stress - The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The way you use your time is the way you live your life.

Find Time Using Soft Deadlines

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Paula, under Time Management Skills, Time Priorities.

Finding time by using Priority Power™ is empowering, energizing, and adds flow as you navigate your day. As you work with your time priorities, soft deadlines are a particularly useful tool.

“Soft deadlines? That sounds like an oxymoron! What are they?” you ask.

Soft deadlines are due dates that you set for yourself, ahead of whatever your final deadlines may be. You can think of them as brightly colored buoys bobbing over rocks and shoals, marking the entrance to your harbor.

These are friendly deadlines that serve a twofold purpose:

They help you spot potential snags and
They tell you when you are nearing home!

Your soft deadlines give you the chance to plan that much earlier for what’s coming up. And that planning makes your progress that much safer and more pleasurable.

Completing a task prior to the last minute not only supports your success – it also enhances your flexibility. Sudden changes and unexpected glitches won’t throw you when you routinely provide yourself with earlier, soft deadlines. You’ll find it easier to tie up loose ends and handle the unanticipated when you give yourself that cushion.

Ready to start?

Try creating some soft deadlines for your most significant tasks. Mark them in your calendar, and consider writing all soft deadlines in one color, and adding the hard deadlines in another to easily distinguish between the two. Then practice focusing on the soft deadline, so that you create some spaciousness in your schedule.

More spaciousness equals less stress, and a deeper capacity to enjoy the moment you are in. Now, that’s Priority Power™!

And are you interested in learning more about the Heart-Based Time Management™ Path? Here’s one way that you can transform and deepen your relationship to time in the Heart-Based Way … I invite you to explore Secrets of Heart-Based Time Management™ - my chapter in the book I co-authored - Stepping Stones to Success! In it I share my proven system for exploring and harnessing the power of your mind, your body and your spirit to help you deepen your experience of time and of your life.

As you work with the ideas I offer, you’ll explore your patterns, clarify your values, identify and prioritize your goals … and create your path for achieving them. You can give yourself the gift of this wonderful resource today, and get started on your journey toward success, Stepping Stone by Stepping Stone …just click this link to get the details!

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Find Time for the 5-Minute Solution and Nip Procrastination in the Bud!

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Paula, under Time Choices.

Finding time to overcome procrastination is a challenge that you can actually address in just 5-minutes – with 100% success – all the time! I know that sounds like an extremely bold claim, but in my experience, it really is true.

After all, the core challenge with procrastination is making a start. That’s the biggest hurdle, and once you’ve moved past it, your procrastination probably recedes like the landscape in your rear-view mirror.

Why 5-Minutes? Well, in a nutshell, 5-Minutes is a block of time that everyone can give themselves access to, pretty much any time.

I think that the reason many or most people procrastinate lies in a feeling of overwhelm. Maybe a task looks too large or you feel like it is beyond you for one reason or another. You don’t know where to begin, and so you don’t. The longer you wait, the larger and more overwhelming your task seems. You are stuck!

So, that’s the beauty of the 5-Minute Solution for procrastination. You can take 5-minutes pretty much whenever you choose and make a quick start on whatever has you stymied. There is no need to wait for the “right time” – just decide and do.

And a 5-minute commitment isn’t overwhelming or scary. You aren’t going to get too far into your task, yet 5-minutes gives you enough time to dip your toe in and begin to get a better sense of your project. In those 5-minutes you can make a start and know what your next step will be.

Your project no longer looms as an overwhelming monolith. You have found your way in, have a toehold and some traction, and can continue to move ahead. As you start making progress you’ll feel energized and engaged … and what had seemed a hurdle will become an ever-expanding horizon.

Now, isn’t that 5-minutes well spent?

What do you typically do when you realize you are procrastinating? Are there particular practices or tools that you find helpful? How about topics that you’d like to read more about here? Please feel invited to drop me a line – I’d love to hear from you and serve your time finding needs!

