Time Management Seminar Schedule

TIME MANAGEMENT SEMINAR SCHEDULE Get more time now for your family, your friends, and you! A person being paid $50,000 per year, who wastes just one hour per day, is costing their organization $6,250 per year. Attend our Time Management Seminar and you will learn several new, easy techniques to regain several hours in every day! TIME MANAGEMENT SEMINARS-WORK AND LIFE SKILLS FOR INCREASING PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY NOW! LEARN NEW WAYS TO GET MORE DONE IN LESS TIME, WITH LESS STRESS. HAVE MORE TIME FOR YOU! “THE BEST SEMINAR I’VE EVER ATTENDED.” “I’M SENDING MY ENTIRE TEAM.” “NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN!” OUR SCHEDULE: (Tuesdays: 1:00-5:00 p.m.; Wednesdays & Thursdays: 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.)

Tuesday, June 7-Thursday, June 9, 2011

Tuesday, September 13-Thursday, September 15, 2011

Tuesday, December 13-Thursday, December 15, 2011

All seminars are held at: Ramada Hotel-Stratford

225 Lordship Boulevard

Stratford, CT 06615

(203) 375-8866

Seminar fee is only $995. 100% satisfaction guarantee! Repeat anytime! To register or for additional information now, call (800) 969-3773 or (203) 386-8062 or online at: http://www.balancetime.com/

Call for group discount rates. In-house seminars available at your location from one hour up to three full days for groups of any size. Call Now (800) 969-3773 Or (203) 386-8062 Or Online at http://www.balancetime.com/ for details.

Your Business Marketing Consultant

YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING CONSULTANT

You’ve worked hard to create your business to where it is now but you want more sales, more profit and more success.

The day-to-day tasks keep many entrepreneurs from planning and implementing effective marketing programs that can dramatically increase their businesses.

Maybe it’s time to get Your Business Marketing Consultant.

Why do I need Your Business Marketing Consultant?

You don’t. You’re successful already. You will be a bigger success tomorrow. Sooner or later, maybe later. With Your Business Marketing Consultant you will get there sooner, with greater certainty, control, and predictability.

Who is Your Business Marketing Consultant?

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore.

Don received his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting (BSA) from Bentley College, his Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Babson College, and his Juris Doctor Degree (JD) from Suffolk University Law School.

Don has started and operated dozens of businesses over the years. You will learn from his experiences, step by step.

He is your personal marketing guru.

He is also a member of the MBA graduate faculty at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he has served as Assistant Professor of Business Law and Department Chair for the undergraduate and graduate divisions. Currently, he is Adjunct Professor for the Master of Business Administration program and the author of “Beat the Clock”, “Organizing Your Life”, and “The Productivity Handbook” and over 100 published articles. He is frequently interviewed by major media including ABC Radio, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The London Observer, and the Dallas Morning News. He has appeared extensively on radio and television and as the host of the cable TV program, “It’s the Law”.

“It was hard to believe that I could improve my operation in such a short period of time with Don’s guidance.”

What will Your Business Marketing Consultant do for me?

You and Don will meet at your location and together create super marketing and financial goals for the next twelve months. Don will then devise a step-by-step plan of action to get you there.

What does Your Business Marketing Consultant cost?

The most expensive trip you will take is to continue down a path that is not maximizing your returns for the time, talent, and resources you are expending. It creates a decreased present value of your future. You probably have thought a lot about growing your business for some time but you haven’t been able to get it off the ground. Now you will.

Question: How much does “Your Business Marketing Consultant cost?” Answer: “Would no charge be too much?”

Your Business Marketing Consultant is not a cost. He’s an investment.

It really doesn’t matter what you pay for an investment. What’s relevant is what you get in return. $4,000 for a new furnace in the summer is an expense. When it gets cold, it’s an investment, worth every penny you spent. What it costs is not as important as what you get for your investment. (What is it costing you now for the business you are not getting?)

“My business value has increased dramatically. I’m a lot more in control of my sales volume and profits.”

To review your situation call Don now and let’s see if we can work together to help your business grow dramatically. Call Don at: (203) 386-8062 or send an email to Don at: ctsem@msn.com

Time Management Teleseminars

TIME MANAGEMENT TELESEMINARS
Get more time for you now! Get better balance in your life!
Sign up now!

What is a Teleseminar?
It is a live seminar that you attend, only instead of everyone meeting in the same room at the same location to hear the speaker, we all meet via telephone in a conference call. You call a special telephone number and join in!

Join Dr. Don Wetmore for a one-hour Time Management Teleseminar, anywhere you are from the convenience of your telephone. When you sign up for this special event, you will be given the telephone number to call to join with thirty people in this conference call as Don Wetmore conducts a one-hour Time Management Seminar live, sharing his unique tools and techniques with you to help you get a lot more done in less time, with less stress.

Why a Teleseminar?
So many people have such busy schedules that they do not have the time to travel and physically attend one of our many Time Management Seminars. You can attend this convenient, informative, live Teleseminar from the comfort of your home or from any telephone location of your choice.

You will learn new, easy, and fun ways to:
- Manage your to do list
- Manage multiple priorities
- Organize “have to’s” and “want to’s”
- Effectively prioritize
- Use time better, with less effort
- Invest time v. expense time
- Leverage your time for greater productivity
- Gain control over the entire 24-hour day
- Focus on the “crucial” work v. the “urgent”
- Create balance between work and personal time
- Avoid “crisis management” and wheel-spinning
- Identify and eliminate time wasters
- Create a more productive physical setup of your work area
- Reduce stress
- Daily planning techniques
- Improve your communications skills
- And much, much more!

“Probably the best hour I have ever invested!” “Don shows you the “how to” in simple, easy to follow steps.” “I’ve never had so much control over my day.”

Imagine having more time every day to do more of the things you want to do; spend time with your family, enjoy hobbies, spend more time with your friends, work in your garden, read a book, watch a video. You can now!

Don has shared his material with client companies including IBM, K-Mart, Bank of Nova Scotia, Subway Franchises, Credit Suisse, Univision Television Network, Tulane University, Praxair, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and hundreds more.

When is it?
Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 4:00 p.m. (EDT) for one hour.

Don Wetmore is one of the leading experts on the topic of Time Management, having made over 2,000 presentations to audiences from around the globe, helping people from all walks of life to get more done in less time, with less stress and have more time for their personal lives.

Now, you can join him and attend this dynamic, informative Time Management Seminar right from the comfort of your work or home.

Who should sign up?
Anyone who wants to get more time out of every day. Professionals, staff people, salespeople, office workers, homemakers, students, managers, teachers, engineers, medical personnel, parents. (Enrollment is limited to the first thirty people who sign up for this session. Enrollments are accepted on a first-come basis. Don’t miss out. Enroll now!)

About Don:
Dr. Wetmore received his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Bentley College, his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Babson College and his Juris Doctor Degree from Suffolk University Law School.

Dr. Wetmore is a member of the faculty at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he has served as Assistant Professor of Business Law and Department Chair for the undergraduate and graduate divisions. Currently, he is Adjunct Professor for the Master of Business Administration program and the author of “Beat the Clock”, “Organizing Your Life”, and over 100 published articles. He is frequently interviewed by major media including ABC Radio, The New York Times, USAToday, The Wall Street Journal and the Dallas Morning News. He has appeared extensively on radio and television and served as the host of the cable TV program, “It’s the Law”.

In 1984, Dr. Wetmore created the Productivity Institute to conduct his original and unique Time Management and Personal Productivity seminars for people from around the world. Having been in the field of Time Management for over thirty years, Dr. Wetmore created his programs to address the specific Time Management needs of all who want more out of life. In his seminars, teleseminars, keynotes, and consulting, he teaches participants how to significantly increase their personal productivity, both on and off the job and accomplish more in less time with less stress for greater personal balance. His presentations are always entertaining, fast-paced, and filled with practical, common sense tools. His audiences say, “he is one of the funniest and most engaging speakers available today.”

“I want my entire staff to participate in this.” “I wish I had done this a long time ago.” “I really reduced my stress.”

How do I participate?
Sign up below and you will be given the special telephone number we have set up for this event. Then at the time the seminar begins, (4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time- EDT on Wednesday, August 26, 2009), you will call the special number and be connected directly to Don and the rest of those who have signed up for this exciting seminar. (Regular telephone toll charges apply for this call.) Then sit back and enjoy the one-hour presentation by Don and learn new ways to better manage your time and control your day.

