Ten Things That Make A Successful Entrepreneur

By Theodora Cochrane

Some people say entrepreneurs are born, not made. That’s only partly true. Some people seem to be entrepreneurs from birth. Sometimes the entrepreneurial gene doesn’t kick in until later in life.

Whenever it happens there are ten golden rules any prospective entrepreneur should obey. So get a sheet of paper and let’s get to work.

1. Motivation. You must be clear about what you want and why you want it. For example, it isn’t enough to say ‘I want to make a lot of money’. What do you want it for? How much do you want? How soon do you want it? How determined to get it are you?

2. Control. You must be prepared to take control of your life. You decide when you work. You decide where you work. (Work at home, or in the car, or on the beach, etc.) You decide how many hours, days, weeks you work. You decide how much money you make.

3. Prepared to take risks. The life of the entrepreneur is not risk free. Things can go wrong – BUT – nothing ventured, nothing gained. Learn when to quit and change direction and when to hang in there and weather the storm. If one path isn’t the right one you can always take another. The secret is to keep your eyes open for new opportunities.

4. Resilient. This is very much linked to the previous point. I want you to think of a tall tree in a high wind. It might thrash about and bend a bit in the gale but only rarely does it break. Why do tall buildings like the Empire State building have a built in factor that allows it to sway in the wind? Both these things can survive intact because they are resilient. They can react to the surrounding conditions and more or less escape serious damage. If they were absolutely rigid they would break under the pressure. The entrepreneur has to be flexible to deal with changes in the marketplace.

5. Enjoy a challenge. Being an entrepreneur is a challenge. It has no place for the ‘what ifs’. (What if it all goes wrong? What if I don’t make any money? What if I’m a failure? What if the sky falls on my head?’ If you’re a ‘what if’ forget about being an entrepreneur and get yourself a nice steady job.

6. Prepared to take the plunge. It’s like standing at the edge of the swimming pool when you can’t swim. Until you take the plunge you will never learn. But every time you do it you become more skilful and the easier it gets. Keep at it and before long you will be diving in from the highest board and coming up smiling.

7. Mix with the right people. There are always people prepared to put you down. Unfortunately these are often family or friends. This isn’t done out of malice, it’s more from a subconscious fear that somehow they’ll be ‘losing’ you – that you are moving onto a different plane. As far as you can you should keep company with fellow entrepreneurs. Take your family and friends with you if you can but never neglect to have regular contact with positive thinkers or you will be dragged back into the daily drudge. Once you’ve shown that you haven’t evolved into some sort of snooty conceited bighead your family and friends might admit that they were wrong!

8. Open to new ideas. Entrepreneurs never consider that they have reached the highest peak. As soon as they have reached the top of one project mountain they will look for another one to climb. It’s exactly the same adrenalin surge that keeps mountaineers trying for ever more difficult ways of climbing Everest. Others might follow but the prize is to the people who got there first.

9. Willing to learn from others. Be prepared to learn about the skills you will need from other successful entrepreneurs. Attend some of the bootcamps that are organised. There is one caveat here – don’t become a bootcamp junkie! There are some would-be entrepreneurs who go from one bootcamp to another but never take the plunge and try to put what they have learnt into practice. In other words they keep going to the swimming pool but never actually get into the water.

10. Not content with one success. The true entrepreneur never stops. Success isn’t the be-all and end-all. As I said before, when he/she has reached the top of one mountain they look for the next one to climb. It’s enervating, it’s fun – and the view from the top is fantastic.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theodora Cochrane is the author of Prospecting For Gold which is a business course designed to help budding entrepreneurs to take the first steps to success and to offer helpful suggestions to successful entrepreneurs who are looking for opportunities to climb a few more mountains.
See more at www.percydale.com


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7 Ways To Leave The Office Earlier

Laura Stack, a productivity expert and president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., wrote a list of 7 tips which can help you leave the office earlier. The list was also published on the "Microsoft At Work" website.

One tip...

Start meetings before 4pm. Wherever possible schedule meetings to end by 4:30pm. Ideally, start meetings right after lunch. Block out your diary from 4pm every day so people don’t schedule late meetings with you. And don't ask others to begin projects at 4:45pm – respect their right to a life outside work too.