And in the meantime, want to learn more about how you can expand and deepen your time and efforts … in whatever areas you choose? Here’s a great way to explore avenues to increasing your time skills and heart-based power – whether it’s in your business, or your personal life. I am so pleased to be able to offer my expertise and support as The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to “Time Management”.

You can visit by clicking the link, and when you do you’ll find lots of time management articles by experts in the field, along with a vibrant and welcoming on-line community. Stop by my Expert Page and leave a comment or question … or just say hello. There are lots of ways to connect … let’s get started!

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Find Time to Take Charge of Your E-mail (So That It Doesn’t Take Charge of You)!

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Paula, under Time and Technology.

Finding time to manage the volume of e-mail that we receive here at The Time Finder can feel like a full-time job some days. I am sure that many of you can relate to that feeling. (In fact, I recently had an e-mail from a member of the Finding Time Community, which has prompted this post.)

So, today I wanted to share some tips that I and my VA use, to keep things organized – AND to keep from feeling overwhelmed.

Establishing and maintaining time boundaries is one of the keys – and the other involves creating a system for organizing the e-mails that you receive to make them accessible – while housing them someplace other than your in-box.

So, are you ready for a few ideas about how to take charge of your e-mail?

First, decide when you will check your e-mail and how much time you will spend. Then, use a timer to help you stick to your plan. You can use a simple egg timer, or one of the many on-line timers that are available at places like Online Stopwatch.

If you receive a great deal of e-mail, you will do well to schedule e-mail checks several times a day.

When you are not scheduled for a check, I recommend that you shut down your e-mail so that you are not distracted by it.

Make it your end-of-the-day goal to have your inbox cleaned out.

Yes, I hear the incredulous reactions! Empty in-box? That’s not possible! But it truly is, and the reduced stress makes it well worth the effort involved.

Organization is the key – and once you have a concept in mind, technology can step in and help with some of the implementation.

Create folders to organize your e-mail. Do this according to the system that works best for you and/or your business. You might organize e-mails by subject, by person, by any category that is meaningful to you.

In addition to your category folders, one thing I advise for everyone is that you create folders for items that are time-sensitive. For example, I have a folder for e-mails that are “Awaiting Response,” another one where I keep things I want to “Read Today” and another for things to “Read This Weekend” These are folders that I check as frequently as necessary, but not as often as my in-box.

You can have as many subcategories of folders as you wish. So, for example, I have a JV folder with sub-folders titled “Current,” “Completed,” and “Pending.” Within each of those folders I then have other sub-folders with the names of the people I’ve JV’d with.

In most e-mail services, you have the capacity to create e-mail filters. E-mail filters can help you take charge of your e-mail by organizing it before you even lay eyes on it!

eHow.com offers some generic instructions for setting up filters in most e-mail systems. Think about categories of e-mails that you don’t need to see immediately but that you want to collect and save. For example, we receive an e-mail whenever someone signs up for our mailing list. They can overwhelm an in-box quickly, so my VA created a filter that sends those e-mails immediately to our “New Subscribers” folder.

Filters are often highly customizable. You can set them up to filter your e-mails based on words in the subject line, by sender, or combinations of different data points. You can also have filters set to send e-mails to your “Delete” folder if you wish.

I hope that this post gives you some ideas to help take charge of your e-mail. As we’ve implemented these tools and concepts, we have freed up a great deal of time here at The Time Finder!

Bonus Tip: In most e-mail systems that I know of, the folders you create will be listed alphabetically. Whenever you have a folder that you want to move to the top of your list of folders, put an exclamation point in front of its title. That’s a trick I learned from Connie Ragen Green – and it really helps when I want to keep track of something that would otherwise be way at the bottom of my list.

So, do you have a favorite time-saving tool for your web-based work? Share it in a comment – I’d love to hear!

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Success is within your reach, so don’t wait, click this link and get started today! http://bit.ly/FreelanceTips

Let’s explore time together …

Create a Mail Rule or Filter to Track Sent Messages You Want to Follow Up On [Email] (lifehacker.com)
Finding Time to Go Paperless: De-clutter with 3 Time and Productivity Tips (thetimefinder.com)
Find Time to Give Yourself Exactly What You Need Every Single Day! (thetimefinder.com)
How to Archive Gmail Messages (theapptimes.com)

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Find Time to Thrive by Focusing on Your Minutes to Optimize Your Hours!

