The Five Fs blog: LifeCircle 2012 - Managing your time

I have had very little time to digest the posts so far from Thursday but there seems to be a bit of support building for help with time management, so that's what I'm going to attempt. Actually, that might be impossible really as there are as many ways to manage your time effectively as there are people on this earth. What I will do is suggest a method for you to try that might work for you.

The first part is to have a to do list. It can be on paper, on your phone, online, however best you want to manage it. It really doesn't have to be fancy. You just need somewhere or something on which to record the things you have to do. Having some central place that you can refer to will help you focus on what needs to be done. Include as much as possible. If it's not on the list, it's not getting done! OK, maybe not your ablutions, but you know what I mean.

The only problem with that is it can be a bit daunting and in what order do you tackle your to do list? I'm going to suggest a way to manage this. Some people call it the "Urgent-Important Matrix" but it's just a grid really. Here it is.

You could just draw a grid and plot things according to whether they are urgent and whether they are important. Then you know you need to start with all the important, urgent things. If you have lots of those to tackle, then revert to starting with the ones with the shortest deadlines. How do you decide what's important? Well, that really is up to you, but things you just do every day that don't contribute towards you reaching your goals probably isn't. Things like that, falling into the bottom right box, are probably best dealt with by allocating some time to dealing with them every day - like an admin or housework half hour or a time at work each week when you deal with them. If you can, get someone else to do them! If you can't, and you find they are stopping you achieving urgent things, then consider if they really are of low importance.

The top left box is probably full of longer term things you want to do. Try to ensure you do work on them when you can - what you should find by being more focussed is that you will deal with the urgent and important things quicker and this should allow more time for this. Of course, anything in the bottom right corner should be ignored. It may be that they are tasks or things that other people want you to do. If this is the case, feel vindicated in saying a polite but firm "No" to them. And stand your ground. I suspect that might be a whole other post!

If I have a really long list of things to do, I sort them into a list by what I consider to be most urgent and I allocate times to work on them. So, if I'm starting work at 9.30 and I estimate it's going to take me an hour to complete the first task I'm planning to work on, I'll allocate 9.30-10.30 to and work down my list adding in the times. I find that this gives me something to aim for so there is less chance of becoming distracted, but also, it gives me the chance to recognise what I can realistically achieve in my day so that I don't overcommit or give myself too little to do. And if I get more things done than I plan to, I feel really good.

So, what's the task today then? I want you to put this into practice over the next few days. See how it works for you. Then blog about how it's gone. Did you find it time-consuming? Was that time worth it? Did you get more done? How did it make you feel about progressing towards your goals?

Then remember to come back here on Thursday to link up, although as ever, the linky will stay open for two weeks, which takes you all the way through to 23rd February and may give you time to try out the techniques for longer. And don't forget, I'll set a task next Saturday that you will have nearly two weeks to complete as I won't be publishing the linky until 23rd February so we can all take a step back from full-on self-improvement!

Good luck and I can't wait to see how you get on with this.

Source: http://thefivefsblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/lifecircle-2012-managing-your-time.html

margarito margarito horton hears a who horton hears a who cotto margarito chicago bears big daddy

Hungary's Malev airline ceases operations (AP)

BUDAPEST, Hungary ? Hungary's Malev airline says its has ceased operations and grounded all its flights to "minimize damage" after its financial situation became unsustainable.

Malev, a member of the Oneworld airline alliance which also includes American Airlines and British Airways, has debts of around 60 billion forints ($270 million, euro205 million) and has been unable to find new investors.

It stopped all its flights as of 0500 GMT on Friday (midnight Thursday EST).

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on state radio that two Malev planes are still abroad ? one in Tel Aviv, the other in Ireland.

Last month, the European Union ordered Malev to repay nearly $400 million in illegal state subsidies received between 2007 and 2010. In 2010, Malev's losses reached $110 million.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120203/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_hungary_malev

bethany hamilton bethany hamilton after christmas sales macys stratfor bears vs packers after christmas sales 2011

Afghan Taliban deny they're ready to talk peace (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? The Taliban denied Wednesday that the movement is planning direct talks with the Afghan government to end the 10-year-old war, while a leaked NATO report suggested the insurgents are confident they will regain power after international troops leave.

