Time Management Matrix

Time Management Matrix:

Symptoms of Poor Time Management

·         Constant rushing (e.g. between meetings or tasks)

·         Frequent delays (e.g. in attending meetings, meeting deadlines)

·         Low productivity, energy and motivation (e.g. ‘I can’t seem to get worked up

·         about anything’)

·         Frustration (e.g. ‘Oh, things just don’t move ahead)

·         Impatience (e.g. ‘where the hell is that information I’ve asked him for?’)

·         Chronic vacillation between alternatives (e.g. ‘whichever option I choose it is

·         going to put me at a big disadvantage. I don’t know which way to jump’)

·         Difficulty setting and achieving goals (e.g. ‘I’m not sure what is expected of me’)

Elements of Effective Time Management

·         Evaluating How Time is Used

·         Goal-Setting

o   Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not

·         just something that sounds good:

o   A goal cannot contradict any of your other goals:

o   Develop goals in the 6 areas of life:

§  Family and Home             

§  Physical and Health

§  Mental and Educational

§  Financial and Career

§  Spiritual and Ethical         

§  Social and Cultural     

o   Write down your goals:

o   Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative:

o   Write your goal out in complete detail

o   By all means, make sure your goal is high enough:

·         Defining Priorities

·         Scheduling Activities

·         Elements of Effective Time Management

·         Evaluating How Time is Used

·         Goal-Setting

o   Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not

·         just something that sounds good:

o   A goal cannot contradict any of your other goals:

o   Develop goals in the 6 areas of life:

§  Family and Home             

§  Physical and Health

§  Mental and Educational

§  Financial and Career

§  Spiritual and Ethical         

§  Social and Cultural     

o   Write down your goals:

o   Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative:

o   Write your goal out in complete detail

o   By all means, make sure your goal is high enough:

·         Defining Priorities

·         Scheduling Activities

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8 Health Reasons You Should Never Skip Breakfast

Break-the-fast, after going hours without food you, finally get up in the morning and need lots of energy to kick start the day. Only breakfast can provide you with this energy.

If you’re of those who’re still not having your breakfast, now is the time to change that habit. Here are some extremely important reasons why!

Why you should never avoid breakfast

1. Breakfast improves your metabolism:

Your blood sugar level drops down in the morning. You need food that can provide you energy to get through the morning. Body needs fuel to keep it running and the night is the longest gap in the refuelling process. To make sure your metabolism keeps on going you need to have something within 2 hours of waking up.

2. Keeps you on track if you’re looking to lose weight:

Researchers have found that those who eat breakfast tend to maintain and lose weight. Though people skip breakfast in the hope of losing weight they tend to eat more during lunch or even choose unhealthier options later on which results into weight gain.

3. Helps to maintain insulin response:

Skipping meals leads to a hyper insulin response when calories are consumed later on. That means the level of insulin in blood is more than the glucose level which can lead to metabolic disorder. This in turn results in to fat accumulation.

Quick & Healthy Breakfast Ideas

"A healthy breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” says Dr Jyothi Prasad, chief dietitian, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore.“There’s a nearly ten-hour long gap between dinner and breakfast, during which the body is on fast mode. As the name suggests, breakfast is the meal you eat to break that fast,” explains Dr Prasad, “It refuels your body with essential nutrients to kick-start your day. So don’t skip it.”

Photo by Thinkstock Thu 14 Jun, 2012 9:30 AM IST

Curd and fruits: There’s no denying the goodness of curd. For a smart and filling breakfast option, chop up a bunch of fruits, like bananas and apples and add them to a bowl of curd, top it up with some muesli and chopped walnuts and you’ve got yourself a quick and delicious breakfast that’s also highly nutritious.

Photo bThu 14 Jun, 2012 9:30 AM IST

Egg sandwich: Boil an egg and slice eat it on a wheat toast with a slice of tomato, some low fat cheese and lettuce and you’ve got yourself a delicious breakfast that’ll keep you going for hours.

Photo by Thinkstock Thu 14 Jun, 2012 9:30 AM IST

Muesli: Ditch your regular cereals and try some muesli instead. Fortified with fruits and nuts, muesli is a healthy and convenient breakfast option. Have it with milk or curd and stay full and energised for hours.

Photo by Thinkstock Thu 14 Jun, 2012 9:30 AM IST

Fruit smoothie: Improve on your basic milk shake by going in for a smoothie instead. Toss your favourite fruits like bananas, apples or pears into the mixie with a bowl of curd and a spoon of honey. Run the moxie and voila, your smoothie is ready. Delicious and filling, it’s the perfect breakfast option for the summer.