What is my investment?
$29.95

Is there a guarantee?
If you are not 100% satisfied after attending your Teleseminar, you will receive a 100% refund. No questions asked.

How do I enroll?
By telephone: Call our voicemail now at either (800) 969-3773 or (203) 386-8062. (These are secure lines.) Leave your name, email address, daytime telephone number, credit card account number and expiration date. (Please speak slowly and clearly.) Your account will be charged $29.95. You will then receive via email the special telephone number to call to attend the seminar.

By email: Email your registration now to: ctsem@msn.com Send your name, email address, daytime telephone number, credit card account number and expiration date. Your account will be charged $29.95. You will then receive via email the special telephone number to call to attend the seminar.

What if I cannot attend this seminar?
You can get your copy of the CD of this seminar, the full hour, to listen to and review at your leisure. To receive the CD of this exciting seminar, use the form below now and send it via email to: ctsem@msn.com or call in your information to (203) 386-8062. Your account will be charged $29.95 plus $2.50 for shipping and handling, a total of $32.45. Your purchase is backed by 100% money back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with your CD, return it for a full 100% refund. No questions asked.

Register for Six Teleseminars and Save 20%!
Sign up now for all six Teleseminars listed below and save 20% - $35.94! Or order all six Time Management Teleseminars on CD and save 20% - $35.94!

(Note: Dates and time are subject to change.)
Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 4:00 p.m. (EDT)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 4:00 p.m. (EDT)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 4:00 p.m. (EDT)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 4:00 p.m. (EST)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009, 4:00 p.m. (EST)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 4:00 p.m. (EST)
Order Form
Yes! Sign me up for the one-hour Time Management Teleseminar on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. (EDT) for $29.95.
Yes! Sign me up for all six one-hour Time Management Teleseminars for $143.76. Save 20%/$35.74!
Yes! Send me the one-hour Time Management Teleseminar CD by Don Wetmore for $29.95 and $2.50 shipping and handling, a total of $32.45.
Yes! Send me all six one-hour Time Management Teleseminar CDs by Don Wetmore for $143.76 plus $15.00 shipping and handling, a total of $158.76. Save 20%/$35.74!

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Effective Negotiating & Communication Skills Seminar

EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATING
& COMMUNICATION SKILLS SEMINAR
How to Get What You Want in Less Time

“Effective Negotiating and Communication Skills-How to Get What You Want in Less Time” provides the tools and techniques to help your participants to get more results in less time.

This is a powerful seminar for your group. Negotiation is when two people meet face to face or via phone and email, to discuss and reach an agreement. Everyone negotiates several times each week seeking for example, a better price on a purchase or getting the cooperation and assistance from a co-worker or family member. The better your people are at negotiation and communication, the more productive they will be for you.

What your group will learn:

-How to Effectively Prepare to Negotiate With Ease and Results
-How to Reach a Win-Win Agreement Every Time
-How to Easily Improve Verbal Communications
-How to Easily Improve Written Communications
-How to Deal with Difficult People and Help Them to Be Your Strong Supporter
Don has made over 2,000 presentations worldwide, and will personally prepare and present this dynamic, motivating, and content rich “Effective Negotiating and Communication Skills-How to Get What You Want in Less Time” seminar for you. You will learn new and powerful techniques and tools to get what you want now by effectively communicating and negotiating.
Don received his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting (BSA) from Bentley College, his Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Babson College, and his Juris Doctor Degree (JD) from Suffolk University Law School.
Don has personally developed and implemented dozens of effective negotiating techniques over the years in his many business ventures. You will learn from his experiences, step by step.

“My negotiating and communication skills are much more effective today because of Don’s help.”

Dynamic Speed Reading Home Study Seminar

DYNAMIC SPEED READING HOME STUDY SEMINAR

Now you can double your reading speed with this exciting home study seminar and you will increase your reading comprehension and reading pleasure! You will read more in less time!

Perfect for professionals, students and busy working people!

We get more printed information thrown at us in one day than our great-grandparents saw in a lifetime. (Beyond a seed catalog and a book or two, what did they have to look at and absorb?)

Today, information is coming at us from all directions. Books, memos, periodicals, email, newspapers, reports, faxes, magazines, the Internet and more leave many buried, able to wade through just a fraction of what they need to read. Do you happen to know anyone who has a stack of stuff that they haven’t had time to go through? Maybe that’s you!

Knowledge is power. This is the Information Age. Half of what we know today, we didn’t know just fifteen years ago. The amount of information has doubled in just the last fifteen years and some experts predict it will be doubling again every two years.

Everyone has books on the shelf they’ve never read because they didn’t have the time. Some even find reading a slow, laborious task because they read slowly, their mind wanders, and they often have to go back and re-read what they just read. As a result, work suffers and grades suffer.

You cannot control the flow of information to you and if you don’t increase the rate at which you read, you are seeing less and less of what’s out there.

The average person spends about two hours per day reading. If you can double your reading speed, you can cut your reading time in half. What takes two hours can now be done in one hour.

An extra hour a day for you. Seven hours per week and 365 hours for you over the next year. That’s the equivalent of nine additional workweeks over the next year to spend time with your family, on hobbies or work on those important tasks that are being neglected.

It can be done. Easily and with a lot of fun!

Dr. Don Wetmore, the country’s leading expert on Personal Productivity, offers the most comprehensive Dynamic Speed Reading Home Study seminar anywhere. You take the lessons at your pace, on your schedule and you will double your reading speed and significantly increase your comprehension level and reading pleasure. The entire seminar can be completed in as little as four hours!

And then, imagine reading a book in one sitting! Or reading those books you bought, never read and placed on the shelf. (95% of all books purchased are never read.)
How about going home each night with all of your paperwork done, with a clean desk for the next day! What better way to insure your career advancement and success?

Or for students, imagine getting better grades in less time, with less effort!

“Probably the best seminar I have ever invested!” “Don shows you the “how to” in simple, easy to follow steps.” “I’ve never enjoyed reading so much and been able to read so much.”

What you will learn
How to easily read beyond the way you were taught in the first place
How to eliminate the blocks that cause you to read slowly
How to avoid losing concentration when your mind wanders and you have to go back and re-read the same material
Tools to maintain your new skills and to continue to improve your speed and comprehension
Multiple reading techniques for different materials
Improved memory tools
And a whole lot more!

“I can’t believe how much fun this was!” “I’ll sign up the sales staff for another one!” “I learned a lot more than I planned on. This was great!”

The “Myths” About Dynamic Speed Reading
Speed Reading a just a “skimming technique.” Not true. You will read significantly faster and read every word. You will learn how to eliminate the blocks that slow you down.

Speed Reading requires a lot of formal education. Not true. Anyone with a basic, primary reading ability can learn and apply Dynamic Speed Reading tools to double their speed and comprehension. In fact, this program is ideal for any reader 10 years or older!

Speed Reading will reduce my comprehension. Not true. In fact, it’s the opposite. Increasing your reading speed will significantly increase your comprehension and concentration. You will not only be able to read a lot faster but you will be more effective.

Speed Reading requires a lot of study and practice. Not true. You will learn simple, easy techniques and double your reading speed by the end of this unique seminar. You will get the results during the seminar as you apply the new, easy techniques that you will learn.

Speed Reading will not permanently change my reading speed. Not true. Not only will you double your reading speed and significantly increase your comprehension and reading pleasure by the end of your Dynamic Speed Reading Home Study Seminar, you will have the easy tools to permanently maintain your new skills.

Some Client Companies
Don has shared his Dynamic Speed Reading Seminar with client companies from all over, including:

ClifBar
Credit Suisse First Boston
General Electric
Genworth Financial
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Life Tigers
Mercy College
Noble Foundation
Purdue Pharma
Sacred Heart University
Swedish Mission to the UN
Tracey Locke Partnership
Tyco Electronics
United Nations
Wyckoff Medical Center

Now you too can receive the benefits of this terrific home study seminar, at your pace and your convenience.

About Don:
Don has conducted over 2,000 public speaking presentations during the last twenty years, to audiences from around the Globe. He holds a coveted Professional Membership with the National Speakers Association.

