Wealth Building Mindmap Guide v2

Secrets of Effective Time Management

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. Why do so many people fail to make money online even though they do everything their coach or mentor has told them to do? Why do two people who are in the exact same business niche and have the exact same business and marketing tools available go on to have one fail while the other succeeds? Why does someone who has been building their business for years suddenly get passed up by a 'newcomer' out of nowhere? Why are some people who seem very successful on the outside not satisfied or happy on the inside? Are some people just 'lucky' while others aren't? What does success really mean? These and more are all questions I've asked myself over and over again and these are probably questions you have also asked yourself at some point in time. Frankly I have grown tired of seeing masses of budding entrepreneurs give up on their dreams due to the negative forces that seem to keep people down while a few still continue rise. I have dedicated this series of ongoing books to help all those who need that 'kick in the pants' to get them moving in the right direction towards success and happiness in their lives. So read this book with an open mind and really let it all soak in before going onto the next book in this series. I sincerely hope these books improve your life.

To Your Success!

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Introduction

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time

that others waste time.

Henry Ford
Managing our time is something were all aware of. We know were not making the best use of our time but we dont quite know how to make the most of it - how to be productive and profitable without spending every hour of every day working. We also fall prey to many time management myths and assume that if were busy were being productive. The honest truth is that the majority of people spend 80% of their time getting 20% of their work accomplished. It is the goal of this report to switch that ratio. It is our goal to help you spend 20% of your time getting 80% of your work done. The end result will be much more productive time, better profits and an overall improvement in your quality of life. To use this report and gain maximum value from it, it is recommended that you read through it chapter by chapter. Take it in a bit at a time. There will be a lot of food for thought because this isnt a cookie cutter approach to time management. It is a series of strategies designed to help you take a look at your goals and personality and mindmap the ideal time management processes and strategies for you. Throughout this report we pose several questions to you. These are designed to get you thinking about what you want, what you need, and where youre going. You can, of course jot down your ideas as you read along, however weve also included a workbook that poses these questions and many more, and leaves room for your responses. Grab a cup of coffee, a pen or a highlighter, print this report out and get started on your path to better time management, more profits, and the quality of life you desire and deserve!

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Chapter One The Benefits of Managing Your Time

Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade! Anthony Robbins

Managing your time, finding balance, and living a complete and joyous life in this day and age almost feels like an oxymoron. Today, more than ever before, we run from one task to another, often times combining tasks just to keep up. If you are running your own business, then the day to day tasks are difficult to manage and even more difficult to escape. Youre likely thinking about and managing your business 24/7. Coupled with the standard everyday tasks, it may seem like an impossible task to manage your time effectively. This report begs to differ. It is our opinion that you not only can manage your time effectively that you must. We believe that effective time management will help you: Make more money Achieve more than you thought possible Have happier customers Have more free time (Really) Be healthier And live a happier, more content life

Sounds like a tall order, right? With the right tools and approach, its practically guaranteed. The Effects of Poor Time Management One of the biggest effects of poor time management is stress. Not the kind of stress that is easily recognizable, but a more pervasive and insidious type of stress. It sneaks in under the radar and causes long-term damage to your health and your overall happiness. Chronic stress, stress that is the result of long term and pervasive stress, causes significant health problems. According to WebMD, chronic stress can be the result of a host of irritating hassles or a longterm life condition, such as a difficult job situation. In people who have higher levels of chronic stress, the stress response lasts longer. Over time, chronic stress can have an effect on:
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The immune system. Under stress, the body becomes more vulnerable to illnesses, from colds and minor infections to major diseases.

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Cardiovascular disease. Stress is linked to high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat (arrhythmia), problems with blood clotting, and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). It is also linked to coronary artery disease, heart attack, and heart failure. Muscle pain. People who are stressed often have neck, shoulder, and low back pain. This may be caused by constant tension in the muscles because of stress. Stress also affects rheumatoid arthritis. Stomach and intestinal problems. Stress may be a factor in gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcer disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. Reproductive organs. Stress is linked to painful menstrual periods, decreased fertility, and erection problems. The lungs. Stress can make symptoms of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) worse. Skin problems. Stress can make disorders such as acne or psoriasis worse. 1
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It also causes mental coping issues to arise. We spend more to feel calm or happier, we eat more to feel those comforting moments, we drink, sedate ourselves with television and a whole host of other temporary soothers. Each of these health issues add up and cause other issues like diabetes, obesity, heart attacks, chronic fatigue, insomnia and so on.

