The Proactive Pro

Image Credit: Morgue File

"I don't have the time" seems to be the most well-worn excuse in the world.  If this excuse were a shirt, it would be faded and badly frayed at the seams.  In fact, I'm ashamed to say that this was once my favorite excuse — and maybe still is (which explains why it took me a year to update this blog).  However, I've realized that, more often that not, we have the time to do the things that we've always wanted to do, but we just don't know how to find it.  If you want to build your online business, having more time is not the solution, but managing time may well be.  Twenty-four hours is all you get in a day, so you need to be able to manage it and use it well.

First, you may want to sit down and take a few moments to think about how you have been spending your time.  You might be shocked to learn that you have been actually wasting a lot of the precious minutes that you have been given in a day.

A lot of people think they need to quit their day job in order to start an online business.  This is a dangerous mistake.  Like brick-and-mortar businesses, an online business has inherent risks.  You should not expect to earn a full-time income on your first month in the business.  You may even have to fail before you can succeed.

If you are relying on your day job for survival, meaning if your job pays the bills and feeds you and your family, don't pass that resignation letter yet (or tell your boss to shove it).  Keep your job and then slowly build your online business empire.  Start growing your business part time.

There are many ways to find time to work on your online business.  First, you can get out of bed earlier than usual so that you can work.  Instead of whiling your lunch break away chit-chatting your co-workers, why not use the time to work on your business?  Since your business will be online, you can work anywhere.  You can invest in a laptop and find a cafe with WiFi access.  You can also buy a USB modem so you can work anywhere you want as long as the modem is able to pick up the signal from your Internet service provider.

If you commute to work or if someone else is driving for you, you can use the time to work on your business.  However, if some circumstances do not allow you to work, then you may use that time to brainstorm.  If you don't feel comfortable bringing a laptop in a public place, you can use your smart phone to visit websites, send emails and even post articles on your blog.

At home, you may want to give up watching television or at least reduce the time you spend in front of the boob tube.  You may also want to delegate some of the chores you do at home so you can spend more time growing your business.

You can start growing your business part time, but you need to be consistent with your efforts.  You also need to be patient.  Work until you reach the level of income that will allow you to comfortably let go of the job that you now have.

There is no better time to start your online business than today.  Start with what you have and what you know and build from there.  Learn from mistakes and discover new things.  Allow your new discoveries to excite you.  Remember, time is one of those things that you will never get back once you've lost it.

Stay tuned for more moneymaking tips and more information about starting your online business.

You might be a busy bee like me and need to organize your time.  You may also need to be reminded of the tasks you need to do at a specific time.  Well, fortunately, there are free productivity tools on the Internet. Here are two things you can do to organize your tasks and your time using these productivity tools.

The first option is to download Mozilla Sunbird. This is a stand-alone calendar application from Mozilla, the makers of the Firefox browser.  If you already have Thunderbird, Mozilla's free email client, you can download Lightning, the extension that allows you to manage your schedule within the email client.

To add the Lightning extension to your Thunderbird mail client, follow these directions:

1) Go to the Lightning download page. Download the extension and save it to your desktop.

2) In your Thunderbird mail client, go to the Tools tab.  Choose "Add-ons." A little window will appear.  Click on the "Extensions" tab. At the lower left corner of the little window, you will find a link that says "Install."  Click on it.  From there, go to your desktop folder and look for the extension that you downloaded earlier.

You may need to play with the application to be familiar with it and to learn how to use it.

The other option is to go to the Remember the Milk website and create a free account. Remember the Milk is a web-based application that can help you organize your time and remind you of your tasks via SMS, email or instant messaging (Supported IMs: AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo!).  It has an intuitive user interface that makes the application easy to use. It even has a task cloud that lets you see what you have to do easily.  You can also share, send and publish your tasks with your contacts.  You can also use the map to see where your tasks need to be done (useful when you are in the U.S.) and therefore be able to come up with the best plan. You can sync Remember the Milk with your mobile device. It's currently available for iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. You can be reminded via your cell phone and access Remember the Milk from there, but you'll need to upgrade to a Pro account. The fee is just a measly $25 a year though. If you have an iPhone, Remember the Milk is available at the iPhone App store.  I just signed up for a free account and I have yet to see how useful RTM is going to be to me.

I just shared two free productivity tools that you can use to organize your time and make sure that your tasks are accomplished.  You don't have to spend a single cent for them (unless you want to upgrade your RTM account) and quite easy to use.  Remember, time is money.  We might as well manage it well.

