Guideline: Writing Good E-mails

Writing good e-mails

Today we will focus on the key to writing good e-mails.

• Put important information, directions and requests for action in the first three lines
• Keep your sentences short - less than 20 words
• Keep paragraphs to less than 10 lines
• Double space between paragraphs
• Use bullet lits and numbered lists
• Use lots of headings in bold (or caps if your system doesn't allow bold) to seperate sections of longer messages
• Highlight key points in bold
• Leave some white space for 'breathing room'

In other news....

Your editor went up to sugarloaf resevoir with his kids and parents on the weekend. The weather was beautiful and the lake is almost at 50% capacity, with recent rain and pumping from the Yarra River, at least this part of Melbourne's water is looking better.

Victoria - and Australia as a whole - been one of the worlds driest continents, seems to be constantly having water problems. At least, we are being pro-active about it and looking at ways to minimise water usage.

It might be a good investment option in the future.

Helping Children to Write

Yesterday we looked at how important it is for us adults to write, and how many time saving benefits there are.

Today we will look at writing for children, which is equally if not more important than writing as adults. To start with we will provide some practical information for how you can get your children to write. Note: Some of the information today comes from a Government Education Departments website.

Pointers for Parents
In helping your child to learn to write well, remember that your goal is to make writing easier and more enjoyable.

Provide a place. It's important for a child to have a good place to write--a desk or table with a smooth, flat surface and good lighting.

Have the materials. Provide plenty of paper--lined and unlined--and things to write with, including pencils, pens, and crayons.

Allow time. Help your child spend time thinking about a writing project or exercise. Good writers do a great deal of thinking. Your child may dawdle, sharpen a pencil, get papers ready, or look up the spelling of a word. Be patient--your child may be thinking.

Respond. Do respond to the ideas your child expresses verbally or in writing. Make it clear that you are interested in the true function of writing which is to convey ideas. This means focusing on "what" the child has written, not "how" it was written. It's usually wise to ignore minor errors, particularly at the stage when your child is just getting ideas together.

Don't you write it! Don't write a paper for your child that will be turned in as his/her work.

Never rewrite a child's work. Meeting a writing deadline, taking responsibility for the finished product, and feeling ownership of it are important parts of writing well.
Praise. Take a positive approach and say something good about your child's writing. Is it accurate? Descriptive? Thoughtful? Interesting? Does it say something?

Things to Do

Make it real. Your child needs to do real writing. It's more important for the child to write a letter to a relative than it is to write a one-line note on a greeting card. Encourage the child to write to relatives and friends. Perhaps your child would enjoy corresponding with a pen pal.
Suggest note-taking.

Encourage your child to take notes on trips or outings and to describe what (s)he saw. This could include a description of nature walks, a boat ride, a car trip, or other events that lend themselves to note-taking.

Brainstorm. Talk with your child as much as possible about his/her impressions and encourage the child to describe people and events to you. If the child's description is especially accurate and colorful, say so.

Encourage keeping a journal. This is excellent writing practice as well as a good outlet for venting feelings. Encourage your child to write about things that happen at home and school, about people (s)he likes or dislikes and why, things to remember or things the child wants to do. Especially encourage your child to write about personal feelings--pleasures as well as disappointments. If the child wants to share the journal with you, read the entries and discuss them--especially the child's ideas and perceptions.

Write together. Have your child help you with letters, even such routine ones as ordering items from an advertisment or writing to a business firm. This helps the child to see firsthand that writing is important to adults and truly useful.

Use games. There are numerous games and puzzles that help a child to increase vocabulary and make the child more fluent in speaking and writing. Remember, building a vocabulary builds confidence. Try crossword puzzles, word games, anagrams and cryptograms de- signed especially for children. Flash cards are good, too, and they're easy to make at home.

Suggest making lists. Most children like to make lists just as they like to count. Encourage this. Making lists is good practice and helps a child to become more organized. Boys and girls might make lists of their records, tapes, baseball cards, dolls, furniture in a room, etc. They could include items they want. It's also good practice to make lists of things to do, schoolwork, dates for tests, social events, and other reminders.

Encourage copying. If a child likes a particular song, suggest learning the words by writing them down--replaying the song on your stereo/tape player or jotting down the words whenever the song is played on a radio program. Also encourage copying favorite poems or quotations from books and plays.

Cheers

Andrew Collings

six steps to good writing

Six steps to good writing.


Today we will look at a technique that can save you a heap of time. Good writing. If you can write well, you can communicate clearly and quickly and will save yourself time in repeating things, and having to rediscuss points.