To put it mildly, chronic stress caused by poor time management can shorten your life and significantly detract from your overall quality of life. Its been estimated that as many as 90% of doctors visits are for symptoms that are at least partially stress-related. According to the American Medical Association, when faced with chronic stress and an over activated autonomic nervous system; the first symptoms are relatively mild, like chronic headaches and a decreased immune system. As stress continues and increases more serious health problems can develop including:

depression diabetes hair loss heart disease hyperthyroidism obesity obsessive-compulsive or anxiety disorder sexual dysfunction tooth and gum disease ulcers

WebMD.com - http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-management-effects-of-stress

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How Chronic Stress and Poor Time Management Affects Your Business and Your Life Poor time management quite often means youre spending 80% of your time getting 20% accomplished. With too many tasks on your plate, its difficult to focus on any one and prioritizing often seems impossible when everything needs to get done. The result is a tremendous amount of wasted time, not achieving goals, and losing money. Poor time management means things will slip through the cracks. When this happens, unfortunately your customers often pay the price. This causes almost a vicious circle of you trying to appease dissatisfied customers, which then sets you back and adds even more tasks to your list, which again causes more things to slip through the cracks. Burnout. Presumably you started your business, or are starting a business, not only to make money but also to gain personal satisfaction and to spend your days doing something you are interested in and maybe even passionate about. However, even the most desirable activities can become tiresome when youre doing them 80+ hours a week. When you manage your time effectively, it gives you the power to set your business aside, for a day, for a week, or even for months, to live the life you want to live and to stay fresh. Its a great way to live and a great way to do business. Imagine your productivity, ingenuity, and enthusiasm if you wake up each and every day excited about the day and what youre going to accomplish. When you spend your days struggling to get it all done, you dont save time for yourself. You dont save time for hobbies, friends, family and fun. These are the most important things in life and to do without them is to do a great disservice to yourself - especially when its not necessary. With a little organization and a few tried and true time management practices and tools, you can have your cake and eat it too. You can own and operate a successful business and have time to enjoy life. What Happens When Entrepreneurs Dont Effectively Manage Their Time? To be successful, it is important to be able to manage your time effectively. Time management means not allowing distractions. When you dont manage your time effectively: Work suffers. Lack of effective time management means hours and hours spent on tasks that are not important leaving only a little bit of time for the projects that really do affect your bottom line. Email or social networking is a prime example. Its too easy to spend an entire morning Twittering, updating your Facebook or linked in page or answering emails. Lack of effective time management results also means trying to handle too many tasks at once. Multitasking may seem like a good idea, however tasks are accomplished much faster when theyre dealt with one at a time. Juggle too much at once and a ball is bound to drop from time to time. Unfortunately the ball you drop may be the most important one.

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Personal life suffers. What do you do if something doesnt get accomplished during normal work hours? Do you work on it in the evenings or on weekends when you could be spending time with your friends and family? Does stress from your business overlap into your daily life making you easy to anger, too tired to socialize and generally unhappy? Okay, weve talked about what poor time management can do to your health and your business, but what about what good time management can do for you? Benefits of Time Management Beyond the basic benefits that include getting more accomplished, satisfied customers, and more profits, not to mention more free time, there are a few benefits you may not have considered. Peace of mind. Imagine being able to wrap up your day at 5:00 or 4:00, or whenever you determine is the end of your business day, and feel a sense of calm. Not to have to worry about all that you didnt get done and what is waiting for you the next morning. Being able to effectively manage your time will result in an amazing peace of mind. You can start and end each day with a sense of purpose and peace of mind. A sense of achievement and satisfaction. Theres tremendous joy in accomplishing goals and checking those important tasks off of your list. When you manage your time effectively, youll be able to give yourself a pat on the back almost daily. More energy. Stress and multitasking are tremendous energy drains. When you manage your time effectively youll get twice as much accomplished in half the time. Youll sleep better and youll feel better in your work and personal life. More fun. Time management frees up time in your day for the important things in life. Not that owning your own business isnt important, it is, however so are hobbies, vacations, time with friends and family, laughter, exercise and the simple things that make life good. A feeling of being in control over your life. When you know what youre doing each day, you accomplish it, and when you have a plan where action is being taken every day, it gives you a tremendous sense of control. This control can and will expand into other areas of your life, too.

Weve discussed what time management can do for you and the effects of poor time management. Now its time to begin to take a look at the value of your time. Once you have this number, you can make educated and profitable decisions. Its the first step to effective time management.

