“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” -Henry van Dyke

I've discovered a few tricks when it comes to getting tasks done through the day -- and managing others who do so. Here are some little tactics I've found to be helpful: 

Turn off cell phone alerts.
Resist the temptation to stop what you're doing every time your phone beeps with a new message. You'll be better able to focus on tasks when you're not constantly distracted and interrupted.

Fine-tune your to-do list.
When planning your day, add estimated times to each item on your to-do list. This will help you decide what to do first and what can be saved for later.

Run two-minute drills.
Every few hours, look at your list for tasks that can be done quickly--answering emails and phone calls, confirming appointments, and the like. Spend a few minutes clearing those away, and you'll have more blocks of uninterrupted time to take on bigger tasks.

Take regular breaks.
You'll burn out if you go full throttle for eight or 10 hours. Determine how long you can effectively concentrate on a single task (usually between 30 minutes and an hour, for most peop
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To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult." -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Many businesses find themselves continually in "scramble mode", taking no chances to slow down and think of ways to get OUT of it.

As is often the case with money, it takes time to make more time.

And it takes the willpower to allow certain other things to (perhaps) fester, while you and your team focus on the most-important tasks.

So, I'm taking some of MY time to give you ideas for how YOU can take more of YOUR time ... to save more time. Got that? Here we go...(who's on first?!?!)

1. Choose Your "Focus Times"
   Every employee, yourself included, has a different style they like to work in -- we all also have times of the day when we work best. Only your team will know when "focus times" should occur, but I highly recommend intentionally setting these blocks of time in place.

Discuss with your team about which blocks of time, throughout the week, can be blocked off for individual work and individual work ONLY. No meetings, just focus time.

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“When the storm has passed, put your energy into rebuilding your life, don’t waste time looking back.” -Leon Brown

Entrepreneurship is the conversion of your knowledge, talents, guts, and time into money.

Time is valuable, although the value differs from person to person. And while I recently covered the best way to think about the value of your BUSINESS ... this calculation is actually a little easier.

But it takes a certain mindset.

You see, when most people place value on their time, they do so based on an eight-hour workday, which is not all that correct. It's hard to get eight productive hours out of each day.

One study involving Fortune 500 CEOs revealed that they achieved 28 productiv
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"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." -Abraham Lincoln

Anybody can see there's a huge difference between activity and progress. But this is one of those topics that many of us *think* we have handled pretty well, when in reality, we might be fooling ourselves.

So, consider this: How much time do you (and your staff) waste in meetings?

A recent survey of Fortune 500 CEOs showed they averaged only 28 MINUTES of actual productive time during a day, primarily due to useless meetings.

You're probably doing considerably better than that in your small business because of less bureaucracy, but still ... eye-opening, yes?

So, I have three cautions for you -- and inherent to each of them, I believe, you'll see the kind of "opposite" behavior you need, to win the time-management game for business owners:

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