About La Jolla's Utc

The good life is built, it's not handed to us. Time "management" is more discipline than organization:

1. Manage Your Priorities

• #1 source of stress for humans is when their ACTUAL values and the DESIRED values are in conflict.
• Desired Values of what we want for ourselves and how we want others to see us as.
• Actual Values are where we really are: as indicated by our day planners, checkbooks and credit card statements. Where we spend most of our time & money is where we actually are. What do we want to be involved in? Are we on purpose or drifting? Are we engaged or "plugged in and tuned out?"
• Evaluate your calendar: how are you spending your day, your week your month, etc.. How do you spend the $ hours?
• If your boss, mentor or #1 client were to shadow you this week, would they be impressed or baffled about the way you spend your day?
• Ask yourself "why are you doing this?" on each task, it helps the prioritizing, because the answers to each "why" defines the importance and the order.

2. Manage Yourself (because time is actually not managed, rather we invest our activities into our available time to achieve a result.)

• Manage your energy. Work in 90 minute blocks, then take a break. You need to recharge the batteries throughout the day. Your day is a series of sprints, not a marathon.
• When your at work be at work during your "making money hours" with making money activities. Guard your schedule from the time bandits. "B" and "C" activities during "A+ & A" activity time (money hours) equals missing your child's game, or not being able to take Sunday off, etc. Thinking of it this way helps place the importance on your activities.
• When you are home be at home. Engage your family, your pets, your personal interests...this is the recharge.
• Get sleep-7.5 hours is the minimum recommended for proper health & rest. You owe your clients to be healthy and to be alert. You wouldn't go to a brain surgeon that only sleeps 4 hours a day, your clients have those same concerns of you.
• If you are taking a day off (and I recommend you take at least one each week) commit to it. Shut off the work phone & e-mails and have a true day off.
• If a client wants to "invade your recharge time", make them exhaust their schedule before violating your evening or day off. If you are managing your time at work, this becomes a guilt free policy because "you gave at the office". By the way when my bank is closed, I never call the manager at home to ask him to open up.
• Understand the heightened value of a single day: What does the structure of your day look like? Does it fit your life? If you set out to win the day, you don't have to win the whole day to win.
• What is your plan and when do you plan it? The night before, the day of or as you go?

3. Adjust to A Lower Stress Life (Staying Up In a Down World).

• Your day off is fun time, not bonus work time. I have a marriage & a son that deserve me in the evenings and one day per week. Any client that feels otherwise, I simply ask them to contact my bride and tell her I need to work Sundays. Hasn't happened yet! If someone ever did challenge me, I'd simply refer them to someone with less guarded Sundays and make some money of the referral fee while protecting my recharge time. Celebrate a great work day by having an evening off with your family (or alone-quiet is nice). Celebrate a great work week by having a day off as a reward.
• Golf, Kids, Garden, Movies, Books, Church, etc.
• Quiet Time, Rest Time, Fun Time, Family Time...
• When your batteries are recharged, your performance is consistent. You can be in a big hurry, but if you neglect your gas tank gauge or the regular maintenance of your vehicle, you'll eventually spend some time on the road side.
• Have written goals, they help you focus on your priorities.
• When you find a gap in your schedule, don't rush to fill it, enjoy the gap! Read, nap, go for a walk-great way to recharge mid day.
• It's a good life, go out and live it, because they days are long but the years are short.

Top 12 Productivity Tips for 2012

"Being busy doesn't always mean real work. Seeming to do is not doing" Thomas Edison

