One time, my 15-year old nephew asked me a question that surprised me. I was not expecting that he would ask me this question, “Does my father love me?” I did not see any valid reason for him to ask me this. Without second thoughts, I answered “Yes, of course, he loves you so much.” Then, I began rationalizing, groping for answers and providing explanations to convince him that his father loves him very much. I told him that his father has been working hard just to provide for his needs. During birthdays, holidays and special occasions his father would never forget to give him gifts. His father would give him any amount of money he would ask from him. His father sent him to a prestigious school for him to have a good education and bright future. His father would buy him expensive branded clothes. His father hired 2 nannies who would take care of him. I even told my nephew that he is luckier that other kids because he has a dad who is a responsible person and good provider. After hours of debate and persuasion that seemed would not end, he did not change his conviction as if he did not hear anything from me. He still doubted his father’s love for him. Why?
Since I was not able to convince him after all the efforts of I did, I asked him the reason for asking the question. He gave me a simple answer that made me rethink, “I have all the things that I need, but my father is not always there for me.” This shocked me and made me pause and reflect. I realized that my nephew has a point. What would he do with all the expensive stuff and the large amount of money he has if he seldom sees his father. Even though his father is so sincere in expressing his love to my nephew through gifts this love will not be appreciated and recognized. For a long time the father has not loving his child in the way the child wants to be loved. And so, the child does not feel his love. Quality time is love language of the child.
Quality time is spending time with each other with undivided attention. It’s not simply eating together, playing together, or doing something together. It’ “being” together. It’s a “being-to-being” encounter, a person-to-person encounter. The activities we do together may not matter more. It’t the quality of time we spend together. The activities that we do are just opportunities or instruments through we can share ourselves with each other. It’s not the quantity of time that matters, but the quality of time.
When we spend quality time with our loved ones, we enter into another world where there are no paper works, deadlines, meetings, work stress, business pressure, memos, etc. It’s a realm where only you and your loved ones exist. We share our stories, joys, griefs, sorrows, dreams, triumphs, secrets, and our very own selves with each other. No phone calls, worries, fears, customers, bosses, etc. can disturb us. It’s a radical stop from the daily routine of life. It’s a special world where love, joy, peace and intimacy overflow. A minute of Quality Time cannot be compared with a thousand days of Time spent with divided attention and disruptions!
How much QUALITY TIME have you spent with your loved ones? It’s time to invest you time in your relationships!
Friends, I want to recommend you this book in helping you deepen your relationship with your loved ones. This book has done a lot of marvelous things in my life! I hope it will help you as well!

Tags: Children, communication, dialogue, family, intimacy, kids, Love, love language, misunderstanding, parents, quality time, relationship, teenager, time, Time Management

How do you utilize your time?
Do you apply time management or time wasting techniques to your daily efforts?

Watch the video or read the article below!

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_QrcE2YLOU]

In order to apply effective Time Management, you really need to stop wasting your valuable time – after all, we all only have 24 hours in a day!

Click here and occupy your time for the best effect possible!

Do you fall into the trap of wasting time? Time is a valuable commodity! When you waste your precious time, you’re actually preventing yourself from achieving the things you desire.

Here is a list of the top ten time wasting techniques that people utilize. If you find yourself spending too much time on these activities, try changing some of your habits so your time can be more productive and rewarding.

1. Internet time.
Are you constantly browsing the Internet, Facebook or Twitter? Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Twitter and catching up with all my friends there, but I click in and out and don’t jabber on with meaningless dribble! Are your kids hearing you say, “In a minute,” much too often when they ask you to spend time with them?

* Keep your time on the Internet short and get involved in life. Instead of chatting with your online friends, spend more time with your real life friends and family!

2. Telephone Chatter.
Sure, we like to call old friends and chat, but do you chat on the phone all day long? If you do, you may find that you get hardly anything done all day. Good time management involves setting limits!

* Keep phone calls to a minimum or set a timer to go off after 15 minutes. This way you won’t feel deprived of a good conversation, but it won’t take over your whole day.

3. Television.
We’re a couch potato society! We schedule our lives around our favorite television shows and we spend less time doing more important activities like attending social events that could strengthen our relationships.

* Record your favorite TV shows and watch them during your leisure time, or limit your TV intake to just a couple hours a week. TV is a major player in the time wasting stakes!

Why bother with TV when you can watch this?

4. Daydreaming.
It’s fun and healthy to dream about career ambitions or future aspirations, but when those dreams prevent you from taking action in your life, then you’re wasting time. Avoid getting bogged down with too much dreaming.

* Make a list of your goals or dreams, then take action to make those dreams come true.

5. Video and Computer Games.
This is becoming such a time waster that gamers are actually developing what is called “gamers thumb,” a repetitive stress injury.

* Set time limits for yourself and your kids and help your kids understand why this is important.

