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One of the questions I get asked all the time is “how do you achieve so many things at the same time? What do you do to become more productive?”

I used to be a busy and overwhelmed workaholic. I worked hard on my job but I also gave people a lot of my time. The more time I gave away, the more my productivity dropped. It was not until I read the book No B.S Time Management For Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy that I changed all of that. I realized I was losing valuable time and I created structure and discipline around my time.

The better I became at managing time, the more valuable and wealthy I became. If you are not yet a multi-millionaire, chances are high that there is still a lot you can do with your time.

The Reality of a Busy Life

Perhaps you confuse being busy with being productive. They are totally different, and if you want more financial success in your life, you must move from busyness to productivity. Productivity is simply the ability to get the right things done in good time. It is the ability to focus on the 20% activities that produce the 80% result. ​Productivity helps a person turn time into money and live a balanced life. Spending the day in a ‘time treadmill’ where only a few unimportant things get done and pending tasks abound is a terrible way to live. Few things are sadder than a person who knows what to do but cannot muster the energy to do it. People who live like this are the least likely to succeed.

How Time Affects Productivity

You can become more productive when you pay attention to how you are using time. Time is the most valuable resource in the world. It is also scarce and irreplaceable. Time lost is life lost and all of Dangote’s money cannot buy one minute of yesterday’s time. Yet, time, on its own, carries little value. What gives it value is the productive work attached to it. Time invested in meaningful work is what leads to peak productivity. In short, becoming more productive is about mastering the act of giving meaning to time. Productive people know what they want and how to get it. Their energy, feelings, thoughts, and actions are congruent with one another, and their inner congruence leads to inner strength, meaning, and happiness.

How then can you become more productive?

Have an overarching purpose

Human beings take action for a reason and no one becomes more productive in the absence of a purpose. Having a purpose motivates you. It gives a person the ability to take action and push through obstacles, and this is the key to success. One of the ways to arrive at a strong purpose is to answer the following questions: Why do you want to be successful? What is the meaning of your life? How significant are the things you do every day? What makes life worthwhile and valuable for you?

Having clear answers to these questions is the secret to peak productivity and financial success. If you live life without a purpose, you cannot achieve productivity.

Set clear success goals

Setting clear goals is the key to bringing purpose to life. Purpose, on its own, does not lead to success. It is the ability to express purpose by achieving your goals that creates wealth. Achieving peak productivity is about setting clear goals and taking timely and purposeful action to reach those goals. What are the ultimate goals that would make a difference in your life? Are you investing time to achieve them or are you wasting time on trivial things?

Achieve the goals in the right order of importance per time

All goals cannot be achieved at the same time. While they may all be important, not all of them are important to the same degree per time. Since we have several goals and limited time and resources, we must rank our goals in order of importance. What goals matter for your success? Which goal is important per time? How do you achieve these goals and what do you do to your minor goals? These, and many more, are important questions to answer. Answering these questions is the key to achieving peak productivity.

To experience a truly productive life, you must give purpose and meaning to time. You must also set productive goals and achieve them in the right order.

To learn more about how you can achieve peak productivity and become more financially successful, send an email to info@createsolidwealth.com to get the Peak Productivity Formula, a free training program that will transform your financial life.

Funke Adeoye, a public interest lawyer who’s the founder and executive director of Hope Behind Bars Africa, a community of volunteers building a social profit organisation committed to restoring justice, dignity and hope to the lives of women and men living behind bars with particular emphasis on indigents, women and young inmates.

Funke‘s goal is simple: to promote the development of effective and sustainable interventions for increasing access to justice, human rights and reducing a cycle of recidivism/re-offending among women and juvenile offenders housed in correctional facilities in Africa.

Funke decided to become a lawyer because she wanted people, especially the underserved, to access justice. While writing her thesis on prison reforms in Nigeria, she decided to do something about the problems she discovered – so many people in prisons are poor and they can’t afford legal representation; then there’s the issue of lack of information. This idea became more concrete when she volunteered with an NGO and visited prisons.

