Bob Findlay Blog: Business

Control My Time (Photo credit: yyq123)

Managing your personal and working time is one of the most challenging tasks of today's professionals. Life these days is so intense and complicated, business is so competitive, and a stream of information overwhelms us. Consider the internet, market globalization (when it is time for you to go home, the overseas branch is just beginning its day and, of course, they have a number of urgent questions), growing work requirements, and having to constantly increase your level of knowledge, you are starting to realize that there is no time for a personal life.

There is even no time to think because the boss demands that you "do" your job faster and faster so he can beat the competitors. The employment classes confuse us with recommendations like "make a daily plan and follow it" but how can we follow it when ten urgent questions constantly rise up and we have to solve them before we get to the plan. We need something on our hands to be able to deal with all this. That is when the time management knowledge becomes very important. But then we struggle with another problem - the variety of time management information. The variety of new time management guides and theories are just confusing us and we don't have time to read all of them.

Time management is not just a skill; it is a way of life. And only with this kind of attitude is it possible to find the time not only for work but for a personal life too. There is the common belief that time management is basically just creating project plans, charts, and following them. Those things actually cause the problems with the work schedule because they don't count on a lot of factors - "time killers" those that can't be expected by using the common project planning tools.

Lately, I've read about some new concepts in time management. The key idea of these concepts is to be able to create a balance of accomplishments in your life and work. In time management, it is important to use both order, and chaos. Before you start creating your own project plan, it won't hurt to observe yourself for a couple weeks and catch what kinds of things happen and why they are killing your precious time that you miss so much.

Based on this concept there are multiple layers in time management: controlling personal time, strategic time planning, tactics to manage yourself and others to achieve goals, and learn how to use the time management tools on a corporate level. Also we have to be familiar with different programs and technical tricks to organize your personal and work time, including organizing the time of people that you encounter at work and after work. Start this process from yourself and then spread it to other people that surround you.

Sounds kind of complicated, doesn't it? As I mentioned before, this is a totally new time management concept.

Time Management can't be selective. This is either a way of life or a constant fight with emergency situations. This time management concept demands a fundamental change in the way we handle business right now but at the end we will be rewarded correspondingly to our spent efforts and desire. The stated general principles and approaches of these new time management concepts are definite for everybody but the choice of tools is personal to everyone.

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Image via CrunchBaseDon't worry, readers, I'm not going to launch into a mind-numbing rundown of Facebook and Google Plus or, indeed, Facebook versus Google Plus. I can't because I simply don't know about them at that sort of level. I shall simply be commenting on my experiences over the last week or so.

Just over a week or so, I gently stepped into the world that IS Google Plus. Before I knew it, I had over 200 people in my various 'circles' and had been added to just over this number in other peoples circles. This initial influx seemed, on the surface, to be great for a self-confessed computer idiot.

After a few days, I decided to delve further but was disappointed to discover that 'this is it.' You have your profile and can share whatever content that you wish. The trouble is, that you soon vanish into the realm of 'me and everybody else.' There is nothing that you can share that hasn't been shared before or can be shared elsewhere. I did, however, find that Twitter was the most successful way of drawing attention to Google Plus.

After spending some time flitting between Facebook and Google Plus, it struck me.

The only major differences between Google Plus and Facebook, the only difference is that Google Plus seems to have a lot more articles of 'substance' as opposed to Facebook where people can share anything from a flying ant to a fuzzy, framed quote from someone that they probably haven't heard of.

I then discovered that you can have a Google Plus Business Page. I should have done it the other way around but I didn't so I'll be onto promoting my business page in the upcoming week.

So....I have no beef with Facebook or Google Plus. I would, however, take this opportunity to weigh up

what Facebook and Google Plus offer and don't offer. The biggest advantage that I've found is that if you have a purpose outside of socialising, Google Plus is not for you. If you're looking at sharing and receiving more purposeful and long-lasting media, then Google Plus IS for you.

At the end of the day, it is not a time-consuming task to operate both Facebook and Google Plus together....and I would most definitely recommend this.

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Friday, April 27, 2012

Time Management

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Facebook and Google Plus