Step 1: Be Clear about your purpose. Why are you writing this? What do you want your reader to know? To do? How do you want your reader to feel?

Step 2: Plan what you will say. Jot down the key points you want to make. Then put them in a logical sequence. Then gather any facts that you will need.

Step 3: Draft your document. Have a specific reader in mind and write to that person. Why should they read it? Use the WIFM factor to help you: What’s In It For Me? Ask the question from the reader’s point of view. Be yourself: use normal language, not flowery and not overly formal. Aim for a readable, natural flow of ideas.

Step 4: Edit it. Read through your document to ensure that it is clear and says what you want it to say. Change any obscure words to familiar words, long words to short words, complex sentences into shorter, similar ones. Prune unnecessary words and get ride of any trite phrases.

Step 5: Type or word process the final draft.

Step 6: Check it carefully. If time allows, it often helps to leave it for a day or two before the final check. Don’t just glance over it but really check it through. Does it make sense? Are words spelled correctly and is grammar correct? Does the information flow smoothly? Are there logical transitions between major points? How does the layout look? Are margins big enough? Is there enough space between paragraphs? Erasures, overtyping and poor-quality print in written documents will cause them to lose their ‘eye appeal’ and look unprofessional.

In other news…

Your editors children – and himself – are on the mend after a stomach bug. It is always a good feeling, when you start feeling better again.

We were feeling that good, that we have started a spring clean up of the house. We have only recently moved to our new house – less than a year, but have already seemed to have collected large volumes of “stuff” for want of a better word.

It is a hard process to go through. Your editor likes to hang on to things; his wife doesn’t. To keep the marriage sound, his wife has resorted to donating things during working hours when her husband isn’t home!!!

The right type of exercise

Today dear readers we will focus on the best type of exercise for your health.

If you watch the news or read main stream exercise reports, you would that aerobic, slow placed exercising is the best for you. Hear at goal setting, health and parenting we take a different view – as we seem to on many things.

Aerobic exercise makes your body fit for long distance running and slow activities. This is not bad in itself, however it does compromise your heart. Your heart becomes smaller, and while more efficient at running longer distances, it is less capably of beating faster when you need it to – eg in times of stress.

To build reserve into your heart, you need to undertake short term repetition work. The perfect exercise is hill sprints. Start with a set of 8-10 hill sprints 2 – 3 times a week. Start out at 50% and work your way up to 90% by the last repetition. This will not only build muscle and make you burn fat, but it will also improve your hearts health.

As always, please consult a Doctor!!!

In other news…

Your editor has not written for a few days as he has been off sick.

Being sick really makes you appreciate how important health is. If it is not one of your top goals, you should seriously think about making it one.

Cheers

Andrew Collings

Time Saving Tips

Today dear readers, we will look at time saving tips. We know your time is valuable so we will list some key time saving tips below, rather than describe them in detail. You will hopefully get an extra 1 hour out of every day. Please note: These are in no particular order.

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1) Develop standard letters and e-mails to general queries you get.

2) Fold your sheets in the matching pillow case when you wash them - you will be amazed at how much time this can save.

3) Never leave a room without picking up something.

4) When cleaning a room, work clockwise around, fixing one part at a time.

5) Only touch papers on your desk once.

6) Prepare for phone calls, this can save a lot of follow up work.

7) Where suitable - multi task (eg watch tv while exercising or folding the washing). Remember mult-tasking does not always work, if both tasks are important you can actually be less efficient.

8) Ascertain if what you are currently doing is important. See if there is a quicker way to do it.

9) Avoid pefectionism, remember the 80/20 rule. Always strive for excellence rather than perfection. Excellence is doing the best time in the time allocated.

10) Think your tasks through first before you act - this will save you time and will keep you on track.

11) Do difficult task first - waiting won't make them easier.

12) Don't over schedule - build time into your diary. There are bound to be unexpected issues that come up each day.

13) Find your time wasters. Once you do this you can catch you self wasting time and bring yourself back on track. For me it is finding the car keys - take some action (eg placing the keys in once spot) to rectify the time waster.

14) Only check your e-mail once or twice a day. Action items immediately, or if they require more work, print them out and include the action on your list.

15) Ascertain what times are your most productive and least productive. Do your most important work in your most productive times. Some people work better in the morning, some work better in the afternoon.

16) Do things in bulk. Eg do all your shopping in one hit. You won't just be saving time, you will be saving money as well by only going out once.

