1) Phil's Financial Tip of the Day:
Mackay's Moral: Wasting your time is wasting your opportunities.
Time management tips from a pro -From Harvey Mackay
Did you resolve to get more organized in 2012? How is that working out for you so far?
Managing your time is perhaps the most difficult organizational challenge you face. You can always declutter your desk, rearrange your workspace, or get your files in order. But getting control of your schedule is one of those grand intentions that suffer because it involves setting rules for others who interfere with your productivity.
A terrific resource for those of us who struggle with never having enough time is Laura Stack, president of The Productivity Pro (www.TheProductivityPro.com), a time-management training firm that specializes in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations. (Is there any other kind?) Her fifth productivity book, What to Do When There's Too Much to Do, comes out in July.
Laura is also president of the National Speakers Association, an organization to which I also belong. She is the personification of the old adage, "If you need something done, ask a busy person." Why is that true? Because they have probably figured out how to best use their time.
And if you haven't attended one of her seminars, Laura has possibly been helping you already. She is the designer of The Productivity Pro planner by Day-Timer.
You don't have to wait until July to start reorganizing your schedule. Laura shared some thoughts with me about the biggest problems people face when the clock is the enemy.
The #1 time-management challenge that people face is not taking time to think, she says. They are busy putting out fires, directing day-to-day operations, and dealing with distractions, but they should be spending time concentrating on strategy. They should incorporate "thinking time" on their calendars, which allows them to prepare for impending crises and deal with them proactively, rather than reactively.
Laura recommends "strategy retreats" for leaders every few months, a weekend all alone, without email, to write, think, dream, and plan. Assess mission statements and progress toward meeting goals. She acknowledges that setting aside this time is a tremendous challenge but emphasizes the importance of intense focus.
We discussed the role of technology in managing our time. I don't go anywhere without my iPhone and iPad -- I'm afraid I might miss something important. Laura admits that while most people think technology should enhance time management, she cautions that at the same time, it blurs the boundaries between our work and personal lives.
Technology can become addictive, as most of us would agree. We are slaves to our smartphones. Laura says we are conditioned to interrupt what we are doing: "I observe employees doing this. You're at your desk. You're working on something critical. You need to be head down, prepping for a meeting, doing a proposal, preparing a presentation . . . All of a sudden you get this email alert or a ding or your cursor changes or you get some other alert, and you just can't help it. You have to check it.
"A majority of incoming technology alerts are not important, but we stop the critical task to go focus on that. This 'always on' mentality is really keeping us from having a life," she says. "You have to use technology strategically. When you're using it to improve productivity for down time, do so on purpose."
My final question for Laura focused on the biggest waste of time. What should we not be doing?
Her answer was not what I expected: "I think the biggest waste of time is always doing what we've always done." She gave an example of a human resources vice president who generated monthly reports indicating how much time each employee spent in training courses. When she asked the VP what the recipients did with the reports, the VP didn't know even though she had been sending reports for two years.
Laura advised her to survey the recipients as to their usefulness. The result? They perused only the executive summary, so they decided brief quarterly reports would suffice. Time savings: nearly two full work days each quarter.
Ask if what you are doing still makes sense, she says. "Why do we do it this way? If I didn't do this at all, would anybody notice?"
Time is a gift. If you feel like you're wasting it, invite a pro to help you assess your strategy. It will be time well spent.
2) In the Markets today:
The Dow industrials gained 45 points, as jobs data and bank earnings kept the rally moving.
Financials lift Wall Street after bank earnings-From Reuters
Stocks rose for the third straight day on Thursday, sparked by results from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley and as the latest jobless claims dropped to a near four-year low.
The S&P 500 hit a fresh five-month high, with the industrials, consumer discretionary stocks and financials leading gains.
Tech shares advanced ahead of earnings from a number of bellwethers. But after the bell, shares of Google (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News) fell 10 percent to $575.50 following its results.
In the regular session, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC - News) climbed 2.4 percent to $6.96 after it reported it swung to a fourth-quarter profit from a year-ago loss. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News) reported a loss that was narrower than expected, sparking a 5.4 percent jump in its stock to $18.28.