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Chapter Two Determining The Value of Your Time

Time is our most precious asset, we should invest it wisely. Michael Levy

Now this report is called Mindmap to Riches Secrets of Effective Time Management. This is important. According to Wikipedia, a Mindmap is s a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing. Because time management is a personal process, meaning how you manage your time and the tools and processes you use are individual and based on your particular goals and personality, there isnt a one size fits all process. Instead, youll be given a handful of secret strategies and asked a number of personal questions. These questions and strategies will fit together to help you mindmap your most effective time management practices. In Chapter Seven of Mindmap to Riches we talked about the value of your time. If youve read that report then youve done the exercise and know your hourly value. If you havent read it or done that exercise, nows the time to do it. Heres the equation:

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Determining The Value of Your Time: List your minimum earnings target for the year or your annual salary for your business last year Divide by # of work hours in the year Minimum hourly rate $___________ ____________= $_____________

(If you work full time in your business and take 5 weeks off a year the hours would look like this 52-5=47 weeks 47 weeks * 5 days a week = 235 days 235 days * 8 hours a day =1880 work hours per year) Therefore a sample calculation for someone working full time in his or her business would be Minimum earnings target $50,000 / 1880 = $26.59/hour

Using the equation above you can determine how much you make each hour. Note that if you aspire to be like Tim Ferriss and work 4 hours a week, then the equation will be a bit different. Most of us would like to increase our hourly value, and perhaps decrease the number of hours we spend on our business. To accomplish this requires a commitment to managing your time in the most effective manner possible, utilizing time management tools and taking an honest look at what your strengths and priorities are. Assessing Your Strengths and Weaknesses Later, in Chapter Five, well take a look at productivity tools including outsourcing. However, before you can determine which tools are right for you, you need to determine what your strengths and weaknesses are. Knowing your strengths will enable you to focus your attention, your goals, and your responsibilities. It will enable you to set priorities and then find effective means for taking care of those other things that need to get done though not necessarily by you.

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The areas where youre weak, for example bookkeeping, youll not only procrastinate on, itll consume much of your time and bring very little joy to your day. However, your strengths are also often things you enjoy and can accomplish quickly thus youll be more productive and happier. To get a firm handle on your strengths, ask yourself the following questions (Note, these questions are repeated in the workbook at the end along with space to fill in your answers.) What skills and capabilities do you have? In what areas do you excel? What would other people consider to be your strengths? What tasks do you find great pleasure in? What are your weaknesses? What areas do you struggle or find frustrating? What would other people consider to be your weaknesses? What obstacles are you facing that keep you from focusing on your strengths? What external influences get in the way or hinder your success?

To get an idea of why this is important consider this example; imagine the owner of a drop shipping business. He or she promotes and sells electronics, which are then distributed by the manufacturer or a secondary distribution company. There are many tasks that are required to maintain and build this business. However, the one that bring in sales and the one the owner enjoys and is skilled at are writing reviews and content to drive traffic to his site. What he is not skilled at nor has any interest in is customer service. Customer service is no doubt important and essential for a loyal customer base and word of mouth. This is an ideal task to be outsourced or automated, or both. To determine, however, if it makes financial sense to eliminate this task from your responsibility, youll want to go back to that hourly value calculation. If it will cost less to automate or outsource this task than your hourly value, then its a good task to eliminate from your to do list. For example, if your hourly value is $30/hour and itll cost you $12/hour to outsource customer service and you can automate most of it for a few hundred dollars, then its a good idea to go ahead and clear it from your plate. Thus far weve discussed your hourly value and the important of understanding where youre are strong and where you may need help.

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Chapter Three Eliminating Time Suckers and Creating a Schedule that Works For You
Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, what is the most valuable use of my time right now? Brian Tracy