He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Bentley College, his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Babson College and his Juris Doctor Degree from Suffolk University Law School. He has been a Speed Reader throughout his adult life. He walks the talk. He practices what he teaches. You will learn from a doer.

Don is a member of the faculty at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he has served as Assistant Professor of Business Law and Department Chair for the undergraduate and graduate divisions. Currently, he is Adjunct Professor for the Master of Business Administration program and the author of “Beat the Clock”, “Organizing Your Life,” “The Productivity Handbook” and over 100 published articles. He is frequently interviewed by major media including ABC Radio, The New York Times, USAToday, and the Dallas Morning News. He has appeared extensively on radio and television and as the host of the cable TV program, “It’s the Law.”

Dr. Wetmore created the Productivity Institute to conduct his original and unique Dynamic Speed Reading and Personal Productivity seminars for organizations from around the world. In his seminars and consulting, he teaches participants how to significantly increase their reading speed and comprehension, improve their personal productivity both on and off the job and accomplish more in less time, with less stress, for greater personal balance.

Who should get the Dynamic Speed Reading Home Study?
Anyone who wants to double their reading speed and reading comprehension now.
Professionals, staff people, salespeople, office workers, homemakers, managers, teachers, engineers, medical personnel and especially students.

What’s included?
Your own Dynamic Speed Reading Home Study Seminar on CD’s, personally recorded by Dr. Don Wetmore. Our 100-page Dynamic Speed Reading workbook and binder for seminar use and as a follow-up tool.

What is the investment?
Regularly priced at $297, the Dynamic Speed Reading Home Study Seminar is available to the first fifty purchasers for only $197! (plus $8.95 shipping and handling) 100% money back guarantee if not 100% satisfied!

“I wish I had done this a long time ago.”

YES! Send the Dynamic Speed Reading Home Study to me!
Name____________________________________________________

Company_________________________________________________

Street___________________________________________________

City_____________________State_______________Zip___________

Telephone____________________________________Ext.__________

Email____________________________________________________

Method of payment:
MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express or Check

Credit card#__________________________________Exp__________

Submit your order now:

Email: ctsem@msn.com
Or Call Our Secure Telephone Line: (203) 386-8062
Or Mail to: Productivity Institute, 127 Jefferson St. Stratford, CT 06615

Tell Us About Your Best Time Management Practices!

Tell us about your best Time Management practices.

We at the Productivity Institute would love to hear about your best Time Management practices that help you get more done in less time.

Add your comments below.

Thanks for your participation!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson Street
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com
Professional Member-National Speakers Association

Workaholics: Extreme Workers

WORKAHOLICS: EXTREME WORKERS

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore


In the May 23, 2007 edition of USAToday there appeared a feature article about the growing number of workaholics in our country. My experience with my clients confirms that it becoming an epidemic in the workplace where employees are given increased tasks and then achieve increased performance by paying for it out of their hides, putting in more time rather than acquiring better time management skills to learn how to get more done in less time.

About 60% of high earners work more than 50 hours each week and complain that their health and sleep suffer as well as their relationships with their spouses and children. About 35% of the workforce is giving up some vacation time to work more and more a third of those surveyed felt guilty about taking time off.

The causes for this increase of workaholics include a more competitive business environment, less job security and technology such as BlackBerries, laptops and cell phones that keep people tethered to their jobs 24/7.

The article offers some warning signs to tell if you are an Extreme Worker.

Do you find your enjoyment of social activities less?

Are you thinking or worrying about work?

Does your family complain about your work hours?

Are you the last one to leave the office?

Effective personal productivity is not working harder but getting the most important items done. You will leave undone more that you ever get done. You will only accomplish a tiny fraction of what you would like to get done. Having a goal, then, of “getting it all done” just buys stress and frustration and more hours for work and less time for you as you become ensnared in the Extreme Worker trap.

What to do? Two strategies might be helpful.

Start by setting in advance the total number of hours you wish to spend on the job. This will help you to take advantage of Parkinson’s Law which says, in part, that a project tends to expand with the time allocated for it. If you give yourself ten hours in the day to do your work it will take ten hours to complete. You will fill in that time.

On the other hand, if you chose to give yourself eight hours in the day to do your work, you will find yourself generally getting it done within that time frame. You will automatically become more effective at planning and managing your time. You will be less willing to spend time in wasteful meetings for example and will suffer fewer wasteful interruptions.

Second, take a regular, hard look at your To Do list and identify the items that can be delegated. There is a big difference between “I do it” and “It gets done.” What is more important is that it gets done. And the hardest part about delegating is simply letting go, especially for Extreme Workers.

I have had many executive coaching assignments helping clients to get free of the workaholic syndrome and as is often the case, the problem stems from an inability and unwillingness to delegate. “If you want a job done well you have to do it yourself,” leads you to the prison of an Extreme Worker.

If these ideas were helpful, we have prepared an additional article entitled, “Your Just Might Be a Workaholic”. It’s a humorous take on the Extreme Worker that you will find amusing and instructive. If you would like a complimentary copy, email your request for “might” to: ctsem@msn.com

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association

Copyright 1999 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Why We Divorce

WHY WE DIVORCE

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

Time Management only has to do with making up a good “to do” list and following through. Right? Not really. Time Management has a lot more to do with what we are NOT doing rather than what we ARE doing.

Good Time Management requires that we get what we “have to” get done but, more importantly, what we “want to” get done.

This requires balancing our lives in all of life’s Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual, Social, Professional, and Spiritual. If we are out of balance on one (never mind two or three!) it is going to adversely impact on the other legs.

There will be about 2 million marriages in the country this year. Isn’t that nice? And there will be 1 million divorces. For the last twenty years, I have been a Professional Speaker and also an attorney and I have participated in over 200 divorces, representing an equal number of men and women in all age groups. (And out of the 200 divorces I have been involved in, I have never represented the party who was at fault!)

Why is marriage and divorce a Time Management issue? Well, let’s say you are 25 years old, you get married, and now, 20 years later, at age 45 you are going through a divorce, all so common in our culture. In one day in divorce court, you give up over 50% of everything you have ever worked for in your adult life through a property settlement. Now that’s good Time Management.

It is so much like the squirrel, hoarding the nuts in his tree while someone is drilling a hole in the bottom of the tree to steal his bounty, but the squirrel doesn’t pay attention to the drilling sound. He is so caught up in doing it the wrong way, he cannot find time to plan how to do it the right way.

And the cause of divorce? You typically hear reasons like money issues, “he has a girlfriend”, “she drinks to much”, etc, etc. But in my experience, 95% of all divorces are caused by one thing. A lack of communication.

The average working business professional spends, on average, just two minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or “significant other”. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get out my story let alone hear what my wife Nancy did in her day in just two minutes. (Interesting to note also that the average working business professional spends less than 30 seconds per day in meaningful communication with their children. That’s just a bit more than, “Hi. How was school? Good. Do you have homework? Go do it. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Now, when we go back to the beginning the relationship that preceded the marriage, was the couple communicating? Sure. Why? Because they were spending time together. They were going places together, laughing together, crying together, doing this thing called “communication”. And then what happened? After the wedding “something came along”. Lots of “something’s” came along. He was busy traveling and she was busy getting her degree, and the kids, yes the kids, and like two ships in the dark, we frequently pass each other daily with only slight notice.

I am not who I was five years ago, nor are you. I am not who I am going to be five years from now, nor are you. Don’t you think that this is true about that special person in your life? Of course and without substantive ongoing communication we tend to grow apart and then one morning at the breakfast table one asks, “who is that stranger sitting across from me and who is the young pool boy she’s with…..we don’t have a pool.”

I have written a short article entitled, “Five Ideas to Improve a Marriage” to help increase the quantity and quality of time we spend with that special person. It’s no cost. To get yours, email your request for “ideas” to: ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive no cost Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for your no cost “TIME MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION LIST”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe” or send email to: timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com. We welcome you aboard!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson Street
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit our Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association

Copyright 1999 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Five Ways to Not Get Promoted

FIVE WAYS TO NOT GET PROMOTED

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

“Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go;
From 7-3 it’s misery;
Hi ho, hi ho.”

Time Management has a lot more to do with “investing” our time wisely rather than just “spending it”. A lot of people are not getting the returns from their time that they desire because they are not investing their time effectively, keeping them from getting promoted and advancing beyond where they are, more rapidly. They view their job as just that, a “job”, where they exchange their time for money rather than viewing it as a “position”, a platform and a springboard to even greater success.