Photo by Thinkstock Thu 14 Jun, 2012 9:30 AM IST

Baked beans with toast: For a break from the usual egg and toast or cheese and toast combination, try baked beans with toasted wheat bread. Super simple and filling, this breakfast gives you the right combination of protein and carbohydrates to keep you going for a long day ahead.

Photo by Thinkstock Thu 14 Jun, 2012 9:30 AM IST

Peanut butter and wheat bread: Peanuts are rich in antioxidants and give you the instant boost of energy you need. Try some home made peanut butter and have it with whole wheat bread for a nutritious and energising breakfast.

Photo by Thinkstock Fri 16 Mar, 2012 10:30 AM IST

Whole-wheat bread sandwich: If you’re a vegetarian, Dr Prasad suggests a simple paneer, onion, tomato and cucumber sandwich. “Spread a layer of low-fat paneer instead of cheese, as it’s a healthier option,” she stresses. A layer of grated paneer, sliced onions, cucumber and tomato, salt and pepper – and you’re ready to go. For non-vegetarians, keep some boiled, boneless chicken pieces handy. Mustard sauce or mayonnaise with boiled chicken and onions tastes fantastic, try it out today.

Photo by Thinkstock Fri 16 Mar, 2012 10:30 AM IST

Cereal: Dr Prasad warns against those sugar-coated cereals in the market. “Choose sugar-free wheat flakes or corn flakes. They pack in carbohydrates, fibre and protein,” she says, “add some fresh fruit or dried fruits and nuts to make it more wholesome.” Museli that combines a variety of grains and driedfruits too makes for a good option.

Photo by Thinkstock Fri 16 Mar, 2012 10:30 AM IST

Daliya: “Popular up north, daliya (broken wheat) makes for an excellent breakfast option,” says Dr Prasad. Daliya is unrefined wheat, loaded with fibre and complex carbohydrates, it’s healthy and can be made in a jiffy. Dr Prasad recommends adding a handful of nuts to make daliya a perfect, complete breakfast.

Photo by Thinkstock Fri 16 Mar, 2012 10:30 AM IST

Dosa: “Choose a multi-grain dosa — what we call adai down south — over the regular kind,” suggests Dr Prasad. It packs in multiple nutrients – just what you need to jumpstart your day. However, make sure you use a non-stick pan, and less oil though.

Photo by Thinkstock Fri 16 Mar, 2012 10:30 AM IST

Eggs: While eggs make for an excellent breakfast option for kids, adults must tread cautiously. “Get your lipid profile checked,” recommends Dr Prasad, before you go on an egg eating spree. If your cholesterol is high, make sure you stay away from egg yolk. A good source of protein, selenium and riboflavin, egg whites are low in saturated fat and cholesterol. So beat in one or two egg whites, add some chopped veggies (cut and store in refrigerator), a pinch of turmeric, salt and red-chilli powder to taste — mix and scramble or make an omelette. “You can add a slice of brown bread, if you choose,” says Dr Prasad.

Steamed idlies: Your neighbourhood supermarket is most likely to have a stock of idli batter. Cook idlies the night before, if you’re too rushed in the morning. Eat idlies with honey, it’s yummy and won’t require additional time for making chutney or such. In the morning, microwave idlies, pour some honey and you’re ready to go.

4. Helps perform better at work/school:

Hungry employees and students don’t do any good at work/school. When you are hungry you are irritable and disinterested which reflects on your work too. Breakfast helps you to wake up and makes you attentive.

5. Burns those calories early:

If you have breakfast you can burn those calories early! How is that? Well, instead of going hungry till lunch and then hogging on something loaded with calories with fewer hours left in the day to burn it consider refuelling yourself early and getting enough time to burn those calories.

6. Aids in setting a good example:

If you have kids, you always want to set a good example for them. By having breakfast on time you will show the quality of leadership by example.

7. Gets you your essential nutrients first thing in the morning:

There are food which we have only as a part of our breakfast like cereals, fruits and milk. If you bypass your breakfast you might never get those nutrients.

8. Skipping breakfast can make you grumpy:

Oh yes! If you have been skipping breakfast and are in bad mood, you probably should know why. Not having breakfast makes you grouchy. You might not even realise it and keep wondering why you’re so irritable!
Apart from all these reasons to have your breakfast there are few things you should always keep in mind:

• Never have dessert for breakfast, it will cause blood sugar loss later on and you will be tempted to eat even more.
• Read the labels carefully, even if it says ‘nutritious’ look into the details and understand if your body needs that kind of food to start the day.

