EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS

If you are a business owner or an executive moving up the corporate ladder, or a student trying to juggle school, work & a social life, time seems to be very limited. On the other hand you find yourself with seemingly unending tasks you have to complete on a daily basis. Without proper time management you can easily end up bogged down, distracted, inefficient and ultimately unproductive. This can seriously affect your chances of success and the pace at which you make progress. Here are tips you should use to effectively manage time and stay ahead of all your important tasks.

  1. Work with far shorter deadlines than you are used to and stick to them

One thing that fuels procrastination is the illusion that you have more time in your hands to work on activities. To avoid this, create shorter deadlines to create a sense of urgency on the various tasks you need to complete. You should not struggle with perfection, as when you get the tasks done you will have adequate time to brush through the work. Shorter deadlines also allow you to fit more tasks in your daily schedule.

  1. Schedule major tasks in your calendar well ahead before it gets crammed

Major tasks and events should always be scheduled before everything else. This will ensure smaller and unimportant tasks do not fill out your calendar and daily schedule. Waiting for a space of free time is an illusion especially for someone with several things to attend to. You should take charge of what you are doing by planning for the important and highly productive tasks first.

  1. Avoid multi-tasking

Unlike what is generally ascribed to, multi-tasking has been found in numerous studies to be inefficient and highly unproductive. You use more time and do not complete any of the tasks to the required quality levels. This is because you are hardly concentrating but only dividing attention across all tasks.

  1. Learn to delegate

You need to have a great talented team around you and empower them to be able to function with minimum support from you. Micro-managing the team highly affects your time schedules and the productivity of the whole department and business. Delegate all tasks that do not require your direct personal input and those outside your area of expertise. Learn how to effectively delegate to free up much of your time for more demanding tasks.

  1. Save unimportant but time-sucking activities for the end of the day

All activities that need to be done but take most of your time should be set towards the end of the day. This allows you to focus more on the valuable and more productive tasks during the peak business hours. You can deal with social media and mails as well as return personal calls at the business end.

  1. Establish a regular schedule for taking care of yourself

You need to discipline yourself to have enough time to unwind, eat well and exercise. To function at your optimum and be able to take control of the time you have, you should be mentally, physically and spiritually at ease.

For more information about Dr. Nach’s Online Resources and how to enroll, visit our website at: http://drnachonline.com/

 

Dr. Eric Nach, Ph.D., M.Ed., A.S.D. Cert. Developmental and Behavioral Specialist and Associates

Info@SupportForStudentsGrowthCenter.com    www.SupportForStudentsGrowthCenter.com

IS SOCIAL MEDIA KILLING SOCIAL SKILLS?

Social media is taking up a lot of our time. So much so that conversing with each other face-to-face has suffered a huge blow. Anywhere you look in public spaces, people are glued to their smartphone screens. Also, conversing and speaking in full sentences has become a chore for some people. This is obviously due to the influence of social media and text SMS. Even at home, the number of families that sit down to have quality time together or to share a meal is declining.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email, SMS, and many other impersonal ways to communicate are taking over the place of talking and sharing. These modes of communication have their benefits such as being fast, easy, and available 27/7. But they should not take the place of face-to-face and verbal conversations.

Some people have forgotten how to construct a sentence, especially the young generation who only want to communicate via chats. In fact, when they get together with their friends they are unable to have a conversation. It’s gotten to the point where they instead get on their devices and text each other or other friends.

What can be done to change the situation?

Social media has an important role to play in society, but it must never replace human contact. Try to switch off the phones while at home with family or when having dinner and start the tradition of face to face communication. Share some quality time with your friends and have a good talk, get to know each other as individuals. Real conversation is important because it teaches us how to interact on a personal and human level.

The problem is that most of the time our eyes are glued to a device. Practice the art of conversation. Discipline yourself to put away your mobile device and learn to make eye contact. Learn how to listen and how to construct your thoughts into full sentences. In fact, make time to practice good verbal skills by taking up a lesson that addresses conversations skills. Dr. Nach’s Online Resources has lots of lessons that impact crucial interpersonal skills such as public speaking and communication.

The needed social skills 

We need to learn how to interact properly as human beings. For this, we need to learn the following skills.

Synergistic interpersonal skills

We must practice active listening. This means maintaining eye contact and paying attention to what the other person has to say. Don’t interrupt or let your thoughts wander. Try to understand what is important to them. Learn to put yourself in their shoes, so to speak. Active listening is one of the most important social skills. Practicing it will make you more engaging and charismatic.

