Category: Time strategies

Categories
Productivity Time strategies vacation Wellness

Be strategic this summer, but not in the way you might be thinking

Summer. Beach and a book. Or is it?

I live in the Northeast. It’s “bad sledding” time right about now (you think I am kidding? Seriously, we had snow a lot in April….)

This article focuses on Strategic Summer. What’s that? Well, here’s what I find. When we are working and it’s 80 degrees and gorgeous out, we want to be outside. We are dreaming about vacations.  We are NOT being productive.  Counter this with being on vacation, phone and laptop in tow. Are we really on vacation? Ummm, nope. We are being in ambivalence. We have one leg on either side of the fence. And you know what? If you fall down, that HURTS! Ouch!

So, the message is: (1) be present and (2) slow down to speed up. How?

When you do not use your vacation time (or as an entrepreneur, your “time off” includes only sick time, running around your family time, continuing education time, etc. and not “what lights you up” time), you are not allowing your mind to recharge.  How does a worn down battery operate? Our minds are not that different. We are NOT machines.

I have a challenge for you.

After you find your week of vacation, add 2 long weekends.  Make them a stretch; something you said you would do “someday.”

Ready?

Go! And get ready to watch your productivity climb like crazy!

Rest well and be productive.

Carol

Categories
Get Organized More time in my day procrastination Time strategies

It’s a kind of magic – How to free yourself from the time trap and make time expand

Oh, if only we had a Time Magic Wand. Wouldn’t it be nice to call our personal Fairy Godmother (or father) every time we can’t accomplish something on time?

In my previous post, I wrote about the chronic lack of time we all seem to complain about. I invited you to shift the perspective from time in terms of quantity – HOW MUCH more time we need – to time in terms of quality – what we can actually DO in the time we already HAVE.

In this fast-pacing world, we can easily become overwhelmed with “to-do” lists of tasks that drain out the best of us. This constant feeling of being overwhelmed, of not being capable to cope with many tasks or situations at one time, leads to chronic stress and fatigue. We feel like we cannot take a break, cannot go outside at lunch, etc. The truth is that these practices will actually increase your productivity.

So, let’s take back control of our work-life. Not with magic (or not Fairy Godmother kind of magic at least) but with some sound techniques that, when applied in the right way, can certainly give us the feeling that our time has actually expanded. (Note, our time will not have expanded. Our brains will relax into doing Our Great Work.)

1. Value your time- treat it as currency
Ask yourself this. Would you give out money to everyone who asks, just because they asked for it?
In order to start giving our time the value it deserves, we must take a step back and look at the existing state of our day. What’s happening now? Awareness is key. Acceptance is next. If we have a daily routine, great. The next step is to identify the activities that are of highest value toward our stated goal. When we allow others to dictate our schedule, we feel out of control, responsive, and exhausted. A related concept is fulfilment. The more you can find fulfilment in what you do, the more you can contribute to the world by being who you are and living with purpose. I once participated as a speaker in a retreat and we created Fulfilment Jars. Each person added rocks to his or her jar when he or she created more fulfilment in his/her work life. It was empowering.

2. Use your time wisely
What is the key to making the most of your time? Have a clear set of priorities and work towards reaching your goals. It’s a good idea to break down your top priorities in a written set of smaller goals. This is an example:
Priority – spend more quality time with my family

  • Goals:
    – Finish work every day at 5.30pm
    – Spend 1 night out with all the family every week
    – Etc.

Constantly review your goals, then make them a part of a good written plan. With your plan in hand, try to separate the majors from the minors, the really important things from the things that you just have to do. And prioritize. A little thought will save you a lot of time. A little accountability and a series of micro steps toward the goal will work wonders, too.

3. Stop making excuses
Just stop it! This step had me thinking about a really funny video

Some people are just late. They are always trying to squeeze in one more thing. They like to play beat the clock. They don’t want to get stuck waiting for a start time. And, heck, they are busy and important, right? Well ….

What’s true is that being late erodes confidence and trust. So, if this sounds familiar, try flipping the mindset to “I can read 10 minutes of that e-book if I am 10 minutes early.” (hint: these are strategic priorities!)

An excuse should be a warning sign that our priorities are not in alignment with our values. Tell that to Doctor Bob in the video.

