When you read a book about productivity or management, or you talk to someone successful; there’s one thing they all have in common. They don’t talk about how much time they have but how much they can get out of their time.

You can have all the money in the world, but you can only have so much time. This means you have to leverage your time.

Leverage your time with these 10 tips.

Find a mentor: Someone to help you refine your ideas into practice. Some of your ideas will be able to put into practice easily, but others might need some fine-tuning. If you don’t know a ‘Guru’ or cannot get in contact with one; subscribe to a blog like Zen Habits. However, don’t fall into the trap of subscribing to more than one; you don’t want to read your feeds all day. Reading too many blogs works counterproductive. Select a good one and stick with that.

Invest your money: this especially goes for newbie entrepreneurs. If you’re just starting out, and you’re making your first dollars online, don’t waste them on booze. Don’t get me wrong; I love liquor as much as the next guy. But especially in the beginning of your online venture; invest in yourself and your business as much as you can.

Start with outsourcing your business: Outsourcing your business might very well be the most important tip in this list. You need to realize that you are the manager in your business, and you need to excel in this. If you don’t have the money to outsource everything, then start with the small things but start today!

Make use of your management talents or improve those that you lack in: I used to be a ‘though’ manager, I could be a real asshole. I already had this when I had a day job but now that I’m a business owner it’s even more important. I used to ask from the people that worked for me the same dedication and commitment as I have. This is of course impossible; it’s my business and not theirs. It wasn’t easy but I had to learn to be more easy going and to give them more space. Now that I stepped back (a bit) it seems that my team is more productive.

Are your skills outdated and they are not management or marketing related: Hire someone who will fill the gap! Find someone who is better than you.

Use the available online resources responsible: You have some great information sources but use them wisely. If you use twitter; don’t use it when you’re working. I already wrote about this in the first point; if you subscribe to a blog, no matter what kind of blog but don’t overdo it! If you really need to read a whole bunch of blogs; close your reader or Outlook. Only check your email and RSS twice a day.

Networking: Use social media to broaden your network (watch your time) and leverage existing ones that you meet throughout your life.

Make use of smart systems and tools: Not only tools like Skype and Roboform but use technology to assist you in achieving more. Especially online tools, the cloud computing world is exploding and that’s not for nothing. We use online time planners, online management systems and online CRM systems, and it works great! If you work on a project; assign your coworkers, they’ll be automatically notified, and you get a message when it’s finished and the time is automatically recorded. This is a must, especially when you run an online business or blog. Start with it today, even if you don’t have any employees. There’s no better time to start working with these systems. Learn it now, so you’ll be prepared when you have employees.

Make use of your knowledge: work with the things that work for you. Is there something making you money, is there something making you happy or is it making you more productive? Make use of it!

Realize what you’re doing: I use Rescue Time constantly to see what I’m doing. When I started using this service, I was blown away with the amount of hours that I spend on email. It’s a free service, and at the end of the week they’ll send you an email with a schedule with how much time you’ve spend on your sites, your apps and on your email. It’s a real productivity booster.

If you have any tips, be sure to leave them in the comments!

Pros and Cons of Outsourcing: a few necessary points every company should know to be on the safe side

It is very important for all companies with an inclination for outsourcing business processes to know the pros cons of outsourcing because this will help them make a better and more informed decision. To know what are the pros cons of outsourcing, please read on.

Pros and Cons of Outsourcing

Outsourcing has come under the media glare and this trend is being severely scrutinized by the media and workers alike in many of the developed nations. The main reason why companies and in particular Online business owners opt for outsourcing is because it helps in cutting costs, reducing operational expenditure and also helps a company to bear the competition and stay ahead in the race. You can enjoy better customer service and superior quality products at dirt cheap rates.

Pros of Outsourcing

• Outsourcing allows you to concentrate on the core competencies.
• Outsourcing results in increased productivity.
• Through outsourcing, you can get access to a host of better and more improved, cutting edge technologies at dirt cheap rates, as I have mentioned just above.
• In most cases there’s no need to spend anything on labor training cost, because these expenses will be covered by the outsourcing service provider.
• You will gain access to more efficient, skilled, better trained and cheaper labor without putting a hair out of place.
• Outsourcing will cut your operational costs by more than 50%.

