How to Get the Most Out of Your Morning (Even if You're a Night Owl)

Most people have said it, heard it or thought it on a daily basis: there’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done. And while running a small business is a hectic time- and energy-intensive endeavor, there are ways to plan better and maximize the time you have.
One of the simplest, surest ways to pack more productivity into your workdays is to rise early and take advantage of the extra time you gain in the morning hours. True, an extra 15 or 20 minutes of sleep might feel like it’ll be the difference between going through your day functionally or like a zombie, but if you approach the first part of your day the right way, you’ll be surprised at your focus, efficiency and get-up-and-go.
Studies show that early risers are more productive throughout the day. Plus, waking up early helps lower your stress and supplies extra time other ways too, like allowing you to beat traffic. Here are a few ways to start your mornings the right way, to lay the foundation for more dynamic days.
Eat a healthy breakfast
For generations, it’s been heralded as the most important meal of the day. Well, it’s time we listen. Studies have shown children who eat breakfast perform better at school, and it only seems natural that those results translate to adults. A combination of high-fiber and protein-filled foods (like vegetables, fruits, whole grains and eggs) will provide you the most energy and keep you full until lunch, and on your game when it comes to focusing and solving problems.
Get physical
Integrate a little bit of physical activity to your morning routine, and you'll find your energy levels on the rise—along with your productivity and general demeanor (thanks to those endorphins), too. But don't worry, it doesn't take a 10-mile run or an intense early-morning spin class to help you get a morning boost. Try biking to work instead of taking your car or public transit. Or, explore lower-impact options that are still effective, like taking a walk around your neighborhood or doing some yoga.
Pick out your clothes the night before
It's such an easy—yet often overlooked—way to streamline your morning routine. Michael Harrison at Wired names setting out his outfits the night before as one of his time-saving morning rituals. He rightly notes that even small challenges, like choosing this tie or that, can be more trying and time-consuming than they should be in the day's slow-going early hours. Raid your closet the night before to free up some valuable morning time.
Create a reason to get up early
Embracing the notion of getting up early is one thing, but getting inspired enough to actually enjoy doing it is something else. Having a reason that makes getting out of bed more worthwhile than hitting the snooze button is key. Dave Cheong, a software engineer and entrepreneur who wakes up at 5:30 a.m. every day, recommends thinking each evening about what you'd like to accomplish the following day. Be clear with yourself about what you'd like to accomplish and why it's valuable, and you'll be a more invigorated and enthusiastic early riser. Writing down your ideas can be helpful, Cheong says.
Meditate
Taking some time to center yourself can clear your head, help you to identify your workday priorities and help you cultivate a healthy approach to tackle your day. Jesse Langley at the Meditation Den says it's easy—you just need about 40 minutes of free time in the morning to do it, because it's pointless if you're rushed. That said, you’re free to blend in parts of your typical morning routine, like your must-have cup of joe, to meditation. Calm yourself, focus on your breathing and clear your mind. When your mind is empty, Langley says, start contemplating your priorities for the day, set your goals and decide how to accomplish them most effectively. As you incorporate meditation into your mornings.
So you're a night owl? You don't have to hate mornings
If you run on a more nocturnal schedule, early rising can still work for you—it just takes a little bit more work and adjustment. In order to embrace waking up early, make it part of your routine. It might be tough at first to go to bed at a set (reasonable) time, but the more you do it, the more natural it will feel.
You can help yourself fall asleep and sleep well by eating certain foods (Ecosalon recommends potatoes, bananas and yogurt as good before-bedtime foods). Relaxing activities before you turn in also help. (Dr. Joseph Mercola suggests journaling or listening to relaxing CDs.) Moving your alarm clock away from your bedside will help you start your day at the buzzer instead of snoozing away your morning, Mercola adds.

