During the past month I heard a number of people who have brought up the same issue over and over: Time management. Questions like:

“How can I be better focused so I can handle all the things that come my way every day?”

“Is there a better way for me to manage my time?”

“My company seems to want me to do more with less! How do I do more with less?”

“It seems impossible to manage home, kids, work and a life. Can you help?”

Sound familiar?
I call these questions, CHAOS management questions. We only have so much time. We can’t add more, unfortunately. During the time we have each day, we each have a level of energy that we can use and allocate to our advantage. If we understand and utilize the energy we have to achieve what is important, we can better manage and enjoy the chaos that is delivered to us each day.

Let me give you an example. If you have a 75-watt light bulb, are you going to get 150 watts of light from it? Of course not, the bulb only has 75 watts to give. If you have a 150-watt light bulb in a lamp, can you expect it to light all the rooms in a 3 bedroom home? Of course not, it will do an excellent job in one of the rooms and you may see the shadows of the light in other rooms, but some of the rooms will never see that light – nor would we expect this.

In order to best use our energy, we need to understand how to keep a consistent energy flow and what choices we have to keep from draining our energy. Here are some exercises to assist you in answering these questions.

1. Start with keeping a log of all your activities, both work and home related, for three days.

2. Review the list identifying what aspects of this schedule increased, maintained, or drained your energy.

3. Once you see the patterns, now you can make the choices. From the patterns that drain your energy, indicate which of the following choices you COULD make. (No one is asking you to take action yet.) Here are your choices:

• Do It! – Take care of yourself. This action is for things only YOU can do. Often the action of DOING IT will decrease the stress and increase your energy.
• Delegate It! – Transfer these tasks to someone else or outsource it. We often take on things that should have never ended up ours in the first place. You may resist letting someone else take over these items, but get over it! Allowing someone else to clean your house, attend a meeting, or coordinate a project, are not signs of weakness but signs of wisdom.
• Dump It! Throw it out. Chuck it! – Sometimes we keep things on our task list that just need to be dropped. There are ways to make it less painful but for now just identify what choices you could have made to eliminate the chaos on your list.

4. The next day, review your calendar and your TO DO list before the day begins. Notice any of the patterns you’ve identified? Notice any opportunities to take action? Now is your chance to manage the chaos!

5. Make this a daily part of your schedule review. You will be amazed at the energy it saves and the increased ability you have to address the issues that deserve your attention.

─ Adapted with permission. Author Cheryl Leitschuh cheryl@career-future.com

“Lauren has to get a shot at her next doctor’s visit so you have to take her,” my wife said. Lauren is thirty years younger, two inches shorter, about ten pounds heavier than my wife, and terrified of shots. So I took my daughter to the doctor. When the time came for her shot, she reacted as always. She recoiled, backed into the wall, turned her face within a moment of crying and said, “Wait, don’t give it to me yet! It’s going to hurt!” The nurse said, “Don’t worry. You will feel a little pinch but I will do it quickly so I won’t hurt you so much.” My twelve-year-old daughter turned her head away and down, tensed up a little, and took her shot with little trepidation.

I never really paid much attention to what the nurses did or how they gave the shots because I was almost always preoccupied with chasing, cornering or restraining Lauren. This time I may not have noticed what the nurse was doing or how she did it, but I couldn’t help but notice the result. This nurse had somehow established a relationship with my overly timid daughter that caused most of her fears to dissolve into quiet cooperation.

Similarly, many managers pay attention to the result of their employees’ efforts while failing to notice exactly what the employees did to get that result. They don’t really know what makes their best employees the best at what they do. They only know that great employees reliably turn out great work. In most cases, not even the performance appraisal process reveals how they do what they do.

In today’s business world the search, acquisition, and retention of valuable employees is a war for talent. You can not afford to just pay attention to the end result without knowing the methods your employees used to get there. You must invest the time needed to observe the nuances that make the difference between good and average performance. A relationship should be established and maintained with each employee and a line of communication opened to determine not just their skills, but also their passion. It is in this passion that you will find the secrets of your best employees.

You see it was not the nurse’s skill in giving a shot that calmed my daughter that day. After all, any nurse can give a shot. A relationship was established between the nurse and my daughter. It was an exchange of a passion for excellence that turned Lauren from scared to okay.

It’s not really a secret. All great employees have passion. Employers just have to find it in them, and then learn how to find it in others.

─ Reprint permission granted by Lonnie Harvey, Jr., president of The JESCLON Group, Inc., www.jesclongroup.com

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
- Unknown

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
- Anatole France

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.
- Marian Wright Edelman

A Champion Salesperson in the 21st century will need to make a paradigm shift beyond ‘old school’ selling philosophies. One of the things that ‘old school’ selling teaches is a salesperson should be liked or approved. To be successful in the 21st century, the Champion Salesperson has to go beyond being liked or approved to being trusted. Prospects buy based on their perception of how well the benefits of a product or service satisfies their needs and wants. In order to get an understanding of the prospects needs and wants, you have to develop trust. Therefore, one of the keys to closing more sales is to develop trust with your prospects.

First, you have to know the difference between needs and wants. While much debate has occurred on this subject, the difference is: needs are fact- based and wants are emotion-based. Needs are organizationally based, wants are personally based. A prospect is less likely to tell you their wants, because these are personal, until there is a high level of trust. When you understand both needs and wants you are better positioned to close a sale. As the old saying goes: “When you see things through Jim Jones’ eyes, you’ll know what Jim Jones buys.”

You demonstrate your desire to understand a prospect's needs and wants by asking questions. Some salespeople want to dominate the conversation to demonstrate their knowledge of their product or service thinking this will impress the prospect to buy from them. However, statistics show that this turns buyers off. When you ask questions, you give the prospect the chance to tell you their concerns and goals. Remember, you can’t learn anything when you are talking. Focus on asking the right questions in the right way. Don’t interrupt the prospect when they are talking. Show that you are listening by making brief summaries of what is said. When you totally focus on your prospect and not on yourself, you will be well on your way to developing trust with your prospects.

─ Author Shari Roth of CAPITAL iDEA

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service began a busy 2007 filing season that features telephone excise tax refunds, a new refund deposit feature and recently enacted tax breaks that may require extra attention from taxpayers.

“Taxpayers will have a number of new tax benefits and features available this year,” IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said. “We encourage taxpayers to take a few minutes to review these changes, particularly those involving the recently enacted tax law provisions. The IRS will do everything it can to minimize the impact on taxpayers.”

The IRS expects to process about 136 million individual tax returns for 2006, with more than half of those filed electronically.

Among the major changes taking place this year:

• Telephone Excise Tax Refund
• New 1040EZ-T Form
• Recent Tax Law Enactments
• New Split Refund Option
• ‘Free File’ Improvements

For More Information visit the IRS web site at: www.irs.gov