1. Stay healthy. The first wealth is health. Eat right, adequate sleep, exercise & drink water! Feeling good =more sales. What you eat, what you drink, what you read, what you listen to, what you watch all falls under "garbage in, garbage out".
2. Schedule your week. Have a daily action plan. Purposeful Activities. When are you starting work, ending your day, family time, appointments, calls, etc. Create focus, save energy, live on purpose. Go to work with a purpose & a plan. Avoid the torment of last minute choices. Take your 2012 calendar and put in all your personal events now before you have an "uh-oh!". Block out your lunch hour, birthdays, anniversaries, days off, vacations, kids school/sports events etc. Schedule all your regular meetings now too. This prevents from double booking or missing the priorities.
3. Work in time blocks. Concentrate and focus for designated periods of time. 90 minute increments are what Top Producers do, then they take a short break. 90 minutes is the optimal work to rest ratio.
4. Eliminate Distractions. How long can you go without your cell phone? A computer mouse? i-Pad? Technology is a tool and a gift to the productive who knows how to use them properly and a curse for the amateur. Can you commit to only 90 minutes per day with no cell phone or computer while you focus on an "A" activity like lead generation during your money hours?
5. JUST SAY "NO". The disease to please. Protect your time and say no to interruptions. Put a "do not disturb" sign on your door, phone, e-mail, etc.
6. Avoid office energy drainers: DRAMA! Don't be seduced by drama. Your energy is better focused on activities that get results. But focus on the activities, not the results. Avoid the gossip and "misery loves company" club.
7. Steer clear of time zappers. These prevent productivity: voicemail, e-mail, social media, surfing the net, answering text & calls as they come in. All these make you feel like you are working, but there is a big difference between ACTIVITY and PRODUCTIVITY. Time block when you'll reply to messages & e-mails, it takes far less time to return calls, texts & e-mails than it does to answer them as they arrive.
8. Concentrate on the most important, not the most urgent. HUH? Yep, most emergencies solve themselves an hour later in our industry. The urgency is only in the moment. Important focus is energizing, urgent focus is draining. First things first as S Covey says in Habit #3 of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
9. Recharge. 24/7 is for amateurs. When you are off, be off. I don't answer my work-phone past 6PM weekdays nor on Sundays and my clients know it. My clients get me 12 hours a day, 6 days per week; my family about 3-4 hrs during the workdays, but all day Sunday; I feel no guilt. (Yes, I start at 6AM). Take a day off each week. I don't work Sundays, haven't in 9 years. The world, nor my career has ended. In fact I've out performed every year in business since 2008. It took me that long to follow this advice I know share with you. You can't give your best, if you are not at your best.
10. Invest in yourself. If you aren't willing to invest in the person standing in your shoes, why should others? You are your biggest asset, invest in you! Books, classes, seminars, etc.
11. Don't go it alone. Ask for help. Get a coach or an accountability partner. Find or create a mastermind group, networking group or industry alliance. The only self made man is the one who forgets who helped him along the way.
12. Enjoy the journey. There's no actual finish line except the one we're all trying to avoid-the dirt nap. So take it in along the way or you may miss it-life. Don't die with your music still in you, sing like no one is listening as the saying goes. If you love someone, tell them now. If you need to thank someone for making a difference in your life, tell them now. If you need to lose weight, start now, etc. We all get only so many heartbeats and then we're gone. How many do you have left?

These Resources/Tools are self explanatory but I do recommend you look at each, there are some very cool FREE tools down there :

www.realtor.org

www.fhfa.gov

www.housingpredictor.com

www.secure.logmein.com

www.gotoassist.com

www.carbonite.com

http://translate.google.com

www.primopdf.com

http://www.dropbox.com

http://www.readnotify.com

http://www.reqall.com

http://www.techsmith.com/

These are cool “for phone” ones:

http://gethuman.com

http://www.lucyphone.com

http://www.slydial.com

Free versions of Microsoft Office:

http://www.libreoffice.org

http://www.openoffice.org

Video E-mail

http://corp.eyejot.com

Focus on the Practical, Not the Pretty!

Great advice for many common circumstances:

• DIY-Measure twice, cut once: be practical about your DIY (do it yourself) projects means knowing what you can and can't do without professional help. I often work along side my contractor, basically serving as his grunt, “go-fer” and apprentice, when I have a project beyond my skill, available time or craftsman level. Some projects, like electrical and plumbing, I don't even mess with...I hire a licensed professional. By they way: take the time to pull permits where required, it insures the project is done right the first time by the right professionals and you won’t have future concerns from your buyers/tenants when you resell or rent.

