Time Management and Goal Setting
Time management is an area of business management often overlooked or ignored. We all know someone in small business who races around like a madman all day, never enough hours in a day, all they do is rush and get worked up - maybe this person is you!
At the end of the day, when the dust settles, what have you achieved? Do you review the day and wonder “what happened to the day, I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would”. If this sounds familiar, then you may have an organisational and time management problem.
Successful people never seem to rush, they remain composed and unflustered. The difference between them and everybody else is they have mastered time management.
What is time management? It is simply allocating time in your day in an organised and efficient way. Before we can really understand how to time manage our day, we must ask ourselves what are we trying to achieve today, this week, this year and possibly ten years from now. This is “Goal setting”.
The best way in my opinion to achieve goals is to write them down. You should review these goals from time to time to ensure that they are relevant and achievable but not so achievable that you don’t have to try hard to achieve them otherwise what is the purpose of the goals in the first place?
At the start of each working year you should sit down and think about what you want to achieve this year, it could be that you want to increase your profits by 20%, you may want to move into larger premises, you may want to reduce your debt substantially. At the start of each working week you should write down on a note pad or in your diary the major jobs that need to be done this week, and review them each day to ensure you’re making progress and hopefully mark some of the tasks off the list.
You should keep the list on your desk or in a place where you will be constantly reminded what needs to be done this week. This list should be in order of priority so that the most important tasks at the top of the list get done first. Anything not achieved this week will be carried forward next week on a higher priority, this will ensure it gets done.
The next thing you should be doing is having a daily list of jobs to do. This will help keep you on track each day. Again, this list should be displayed where you can constantly refer to it and mark off the jobs completed. Marking off the jobs will give you a sense of achievement and let you know how you are progressing through the day. Always stick to the list where possible and keep working from high priority to low priority.
I know things can come up through the day that can throw the whole day out, but you must either deal with the crisis and return to your list or if the new task isn’t as important as some of the jobs on the list put it at the bottom of the list and continue doing what you were doing.
Every task you have to do should be written down for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so you don’t forget to do it and secondly, so you keep your day organised and you achieve your daily goals.
Beware starting jobs and not finishing them. This will turn tomorrow into a mess of half finished jobs and will cause “list blowout”. You will end up with a list a mile long and you will give up in despair and revert back to old habits of being in confusion all day and achieving nothing.
Remember each day you achieve your goals and tick off everything on your list, you get a little closer to achieving your weekly and ultimately your yearly and long term goals.
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How to Use Linux Command Line Components
Linux Commands - The great thing about Linux commands is that they are virtually identical from one Linux distribution (version) to another. So the way the real pros do Linux administration is to work at the Linux command line and run Linux commands.
Learning how to run a Linux command can be very difficult for someone new to Linux, so here are some Linux tips that will help you to learn how to use Linux commands when working at the Linux command line prompt.
There are three main parts of a Linux command:
1. the Linux command name
2. options that can be used with the Linux command
3. the “item(s)” that the Linux command is being run “on”
When you run a Linux command, spaces are used between: the Linux command name, the command options and the “item” the command is being run “on”. The “item” could be a Linux directory, file, user or some other Linux software component.
For example, you run the Linux command named ls (for list) “on” a Linux directory to see a list of files in the directory. You run the Linux command named rm (remove) “on” a Linux directory to remove the directory from the Linux file system.
To run a Linux command, you type in the name of the command, and any other parts of the command, such as options, and press the Enter key.
You can see an example of the Linux command that is used to create a new Linux user below. The useradd command is being run “on” the bthatcher user name to create this Linux user.
Linux Tips: Linux commands are run at the Linux command line prompt and this prompt is shown as ]# at the left of the command. You don’t type in the prompt, you type the Linux command at the right of the prompt.
Linux Tips: The Linux command prompt may also appear as: ]$ or as another symbol, instead of # or $.
]# useradd -c “Becky Thatcher” bthatcher
This Linux command creates a new Linux user named bthatcher with the full name of “Becky Thatcher”. The -c (for comment) option is used with this command to add the full name as a comment to the Linux user name of bthatcher.
One of the easiest and best ways to get Linux training is to see Linux commands being run in Linux video tutorials. With this method - you see, hear and do.
With a Linux video tutorial, you see and hear how to run a Linux command and see and hear a description of the output of the command. You can also pause the video so you can run the Linux command yourself!