Read all 7 tips. [via The Productivity Pro]


- Curtis H.

15 17 Ways To Collect and Organize Ideas

LearningNerd.com had a good article on 15 ways to collect and organize ideas. I have added two (2) more from the vault of The Efficient Executive. Hence, 15 has now become 17. Please share your ideas in the comments.

From LearningNerd.com

Like lightning, ideas tend to strike when least expected (and they can be quite shocking). But you never think of them when you need to! I hate nothing more than to get a good idea only to know that I’ll forget it before I can write it down. So, here are a few tips and tools to capture those bursts of creative energy:

Collecting Ideas

• Get a PDA or Pocket PC.


• Get a notebook or my personal favorite, the free PocketMod. As for a pen, you could buy one of those useful mini-pens made specifically to fit inside your wallet — or you could get a Swiss Army knife that includes a pen.


• As commenter Brad Shorr suggested, keep your notebook next to your bed to keep track of those crazy, late-night ideas.


• Keep a plain text file or other document on your computer just for listing those random ideas.


• Use your phone to send yourself emails or make online sticky notes via text messaging.


• Get one of those mobile digital recorders.


• Use your phone to leave yourself messages.


• Use a service like Posticky or Evoca to save your recordings online.


• If you’re already working at your computer and you have an idea to record, Springdoo and Slawesome let you send audio emails. This works especially well along with Gmail's built-in audio player.


• Or, if you need to access your notes from any computer, use one of the many online note-taking services out there. See Fifty Ways to Take Notes for a great list of these.


• [From The Efficient Executive] - Take notes and collect ideas in the shower.

Organizing Ideas

• Add some extra info (like the date or what you were doing at the time) next to your ideas to help yourself remember the whole thought. See Harry Potter: A Great Example of GTD and Idea Capture.


• Keep all of your ideas in separate emails and use Gmail’s labeling feature to organize them. You might even want to create a separate email account just for ideas and notes.


• If you like to list your ideas in a text document, just make one file for each project you have and organize them in folders.


• If you prefer paper, use different colored sticky notes and stick them on larger pieces of paper to group your ideas together. To keep track of everything, keep all the paper in a 3-ring binder and use dividers to separate ideas for different projects.


• Many of the services listed on Fifty Ways to Take Notes allow for easy organizing, like Yahoo! Notepad and Backpack.


• [From The Efficient Executive] - Try Google Notebook to collect and organize files.

I’m currently using an unorganized combination of several of the above methods until I decide which I like best. How do you keep track of your random ideas?

Create Custom Search Engines with Google

Google recently launched what they are calling "Custom Search Engines." Using your existing Google account (signing-up for one is free), you can create search engines which will search specific sites, the entire Web, or both, and have the search engine return only results which are relevant to your areas of interest.


For example: You could create a custom search engine that included business sites your visit regularly. You could then use this search engine to look for articles within these sites. Or create a search engine that only searches for financial articles based on industry keywords.

The possibilities are endless, and you can now harness the power of Google's search technology to create your own personalized search engines!

From Google:

A Custom Search Engine is a tailored search experience, built using Google's core search technology, which prioritizes or restricts search results based on websites and pages that you specify, and which can be tailored to reflect your point of view or area of expertise.

Google Custom Search Engines


- Curtis H.

Work Your Business - Don't Just Read About It

By Jennifer Sparks

Are you one of those people who want to just read read read and think you have to learn everything about the business before you get out there and get your business going? Not True! I did that and found I wasted so much time and time is really valuable.

If you work your business from the heart, be honest and feel comfortable about how you are marketing yourself and your product, you will be a success! You really don't need to know everything, you will learn it as you go.

You can spend so much time reading files and listening to conferences, reading this blog and that article, it becomes mind boggling. The more you read and listen the less time you are spending getting out there. Not that you should not read and learn, that's not my point. The point is you need to be strict on your time allotment for your computer or you could be sucked in all day!