4. Focus on the present
Be present. That’s Deepak Chopra, right? And that’s awesome. Another gift of the present is the incremental steps of the present moment as a way to the strategic vision of the future. Bit. By. Bit.

5. Don’t procrastinate
Procrastination kills creativity, it kills motivation, and it will do nothing but wear you out. See another article of mine for more info. When you procrastinate about something, you avoid doing it because you find it unpleasant. But, WHY do you find it unpleasant? What are your expectations and how can you change them to re-motivate yourself? A good way to re-motivate yourself is asking why something is important (relate it to your larger mission). Visualize yourself in your success. Cool, you are doing this for a reason! Remember – you are in control!

One of the keys to effective time management is just staying in charge. It’s important in running a business, and a life. If you don’t stay on top of things, the business will run you before long. You have to stop every once in a while, and say,

“Wait! Who’s in charge here?”

YOU ARE!!! Success is the constant process of working toward your goals, little achievement by little achievement. Little achievements can produce big results, and anything is possible in those 24 hours we’re given each day.

Categories
Get Organized More time in my day Time strategies

The Time Trap – why are we all captured in the idea of not having enough time?

“Tick, tock, tick tock, merrily sings the clock” … says an old nursery rhyme about time.

Time – oh, such a popular topic of conversation. We are all so much concerned about time, or the lack of it… Together with money, time seems to be what we all complain to never have enough of. Do any of these sound familiar?

“There is never enough time in my day.”
“At the end of my day there are more to-do’s on my list than I started with”
“I wish I had time to exercise”
“I want to work on the strategic stuff but I’m bogged down with emergencies”

“My assistant says “that’s the nature of our work, we can’t plan”

We seem to think that if we had just a little more time… a few more minutes, a few more hours in a day or a couple of extra days… than yes, our life would be perfect. That we could get everything marked off our to-do list, our house would be clean, the kids would be happier, our partner would feel loved and all problems would instantly disappear from the face of the world. At work, we’d get that promotion and walk around all calm, cool, and collected.

Are we REALLY sure about that?? What if we are looking at our chronic lack of time from the wrong perspective?

Why don’t we stop for a minute and start focusing not on how MUCH time we have but on how we spend the time that we DO have! What if the trick is actually do the opposite of what our hectic lifestyle seems to imply?

Tip One: Stop running around trying to do a million things. Instead, slow down and use some of the time we have to understand what is really important.

Implementation technique one: Start with a good night sleep. Sleep makes you feel better, but its importance goes way beyond just boosting your mood or banishing under-eye circles. Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Stress and sleep have a two-way relationship. High stress levels can make sleeping more difficult. They can even lead to sleep disorders. At the same time, getting a good night’s sleep can help reduce the effects of stress. So, go ahead and give yourself the pleasure of a good snooze.

Implementation technique two: Learn to say “No”. If someone asks you for a favor or to take up a commitment, you may feel obligated to say “Yes.” Remember, just because you can do something it does not mean you must do it. Give yourself permission to say “no”. Make yourself and your mental health a priority and work on avoiding guilt after saying “No.” (Hint: When you know your priorities, it’s easy to say YES to those and NO to everything else.)

Tip Two: Know your Why. Take a good look at your life. What are the things that make you happy? What are your biggest time-wasters? Make a list of your priorities and take practical actions to make sure you have time to dedicate to them. We will go into more detail in the next blog.

The bad news is time flies – the good news is you are the pilot.

Categories
Time strategies Wellness

How to achieve great results using your inner power

Change is scary. It is. No one likes to stand on the edge, assessing the major drop-off between where we are right now and what direction we are supposed to go next. However, change is good – and it is happening anyway, whether you like it or not.

Now that you’ve worked on growing your inner strength, it’s time to embrace change and use it to get outer results.

What is the one thing in your life that will make you give up everything else? No vague statements like ‘I want to do something meaningful’ or ‘I want to make a difference’. Drill down until you clarify what life (or professional) goals are really important for you – where do you want to be in 5 years’ time? Are these any loose ends you want to cut? Is there anything you’ve always dreamed of doing but never had the courage to really try?

If you don’t know where to start, maybe you can try to implement these six core actions.