Stay full, stay happy!

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SEO URL Optimization

The URL is the name of your webpage as it is displayed in the browser’s address bar. There are several best practices related to URL construction that can really help your website rank higher in the organic search results.

Here are a couple of examples of bad URLs.
Let’s take a closer look and figure out how to do some URL optimization.
www.mysite.com/products/012456789   
www.mysite.com/articles/this_is_my_articles 

A URL with a bunch of numbers is not helpful to anybody. Make sure the URLs have meaning to humans AND search engines.

The dash is the only character that is universally recognized as as space. Use a dash to separate words rather than underscores or plus signs.

The URL is a great place to highlight your keyword phrase. This helps the search engine (and your visitor) understand what the page is all about.

Here are some additional things to keep in mind when constructing URLs:

• Don’t use query strings. Rather, use session variables, which don’t show up in the URL.
• Static (vs. dynamic) URLs are best.
• Make sure each page has only one unique URL. Be careful with content management systems that try to create all sorts of archives, which creates duplicate content.
• Short URLs are preferable.
• Please note that if you are going to change existing URLs, you need to 301 redirect your old URL to your new URL so you don’t lose traffic.

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World Environment Day 2012

World Environment Day: Commemorated every year on 5 June, World Environment Day is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.  The aim of the day is to:

Give a human face to environmental issues;
Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development;
Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues;
Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

The host for World Environment Day 2012 is the Federative Republic of Brazil. The theme is Green Economy: Does it include you?

UNEP defines a Green Economy as 'one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.'

Practically speaking, a Green Economy is one whose growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These investments need to be catalyzed and supported by targeted public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes.

But what does all this mean for you? Well, if the Green Economy is about social equity and inclusiveness then technically it is all about you! The question therefore asks you to find out more about the Green Economy and assess whether, in your country, you are being included in it.

World Environment Day 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the event which was first established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.
So Whats your plan of action on this day? Reduce use of plastic bags?? or any other idea?

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Things you should know before start of E-mail Marketing

According to research every dollar spent on email marketing, you can expect a return on your invest of $57. But it’s not as simple as sending an email to a list to get this sort of result. There are a few pointers you should consider before you hit that send button.
Email lists: buy, rent or build your own?

Buying a listIf your whole email marketing strategy relies on the acquisition of a purchased list, then you are doomed to fail. Why? Because successful email marketing is based on permission and trust. 
When you purchase a list, the recipients of the list have never heard of you or your company. Think about your own email habits. When was the last time you opened an email from a person or company you did not recognize?
In addition, good quality lists are a company’s lifeline and most valuable asset. Why would they want to share it with anyone?

The consequences of sending emails to a purchased list can include:

•  Poor response. If the recipient doesn’t recognize you, your product or your company, they will more often than not delete your email without reading it.
• Blacklisting. Results in having your emails blocked from entire domains. Your emails won’t reach your intended recipient. 
• Hefty fines. In some cases tens of thousands of dollars for violating CAN-SPAM laws 
• Irreparable damage to your reputation. Negatively skews results for future campaigns. The difference between an ok and a good reputation can impact your campaign’s success by as much as 20%!  

Renting a listList rental is the middle ground between buying a list and building your own list. This usually consists of having a company that has a list of recipients within your target audience sending an offer on your behalf. A well planned list sponsorship can definitely help you build your own contact list. If you do decide to go this route, make sure your offer includes registration to your own opt-in list. And make sure this list is not being too frequently marketed to.

Building your own listThe best way to build your own list is to create a sign up form for you website. Customers can then visit your site and sign up. Another great way is to include your form on your Facebook page.
Although it may take some time, growing your own contact list is easy when you weave it into all of your business collateral. Business cards, email signatures, web sites, brochures, and even phone calls should talk about your emails.

Make sure when you promote your email communications you offer something unique, that can’t be found anywhere else. To start, you can offer something free, or a discount in exchange for information. After that, keep your promise of delivering something exclusive in every email.

Gaining loyalty from your subscribers can be achieved with advance previews before general release to the public. Include subscriber only specials, discounts, webinars, eBooks, etc. By doing this, you build a sense of exclusivity, even a VIP status for your readership.

Already have your own list?If you already have a contact list, then you need to know that even if it’s a few months old, it may not perform at its best. Make sure you start emailing to it, if you haven’t already. Remind your subscribers when and where they initially opted into your list. If you cannot remember, chances are, they won’t either.

If you’ve been growing this list for more than one year and have not been emailing to it regularly, it will perform poorly, generate complaints, and damage your reputation. You’ll have to ask for permission again when you send your first email.