17) Create a filing system for bills and tax information.

And some time saving tips in windows

18) To get to the desktop (minimize all open windows), press the Windows key and M at the same time. To reverse the effect, press Shift+Windows+M. This is a real time-saver. If you prefer the mouse, click the Show Desktop button in the Quick Launch bar; it does the same thing.

19) Change between applications by pressing Alt+Tab. Aiming for an application's little button on the taskbar is a hassle. You'll get tendonitis doing that all day. If you're using the Aero interface, you can also use Flip 3D to change between applications by pressing Windows+Ta

In other news...

Your editor's one year old was sick last night. We have learnt that when friends say that there baby has only thrown up once because they were teething, it generally means that have a full blown stomach bug!!!

Your editor has never seen KC (his one year old so sick). She was constantly being sick and had turned green. While I slept on the couch for most of the night, my wife attended to her.

It is always a trying time when children are sick...at least it will be building up her immunity.

Cheers Andrew

Goal Setting - The Daily To Do List

Goal Setting – The Daily To Do List

Today we will be focusing on the dreaded “to do list”, and will help you get the most out of it everyday.

By now, you should know our views on goal setting. Develop 10 year goals, develop 1 year goals, develop monthly goals and develop weekly goals. This helps you to stay on track, and breaks down your larger goals, into small achievable chunks. The daily to do list is where everything happens, and your tasks become your goals.

To get the most out of your daily to-do-list, there are two mechanisms you can use.

Highlighting: Because you know what your goals are, when you write your to-do-list, highlight the most important four to five items that you want to achieve that day. Do these items first.

A lot of people focus on the easier items first, and then when other drama’s or activities come up they lose sight of what they were wanting to achieve. If you focus on the most important items first, then you should at least have these done by the end of the day.

One way to work out what is the most important, is to see which activity will make the most difference to your future in say 1 year, 2 years or 5 years time.

Place your tasks in quadrants:

There are four quadrants that tasks on your to-do-list can fall into.

Urgent and Important
Not Urgent but Important
Urgent but not important
Not urgent and not important

Out of the four, the most important quadrant is the second (not urgent but important). This is where most of your goal activities will go, so it is instrumental that you focus a lot of your time – and tasks – in this quadrant.

Write a list of all the activities and try and place them in each quadrant. This will give you an understand of where the tasks you are working on sit. Try and avoid tasks in the urgent but unimportant and not urgent and not important quadrants. Things like e-mail and chatting can waste some of your valuable time.

So that’s it. Use these two simple mechanisms and you will be able to get the most out of your daily to-do-list.

And some more views…

Today in “The Age”, one of Melbourne’s newspaper, there was an article about plastic surgery and young girls. Apparently 25 per cent of girls would like to alter part of their body. The interesting fact is that some of these girls are as young as 11.

What leads to this sort of view. The media, parenting, class rooms??? Possibly all of the above. At the end of the day it seems that there are a lot of young people out there not happy with the way they look, and possibly not happy with their lives in general – it is this part that your editor finds worrying.

Family Time

Today's article focuses on family and how to find time to spend with them.

In our modern day lives, with work, sports, entertainment and other commitments, it is easy to overlook the quality time that we could be spending with out families.

Quality time with your family helps to build and bind relationships; and whats more it can be free or very cheap, and you can do it almost anywhere. In fact just as I was writing this article my daughter came into the room and asked me to see the tower she had just built - writing this article I had to oblige!!!

So today - been Sunday - I am not going to write to much; I just want to remind you how important your family is, that they are growing all the time, and to value every day. Some activities you could do with your family include:

• Playing
• Going to the park
• Going swimming
• Going out for dinner
• Going for a walk
• Listening to music
• Riding your bikes
• Cooking
• Even cleaning the house (with a lot of people it can be quite fun!!!)

You can make the activitie as cheap or expensive as you want, the main thing is just to do something together. Personally my kids love cooking and - believe it or not - cleaning the car.

So go and spend some quality time with your family now!!!

In other news...

Your editor is going to a kids Birthday party at Hungry Jacks today with his three kids. His wife is going to a Tupperware Party so he will have them on his own. At the very least it will give him a chance to spend time with his kids, and let him meet the other parents at kinder.

On Friday evening after a conference near Albert Park, your editor thought it would be a good idea to go to the beach which was just near by. With howling winds in Melbourne this proved not to be a good idea!!! Getting out of the car the wind blew the sand directly into him, and his kids, the speed of the sand was that fast that it hurt. After five minutes, we decided to call it a day and go to a nice Thai resturant instead. After dinner, I took my son on a tram from Kew to Box Hill, while my wife drove with the other kids. It was a great bonding time, and my son (almost 3) loved it.