A significant part of time management is creating a schedule that works for you. Now were not talking about the schedule that your favorite business book tells you or what your next-door neighbor or mentor does. Were talking about your life, your business and your schedule. Before you can create a successful schedule, its important to assess the things that are presently keeping you from being productive and managing your time effectively. We call them Time Suckers, but they are actually more nefarious than that they can drag your business down, deplete your health and cause all types of trouble. Time Suckers What Is Keeping You From Being Productive? We all have hurdles to overcome and hang-ups and many of these prevent us from being productive and reaching our goals. Some of these Time Suckers include: Perfectionism. Many people use perfectionism as a crutch - a way to stay busy doing what they know how to do and to let the rest slide. For example, youre a skilled writer but detest accounting, which means you spend days on a sales letter and your books are so messed up you dont know who owes you what or how much money youre making or losing. On the other hand, a lack of perfectionism can also cause trouble. Sloppy work is a waste of time and just forces you to correct it later. Finding a balance is key. Do your best, work your hardest on the tasks you choose to do, and when youve done your best, let it go. Nothing is perfect. Procrastination. This happens for a number of reasons. If youre facing burnout, then youll likely feel like avoiding anything related to your business. However, if youre facing a task you dont want to do its much easier to procrastinate. Procrastination itself isnt a bad thing. It can be a red flag to let you know this is likely a task you should outsource or automate, however if youre procrastinating on the profit generating tasks, something needs to be done. The good news is, that by effectively managing your time, procrastination becomes a distant memory. An inability to say no. Guess what, not only should you not be doing everything you cant! Yes, youre the boss and youre responsible for all aspects of your business, however youre not responsible for performing all the tasks of your business. AND its vital to your health,

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happiness, and the success of your business to say NO when something doesnt make sense for you to do. For example, someone asks you to partner with them on a business venture but you dont have the time, nor interest, in participating. Its okay to say no. Of course there are many tasks that are time suckers too, however you largely determine those. Some common time suckers are: Social networking Email Phone calls Household chores and errands Checking stats and website analytics (This is important but you dont need to obsessively watch the numbers) Reading blogs, industry information, and online learning Planning

Note that each of these are important, except perhaps the household chores, however scheduling them and assigning them a level of importance will help you change them from time suckers to merely tasks on your to do list. Youll gain control over your schedule, your business, and your life. What are some time suckers? What distracts you from being productive? Make a list of the items you struggle with or the things that distract you from getting stuff done. Well ask this question again in the workbook and provide space for you to write your answers. For now, just consider what distracts you and gets in your way. Creating A Schedule Is All About Balance There are a number of ways to balance your life and what is balanced for you may be unbalanced for someone else. Balance is personal - only you know if your life feels balanced and if not, where it is out of balance. The good news is that there are tools for creating balance and the first and perhaps the primary tool is a schedule. There are a few guidelines to setting a schedule: #1 Set aside time to work. Now this may seem like a no-brainer, but many people simply get up in the morning and mingle work with play with household errands with socializing and so on. They dont set aside specific work time. Now, because youre an internet entrepreneur, when you schedule this time is up to you. Many stay at home parents who are also entrepreneurs tend to their children during the day and get their work done in the evenings. Others prefer to keep a standard 9-5 schedule. Whatever works best for you and helps you meet your business goals, while still maintaining some semblance of a balanced life, is good. Before you schedule 5 hours every morning, consider your current schedule, if you have one. What is working for you? What isnt? When are you most likely to be distracted? When do you

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have the most energy? Some people, for example, are morning people and by mid afternoon have lost all impetus to keep working. In addition to scheduling time to work, schedule time to play. Schedule time to do nothing. This is important. If you dont do this life will do it for you in the form of an illness or injury, so do it for yourself and avoid the discomfort. Schedule days off. Schedule weeks off. Schedule months off if you can. Simply allow yourself to sit back and rest. Schedule time to handle household responsibilities. Okay, lets face it. If you have the distinct pleasure of working from home one of the factors that often gets in the way are simple household tasks. Things like grocery shopping, laundry, remodeling that room in the basement, gardening or mowing the lawn and so on. Yes, these need to get done, but most often theyre a distraction or a form of procrastination from accomplishing business related tasks. Rather than allow them to distract you, schedule them into your day/week/month. Take a moment and write down a theoretical schedule. When would you work during the day or the week? (Some people only work on their internet business on certain days and work a separate job on the other days or take the days off) How many hours each day/week do you want to spend on business related tasks? How many hours do you want to spend on household tasks? How many hours do you want to spend on fun?

Now, assuming you have a pocket of time each day or week, the next step is to prioritize your tasks. Tasks which will make it to the top of the list are tasks which: Bring in a direct profit (For example if youre a coach then coaching sessions bring in a direct profit but bookkeeping does not. Its still important but it isnt what keeps you in the black.) Youre skilled at. You enjoy. Are too expensive at this time to outsource or automate Are directly your responsibility and essential for the growth of your business. For example, you are the CEO of your business and as such youre responsible for creating and maintaining a business plan. This means it is essential to set aside time to plan for the future and the growth of your business. Its not really a task you can outsource or automate and it is required.

