Month: June 2013

Categories
AD/HD Get Organized More time in my day prioritize procrastination Uncategorized

Design Your Days, Step One: Get Clear in just 9 minutes.

Do you ever feel like you have one foot on either side of a crevice? Do you dance, do you jump, do you fall through? If you’ve ever felt conflicted, listen and/or read on, to get clear in 9 minutes. From Sue West and myself, the “Design Your Days Duo!”

listen here: JUNE 20.2013

Or read here:

Sue: “I really want to focus on my growing business that is my passion. But I need to pay my bills. I feel stuck.”

Carol: “I sell equipment that earns me a good living, but my true business dream is not much more than that- it’s just a pipe dream at the moment. What should I do?”
Carol: Do any of these sound familiar to you? If so, you have found the right place. This is Carol Williams, Productivity Coach at EpS, Efficient Productivity Systems.

Sue: And this is Sue West, Life Transitions Coach and AD/HD specialist

We have joined together as the Design Your Days Duo for this series of audio interviews to give you short, “use today” pieces of advice, in 5 to 8 minutes.

Carol: Last time we spoke about Clarity as it relates to becoming better organized and shared some A-HA moments when our workshop participants began Designing Their Days. When we get clear, we open ourselves up to the possibilities that are often hidden just below the surface.

Sue: Today we are going to address 2 questions- because those questions, or questions like those, could pertain to you. If you are a creative entrepreneur, or, if you think you want to be a creative entrepreneur, you might have those questions locked up inside.

Carol: When we work with someone in the Design Your Days framework, we ask, What Gets in Your Way? This is the first step in seeking clarity. If you think about the questions above, they are really pointing to WHAT might be getting in each person’s way.

Sue: Let’s start with the first question. Growth, new passions but then ah, yes, reality strikes.

Try a couple of important ways to direct your thinking: (1) a reality check on the financial gap (2) Where’s the passion, really? (3) Focus – defining that more clearly and (4) Stuck – and how you’ll know that you’re beginning to get Unstuck.

Here are questions to answer which will help you figure out how to create enough time for your business, and also get your bills paid:

  1. Get clear on what amount of income you need to pay for things you NEED, not want. This gets you two important pieces of information: What’s the financial gap between your business income and your bills. But also it asks you to put some “skin in the game,” by identifying if there are things you think you need in your business or in your life, but really, they are “wants,” not “needs.” Liz Pullam Weston writes about this practice. This is the reality picture. And keep track – especially if you’re not now – even of cash or debit out of pocket. Most people spend more than they think.
  2. Get specific and clear on your passion: What are you passionate about, in particular – what facets or activities? Are there other creative ways to deliver on the passion or use similar skills, but in a part time paying job? Think chapters or phases of time. Can you do something else part time, for pay, which helps with the bills. It’s the combination of part time and growing business that might help your situation.
  3. Get clear on what you mean by “I want to focus.” How is it that you are “focusing” now on your business? What does focus look like to you – the number of days or time of day? Look at the time and the activities. Are they payoff activities? Again, this is where tracking can come in; keep it simple, but effective. What can you do differently, do less of, or do later on, if the activity is not, today, making you income? Saying “no, not now” is not the same as saying “no, forever.”
    1. Talk with others or with a coach and figure out whether you are maximizing the time you DO have on your growing business.
    2. When you think you are stuck, how “a little less stuck” would feel – how would you KNOW that things ARE improving. Do you have a plan of ANY sort, so that you know when you HAVE made progress, when you ARE headed in the “upwards” direction, so that “stuck” begins to feel “less stuck.”

Carol: Thanks Sue…great ideas. Now, on to the second question. This person sells equipment, and that person makes a good living from selling it. But- boredom can prevail when your job does not excite you. When the passion dips, productivity often dips too. Procrastination enters- and sales can plummet. How can a creative entrepreneur follow his or her dreams while earning a living? Do we all need to be “starving artists?”

No. The trick is to keep your passion alive, while continuing to earn your living. This does not mean “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” Have you ever heard the saying, “yes, you can have it all, but not all at once?” Tracking progress can really help, and here are some ideas as to how that could happen.

  1. Bookend your weeks. At the beginning of your week, map it out. What one thing can you do to move your creative project forward? Can you block out a couple of hours on Wednesday night to do x, y or z? At the end of your week, evaluate. How did it go? Did you do it? If not, why not? Could you have changed anything? Learn, and move on.
  2. Bookend your months. After 4 or so weeks of bookending, what has been done? How far did you THINK you’d get, versus how far you actually got? Learn, assess, move on.
  3. Bookend each quarter. After 3 months of doing steps one and two, you should have a little data. You may be much further ahead, or much further behind, than you thought you might be. But goals that are measured are far more likely to be achieved. Think, pause, and measure for success.