How to deal with change

Today’s we will explore change and look at how we can best deal with it, and even use it as an advantage.

It is often said that the only thing certain is change. This is very true, the world is constantly changing. There are knew medical advances; there are no problems in the world; there are new people brought into the world.

Even though change is such a fundamental to our lives and society, most of us try and avoid it like the plague, and try to stick to the ways that we are doing things. Albiet, change can be viewed as an opportunity, and through the steps below, we can focus on ways to deal with change, and even use change.

Acceptance: The first part is to accept change. You may not like what is happening, but if you accept that change happens and you have to move with the flow, you suddenly change your thoughts from resistance to those of acceptance. This automatically will make you feel better, and will set you up to look at opportunity.

Control of Self: While you may not have control of the situation, you can have control of your self and the way you react to things. Take a few deep breaths, try and relax, and then think of what you can do in relation to the change. Write down what parts affect you, write down how you would like to respond. You are in control of yourself. No matter what happens around you, as long as you have this, you will be able to make sound and rational decisions.

Benefits: When change occurs, you should try and look at the positive side of things. Write down some of the benefits you can see from the change. Consider benefits to yourself as well as to others or the company you work for etc. Once you see the benefits you will begin to understand reasons behind change and why it is necessary.

In other views…

Your editor, who recently turned 30, was given a 110cc Scooter by his family and friends for his Birthday. He sees it as the first step in a mid-life-crises, where he will eventually end up owning a Harely. His family thought that he could travel to and from work on it, and that it would be cost effective, time effective and good for the environment.

That may be the case, but your editor needs a fair few more lessons before he can consider the trek into work. He tried riding it last night, and found his way around the throttle and the indicators. Turning a bend, he turned the throttle slight to hard and skidded the back tyre; he ended up over the centre line and on the wrong side of the road. A car coming the other way had to stop…it was a police car.

The police officer just shook his head at me and resumed driving.

Goal Setting: How to overcome Obstacles

Goal Setting: How to overcome obstacles.

Today, we are going to look at how you can overcome obstacles that you may face when achieving your goals.

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You set yourself a goal, everything is going along smoothly; then out of left field…wham…you get hit by an obstacle that can stop you from achieving your goal. What can you do???

The key to overcoming obstacles is planning. When developing your goals, as part of the planning you should consider potential road blocks that may stop you from achieving your goals and potential ways around them.

You can use mind maps or other diagrams to show you the problem in detail, then look at potential solutions and how successful they might be. One solution, could be to have a mentor in the industry (or area that you want to achieve your goal in) who could be a sounding board for possible solutions.

Once you have this in place, you already have a plan of action for when things go slightly pear shaped. You will know it is not the end of you achieving your goal, but merely a slight detour along the way.

There is a lot of wisdom in the saying “if you fail to plan you plan to fail”

Some other views:

Last night your editor sat down and watched Cable TV, flicking through the channels he came across a show on UK TV, called “Bad Lads Army”. The show was focused on young men who had committed some minor crimes (eg shop lifting, robbery or fraud etc). The men were put into the British Army, to help make something out of their lives.

The show was an eye opener. The army seems to be the last place left where political correctness and leftist views are not considered!!! In the episode, the “lads” were ambushed during the middle of the night, blind folded and taken away for interrogation. For four hours, they had to stay in torture positions (eg hands up in the air or hands on their heads) in between the interrogation. The show ended with one of the lads having a gun put in his mouth, to try and get him to give an answer that wasn’t “I can’t answer that question”.

The show seemed to be quite effective on disciplining, and controlling the lads.

After flicking through all the other cable channels, and not finding to much good content, your editor has decided to call the cable company and reduce the number of channels that he has.


Andrew Collings

What food your children should eat

Today, we will look at food and nutrition for your children, and focus on what they – and you – should be eating rather than what they shouldn’t be eating.

Nothing here is rocket science or new, but since we have just done extensive research into this, we thought it was worth writing an article about it. So lets get into it!!! Now we know kids aren’t big, on eating heaps of vegetables or fruits etc, so we will list the top three that you and your kids should eat daily.