"We think (financials) have pretty much bottomed here in the U.S.," said Paul Simon, chief investment officer at Tactical Allocation Group in Birmingham, Michigan.
"They represent some compelling value. We think a lot of the bad news has been discounted, and you've seen stock prices rallying in the beginning of the year," said Simon, whose firm has been buying financials.
Financial shares have rallied since the start of the year. The S&P financial index (:.GSPF) is up 8.1 percent so far for 2012, helping to push the S&P 500 up 4.5 percent for the year.
In U.S. economic data, data showed the number of Americans filing for new jobless benefits dropped to a near four-year low last week. It added to views that the economy is slowly moving forward.
Semiconductor stocks also advanced, with the PHLX Sox Index (Nasdaq:^SOX - News) rising 1.9 percent. Xilinx Inc (NasdaqGS:XLNX - News) shot up 1 percent to $35.64 a day after issuing an upbeat forecast.
The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI:^DJI - News) rose 45.03 points, or 0.36 percent, to 12,623.98 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (SNP:^GSPC - News) gained 6.46 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,314.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq:^IXIC - News) climbed 18.62 points, or 0.67 percent, to close at 2,788.33.
In a sign of optimism about Europe, both Spain and France drew strong demand at government debt auctions.
With the S&P 500 having broken above the 1,300 level, it looks set to hit the 1,360-1,370 area, said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston.
"That (area) represents the May 2011 high ... and I believe we will see that during this earnings season," Zaro said.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJI:^DJT - News) gained 1.6 percent, with shares of Union Pacific Corp (NYSE:UNP - News) rising 2.2 percent to $112.18 after reporting quarterly profit and revenue that beat estimates.
Volume totaled about 7.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, above the daily average of 6.68 billion, and the highest since December 16.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange and on the Nasdaq, by about 7 to 5.
3) Top financial story of the day:
Weekly applications for unemployment benefits plunge to lowest point in nearly 4 years.
Unemployment claims at 352,000, fewest since 2008-From AP
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008. The decline added to evidence that the job market is strengthening.
Applications fell 50,000, the biggest drop in the seasonally adjusted figure in more than six years, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, dropped to 379,000. That's the second-lowest such figure in more than three years.
A department spokesman cautioned that volatility at this time of year is common. Applications had jumped two weeks ago, largely because companies laid off thousands of temporary workers hired for the holidays.
Still, when weekly applications fall consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to push down the unemployment rate.
"This continues a clear downshift in claims," said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics.
Shepherdson suggested that stronger hiring should follow.
Hiring improved in the second half of 2011. In December, employers added 200,000 jobs. That marked the sixth straight month in which the economy added at least 100,000 jobs. And the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, a three-year low.
For all of 2011, the economy added 1.6 million jobs. That was up sharply from 940,000 in 2010. Economists say they expect roughly 1.9 million more jobs to be added this year, according to a survey by The Associated Press.
Still, the job market has a long way to go before it fully recovers from the damage of the Great Recession, which wiped out 8.7 million jobs. More than 13 million people remain unemployed.
Millions more have given up looking for work and so are no longer counted as unemployed.
The overall number of people receiving benefits, which isn't seasonally adjusted, rose. More than 7.8 million people received benefits in the final week of last year. They include about 3.6 million people covered by extended-benefit programs begun during the recession.
The manufacturing sector remains a bright spot. Factory output jumped 0.9 percent in December, the Federal Reserve said this week. That was the sharpest monthly gain in a year. Manufacturing gained 225,000 jobs last year, the most since 1997.
The pickup in hiring reflects stronger economic growth. The economy likely grew at an annual rate of about 3 percent in the final three months of last year, economists estimate.
That would be a sharp improvement over the 1.8 percent annual growth rate in the July-September quarter. Rising consumer spending is thought to be fueling much of the gain in the current quarter.
Even so, economists worry that growth could slow in the first half of 2012. Europe is almost certain to fall into recession because of its financial troubles.
And wages aren't keeping up with inflation. The department said in a separate report that average inflation-adjusted hourly earnings dropped 0.9 percent last year.
Without more jobs and higher pay, consumers might have to cut back on spending. That would weigh down growth next year. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.
4) Quote of the Day from Dave Ramsey.com:
People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success. — Norman Vincent Peale
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