Your business is your own, so make it your own and do it your way, the way that feels best for you! Do your business first thing in the morning and save the afternoons or evenings for computer time. Maybe give yourself an hour or an hour and a half very early in the morning or late in the evening. That way you will leave most of the day for your "plan of action".

Sure it's fine to get ideas from team mates and articles so you can improve in certain areas, but make sure to set a limit on your time on the computer, because sure enough if you turn that computer on in the morning and start reading everything, pretty soon half the day is gone. So you say, "oh no, I guess it's too late to get out there today". I think that is called procrastination!

We tell ourselves we are just trying to learn everything there is to learn, but really, some of us are just reluctant to get out there! We learn by doing and if we work our businesses we will learn as we go. Hands on is the best way anyway!

So the bottom line is, your business is first, set yourself limits on the computer and make your business your own by doing it the best way that feels right and natural to you. Just learn as you go have integrity, honesty and a smile!!

Jennifer Sparks has a home based soy/veg candle business. Make money while burning petroleum free, soot free candles that clean up with warm soap and water! You could be ordering at wholesale prices! Ask me how.
Visit my website to see how much fun you could be having doing this business! Visit me at http://www.sparksaglow.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Sparks

How to thank your customers

Here are a few tips to make your customers feel appreciated. These tips are from the Marketing Thoughts blog care of the Marketing & Management Update blog.

Let us never forget our customers are why we are in business!

1. Thank high value customers: All customers are not created equal. An annual handwritten thank you note to your “top twenty percent” from the CEO is a smart strategy.


2. Thank lost customers with a private “win back” offer: A handwritten note to welcome them back, with an irresistible offer works well. Reactivating past customers is one of those forgotten fundamentals.


3. Thank and sell: A handwritten note with a customizable gift certificate is a proven winner and can move inventory or get a plant to capacity!


4. Thank with a gift: Induce reciprocity and stimulate a sale or referral! A thank you gift works wonders. Think high perceived value.


5. Thank and save the sale: Beat the cognitive dissonance demons by reassuring the customer. Great for any high ticket item. Offer an add-on sale while you are at it!


6. Thank and cross-sell: A handwritten note to tell your best customers about a new product or service, with an offer unavailable elsewhere.


7. Thank the non-buyer: A handwritten note to the non-buying prospect of a high ticket item can influence a sale when the prospect is ready to purchase.

Make ‘thank you’ a strategic and conscious component in your marketing program and invest in the lifetime value of the relationships you have already established. The challenge, of course, is to implement a timely and sincere thank you program at a reasonable marketing cost. At the end of the day, it’s all about direct marketing mathematics but aren’t your best customers worth a couple of bucks for you to show your sincere appreciation?

Three Vital Steps To Success According To Bill Gates

By Wayne Berry

1. Vision

All successful people have vision. They have the ability the “see” clearly what they want before it exits.

I’d have to agree with Mr Gates on that one. All of the successful people I have known and studied have had that ability.

Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds had a vision of what McDonalds could be. He saw McDonalds as an international franchise operation dominating the world of fast food. He had that vision when he first met the McDonald brothers in their little outlet in San Bernadino, in Southern California. The McDonald brothers knew he was crazy right away. They just couldn’t see it! They had actually tried franchising and failed. If Kroc was stupid enough to try again where they had failed, sure they would go along with him, and he could have a percentage of the new company. That percentage was eventually worth billions to Ray Kroc, who was not at all surprised when McDonalds succeeded on a scale that astounded the McDonald brothers.

Bill Gates could “see” that the future of computers was in the software, not in the hardware. Bear in mind that he “saw” this at a time when IBM dominated the world of computers with computers the size houses and where an apple was something that grew on a tree.

In the 1950’s Walt Disney “saw” a place called “Disneyland” where people would come from all over the world to play. He saw this in a world where amusement parks were tacky places staffed by scruffy carnival people. Even worse, he saw it being located out in the boon docks of Los Angeles in aplace called Anaheim where those apples I mentioned before grew in orchards. The bankers Walt approached just couldn’t see it!! At the time the project was laughingly referred to as “Disney’s folly”, but Walt did it anyway. I bet you’ve either been there, know someone who has been there, or intend to go there or to one of the other Disney Parks around the world.

