completed task so you will know what you have left to finish.

Time management can occur in many forms. Most people would not consider something as simple as a scratch pad as a useful method of time management. But it is. It’s a simple tool that will help bring about big rewards when it comes to your time. It can also help reduce your stress levels because you won’t have to spend time trying to remember the things you’ve written down.
 

Wall Street really has evaporated and the commercial bank has won as the dominant business model.

While I wrote about it a few days ago, who knew it would’ve come so fast -with the government actually converting the last two remaining Wall Street investment banks into commercial banks.

This is great news for the American Economy.  On the one hand, it wipes out the extreme profits large investment banks have had to aim for since the deregulation of brokerage commissions in 1975.  On the other hand, it cuts off avenues for extreme risk taking in secondary markets.

This should translate into more funds being available for lending in the primary markets -directly to businesses -based on the strength of a business, rather than being based on the hope of being able to flip that obligation to a greater fool in the secondary market.

Our work week can bring with it all types of challenges.  How we deal with those challenges will affect our stress levels. By being organized and managing our time effectively, we can cut back on our stressors.

Let’s take a deeper look into stress .

Stress can be defined as a person’s non-specific reaction to demands placed on the body and mind. People can experience external or internal stress.

External stress is anything that is outside the person. For instance, particular projects or people, your job, your family, your relationships, these can all be external stressors. Even the temperature outside can be an external stressor.
 
Internal stress is things which we put on ourselves like competitiveness, ambitions and goals. You can also have internal stressors when you’re sick such as an infection or inflammation.

Time management can assist in dealing with external stress. By managing your time more effectively you are lessening the external stressors in that part of your life. Research has found that people who manage the stress in their lives and use effective time management techniques share some common things:

• Have a tendency to look at life as challenging instead of a constant source of stress;
• Are more focused and driven;
• Don’t feel like the victim because they have a sense of control over their lives.

Want a quick way to look at how you deal with external and internal stressors?  Take a look at the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety’s website at  and take their stress management quiz. It’s a neat little way of looking at your stress management style.

Stress can be a very powerful thing. If not handled correctly, stress can be very debilitating. This is why time management is so important. It helps alleviate some of that stress. Time management is meant to make life easier and smoother. Our business lives are hectic enough. By learning how to prioritize our tasks, get things done and not focus on the trivial things, we can greatly reduce our stress levels. So ask yourself “what’s stressing me out?” When you know the answer to that question you can start to develop a plan of action.

Every once in a while I feel compelled to put my economics degree to use.  This is one of those times.

There’s a tremendous amount of pain around the collapse of Lehman Brothers.  I don’t want to belittle or take attention away from that pain. I have been in two market collapses myself (Latin American stock markets in 1994 and the internet business in 2001) and it is not fun.

But there is a silver lining in the collapse of Lehman.  Lehman’s bankruptcy, along with Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch and Bear Sterns disappearance are the end a particular type of business: the large scale broker-dealer investment bank.  These banks made huge amounts of money in secondary markets for stocks, bonds and financial products derived from other underlying assets.  The money in these markets is primarily traded among participants in those markets.  It does not directly go to the companies, governments or people whose name might be on those assets. 

For example, when somebody buys a share of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola itself does not get any money from that transaction. It is made between a buyer and seller of that share.  The seller gets the money. The buyer gets the share. Coca-Cola gets nothing. Similarly, when another bank buys your mortgage from the company that originally provided it to you, you don’t get any money.  It’s simply a transaction between two banks.

To be sure, the secondary market has a role in the ability of companies, governments or people to raise money.  A lender or initial buyer is more likely to give you the money to start with if they believe they can easily unload that loan/sell it to someone else at a good price. But ultimately, they are not giving you the money because they think it’s a good place to put money. They are giving you the money because they know they can easily flip it for a decent profit to someone else.  In economics, this is called the greater fool theory. There will always be a greater fool to buy it –until there isn’t.

And the broker-dealers became the greatest fools. There was no-one else to sell it to. They were the end of line. 

The why’s of what drove the broker-dealers into this kind of risky decision making lay in the deregulation of commissions on stock trades in 1975 and the repeal of a Depression era piece of legislation called the Glass-Stiegel act.  Those are for another blog post.

What’s important now is that with the demise of the big broker Wall Street business model, traditional banks can grow the amount of money they have on deposit.  And this is good for entrepreneurs and small business in America (the backbone of the US economy).  Unlike a broker-dealer, a traditional bank (like Bank of America) makes it money by keeping money for people or companies and lending a percentage of it directly to other companies or entrepreneurs with ideas for real businesses. There’s little room for a greater fool. A company or person’s assets are often directly on the line in these type of loans. It’s money that has to be paid back.  It is also a source of financing that is more accessible to a small business person, shop owner or parts manufacturer. That small business person, in turn, needs to put that money to work in something that will directly produce more money –not through flipping it but by turning into a product or service that people will pay for. America is a country full of energetic, creative, hard-working entrepreneurs and business people.  The increased availability of bank lending can help unleash their energy.