Broccoli: When it comes to basic nutrients, broccoli is a mother lode. Ounce for ounce, boiled broccoli has more vitamin C than an orange and as much calcium as a glass of milk, according to the USDA's nutrient database. One medium spear has three times more fiber than a slice of wheat bran bread. Broccoli is also one of the richest sources of vitamin A in the produce section.
But the real surprise is this vegetable's potent cancer-fighting components.
At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, food chemist Dr. Paul Talalay has gone so far as to name his lab after "Brassica," the genus that includes broccoli and cauliflower. Talalay and his team at the Brassica Chemoprotection Laboratory have discovered that broccoli is rich in substances called isothiocyanates -- chemicals shown to stimulate the body's production of its own cancer-fighting substances, called "phase two enzymes." According to Talalay, these enzymes, in turn, neutralize potential cancer-causing substances before they have a chance to damage the DNA of healthy cells.
To test broccoli's cancer-fighting power, Talalay fed rats hearty servings of the vegetable for a few days and then exposed them to a potent carcinogen known to trigger a form of breast cancer in the animals. Broccoli-munching rats were half as likely to develop tumors as animals on standard chow, according to results published in the April 1994 Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
"Even those rats that did develop cancer ended up with fewer and smaller tumors, which is an important advantage in itself," says Talalay.
More recently, scientists at Tokyo's Graduate School of Agriculture have shown that isothiocyanates can block the growth of melanoma skin cancer cells, according to findings published in 1999 in the journal "Nutrition and Cancer."

Blue Berries: Are you eating blueberries? If not you might want to reconsider this wonderful food that is so good for you.
The dye that is released from the blueberries' skin may well be the most valuable nutrient the fruit has to offer. The pigments in blueberries and also in red crops such as cherries, plums, and red cabbage are powerful antioxidants. They have been determined to be a much-heralded chemical warrior against heart disease and also cancer. Blueberries actually have the highest antioxidant capacity because of their large anthocyanin concentration.



Antioxidants in our food can save us from virtually everything. Most of our health misfortunes are due to the perversity of oxygen. Our cells are perpetually besieged by toxic forms of oxygen which have been proved to have fierce destructive powers. So far scientists have linked destructive oxygen reactions to at least sixty different chronic diseases, as well as to aging itself. Oxygen free radicals can attack DNA, the genetic material of cells, causing them to mutate, which is a step on the path to cancer.

One of the great revelations of the last few years, according to a massive and growing body of evidence, is that you may be able to eat your way out of this dilemma insofar as the boundaries of human life span and genetics allow. You can supply your cells with antioxidant food compounds that strike down, intercept and extinguish rampaging oxygen molecules and even repair some of their damage.
Blueberries are not only a powerful antioxidant but also have been proved to preserve vision. Blueberry extract, high in compounds called anthocyanosides, has been found in clinical studies to slow down visual loss.
A recent study was done in a Boston laboratory by putting one group of young rats on a blueberry-rich diet and another on regular chow. Then the scientist exposed both groups to 48 hours of concentrated oxygen, stirring up in two days the amount of free radical damage that normally takes 20 rat months, or 75 humans to accumulate. Brain cells in the chow group became less responsive to neurotransmitters associated with short-term memory. The brains of the blueberry stuffed rats did not change. He also found that the fruit prevented the kind of short-term memory loss that comes with aging. Blueberries actually stave off declines in brain cell's ability to send messages to one another.
There are types of blueberries and the most potent ones are Bilberries, as they have the virtuous pigment in their flesh as well as in their skin, thus they pack a greater anthocyanin wallop. Wild blueberries are also high on the list because they contain less water. All blueberries are very rich with antioxidants. If you don't have them available in your area fresh then purchase the frozen blueberries in the bag in your grocery.
Now if you add blueberries to your pancake mix or just put them on top of a stack of pancakes remember if you smoother them with the saturated fat of butter or a sugary syrup you'll not have a healthy breakfast. Try blending frozen blueberries into your shakes in your blender.

Spinch: Benefits:
Saves your eyesight
Strengthens bones
Protects your heart
Combats cancer
Helps stop strokes
Boosts your immune system

Some simple receipes

So they are the top three…now how do you get your kids to eat them???

For Broccoli…try this:

Steam your Broccoli, place it on a dish and then add lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and a small amount of pepper – our kids love it.

For blueberries: Simply add to their favour yogurt.

For spinish: Either have baby spinach leaves in their salad, or once a week try the following dip:

1 tub mayonnaise
1 tub sour cream
1 french onion soup mix
1 packet of frozen spinach

Serve with biscuits or crunchy bread – the kids will love it.

And some other views...