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Prioritizing In addition to creating a schedule and sticking to it, prioritizing and goal setting are two very important components of time management. Goal setting is easiest to accomplish when you set a goal that is attainable and measurable and when you break it down into smaller manageable goals. For example, if your goal is to launch a product in six months, then presumably that project launch has many smaller tasks required to make it happen. Each task is in itself a goal and must be planned and scheduled. Many people find great success prioritizing their tasks and in fact this practice is taught in any time management course whether its through Franklin Covey or at any university business school. There are, of course, different ways to prioritize tasks; some of which include when the project is due, whether it has a direct effect on your bottom line and perhaps how long it will take you to accomplish the task. You may also want to consider how much the task has a direct effect on your business. For example if you have a stack of papers that need to be shredded, that task can certainly head to the bottom of the list and perhaps be outsourced for .50 to one of your children or a young family member. Creating a task list is another item that, as strange as it may sound, needs to become a scheduled part of your day and your week. Youll want to spend a bit of time prior to Monday morning creating a list of tasks and goals for the upcoming week. Keep in mind that some days may be set aside as planning days, days off or meeting days. Many successful entrepreneurs take a few minutes Sunday night to prepare for the week, however you may find that Fridays work better for you so you can take the full weekend off without thinking about your business it doesnt matter when you do it, the important thing is to actually do it and make it a habit. So you have your weekly list of tasks and goals. Now its time to break it down by day. Assuming youve chosen to work three days a week, six hours each day, then youll need to prioritize your tasks within that time. Assign certain tasks priority based on the criteria we established earlier. Do they generate a direct profit and so on? Look at your list at the beginning of each scheduled work session and at the end of the day create the list for the next day. Its good to create the days list the night before because it gives you a sense of accomplishment, it eliminates all the thinking, planning and worrying that can go on in your thoughts and prevents you from focusing on other things and itll give you that peace of mind we talked about earlier. Weve talked a lot about scheduling and prioritizing including setting goals and creating weekly and daily task lists. To make these procedures easier, and to lighten your load, there are time management tools which can help you create the life and the business you desire.

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Chapter Four Time Management Tools

Drive thy business, let not that drive thee. -Benjamin Franklin

Once you have a schedule created and you understand how to prioritize your tasks, its good to know that there are tools to help you not only track your time, they will help you prioritize, and even automate or eliminate many of your tasks. Time Management Tools There are so many time management options, its easy to buy hundreds of dollars of paraphernalia, get home, spend hours setting it up and committing to the system only to find out a week or a month later that it isnt really working for you. This isnt your fault, it isnt your weakness, and it is just not the right system for you. Consider whether youre a paper person or an electronic person. By that, we mean do you prefer to use a calendar or book type planner or would you prefer to use a computer or PDA type planner? When making a choice youll not only want to consider your organization personality but also how you work. If youre always attached to your phone and/or your computer then an electronic system may be a better choice for you. Whether an electronic planner helps you accomplish and prioritize your tasks or a dog-eared notebook with a chewed up pencil gets the job done, the important thing is to get the job done. That being said, here are a few time management resources to help you find your way. Online Time Management and Time Tracking Tools Sometimes the best tools are the simplest. Online, youll find an abundance of time management tools, including tools that will email you your tasks, brainstorms, grocery lists and the like. The benefit of online tools is that if you work from your computer the majority of your day, they are right there at your fingertips. If youre working with a team of contractors, then project management tools, like Basecamp, can be helpful because theyll keep you apprised of what your contractors are accomplishing freeing you up to focus on your tasks.

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Some online time management and time tracking tools include:

HU HU

Rescue Time http://www.rescuetime.com/ Effexis http://www.effexis.com/achieve/planner.htm VIP Quality Soft http://www.vip-qualitysoft.com/ http://www.easytimetracking.net/ http://www.actitime.com/ BackPack http://www.backpackit.com/?source=37s+home And of course the tried and true Outlook, http://office.microsoft.com/enus/outlook/default.aspx, and Google Calendar, http://calendar.google.com
HU U HU U HU U U U HU U HU UH HU U