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Paula, under Time and Energy, Time Choices.

Finding time to get everything accomplished in the time that we have is a constant challenge, isn’t it? Especially at this busy time of year, it can feel like you’re just barely keeping your head above water … when what you really want to be doing is focusing and appreciating each moment.

So how can you move away from overwhelm and toward thriving?

The answer is actually pretty simple. It was summed up very nicely by Lord Chesterfield many years ago, when he stated:

Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.

When you are focusing on the present moment, laying aside worries about what lies ahead, you are going to be more efficient with your time and also have a fuller experience.

Not only that, but chunking your tasks and activities into small increments allows you to come to completion multiple times throughout your day. This is validating and energizing.

As you use your minutes to achieve small goals, you’ll find that your larger goals are accomplished in your hours. And you will be amazed at how this reduces your stress, worry and bother!

So are you ready to start focusing on the minutes and filling your hours to their fullest?

Well, here’s another way to explore ways to increase your power and effectiveness – whether it’s in your business, or your personal life … I am so pleased to be able to offer my expertise and support as The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to “Time Management”.

Find Time to Start Because the First Step is Your Key! (thetimefinder.com)
Find Time to Let Changes Change You, Too! (thetimefinder.com)
Find Time to Stop Making Yourself Feel Guilty: Timely Tip #1 (thetimefinder.com)

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Find Time to Really Do Your To Do List -3 Powerful Time Tips

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Paula, under Time Management Skills.

Finding time to complete the items on your to-do list is an ongoing challenge. Sometimes those lists become so challenging in and of themselves that we want to avoid them … and that’s not a good idea!

Have you run into problems with managing these lists for yourself? I have a friend who jots ideas and tasks on scraps of paper and sticky notes, putting them in her date book as the day goes on. she captures a lot of material that way, but, as you can probably imagine, by the end of most days that date book looks like it’s filled with confetti! Sometimes the notes fall out, or get covered by other notes.

So, yes, it’s a challenge to keep up with it all.

That’s why I encourage any and everyone to take time — even just five minutes — at the beginning and end of the day, to plan, prioritize/consolidate, and review your list (or lists).

Each piece of this process is important, so let’s focus on each separately with these 3 Powerful Time Tips:

Finding time to plan is like scanning the landscape from up in the air. You need to get the lay of the land, note any barriers, and decide on your route. Really, what you’re determining is how you’re going to travel through your day. This is the most important part of your process – without it you’ll be embarking on your journey without a compass– and I guarantee, you’re going to get lost!

When you’re navigating your day, it’s really important to know where you’re starting, where you want to end up, and the major intersections and turning points along the way.

Having a plan doesn’t mean that there won’t be a need to make changes as the day unfolds. It simply gives you a map. Ideally your map will include alternate routes for any unforeseen contingencies. You don’t need to go into a lot of detail about those routes, but it’s important (and reassuring) to know that they’re there.

And don’t forget the “Times 2 Rule” when you plan! No matter what the task, it’s good to assume that it will take at least twice as long as you predict. (And what a gift to yourself, if you end up with a little extra time at the end of the day!)

Finding time to prioritize and consolidate your tasks is another very helpful time management skill to develop. Again, you needn’t spend a lot of time on this. As you look at your plan for the day or your To Do List, highlight the three tasks that you absolutely want to accomplish on this day.

Also, if you’ve got any tasks that can easily be put together, be sure to connect them. This might include things like errands that involve stops close to one another, putting all of your computer-related tasks in the same time slot, etc.

And if you maintain your To Do List or Daily Plan on a computer you can rearrange your tasks as you consolidate and create your priorities. Having a clean list makes things a little easier and less stressful for yourself.

Last but not least, finding time to review at the end of the day is very important! It gives you an opportunity to tweak your to do list for the next day, adjust your priorities, reflect on any lessons learned, and let go of it all as you had to bed.