The sun is shining in Melbourne today. Whilst there is a slight wind, the city seems to be showing signs that spring is on the way. Melbourne is beautiful city at this time of year, with small amount of rain with intermittent sun the city seems to glow.

Your editor had lunch at ‘Italy on the Bay’ today with a friend who is setting up a new business. The talk got on to property prices in Melbourne.

In Kew where your editor works, the median property price has just hit $1.4 million, a jump by 60% this year. How can most people afford this we wonder? The average wage has not gone up in any real terms, and the average house price in Melbourne is $400,000. We wonder what first home buyers are going to do.

We were at an Auction a few weeks ago, where the house went for just under $1.8m, in doing some research, we found that the home had the reputation of been one of Melbourne’s premier swinger homes!!!

‘What a history’ I said to my wife ‘It takes all sorts!!!’
‘Not our sort’ my wife replied as she held your editors hand down to stop him bidding.

Time Management: Qualities of a Good Time Manager

Today we will help you learn some of the secrets to managing time, and what the qualities of a good time manager are.
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Four Generations of Time Management

Time Management is generally broken up into four generation. And don’t worry we won’t be boring you with an academic synopsis of time management!!! However, the distinction of four levels helps you to understand time management practices better, and will help you to better manage your time.

Steven Covey, in his now famous book: The Seven habits of highly successful people, stated that their have been four generations of time management:


1st Generation This is characterised by the development of notes and checklists. This is in response to the recognition and inclusions of many demands placed upon a person.

2nd Generation The second generation is characterised by Calenders and appointment books. Here we see a focus on looking ahead, scheduling and planning events.

3rd Generation In the 3rd generation we see a significant shift occurring, here we are beginning to prioritise and clarify values, and then using this as the basis of deciding on worth of an activity. The other area of development occurs as we focus on setting and achieving specific goals: long term, intermediate and short term goals are developed in harmony with our values. We also see a focus on daily and weekly planning of the steps required to achieve the agreed goals.

4th Generation This is a new and emerging generation and according to Covey we are now considering that time management is really a misnomer; the challenge is not to mange time but to manage ourselves. This is the basis of his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey’s Time Management Matrix is one of the strategies he uses to assist us to focus on our management of self.

The four generations show us where time management has come from, and the four step effectively shows where it is heading. The purpose of detailing the four generations of time management, is to show you, that the management of time goes beyond managing time itself. Time management, comes down to managing yourself. It is this management of self that will help you to achieve all your goals, and undertake those important activities that will lead you to success.

Qualities of a good time manager

Now that we know that time management comes down to self management, we can look at some of the quality of a good time manager and a poor time manager. The purpose of the table below is to firstly show you the characteristics of each, and then to help you identify which positive time management skills you possess and which negative ones you may processes. We will then look at ways you can overcome these negative qualities.

THE QUALITIES OF A POOR TIME MANAGER

· Inability to meet deadlines

· Working in excess of 50 – 60 hours per week

· Losing sight of individual objectives and priorities

· Making hasty decisions without considering the ramifications

· Stress

· Insufficient time spent with family (little or no social life)

· Inability to prioritise

· Inherent fear of delegation


THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD TIME MANAGER

· Clarity of thinking

· Decisiveness

· Single-mindedness

· Good memory

· Determination

· A methodical approach

· Punctuality

· Calmness

· Objectivity

· Rationality



How to prioritise

Setting priorities is a key component to help you make the best use of time and achieve goals. The step of setting up lists is a good start on this journey of time management, however it only takes you part of the way. To become more effective you must priorities your work to ascertain what is the most important thing you can do to achieve your goals.

So lets talk about setting priorities to determine the tasks that we must undertake, and in what order we undertake them.

THE 1,2,3 METHOD OF PRIORITISING

Priority 1 “Must Do”

These are critical items. Key aspects that deem them critical are detailed below:
Management directive
Important customer requirement
Opportunities for advancement/success
Is a key task to help you achieve your overall goals
Needed to complete the next stage

Priority 2 “Should Do”

These are important items but they are not essential and do not have critical deadlines.

Priority 3 “Nice To Do”

These are items which may be interesting to pursue but if required may be eliminated or postponed.

Always remember that priorities change over time. Due to a change in circumstance for example, a priority 3 item could become priority 1 tomorrow, or a priority 1 could become a priority 3. In order for you to effectively use your time you must constantly review your priorities.