The stock market and the secondary market of bonds and mortgages have not disappeared and should not.  They are important parts of the Economy’s engine for growth.  What has changed is certain participants in these markets are no longer there.  These participants had a lot of money. But they also had incentives to make bad, unproductive decisions –decisions based on the finding a greater fool.

In the short term, the market for bank financing may tighten as the greater fool based money sources are weeded out of the system. The pain this will cause and how long it will take are going to be affected by the government bailout. Specifically, is $700 billion going to be enough? Will the new regulations protect smaller investors yet still let Wall Street pass away? But in the long term, the demise of Wall Street should be a good thing for bank lending and the investment of capital in truly productive assets which can sustain growth in the US Economy for years to come.

We’ve all seen how time management can be a valuable skill for us. It helps us become better at utilizing our time wisely. However, each of us is different and therefore the way we manage time is different. Determining your time style is important so you can learn how to make your time count, reduce stress when changes happen and become a more productive person. The fact that people have different time management or management  styles has been known for years by psychologists like Carl Jung.  So the idea itself is not new.

One place to help you find your management style is to look at Life Tour . They offer a quick, simple little survey that can give you a brief look at what type of leader you are. Knowing this can help you determine your time management style and how well you manage your time.

Southern Illinois University took a look at time management styles and came up with the following observations and conclusions:

• We all use Hemispheric Thinking
  Right Brain Thinkers:
  These thinkers find traditional time management rules and systems limiting. They like a more holistic approach.
  Left Brain Thinkers:
  These thinkers like traditional time management rules and methods. They may need help incorporating some playtime into their time management method.
• Pareto Principle
  This principle states that most people fail to set priorities causing them to waste their time on unimportant things. In general, we spend 80% of our time on things that will only contribute to 20% of our load.
• Management styles sometimes don’t work because:
  Rather then focusing on things and time, people tend to focus more on developing relationships and accomplishing results.
• Urgency vs. Importance
  Urgent matters are those we believe require instant action and reaction.
  Important matters are those we believe deal with results like missions, values, goals.
• Ineffective time management can lead to burnout because of trying to juggle too many tasks at one time.

Flexibility is so important when it comes to time management. During the course of your day you may have things that come up that will require immediate attention. This is where your time management skills will come into play. You may have to adjust your tasks in order to accommodate the new deed that needs to be done. Don’t stress. It can be done and you can still remain an effective time management person even with adjustments. Time management takes patience and time. You didn’t get unorganized overnight but you can get organized in a matter of days.  Knowing your management style will help you recognize why you may be stressing out and what you can do to change it.

What should I do first?

How do you decide what is a priority? 

These questions are essential to managing time and being effective on projects.  Its important to learn how to separate to-do’s and define what are priority tasks.

There are two methods that are worth looking at when trying to answer those questions:

P.O.S.E.C. Method
The POSEC method is an acronym that stands for Prioritize by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing and Contributing. This method states that if you pay attention to your everyday, personal responsibilities first, then you are in a better position to handle other things that may come your way.
This method has a hierarchical guideline that you should follow:

1. PRIORITIZE-Your time and define your tasks by goals.
2. ORGANIZING-Things you have to accomplish regularly to be successful (everyday administrative tasks, arriving on time to meetings, knowing where things are on your desk or computer).
3. STREAMLINING-Things you may not like to do, but must do (specific project related tasks you’re not crazy about working on).
4. ECONOMIZING-Things you should do or may even like to do, but they’re not pressingly urgent (working on projects you enjoy, longer term projects, personal development and learning new skills).
5. CONTRIBUTING-By paying attention to the remaining things that make a difference but which may not have an immediate measurable benefit (that extra mile of detail, consideration or kindness).

This method lets you break down your projects and tasks into little segments. It basically helps you  put your tasks in order because if personally the things you have to do regularly are good then it makes the rest of your tasks easier to deal with.  The P.O.S.E.C. method may not work for everyone but for some it will be the answer to their prayers.

The Eisenhower Method
In this method all tasks are evaluated using the following criteria:

• Important/Unimportant
• Urgent/Not Urgent

Much like a Four Quadrant Method – items are place in each corresponding box according to its importance and urgency.  So, things that are unimportant or not urgent can be placed behind those that are important or urgent. Pretty much common sense but you’d be amazed at what separating your tasks into these quadrants can do for your time management and productivity.  It can be a tremendous help when looking at a list of tasks and wondering “what do I do first?”

