In the busy world of today, it is more and more important that individuals learn how to properly manage their times in order to maintain a healthy balance between work, personal lives, and family. It is beginning to feel as though there are just not enough hours in any day for all of the required jobs to get done, let alone the time to unwind for the sake of personal health. Fortunately, there are a lot of books and resources that have been developed in order to assist a person in handling their time accordingly. Here are some classes and resources I found while doing some research on the Internet, and what they offer in terms of time management hints.
The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People, a book by Stephen Covey. In this book, Covey offers some time management strategies as well as categorizing the different strategies available today. In another book, he also proposes a new category of fourth generation time management, which a difference in the matter of urgency and the importance of planning. The first generation is classified as go with the flow, and individuals practicing this method keep lists which are used as reminders, and any unaccomplished items are added to the list of the next day. The second generation plans and prepares for their needs, using appointment books, calendars, electronic devices. IT is about goal setting and preparation. The third generation spends time in prioritizing and preparing for different areas of time management.
Software: There are several software programs developed to keep track of time management that can be vital assistants to the small business owner and the large business employee alike. Track-It Light Time Tracking Software is available through Dovico. It is not expensive, and allows a variety of time entry, the ability to keep track of multiple projects, and does not take up a lot of your computer's resources because of its light format. Responsive Time Logger Time Tracking Software has an interface which allows a user to jump from project to project and also allows you to manage your time from a Palm device.
Courses: There are hundreds of courses available to help train people to manage their time better, and they are available both online and through educational institutes as well as through government programs as might be found at an employment agency or retraining office. Many businesses will also offer their employees training sessions on utilizing time efficiently. These courses are a great opportunity to lessen the stress in your life and harmonize your experiences by helping you to more effectively balance the different areas of your life.
There are several different ways in which the individual can learn to better manage his or her time. For some, reading a book might be enough to set them on a stress free path where deadlines are always met and personal lives are perfectly balanced. It may be better for most individuals, however, to take advantage of as many different resources as possible.
According to Evans and Burghardt, our brains are constantly engaging in an internal recalibration. Our brains use about 20% of our bodies daily fuel requirement, and in an attempt to use it wisely, our brains are constantly building and dismantling circuits inside our heads, the circuits being neurons that fire together when a certain task is undertaken.
For example, I took piano lessons when I was a little kid, and formed some circuits, (but not many, according to my mother, the pianist) while I practiced that skill, but I have not played a piano in 50 years (half a century!), so my brain has most certainly dismantled those connections.
It does not serve me as an organism to keep those circuits and other unused circuits fueled and idling, prepared for action on the off chance that I will resume playing, which is lucky for people within earshot of my piano skills.
So the synapses that once fired together in a piano playing circuit fell into disuse, which means that the neurons closed up the neurotransmitter receptors on the neurons involved in piano playing. Or involved them in another task.
However, had I continued playing, the neurons would have opened more receptors on the neurons involved in piano playing, strengthening the ability of those neurons to coordinate activity, and those neurons would have both invited other neurons into the circuit and sprouted dendrites which increase the number of connections (synapses touching) neurons have with
"....each other (a process called synaptogenesis, literally meaning'synapse creation'). Think of this as multiple bridges over a river to increase the connectivity between the two sides. If one bridge fails or undergoes repairs, others can pick up the traffic. (Evans and Burghardt.)
Third, neurons can make synapses with other neurons they weren't originally talking to and recruit more brain cells into the circuit. Again, all of these increase the odds that the signal will not get dropped. Importantly, these strategies also increase the stability of the brain circuit, making it less likely to degenerate or get dismantled as you age.
Your brain is constantly employing all of these tactics,all of the time. It is continually testing out new connections to see how useful they are. It then stabilizes the ones that work...."
Brain Training Programs Take One of Three Forms
Usually Brain training programs take one of three forms, broadly speaking.
One is performance enhancement, another can be characterized as damage control, or recovery of lost function, and the third is prevention of cognitive decline.
From Evans and Burghardt, "...Approaches to improve, maintain or recover cognitive function come in many forms. Some are tools you use for the explicit purposes of improving specific skills, like memory, reaction speed, vocabulary, pattern recognition, creativity or reasoning. This is the crux of the emerging brain fitness software industry, which is putting out more and more tools, attempting to help improve these specific skill sets.
Other approaches include daily experiences, educational level, commitments to life-long learning or social support networks.
You may engage in these without the expressed goal of improving cognitive function, but many of them will have that beneficial effect anyway!"
Evans and Burghardt go on to talk about a number of key factors, actually lifestyle factors, that impact the three main kinds of brain training, including nutrition, exercise, sleep, social activity, and learning.
They caution that if one is looking for an Rx for peak performance, it will be in a combination of the above factors, which might include a brain fitness training computer program, because the programs can help you improve in short term memory for example, but short term memory improvement may not translate to global improvement in brain function.
Is There an Exception?
"However, there is promise on the global training front.
A recent study at the University of Michigan showed improvement in 'fluid intelligence' with a specific training protocol.
Fluid intelligence is your ability to reason your way to solve problems in areas where you have no prior experience.
It's the ability to generalize your knowledge to fit and adapt to new situations, which is what the human brain is so advanced at doing. Researchers in the UM study were able to train volunteers on one cognitive task and get them to improve their performance on a completely different task, which no research had successfully shown before. Working on fluid intelligence is the goal of the brain-fitness software industry and maybe more research on fluid intelligence will eventually get them there." (p.234)
Both Vince Peters & Michael Logan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Michael Logan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Brain, Brain Power and Brain. Michael S. Logan is a brain fitness expert, a counselor, a student of Chi Gong, and licensed one on one HeartMath provider. I enjoy the spiritual, the mythological, and psychological, and I am a late life father to Shane, 10, and Hannah Marie, 4, whose. Michael Logan's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.