Time Management

"Manage Your Time, Manage Your Life"

Tuesday, 29 March 2016

'Walk in wisdom... redeeming the time.' Colossians 4:5 NKJV

One of your greatest possessions—is your next twenty-four hours. How will you spend them?  Will you allow television, pointless emails, unimportant tasks, your own impulses, the wrong people or other meaningless distractions to consume your day?  Or will you take control of your time and make today count?  Leadership experts say that focusing on the top 20 per cent of your priorities brings an 80 per cent return on your effort. So when you get up each morning, look in the mirror and say, ‘Today I’ll live my life according to God’s will, and give my energies to the things that help me fulfil it’.  The truth is, there’ll always be things vying for your attention. Advertisers want you to spend money on their products ... And have you noticed how people with nothing to do, usually want to spend their time with you?  Even your own desires can be so diverse and your focus so scattered that you aren’t sure what needs your attention first. That’s why you need to focus like a laser on your God-given purpose. Whatever you concentrate on, you give strength and momentum to. Your priorities determine how you spend your time, so set them prayerfully and maintain them carefully. Eliminate non-essentials. Those who tell you, ‘You can have it all’ are misguided. You can’t do everything you want to do, but you can do everything God wants you to do. You’ve got to choose! Success comes from doing the right things right, and letting the rest go. If you’re not sure what the right things are for you, imagine yourself looking back on your life years from now— which things would you regret not doing?

Developing Your Strengths

"Minor and Major Gifts"

Thursday, 24 March 2016

'God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.' Romans 12:6 NLT

To excel at anything, you must discover your major gifts and put them to work. One of Paul’s minor gifts was making tents to help support his ministry, but clearly his major gift was teaching and building churches. You say, ‘How can I discover my major gifts?’ 

(1) Get God’s input. Who knows the product better than the manufacturer?  You didn’t create yourself, so there’s no way you can tell yourself what you were created for.  But God can, and He will. ‘If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you … But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.  Do not waver ...’ (James 1:5–6 NLT)

 

(2) Commit for the long haul. When you were first learning to walk you spent more time on your bottom than on your feet.  But you succeeded. That’s because you were born to walk!  You may discover your major gifts quickly and easily, but developing them to their maximum potential will be the work of a lifetime. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. 

(3) Get feedback from the right people. Asking others for feedback isn’t always easy, but it’s essential to success. Never be too proud to seek help.  And if you’re a ‘loner’ here’s a Scripture you need to ponder:  ‘There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no ties with anyone’ (Judges 18:28 NKJV).  A word of caution, however:  Choose people who have no agenda other than to help you.

The Young

In the Age of Google DeepMind, Do the Young Go Prodigies of Asia Have a Future? — http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/in-the-age-of-google-deepmind-do-the-young-go-prodigies-of-asia-have-a-future?mbid=rss&utm_medium=App.net+Broadcast&utm_source=PourOver

Check out @RPH052012's Tweet: https://twitter.com/RPH052012/status/708018822540873728?s=09

Celebrating Women History Month

 “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women. There is so much yet to be done.” – Suffragist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

The consumer movement, trust-busting, the women’s movement, and the work of the FTC have traveled parallel (and often intersecting) paths. Women’s History Month offers us a chance to consider the contribution women have made to the mission of the FTC and the unprecedented moment in women’s history we’re witnessing at the FTC today.

At the start of the 20th century – before women won the right to vote – managing the household budget was the first step many women took toward economic empowerment. Their efforts fueled the drive for safer products and fair dealing.

From the beginning, the FTC has been committed to encouraging a competitive marketplace where truth prevails. Skim the first volume of FTC Decisions and you’ll see a surprising number of “shopping cart” cases – inferior coffee beans sold as mocha java, sweetheart deals that kept competing household goods off store shelves, and misleading testimonials for health products, to name just a few. Our law enforcement actions continue to target practices that hit Americans in the wallet.

How has the FTC maintained its consistent focus on unfair and deceptive practices that affect the day-to-day dollars-and-cents interests of consumers? We think some part of that may be due to the leadership of outstanding women. 

Appointed in 1964 by President Johnson, Mary Gardiner Jones was the first woman to be named an FTC Commissioner. Since then, 14 women have served as Commissioners. Janet D. Steiger was the first woman to be named Chairman, a position she held from 1989 to 1995.

And now to that moment of living history. We note that for the first time, all four sitting Commissioners – Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Commissioner Julie Brill, Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen, and Commissioner Terrell McSweeny – are women. What’s more, the FTC’s three bureaus have women at the helm:  Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Jessica Rich, Bureau of Competition Director Deborah Feinstein, and Bureau of Economics Director Ginger Zhe Jin.

We think their efforts to protect the interests of all consumers give us a special reason to celebrate March as Women’s History Month

Microsoft and Linx

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/technology/microsoft-opens-its-corporate-data-software-to-linux.html