After she spoke to lawyers about the situation of things, they told her they want to act, but they needed a platform, and she decided to create one.

Today, with headquarters in Abuja, the organisation works with volunteers in Abia, Niger and Nasarawa states in Nigeria.

Since founding the non-profit in May 2018, Hope Behind Bars Africa has represented well over 50 indigent awaiting trial inmates in criminal and human rights cases in Abuja, Niger and Abia states, many of whom should never have been in prison in the first place.

The non-profit’s welfare interventions have reached over 1000 inmates at Suleja and Keffi Prison. It is advocating and working towards the emergence of a humane and secure correctional system where justice is easily accessible to indigents and people who find themselves behind bars are corrected and empowered to prevent re-offending.

Funke is a 2019 Accountapreneur with Accountability Lab and a Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide Makwanyane Institute Fellow.

We celebrate Funke for being a voice for the voiceless and for leading a change in the Nigerian correctional system.

In November 2021, Export Expansion Facility Programme (EEFP), UK Nigeria Tech Hub and Future Females Empowerment Initiatives launched a new and exciting partnership to support local female entrepreneurs who are ready to trade beyond Nigeria’s borders. Three months later, the pilot Women Trade Scaleup programme has concluded and has supported local female entrepreneurs with the skills and strategies to build globally thriving businesses.

Nigeria currently has the largest market in Africa with a population of over 200 million, and with the world becoming more interconnected, having a business that meets customers across the globe is becoming increasingly essential.

Through the three-month Women Trade Scaleup programme, 80+ Nigerian trade-ready female entrepreneurs accessed training through three intensive bootcamps, and were supported with expert coaching, expert mentorship, accountability forums and community engagement sessions, to unlock their entrepreneurial spirit, and see tangible growth in their businesses.

 

The three intensive bootcamps provided participants with a wide range of knowledge from trade experts. November kicked off with the first bootcamp where participants were taken through the fundamentals of trade, trade policies and tariffs, trade strategies, market research for trade and market entry strategies. The second two-day bootcamp in December supported members to prepare their businesses for trade. Some key areas included digital marketing & sales, business model & operations for trade, and cross-border payments.

The last bootcamp in January focused on different strategies to finance a trade business. Financial strategies and revenue models for trade businesses are among the topics that were explored.

The programme brought exceptional feedback from the members with  100% reporting that their trade knowledge and technical skills have improved, 70% increased their revenue, and 73% saw an increase in customer numbers since joining the programme.

One of the graduates, Elizabeth Nwankwo, founder of Oklan Best, increased her revenue by 20%, almost doubled her customer base and has now listed her products on Amazon which are being sold in Canada!

Throughout the programme, Judith Idialu, founder of Bigfarm foods reported a revenue increase of 40% and 40 new customers. She is now exporting to new markets including the UK, Kenya, Ghana.

Elizabeth and Judith are not the exceptions. As the programme concludes, graduates only have brilliant wins to share; from winning grants worth millions of Naira, being featured on national media, to being nominated for prestigious awards; these women are ready to embrace a new global market.

The programme had remarkable coaches and mentors who are experts in their respective fields. Programme expert mentor, Adetokunbo Adewoyin, is the principal consultant of Fortress20 Commodities, a foremost agricultural exports management and consulting firm in Nigeria. She is the programme’s Sourcing and Logistics Expert Mentor with over 13 years of experience in agricultural commodities and containerised exports.

Coach Titi Ojo is the founder/CEO Agrochains Consult Services Ltd, a company that provides strategic services in the agriculture value chain and non-oil export sector. She consults in the international development space with a focus on building a thriving non-oil exports sector through enabling trade policies, capacity building for exporters and market access development.