Email campaigns: start now and keep at it

Not just a one-time thingSuccessful email marketing is not an occasional endeavor; it’s a commitment to speak to your subscribers in a relevant way on a regular basis.

As soon as you start crafting your email strategy and gathering email addresses, you need to engage in communication. Nothing is worse than to promise something – a newsletter or exclusive promotion – and not deliver.

Make a calendar of campaigns and stick to it. Committed to a monthly newsletter? Make sure you create it and schedule it to go out every month. Your competitors may be email marketing but they might let things slide – stay on top of the game and keep your promise.

10 best practices to help you get off to the right start

1. Never, ever buy an email list.
2. Grow your own list by offering great and unique content for your emails.
3. Ask only for the information you need.
4. Keep sending emails at the frequency you outlined when your subscriber joined.
5. Use both HTML and text formats. Avoid using one big image!
6. The more often you send emails, the shorter these emails should be.
7. Concise and clear subject lines get better open rates.
8. Use your own voice when writing your emails. A little personality goes a long way.
9. Disclose where and when your subscriber opted into your list.
10. Use strong calls to action for your subscribers. Read, click, buy, register, you get the picture.

 

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Building Trust Behind a Company’s Social Media Account

We never really think about who is behind the social media accounts of our favorite companies. It’s not as if the real Old Spice guy is sending out tweets…

“Collegiate athletes do more than play basketball, they also learn math and kissing techniques that can’t be found in the private sector”

“Can I promise that this new wallpaper will not cause your computer to erupt into flames, helicopters and hotdogs? Nope.”

“A new pad device was just announced. Seems cool, but I doubt it can replace my space helicopter pad as my favorite pad-based belonging.”

…but someone has taken on the personality of the Old Spice famed spokesperson in order to promote their product in an entertaining fashion.

Very rarely do owners and CEOs of companies take on the responsibility of running their own social media accounts. This task is usually taken on by someone in the marketing department or a person whose sole position is dedicated to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and more.

These individuals are the social voice of the company geared to inform fans of their products, services, events, coupons, and other specials. Many are also asked to interact and try and stir up conversation.

The Horror Story

Last February, Pat Fitzgerald, the head football coach at Northwestern University, learned the hard way what happens when someone else expresses opinions for you. “He” tweeted:

“There’s finally a NBA player who plays hard and says the right things off the court.”

He was referring to the Asian-American professional basketball player, Jeremy Lin, who exploded onto the scene a couple months ago.

Fitzgerald took backlash for this as Chicago Bulls fans exclaimed he obviously hadn’t watched Derrick Rose, who plays in his own backyard (Northwestern is also in Chicago).

People went as far as to call him racist for something that was meant to be a compliment to Lin. Biggest problem…Fitzgerald didn’t even write the tweet. The director of football operations, Cody Cejda, was responsible for the remark.

Think Before You Send

This is where the trust comes into play. The person in charge of a company’s social media accounts must be able to use good judgment when it comes to who and what they are talking about.

Fitzgerald may not be as recognizable as Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but he is the brand of the football program and one of the leading faces of Northwestern University.

There a few seemingly common sense filters that should be considered before publishing.

Personal beliefs should be left at home or on personal accounts, not when speaking on behalf of the company. This is not to say they cannot post something they find interesting or enjoy.
However, always ask the question “Is this in the company’s best interest or would this offend anyone?” before posting.
Touchy subjects such as religion and politics should always be off limits when it comes to speaking on the company’s behalf. Those two topics are a lose-lose situation no matter how you look at it.
Stop and take a breath first. As Herm Edwards, a former NFL football coach and public speaker, has always said, “Think before you press send.

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Crafting a Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing strategy builds on and adapts the principles of traditional marketing, using the opportunities and challenges offered by technology and the digital medium.

User-centric thinking, which involves placing the user at the core of all decisions, is vital when looking at building a successful digital marketing strategy. The advent of new technologies means the digital marketing strategist of today is offered not only a plethora of new tactical possibilities, but also unprecedented ways of measuring the effectiveness of chosen strategies and tactics.

The fact that digital marketing is highly empirical is one of its key strengths.

Everything can be measured: from behaviours, to actions and action paths, to results. This means that the digital marketing strategist should start thinking with return on investment (ROI) in mind. Built into any strategy should be a testing framework and the ability to remain flexible and dynamic in a medium that shifts and changes as user behaviours do. 

If we define strategy as “a plan of action designed to achieve a particular outcome”, then the desired outcome from a digital marketing strategy point of view would be aligned with your organisation’s overall business objectives. For example, if one of the overall business objectives is acquisition of new clients, possible digital marketing objectives might be building brand awareness online.