Carol:

As a reminder, you are listening to a podcast series. We’d love your feedback.  If you have a question you’d like answered, please visit our new Facebook page called Design Your Days. If you’d like to add yourself to the successful professionals we help go from good to great, contact one of us to get started with personal coaching. We’ll help you become more AWARE, and kick off the transformational process of Designing Your Days.

We are also the co-creators of the Design Your Days framework, which we teach in workshops, so if your group of business owners is ready for us to speak at your group, please contact one of us!

Please LIKE us on Facebook as Design Your Days and/or contact us individually through websites:

Sue’s is www.OrganizeForAFreshStart.com

Carol’s is www.efficientproductivity.com/

Categories
Get Organized More time in my day prioritize Uncategorized

Too much to do? 3 Habits to set you Free.

Do you ever have one of those days when you have made plans at 9 am, only to find that at 5pm very few of those original plans have been accomplished?

Do you ever feel that planning is actually a waste of time? Yet, somewhere buried in the back of your mind, you know this is not true. You read somewhere to “plan the work and work the plan”. But how is this done? Let’s look at clarity as a state of mind to achieve so that those productivity strategies start to stick.

Clarity leads to productivity. But this is not just productivity for the sake of “getting more done”.  Rather, I am referring to productivity that’s effective- that you are doing “the right” thing at any given time (not just “busy”).

Do you long for the feeling of being back in control? Do you crave feeling less harried? Try these habits for 21 days then email me back and let me know how you did.

  1. Find new and creative ways to say NO.  For example, when someone asks you to commit to something, get in the HABIT of saying, I need to check, and get back to you. Then, stop and think. If I COMMIT to that, what will it mean? Might I have to bail out at the last minute? How might I then be viewed- as reliable or something less? We all know those people who smile and nod, but somehow, they just don’t follow through. Decide to be that person who does what he or she says and says what he or she does
  2. Get outside- every day. Even if it is just for 15 minutes.  At this time of year, getting outside is easier for most people. Since the sun is rising by 5 am and not setting until about 9 pm, and it’s getting progressively warmer, the habit of “Outside” becomes easier. But we still have to establish the habit. What do you stand to gain from “going outside?”  Just breathing the fresh air is clarifying. If we walk, jog, bicycle, hike, or do any other physical activity, the clarity only increases. Decide on a time of day to get out. Then try. When you fail, just try again, and again, and again. Reflect on what you learned with each “failure”.
  3. Delete One Thing. When you feeling overwhelmed, spill out all your to-do’s on a list. After this, remove 80% of those to-do’s. Why 80%? Because, according to the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 principle), 20% of your work helps you achieve 80% of your results. However, those who are seriously overloaded may think this rule does NOT apply to them. So, as a step in the right direction, delete just one item. Quickly scan your list, and find one thing that is not absolutely critical. Delete it. If you can keep going, please do. You will find that deleting the items that do not “sing” to you will become easier with practice.

In summary, practice makes permanent. Or, at least it makes a line in the sand that you will tend to follow again and again. Routines, as boring as they may seem, will set our minds free to be our creative selves. When we treat ourselves right by saying No, or Not Now to the events, people, and tasks that don’t serve us, we open ourselves up to fully focusing on the tasks which do serve us. When we get outdoors, our psyche is awakened and different pieces of our brain are enlivened. When we delete that one thing from the list, we come closer to actually completing the list, which leads to satisfaction and motivation. That motivation leads to a sense of control.

After 21 days, you may start to feel less harried. You will likely be running in fewer directions. A sense of calm and peace, that you perhaps forgot was there at one time, will begin to return. In turn, your goals will start to become realized. This will not happen overnight, but I promise, it will happen.

Let me know what habit you try on for 21 days. I’d love to hear from you.

Categories
EpS Events Get Organized More time in my day prioritize productivity in the workplace Time strategies

Clear As Mud?

Think you might be just a little unclear at times? Feel like there’s just too much going on? Listen to this podcast for a bit of help in 5 to 8 minutes Clarity May 30 2013

Or read on:

Sue West and I have joined together as the Design Your Days Duo for this series of audio interviews to give you short, “use today” pieces of advice, in 5 to 8 minutes.

Carol: Last time we spoke about Clarity as it relates to becoming better organized and Designing Your Days. When we get clear, we open ourselves up to the possibilities that are often hidden just below the surface.

Sue: And we feel that this topic deserves round two- going a little deeper. We’d like to share some A-HA moments we’ve been hearing from the clients who have begun the Design Your Days’ time management framework with us.

Carol: When we work with someone in the Design Your Days framework, we ask, What Gets in Your Way? This is the first step in seeking clarity. Listen to the some answers we have been hearing and ask yourself, “Does this relate to me?”

Sue:    My husband! My employees! My children!

Carol:             Interruptions!

Sue:    Money. Not enough. Worried about it.

Carol: Clients.

Sue:    Me.

Carol:             I get in my own way.

Sue:    My unproductive ways of thinking about what I have to do. Or not believing I can do it up to standards. Always tired… easily distracted.