6. Hobbies.
Yes, there are people who are so obsessed with a hobby that they don’t make time to do anything else. They rush home from work to their hobby, even skipping dinner.

* If this is you, get a grip! Schedule your hobby time so you’re not skipping meals, missing time with your family, or cutting into other productive time.

7. Wasting Your Worry.
Many people will worry until doomsday about every little thing in their lives. This is simply unproductive and bad for your health, mind, and spirit.

* If you have something worrisome coming up, craft a plan of positive action on paper, then let it go. After all, worrying doesn’t accomplish anything positive.

8. Planning.
Planning is a definate positive in time management! If you don’t take the time to plan your day, the important things you need to accomplish may not get done. You need to spend some time planning but make it short and sweet!

* Write down your daily goals and tasks.
* Schedule your day in the order of your top priorities.

This is the Best Plan for Success in Life – Click Here!

9. Traffic and Commuting.
Some of us spend an enormous amount of time traveling to and from work. You can turn your commuting time into productive time!

* Try carpooling or taking the bus, subway or train to work. You can use this time to read, plan your day, complete paperwork, or even relax your mind before a productive day.


* If you drive, you can listen to inspiring and informative CDs or tapes to sharpen your mind each morning.

10. Meetings.
Although necessary, meetings can be one of the biggest time wasting efforts of our workday. If everyone is wiped out from sitting in long meetings all day, productive time will be low.

* If you’re in charge of meetings, set timeframes for them and stick to your stated time.

* Limit the length of your meetings: keep needless chatter and agendas out of the meeting.

There are many other ways we waste our time in our everyday lives too! With a little effort, you can avoid time wasting activities and turn that time into an advantage. Then your time wasting will become good time management instead!

Tags: time, Time Management, Time Management or Time Wasting, time wasting

Time management 101 – are you up for a few basics in organizing your time? We all have only 24 hours in a day, so what makes some of us achieve so much while others seem to get nothing done?

Basically, it’s 2 things – good time management or a lack there of!

Here are some very basic things to consider when you want to get the most out of your day.

Always start with a plan to manage your time.
Once you have a plan, be responsible enough to carry it out. When you set a goal, and make the plans, and put them into motion, things should run smoothly for you.

Get motivated, have a positive attitude, reduce stress, and complete your task.

You can start by making lists of tasks that need doing. Organize the list, starting with the bigger tasks first, this can help manage your time better. Finish with the smaller tasks, and you’ll find that you have more time left than you thought.

Don’t overdo your list! Be reasonable with your own expectations. If you find that you just can’t get through the myriad of jobs you have set yourself, cut back on the next day’s to-do list.

It is far more satisfying and encouraging to complete a smaller list than too have a pile of work left over from a list that was unreasonable to begin with!

One of my time management strategies is to tackle the job I want to do least – first! Then it’s out of the way and I feel a good sense of achievement, this spurs me on to tackle the rest of my list with gusto!

The best thing you can do to help yourself is to make lists. Use one for everyday use, one for weekly use and then monthly. Set your goals and get to work on achieving them! Plan things well in advance if possible.

One of the worst things you can do is to make the list un-doable!
Time management is about being organized. If you set your own goals and expectations to high – you will be wasting even more time when you realize you just can’t manage your to-do list.

I used to set ridiculous tasks for myself, even a team of 10 couldn’t have made it through in a reasonable time frame. Then I used to kick myself for not getting where I wanted to go on the day I wanted to get there! To top that off – I used to waste even more time being grumpy for my under achievement!

Stop wasting time – be realistic with your time management!

Tags: management, time, Time Management

Time management and goal setting are paramount to success and achievement!
How do you maximize your time?
Does your life seem to fly by and at the end of the day you really didn’t achieve much at all?

If you can take these suggestions and put them into action, you will find that Yes! Life does fly by but you will achieve all your goals and dreams!

All my business experience has taught me lots of things but one thing is at the top of the list! Maximizing your productivity, happiness, peace, and impact can best be accomplished if you clearly understand the 12 Rules of Time.

So here they are for you to take action with….

1. Analyze how you spend your time

It is always good to know how you’re spending your time right now. You can track this by setting a timer to go off every 15 minutes; whenever it sounds, write down exactly what you are doing. Alternatively, divide your day into 15-minute blocks and record each activity you do.

Once you have your time logs, examine them. How do they compare to your goals? Are you spending time where your priorities are?

2. Have Goals

Being more efficient with your time is irrelevant if you don’t know how you want to spend it. In managing time, the compass is more important than the clock. Know where you want to go and spend your time on the things that get you there.

Many people spend energy trying to be more efficient without first doing what’s important: setting goals. It’s like being lost on your way to a new city. Driving faster doesn’t help if you are going in the wrong direction. Figure out what direction to go in and head that way.

Once you’ve prepared it, your list of goals will reveal what is important to you.