In my twenty years as a professional speaker, I have met many who lament that they are stuck where they are at and are not getting the advancement they desire thinking that external forces are keeping them from moving up the ladder. In some cases, this is true. In most cases, it is not. A lot of why we do not get what we want in life is because of what we are and are not doing. Time Management, you see, is not doing the “wrong” things quicker. That just gets us nowhere faster. Time Management is really about doing the “right” things.

And so, here are the five surefire ways to “not” get promoted.

1. Don’t plan your day. Go to work each day without a plan in mind. “People don’t plan to fail but many fail to plan”. Respond to whatever comes at you, the loudest voice demanding your attention. You will work “hard” but maybe not “smart”.

2. Do the minimum. Many have the attitude “they don’t pay me for that”. They do what is required of them to cover themselves and fail to recognize that in order to qualify for a raise, we have do more now than what we are already being paid to do. Like a wood burning stove, many stand at the cold stove and demand its heat without recognizing that you have to put the wood in first, start the flame, and wait a while for heat to radiate.

3. Rely on your current base of knowledge. Half of what we know today, we did not know fifteen years ago. The amount of information has doubled in the last fifteen years and it is said to be doubling every eighteen months hereafter. The world, our companies, and our jobs are changing whether we are along for the ride or not. It has been reported that within five years, 60% of us will be doing jobs that are not even in existence today. Statistically, if we continue to do what we do, the same way, within five years, most of us will be obsolete, the world will pass us by.

4. Voice your complaints. Every job has something to complain about. The pay, the hours, the location, the facility, your boss, your co-workers, the customers, etc. Since we can never be sure whether those around us are aware of our particular discontent, be vocal about what you don’t like. It will keep you and them from doing what really needs to be done and it will send out a message to the “powers that be” that maybe, just maybe, you won’t be here in a few months, so why should they give you any more money or any more responsibility? And you may not mean anything by the complaining but it does have a tendency to send out a negative message about your commitment to the organization and call into question whether or not you will be here in a few months.

5. Don’t share the credit. When something goes right, put your name on the top of the list of those who made it happen. Don’t acknowledge others’ contributions. If something doesn’t work out well, point the finger to someone else. “Victory has a thousand fathers. Failure is an orphan”.


Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, a full-time Professional Speaker, is one of the foremost experts and speakers on Time Management and Personal Productivity and the author of “Beat the Clock”. If you would like to receive a no cost copy of his companion article, “5 Practices to Get a Promotion”, email your request for “practices” to: ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive no cost Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe” or send email to: timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com. We welcome you aboard!


Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com
Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989
Copyright 1999 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Big Time Wasters

Big Time Wasters

By Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

You may be well intended about getting things done during your day at work or during your personal time, but there are big time wasters that will conspire against you to take your productive time away. It has been said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. In conducting my Time Management Seminars over the last 20 years, I have identified five Big Time Wasters that you can attack.

Poor planning. “People don’t plan to fail but a lot of people fail to plan.” Without a plan of action for your day you tend to direct your attention to the most urgent thing that may not necessarily be the best use of your time. Often, the day will be filled with wheel spinning and “busy-ness”, rather than business. When I was in the military, we referred to the “Six P’s”: “Poor planning produces pretty poor performance”. (I recall that some used a different word for “pretty”, but I’m sure you get the point.)
Procrastination. Taking the time for planning is great but what if you don’t execute on your plan? You tend to put off doing what you know you ought to be doing when there is little or no pain for not doing it and little or no pleasure to do it. Procrastinating the unimportant things has a positive value in your day. The problem for many is that they are procrastinating the important items.
Interruptions. You can do a great job of planning and not be much of a procrastinator, but interruptions will come your way and rob you of productivity. An interruption is an unanticipated event. That’s what makes it an interruption. They come to you from two sources, in-person and electronic (telephone, email, beeper, pager, etc.) Interruptions are both good and bad. There are A (crucial) and B (important) interruptions that you receive without reservation. By definition, they have value to you and are welcomed. But then there are the C (little value) and D (no value) interruptions that only take you away from being as productive as you might otherwise desire.
Failure to delegate. “If you want a job done well, you have to do it yourself”. Have you ever said that to yourself? The problem is you only have 24 hours in your day, 7 days a week for a total of 168 hours. Subtract from that the time you sleep (perhaps 8 hours per night, 7 nights per week, or 56 hours in total) and you are now down to only 112 hours each week to do everything you need and want to do. Delegation is plugging into someone else’s time stream when you don’t have the time or the expertise to accomplish a particular task. Delegation is how you can leverage your time through other people. A lot of time is being wasted by doing what ought to be delegated to others.
Attending meetings. In a typical day in the United States, there are 17 million meetings. A meeting is when two or more people get together to exchange common information. What could be simpler? Yet it surely is a major time waster for many. They are particularly wasteful and unproductive when there is no agenda or time frame and the meeting then drifts out on one tangent and then another without concrete results.

Want five easy tips to help you to stop wasting a lot of your time? Get your no cost copy now of “Stop Wasting Time”. Email your request for “stop” to: mailto:ctsem@msn.com

Receive your no cost Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe” or send email to: timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com.

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association

Copyright 2001 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: mailto:ctsem@msn.com

Visions that Repeat

VISIONS THAT REPEAT

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

You spend a lot of time reliving memories from the past. Some memories are positive and uplifting and give our days a bounce, enhancing our productivity and results. Other memories are not so bright and bum us out, draining our spirits and motivation and productivity.

Memories are stored in your head after a long journey that begins with a single vision. Visions are the pictures you see in your mind. You can have positive visions or negative visions.

For example, you are going to a party Friday night. This is a party that your brother-in-law always attends and in the past you always got in an argument with him, then left the party in a huff, and generally had a bad time. So you start to visualize going to the party again on Friday and what do you see? You see yourself having a bad time at this party because, after all, you’ve always had a bad time at the party with your brother-in-law.

From those visions, those pictures, you take action. You see a confrontation coming with your brother-in-law and consistent with that image you attend the party waiting for him to trigger the arguments as he has in the past, and sure enough, your body language and words telegraph the message that you are ready for verbal combat and so the process moves forward to conflict and leaving in a huff.

These actions produce results. Your result was, “not having good time at the party”. Those results then become the memories that you re-live over and over again negatively affecting your future productivity.

Your visions direct the actions you take that create the results you realize that form the memories you re-live over and over again,

Now let’s say you would prefer to have a positive memory from this upcoming party in your mind to relive in the future for enhanced productivity. What can you do in advance to change the outcome, the lingering memory? You change the vision.

You stop visualizing having a bad time at the next party. I know, you’ve had a lot of history with bad results, but you put a new picture in your mind this time. You see yourself intentionally avoiding being in the same room with your brother-in-law and if he presses to goad you into argument, you see yourself walking away. You see yourself sitting with Aunt Sarah, whom you spend little time with and talking with her for the evening.

You repeat that vision only, over and over, and if you do enough of that, you find yourself changing your behavior, avoiding your brother-in-law and instead, spending quality time with the other guests. When you leave, you discover you have produced the result called “not having too bad a time at the party”. You recall and remember this now in a positive vein, as an uplifting memory that boosts your attitude and daily productivity in the future.

Does it all happen so easily and quickly? Unlikely. Maybe you create no new results in the near term from this new, more positive way of visioning, but if you are willing to persist and make this healthier way of thinking a consistent habit, then soon you will find it does work. Your visions will be more positive, your actions will follow the visions creating the results that form the positive memories you will re-live over and over.

Don is available to conduct his unique and dynamic Time Management Seminar worldwide, at your location, for groups of any size, from one hour up to three full days, helping you to get more done in less time, with less stress. For details, email your request now for “in-house” to: ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive no cost Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe” or send email to: timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com. We welcome you to our list!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989
Copyright 2006 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Uni or Duo Dimensional

UNI OR DUO DIMENSIONAL

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

The underlying core of my more than 2,000 Time Management presentations during the last twenty years has been the concept of “balance”. Success in managing our time has less to do with the tools available to us, such as “to do lists” and techniques for delegation, as it has to do with achieving daily balance in our lives. If we are not in balance to begin with, we are likely to sabotage our success. Successful Time Management then has a lot to do with what we are not doing.

