Staying productive is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It’s especially important if you’re self-employed or a telecommuter because you usually find yourself performing many different jobs, each with their own set of tasks, during the course of a single day. It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn’t matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done.

Many of us are prey to time-wasters that steal time we could be using much more productively. What are your time-bandits? Do you spend too much time ‘Web surfing, reading email, or doing personal stuff? Twittering?

Here are 10 tips that can help you increase your productivity and stay calm, cool and collected:

1. Make it easy to get started. Often we don’t have issues with finishing projects, we have issues starting them. I try to break own my projects into what Sark calls Micro-Movements, small nuggets of action toward the completion of a goal, so I am not overwhelmed by them.
2. Do the most important thing first. When I sit down at my desk in the morning, before I check e-mail, I work for an hour on the most important thing on my to-do list. I got this idea from Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. What I found was that even if I don’t get the whole thing done in an hour, I usually to go back to it once I’ve started it.
3. Prioritize and organize the night before. I have also found doing the most important thing first thing in the morning works best if I prioritize and organize the night before so when I sit down at my desk in the morning I know what my most important task of the day is. Some people do this as soon as they are done with work for the day. I generally take 20 to 30 minutes before bedtime to prioritize my To-Do list, check my calendar for events I need to attend or appointments I need to go to.
4. Check your email on a schedule. It’s just not time effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately doesn’t mean that you have to respond to them immediately. Check your e-mail on a schedule and prioritize the responses. During work hours, my clients’ e-mail tend to get priority. After business hours, other people and things get my attention first. Most people want a predictable response, not an immediate one so as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.
5. Don’t leave email sitting in your inbox. The capability to quickly process information and transform it into action is one of the most emergent skills a self-employed professional can have. I organize email in file folders and use G-mail to archive all my important e-mails. If the message needsmore thought, I move it to my to-do list; if it’s for reference or to read , I either print it out or save the URL and add it to my To-Do list; if it’s a meeting or an appointment, I move it to my calendar . Take action on an email as soon as you read it.
6. Keep web site addresses organized. You can use book marking services like del.icio.us or StumbleUpon to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.If you use Firefox, you can also use their handy tool bar to create links to the sites you use most often either with a button or using bookmarks.
7. Know when you work best. Because I telecommunute, I can pretty much work any time of day or night. But I try to schedule things so that I work on the most important things between the hours of 11AM and 3PM when I am the most productive. I also often work in the evening after dinner for a few hours, depending on my energy level. Everybody has a “best time”. You can figure out yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.
8. Don’t waste time waiting. From client meetings to waiting for a bus, it’s impossible to avoid waiting for someone or something. But I don’t just sit there and twiddle my thumbs. I always have something with me to do such as something I need to read, a phone call that needs to made, or a small bound book in which I write new tasks, make notes or organize work for the following day. Technology also makes it easy to work wherever you are too; your cell phone ,
   laptop or netbook will help you stay connected.
9. Organize your to-do list every day. If you don’t know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their To-Do list into manageable, relevant clusters. For example, I use Tasktoy because it shows me only my tasks for a specific client or project and I can access it from anywhere as long as I have Internet access. It’s also free. You can get Tasktoy here. I use both methods. I flesh out my tasks by hand and then add them to Tasktoy.
10. It’s okay to be a little pokey. Remember that a productive manager actually responds to some things more slowly. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they’re doing it. Typically in any day, there are more than a few tasks more important than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing work (evaluating what’s come in, what’s going out and how to handle it) and planning work are also critical tasks.

No matter how organized we are, there are still always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn’t change. All we can actually do is manage ourselves and what we do with the time that we have.

NEWLY REVISED “WINDMILLS” TRAINING: This internationally acclaimed disability awareness training program has been recently revised and will be taught on March 30 through April 1at the Universal Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, California. This program is presented by Friends of Californians with Disabilities, Inc. For more information visit the website or contact Marc at (805) 604-9017 (Voice/Relay) or Damon Brooks Associates.

AIRLINE PASSENGER RIGHTS: A new consumer rights group called the Association for Airline Passenger Rights (AAPR) has been formed to educate policymakers on travel-related information important to airline passengers, improve accessibility for passengers with disabilities, and protect the consumer rights and responsibilities of airline passengers. Membership is $10 per year. For more information, go to

NCIL ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: The National Council on Independent Living recently announced that Kelly Buckland has been appointed as NCIL’s New Executive Director. Mr. Buckland will replace NCIL’s current Executive Director, John Lancaster, who will retire on May 15, 2009.

LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS: Life Without Limits (formerly the Big Sky Project) is a national effort to create a new vision of the future for people with disabilities and is being lead by UCP. The project is designed to raise public awareness about the serious challenges that remain for people with disabilities and develop strategies, initiatives, programs, and public policy to address them.

Projects and events include Ruby’s Bequest and an annual Gala. Ruby’s Bequest, in partnership with AARP, will utilize new media to engaging the general population in a discussion on the future of care giving. The 2009 Gala will be held on September 30, 2009.

Got more news? Send me an e-mail and I’ll post it!

There is a new kid on the block. Me. I’m Randy. Yesterday I began the third grand epic adventure of my life. My first grand epic adventure lasted for 21 years. From June, 1984 to June, 2005 I had the great fortune to be self employed as a wallpaper hanger and painter.  My job took me into some fabulous homes, and I had the privilege of meeting a vast number of wonderful people. Some of my jobs lasted two or three weeks and longer, and I would almost become a part of the family.

In December of 2004 there was a growing realization on my part, that the time to let my business go was fast approaching. Steady hands are a must, and Parkinson’s kind of gets in the way. June 23, 2005 I hung my last strip of wallpaper at 2:35 in the afternoon. In August 2005 I became a full time student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Becoming a student was my second grand epic adventure. Not only was I older than most of my classmates, I was older than most of their parents. Graduation was May 17, 2008 and I was awarded a Bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.

My third grand epic adventure began yesterday. There are a number of issues in a persons’ life that could become barriers to finding meaningful and lucrative employment. Age is one, and I am 62. Disability is another, and Parkinson’s definitely applies. Another significant barrier is a felony conviction. I am in my 15th year of probation on a 15 year suspended sentence. My focus at VCU was on the controversial subject of reentry. Self employment provides a remedy to most barriers, by giving a person the tools to go around the barriers. When I was hanging wall paper and painting, there were no background checks.

So Friday was my first day working with Sue to develop and strengthen my computer skills, working toward sustainable self employment once again.

I’m also delighted to announce that Randy Pepin has joined our team and will introduce himself shortly, so I won’t step on his toes (much). Prior to joining us, Randy was self-employed for 20+ years as a wallpaper hanger and painter, so he brings some great experience to our program.

Last but not least, we’ve mailed out more than 25,000 Words Hit cards since August – if you were expecting cards and haven’t received them, it’s probably because we don’t have your shipping address. If you still want them, please contact us with your name and shipping address and we’ll get them out to you.

Sue Cline
Sue has over 22 years of professional experience in business operations, team building, turnaround management, marketing, business strategy, coaching and training. Sue has provided business, information technology and marketing strategies for family-owned businesses in the construction, manufacturing, hospitality, tourism and technology industries. A successful serial entrepreneur, Sue has owned three of her own companies and served in an advisory capacity for numerous start-ups.

Jane Riley Peterson
Jane completed her undergraduate degree in economics at the University of Michigan and continued her studies, receiving her M.A. in Architecture and Urban Planning from The University of California, Los Angeles. She has held research positions for the Sierra Club and for Alternatives, where she focused on environmental impact statements for indigenous cultures in Guatemala. Jane’s research abilities translated into work as a Quantitative Analyst for the RAND Corporation. In addition, she performed grant writing and evaluating for the criminal justice system, child abuse services, and Richmond Hill Ecumenical Retreat Center. Her grasp of various research methodologies informed her consulting for the Institute for Industrial Relations, University of California, and the Southwest Institute for Research on Women at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Jane has worked with children through teaching and coordinating creativity-enriching activities for them. Her research articles have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Health Services Research and Women and Environments.

Darlene Greene
Darlene Greene has more than 10 years of real estate and mortgage experience both as an industry professional and investor. She holds a degree in English and Communications from Clemson University with a minor in journalism. Darlene’s diverse professional experience includes long stints in the trenches as director of marketing and project management in business to business marketing. Moving from marketing to operations, Darlene transferred her skills to training and development, becoming certified in program design, delivery and sales. She is a certified trainer for Zenger-Miller, Kaset International and Professional Selling.

Krishanna Spencer
A self-motivated and flexible creative professional with strong leadership skills with over 10 years experience in program management, organizational development, proposal and grants development with particular expertise in arts education, administration and management within the nonprofit sector and the arts community. Krishanna’s talents include collaboration and strategic partnerships; Internet and electronic communication, community building and social media; print, web and blog content development and editorial expertise; art and human services programming for people with disabilities and chronic conditions, and other under-served populations; and creative, practical troubleshooting and innovative issue resolution.