3. Keep a to-do list

This sounds too simple, but it really is the basis of all time management systems. Your to-do list can be electronic, on fancy paper, bound in a notebook or loose-leaf. The key is to have everything you want to accomplish on one list. My to-do list might have a one line item on it, such as “write annual report,” which refers me to a much larger file or even a file box on that item.

4. Prioritize your List

Once you have the list, determine which are the important items. Mark these with a highlighter, a red pen, or in any other way that makes them stand out.

I sometimes find my to-do list is too big. Every item on the list calls out “pay attention to me!”, even though most of them weren’t highlighted as important. In these cases, I take a blank sheet of paper and cover my to-do list and write down only the three or four most important items. Those are the ones to focus on.

5. Organize

Organization and time management are linked. I find that I get important things done when I have all the tools I need to perform the job.

The opposite of organization — chaos, clutter, disorganization — generally leads to busy work. If your desk is piled high, every piece of paper says “look at me.” You can end up doing a lot of work without ever getting to the important stuff.

6. Control Procrastination

I use a number of tricks to break any lingering tendencies to procrastinate. For instance, I happen to like having a hard copy of my digital to-do list. I reprint it every few days as new items are added and completed ones dropped. It is at these times that I look for the items that I’ve marked as high priority, but which are just not getting done.

People often say I have great self-control. In truth, though, much of it is environment control. I control my environment to eliminate things that I might use to procrastinate. Take games off your computer, for example, sell your TV, and get rid of the busywork jobs that you use to avoid the important tasks.

I have developed one effective habit that has helped break me of procrastination: “Do the worst thing first.” At the beginning of every day, I do the one task that is causing me the most stress, and that I haven’t been getting done. Sometimes I just give it a quarter of an hour — based on the theory that I can stand just about anything for 15 minutes. Frequently it is this short thrust that breaks me through.

If I still find myself procrastinating, I review my reasons for setting a goal. To create extra motivation to complete a task, I strengthen the reasons why it should be done. Similarly, many people reward themselves for completing a job.

7. Master efficiency tricks

The best trick I have found is “The Power of While.” What can you do while you drive? While you walk? While you clean? While you watch TV? I am a huge audio cd advocate and frequently listen to cd’s while I am doing something else.

Being a techno person, I love all the organization software out there that allows me to keep my contacts, to-do lists and appointments. I also use gadgets such as cellphones, wireless e-mail, and personal digital assistants. Good use of technology can save you valuable time.

8. Delegate

One way to expand your time is to get others to help you with it. The key to delegation is to hand off any tasks that someone else can do significantly faster or more easily than you can.

If you’re protesting that you don’t have anyone working directly for you to whom you can delegate tasks, no problem. Consider delegating to a peer, a superior, a supplier, or even a customer. Treat delegation like networking: who in your network would be best for the job?

In some cases you will need to invest up-front to train someone so he or she can take over a task from you. The long-term savings are usually worth the up-front time and costs.

After delegation, remember to thank appropriately. You might think people would resent being delegated to, but exactly the opposite is true. People like to be asked, especially if it is to do something that they’re good at.

9. It’s OK to say no

Saying “No” can be the most powerful time tool you can master. When someone asks you to do something, ask yourself how important this is. Does it help you achieve your goals? Is this a task you would be better at than most people? Don’t always look for reasons to get out of things, but be strategic about what you take on.

This doesn’t mean that I always say no when asked to help out. But if I do say no, I am always polite and tactful, and try to suggest someone else who would do the job well.

10. Focus

Committing 100% focus and concentration on one task at a time can be very powerful. Eliminate distractions. Focus on the task. When you’re properly organized and prepared, when your energy and power are high, you can often complete a task in 20% of the time it would take when you’re distracted or open to interruption.

11. Build your efficiency bank

High efficiency is not possible if you don’t look after yourself. Eat right, exercise, sleep well and drink moderately. Mum knew best: all the things she said were good for you just happen to be best for your efficiency, too.

I also believe meditation can be a great way of building your efficiency. It could be transcendental meditation, Zen, or just finding a way to get into a relaxed state that lets you focus on the task you have to do. No matter how you do it, recharging your batteries gives you the power to do more during the times you need to be at your best.

12. Take care of yourself

It isn’t possible to be “on” all the time. Take the time you need to look after yourself — body and soul — so that you can reach peak efficiency when you need to. Have a list of things you like to do. Find out what activities energize you, and spend more time doing them. This will give you the power and energy to be more productive when you return to work.

Finally, a word of advice. If after reading this far you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, I suggest you go back and add peace (contentment) to your list of goals. Time management is not about adding stress; it is about giving you the time to be the person you really want to be.

With a sensible list of goals and a time management plan, you are in a better position to achieve the goals you have set.

Goal setting has to come first! If you dont have a goal, you have nothing to work towards!

Tags: Goal Setting, goals, time, Time Management