Letting go is a wonderful gift that this process allows you to give yourself. As your head hits the pillow, you can release any worries that you might be carrying, knowing that they are on your list and will be addressed in the morning. Your sleep will be more restful, and you’ll have more energy as your day begins!

So, are you ready to start really DOING what’s on your To Do List? Consider giving these 3 Powerful Time Tips a try … and I’d love to hear how it goes for you.

And here’s something more to consider. You can now access our Time Finder posts in real time … right on your Kindle. Try it out for 14 days FREE! You’ll receive new content wirelessly, on your Kindle, every time we post!

So, what if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Claim it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!

Let’s explore time together …

Find Time for All the Colors in the Rainbow: A Time-Saving Tool (thetimefinder.com)
Find Time to Increase Your Productivity with this Cyber Monday Time Tool! (thetimefinder.com)
Remember The Milk – Forums / Tips & Tricks / Monk to Done, my GTD approach (rememberthemilk.com)
Find Time to Get to Your Goals the Flexible Way-3 Time Tips! (thetimefinder.com)

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Find Time to Chunk Your Tasks and Stop Procrastinating Today!

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Paula, under Time Management Skills.

Finding time to stop procrastinating is one of the best time management skills that you can ever develop for yourself. And it’s a challenge … for all of us.

It doesn’t do you much good to let your inner critic try to goad you into action when you find yourself procrastinating. In fact, this will often lead to increased stress and, perhaps, the introduction of your “inner rebel” to the conversation. It’s a great recipe for digging your heels in even deeper, and coming to a virtual standstill.

But think about it: you don’t even know that you’re procrastinating unless you have some goals. So, the good news is if you know you’re stuck, it’s because you know where you want to go or what you want to do.

But getting from where you are to where you want to be involves effort. Effort is work. It means an investment of your time and energy. And when you invest effort, you expect and want to reap some kind of reward.

So, in some very basic ways, I think that one major source of procrastination can be the size of the gap between the effort and the reward. The larger the gap, the more likely you are to be challenged by procrastination.

If you have a really big task to do, something that is going to take days, weeks or even months to finish, when will you begin to see the benefits of your work? It can require skill and discipline to get started on a task like that … when the reward is so far in the distance that you need a telescope to see it!

But the good news is that you can build in your own rewards! You can do this by the way you structure your task, the ways that you remind yourself about it, and what you say to yourself when you’ve completed each step.

Chunking tasks down into bite sized pieces is a fundamental component of any attempt to overcome procrastination and begin to make headway on your goals. Chunking is a time management skill that gives you stepping stones and stopping places (where you can give yourself pats on the back along the way).

Basically, what chunking does is narrow the gap between your effort and your reward.

So, the next time you find yourself procrastinating about something, grab a piece of paper and write down the task at the top. Then create at least 10 stepping stones to get yourself to your goal. Begin with a first, small step as soon as you have finished writing down your stepping stones. (If you can’t do it immediately, be sure to schedule a specific time, and then follow through on your commitment.)

Notice how your energy changes and the impossible begins to feel possible! Chunking and creating stepping stones are the key. Then whenever you invest effort be sure that you validate yourself with some sort of reward, be it a kind word, a break, or something else that appeals to you.

And are you inspired to find time and increase your effectiveness, efficiency and enjoyment? What will be the first step that you take to start chunking and stop procrastinating?

Speaking of “first steps” here’s an exciting first for me! I am pleased to share that I am The Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to “Time Management”. When you visit you’ll find time management articles by experts in the field, along with a vibrant and welcoming on-line community. Stop by my Expert Page and leave a comment or question … or just say hello. There are lots of ways to connect … let’s get started!

So, what if you could find another hour every day? You can! You can explore some practical and effective options for taking charge of your time by signing up for our free gift – “The New Finding Time Boundary Template: 9 Simple, Sequential Steps to Find More Time and Recharge Your Energy!” Claim it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!

Let’s explore time together …