Before you dive in and purchase any of these products, use the free trial to make sure the system is intuitive for you and easy to use. If you have to modify your organizational style too much chances are you wont use the software. Offline Time Management Tools Offline, the good old pocket planner has a long-standing history of success. The good thing about pocket planners, electronic or paper, is that you can carry them with you and whenever youre reminded of a task you can quickly add it to your list or check your calendar. The bad thingits always with you and it takes strength of mind to forget about work for a while. Franklin Covey has a long-standing reputation as a quality organization system. They offer classes on how to task things and set priorities. However if this system isnt for you, perhaps its too restrictive, then a regular day planner may work just fine. Some people also utilize a large desk calendar and then smaller task lists written on sticky notes or notebook paper. Again, the system isnt important, what is important is that it works and you use it. Outsourcing To Ease the Burden There are only so many hours in the day and no matter how much work you have to do, there is always more. Rather than risk your health, your sanity, and the future of your business by working 80+ hours a week, you can choose to outsource certain tasks that will help you run a more efficient, productive, and profitable business. We talked earlier about how to prioritize tasks. The criteria were: Bring in a direct profit Youre skilled at. You enjoy. Are too expensive at this time to outsource or automate Are directly your responsibility and essential for the growth of your business.

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Taking a look at your tasks which are required on a regular basis, for example bookkeeping, customer service, writing, uploading content/posting blogs, managing affiliates and so on, which tasks dont fit the criteria above? These are ideal tasks to outsource. Outsourcing is essentially, the hiring of contractors to fulfill different tasks and processes in your business. Outsourcing enables you, as a business owner, the opportunity to let go of some of the tasks that, while they may be necessary to operate your business, dont need to be accomplished by you. There are many benefits to outsourcing including: Access to potential team members from around the world. The internet makes it possible to hire anyone from anywhere in the world. This means that it is now easier to find the right contractors at the right price and communicating with them is as easy as sending an email or utilizing project management software solutions. You dont have to pay employment taxes or benefits. They are self-employed and its a simple work for hire exchange. Increase your hourly value. Outsourcing enables you to focus on your more profitable tasks. Saves time. Outsourcing saves you time which means you can focus on the tasks that you do best and which bring in the most money for your business. Have more fun. Outsourcing enables you to do what enjoy. Rather than spend a day invoicing and updating your books, you can hire a bookkeeper that enjoys accounting and balancing your business checkbook.

What do you outsource? There are three categories of tasks that are generally outsourced. They include: Administrative tasks. These are tasks like answering your email, updating your website, scheduling, shipping and so forth. These are generally time-consuming tasks that can easily be outsourced to qualified assistants readily available and at competitive prices. Technical tasks. These types of tasks require a basic technological knowledge like search engine optimization or web design. Professional tasks. Earlier, we talked about tasks that might take you a long time to learn, like graphic design or learning a new scripting language to generate a feature for your website.

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When outsourcing any project or task to a freelance individual, it is important to ask a few questions including: Have you handled these tasks/responsibilities before? Do you have references? How long have you been in business? What do you charge? How do you invoice/bill? How will you communicate with me? Email or phone etc Will you sign a non-disclosure agreement?

It is strongly recommended that you start with small test projects; be upfront that the project is a trial period and that you intend to give them much more business if you work well together. Then build the relationship, you want to keep your outsourcers just like you would an employee treat them like gold Automating Tasks Many tasks can be removed from your task list simply by automating them. One great task to automate is your email autoresponders are an excellent tool and can take care of 50-90% of your business email. Additionally, another commonly automated task is customer service. This is accomplished by providing a comprehensive FAQ page with answers to your most commonly asked questions. Customer service inquiries can also be sent an autoresponder with a detailed Q&A page and a handbook if applicable. The autoresponder can then offer a message that states if this email didnt answer your question then please reply or send a message to______________. This way, you eliminate the majority of your customer service questions and a contractor can handle those that are not answered. Shipping and fulfillment can in large part be automated, payment processes can be automated with shopping cart software and email marketing and even blog posts can be scheduled well in advance, by a contractor, virtually eliminating these tasks from your list. Your Home Office While this report is about time management, its important to keep in mind that an organized space will help you stay focused and productive. If your desk is covered with stacks and stacks of papers, receipts, and paraphernalia then its going to be difficult to find what you need and certainly difficult to focus. Invest in home organization products like file folders and cabinets, and keep your desk clutter to a minimum. Additionally, because youre an internet entrepreneur, your computer desktop is just as important. There are two keys to an organized computer desktop:

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The first is to label your documents in a logical manner, for example Jan09MembershipSalesLetter, and then to store them in relevant folders. Folder organization is up to you. One of the most efficient ways is to organize by project, date, or topic. For example, you can have a main folder labeled marketing with sub folders for each individual marketing project organized by month, quarter, or year. The second key to an organized desktop is to back up consistently! Some people prefer to backup on a daily basis while others choose weekly or monthly. Ask yourself this what can you afford to lose? Backups can be accomplished online, on a CD or via an external hard drive. Whatever your method, make sure it is working. Theres nothing worse than thinking youre backed up, having your computer crash and then realizing your backup system wasnt working and you have in fact lost everything. At this point, youve learned how to establish a schedule that works for you; weve talked in depth about the importance of time management both to your business and to your personal life. Weve also discussed how to prioritize tasks and what to do with those tasks that dont make the cut. Weve discussed various methods of organization including organizing your home office. You should, now, have a plan of action a mindmap of how your time management system is going to function. Taking a look at this mindmap, ideally you will have freed up some valuable time, time youve spent doing those tasks which didnt bring a direct profit, you didnt enjoy and quite honestly werent skilled at. Youve taken strides to be organized and to eliminate time suckers like procrastination and perfection, or a lack thereof. The end result should be a schedule that focuses on profits and productivity. If youre spending 20% of your time getting 80% of your tasks accomplished; then youve reversed the age-old truism that we typically spend 80% of our time getting 20% of our work accomplished. Congratulations! This means you have some free time. What on earth are you going to do with it?

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Chapter Five What to Do With Your New Found Free Time

Live and work but do not forget to play, to have fun in life and really enjoy it. Eileen Caddy

What would you do if you had all the time in the world? Would you learn a new skill? Pick up a hobby or spend more time on a hobby you love? Would you take more vacations, travel and see the world? What would you do? Now that your time is streamlined and your business is growing in a productive and profitable manner you presumably have some free time. That, after all is part of the goal of managing your time better, right? You wanted to be able to attain goals and get things done in less time. Thus what used to take you 40 hours a week now takes you 20 or even 10. You could, of course, use this extra time to focus on your business. If youre a service oriented business, like a coach or a personal trainer that might mean taking on more clients. However, remember the importance of a balanced life. Its critical to your health and happiness, and to the long lasting success of your business, that you make time for fun. One option might be to take the time youve freed up and divide it in two. One half of your free time will be devoted to your business, particularly if you have a service based business, and the other half can be devoted to fun. Of course you could use the entire newfound free time and enjoy it. You can prioritize your fun too. Heres how. Make a list of what is important to you and how important it is. You can rank them in order. For example, if working out is important to you and trying new restaurants is important to you and perhaps spending time with your children is important to you, rank them in order from most important to least important. Taking a look at this list, are you prioritizing the right things? Are you doing what is important to you? If not, schedule time for fun. We talked about this in Chapter Three. Without fun in our lives, we lose our smile. Fun gives us something to look forward to - something to hang on to when things are tough.

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Tips For Making The Most Of Your Time Tip #1 Live In The Now. If youre thinking about that business call you have to make while youre child is sharing a story about what happened at school today, youre missing the joy in the story. Living in the moment doesnt have to be at the exclusion of the future, you can be aware of that business call and still give your child 100% attention. Likewise if youre talking to a client you dont want to be thinking about what movie youre going to see this weekend. Give each moment your full attention and then move on to whatever is next on your schedule, plan, or agenda. Tip #2 Ask for Help. As an entrepreneur youre not required to do everything and you dont want to expect this of yourself. Its just not possible nor does it lead to a productive and profitable lifestyle. Youre not required to be a lawyer, accountant, sales person, copywriter, customer service representative, public relations expert, and marketer and so on. Your job is to focus on your strengths and get help in the areas where you need it. Tip #3 Learn To Say No. Sometimes, whether it is the customer youre talking to, or a business associate or a potential partner, you have to say no. Being an entrepreneur isnt about pleasing folks, its about making your business the best it can be. If there isnt a benefit for you and your business, then it isnt worth your time. Trust me, people will say no to you. It isnt personal, its practical. Tip #4 Let Go Of Perfection. Perfection doesnt exist. Even in the bluest of skies there are clouds, airplanes, bugs and birds. Perfection takes too much time and it drains your productivity. Nothing is perfect. Do your best and let it go. No one expects perfection. they do expect you to do your best. Tip #5 Remember To Take Care Of Yourself. A balanced life isnt complete without some thought toward your health. This isnt a course on how to eat right and take care of your body, however, it is an important part of living a balanced and happy life. If youre too sick to work then youre too sick to play. We all get sick from time to time and its usually a sign from out bodies that something is out of balance. Take care of it, and itll stay in balance. In Conclusion Congratulations! This book covered a lot of material. Weve discussed everything from tools to organize your business and track your time to how to have more fun and everything in between. To be successful at anything, including time management, it pays to set goals and then to break them down into smaller goals or steps which dont feel overwhelming. You can gain those extra hours in a day, get more accomplished and create the profitable business you desire you really can! To make the process a little smoother and easier for you weve included a workbook that asks many of the questions youll need to answer to mindmap a time management system that will

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work for you. This is after all about living the richest life you can live both monetarily and personally. Enjoy the process, fine tune it as you go along, and dont forget to make time for yourself!