Our lives are built on several legs, the Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual, Social, Professional and Spiritual. If one is a little longer than the rest, like a table, it will affect then entire table.

Life can be cruel. You can lose in any of those areas overnight. Your health can go away. Your money can be lost. Your family can leave you, all on a moment’s notice. Not that we don’t do things to prevent that from happening, but the point is, if one or two legs falters, you have others to hold you up.

It takes three legs for a stool to stand. If you build your life around just one or two legs or areas you first have a continual problem maintaining your balance. Worse, if you lose those one or two legs of those remaining legs, you collapse.

Here’s my list of the seven best ways to get out of balance and become uni or duo dimensional.

1. Ignore your Health. Don’t get the quantity and quality of sleep you require. Don’t take time for exercise. Eat the wrong stuff. (90% of those who join Health and Fitness Clubs today will stop going within the next 90 days.) Your resistance level will be reduced and you will be susceptible to all the latest sniffles and flues going around to ensure that you take advantage of all the sick days you are allowed. 75% of all adult deaths are preventable. We are literally driving ourselves to early grave in the “hurry-up, stressful” life of ours.

It’s interesting when someone gets a new car, they bring it in for the scheduled maintenance, put the right grade of fuel in the tank, and keep it shiny and clean. Our pets visit the veterinarian on a scheduled basis. In a recent study, 34% of the men surveyed said they would not go to doctor even if they were experiencing chest pains.

2. Postpone Family time. They will always be there for you anyway when you get the time for them. A student once asked me, “What is the best way to take my four year old on vacation?” I replied, “You take her when she’s four years old.” Fifty percent of marriages wind up in divorce court. Imagine, getting married at age twenty-five and twenty years later, at age forty-five, you give up 50% of everything you have worked for in your adult life in a property settlement in divorce court. It’s like the squirrel, gathering the nuts, hoarding away while someone is drilling a hole in the side of the tree to let all the nuts escape. The squirrel is too busy to hear the impending threat. The average working person spends less than two minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or “significant other” and less than thirty seconds per day in meaningful communication with their children.

3. Don’t plan your Financial life. Be assured that your employer, and if not, then the government, and if not, then maybe a kindly relative will take care of your needs. Most people arrive at the end of life financially deficient or dependant upon some type of assistance from the government or relatives. Most people do not spend a little of their time, on a regular basis, to create financial freedom and live their lives they way they “want to”, but rather do what do because they “have to”. Eighty percent do not want to go to work on Monday morning. Ninety-seven percent say that if they did achieve financial independence, they would not continue with their current employer or in their current line of work.


4. Stay away from Intellectual development. You have the degree. You read books at one time. Five percent of the population purchases ninety-five percent of all the books. The other ninety-five purchase the other five percent of the books. They don’t have time to read them. They give them away as gifts. You barely have enough time to keep your head above water, what with work and other interests. Coast with the knowledge you have. It’s draining away from you daily but hopefully you filled the reservoir enough early on that it will carry you through your life.

5. Let your Social contacts decide your future. Follow the advice of your friends about what you should be doing in your life even if they are not in a place where you would want to be. Be ever conscious of “What would my friends say/think if I did…?”. Always seek out and act only with the approval of your peers. Take comfort in the knowledge that when there is a void in leadership your life on how you should be spending your time, someone else will fill that void and tell you what to do.

6. Let your Professional life just happen. Do not establish a lifetime plan of where you want to go. Take whatever opportunity and advancement life gives you and be satisfied. Don’t rock the boat. Seek the familiar and avoid the strange. Play it safe. Make it comfortable. If you chose a career path when you were eighteen or twenty years old, and now at age forty you are unhappy, don’t consider a change. Hold on to that decision you made twenty years ago. It will be like going to a twenty year old for career counseling.

7. Avoid spending time in your Spiritual area. Not only in a formal religious venue, but also in our relationships to others, our community, our environment, and the universe. Leave those questions to others to ponder. “When man forgets his Creator, his own creations will be turned upon him.”

Don is available to conduct his unique and dynamic Time Management Seminar worldwide, at your location, for groups of any size helping you to get more done in less time, with less stress. For details, email your request now for “in-house” to: ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive no cost Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe” or send email to: timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com. We welcome you to our list!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989
Copyright 2006 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Twice as Much

TWICE AS MUCH

By Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

I take Time Management very seriously. I have conducted over 2,000 presentations as a professional speaker on Time Management over the last twenty years to over 100, 000 people. But a good laugh now and then is as important as our serious side.

So, I have accumulated some of the most offbeat Time Management tips for you to get twice as much done. I know you’ll get a chuckle or two from them.

Don’t buy an address book and fill it out. Instead, get a copy of the white pages from your local telephone company and cross out the names you don’t need.
Support cloning.
Watch the television program “60 Minutes” in half an hour.
Always use twice as much grass seed as the directions call for and grow twice the grass.
Always order a double martini.
Use a large scrub brush to brush your teeth.
Shower for twice as much time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and you can skip Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Catch two colds at a time and take only half the sick days.
Go to bed dressed, ready to start your next day.
Keep one eye closed during the day and you’ll only have to sleep half as much time.
Have twins.
Ski downhill twice as fast as you are used to and get it over with in half the time.
Buy Double-Mint gum.
Only go out on a double date.
Listen to your politicians and learn how to be better at double talk.
At the beach, roll across the sand and tan your front and back at the same time.
When angry, slam the door twice so you won’t have to do it the next time you get angry.
Only look at every other word and read twice as fast.
I know cookies should be baked at 350 degrees, but try cooking them at 700 degrees in half the time.
Pack twice as much as you need when traveling.
Play your CD’s and DVD’s in the Fast Forward mode.
Eat your dessert while eating your main course.
When writing, always use both hands at the same time.
Have a double set of speakers for your sound system and you will listen to twice as much.
On rainy days, leave the umbrella home and then you can skip your shower the next day.
If you are a golfer, hit two balls at the same time.
When you make a big mistake, be sure to have two excuses why you goofed, to get you out of trouble twice as fast.
At a birthday party, leave off singing the second half of the “Happy Birthday” song.
Fish with two poles.
Cut off half the buttons on your shirts and blouses and you will be able to button what’s left in half the time.
Bet on the Daily Double.
Dig a hole with two shovels.
Use two bars of soap when you wash and get it done in half the time.
Always wear a sweater so you don’t have to spend time looking for one when you really need one.
Tip 30% rather than 15% at the restaurant and enjoy twice the service.

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, a full-time Professional Speaker, is one of the foremost and entertaining speakers on Time Management and the author of “Beat the Clock” and “Organizing Your Life”, and “The Productivity Handbook”. Invite Don to conduct his dynamic Time Management Seminar on site, at your location from one hour up to three full days for groups of any size. For details, mailto:ctsem@msn.com and put “on site” in the subject line.

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute-Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St., Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
email: ctsem@msn.com
Timely Time Management Tips:
Visit our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com/

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Copyright 2001 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Top Five Best Time Management Practices

TOP FIVE BEST TIME MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

From my thirty years in the field of Time Management, I have developed the “Top Five Best Time Management Practices” to help you to get more out of every day.

1. Plan an hour per day for “Me Time”. Give twenty-three hours to the world but keep one hour for yourself. During this hour add a new dimension to your life that is not there because you didn’t feel you had the time for it. Read the books, learn a hobby, learn a foreign language, develop computer skills, start a business, spend time on health development etc. One hour per day is 365 hours in a year. The average college course is about 35 classroom hours. That equals 10 college courses per year. One hour per day and you become a full-time student! By taking one hour per day of focused study, any of us can become a world-class expert in a topic of our choice. Would your future be more secure, certain, and successful if you became a world-class expert in a topic of your choice?

2. Establish a regular reading program. It can be just fifteen minutes a day. Even with that small investment, the average person will read fifteen books in a year. Also, consider taking a Speed Reading course. I did. It helped me to double my reading rate and comprehension. I can now read twice as much in the same time period.

3. Overload your days. Build a daily action plan that includes not only the things you “have to do”, but the things you “want to do”. Parkinson’s Law tells us that a project will tend to expand with the time allocated for it. If we give ourselves one thing to do during the day, it will take us all day. If we give ourselves two things to do during the day, we get them both done. If we give ourselves twelve things to do, we may not get twelve done, but we may get eight done. Having a lot to do in a day creates a healthy sense of pressure on us to get focused and get it done. We almost automatically become better time managers, less likely to suffer interruptions, not waste time in meetings, etc. by having a lot to do. (“If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.”)