Now that we have looked at priorities, we will spend some time focusing on your ‘daily to do list’. Whilst we consider goal setting in other sections of this program, effectively analysing your “to do list” will go along way to help you manage time effectively.

How to analyse your to-do list

Your to-do list is your task inventory. Review each item for:

Necessity
Scrutinise each task to be sure it is necessary. All to often we continue to do things past usefulness (eg monthly reports where information is no longer used).

Appropriateness
Who should perform the task (i.e. appropriateness to department and/or skill level)? Reassignment of work beneath your skill level helps you and the organisation.

Effectiveness
Is this a task you should be doing now, positioned against your priorities and goals?

Efficiency
Once satisfied you are doing necessary, appropriate and effective work, ask: “Is there a better way?” Look for faster methods, better procedures.


Summary:

So thats a summary of time management; first consider the four generations of time management, then consider the aspects of good and bad time managers and see what areas you have to improve in; then look at how you can prioritise your work.

And Some More Views:

Your editor went to bicycle traffic school with his kids and wife on the weekend. The event was organised through his eldest childs kinder, and proved to be an interesting event.

The traffic school - located in Melbourne - is like a mini suburb, it has a small road network, small buildings (like cubby houses), traffic lights and other road signals. The idea behind it, is to teach children about road rules before they get out on the road.

The age of the children at kindergarten is generally between three and four; however because they were allowed to invite siblings, there will children aged from 18months up until about 10 years.

The result was varied speed and levels of skills. There were two year olds in tricycles, with 10 year olds speeding through them. No one obeyed any traffic signals - I wondered if people expected if they would!!! - and there were crashes about every 30 seconds. All the kids loved it!!!

In other news...Your editor is trying to convience his wife that Husky Sledding, in the Artic Circle (in particular the northern part of Sweden) would be a great family holiday sometime in the next 3 or 4 months.

If anyone has done this we would love to hear your stories (good or bad): Please send an e-mail to andrew.collings9878@hotmail.com, we will post it in this blog.

What supplements should you take?

Today, I would like to focus on types of nutritional supplements you should be taking. If you recall, in yesterday’s article we looked at whether supplements were required or not required. To briefly summaries: Given the fast pace world we live in, and current agricultural practices, we are not getting the nutrition we require from foods, and thus supplements – in one form or another – are beneficial to help maintain your health and to minimise disease.

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If we were to believe the news or other supplement advertising, you would be buying 20 or 30 different supplements a day. However, there is no need for you to do that. At most there should be four things you should be taking.

These are:

 Coenzyme Q 10
 Multi Vitamin
 Fish Oil (or any Omega 3,6,9 balances)
 Vitamin C

Lets go through these in a bit of detail

CoQ10: is a fat-soluble vitamin-like substance present in every cell of the body and serves as a coenzyme for several of the key enzymatic steps in the production of energy within the cell. It also functions as an antioxidant which is important in its clinical effects. It is naturally present in small amounts in a wide variety of foods but is particularly high in organ meats such as heart, liver and kidney, as well as beef, soy oil, sardines, mackerel, and peanuts. To put dietary CoQ10 intake into perspective, one pound of sardines, two pounds of beef, or two and one half pounds of peanuts, provide 30 mg of CoQ10. CoQ10 is also synthesized in all tissues and in healthy individuals normal levels are maintained both by CoQ10 intake and by the body's synthesis of CoQ10. It has no known toxicity or side effects.
Most people are defincient in CoQ10 because of our diet. The benefits of CoQ10 have been seen in heart patients, cancer patients and other diseases.

Recommended dose is between 50mg and 100mg a day.

Multi-Vitamim: One of the most commonly asked questions is "Why should I take a multivitamin supplement?" It is estimated that seven out of ten Americans take dietary supplements. Why? Because vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients that the human body alone can not manufacture in sufficient quantities to provide the foundation for all normal biological functions. Vitamins and minerals are required for normal metabolism, growth, and general well being. A single deficiency of any vitamin or mineral can endanger the whole body. Many people believe they are eating the 'right' foods, and getting the proper amount of essential nutrients in this way. And, of course, eating a balanced diet is one way to obtain the vitamins and minerals you need.
The problem is, few of us get a truly balanced diet. According to one U.S. Government survey of 21,000 people, not a single person obtained 100 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for each of ten basic nutrients. Processing, storing, or even cooking can reduce the vitamin content of foods. Foods can also be adversely affected by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and soil conditions. Nutrients are also adversely affected by heavy smoking, alcohol consumption, and numerous health conditions including obesity and chronic illness.
Your multivitamin should contain a full range of vitamins and minerals to meet essential nutritional needs. For example, the average diet frequently provides less than the recommended daily allowance for zinc. A low-dose supplement (15 mg per day) can fill in dietary gaps. Statistics show that over 65% of American diets are deficient in Zinc. Zinc is considered the most important mineral for proper immune system function. Magnesium is also an important element available in multivitamin form, and is also in a majority of American diets. A lack of this essential mineral can lead to fatigue, abnormal heart rhythms, muscle weakness and spasm, depression, loss of appetite, listlessness, and potassium depletion.