Interestingly, this method is called the Eisenhower Method because it was said that former U.S. President  and Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower was said to have used this method.

No matter how you prioritize your tasks or even your life, the important thing is to gain control over the things that are eating away at your time and standing in the way of your accomplishing everything you’d like to. The first task for many will be to “start” utilizing time management methods like this to make their task lists and projects a lot more manageable.
As with anything, the first step is always the most difficult,  but once you have a system in place using it will only get easier and it will be very beneficial. 

Have you ever wondered where your time goes each day? Why is it that you never seem to have enough time to do the things you want to do? Where is your time going? Are you wasting it or using it wisely?

These are questions that you should ask yourself if you want to manage your time more effectively. We have all said to ourselves “if I just had another hour, I could get so much accomplished”. The fact is, there are 24 hours in a day. How you use them is up to you. 

Activity logs are an effective tool for time management and can help you make the most of each day.  An activity log is place where you record what you did during the day, when you did it and for how long.  Activity logs can take on numerous forms: paper notebooks, electronic organizers, software on your computer, the internet or on your phone. No matter which tool you choose, the idea is to track every event so you can see the larger picture of where your time is going.  

Time management is not just something that is to be used while you’re at work. You can use time management in all aspects of your day, to help your life run more smoothly –and to have time to do the things you want to do.  Make sure to allocate time to eat, sleep, be with your family or be alone –as well as work.
 
Activity logs will help you track everything that you do on a daily basis. How much time do you spend eating? How much time do you spend on emails? How much time do you spend returning phone calls?  You will also be able to see patterns in your work. For example, are you a more productive worker in the morning versus the afternoon? Many people say they slow down in the afternoons. They attribute this to the sense of tiredness they get after eating a large lunch. On the other hand some people are just not morning people and tend to perform better in the afternoon when they are more alert. The activity log will help you see where you are wasting time and where your time is being spent effectively. Don’t be surprised if you see that you are wasting large amounts of time each day. The key is to use the activity log to see where you can make small changes that will make a big difference in the way you are managing your time.

Don’t just keep a log for a day. Track your time over a week or even two weeks. This will give you a bigger picture of where your time is spent. Remember to keep track of even small things. If you make a pot of coffee, track it. If you run to make copies, track it. Track everything! After a week or two sit down and review your activity logs. Do you see spots where your time could have been better utilized? Do you possibly see tasks that could have been combined to save time? Do you see tasks that are better allocated to other people?  This is where you will see exactly how effective activity logs can be.

Sure, it can be a pain to track every little thing you do. However, if you truly want to be a more productive person both career wise and socially, then you need to determine where your time is spent and how you can use your time more effectively. An activity log will help get you there.

Content is Critical 

Content is an important part of business –both on the marketing and sales end, as well as when talking about internal communications.   On the marketing side, we’ve been encountering content for as long as we can remember. It is used in newspapers and magazines to tell a story, on billboards advertising a service. We read it on labels in grocery stores.

Good Content = Good Business

If you don’t have the proper content or if the content isn’t managed to get your message across, then what’s the point of having it?

Internally, content can be found in various forms including:

• Reports
• Spreadsheets
• Compliance handbooks
• Contracts
• Legal documents
• Emails
• Memos
• Publications
• Intranet websites
• Wikis
• And more!

Regardless of how its found or where its found, its worth keeping an eye on it to see if can be better managed. 

Why manage content?

One reason is because you don’t want to duplicate content that is already out there. You want to keep your content fresh. This will insure that you stay ahead of the game. As times change, so should your content.

You’ll also need to change your content if your mission or goals change. The message you send to the reader needs to convey your message at that time so be specific. 

Another reason is that by managing the process of creating content, you can become better and faster at it –leaving you more time to do other things, create more content or feel better about switching your content when you need to.

The Basic Process of Managing Content

From a management perspective, content is the creative process of projecting and managing an intended message.  Information technology has made the process of creating and managing content an easy competitive advantage in today’s world.

Content goes through several steps:

1. Content is created: it’s written by writers or a team of creative professionals.
2. Editing: the content is then read and edited for message content, grammar, and punctuation.
3. Approval: the content is reviewed, final revisions made and then the content is approved.
4. Published: the content is released to its intended audience.
5. Time: the content is then left for public or private viewing for a specific amount of time.
6. Archived: when the content has expired it is then archived for storage and later reference.

These are basic steps to content development and management. By walking through these steps and having a team or process in place to manage your content, you can turn content creation into the asset it can and should be.

The role of project manager or project leader is vital to any project. Not having a designated project manager can mean disaster. A project manager oversees all aspects of a project from start up to completion. That person doesn’t have to be a certified, trained project manager.  But they do have to have some important skills.