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Roadmap to Riches Secrets to Effective Time Management Workbook

Dont say you dont have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. H. Jackson Brown Determining The Value of Your Time: List your minimum earnings target for the year or your annual salary for your business last year Divide by # of work hours in the year Minimum hourly rate $___________ /____________= $_____________

(If you work full time in your business and take 5 weeks off a year the hours would look like this 52-5=47 weeks 47 weeks * 5 days a week = 235 days 235 days * 8 hours a day =1880 work hours per year) Therefore a sample calculation for someone working full time in their business would be Minimum earnings target $50,000 / 1880 = $26.59/hour

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Identify an area where you need help, list what tasks need to be done and what would make the biggest difference RIGHT NOW in how your business functions. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

What tasks take the majority of your time? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

What tasks do you do over and over that could be dome by someone else? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

What tasks do you not enjoy? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

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What tasks do you need to accomplish for your business but are not yet skilled in or familiar with? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

Do you have the funds available to outsource or hire? To help determine this, consider how much time task takes you and what your hourly value is. If you can hire out the task at a lower rate than your hourly value (your hourly value is calculated by taking your monthly or annual profits and dividing it by the number of hours you worked in that month or year ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

Exercise - How effectively do you manage your time right now? Track your time over the next week. Dont modify your behavior, actually and honestly track how much time you spend on each task. If it takes 4 hours each day to answer email then track that time. If you spend 2 hours brainstorming marketing headlines, copy, keywords or even ideas then track that time. This is important. When you know where your time is focused and you know what tasks produce a profit (and increase your hourly value) then you have information to base decisions and actions on.

What skills and capabilities do you have? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

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In what areas do you excel? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

What would other people consider to be your strengths? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

What tasks do you find great pleasure in? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

Weaknesses. Consider your personal weaknesses and how you think you are visualized by others. It is important to list any areas you feel may be holding you back. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

What are the gaps in your capabilities and what skills?

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______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

In what areas do you struggle or find frustrating? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ What would other people consider to be your weaknesses? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

How will you schedule your day? Remember to make time for planning your business as well as time to do nothing. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

What skills and capabilities do you have? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

In what areas do you excel? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ What would other people consider to be your strengths? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ What tasks do you find great pleasure in? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Weaknesses. Consider your personal weaknesses and how you think you are visualized by others. It is important to list any areas you feel may be holding you back. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ What are the gaps in your capabilities and what skills? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ In what areas do you struggle or find frustrating? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ What would other people consider to be your weaknesses? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

How are you going to balance your life? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ List 10 fun things youd like to do or learn in the next 12 months. (Example, go skydiving, learn to ballroom dance, join a social group.) ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

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Prioritize them. Whats number one? Plan how youre going to accomplish #1. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix Resources and Tools To Manage Your Time

Outsourcing Tools and Resources Get a Freelancer, http://www.getafreelancer.com/, enables users to bid out for jobs of every kind and every software program on the internet.
HU UH

Shelancers, http://shelancers.com, is a directory to hire out for many different services including writing, virtual assistant services and research.
HU UH

Elance, http://elance.com, is perhaps the most well known site worldwide for outsourcing tasks. Users post jobs and tasks and freelancers bid. No fee to post jobs.
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Guru, http://guru.com, like elance enables users to post jobs and receive bids on them however guru appeals to the more technical side of freelance and is more appropriate for software development tasks and design work.
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Online Time Management And Time Tracking Tools Rescue Time http://www.rescuetime.com/
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Effexis http://www.effexis.com/achieve/planner.htm
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VIP Quality Soft http://www.vip-qualitysoft.com/

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Easy Time Tracking http://www.easytimetracking.net/

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Act It Time http://www.actitime.com/

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BackPack http://www.backpackit.com/?source=37s+home
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Outlook, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/default.aspx,
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Google Calendar, http://calendar.google.com

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