With synergistic international skills, you will be able to start and maintain conversations. You will also know how to disagree in a respectful and constructive manner. This will enable you to make and keep real friends.

Dynamic group performance

Interpersonal skills will empower you to reap the benefits of being effective in group situations. You will be able to use tools such as ‘small talk” and active listening skills to have an impact on the social culture at work or in school. This will boost your self-esteem and eliminate the fear of criticism or feedback.

Beneficial conflict resolution skills

Interpersonal and group skills will enable you to develop and implement options and solutions to conflict. This will elevate your standing in social situations and make you an important member of the society. You can use these skills in all social settings including in school, at work, and in the social world. You will be able to interact well with others, influence situations, and become a leader.

So yes, social media is killing social skills. But there is a way to stop (and even reverse) that. And Dr. Nach’s Online Resources is here to help via well thought-out online lessons fit for people of all ages.

For more information about Dr. Nach’s Online Resources and how to enroll in our online lessons, visit our website at: http://drnachonline.com/

Dr. Eric Nach, Ph.D., M.Ed., A.S.D. Cert. Developmental and Behavioral Specialist and Associates

www.SupportForStudentsGrowthCenter.com

What is Attention Management?

A distracted mind is less than effective. Individuals who do not or cannot pay attention to their work and goals can waste valuable time and make careless mistakes. Attention management is a useful skill that allows us to connect with our responsibilities on an emotional level and motivates us to focus on our work and how to reach one’s own personal and professional goals.

Attention management increases the ability to focus attention and can be done at the individual, group, and working level. In the workforce, managers are encouraged to deal with their own attention problems before trying to influence employees in their organization. Individuals should focus on their own attention concerns before trying to influence the attention of others around them. In order to understand attention management, people must be aware of where they focus most of their attention. Most experts divide attention into four different areas or zones. While the names change, the ideas are all the same.

Four Areas of Attention:

Intentional: When working intentionally, people plan strategically and prioritize their activities.

Responsive: In this area people are responding to the world around them. They spend more time putting out fires than working intentionally.

Interrupted: People spend too much time answering messages and handling situations that interrupt their work.

Unproductive:  This occurs when people waste time at school or work. Unless you are taking a scheduled break, checking social media sites and chatting is unproductive.

The advice “stop thinking” may seem counter intuitive to attention management. Many people, however, are over thinking everything and focused on the wrong ideas. When we constantly think, we do not pay attention to what is really going on around us. Our feelings control how and what we think. If we think that something is boring, bad, or a waste of time, we tend to give it less attention. For example, people are less likely to pay attention during a meeting if they believe it will not be productive. The ability to pay attention allows people to better connect with the world around them, better process their emotions, and organize the way they process cognitively.

Dr. Eric Nach, Ph.D., M.Ed., A.S.D. Cert. Developmental and Behavioral Specialist and Associates

Info@SupportForStudentsGrowthCenter.com    www.SupportForStudentsGrowthCenter.com

Does Tutoring Help Learning? Parents may wonder whether tutoring and academic coaching is worth the time, effort, andDoes Tutoring Help Learning money. Well, let me tell you what the research says. Evidence from several sources indicates that professional tutoring, conducted by highly trained and educated teachers and coaches is effective in promoting learning. Whether the tutoring is targeting academic subjects such as math, reading, writing, etc. or if it is addressing the soft skills such as executive functioning, organization, and time management, real gains can be expected to occur.

Individualized tutoring has long been viewed as considerably more valuable than group instruction, whether that be in a classroom setting or a learning center. Tutors and academic coaches are able to adjust their instruction to match the needs of the individual student, regardless of the learning, behavioral or emotional challenges they may have. Essentially, feedback and correction are immediate and individualized. Simple and complex misunderstandings can be quickly isolated and corrected.

One such report studied the results of 7000 secondary school students and found significant progress leading to continuing motivation in learning and a strong sense of value of out-of-school activities such as tutoring (Barber and Graham, 1994). The report indicated that investment of resources such as time and energy in the tutoring commitment appears to be even more effective.  Another study commissioned by the National Commission on Education (1993) included cases where students who were struggling with various learning and adverse life situations yielded significant progress in academic and overall abilities by engaging in individualized tutoring with highly specialized tutors and coaches.

Not sure what to do next, contact us and we can help you find the best solutions for your student(s), perhaps our “Struggling Learner and Exceptional Student In-Home Tutoring and Academic Coaching” is the answer.

Article written by Dr. Eric Nach, Ph.D., M.Ed., A.S.D. Certified Developmental and Behavioral Specialist. President of the Support For Students Growth Center, located in Boca Raton, Florida.