How to sit at your desk

The Best Way to Save Time

You've seen hundreds of time-saving tips... Keep a To Do list... Don't keep a To Do List... Limit your meetings to five minutes... Make people stand up in a meeting. These are all reasonable ways to save time, but they are mere bandaids at best, because they don't get to the root of the issue.

What matters most to you?

The best way to save time is to always keep in mind what matters most to you. Focus on that, and stop spending time on things that don't matter to you.

Many years ago, at the age of 23, I had a job in which my role was split between helping many different colleagues at Boston's public television station. About 20% of my time involved helping the station's president.

Guess what? Anytime the president needed something, I made that my priority.

There were three reasons for this. First, the work we were doing - securing major gifts for a capital campaign - was far more important than anything else on my plate. Second, I learned much more from the president than anyone else. For example, he taught me how to write, by editing mercilessly the letters I sometimes drafted for his signature. Third, he was the most senior person at the station; I wanted to impress him.

Can you state your current priorities with similar clarity?

It's incredibly easy to drift into a set of habits that waste your time. I won't chronicle them here, because each of us has different ways to let our precious time slip away.

My intention isn't to tell you what your priorities should be. It isn't to give you yet another timesaving gimmick.

No, my goal is very simple: to simply remind you to focus today on the few things that really, truly matter to you.

Do this three weeks in a row, and it will become a habit.

I'd write more, but it doesn't make sense to waste your time.

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter for entrepreneurs and executives. Learn more at Kasanoff.com. He is the author of How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk.

SMB - Tips for Hiring the Best Candidate

“First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people.” —Leo Rosten

Everyone knows the standard ways for companies to find employees. There’s Monster.com and CareerBuilder, which are still very popular. There’s Indeed.com, which searches all the other sites. LinkedIn has become extremely popular for job postings, and more recently ZipRecuiter.com boasts that it posts to all the job sites. Other than the most popular, there are some lesser known sites such as Snagajob.com, Simplyhired.com, and ClearFit.com among others. Even Craigslist has become a popular site for companies to post positions. If a company doesn’t want to post the position, a recruiter or headhunter, as they are still affectionately known, may be called in to help.

If you do decide to post the position, realize a couple of things. First, these job sites are not cheap and second, you will get a lot of candidates, whether they are qualified for your position or not.

5 Things You Need to Learn The First Week On The Job

The first week at your new job can be fun, exciting and super busy. Between learning the rules of the break room and the meaning of “other duties as assigned”, it can be a little overwhelming. Here are a few tips to get you going in the right direction as a newbie!

1. Expectations:

Starting a new job can be exciting, so exciting that sometimes we forget to ask what we are supposed to be doing. The first week at your new job are an ideal time to sit down with your boss and ask what his/her expectations are. Knowing from the start what is needed can save you tons of time in the long run.

2. Your neighbors:

You’re the new kid on the block and many times we can get the idea that people should come to you with warm greetings. The reality is that when you’re the new person on job, its best that you make the first move when it comes to meeting your new coworkers. Take a few minutes each day to chat with one person in your department. Who knows, you might even make a new friend.

16 Ways to Create Your Own Happiness at Work

Let’s face it, happiness and work do not tend to go hand in hand. A 2013 Gallup study, which reported data from more than 180 million people, found that just 13% of us consider ourselves to be “happily engaged at work.”

Those who do rate themselves as happy are 36% more motivated, six times more energized, and twice as productive as their unhappy counterparts.

The good news is that just 50% of happiness is influenced by genetics—the rest is up to you.

When it comes to making yourself happy, you need to learn what works for you. Once you discover this, everything else tends to fall into place. And making yourself happy doesn’t just improve your performance; it’s also good for your health.

A critical skill set that happy people tend to have in common is emotional intelligence (EQ). At TalentSmart, we’ve tested the EQs of more than a million people and know what makes high EQ people tick. So, we went digging until we found 16 great ways that emotionally intelligent people create their own happiness at work.

1. Remember That You Are In Charge of Your Own Happiness

You have two choices in any dead-end job: find another one or make the most of the one you’re stuck with. Either way, your happiness is up to you and no one else. Remind yourself of this anytime you’re feeling stuck.

2. Don’t Obsess over Things You Can’t Control

It’s good to know how Greece’s economic troubles might affect US markets or that your company could merge with its largest competitor, but there’s a big difference between understanding these larger forces and worrying about them. Happy people are ready and informed, but they don’t allow themselves to fret over things that are beyond their pay grades.

5 Ways to Become a Better Team Manager at Work

1. Set a good example

2. Motivate your team

3. Recognize accomplishments

4. Have a happy hour

5. Admit your mistakes

Read Full Context here: http://womanitely.com/ways-better-team-manager/