So what’s your vision? Once you a clear on what you want you’re half way there.

2. Being in the right place at the right time

Bill Gates suggested that some of success is luck. Just being in the right place at the right time.

While I agree with Mr Gates that being in the right place at the right time is important, recognising that you are in the right place, and that the right time is NOW, comes from having a clear vision of what you really want in life. If you know what you want, then you’ll recognise every opportunity that comes along that fits with your vision, and you’ll be able to grab these opportunities with both hands.

Bill gates didn’t invent DOS, someone else did. However Bill Gates had the vision that the creator of DOS did not have. He recognised that he was in the right place at the right time with IBM and acquired DOS. The rest is history.

Is your vision so clear that you recognise when you are in the right place at the right time?

3. Take massive immediate action

During our lifetime, I suspect that we are all presented with thousands of good ideas and wonderful opportunities that could make us wealthy and allow us to fulfil our dreams. The problem is that most people even when they recognise that they have a good idea, do nothing with it.

As one of the founders of the National Speakers Association of Australia (NSAA) 15 years ago, I’m sometimes asked if I’m concerned that I’m actually helping create competitors for myself, every time I speak at an NSAA Conference or Seminar. On these occasions I willingly share my knowledge and experience with people new to the speaking and training profession. I tell them what I’ve learned over the last 27 years and share ideas on how they can become professional speakers.

Frankly I’m not concerned at all about creating competitors, and I say this for two reasons. Reason number one is that I know that very few people will actually take action on the ideas I share. Not because they don’t see the value in the ideas, but simply because that’s human nature. They’ll talk about doing something. They’ll plan to do something. But they won’t actually do anything. If they do, they’ll only try it a time or two and if they haven’t achieved overnight success then they’ll stop doing it.

The second reason I don’t mind sharing my knowledge, is that I know that the serious people, the ones with vision who will take action, will not be interested in becoming Wayne Berry clones. They already have their own vision on what they want to become and achieve, and they’ll do it too. They’ll add real value in their own right in the marketplace.

Every year I share ideas on selling and negotiating techniques with tens of thousands of sales people, but sadly only a small percentage will have the vision and the persistence to follow through and use these ideas on an on-going basis. Those who do, become enormously successful and send me emails which I really enjoy receiving.

The real key to success is to find a good idea and take IMMEDIATEand MASSIVE action. You’ll note that there are two factors here, IMMEDIATE and MASSIVE.

My experience is that if we don’t act on a good idea within 24 hours, we are less than 50% likely to ever act on it. If we haven’t acted on it inside of 7 days, then we are less than 2% likely to ever act on it.

My advice is when you find a good idea act on it right away.

That way you’ll find out quicker if it’s a good idea or not.

The other key is to take MASSIVE action. The average person will try a new idea once or twice and if they don’t get an immediate result. They give up.

When I was in Washington DC last, I visited the Smithsonian Institution and saw some of Edison’s failed experiments as he worked to perfect theincandescent light bulb. The problem was in the filament. They all burned out after a short time. Edison took massive action on the challenge and after thousands of failed attempts, he finally solved the problem. The solution made him a fortune.

How is your MASSIVE “persistence” factor when you are trying out a new idea?

There is no such thing as try. You either do it or you don’t! Edison simply decided to do it, no matter what it took. Do you?

So there you have it. Bill Gates' three keys to success.

Have a great week. Make it a great week!

Wayne Berry - Wayne Berry CSP Australia's TOP GUN® Sales Coach and most in-demand speaker on Sales, Sales Management and Negotiating. TOP GUN® Business Academy Web Site: http://www.wayneberry.com.au 11 Long Island Point, Patterson Lakes. 3197. Melbourne. Australia. Tel: +61 3 9521 0500 Fax: +61 3 9521 0499 1300WAYNEBERRY
Visit Wayne's Website

Corporate Gift Ideas Online

By Jeff Kennedy

What are corporate gifts and why do companies spend money on giving away these gifts to their employees and partners? Have you ever wondered how this concept evolved and what the benefits are of this kind of a program? Well read on if you are interested to find out more about this and also get some exciting and unique corporate gifts ideas which will keep your employees and clients motivated and happy.