About Author
Clyde Boom, Author and Expert Trainer with 20+ Years of Training Successes.
Watch Free Sample I Learn Linux Video Tutorials now at http://www.iLearnLinux.com/ and get over the steep Linux learning curve (tra).
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Had it with Windows Vista ? - There is an Alternative
Windows has dominated the personal computer operating system market for the last 14 years. And with every new version of Windows Microsoft releases, it seems there’s a higher price tag to go with it —just look at the retail prices for Windows Vista and you’ll see what I mean. New versions of Windows often means an expensive hardware upgrade just to run the operating system, especially a memory upgrade.
But if you thought your options ended with back-grading to XP, think again. There’s another operating system that’s growing in popularity around the world and it’s not Apple’s Mac OS X.
It’s called Linux and while it has had the reputation in the past of being the geek’s alternative, Linux is quickly becoming a viable alternative to Windows for everyday users.
It is already appearing in PCs and notebooks from Dell as well as the little Eee PC from ASUS, but best of all, Linux is absolutely free. Yes my friends, it’s fast, reliable and free.
There’s an investment in time required, but the actual operating system is free and there’s heaps of free support available via the Internet with Linux support forumns offering world-class support and information springing up like weeds.
Welcome to Xubuntu Linux
There are dozens of different versions of Linux available and that’s because Linux is a bit like a Lego set set — you can pick and choose the bits you want and leave out those you don’t.
But if you’ve never tried Linux before, there are one or two versions, or distributions (that’s short for distribution), that are perfect for beginners — they mimic things that Windows does and in many cases, can actually do them better.
The one we’re going to look at is called Xubuntu. It’s a spin-off of Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution to date, but I think Xubuntu is ideal for beginners, because it’s almost the ‘Windows 98′ of the Linux world — it has a neat, user-friendly interface, but can happily run on older computers. So, if you have an older computer lying around, now’s the time to flash it up and give it a coat of paint.
Try before you install
Unlike Windows, many of the Linux distributions, including Xubuntu, allow you to use them on an almost try before you install basis, meaning you can actually use the operating system direct from the installation CD without having to install anything on your computer’s hard drive.
This special type of installation CD is known as a live CD, because the operating system is ready to go live on the CD — all you need to do is setup your PC to boot from the CD drive, load in the live CD, boot up and Xubuntu will start up.
It can take 2-3 minutes to finish booting. Not much longer than Windows Vista !
Your Windows hard drive remains intact. All you have to do to get back into Windows is to remove the CD, reboot and Windows will load as usual.
Some people always carry a Linux live CD with them so that if their Windows system breaks, they can at least boot into Linux and recover important files. In many cases they will be able to continue editing these files using applications like Open Office which comes bundled free with many Linux Live CD distributions.
However, Xubuntu is ideal if you have an old computer lying around and you’d like to learn and play around with Linux. It just needs a PC with a lO Gig hard drive and 256M of memory. If it has a 400MHz or faster processor, you’re good to go.
Download your new operating system
The first thing you need to do is download the operating system, which you can do directly from the Xubuntu Web site. Just go to Google and do a search on Xubuntu 8.04 download. Alternatively search on Xubuntu Live CD.
This software is a completely free operating system that you download as what’s called an ISO image, which just means the data of a CD stored as a single file. It’s about 590M of download, but that’s smaller than most similar versions. Your best bet is to set this up to download overnight if you’re on dial-up or low-speed broadband.
Once you have your ISO you will need to burn it to a bootable CD. Programs like Nero or Burn4free can help you there.
Setting up your PC
The last thing you need to do before giving Linux a go is to make sure your PC or notebook is ready to boot up from your CD-ROM drive. For the vast majority of PCs this will be the default setting, so the best bet is to try and boot the Xubuntu disk.
If the disk doesn’t boot automatically when you restart, you’ll need to check either the notebook or desktop motherboard manual to locate how to make the CD drive the first priority boot device. This involves getting into the CMOS or BIOS setup of the computer. If you’re not sure about doing this, rope in a knowledgeable mate who can help you. At worst, your local computer shop should be able to set it up for you in about three minutes.
Linux is one of the best value downloads on the Internet. It can make an old PC useful again, help recover a Windows PC and comes with a bunch of powerful applications. You will find that for most Windows applications, there is a free Linux equivalent.
About Author
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