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Why Time Management Makes for a Better Employee Time management is a major issue in the workplace. When time is not utilized efficiently, it leads to sloppy work, missed deadlines, and way too much stress. Employers are constantly seeking ways to teach their employees to manage their time better for a simple reason – a team that manages its time well is a team that is productive and successful. Everyone has done it. You’ve know that there is a big deadline approaching for weeks on end, and you kept telling yourself that have plenty of time. Then, suddenly, it is the day before the project is due, and you haven’t even begun it. You know you will have to pull an all-nighter, and even then you will be lucky to get everything done in time. Your heart is racing, your head is pounding, and you’re cursing your procrastination yet again, thinking about how much time you wasted surfing the next when you could have been doing a little work on the project every day, so it wouldn’t be so overwhelming. The end result of a project like this is predictable. You may get it in on time, or at least close to the deadline, but your work is likely to be sloppy. The rush job you did will be evident to everyone, and if your project involved making a pitch to a potential customer, your time management failure may end up costing your company big money (and costing you a job). As if you were not stressed enough already! If you contrast that performance with one in which you had effectively managed your time, the difference is clear. If you have worked on the project over the entire time span you had to finish it, a little bit at a time, then you would have had time to make sure your work was up to par. You wouldn’t have been scrambling for last minute information to include, and you could have made sure your work was free from little errors like typos or pages that printed incorrectly. Most importantly, you wouldn’t feel like you needed a week long vacation when the project was over, because your stress level never would have hit the roof. So, how do you become a happier and more effective employee by managing your time better? The first thing you can do to become an effective time manage is simple – write yourself a to-do list everyday. Not only does a to-do list help you think through exactly what you need to accomplish so you don’t forget anything in the rush, but it also helps you feel accountable for everything that needs to get done. If you write “spend 30 minutes on the big project” on your to-do list, it is a lot harder to come up with excuses why you can put it off for another day. Your conscience will make you want to get through everything on that list. If it seems like you never have enough time in the day, keep a journal of all of your activities. If you spend 20 minutes chatting by the coffee pot, write it down. After a week, look back over your activities. You may be surprised how much time you actually spend doing nothing. Now that you know, you can reinvest that time more wisely. The last thing is the hardest thing – getting over procrastination. This one is sheer willpower. When those voices in your head start arguing over whether to work on something now or put it off until later, listen to the work now voice. Give yourself manageable goals, like working on something for 15 minutes or 30 minutes, to get started. Once you experience the freedom from stress that time management brings, that procrastination voice will be a thing of the past.

Craigslist a Great Place to Find Free Stuff – While Exercising Caution of Course Craig Newmark of San Francisco founded Craigslist in 1999. Craigslist is a web page that offers anybody to sell or by articles virtually free of charge. Some of the categories such as job ads in some of the major cities have a charge, which is the funding for all the other private, free ads on Craigslist. Currently the web page is available in approximately 450 cities all over the world. IT serves more than nine billion viewers per months and therefore gives the web page a ninth place in the rankings for most frequently used web sites in the United States. The web sites offer over thirty million new postings and classifieds each month. Categories for classifieds and advertisement range from job and housing postings over traditional buy and sell classifieds all the way to community events and personal ads. Since Craigslist offers so many different ads and classifieds each month, it is also a great place to find free stuff. Many people that are about to move or have top give up a hobby due to whatever reason often times offer things for free on this web page. Generally ads and classifieds are divided by categories and then listed on the pages depending on the proximity to a major city. Many major cities in the United States have their own Craigslist. Classifieds that are posted on a city site generally are from somewhere in the proximity of the city. Often time’s sellers expect the buyer to pick up the merchandise. Therefore, it is not unusual to find car ads, fitness equipment, baby clothing and items, furniture and more on the web site. Posting is for most classifieds free and there are also no fees for anything else. In contrast to some other pages, posting a used children’s toy, a piece of furniture or similar as well as anything else is completely free. The seller has the possibility to stay anonymous till shortly before the sale, when the seller decides to hand out his or her telephone number or address for sale purposes only. Of course such classifieds and advertisements can also be cons and need to always be handled carefully. Generally a good judgment of the price and offer helps to prevent from falling for fraudulent classifieds. Even though there are measures from the creators of the website to prevent fraud such as official statements and more, there is no guaranty that a fraudulent add will be taken off in time to prevent any trouble. So whenever buying or selling on Craigslist do it with caution. Craigslist offers classifieds for anything. Community, housing, personals, jobs, for sale, services, gigs and even discussion forums are all part of the web site. On this website anybody can post anything. Therefore it might take some time to find the right ad. It might even be possible that the chosen product cannot be found. Craigslist works like an online yard sale or a flea market. Therefore finding the exact product may be hard. But sometimes getting lucky is all that it takes and then the seeker is united with the product of desire. This web page should be used and supported by anybody and everybody. Whatever there is for sale, it should be put up on Craigslist, so that other people can male good use of a product that might be a good product for someone else for a few more years. Even jobs can be found on Craigslist. In cities such as New York, this web page’s jobs are one of the most important sources for job hunters and therefore are not free of charge for the employers that are posting in some of the bigger cities.

Networking Know-How: How to Get Through to the Busiest of People When you are job hunting, sometimes the most frustrating part is just getting your foot through the door to let the right people know that you are out there and available for work. Companies can be like members-only clubs; they tend to be a little distrustful of cold callers and most executives advise their assistants to run interference for them on the phone so they do not get stuck having a protracted conversation with someone they just aren’t interested in doing business with. The thing is that to get an interview, these people can be the very same people you need to talk to. How do you get these busy people to clear some time off in their busy schedule to speak to you? First things first – you have to get the right attitude. If you want busy people to make time to talk to you, you have to present yourself in a way that makes them feel like you are worth the time investment. The trick here is that you have to do this by phone, and often, you have to first convince an operator or personal assistant that your call is one worth putting through to the boss. Your phone etiquette and vocal confidence will be the key here. Consider you basic phone manners first. Instead of launching right into what you want, respond to the greeting of the person who answers the phone with a hello of your own. Animate your voice and always remember that simply saying “please” and “thank you” can go a long way. Be the kind of caller that you would want to talk to if your job was answering the phone all day. People will respond to your positive attitude with a positive attitude of their own. Next, consider your confidence level on the phone. Do you tend to get tongue-tied and stumble over your words? That kind of delivery from you will set all the warning bells ringing on the other end of the phone, and you will find the person with whom you wish to speak always “out of the office.” Instead, work on sounding like you are confident that it is a forgone conclusion that you will get to speak that busy person you want to talk to. Be confident that what you have to say is something that is worth hearing. It may help to write out a framework of what you will say and practice a few times so you sound relaxed and composed when you make that call. Once your attitude is right to make the call, you can then employ a few tricks of the trade for getting through to those busy people. Instead of giving away too much up front, start your call by asking if the person with whom you need to speak is in. If the answer is yes, then you can remove on potential “excuse” for not putting your call through. If your call can’t be taken at that time, skip the message. Let the PA or operator know that you will call back again. That way you have a legitimate reason to keep calling. Of course, you might have to keep calling and calling, and that assistant might start knowing the sound of your voice. If you keep speaking to the same person, it’s time to open up with some person details. Let them know your name, why you’re calling, and if someone referred you, who that person is. Developing that personal relationship can help you get your call through to the boss. Last but not least, don’t give up. Busy people are, well, busy, and not necessarily avoiding your call. Persistence pays off, so keep on calling until you get through.