Commenting on the Women Trade Scaleup pilot programme and bootcamp, Maureen Ideozu, Programme Coordinator of EEFP said, “We are very pleased with the take-off of the Women Trade Scaleup programme. It is one of the important inclusion interventions at EEFP to enhance the capability of Nigerian women to participate in the non-oil export sector. By design, EEFP is a short-term intervention to stimulate and invigorate the non-oil export ecosystem. To achieve wide scale high impact results within a tight timeframe, we adopted a collaborative approach, working with credible and reliable partners. The benefit of this approach is aptly demonstrated by the progress made so far by the Women Trade Scaleup Programme. We thank our partners UK-Nigeria Tech Hub and Future Females Empowerment Initiatives for their commitment and professionalism, as we look forward to increased participation and survival of women owned businesses in international trade; attributable to the quality of expert training, mentorship and access through the programme.”

“Trading across borders is a key ingredient for economic growth and prosperity,” comments Adaeze Sokan, Director of UK Nigeria Tech Hub, “Entrepreneurs leveraging innovation are the ones that will catalyse poverty reduction and inclusive growth but they must think scale from idea conceptualisation and adopt the concept of glocalisation in their business planning – i.e. grow business locally but aim to expand to global markets. This is why we endorse this project and applaud the EEPF/NEPC in their efforts to encourage women entrepreneurs to be ambitious enough to go global.”

“We are delighted to partner with EEFP and The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub to support women in Nigeria to trade internationally! Many women go through our Future Females Business School with physical products, implementing technical tools and capabilities to grow their business, but the support to help them on export principles, requirements, knowledge and access to expert mentors and coaches have been missing. Women are creating beautiful products, building amazing businesses, and being able to help them scale in market size and geography excites us so much! We are learning more about the export requirements and how to support women in this space even more.” says Cerina Bezuidenhout, Future Females COO and Cofounder.

With the calibre of coaches and mentors in the programme, the success of the pilot Women Trade Scaleup Programme comes as no surprise. It looks like 2022 will see more women accessing and thriving in Nigeria’s export market.

Karen Uhlenbeck, a mathematician and a professor at the University of Texas, emerged as the first woman in the world to win a Nobel prize in mathematics. The Abel Prize, modeled by the Nobel Prize and awarded by the King of Norway to honor mathematicians who have made impact in their field, began in 2003 and since inception has only been awarded to men.

However, Uhlenbeck who is known for “the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics” changed that. The award comes with a cash prize of about N253 million and a recognition as a giant in the world of mathematics. Uhlenbeck is renowned for her work in geometric partial differential equations as well as integrable systems and gauge theory, Gucmakale reports. It was gathered that one of her most famous contributions were on pioneering the field of geometric analysis in which she created theories of predictive mathematics. Among her colleagues, Dr. Uhlenbeck is renowned for her work in geometric partial differential equations. Photo: UGC. Source: UGC

The minister was recognised for how he initiated a reconciliation process between his country and its long time enemy, Eritrea. According to the prize’s committee, it gave the award to Ahmed to encourage its peace-making effort even though there are still many things to be done.

According to the prize’s committee, it gave the award to Ahmed to encourage its peace-making effort even though there are still many things to be done.

Healthcare is an integral part of any society and getting it right in that sector should be paramount. One of the most important part of any discipline, healthcare inclusive, is information. The more people know, the more they can do.

Farida Kabir is a health technology expert, an advocate for women and girls in STEM who’s also passionate about good governance and strong institutions.

Farida is a public health scientist, software developer, and UI/UX designer. She’s the founder of OTRAC, a healthcare Learning Management System (H-LMS) that provides cloud based medical contents to vary array of medical practitioners.

Through OTRAC, Farida provides “tailored trainings/courses for public and general health practitioners with a vision to build a learning platform that supports continuous development of all health practitioners, and enhance their capacity and knowledge for effective service delivery.”

OTRAC, founded in 2017, currently has over 8,000 subscribers, 27 courses, and 32 facilitators in its platform.

She’s an ICT advisor for Department For International Development (DFID)’s Partnership to Engage, Reform, and Learn (PERL) programme which “links governments and citizen groups to collectively address governance challenges for improved service delivery”. She’s an ambassador for Google Women Techmakers, Abuja and co-organizer for Google Developer Group, Abuja.