A tactic differs from a strategy. It is a specific action or method that contributes to achieving a goal. For example, if the overall business objective is acquisition and the digital objective is to increase awareness, a paid search campaign would be a possible tactic towards achieving this.

Any activity with an end goal (whether it’s winning a war, building a city or  selling a product) should have a blueprint or map in place for every person in  the organisation to follow in the process of achieving it.

A strategy needs to cover the questions of who you are, what you are offering  and to whom, as well as why and how you are doing so. The steps and questions  below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and  implementing a strategy that will meet its objectives.

The first step in crafting a successful strategy is to examine the context of the

organisation and the various stakeholders

.

1. Context:

• Who are you and what is it about your identity that makes you useful?
• Who are your customers and what needs and wants do they have?
• Who are your competitors? These might extend beyond organisations that compete with you on the basis of price and product and could also be competition in the form of abstracts such as time and mindshare.
• What is the context in which you are operating (social, political and  economic factors) and how is this likely to change in the future?

A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is an ideal way to understand your business and your market.

Once you have examined the market situation, the second step is an examination of your value proposition, in other words, what value your organisation can add to that market.

2. Objectives:

Digital marketing has technology at its heart. It is therefore crucial to involve both technical and aesthetic minds in the initial stages of strategy formulation.

The objectives should speak to both system and story and the tools afforded by technology should be a starting point in the process of developing strategic objectives.

The second factor to consider when setting objectives is that all channels of a brand operate as part of a greater whole. Digital marketing objectives should be aligned with the brand’s greater strategic objectives.

3. Value-Exchange:

•  What value are you adding to the market, what are you trying to achieve and how will you know if you are successful?

Digital can achieve many things in terms of users and value creation. Once you have defined what constitutes success and have delineated your prime objective, you can examine other goals that support this objective. For example, if your prime objective is for people to view the full range of products that your organisation has to offer, supporting goals could be “we want people to share their comments to support our range development” or “we want to identify the most enthusiastic users and recruit them as brand ambassadors”. Exploring all the options before defining the most specific and focused direction will result in the most successful direction.

4. Tactics and Evaluation:

A diverse variety of digital tools and tactics are available once you have defined your digital marketing objectives. The strength of the tools is dependent on the type of objectives set for the brand – for example, acquisition (or gaining new customers) may be best driven by paid search, while email is one of the most effective tools for selling more products to existing customers.

Tactic                                                               Outcome

Email Marketing                                              Customer Retention

Online Advertising                                           Branding and Acquisition

Affiliate Marketing                                          Sales and Branding

SEO                                                                 Customer Retention and Acquisition

PPC                                                                  Customer Retention and Acquisition

Social Media                                                    Branding and Participation

ORM                                                                Customer Retention, Branding and Participation

WebPR                                                            Acquisition and Branding

Once the objectives and tactics have been set, these should be cross-checked and re-evaluated against the needs and resources of your organisation to make sure your strategy is on the right track and no opportunities are being overlooked.

5. Metrics:

Metrics are important in defining what successful value-exchange is worth to an organisation and how this worth will be measured. This step needs to be considered in conjunction with value-exchange. As previously discussed, digital is an empirical medium and digital marketing should start with ROI in mind. Setting up the analysis and measurement tools early on in the online strategising phase will enable you to measure returns from inception. The metrics that matter to your business objectives are referred to as key performance indicators (KPIs).

6. Ongoing Optimisation:

The growing necessity for an organisation to remain dynamic and agile ties in with metrics and should be considered in the early stages of  strategy formulation, as well as being a continuous process in refining and optimising tactics. The user experience and journey is vital to building successful brands. Budget should be set aside upfront to be dedicated to the analysis of user data and the optimisation of conversion paths.

Social thinking and socially informed innovation are also valuable and uniquely suited to the online space. Socially powered insight can be used to inform strategic decisions and execute on various areas of the organisation, from product roadmaps to service plans. Brands are beginning to shift from being present in social media to actively using it, aligning it with actionable objectives and their corresponding metrics. This is critical in demonstrating ROI and the repeated impact of social channels on the bottom line.Managing the learning loop (the knowledge gained from reviewing the performance of your tactics, which can then be fed back into the strategy) can be difficult. This is because brand cycles often move more slowly than the realtime results you will see online. It is therefore important to find a way to work agility into the strategy, allowing you to be quick and proactive, as opposed to slow and reactive. It may be necessary, for example, to incorporate constant monitoring into any strategy

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