First of all, let us look at some of the advantages of corporate gifting. An organization can build stronger and lasting relationships with their clients, customers as well as employees by sending them corporate gifts. What better way is there to keep in touch with the people who directly affect your business and help it to grow? Corporate gifting is actually an old marketing technique which has been found very effective and therefore companies these days are willing to invest in these gifts because the benefits they reap at the end definitely outweigh the costs involved. The ultimate aim in giving corporate gifts is to achieve higher profits.

Companies normally set aside a budget for corporate gifts while planning for the financial year. They also need to tie up with a reliable and professional organization that can provide and deliver these gifts maintaining the quality and standards that the company requires and all this within the budget specified. Therefore choosing the right corporate gifting organization is very critical.

Corporate gifts are usually given to recognize and reward employees or clients for their efforts and work, during festivals and holidays or as incentives for sales and promotions. These gifts reflect the company and so it is important that the products given should be of the finest quality. The gifts should be unique but also formal such that your company remains in the mind of the past, current and future clients and employees.

Choosing the right gift for the right person is very important. There are various gift ideas you can choose from depending on who the recipient of the gift is and also the occasion for which it is given. Some of the generic gift ideas are flower bouquets, plants and bonsais. These can be wrapped elegantly and delivered in gift boxes. Some other gift ideas are chocolate boxes, assortment of cookies and dry fruits.

Apart from these, you can also give desk accessories that are trendy like pens, table clocks, table calendars, card holders, personalized mouse pads, coffee mugs and photo frames. These can be engraved with the company name or logo. Personal accessories like watches, cuff links, jackets and T- shirts with company logo printed on them are great gifts as well. For special occasions like Christmas and New Year, electronic gadgets like DVD players and MP3 players make great gifts.


You can find corporate gift ideas at the author's website, LazyGift.com. It helps you easily find perfect gifts for various recipients and occasions.

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Airline Complaints: The Winners and Losers

by BNET's Warren Greshes

With airport security getting tighter, lines lengthening and business travel getting to be more of a hassle than ever, here’s an update on how the airlines are doing and which ones are making our travel experiences worse than they already are.

Thanks to an assistant I didn't have to go through all 45 pages of the Air Travel Consumer Report for September 2006. Instead, I got to read the complaint data! It lists complaints against U.S. airlines by category for July 2006.

If we start out by just looking at the 7 major airlines (American, United, Delta, Southwest, Northwest, Continental and US Airways Group), we find there are no surprises. United led the way with 111 customer complaints in July (I guessed this correctly before I even saw the survey), followed closely by American and American Eagle with 108; US Air with 102; Delta with 85; Northwest 53; Continental 49; and surprise, the major airline with the least amount of complaints in July: Southwest with only 21!

Here’s something even more remarkable. The complaints were broken down by category, i.e. flight problems, oversales, baggage, reservations/ticketing and others. Under flight problems (the one that can really screw up your trip) United had 39 flight problems in July alone! American 29; Delta 28; US Air and Continental 19; Northwest 12 and Southwest ZERO! The only other airline with zero flight problems was Jet Blue (the best of the small airlines). Remind me again about the claims that Southwest and Jet Blue are only doing business because of cheap fares.

Oh and in case you were wondering only American flies more passengers than Southwest. Delta is 3rd in passenger volume, United 4th (but 1st in complaints), US Air 5th, Northwest 6th and Continental 7th.

Hope this info is helpful to you when planning your next business trip, although you might want to think about driving.

Maintaining A Work/Work Balance

My goal is to have many more work/life balance articles on the site. As we continue to be the World's most overworked country, it is important to constantly stop and make sure we are at least attempting a balanced lifestyle.

However, today I ran across an interesting article, not on work/life balance, but on work/work balance. D. Keith Robinson has a post about maintaining your work/work balance. Work/work balance is equally as difficult as work/life balance, due to the pressures of some tasks in your job interfering with the excitement and interest in other tasks for your job.

