Time management is a skill that most of us have yet to master. No matter how many things we do during the day, there always seems to be a long list of unchecked ‘to do’ items. This is something that I’ve struggled with as of late. Starting a business on your own can become overwhelming very fast. The volume of things to do sometimes reaches a point where all you feel like doing is stashing them in a big bag and hiding it somewhere for a few days. But that only compounds the problem.
I decided to go through the titles in my bookshelf and take a look at what the experts had to say on the matter. The two that were most useful were “The 7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen Covey and “The 4 hour workweek” by Tim Ferris. In part 1 of 2 of this blog posting, I will go over what Stephen Covey has to say on time management and in part 2, I will do the same for Tim Ferris. Read more »
A recent encounter I had brought to light the importance of effective communication. It also demonstrated how easily a simple problem can become complex when we use an ‘inflexible’ style of communication. The incident happened at the local post office between two sales associates and me. A few weeks ago, I signed up for a P.O. Box for my company. As is often the case, I misplaced the receipt a few days later. Several hours of searching the house was unsuccessful and I finally admitted defeat.
So off I went to the post office. I told the two associates my dilemma and that I needed another receipt for income tax purposes. The sales associates were not impressed. I was met with comments like: “We don’t that”, “we don’t just randomly print receipts”, and “it’s the customer’s responsibility to take care of their receipt after the purchase”. I wasn’t too happy either. I replied with comments like: “How complicated can it be to print a receipt?” and “why can’t you just give me something in writing?”. Read more »
Tags: communication, marketing, sales
As a follow-up to my previous post on mind mapping, I am going to bring to light one of its great applications: writing and delivering a speech. Before going further, I should mention that I have some prior experience in public speaking. In many of our business courses in university, presenting was a normal part of the curriculum. In addition, I spent some time as a member of a local toastmasters club, a great organization for improving one’s public speaking skills. However, I wish I had learned how to use mind mapping a few years back since I feel this simple technique greatly improves every part of a speech from writing / editing to memorization and delivery. It also cuts preparation time by at least 50%. Read more »
Tags: entrepreneurship, Productivity, speech writing, starting a business
Image by gideonking
Ever since I read the book “Use your head” by Tony Buzan a few years back, I have been using mind mapping as a tool quite extensively. For those unfamiliar with the term, a ‘mind map’ is an alternative and superior way of taking notes that makes use of both the left (analytical) and right (creative) sides of the brain. You begin with a key concept in the middle of the page with secondary keywords ‘branching out’ radially around the key concept.
Research shows that the human brain works in very a non-linear way with associations and connections being key parts 0f the whole process. A mind map is more conducive to this than traditional linear note taking. A few advantages include: a clearly defined central idea, relative importance of ideas, links between ideas, and faster recall and review periods.
As mentioned in the book, here are a few guidelines for creating a great mind map: Read more »
The concept of a ‘paperless’ life is something that I’m finding more and more appealing. Lets face it. We’re inundated with paperwork every day: letters, bills, pay stubs, receipts, warranties, instructions on how to use your printer, etc. We can sort all this information and file them separately using a file folder. However, the process of going through each folder looking for instance, an old pay stub can be very frustrating and time consuming. Read more »
For the longest time, I kept the business cards of all my contacts neatly filed in a plastic business card holder. Then one day, I realized how inefficient the whole process is. There are some major drawbacks with using this method of information storage:
- Storing something that shouldn’t be stored: How many of the business cards we collect do we really need to keep? Do you really intend to develop a business relationship with every person in your card holder? When I went through my card holder that day, I realized that I had no idea who half of the people were or why I felt the need to keep their contact information. Read more »