Dear Student,

It is hard to believe another month has come and gone at Prosper, Inc. You can review past Prosper Newsletters online at www.prosperlearning.com/newsletter.

We have a great selection of success stories, tips, and products this month. Each month, our best coaches select those stories, tips, and products that they feel are most relevant to our students. Our key goal at Prosper, Inc. is to ensure that our students are succeeding. We cannot celebrate our success until our students are celebrating their own. We hope you are finding this newsletter to be one among many valuable resources to your financial education at Prosper, Inc.

We also hope you’ve had a chance to explore the new look and usability of the Success Center. Students and employees have responded to the new design with great feedback. We are confident that it is going to continue to have a positive effect on those who utilize it.

In this newsletter, we invite you to explore your area(s) of study, while taking a moment to learn more about other areas.

Please remember that, “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” –Napoleon Hill. Take the opportunity this holiday season to make someone else’s life a bit more comfortable and joyful. May you have a safe and happy holiday season.

Best Holiday Wishes,

Your friends at Prosper, Inc.

Get More Done In A Day: Making the Most of Your Time

“Everyone has it, but nobody has enough of it.”

It sounds like a riddle you may have heard in grade school. While the answer to this riddle may by easy, the larger task of getting more from your limited time can seem anything but simple. Millions of hardworking, intelligent people find their time slipping away, no matter how much effort they put into their tasks. And at the end of the day, they wonder where it all went.

Time is probably your most valuable asset. How valuable it really is depends on what you do with it. Everyone has same amount. Today’s most successful businesspeople often spend no more time at their work than then average American. The difference is how effective they are with the time they are given.

Like so many other things in life, the solution to this problem depends entirely on your mindset. And while there is no foolproof formula for squeezing more out of your daily 24 hours, we offer up this selection of tips and techniques for working smarter and faster, without sacrificing important personal and family time.

Log your time.
The first step in discovering where your time went is simply locating where you put it. You can do this with a time log. Many businesses log time in order to improve efficiency, and you can use the same principle in your own work.

Studies have shown that the average worker actually “works” only 1.5 hours in an 8-hour workday. The rest of the time is spent shuffling papers, corresponding with friends and coworkers, visiting the restroom, etc. Most of these people lose sight of overall impact these little sidetracks have on their productivity.

The key to logging your time is to be thorough. Since you probably switch from task to task quite frequently throughout the day, you may find a stopwatch helpful. When you switch a task, simply glance at the watch, note the time you spent, reset the watch, and move on to your next task. If you do this for a week, you’ll get a good idea of how you divide your time.

After you’ve logged your time, compare your actual “work” time to the time you spend doing something else. If you’re like most people, your productivity ratio will be quite low. The key, then, is to increase this ratio, rather than increase the hours you devote to work.

Limit your workday.
While limiting your workday may seem counterintuitive to increasing your productivity, it actually follows the law of supply in demand. Simply put, the law states that the greater the supply, the less valuable it becomes.

The same goes for time. When you have what seems to be plenty of time, each minute can seem less valuable – making it easy to fritter away a minute here, a minute there.

But what happens when you limit your workday? Say, for instance, you plan only five hours of work instead of your normal eight. Suddenly you feel the pressure to get things done – and every minute wasted is a missed opportunity to finish your tasks. This pressure is what can increase your productivity ratio. Many people find that with fewer hours to work, they actually accomplish more than they did under a normal schedule!

Work smarter.
It’s a cliché: “Work smarter, not harder.” But like most clichés, this one is often overlooked. So what does it mean to work smarter?

It means studying a task, looking for ways to accomplish it more efficiently. Maybe it’s as simple as using more efficient software. Perhaps it’s using a more effective filing system in your office. Whatever it is, spending time on smarter solutions will pay off with better productivity in the future.

Work faster.
Easier said that done, right? While you may think that you’re working at your personal speed limit, you’d be surprised how much faster you can become with some new skills under your belt. Consider investing in yourself with a class or seminar.

Maybe your work requires a lot of typing. In this case, some typing courses could increase your work speed. Perhaps you make a lot of presentations in the course of a day. Attending a seminar might make you a better presenter, allowing you to accomplish more in less time. Whatever the skill, investing in yourself always pays off – and makes your workday that much more productive.

Get into a groove.
Ever notice that when you’re completely focused on a task, without interruption, it seems much easier to get it done? When you get into a groove, it’s usually because you’re concentrating on a task and ignoring the distractions.

You can use this principle to your advantage. For instance, if you know you have to respond to a large amount of email, set aside a time to do as much of it as you can. Or if you have research to conduct, get it all done at once. In short, group similar tasks together. If you do that, you’ll find it much easier to get into your groove and get things done.

Stop worrying about what you need to do.
That doesn’t mean throw away your “to-do” list. It means rather than wasting time thinking about getting what you have to do, simply do it! The more you think about “what I need to do,” the more excuses you’ll find to put it off. Just pick a task and get to work. Before you know it, you’ll be ready for the next, and the next. Soon you’ll realize that you’ve accomplished a lot more than you would have by simply thinking about the things that needed doing. And you’ll be happier in the process!

Make your mornings count.
You’ve probably noticed that your morning sets the tone for the rest of your day. Some days you may roll out of bed with too little sleep or motivation to jump right into work. Unfortunately, that circumstance will carry over throughout the workday, leading to procrastination and lower productivity. Conversely, starting your day on the right foot can make a world of difference in what you accomplish.

Getting enough sleep is critical to starting your day off right. Be sure to plan to get to bed early enough to wake up refreshed in the morning.

If you exercise, consider making it an early morning routine. Head to any gym in the early morning, and you’ll find it filled with incredibly successful people. Not only do these people feel energized, but they’ve also saved time by not needing an additional shower during the day.

Be prepared for unexpected waits.
Chances are you have plenty of reading to catch up on. Why not take it with you? Having listening or reading materials with you at all times allows you to always be prepared for the unexpected waits. You may even get caught up with your reading, leaving your valuable time open for other productive activities.

Know Your Priorities.
Think about what’s important. Is it catching the latest episode of CSI? Or is it achieving success? Sometimes, when people are truly honest with themselves, they realize that their real priorities are activities that don’t contribute to what’s most important.

Don’t get us wrong—we have our favorite TV shows that we hate to miss, too. But if that show means the difference between staying up late and getting a good start in the morning, we recommend doing whatever it takes to reach your maximum productivity.

Maybe you could record your show to view at a later time. Or buy the season DVD. Whatever the case, don’t let your leisure activities take priority over your ultimate goals. When that happens, you’ve got a lot less to show for yourself at the end of a day’s work.

Let Go of Negativity
Nothing takes the wind from our sails like negative thinking. Unfortunately, many of us hold ourselves back from achieving our goals with thoughts like, “This is taking too long,” or “Maybe I’m not up to this.” What we tell ourselves has a great impact on how we perform.

A daily routine, however, can get you in the right mindset. Try a morning walk or workout. As you exercise, make a conscious effort to let go of the things that hold you back. Focus on your breathing, and tell yourself “I let go of my doubt. I let go of my stress. I let go of perfection. I let go of approval.”

Soon, your mind is free from demands and constraints, and is energized and more able to achieve great things.

Taking this advice to heart will not only make you a better worker. It will also increase your success as an entrepreneur. The most successful individuals in the world seem to accomplish so much with the same amount of time. It’s not magic. It’s simply taking on a positive attitude and eliminating the roadblocks that get in the way of success. Give it a try, and there’s no telling how much you’ll do in a day.