Here are a few tips to maintain work/work balance:

• Recognize that both sides (the "head" and "hands" as some people call them) are important...
• Get a partner or two...
• Focus on one thing at a time...
• Have "pet" projects. Personal projects allow you to experiment, "do real work" and hone your skills without the stress of your real job...
• Learn something new. Sometimes your work/work balance can be thrown out of whack simply because your tired of what you're doing...
• Take advantage of down time. This goes double for you worker bees...

I encourage you to read the full article to get some greater insight into having a positive work/work balance.

- Curtis H.

Successful Introverted CEOs

By Neal Burgis, Ph.D.

As a new CEO, your employees expect you to be an extrovert with an outgoing, gregarious personality. Most people have the perception of a successful CEO as being an extrovert. But, in reality, you are a successful introvert who has mastered the ability to act like an extrovert.

There are many ingredients to success and many entrepreneurs who are introverts have their own challenges to deal with when it comes to business success. Introverts typically find several traditional situations too exhausting and draining.

According to research, about 70 percent of CEO’s describe themselves as “introverts”. The list of well-known “Who’s Who” of corporate introverted CEOs includes: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, movie magnate Steven Spielberg, and Sara Lee’s Brenda Barnes. Introverts make up 40 percent of the population. Considered as introverts, these CEO’s, at times, are able to move far enough towards “extrovert status” to be considered ambiverts. Ambiverts are those who fall in the middle between extroverts and introverts. At times, they can function well in many different situations.

Thriving in corporate America as a shy/introverted executive, you may find yourself moving up the corporate ladder in your organization. Take into consideration the characteristics possessed by introverts. Introverts value privacy, need quiet time alone to recharge, feel more comfortable being alone than being with others, prefer to know a few people well (this fits for many CEOs who are “lonely at the top” and confide in a small circle of friends), like to work independently or with one or two other people, prefer to focus on one thing at a time, communicate best one-to-one, and prefer to communicate in writing instead of through talking. Before speaking, introverts think first then act on what they think about. They prefer listening more than talking, rehearse things before saying them, and are perceived as “great listeners”.

One common trait of highly successful executives is that of being creative. Since introverts spend a lot of their time alone, they are among the most creative individuals in business. Introverts, who are highly effective in completing tasks, can usually get away with saying little, but when they do speak, it is meaningful.

Introverts are also considered self-sufficient, confident, hardworking, having firm goals, reserved, being educated to overcompensate for the lack of social skills, and being Rhodes Scholars. Among people with PhDs, there are three introverts to every one extrovert.

On the other hand, extroverts typically have lots of friends; feel drained when they are bored and alone; are energized when they are with other people; are motivated to action; tend to be sociable with others, talkative, and assertive; prefer face-to-face verbal communication rather than written communication; are ready to share personal information easily to others; and respond to situations quickly. Jonathan Rauch, a self-proclaimed introverted correspondent for The Atlantic and a senior writer for National Journal, wrote a short article on introverted CEO’s that states: “Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and s/he will reach for his/her cell phone.” Rauch also said that “In contrast, introverts need to turn off and recharge.”

Introverts are among the most successful people in the world. As an introvert, you need to find your own ingredients to success. For as an introvert, while you may not appear as if you have mastered the ability to act like an extrovert, you have the ability to demonstrate that you can be just as successful as other people. Introverts have to train themselves well enough to work through their reserved characteristics and know what they want to do with their career. As an introverted entrepreneur, you have a lot to offer the business world, but you still prefer to grab as little of the spotlight as possible. Do not let being an introvert stop you from reaching your goals − you have the ability and skills to get the job done!

Neal Burgis, Ph.D. is the founder and CEO of Burgis Successful Solutions, an executive coaching firm. He has 18 years of experience in helping others with their goals and performance levels. He specializes in executive coaching on work balance issues of performance, leadership development, self-confidence, customer service and improving interpersonal skills, as well as being a sounding board.

Neal holds a B.A. in Psychology, an M.Ed. in Counseling and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. He is a National Certified Psychologist and is certified as both an Executive Coach and a Business and Workplace Mediator.