While both developments were setbacks to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's efforts to broker peace, his government got a boost from Pakistan's top diplomat who declared her nation's support for an Afghan-led reconciliation process.

"Our only prerequisite to be supportive of an initiative is that it should be Afghan-led. It should be Afghan-owned. It should be Afghan-driven and Afghan-backed," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said at the Afghan Foreign Ministry.

While she didn't mention the United States, Afghan officials have complained privately that the peace effort has so far been dominated by American efforts and talks with Taliban representatives. Washington insists it is only setting the stage, and any eventual talks must involve Karzai's government.

The Taliban were responding to widespread reports that Karzai's government was seeking direct talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia ? a move seen as an attempt by the Afghan leader to take charge of the peace effort.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected those reports as "baseless," saying in a statement that exploratory talks between the insurgency and the U.S. and its allies have not yet reached the stage for negotiations.

"Before the negotiation phase, there should be trust-building between the sides, which has not started yet," Mujahid said.

The Taliban calls the Afghan government a puppet regime. The insurgency, however, has agreed to set up a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar and has acknowledged having preliminary discussions with the Americans.

U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged Tuesday that to build trust with the Taliban, the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress that no decision had been made whether to trade the five Taliban prisoners, now held at Guantanamo Bay, as part of the nascent peace talks with the Taliban. He and CIA Director David Petraeus did not dispute that the Obama administration was considering transferring the five to a third country.

Karzai was angry that Qatar had agreed to host a Taliban political office without consulting his government, according to a senior Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. Karzai prefers Saudi Arabia or Turkey where he believes he would have the upper hand in guiding the talks, the official said. The Afghan government fears that the U.S., anxious to wrap up a decade in Afghanistan, will try to impose a political settlement with the Taliban, the official said.

Khar was the first high-level Pakistani official to visit Kabul since last fall when relations between the neighboring countries soured after the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and former head of the government's peace council. He was killed in his Kabul home Sept. 20, 2011 by a suicide bomber posing as a peace emissary from the Taliban. Afghan officials blamed the killing on insurgents based in Pakistan.

Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasoul hailed Khar's visit as a breakthrough toward better relations and said the region will find no permanent peace until Pakistan offers serious and honest cooperation.

The ministry also announced that Karzai would travel to Islamabad Feb. 16 and 17. During the visit, he is expected to push Pakistan to follow through on concrete steps Afghanistan wants Pakistan to take to facilitate the peace process, according to an Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate negotiations.

Khar's visit to Kabul came on the same day that a classified NATO report was released, claiming that the Taliban believe they will return to power after the U.S.-led coalition ends its combat role in Afghanistan in 2014, NATO officials said. The captured Taliban fighters also believed they were receiving support from Pakistan and that they were doing well on the battlefield, the officials said.

Khar denounced the report, which was based on the interrogation of thousands of insurgent prisoners.

"This is old wine in an even older bottle. I don't think these claims are new," she said.

"So I think that I can just disregard this as potentially a strategic leak or otherwise."

NATO officials cautioned that the report was a summary of interrogations and was not based on an intelligence analysis.

"There is an expression in the report that they are basing themselves on the support from Pakistan," said Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan.

Jacobson said the report was a "compilation of investigations, or interrogations straight after detainment, so we can not really put that high a value on what they are saying. They are talking (about) their perception of the campaign, what they believe about how the campaign is going, and what they want us to believe about how their campaign is going."

He said most of the captured fighters think that "they are still having a successful role" on the ground but that perception was wrong.

"The insurgency is clearly on the back foot. We have been pressurizing them over the summer, we have taken vast amounts of land out of their hands and we have detained a high number" of militants, Jacobson said.

In Brussels, a senior NATO official also said the alliance has no doubt that insurgents are infiltrating the Afghan security forces. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of standing rules.

The assertion came after a string of killings of foreign forces by their Afghan counterparts.

U.S. defense officials told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the number of insider attacks in Afghanistan has dramatically increased. Seventy-five percent of the more than 40 incidents since 2007 happened in the past two years. Most of the attackers acted out of personal motivation, and were not directed by insurgents.

The attacks have killed 70 coalition troops and wounded another 110.