• As a Realtor I see so many bad DIY projects. Expensive tiles with bad grout-lines or not level, granite with bad cuts, cabinets not level or with doors that can't open all the way, crown molding installed poorly; in general new materials with poor installation, damage or worse...unsafe! It's a money & time saver every time you do it right the first time! HGTV and other DIY & Real Estate channels are great sources of info and entertainment. But one 30 minute show and a couple articles on the internet do not qualify most for construction or real estate investing. Nor do they show you the real time and work that goes into running comps & CAP's (CAP rates) when buying a home, flipping a home, renting a home, etc. Build a relationship with professionals and as my hero, Mike “Holmes on Homes” says; make it right the first time!

The Three J's perform their final Debussy concert

The Three J's will perform their final Claude Debussy concert at Vi at La Jolla Village, 8515 Costa Verde Boulevard, La Jolla, California.

The concert will be Thursday, January 12, 2012, at 7:00 p.m.

The Three J's are:

The concert, Claude Debussy: Flower Child, Impressionist, Revolutionary, features the following:

• C'est L'extase
• General Lavine Eccentric
• Clair de Lune
• Chevaux de Bois
• Sarabande
• Pagodes
• Serenade for the Doll
• Sarabande Excerpt
• Nuit D'etoile
• Beau Soir
• Il Pleure Dans Mon Coeur
• Pour Les Arpeges Composes
• Lisle Joyeuse

James Frimmer, piano, received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from the University of Redlands, where he also served as staff accompanist. While attending the University of Redlands, he was a winner of the school's concerto competition, the Redlands Bowl Young Artists Auditions, and the Young Artists competition. He is an active chamber musician in the San Diego area and currently serves as a staff accompanist for the music program at San Diego State University.

Janelle DeStefano, mezzo soprano, holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California and teaches voice in Santa Monica, California. She has sung on regional operatic, orchestral, and musical theater stages throughout the United States. Recent roles have included Romeo in " Capuletti e I Montecchi," Mrs. Winemiller in "Summer and Smoke," and the title role in Benjamin Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia." Ms. DeStefano has won several vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Additions San Diego District, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the Musical Meric Foundation.

Joanne Regenhardt, narrator, has been known to San Diego audiences since 1955 when she began singing with Starlight Opera. She has sung concerts throughout Southern California both in oratorio and in solo performances with symphonies and in recital. Ms. Regenhardt is currently integrating narratives of musicians' lives into programs of their music, choosing aspects of their lives and musical selections which can be enjoyed in an intimate setting. Along with Claude Debussy, previous narrative programs have included Johannes Brahms, Frederic Chopin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Her book of poetry, Soundings, was published in 2002.

Russel Ray, page turner extraordinaire.

♪♫ ♫♪

1. San Diego Mission Valley condos for sale —River Scene (January 10, 2012)
2. San Diego Mission Valley condos for sale — Rio del Oro (January 9, 2012)
3. San Diego Mission Valley condos for sale — Mission Gate (January 8, 2012)
4. San Diego Mission Valley condos for sale — River Colony (January 7, 2012)
5. My new and improved Blue Boy
6. San Diego Mission Valley condos for sale — Union Square (January 6, 2012)
7. San Diego Mission Valley condos for sale — Park Villas South (January 5, 2012)
8. Out & About San Diego — Last 10 days to see the beckoning cats
9. Out & About San Diego — 2012's first home show, January 6-8
10. Back to business (I'm so happy the December blogging challenge is over)
11. A break with tradition: One million points. It is what it is.
12. Real estate news — San Diego home sales hold steady in November 2011
13. Real estate news — San Diego County median sales price holds steady in November 2011
14. Real estate news — S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reports lower San Diego home prices in October 2011
15. 2011 December blogging challenge — Day 30: Business plan