She also consults for Reboot, an organisation working with change agents in government, civil society, and philanthropy to achieve their social missions.

She also contributes her skills working at Mentally Aware Nigerian Initiative (MANI), a mental health awareness platform tackling the stigma associated with mental illness.

Farida, a graduate of Zoology from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, is one of 100 women named in Leading Ladies Africa (LLA)’s 100 Most Inspiring Women in Nigeria list for 2019.

We celebrate Farida for devoting her skills to assisting developmental initiatives and solving social problems.

 

Nigerian-born Suara made history on September 12 , 2019 after becoming the first Muslim in history to be elected to Nashville’s Metro Council.

She was elected to fill one of the five At-Large council seats.

Here are a few things to know about her.

  1. Zuarat Suara attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria from 1985 – 1990 where she obtained an HND in Accountancy.

2. She came to the U.S. in 1993 but settled in Tennessee as her new home in 1998 when the opportunity for her husband to do a fellowship at Vanderbilt presented itself.

3. She founded an accounting firm that has worked with county governments in Hardeman, Haywood, Lake, and McNairy counties.

4. She is currently the Assistant Controller of a local university in Nashville.

5. She started the Hardeman County Chapter of Junior Achievement in 2004 and continues to advocate for children and young people as a board member of the PENCIL Foundation.

6. Suara has served in a number of leadership positions, including the chair of the American Muslim Advisory Council.

7. She has supported women, serving two terms as State President of the Business and Professional Women, a century-old organization promoting equity for all women in the workplace, from 2009-2011.

Image result for zulfat suara biography

8. She is active politically as treasurer of the National Women’s Political Caucus and chair of Day on the Hill, a joint legislative day for several women’s organizations on issues affecting Tennessee women and children.

9. She has also been a speaker at the Nashville Women’s March each year since 2017.

10. She has been recognized with the FBI Directors’ Community Leadership Award and featured in the Jackson Sun’s Twenty Most Influential Women in West Tennessee.

11. She was named the 2018 Muslim Policy Advocate of the Year by Islamic Society of North America, and The Tennessee Economic Council on Women inducted her into its Tennessee Women Hall of Fame in 2015.

12. She recently received an award for Outstanding Service to Human Rights from the TN Human Rights Commission and currently serves as a board member of the Nashville Metro Action Commission.

13. Suara has been married for 27 years to Dr. Rahaman Suara and they are blessed with five amazing children.

 

 

Credit: fabwoman.ng

Nobody’s perfect. But some men you should just avoid entirely..

As you look for Mr. Right, you try to look past some of bad traits so you can see all the good ones. This is good. It shows that you’re not shallow. But, despite how shallow it might seem, there are some guys you should just leave in the dating pool. Here are 10:

The commitment-phobe

Finally locked down the guy every girl’s been chasing? Well, I got news for you. Just because he finally decided to knuckle down and commit, doesn’t mean he’s committed. If he used to be a commitment-phobe, he may still be and you’ll always wonder how invested in the relationship he really is.

The mama’s boy

You’ve heard that how a man treats his mother is how he’ll treat you. So you look for a guy who is close to his mom and spends a lot of time with her. But be careful, if he’s too close you’ll find yourself married to his mother, too. So you better get used to hearing, “My mom doesn’t do it that way.” And you better get used to his mother being your marriage counselor, too.

The manly man

This guy talks about sports, beer and hunting all the time. Sure, he’s rugged but you better be prepared to change all the diapers and do all the housework. And forget about him getting you something nice for Valentine’s Day because real men don’t do that mushy stuff

The rebel

A lot of women are attracted to the bad boy. There’s just something mysterious and romantic about him. But a lot of times the rebel in society is a rebel in marriage. And pretty soon you’ll find him rebelling against you, too.

The narcissist

Narcissus was an ancient Greek mythological figure who was so beautiful that he fell in love with himself – but because he couldn’t leave his own reflection in the water, he eventually drowned. A person who is a narcissist is so convinced of their own greatness that they don’t see their weaknesses. Marrying a narcissist is a very one sided relationship. They’re always trying to vaunt their own greatness – often at the expense of others.