Neal He can be reached at: nburgis@successful-solutions.com, or 602-405-2540.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Neal_Burgis,_Ph.D.

Understanding RSS: A Quick Guide For The Busy Executive

I was going to write a post this week explaining RSS and its uses. Today, I came across an article on the Small Business 2.0 blog which does a pretty good job of explaining the details, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

RSS is a very powerful tool, and it will save hundreds of hours per year by allowing you focus your time when reading online. Taken one step further, RSS allows you to view data that you may normally never read, but is of great value. For example, subscribe to the RSS feed for The Efficient Executive and you will be able to see the latest articles as they are posted, virtually in real-time. No more checking websites for the latest news. Let it come to you.

Full Article [via Small Business 2.0]

Does multitasking affect our ability to learn?

We have all heard how multitasking affects quality and overall productivity. However, Kathy Sierra expands on an increasing trend that may show how multitasking actually inhibits our ability to learn and absorb new ideas.

From Time Magazine:

"Decades of research (not to mention common sense) indicate that the quality of one's output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks."

This is a critical point if we want to truly become more effective and productive as leaders.

Multitasking makes us stupid? [via Creating Passionate Users]

Time Management Tip: Know What Your Hour Is Worth

By David Saunders

If we accept the adage "time is money," then how much is yours worth? Most people I speak to can't answer this question. To really understand the value of your time, and to provide some effective inspiration and motivation to do what's important, knowing how much your time is worth is absolutely critical.

Here's a simple formula to give you that number.

First, decide how much you want over the next twelve months. Perhaps it's $260,000. That seems like a good start.

Next, take the number of 8 hour business days you should spend on being productive in your business. For most people this is 250, which is 50 of the 52 weeks in a year. I think it should be around 220, because you deserve more than two weeks of vacation per year, but you can adjust this formula over time. Starting with 250 eight hour days, we have 2,000 hours.

At this point, $260,000 divided by 2,000 is $130 an hour. This sounds nice, but it's wrong. The reality is that even top CEOs have said they're lucky to have one truly productive hour in a day. It's what you do during that productive time that is building your wealth. The hours you spend on the phone, doing email and playing with your Blackberry are not likely to be producing any of that wealth. It's just important to put that time into perspective.

To be very generous, let's assume that maybe two of your hours are truly productive each day. Use a multiplier to factor this in. Multiply $130 by 4 to give us the value of your two productive hours a day. That's $520 an hour.

Why is this number important? Many people will blow through the day doing nothing but busy work. Maybe on some level it "needs" to get done, but it's not the work that is growing your business or your net-worth. If you get to the end of the day and you never spent any of it on the truly important stuff, then you just threw away that $520 a hour.

Perhaps you want to make a million dollars this year. If so, each of those two productive hours a day are worth $2,000 to you. This mindset is critical if you want to be the person in your dreams. You can still talk to your friends. You can still go to the movies. You can still sleep in late, once in a while. But know that during each business day, you have opportunities to develop business that will be gone at the end of the day. Are your dreams worth two productive hours a day? If so, treat them as if they're worth it.

Dave Saunders has been helping people start up and run successful home businesses since 2003. Discover how to explode your home business at http://www.davesaunders.net.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Saunders

How to write polite emails

Technology-Secrets.com has some great tips for composing polite emails. With instant messaging and text messaging on the rise, our communication skills are sometimes lacking and we struggle to write in complete sentences.

For starters, be concise. In this arena, less means more. Experts say any message of more than 100 lines is considered long and will probably not be read. Some companies are taxed for every second of internet connection, so they will not be happy to accept messages that are too long.

Read all 6 tips and the full article here [via Technology-Secrets.com]

Online Collaboration with Google Docs

Last week, Google launched it's latest offering, Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Google Docs is a collaboration tool which allows you to create, manage and share spreadsheets and documents online.

From Google:

With Google Docs & Spreadsheets, you can:
• Use our online editor to format documents, spell-check and more.
• Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text.
• Download documents to your desktop as Word, PDF and more.
• View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version.