In the latest such incident, an Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan late Tuesday, although the circumstances were unclear. The U.S.-led military coalition said it was an attack, while an Afghan commander called it an accident.

___

Associated Press writers Patrick Quinn in Kabul and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120201/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

carolina panthers steve jones emily maynard kola boof fafsa legionnaires disease burmese python

World News - South Africa: 4 given 18 years in jail for killing lesbian

By msnbc.com staff

In a landmark decision in post-apartheid South Africa, four men were given 18 years in jail on Wednesday for stoning and stabbing to death 19-year-old Zoliswa Nkonyana for living openly as a lesbian.

A crowd outside the court in Cape Town township cheered and danced after the sentencing was announced, the BBC News reported.

---

Mbulelo Dama, Lubabalo Ntlabathi, Sicelo Mase and Luyanda Londzi -- juveniles when the crimes were committed - were convicted of Nkonyana's murder last year, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.? Five others were acquited.

While rights groups complained throughout the trial that proceedings were taking too long -- they took almost six years -- and involved more than 40 postponements, the verdict was a watershed, an official at a South African NGO that fights discrimination against gay, lesbian bisexual and trans-gender people told msnbc.com.

"It is the first case in South Africa where sexual orientation and identity was named and recognized as an aggravating factor in a murder trial," said Marlow Newman-Valentine, Deputy Director of Triangle Project.

The magistrate in the case said hatred and homophobia were clearly the motive for the killing, and Wednesday's sentence was meant to send out a signal that violence based on sexual orientation will not be tolerated, the BBC reported.

South Africa's constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual preference but homophobia is rife in the country. In addition, the country's female homicide rate six times the world average, according to a June-2011 study in The British Journal of Criminology.

Activists were "still hugely concerned" with the South African police's effectiveness when it came to dealing with these sorts of crimes, and their unwillingness or inability to follow proper procedures in many cases, he said.

"As the Triangle Project we are extremely happy about the outcome of this particular trial but we have a long way to," Newman-Valentine said.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/01/10287645-south-africa-4-given-18-years-in-jail-for-killing-lesbian

matt barnes jim jones hcm loretta lynn gene kelly zoe saldana andrew bailey

Widespread abuse alleged at two pig farms

The Humane Society says this image was taken at the Seaboard Foods' pig farm in Goodwell, Okla., in late 2011. The pigs are in stalls that measure two by seven feet, a practice that had been routine until other major pork producers announced plans to do away with them.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Aiming to pressure two of the largest U.S. producers of pork, one of them a Walmart supplier, into changing how they treat pigs, the Humane Society of the United States on Tuesday?said it had staged undercover operations that revealed atrocious conditions.

Alleged abuses against the animals include?the use of extremely confined crates as well as the cutting off of tails and testicles with no painkillers.

"Lame pigs, pigs with gross abscesses, torn ears and noses, and ripped genitals and piglets sickened by 'greasy pig' disease were not seen by veterinarians," the group said in a statement released along with what it said was undercover video.

---

The allegations focus on two pig farms in Goodwell, Okla., one owned by Seaboard Foods and the other by Prestage Farms.

The Humane Society also filed federal complaints against Seaboard alleging that it made false and misleading statements about treating its animals humanely.

Seaboard has a public "Commitment to Animal Care" that states: "We are committed to proper animal care and have a moral and ethical obligation to the humane treatment of animals. We believe food animals can and should be raised, transported and processed using procedures that are safe and free from cruelty and neglect."

On Tuesday,?Seaboard posted a statement on its website saying it strongly disputed?"any allegations of abuse."

Ron Prestage, who owns Prestage Farms with his parents and siblings, told Reuters the video did not appear to show any neglect or abuse at their farm. He added that the company has initiated an internal investigation to ensure company policies are followed.

"There is nothing for me to defend in the video. We have both systems (gestation crates and group pens) and have for years," Prestage said.

The video shows pigs penned in cages that the Humane Society described as "so small the animals can't even turn around, rendering them virtually immobilized for their entire lives."

The group said its?undercover operatives?also "found workers cutting piglets testicles and tails off with no painkiller, injured piglets with their legs duct taped to their bodies, gestation crates overflowing with feces and urine and employees hitting pigs? genitals to force them to move from one crate to another."

