Your word is your bond. Many deals have been made on the strength of the word of the parties involved. If you want your word to mean something, create a plan you can live with for your work life and family life. Making plans is more than jotting a few words on a sticky note that you tack to a cork board. It takes commitment from you to see things through to the end. Plans are important. When you start a business, you develop a business plan that outlines your business ideas, money needed and how much you hope to make in revenue. Having kids also requires a plan – for their growth, future education and beyond. Life is full of plans. Make sure yours have the backing of your word that it will be carried out. Read the rest of this entry »

As the owner and head of your business, it is your responsibility to deliver for your clients. Maybe in the beginning everything was on your shoulders but if you have employees now, they are also part of the fabric of your business. Learn how to delegate to employees so you can concentrate on other matters. What is the major barrier to delegating? For one, no one wants to ask someone to do something for them. What if they say no? In that case, you have a backup plan in place so an answer in the negative is not as daunting as you might imagine. What if the person does a poor job? Then you’ve learned something for the next time. It is a responsibility of a boss or owner to farm out the work of the company to get it all done. Read the rest of this entry »

Whether you have a home business or are organizing your family finances, you could be stuck beneath a mound of paper. What is a person to do with all that wood pulp? Here are a few tips for controlling the mountain of paperwork that threatens to overtake you. When you live in this world, paperwork becomes a necessary evil. While you may generate paper, all of it doesn’t have to be kept if you can find a way around it. Some documents can be computerized and not remain in paper form. Here are some tips. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are in charge of people it doesn’t look good to have issues with your time. A manager who spends most of their time putting out fires, needs a timeout to get things together. You might be that manager. If so, here is some advice that will help. What are your managerial duties? If you are a project manager, then you oversee all of the projects (or a portion of them) in the office. That could be five or it could be thirty. Part of getting the job done is being able to meet the needs of the clients and the teams on all those projects. That takes organization and some forward thinking. The big part of being an effective manager is constantly analyzing how your time is spent. If you seem to be behind the eighth ball all the time, maybe a few time management skills can help you out. At the very least, it will keep a bad headache at bay. Read the rest of this entry »

Is your to-do list almost too long to read every day? Or have you simply given up trying to keep a current to-do list. Don’t give up; get your to-do list under control to compliment your time management strategies. Read the rest of this entry »