The control freak

Everybody likes to have things their own way. Unfortunately, because men are socialized to express hostility and anger when they don’t get what they want, a man who is a control freak can often become intimidating and even abusive (physically or mentally).

The I-know-more-than-you

It’s a good thing to marry a person for his brains. But be careful because you might end up marrying a know-it-all. And you’ll always feel like you’re wrong – even if it’s just an opinion.

The pushover

As mentioned before, everybody likes to have their own way. So when you find a guy who lets you do whatever you want and doesn’t complain about it, you want to grab him up. But after a while you’ll find yourself making all the decisions. And then you’ll find yourself complaining because he doesn’t pull his own weight.

The fitness freak

Who doesn’t want a guy with chiseled abs and nice arms? But despite all his good (physical) traits you may soon find that the gym is taking up an exorbitant amount of time in your family’s life. And you’ll find yourself using phrases like “did you beat your PR today, honey?” But more importantly, a man who lets the gym run his life has let the servant become the master and you’ll soon find that he has other priorities out of whack, too.

Yes, there are bits and pieces of these personality traits in every Prince Charming. But just make sure they’re only bits and pieces or you’ll find yourself married to a frog instead of a Prince.

Source: Familyshare

 

Wife of Edo State Governor, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki has on Friday announced a free Medical Mission in partnership with the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA), to carry out diverse medical treatments including surgeries for Edo residents over a period of two weeks.

The Edo State Commissioner for Health Prof. Obehi Akoria disclosed this when she accompanied wife of Edo state governor, Mrs. Obaseki on an inspection tour of the Primary Health Centres in Edo South Senatorial District designated for the exercise.

The medical mission is billed to hold from April 23 to May 5, 2022.

According to the Edo Health Commissioner, “for the first time in the 40-year history of ANPA, they are working with us through the Primary Health Care Gateway, and so Her Excellency is visiting the Primary Health Centres that will be used to provide free Healthcare for citizens under the auspices of the ‘ANPA Edo State Project.’

She said, “They are coming with a team of specialists that include Neurosurgeons, Neurologists, Cardiologist, Endocrinologists, Nephrologists, Pharmacists and Paediatricians including Neonatologists.

“They are going to also do what we call, Telemedicine. What they will establish going forward is to follow up with patients remotely. So from their various centres in the United States each of them is volunteering to work with us once a week to review these patients and see how we can extend the care to others in the State.

Commenting on the ongoing plans for the Primary Health Centres in the State, Akoria noted, “I was here at the Oredo Primary Health Centre at about 8:15 this morning and there were already patients waiting. The doctors we have here have more than 20 years, post graduation and we have posted senior doctors across many PHCs in the State. We are seeing very senior nurses here in addition to community health workers.

She added that the Governor has decided that Primary Health Centres will be like first class out-patient clinics in a big general hospital, so that rather than everybody moving to the centre and queuing up endlessly for care, they can get care as close as possible to where they live and work. “So what we are trying to do right now is to make our PHCs good enough for me, my children, grand children and all Edo people.”

With over 600 million active users, Facebook is bound to get a little crazy at times. Unfortunately, there is no official rule book for this gigantic social empire; however, there are certain rules and etiquette that everyone should consider.

Here are a just a few tips on how you can avoid getting blocked off your friend’s news feed or becoming “that mom”:

  1. Over posting

We love pictures of your kids. (We really do. Especially babies.) But if I know exactly what you did all day, then you have definitely gone too far. Posting a new picture, status update or article every hour or gets to be a little bit much.

Remember, less is more. Posting constantly and filling up your friends’ news feeds is a big no-no. One post a day is just fine. Two is definitely acceptable. Before you post three or more times, consider waiting until another day. Your friends will appreciate the SparkNotes version of your day much better than the novel form.