4. Prioritize your list of “things to do”. Some of our tasks are “crucial” and some of our tasks are “not crucial”. We have a tendency to gravitate to the “not crucial” items because they are typically quicker, more fun, and easier to do. Identify the most important task you need to do and label it as a “1”, the second most important task as a “2”, etc. Then tackle your items in the order of importance, doing the most important items first.

5. Radiate a genuine, positive attitude. Often, like attracts like and it repels the opposite. When you are in a negative mood you tend to repel the positive people who do not want to be strained and drained and brought down by your negativity. And, when you are in a negative mood, you have a natural system set up to attract the other negative people to you who want to share their stories of their misery so the two of you can compare experiences to decide who has the worse life. Positive people help to bring us up. Negative people help to bring us down.

Have you been meaning to get going on these suggestions but couldn’t get started? Get your no cost copy now of “Procrastination Paula”. (Don’t wait until tomorrow!) To get yours now, email your request for “Paula” to: ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive no cost Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe” or send email to: timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com. We welcome you aboard!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association

Copyright 1999 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

The Tools for Increasing Employees' Productivity

THE TOOLS FOR INCREASING EMPLOYEES’ PRODUCTIVITY

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

Helping employees to become more productive means they are getting more done in less time and with less stress, burn out, and turnover. It also means recruiting and retention costs go down, enhancing the bottom line. (And, it’s not a bad way to run a business!) Over the years, I found these five suggestions as valuable principles to help employees to increase their daily productivity.

1. Train for success. No one can do it better and more productively, unless they know how to do it. Many employers fail to not only train employees initially, but as an on-going process. They are fearful of taking people offline and losing their immediate output. The result is, however, that people are so busy doing it the wrong way because they cannot take out some time to learn how to do it the right way. The training process ought to help employees handle their current responsibilities more effectively and to prepare them for what they need to know a year from now, and five years from now, as the information explosion changes the way we all do business.

2. Provide the right tools. These tools include not only the physical resources and proper staffing but also the personal tools of self-development. Many employers will send a painter out in the field with a ladder that’s three feet short. Employees are the Rolls Royce’s of the company. If you fail to spend a little to give the Rolls the proper fuel and maintenance, that $200,000 machine will not operate properly.

3. Keep employees in the loop. Let employees know what the “big picture” is, where the company is going, and how they fit into the scheme of things. There is nothing less productive than an employee who doesn’t understand how they fit into that “big picture”, how their every act and contribution is vital to the success of the entire organization.

4. Recognize and reward. Most employees want recognition above money. Sure, the money is important but so is the pat on the back. Catch people doing it right. Behavior rewarded persists. Praise publicly. Send complimentary notes. (It’s an event in most people’s lives. When was the last time your received one?) This is not about spending money, it’s about giving what employees want and need the most. Apples shine when you polish them.

5. Empower. “What they write, they will underwrite.” Push decision making to the lowest levels. Help employees to feel a part of the decision making process. Give them some authority to make decisions that will make their job more productive. Will they make “bad” decisions? Sure. But over time, the “good” decisions will far outweigh the “bad”.


It has been said, “A problem well-defined is 95% solved”. We have developed a unique Staff Personal Productivity Assessment Questionnaire to measure your employees’ strengths and weaknesses and we will include our specific recommendations to help your employees achieve higher levels of daily productivity. If you would like more information on how this tool can help improve your company’s profitability, you may contact Don Wetmore directly at: ctsem@msn.com or call him at (203) 386-8062.

Would you like to receive no cost Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe” or send email to: timemanagement-subscribe@topica.com. We welcome you aboard!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Copyright 1999 & 2004 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Some Time Savers

SOME TIME SAVERS

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

In my Time Management seminars, which I have conducted for more than 100,000 people from around the globe, I show people how to get more done in less time, with less stress; to help them have more time for the things they want to do in their work and personal lives.

If you can recapture a wasted hour here and there and redirect it to a more productive use, you can make great increases in your daily productivity and the quality of your life.

Here are five of the many techniques I share in our Time Management seminars, each one of which will help you to get at least one more hour out of your day for additional productive time.

1. Run an Interruptions Log The average person gets 50 interruptions a day. The average interruption takes five minutes. Some five hours each day are spent dealing with interruptions. Many are crucial and important and are what we are paid to do but many have little or no value. Run an Interruptions Log to identify and eliminate the wasteful interruptions. Just use a pad of paper and label it “Interruptions Log” Create six columns: Date, Time, Who, What, Length, Rating. After each interruption is dealt with, log in the date and time it occurred, who brought it to you, a word or two about what it related to, the length of time it took, and finally the rating of its importance: A=crucial, B=important, C=little value, and D=no value. Run it for a week or more to get a good measure of what is happening in your life. Then evaluate the results and take action to eliminate some of the C and D interruptions that have little or no value.
2. Delegate It We all have 168 hours each week and when you subtract 56 hours for sleep and another 10 hours for personal care, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to get done what needs to be done. Delegation permits you to leverage your time through others and thereby increase your own results. The hardest part of delegation though, is simply letting go. We take great pride in doing things ourselves. “If you want a job done well, you better do it yourself”. Every night in Daily Planning, look at all that you have to do and want to do the next day and with each item ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?” If it is, do it. If it isn’t, try to arrange a way to delegate it to someone else. There is a lot of difference between “I do it” and “It gets done”.
3. Manage Meetings A meeting is when two or more people get together to exchange common information. What could be simpler? Yet, it can one of the biggest time wasters we must endure. Before a meeting ask, “Is it necessary?” and “Am I necessary?” If the answers to either are “no”, consider not having the meeting or excusing yourself from attending. Then prepare a written agenda for the meeting with times assigned for each item along with a starting time and ending time. Circulate the written agenda among those who will be attending. There is no sense in holding a meeting by ambush. Let people know in advance what is to be discussed.
4. Handle Paper It’s easy to get buried today in the blizzard of paperwork around us. The average person receives around 150 communications each day via email, telephone, hard mail, memos, circulars, faxes, etc. A lot of time is wasted going through the same pile of paper day after day and correcting mistakes when things slip through the cracks. Try to handle the paper once and be done with it. If it is something that can be done in a minute or two, do it and be done. If it is not the best use of your time, delegate it. If it is going to take some time to complete, schedule ahead in your day calendar on the day you think you might get to it and then put it away.
5. Run a Time Log If you want to manage it, you have to measure it. A Time Log is a simple yet powerful tool to create a photo album sort of overview of how your time is actually being spent during the day. Simply make an ongoing record of your time as you spend it. Record the activity, the time spent on it, and then the rating using A, B, C, and D as described in #1 above. Some examples of how your time might be spent: Made telephone calls, 35 minutes, A; Answered emails, 48 minutes, B; Attended staff meeting, 55 minutes, C. Run this for a few days to get a good picture of how your time is being spent. Then analyze the information. Add up all the A, B, C, and D time. Most discover a lot of their time is being spent on C and D items that have little or no value. Finally, take action steps to reduce the C and D items to give you more time for the really important things in your life.

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, a full-time Professional Speaker, is one of the foremost experts on Time Management and the author of “Beat the Clock”, “Organizing Your Life” and “The Productivity Handbook”. If you would like information about his on-site Time Management Seminars for groups of any size, email your request now for “on-site” to: mailto:ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive more Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe”. We welcome you to our list!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Copyright 2001 & 2006 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: mailto:ctsem@msn.com

Some Time Savers #2

SOME TIME SAVERS #2

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

In my Time Management seminars, which I have conducted for more than 100,000 people from around the globe, I show people how to get more done in less time, with less stress; to help them have more time for the things they want to do in their work and personal lives.

If you can recapture a wasted hour here and there and redirect it to a more productive use, you can make great increases in your daily productivity and the quality of your life.

Here are five of the many techniques I share in our Time Management seminars, each one of which will help you to get at least one more hour out of your day for additional productive time.