Gestation crates are stalls where female pigs are placed during pregnancy.

STORY: Smithfield vows breathing room for pregnant pigs

Both companies are "lagging behind" competitors like Cargill and Smithfield Foods, the Humane Society said, noting that those had recently pledged improvements such as ending the use of gestation crates by?2017.

In its statement Tuesday, Seaboard said that its "integrated system uses both stalls and group pens to house gestating sows. Animal welfare experts and professional groups have found no one method for housing gestating sows that is clearly better than the other when managed properly."

Prestage said that "there are times when each system has its advantages. If you have an animal that's gotten injured, it's much easier to treat them if they are in an individual crate. If they happen to be on the bottom of the pecking order, the other ones are just going to beat them up.

"On the other hand, if there is no fighting, you might decide they are happier in a group pen," he added.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10279974-widespread-abuse-alleged-at-two-pig-farms

world series tickets world series tickets nelson cruz nelson cruz michael young bears bears

US expects NKorea to continue proliferation (AP)

WASHINGTON ? U.S. intelligence expects North Korea's new young leader Kim Jong Un to continue Pyongyang's policy of attempting to export its weapon systems.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that the North's export of ballistic missiles and associated materials to countries including Iran and Syria illustrated the reach of its proliferation activities.

He also cited North Korea's assistance to Syria in building a nuclear reactor, destroyed by Israel in 2007.

Clapper said it was too early to assess the extent of Kim's authority. Kim took power after his father died in December.

But Clapper said senior regime leaders would probably remain unified for now to prevent instability.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_us/us_intelligence_world_threats_nkorea

penn state riot penn state riot state college pa wilson ramos kidnapped mcqueary mike mcqueary joe paterno fired

Islam critic backs out of West Point cadet event (AP)

WEST POINT, N.Y. ? A retired U.S. lieutenant general who made comments denigrating Islam withdrew Monday from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast after a veterans' advocacy group asked the Army chief of staff to rescind the invitation.

VoteVets.org told Gen. Raymond Odierno in a letter that allowing retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin to speak at the U.S. Military Academy next week would be contrary to Army values and disrespectful to Muslim cadets.

Late Monday afternoon, West Point issued a brief statement saying Boykin had decided to withdraw speaking at the Feb. 8 event and that another speaker would be lined up in his place.

Boykin, a former senior military intelligence officer, had been criticized for speeches he made at evangelical Christian churches beginning in January 2002. He said that America's enemy was Satan, that God had put President George W. Bush in the White House and that one Muslim Somali warlord was an idol-worshipper.

Boykin later issued a written statement apologizing and said he didn't mean to insult Islam. But VoteVets.org said Monday that Boykin has continued to make denigrating comments about Islam since his 2007 retirement.

"These remarks are incompatible with the Army values, and a person who is incompatible with Army values should not address the cadets of the United States Military Academy," VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz said in a letter written with the group's vice chairman.

Army public affairs didn't immediately comment. West Point's Lt. Col. Sherri Reed said cadets are "purposefully exposed to different perspectives and cultures" during their four years at the academy.

In a statement issued earlier Monday, Reed noted that Christian, Jewish and Muslim cadets would be participating in the prayer breakfast, and she had expressed confidence that Boykin's speech would "be in keeping with the broad range of ideas normally considered by our cadets."

Boykin has continued to attract controversy since his retirement. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and People for the American Way had asked officials in Ocean City, Md., to rescind an invitation to speak at a prayer breakfast last week. Boykin attended and spoke about his faith.

CAIR also asked West Point officials to retract Boykin's invitation

"It gives Islamophobes a platform at the nation's most prestigious military academy. And I doubt that they would invite a KKK speaker and claim that they want to expose the students to a variety of opinions," said CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad.

Boykin didn't return a call seeking comment or respond to an email sent to his account at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia where he is a visiting professor.

A Pentagon investigation concluded that Boykin violated regulations by failing to make clear he was not speaking in an official capacity when he made nearly two dozen church speeches beginning in January 2002. It also found that Boykin, who made most speeches wearing his uniform, didn't get prior clearance for the remarks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_us/us_west_point_speaker_islam

cape coral fl emmys emmys tom bosley christina hendricks jon hamm nina dobrev