  1. Selfies

Cute selfies? Definitely keep them coming. (Let’s be honest. We all take them.) Posting selfies on a regular basis? No. You can be proud of your outfit and the way you look, but when you post a highly filtered selfie every day it displays a lack of self-confidence.Your friends are here to help and validate you. (That’s what we’re here for, right?) But please, keep the selfies to a minimum. Believe me, your friends will keep letting you know that you’re gorgeous (because frankly, you are).

Stand back, give the camera to someone else, and have them take pictures of you (somewhere other than your bathroom mirror) living life with the people you love around you. There is something refreshing and wonderful about a picture like that.

  1. Be real

We want to cheer for you, your family, and your successes. Sharing joy is just another great aspect of social media.

But, nobody’s life is perfect. Don’t be afraid to be your true self online. Share the good moments, and let people support you during the hard ones. Facebook is a great place to get support during difficult times.

Nothing feels better than knowing someone else is going through the same thing as you.

  1. Inappropriate content

Please keep the trash off of the internet. Don’t post pictures or articles that someone would be embarrassed to see, or they would be embarrassed for their children or boss to see on their computer.

There is nothing worse than scrolling through your feed and having to block someone for posting pornographic selfies or going off on an explicit rant.

  1. Name calling

Everyone appreciates a good debate, and Facebook is an excellent platform to share your thoughts and opinions — but please, please, please don’t get sucked in to useless name calling.

Let’s face the facts: No two people are going to have the exact same opinions and beliefs on every subject. Just because someone thinks differently, doesn’t mean they are a bigot, uninformed or dumb.

If you’re going to have at it in the comments, make sure you are respectful, kind and prudent. If they sink to low levels, you don’t need to join them. Know when to stop and protect your reputation.

Also , Cryptic status updates

Posts like, “I can’t believe that just happened” with no follow up are annoying and appropriate only for angsty teenagers. Be real with your friends and family — and don’t write posts just to get follow-up questions that give you unnecessary amounts of attention. If someone has to ask, “what happened?” then your post is too cryptic.

What social media faux pas bother you?

Comment Below:

 

 

Tech-savvy lawyer and activist Ory Okolloh Mwangi combines her skills and passion to increase government transparency and accountability.

She is known as the “Kenyan pundit” for good reason: not only does she have strong opinions about government transparency, the role of entrepreneurship and African storytelling – she has also always been committed to helping others share their voices.

Until recently, Ory was the Managing Director, Omidyar Network and Luminate Group in Africa – both part of The Omidyar Group – a diverse collection of companies, organizations and initiatives united by a common desire to catalyse positive social impact.

She serves on the board of several organisations including the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, Stanbic Holdings Plc and Stanbic Bank Kenya, and is the Chair of the Stanbic Foundation.

She is also an Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) Fellow and has in the past served as advisory board member to Twiga Foods, Amnesty International Africa and Endeavor Kenya among several other organisations.

Ory has a Juris Doctor (the equivalent of a master’s degree) from Harvard Law School and a B.A in Political Science (summa cum laude) from the University of Pittsburgh.

Her current role as a non-executive director at East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) saw her picked as a member of the Covid-19 ICT Advisory Committee which is tasked with integrating ICT in the fight against the pandemic.

A gazette notice issued by Cabinet Secretary for ICT Joe Mucheru stated the role of the newly established committee would be to assess how ICT can support efforts to combat the virus, including to develop and implement a framework for identifying, supporting and scaling local technology.

Prior to her new frontline role, Ory was Google’s Policy and Strategy Manager for Africa. She was at the forefront of developing technology innovation as a founding member of Ushahidi.

She is also the co-founder of Mzalendo, a website that tracks the performance of Kenyan MPs. Ory Okolloh spearheaded the founding of Ushahidi, a revolutionary crowd sourcing utility that enables citizen journalists and eyewitnesses all over the world to report incidents of violence through the web, mobile E-mail, SMS, and Twitter.

In 2011 Ory was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and one of Africa’s most Powerful Women by Forbes Magazine.

In 2014 she was featured in the prestigious list of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Source: leadingladiesafrica.org