1. Run an Interruptions Log The average person gets 50 interruptions a day. The average interruption takes five minutes. Some five hours each day are spent dealing with interruptions. Many are crucial and important and are what we are paid to do but many have little or no value. Run an Interruptions Log to identify and eliminate the wasteful interruptions. Just use a pad of paper and label it “Interruptions Log” Create six columns: Date, Time, Who, What, Length, Rating. After each interruption is dealt with, log in the date and time it occurred, who brought it to you, a word or two about what it related to, the length of time it took, and finally the rating of its importance: A=crucial, B=important, C=little value, and D=no value. Run it for a week or more to get a good measure of what is happening in your life. Then evaluate the results and take action to eliminate some of the C and D interruptions that have little or no value.
2. Delegate It We all have 168 hours each week and when you subtract 56 hours for sleep and another 10 hours for personal care, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to get done what needs to be done. Delegation permits you to leverage your time through others and thereby increase your own results. The hardest part of delegation though, is simply letting go. We take great pride in doing things ourselves. “If you want a job done well, you better do it yourself”. Every night in Daily Planning, look at all that you have to do and want to do the next day and with each item ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?” If it is, do it. If it isn’t, try to arrange a way to delegate it to someone else. There is a lot of difference between “I do it” and “It gets done”.
3. Manage Meetings A meeting is when two or more people get together to exchange common information. What could be simpler? Yet, it can one of the biggest time wasters we must endure. Before a meeting ask, “Is it necessary?” and “Am I necessary?” If the answers to either are “no”, consider not having the meeting or excusing yourself from attending. Then prepare a written agenda for the meeting with times assigned for each item along with a starting time and ending time. Circulate the written agenda among those who will be attending. There is no sense in holding a meeting by ambush. Let people know in advance what is to be discussed.
4. Handle Paper It’s easy to get buried today in the blizzard of paperwork around us. The average person receives around 150 communications each day via email, telephone, hard mail, memos, circulars, faxes, etc. A lot of time is wasted going through the same pile of paper day after day and correcting mistakes when things slip through the cracks. Try to handle the paper once and be done with it. If it is something that can be done in a minute or two, do it and be done. If it is not the best use of your time, delegate it. If it is going to take some time to complete, schedule ahead in your day calendar on the day you think you might get to it and then put it away.
5. Run a Time Log If you want to manage it, you have to measure it. A Time Log is a simple yet powerful tool to create a photo album sort of overview of how your time is actually being spent during the day. Simply make an ongoing record of your time as you spend it. Record the activity, the time spent on it, and then the rating using A, B, C, and D as described in #1 above. Some examples of how your time might be spent: Made telephone calls, 35 minutes, A; Answered emails, 48 minutes, B; Attended staff meeting, 55 minutes, C. Run this for a few days to get a good picture of how your time is being spent. Then analyze the information. Add up all the A, B, C, and D time. Most discover a lot of their time is being spent on C and D items that have little or no value. Finally, take action steps to reduce the C and D items to give you more time for the really important things in your life.

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, a full-time Professional Speaker, is one of the foremost experts on Time Management and the author of “Beat the Clock”, “Organizing Your Life” and “The Productivity Handbook”. If you would like to receive a no cost copy of his humorous article, “You Just Might be a Workaholic”, email your request now for “might” to: mailto:ctsem@msn.com

Would you like to receive more Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity? Sign up now for your no cost “TIMELY TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe”. We welcome you to our list!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Copyright 2001 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: mailto:ctsem@msn.com

Three Steps for Positive Goal Setting

Three Steps for Positive Goal Setting

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

As I conduct my Time Management Seminars all over, my audiences consistently tell me they want more out of life. Almost everyone I speak with has a yearning for improving several aspects of their lives. They have dreams and goals about their futures that are as yet unrealized.

Many come to the end in life with those visions unrealized, pictures in their minds only.

Achieving goals helps us to get the “want to’s” in our lives. Life ought to be more than just achieving the “have to’s”.

I offer three important tips to help increase the probability of achieving your dreams, getting more of what you want in your life.

Put your goals into writing. There is something powerful about writing out what you want, getting your dream out of your head and on to a piece of paper. It then seems more realizable. It’s a stonger affirmation of what you are working towards rather than having a vague, wispy notion floating around in your head.

An even stronger tool is to prepare a goal scrapbook. Nothing fancy. Get a three-ring binder and fill it with notebook paper. Then get a picture of each your goals and paste them into your new goal scrapbook. You can go to the car dealer and get a brochure of the new car you want. Visit a travel agent and pick up brochures of your ideal vacation’s destination and add that. Clip a picture of your dream house out of the newspaper’s real estate section and add this as well.

Then, each night, review your goal scrapbook and see a picture of what will surely be coming to you. It’s like viewing a crystal ball and seeing your future.

Quantify your goals. Many do not get what they truly want in their lives because they are too vague about what they want. It is not enough to say, “I want more money” or “I want to be rich”. Instead, if you write, “I want $10,000”, you now have a clear target to shoot for.

Set a deadline. Did you ever set a New Year’s resolution and never achieve it? Most people have. And most people fail to achieve their dreams because they did not include a deadline with their goal. Deadlines move us to action.

When we fail to include a deadline for our goal, when we commit to achieving it “as soon as possible”, the goal winds up in our “as soon as possible” pile of things I will do another day, which is probably never. Why? Because we all too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. The items that have deadlines for completion tend to bubble up in priority and importance so that we take action and achieve them.

Having written out the goal, placed a picture in our goal scrapbook, quantified it, and set a deadline, we can now break that goal down into its little component pieces so that achievement becomes realistic and manageable.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. No goal achievement is a leap across some huge canyon. Many are intimidated and driven away from going after what they really want in their lives for fear they will have to take a giant leap across that canyon and, hey, what if I don’t leap far enough? Disaster.

Let’s say you have a goal to get an additional $10,000 in savings two years from today. Make up a picture of your new bank statement two years from now showing the additional $10,000 in your account. The goal is in writing. It is quantified and a deadline has been set. Now you can break that goal into its little steps for achievement.

To get $10,000 over the next two years requires getting an additional $5,000 per year. A year is made up of twelve months, so that means you need to get approximately $400 per month. A month is made up of four weeks, so that’s $100 per week. And a week is made of, let’s say, five business days. That’s $20 per day. (I have not added in interest to these calculations just for simplicity.)

I don’t know about you, but the notion of going out in the world tomorrow and getting an extra $20 is a whole lot more realistic and certainly a whole more doable than getting $10,000. Getting the entire $10,000 is the leap across the canyon. It scares me. $20 is the single step. That’s something I can handle. Now the goal seems realistic and is realizable.

But until you write out your goal, quantify it, and set a deadline so that you break it down to its small steps, it will forever appear to be too big a stretch and therefore unattainable. But every time you follow these three steps and break the goal down, you will always find that you have within your control what it takes to accomplish that next step. And once you begin, you are on your way!


Help your group to set and achieve their goals with our dynamic “Beat the Clock” seminar at your location, for groups of any size, from one hour up to three full days. For more information, send your request for “in house” to: ctsem@msn.com

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association

Copyright 2001 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

The Time Thieves

The Time Thieves

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

You have 24 hours in every day, seven days a week for a total of 168 hours to accomplish what needs to be done in your life. And every day, eleven time thieves gang up on you and work to take some of that precious time away from productive use. Let me introduce you to this inconsiderate troupe.