Carol: Listeners, what did you hear? How does this relate to YOU? Sue and I have four examples around Getting Clear as a strategy to determine WHAT GETS IN YOUR WAY that might relate to you. So then, what gets in YOUR way?  First things first: Create an inventory. What are the top three things you can identify that Get in Your Way of Designing Your Days? Are three not enough? Keep going. Allow yourself up to 10 bullet items.

Sue: Now, take those top three and answer these questions about each one of them.

  1. Which are IN my control? Which are about ME and my ways – strengths and all.
  2. Which are OUT of my control? This is a difficult question, because it often means you’ll need to let go of controlling something or someone you cannot control.
  3. Which event did I THINK was out of my control, but afterwards, when I thought more about it, and gained some perspective I realized: I could have reacted, behaved or done something differently, producing a different outcome?

Carol and I will each provide two examples of what we have heard for issues and what you might do if this is YOUR challenge.

Carol: Let’s get specific. At work, I hear much about interruptions getting in the way. What do those interruptions look like? Clients, co-workers, subordinates. So many of us have ascertained that the way to get more work done is to avoid entering the office. If this sounds like you, get specific about the interruption. For example, if it’s a phone interruption, and you are not the one answering the phone, communicate to the phone answerer what you will be interrupted for, and what you will not be interrupted for. Although YOU may not have the luxury of having someone else answer your office phone, you can still make smart decisions about answering it. Give yourself blocks of time. Is the only way to complete the proposal really at home? Consciously creating a block of uninterrupted time will allow the same result to happen – a completed proposal. And, if you are a manager, you are not only setting personal boundaries, but are leading by example.

Sue: A second issue that’s pretty common is this: “I’m so tired at night,” whether it’s after a day of managing household and children or working somewhere else, or working for yourself. “I’m so tired at night, that I don’t do the things I need or WANT to do. I relax or watch TV or get on Facebook.”  Here are some ideas:

One goal could be to even out your energy. So if you have intense days, what could make them less intense, preserving some energy for your “real life,” when you get home. Look at things like:

Who takes more than their fair share of your energy – and what can you do about this?

What tasks take up too much energy? Can you drop any? Hire for them or delegate? Break up so they get done in a week instead of a day for example.

A common energy drain is not having enough decompression time between work and home life. This is very common with people who work out of their home, because there’s no commute! So could you take a walk, call a friend, journal for 15 minutes, or take yoga on the way home – whatever can recharge your batteries.

Also look at how you start your day: Are you taking care of you? Giving yourself energy or starting off with something that needs high energy? And then you crash later …

An easy way to handle this is to observe yourself for a few days and write down or track on your phone what happens.

Carol: Our third “What gets in your way” at work? “Not enough time to do all my work”

When I hear this, I find that these professionals have a tendency to OVERBOOK THEMSELVES. If you are an airline selling seats, this strategy works well. However, if you are a manager or consultant, not so much.  Our clients are important to us. They are the reason we are in business and we are here to serve them. But what happens when we overschedule? What happens when our calendar is maxed out…then the unexpected happens? A weather event, a long meeting, a critical message coming in that was not pre-mediated but IS IMPORTANT to be dealt with immediately)? Our world starts crashing in on us, and we feel out of control. We may think that we are not cut out to be organized, or that we do not have enough
control over our days to design them. But how much did we allow, by Overbooking? By NOT ALLOWING “white space” between appointments? A solution to consider: the 30 minute rule. Allow 30 minutes between appointments for traffic, note taking, phone calls/messages, and to prepare for your next client. That time may need to be adjusted for YOU, but try on this strategy for 30 days, and see what happens.

Sue:

Our last one we hear often is “I get so easily distracted.” There are so many reasons for this we can’t deal with all of them today. What we CAN do is have you ask yourself:

When ARE you focused, even if it’s for 10 or 15 minutes? What is that like? How do you get there? Maybe you get all your materials ready first – phone numbers, papers, files – whatever you need. Maybe you light a candle, play TED talks or listen to quiet music? Maybe it’s somewhere in your house that’s not right at your desk, if you work out of the home. Shutting your door for 15 minutes. Setting a timer.

Many strategies but the key is: what has worked for you before, even if it felt like a small thing. Can you take that and build up a longer set of time you’ll focus? Then TAKE that break, recharge, and go back to your list for the next thing.

Carol:

As a reminder, you are listening to a podcast series. We’d love your feedback.  If you have a question you’d like answered, please visit our new Facebook page called Design Your Days. If you’d like to add yourself to the successful professionals we help go from good to great, contact one of us to get started with personal coaching. We’ll help you become more AWARE, and kick off the transformational process of Designing Your Days.

We are also the co-creators of the Design Your Days framework, which we teach in workshops, so if your group of business owners is ready for us to speak at your group, please contact one of us!

You can find us on Facebook as Design Your Days or contact us individually through websites:

Sue’s is www.OrganizeForAFreshStart.com

Carol’s is http://www.efficientproductivity.com/

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