Dosage: Daily

Fish Oil: There is a lot of controversy surrounding fish oil, particularly in contaminated fish. If you are eating organic Atlantic salmon three times a week then you probably don’t need it, if you aren’t then you should consider it.

Our bodies need essential fatty acids, and in fact the majority of our brain is made up of them, yet our diet generally does not include them. There should be a balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6, some experts recommend two times more Omega 3 than Omega 6.

By taking fish oil, you will be looking after your brain, your cardiovascular system and also your joints, which the oils keep lubricated.

Dosage: Minimum 3 tablets a day.

Vitamin C: Is a powerful antioxidant. A recent study from Oregon University has also shown that Vitaman C, breaks down fat metabolism and can also fight cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Dosage: Whatever your countries recommended dosage is!!! There is wide debate on the amount required, and unless we plan to do a thesis here, have no chance to cover it.

So that’s it…take these supplements, eat healthily and exercise regularly, and you will look and feel a million dollars.


And some more views…

We shook our head in amazement this week, at how funny us humans can be. You see, your editor – who as well as helping run this blog and an ezime – is an engineer in a government body. This week he had the pleasure of attending a mediation hearing at the Supreme Court.

For the first time since primary school, your editor got yelled out by the other parties QC for smiling!!! Without going into the details, during a particularly colourful part of the mediation, I along with the other Government officials were referred to in a somewhat derogatory way. Being someone who doesn’t easily get offended I smiled.

The opponents’ QC jumped to his feet; red and sweaty; he pointed a finger at me and demanded:
‘Why are you laughing?’
‘I’m not laughing I’m smiling’
‘Why are you smiling?’
‘Because of your clients language, particularly how he referred to me as a female body part!!!’
‘So you find the way my client talks amusing do you…is he not as educated as you, is that it?’

Our Barrister, sensing where this was going, stood up, and asked for a five minute adjournment. As we turned to walk out of the room, the client picked up his coffee cup and through it at our Barrister, the cup hit the Barrister in the back and covered him in coffee.

‘You can deduct the dry-cleaning costs for any compensation’ where his only words as he stormed out of the room.

Are nutritional supplements necessary???

In today’s article we are going to focus on nutrition, in particular supplements. A question that is often asked is “are supplements required if you eat a balanced diet?”.

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Popular research often indicates that if we eat a balanced diet we should get all the nutrition we need. Research also indicates that we lose most of the supplements that we take.

Your editor takes a slightly different view. In a world where soil still maintains all appropriate minerals, and where no chemicals are used then supplements may not be required.

However, due to current farming practices, use of chemicals, and the process in which fruit and vegetables are delivered, means that they are often devoid of the original nutritional value. An example often used is that of a tomato. The original tomato when developed in Mexico in the sixteen century, is considered to be 10,000 times more nutritious that current organic tomatoes. While tomato’s are just an example, it is evident that we would have to eat large quantities to gain the nutrition that nature intended.

In addition, with the increase use of chemicals in the growing process, we are exposed to more chemicals in food. We need to increase our intake of vitamins and minerals (particularly antioxidants) to off set these.

Based on the above, in the current society that we live, we are not gaining the nutritional value that was intended from fruit and vegetables. While our bodies may adapt over time, this is a more long term process. As such, supplements are a requirement for modern living.

In our next article we will look at what type of supplements you can take.

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And some more views

Dear reader, last night your editor was feeling very nistalgic. His wife was out for dinner, and he was looking after his three children and putting them to bed. With his youngest daughter just turning one and him just turning 30, he took some time to contemplate the past and the future.

Will his kids be as lucky as he has been, will they do well in school, university, business or society. And most importantly...will they be happy?. What will the world be like for them?

The answer is of course quite simple, they will make life be what they want, as a parent all we can do is guide, and sit back and watch the ride. Your editor broke out into a cold sweat when he remembered all the things that he got up to in his youth!!!

Cheers

Andrew Collings