12:28 by Robert dawne · 0

8 Ways to Stop Wasting Time and Get More Done

There aren’t enough hours in the day to waste any. Time sucks backlog your output, slow your creative flow and frustrate you to the extreme. The bottom line: Small-business owners can’t afford to waste time.
And yet, they do, without even realizing it sometimes. By being more attentive and applying a few (relatively easy) fixes, small-business owners can boost their productivity and stop wasting time.
Know what needs to be done
List-making is a pain, but when you find a tool, app or method that works for you, embrace it, says Rivka Caroline of So Be Organized. She says you should never leave your office for the day without knowing the eight to 10 tasks that need to be done the following workday.
That might sound daunting, but there are ways to make it easier on yourself. Caroline likes to divide her tasksinto categories and split up her daily tasks between them. That way, she gets some variety and contributes to several different areas of her company.
Delegate
Even if you run a small operation, you can cut back on your workload to invest more time in the most important aspects of your company, says Donald Wetmore. He is a time-management expert at the Productivity Institute.
For the past 15 years, Wetmore has hired a college student to assist him with the minutiae. He sees it as purchasing 10 to 15 hours a week that he can devote to marketing and product development. Wetmore wrote Organizing Your Life and The Productivity Handbook.
Get to work early
Setting your hours to assure yourself a bit of alone time in the office before your employees show up could be key, Caroline says. It gives you time to devote to your to-do list without distraction (or at least with a lower chance for distraction).
But it's not about setting your work-life balance askew. If you come in early, you shouldn't be staying extra late, too.
"It shouldn't be about being in the workplace longer," she says. "It should be about leveraging your time-management [to maximize productivity]."
Keep a time log
For a week, Wetmore recommends dividing your days into either 15- or 30-minute increments, and tracking how you spend your time. This sort of "snapshot" of where your time goes can help you realize where you have fat to trim and where you need to delegate.
After that, integrate a time budget into your weekly routine.
"Ask yourself, 'Which [task] represents the best use of my time?'" Wetmore says. "I do this every Sunday when I look forward to my business week … I look at all the different dimensions of what makes my business work."
Track your interruptions
Interruptions are a fact of office life, particularly for small-business owners and managers. They're not all bad. A new customer calls to inquire about your product or service. But some of them can eat up your work time.
Wetmore suggests drawing up an "interruptions log." Create a few columns with dates and times of interruptions, their source and the duration. Spend a few days keeping track of all of them. By the end of that process, you'll have a good idea where your wasteful interruptions are coming from, and you'll be able to take action to reduce them.
Manage your information flow
The average person spends about two hours each day reading, according to Wetmore. We live in an age where the information flow is constant and access to it is easy.
"We can't stop that flow, but we can increase the rate at which we absorb it," he says.
So how do you do that? Wetmore suggests learning to speed-read. It's something that's offered through classes, and he says you can expect immediate results.
Skip meetings
The only thing worse than a meeting is an aimless meeting. The roundabout dialogue makes you feel like nothing gets accomplished. Without a clear outline and direction, meetings can be among the biggest time-sucks in your office. But Caroline offers a few suggestions for making meetings useful, productive and way less hateful.
First, have an exceedingly clear agenda. Know what you'll discuss, who you expect to contribute and why. Circulate a rough draft outline ahead of time and invite meeting participants to add notes or answer questions beforehand. Sometimes, that simple step eliminates the need for a meeting altogether.
Second, stand up. If you can't recline and swivel in your office chair, chances are meetings will speed right along.
Embrace "white space"
No one likes clutter. Eliminating it is a rule of thumb when it comes to advertising design and interior decorating, and the principle should carry over to your work life, too.
If your schedule doesn't have enough "white space" between appointments, tasks and deadlines, you can get overwhelmed and fumble the things you need to do, says organizing expert Harriet Schechter.
"White space functions as a sort of shock absorber for scheduling bumps caused by distractions, interruptions, emergencies and delays," she wrote in a piece for Entrepreneur.
"White space pumps flexibility into your schedule, and flexibility is one of the keys to an effective structure." Schechter also wrote Let Go of Clutter and pens answers for Ask Our Organizer at Stacks and Stacks.

06:06 by Robert dawne · 0

10 Apps That Make Me More Productive

We’re becoming an app happy world. Apps that run on our laptops, apps for mobile, apps for iPads and tablets—even better are the apps that sync across all of our chosen devices, keeping us on track in an increasingly online world.
Below are 10 applications that I use on a daily basis to get more done, manage more information, communicate more ideas and generally keep the plates spinning.
1. TweetDeck. This is my primary social media dashboard. It’s a desktop application that runs on Adobe Air and while there are lots of alternative choices, I’ve just always stuck with TweetDeck. (I do however use the Twitter app for my iPhone.) I have groups, lists and searches set up at all times and use the scheduled Tweets feature to meter out content I want to share throughout the day.
2. Evernote. This is my brainstorming, idea clipping, bookmark storing powerhouse. Evernote syncs beautifully across all devices and allows me to outline my life in many ways without having to commit anything to memory. I’ve stored everything from ideas for my books to wines I want to remember.
3. Dropbox. This is my online backup and file storage tool of choice. I probably overuse this tool, leaning on it as a file server for my team as well as a backup for important files, but it just works well. I also use it to share large files and grant conference attendees access to my PowerPoint presentations.
4. Reeder. This is an app that turns my chosen RSS reader, Google Reader, into something much more functional and much more attractive. I do most of my blog reading on my iPhone or iPad and the Reeder app gives me a ton of functionality. I can easily share a post on Twitter, clip to Evernote and bookmark to Delicious right from the post—great time saver.
5. Dragon Dictation. This iPhone app (at least that’s the only version I use) allows me to speak a memo and have it converted to text. I haven't really tested this out, but I think I could compose a blog post using this tool. The app then allows me to e-mail the text or manage it in various other ways. I use this tool whenever I get a flash of brilliance while driving or think of something when trying go to sleep and want to capture the idea right away.
6. HelloFax. This app is billed as a fax machine replacement, but I don’t really use that function. What HelloFax allows me to do is receive a document—like a contract, agreement, vendor form or non-disclosure—that need edits and my signature. Instead of editing, printing, signing, scanning and e-mailing back, I simply download the document, upload it to HelloFax, make my edits, drop in my stored signature and e-mail it back.
7. Text Expander. There are dozens of snippets of text that I need to use frequently. Text Expander allows me to write chunks of copy once and then paste those chunks whenever I need to with a couple keystrokes. I have entire e-mails that I send in response to certain requests, e-mail signatures, blog sponsorship messages and even HTML code  that I use frequently committed to short, time saving keystrokes that are easy to recall.
8. Pixelmator. This is my replacement to Photoshop. Now, I’m not a graphic designer, so I don’t have major league design challenges, but I’ve used Photoshop for years and for $29 this tool does everything I need it to do and is much easier to use than Photoshop. I’m sure Adobe would challenge this statement, but this tool is at least on par feature wise with the $99 Photoshop Elements.
9. Adium. I use Adium for all things related to IM. This Mac-only client allows me to converse with folks via instant message regardless of the IM platform they use—Facebook, Google Talk or AIM.
10. Transmit. This is my file transfer tool. It’s lightening fast and allows me to upload and manage files via FTP to my websites. I also use it to access my Amazon S3 file storage as I use Amazon’s cheap hosting and streaming for my videos and other larger downloads that I make available on my sites. I also use Transmit to move files around on my laptop. Instead of using two instances of the Finder on my Mac, I use a split window in Transmit that allows me to drag and drop files more easily.
Image credit: dougbelshaw via Flickr CC
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine and the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network.

14:46 by Robert dawne · 0