Plus, since its online, you can:
• Invite others to share your documents by e-mail address.
• Edit documents online with whomever you choose.
• Publish documents online to the world, or to just who you choose.
• Post your documents to your blog.

This creates a powerful online collaboration tool, and also allows you to upload documents and store them on the Google servers.

Another trick - You can upload documents in various formats and save as a new format such as PDF.

Google Docs [via LifeHacker.com]

Clip and collect the web with Google Notebook

Another day, another cool new Google product. This time, it's Google Notebook, designed to give you a repository for all the information you find on [and off] the web.

[Google Notebook] give[s] you an online "notebook" where you can organize all your research, add personal notes to it, and share it with others. Google Notebook surfs along quietly with you as you browse, letting you clip and annotate whatever text, images, and links that help answer your question, all without ever leaving the webpage you're on.

Currently Google Notebook is limited to Firefox and Internet Explorer. Once you've signed in, you can install a Firefox extension that lets you sign into Google Notebook and add pages, notes, and annotations to your Google Notebook from any web page, basically working like an online version of the Scrapbook extension for Firefox.

[In true Google fashion, one of the most powerful aspects is the ability to search all your notebooks very quickly for any snippet of information.]

Though there don't seem to be a lot of "social" aspects to Google Notebook, it'll be interesting to see if Google decides to head in that direction. Anyone out there excited about getting their Google Notebook started?

http://www.google.com/notebook/ [Google Notebook]

Lifehacker.com

Listening To Music May Increase Productivity

A recent article from The Birmingham News suggests that listening to music may increase personal productivity.

Science supports the theory that music can make a mind work better. Research from Ogden, Utah-based Advanced Brain Technologies, for instance, found that certain types of music made participants more responsive and productive.

Read the full article here. [The Birmingham News]

Travel Tip: How To Avoid Jet Lag

British Airways has a nice jet lag advisor designed to help you prevent or minimize jet lag when traveling across multiple time zones.

Working in conjunction with the UK's leading sleep expert, Dr. Chris Idzikowski, we have developed the ultimate jet lag advisor. By answering a few simple questions regarding your recent or planned flights, we can advise you on the best things to do to minimise your jet lag.

The jet lag advisor tells you when you should seek and avoid light on your trip in order to keep your body's clock feeling as normal as possible - a useful tool for the frequent flier. Any other tips for combatting jet lag? Please let us know in the comments.

Jet lag Advisor [British Airways]
Your body clock [British Airways]

LifeHacker.com

Work Stress Management

By Jonathon Hardcastle

Not being stressed at work isn't a gift that some people possess; it is in fact an effort that only a few of us manage to put into our lives successfully. The truth is that we take more time thinking how to solve a problem we get into rather than thinking of how to avoid the problem from occurring in the first place. Stress at work has a similar story. Almost all of us get stressed at work very easily and very few of us manage to avoid it, though the solutions are very simple.

The main problems at work are mismanagement of work. A lot of people tend to fail in managing their work properly and end up either falling short of completing it before the deadline or with very poor quality of the work. This leads to the idea of the boss getting a bad impression and therefore less chances of promotion or even being fired if the work was important or this was not the first time you screwed up, and eventually all of it leads to stress. We should learn to manage our work properly to avoid such problems from occurring. First of all, keep a daily schedule of how much you plan to accomplish in each days work. Plan it in such a way that you do not overload yourself and just do as much as you need to do daily to finish the work a day or two before the deadline. Doing less work each day means you can give it more concentration and improve on the quality of the work too. A good technique is to start with the hardest part of the work first and then approach the less hard ones later. Though this sounds like a more stressful way of handling work, however, the effect is quite the opposite. Once the hardest and most important part of the job is complete, the person can relax while doing the remaining parts.

Self belief plays a major role in stress control. Having enough faith in yourself that you can handle anything and everything without much trouble help make you confident through your work and relieves you from stress. Another thing that sometimes tends to buy us stress is when we involve ourselves into others problems. Do not trouble yourself with problems of your coworkers. Manage your work in office and your life at home in some balance. Good management is the number one stress killer.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Employment, Education, and Business

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathon_Hardcastle