It is true that in many cases, outsourcing is failing to appease companies and contracts are falling through, but in spite of such set backs and minor hiccups, most companies are going ahead with their outsourcing policies because of the abovementioned benefits.

Cons of Outsourcing

But the situation isn’t really all that green. There is a dark cloud behind the silvery glitter as well.

• When the outsourcing service provider suddenly becomes insolvent or bankrupt or cannot provide services due to labor problems or lack of funds, the company that is outsourcing the service will land in a real soup.
• It is very difficult to suddenly shift the business process in house just like that or find a replacement service provider who will be trustworthy enough.
• Since control of the business processes is transferred to the outsourcing service provider, your company will lose the control over the business processes.
• You cannot command single minded devotion and dedication from outsourcing service providers as you are not the only one who is receiving their services. They are offering their services to many other companies like yours.

With the knowledge on the pros cons of outsourcing that you have gained in this article, you can now decide whether outsourcing will be of any help to you or not. I suggest you start outsourcing as much as possible; it’s the key to growing your business.

Mind mapping software can make such a huge difference to your productivity that you really should think about making it an essential component of your personal toolkit. I am a huge fan of mind mapping software and couldn’t live without it. Here are ten reasons why you should start using it:

1. It is very easy to customize
The greatest benefit of using mind mapping software is being able to easily control, manipulate and analyze ideas, knowledge and information. This software works by condensing ideas and information into containers that can be rearranged as required. 

2. It can dramatically improve productivity
Independent studies carried out by Mindjet and myself show an average increase in productivity of 20% when using mind mapping software. In other words, one day in five or 73 days per year! What could you achieve if you could save that kind of time? What effect would such an increase in efficiency produce?

3. It can help you become a better, more effective problem solver 
The human brain works by association and mapping information visually makes it easier to see connections between pieces of information that appear unrelated. Also, your brain hates anything being unfinished. So if your brain sees an undeveloped map branch, it kicks in and delivers the thoughts and ideas required to complete it.

4. It helps you to recognize gaps in your information
The brain works visually and by association, so when you begin mapping your ideas and knowledge visually, it is much easier to see where gaps exist in your information; which additional facts or knowledge you need to obtain and even to identify new ‘white space’ ideas that you couldn’t see previously.

5. It provides powerful tools to streamline your thinking
If you move a topic in a mind map, you change its context and by doing so, you change its meaning. This allows you to ‘think about how you think’ and to look at ideas and information from a more detached viewpoint. You can then rearrange and rethink your ideas until they make sense.

6. It helps you understand key issues faster
This was judged to be the most valuable benefit by mind mapping software users. You can quickly do a ‘brain dump’ into your favorite mind mapping software and rearrange topics and ideas until you are satisfied. Each time you rearrange a mind map you change the context of each topic. This is very powerful.

7. It helps you reach better decisions
Mind mapping allows you to record a detailed picture of a problem or opportunity, to brainstorm possible solutions, to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each one by assigning weights to them and to reach a more reasoned, considered decision – frequently faster than by other methods of decision making.

8. It helps you to be better organized
You can use mind maps project management tool. You can create agendas, to do lists, keep all the project information in one place. Mind maps can contain links to documents, folders, files and websites. You can use the time you save looking for documents to achieve great things!

9. It allows you to see the bigger picture
By utilizing the option to expand or contract a mind map, you can alternate between macro and micro views in the same document. This is especially useful in a large or complex project.

10. You can easily identify, prioritize and track key project tasks
Most mind mapping software offers many ways of prioritizing and tracking topics including categorizing by color or flag, adding task information to topics, including start and end dates, % complete and priority.

You can even create a personal dashboard to keep an eye on projects you have delegated and those that must be completed. If you use the Getting Things Done (GTD) management method, you’ll find that some mind mapping programs help you to manage your ‘next actions’ and ‘someday maybe’ tasks more efficiently.

If you are still not using mind mapping software to improve your business productivity, I strongly recommend that you consider it.