Poor planning. People don’t plan to fail but a lot of people fail to plan. Without a plan of action set up before your day begins you are likely to get caught up in “stuff”, responding the loudest voice that gets your time and attention. Will you have been productive for the day? Sure, but not as productive as you might have been.
Crisis management. When a deadline sneaks up on you it robs you of all choice and you are controlled by the clock. Crisis management, for the most part, is poor time management because you’re rushed and stressed, letting things slip through the cracks and often having to go back and redo what was not done well in the first place. Most of what puts you into crisis management is within your control, you could have seen it coming.
Procrastination. All the planning in the world does not substitute for the doing. Many find that they just can’t get going on the things that will make a big difference in their success. They have “permanent potential”. First thing in your day, get going on the most difficult tasks and get them out of the way.
Interruptions. Unanticipated events coming your way, in person or electronically, can steal your time away. Many interruptions are necessary and part of what you get paid for. However, most are unnecessary thieves of your time. Be less willing to automatically give away your time just because they demand it. Rather, determine whether or not they deserve it.
Not delegating. “If you want a job done well you better do it yourself.” What a thief! Look at everything you have to do and ask, “Is this the best use of my time?” If it is, do it. If not, delegate it. There’s a world of difference between “I do it” and “It gets done.” Leverage your time through others and don’t allow the things that can be delegated to steal your time.
Unnecessary meetings. If two or more people get together and nothing productive comes of the time spent together, that meeting was unnecessary and, sadly, most meetings are time thieves. Before meeting ask, “Is it really necessary?” If it is, then meet but take action as a result of the meeting and not let it be a time bandit.
The “shuffling blues”. Many people manage their time through piles. Piles of appear on their desk. Piles of “to be read” emails on their computer and lots of “to be heard” voicemails stored away. The piles require frequent review creating the shuffling blues which surrenders valuable time. Keep a clean work environment. When encountering something new, schedule it to your day planner under the day you plan to tackle it and then put it away so you are out of the shuffling blues.
Poor physical setup. Not having the things you need the most often within arm’s reach and having a lot of the things you rarely need close by causes you to waste a lot of time wearing out the carpet retrieving what you frequently need. And of course, as you pass others they will often pull you aside to steal some of your time. Have the most needed stuff near by, within arm’s reach and save that stolen time.
Poor networking. Quality relationships with others can be a huge time saver as they open doors for you with all kinds of opportunities. Failing to develop a good network base will cause you to waste time creating what you might have had through your network. Be a good networker. Help them whenever possible. You want a friend? You have to be a friend.
Bad attitude. Nothing sinks a day more effectively than having a poor attitude. It causes you to dwell on the problems and not the solutions and makes it possible to throw the day away. When you are burdening others with your problems and complaints you are stealing your time and theirs. And the truth is that when you complain to others, 85% of them really don’t care and the other 15% are actually glad it’s happening to you.
Negative people. Some people are the life of the party and some people are the death of the party. The problem with having negative people around you is you wind up spending a lot of your time listening to their complaints rather than focusing on your success.

Arrest each of these time thieves. Sentence them to solitary confinement and re-claim your productive time. You deserve it.

Want help eliminating the time thieves from your day? You can easily get more of the important things done, in less time, with less stress. Invite Don to conduct his dynamic Time Management Seminar at your location, from one hour up to three full days, for groups of any size. For details, email your request now for “in house” to: ctsem@msn.com

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com
Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Copyright 2005 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Ten Time Savers

TEN TIME SAVERS

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

In my Time Management seminars which I have conducted for more than 100,000 people from around the globe, I show people how to get more done in less time, with less stress; to help them have more time for the things they want to do in their work and business lives.

If you can recapture a wasted hour here and there and redirect it to a more productive use, you can make great increases in your daily productivity.

Here are ten of the techniques I share in our Time Management seminars, each one of which will help you to get at least one more hour out of your day of additional productive time.

1. Maintain Balance. Your life consists of Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual, Social, Professional, and Spiritual. You will not spend equal amounts of time in each area or time every day in each area. But, if in the long run, you are spending a sufficient quantity and quality of time in each area, then your life will be balanced. But ignore any one of your areas, (never mind two or three!) and you will get out of balance and potentially sabotage your success. Fail to take time now for your health and you will have to take time for illness later on. Ignore your family and they may leave you and cost you a lot of time to re-establish relationships. It is especially challenging for self-employed people to maintain balance, isn’t it?

2. Get the Power of the Pen. A faint pen has more power than the keenest mind. Get into the habit of writing things to do down using one tool (a Day-Timer, pad of paper, Palm Pilot, etc.) Your mind is best used for the big picture rather than all the details. The details are important, but manage them with the pen. If you want to manage it you have to measure it first. Writing all things down, not just incoming orders, helps you to more easily remember all that you need to accomplish.

3. Do Daily Planning. It is said that people do not plan to fail but a lot of people fail to plan. Take the time each night to take control of the most precious resource at your command, the next twenty-four hours. Plan your work and then work your plan each day. Write up a To Do list with all you “have to’s” and all of your “want to’s” for your next day. Without a plan for the day, you can easily get distracted, spending your time serving the loudest voice, the noisiest customer, rather than attending to the most important things for your day that will enhance your productivity.

4. Prioritize It. Your To Do list will have crucial and not crucial items on it. Despite the fact most people want to be productive, when given the choice between crucial and not crucial items, we will most often end up doing the not crucial items. They are generally easier and quicker than crucial items. Prioritize your To Do list each night. Put the #1 next to the most important item on your list. Place the #2 next to the second most important item on your list, etc. Then tackle the items on your list in order of their importance. You may not get everything done on your list, but you will get the most important things done. This is working smarter, not harder, and getting more done in less time.

5. Control Procrastination. The most effective planning in the world does not substitute for doing what needs to be done. We procrastinate and put off important things because we don’t sense enough pain for not doing it or enough pleasure to do it. To get going on something you have been putting off, create in your mind enough pain for not doing it or enough pleasure to do it. I prefer the pleasure approach. Take a procrastinated item and turn it into to a game. Work with one thing in front of you at a time so other things won’t distract you. (“Out of sight, out of mind.”) Break it down to little bite-sized, manageable pieces. Get it started, take the first step and you will likely continue it to completion.

6. Run an Interruptions Log. The average person gets 50 interruptions a day. The average interruption takes five minutes. Some four hours each day, on average, are spent dealing with interruptions. Many are crucial and important, like new orders, and are what we get paid to do but many have little or no value. Run an Interruptions Log to identify and eliminate the wasteful interruptions. Just use a pad of paper and label it “Interruptions Log”. Create six columns: Date, Time, Who, What, Length, Rating. After each interruption is dealt with, log in the date and time it occurred, who brought it to you, a word or two about what it related to, the length of time it took, and finally the rating of its importance: A=crucial, B=important, C=little value, and D=no value. Run it for a week or more to get a good measure of what is happening in your life. Then evaluate the results and take action to eliminate some of the C and D interruptions that have little or no value.

7. Delegate It. We all have 168 hours each week and when you subtract 56 hours for sleep and another 10 hours for personal care, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to get done what needs to be done. Delegation permits you to leverage your time through others and thereby increase your own results. The hardest part of delegation though, is simply letting go. We take great pride in doing things ourselves. “If you want a job done well, you better do it yourself”. Every night in Daily Planning, look at all that you have to do and want to do the next day and with each item ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?” If it is, do it. If it isn’t, try to arrange a way to delegate it to someone else. There is a lot of difference between “I do it” and “It gets done”.

8. Manage Meeting Time. A meeting is when two or more people get together to exchange common information. What could be simpler? Yet, it can be one of the biggest time wasters we must endure. Before a meeting ask, “Is it necessary?” and “Am I necessary?” If the answers to either are “no”, consider not having the meeting or excusing yourself from attending. Then prepare a written agenda for the meeting with times assigned for each item along with a starting time and ending time. Circulate the written agenda among those who will be attending. There is no sense in holding a meeting by ambush. Let people know in advance what is to be discussed.

9. Handle Paper. It’s easy to get buried today in the blizzard of paperwork around us. The average person receives around 150 communications each day via email, telephone, hard mail, memos, circulars, faxes, etc. A lot of time is wasted going through the same pile of paper day after day and correcting mistakes when things slip through the cracks. Try to handle the paper once and be done with it. If it is something that can be done in a minute or two, do it and be done. If it is not the best use of your time, delegate it. If it is going to take some time to complete, schedule ahead in your day calendar on the day you think you might get to it and then put it away.

10. Run a Time Log. If you want to manage it, you have to measure it. A Time Log is a simple yet powerful tool to create a photo album sort of overview of how your time is actually being spent during the day. Simply make an ongoing record of your time as you spend it. Record the activity, the time spent on it, and then the rating using A, B, C, and D as described in #1 above. Some examples of how your time might be spent: Made telephone calls, 35 minutes, A; Made baskets, 48 minutes, A; Attended meeting, 55 minutes, C: Telephone call from Janis, 7 minutes, D. Run this for a few days to get a good picture of how your time is being spent. Then analyze the information. Add up all the A, B, C, and D time. Most discover a lot of their time is being spent on C and D items that have little or no value. Finally, take action steps to reduce the C and D items to give you more time for the really important things in your life.

Time Management Seminars available on-site, at your location, from one hour to three full days for groups of any size. Get more done in less time. For information, email your request for “on-site” to: ctsem@msn.com

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Copyright 2004 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: mailto:ctsem@msn.com