The person that can best teach us about time management is someone who is dying, because he or she has very little time left and thus really knows how precious time is.  Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at the University of Virginia who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006.  He was told in 2007 that he had only six months to live, but he managed to outlive the doctor's prognosis.  Before his death in 2008, he spent his remaining days delivering inspiring lectures.  To this day, he remains an inspiration to me and to millions of others all over the world.

Below is a summarized version of his hour-long lecture:






I find his style of delivery so engaging that I did not mind listening to the whole lecture.  In this lecture, he not only taught some life lessons but shared some practical time management tips as well. If you're interested, you can listen to the lecture in its entirety by clicking HERE.

If you'd like to get a copy of the slides he used in the lecture, you can go to the site where you can download them by clicking HERE.

Dr. Pausch also delivered his famous lecture, "The Last Lecture" on Oprah.  You can watch the video by clicking HERE.

Now, it's one thing to listen to the lecture and another to put the lessons into practice.  I hope that you will enjoy the lectures and find them inspiring as much as I do.

Time is an irreplaceable resource, and like all other resources, it has to be managed. We often hear about time management but what is time management really? Essentially, time management is self management. There is a lot of self-discipline involved in the tips that I am about to share, but no worries, the tips are not super-hard to follow.

Time Management Tips:

1. BEGIN WITH AN END IN MIND - This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people according to Stephen Covey. To be able to manage time effectively, we need to identify our goals. Why? Because we need to know the things we have to prioritize. We need to know what needs to be done first so that we could move closer to the goals that we would like to accomplish.

2. PLAN AHEAD - Imagine going through the day without knowing what to do.  Without planning, a lot of time will be wasted on thinking of what to do next. Prepare a to do list before going to bed so when you wake up in the morning, you can immediately do the tasks that you need to accomplish.

3. EAT YOUR FROG FIRST - This concept was popularized by Brian Tracy through his book, "Eat That Frog!" It is based on a saying that, "If the very first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog (actually, a toad is much worse), you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it's probably the worst thing you'll do all day." In other words, when you've done the most difficult thing that you need to do for the day, you'd be more willing to do the less difficult tasks. You'll also have the momentum to do other tasks because you've taken the burden of anticipation of difficulty off your back. Do the most difficult task first and you'll be less inclined to procrastinate on doing the other tasks.

4. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE TIME - If a task cannot be done at the appointed time as planned, quickly move on to the next task or find something to accomplish within that time frame.  Don't use it as an excuse to loaf around or to waste time.  Remember, eat your frog first.  The sooner you finish your tasks, the more time you will have for the things that you really love to do.

5. BE ORGANIZED WITH YOUR TIME - There must a time for everything. We only have 24 precious hours in one day, so every minute must be apportioned wisely. Have a time table or a daily schedule displayed prominently in your room, even if you cannot always stick to it. Why? It will remind you what you need to do and help you assess if you are indeed moving toward to your goals, and make you want to go back on the right track.

6. BE ORGANIZED WITH YOUR THINGS - Trying to find something can waste a lot of time and could really be infuriating especially when you're running late. There must be a place for everything -- your pen, car keys, wallet, etc. It will make your day go by more smoothly.

7. FOCUS - The mind can only do one thing at a time. To improve focus, you can race against the clock. Get a timer and give yourself a mini-deadline (in minutes) for each task. But don't pressure yourself; treat it like a game. You can get an download a timer for free by clicking HERE.

Because the mind can only do one thing at a time, multitasking isn't always a good idea. But what if your job calls for multitasking? One thing you can do is incorporate all your activities into a system. That way, your mind can treat all those activities as one unit. And this brings us to our next tip which is,

8. BE SYSTEMATIC - Develop procedures for doing things. Study how you can do things efficiently. Make those procedures as simple as it can possibly be. In no time, those procedures will become automatic to you and you'll be able to finish your tasks in no time.

9. DELEGATE - You cannot do everything, so look for someone or something (we can delegate tasks to things, too, like an answering machine, for instance) that can do the less important things for you. When it's perfectly sensible, hire someone. The less you have to worry about the little things, the sooner you can finish the more important things.

10. TAKE TIME TO REST AND RELAX - Stress and too much work can slow you down and can actually make you less efficient and less productive. Give yourself mini-breaks in between tasks. It will also take your mind off the previous task making it ready to focus on the next one. And let your rest day refresh you and prepare you for the week ahead.

I often hear a lot of people say, "So many things to do and so little time," and "I want to do this and that, but I just don't have enough time!" But if you really think about it, there is almost always time for everything that we want to do, we just have to find it.

If you'd like to learn how to accomplish your goals in the least possible time, I recommend that you sign up for the Simpleology course by Mark Joyner. The first module is free. You will have to pay for the other modules, but trust me, the free module alone is priceless! It certainly is worth your time. To go to the Simpleology website, click HERE.