So, what makes a good project manager? 

A good project manager needs to have exceptional time management skills. They have to remain detail oriented and highly organized to maintain all aspects of a project. Meeting deadlines is vital to any project. The project manager’s main task is to complete the project on time and within budget.

The project manager needs to also have exceptional communication skills since they’ll be dealing with people on a daily basis. Excellent “people skills” will insure that your clients are satisfied and kept up-to-date every step of the way.

Additional skills that make a great project manager are:

• Written communication skills
• Proven leadership
• Design skills
• Facilitation skills
• Dedication & Determination
• Perseverance

What types of tasks does a project manager handle?  According to the Wideman Comparative Glossary of Common Project Management Terms , a project manager is “the person who heads up the project team and is assigned the authority and responsibility for conducting the project and meeting project objectives through project management”. 

Let’s take a look at some of the things typically handled by a project manager:

• Planning the project - developing the project plan.
• Allocation of staff and resources for the project.
• Monitoring the project’s budget.
• Developing the schedule of progression for the project.
• Handling potential changes in the execution of the project, including:
  • Scope Management
  • Issues Management
  • Risk Management.

The project manager also gives vendors and contractors a main point of contact. Since the project manager knows all aspect of the project, they can be a well informed voice of reason and knowledge. They can be true leaders of the project, in every sense of the word.

Having someone in a project manager role does not guarantee that there won’t be bumps in the road but it does mean that you have started out on the right foot.

It seems like the privacy features in IE8 could pose a threat to Google’s ad revenue.  With the ability to hide where a user came from prior to arriving at a website will this impact Google’s ability to track click-throughs?  If users choose to keep this on, will it limit the usefulness of the data collected by Google’s web-analytic’s suite, Google Analytics or related tools used to optimize ad spending?

If so, the launch of Google Chrome might be more than a bid to take market share from Microsoft or offer a Google-based platform for the web as OS -it might be a first defense against protecting their main revenue generator -Adwords.

Adobe has formally launched the program it announced a few of months ago:

ColdFusion Enterprise will now be available for free for educational use.

You can read more about it on Ben Forta’s blog,  Kristen Schofield’s blog or get the exact details at Adobe’s FAQ on it.

Procrastination: the American Heritage Dictionary defines procrastination as “to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness; to postpone or delay needlessly”.

We all have a tendency to procrastinate. It’s seems to be a part of human nature. We tend to think we have plenty of time to get everything done or we think we can do it later. And when the time comes, we just can’t seem to do it. The sad fact is, the more you put something off the harder it is to get it done.

So why do people procrastinate? Well, for several reasons:

People tend to put off what they fear.
People get overwhelmed by everything they have to do.
People don’t know what to do first or where to start.
Sometimes, procrastination is just a bad habit, people simply don’t know any better.
People don’t want change, therefore they put off doing something.
People strive for too much perfection. Yes, being too perfect can lead to procrastination!
Poor organizational skills.
They are waiting for “the right time.”

Procrastination is an arch nemesis to effective to time management. Procrastinating can take your time and turn it into utter chaos, leaving you feeling out of control. When you put things off you are constantly getting behind. If you let procrastination set the pace, you’ll never get caught up and you’ll constantly miss deadlines -not to mention elevate your stress levels.

The thing to do is put your best foot forward, on time; every time and beat procrastination through better time management.

Your success depends on how effectively you manage your time. With effective time management, the cycle of procrastination can be changed.

Here are a few suggestions on where to get started:

• First, look at why you keep putting things off. Is it because you’re afraid of failing? Is it because you don’t know how to do something? Figure out why you’re putting things off and move ahead in overcoming those reasons.
• Look for tools that can help. Would using technological advancements like computers, various time management software programs, calculators, etc. make it go easier and smoother?
• Use a task list. A simple list can at least keep everything in front of you so you don’t get overwhelmed trying to remember everything you have to do.  Being overwhelmed is a great rationalization for procrastinating. It tasks the form of a constant need to “take a break” to figure out what’s next or to “take a breather” from everything going on.
• Prioritizing you task list can clarify what needs to be done. This can also reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed and help you defeat the feelings leading to procrastination.  With a good task list in front of you, you can literally replace being overwhelmed with a sense of control.  You will have taken the first step to taking back your own schedule and getting things done.

When you procrastinate you are literally killing your time. Take back your schedule; seize control.
You’ll notice that once you stop putting things off, by using effective time management skills to beat procrastination, your stress levels will go down greatly. You will become more effective at completing tasks and be able to take on more projects -or have more time to do other things. All you need is a better way of doing things.  Try these simple steps at effective time management.