  1. Define your path to get results

Make a specific, measurable, realistic, and time-bound list of everything you want to achieve, either in your personal or professional life. Keep it short, ideally 5-6 things that are the most important for you. Set small goals each day in order to achieve them. If you break things down and work towards them little by little you will not allow yourself to think “it’s too much, I can’t do it”.

  1. Protect your boundaries

Once you know what you want, you have to be strong enough to protect your boundaries, respect your priorities, and make sure you understand what compromises you may need to accept to succeed and grow.

  1. Commit yourself 110%

Commit yourself to achieve the results you want without doubt or reservation. This doesn’t mean that you should continue on your course blindly, crashing into the rocks without modifying your course.  Work hard and give everything you have, but at the same time remain flexible and avoid overly attaching to one particular vision or outcome. Don’t hide your head in the sand. Instead, work to fill the gaps in your knowledge and ability.

  1. Master powerful communication

You know the “why” behind what you are doing, so now create a captivating story. Speak about your visions and accomplishments in an engaging way that excites people to help and work alongside you without putting them off.

  1. Nurture empowered relationships

No person is an island. You can’t achieve your goals alone, so invest time and energy in building two-way beneficial relationships, solid bonds and energizing partnerships that will last over time. If you build your relationships on trust, honesty and integrity, it is more likely that you will develop an empowering, engaged community that paves the way for success.

Categories
Get Organized More time in my day procrastination productivity in the workplace Time strategies

Why Procrastination feels so good, hurts us so much, and how to outsmart our brain

I love to procrastinate. It feels so good. Wait, what?

It does! I like to have fun you know; I’m not “all business”.  While I love my work, I love fun even more. So, when I don’t really wish to “dive in” to a project, I get really busy doing things I can check off my list. Does this sound familiar? And yes, this is a form of procrastination.

Are you interested in what you might be doing to procrastinate, where you might honor it, and where you might tweak it, SO THAT you may become your Best Self? If yes, read on.

FIRST, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:

Do you:

  • Pretend to work while playing computer games or watching shows, thus making the work take hours because you keep getting sucked into the game or show or YouTube or Facebook?
  • Start to work on something, then remember something else that’s more urgent, dropping that midway to hop onto something else… only to finally return to the first task a couple hours later, exhausted, and just call it a day?
  • Clean up things that don’t really need to be cleaned up (like the tabs on your browser) to avoid doing what REALLY needs to be done (hint: you don’t like it, could be bookkeeping, could be “real” filing…what’s on your “I hate this” list?)

Do you wish you could:

  • Spend several hours of guilt-free quality time with your partner or friends every day (because all those projects you used to procrastinate on are no longer hanging over your head)?
  • Get into a daily rhythm that keeps you well-rested, happy, and doing your very best work?
  • Follow through with your goals consistently, making solid progress without always having to battle procrastination?

>>>Well, wish no more. We’re going to dive deep on March 5th into the Productivity Success Plan<<<

In the meantime, here are some first steps to get you started NOW.

Productivity Success Plan: Beat Procrastination, Step by Step.

STEP ONE. Identify how YOU procrastinate.
Go ahead, list out some scenarios…what does procrastination look like for YOU?
1.
2.
3.

HINT – identity what IS and what IS NOT ‘procrastination’.

What is procrastination, anyhow? Before we can determine how Ugly it is, or how Wonderful it is, let’s determine WHAT it is.

Here’s what it’s NOT!

– Big thinking time: If you are thinking big, I would not call this procrastination. If you are thinking big during the time where every moment counts, with a looming deadline that you are putting off, that’s procrastination.
– Scheduled downtime: Are you 100% productive and billable during 100% of your day? NO. You’re not a machine. And, even your machines need scheduled downtime (or they take the unscheduled downtime…right?)
– Energy-based downtime: When we pay really amazing attention to our most productive times of the day, and how long we can stay productive during those times, we are working WITH our bodies (not against them). So is this procrastinating? I say no.

STEP TWO.
OK, so now you realize you are procrastinating. How do you Get Out right away? Start your own Procrastination Rescue Ritual (more on that coming).

STEP THREE.
Once you’ve rescued yourself, it’s time to Move into the Now. Ask yourself three essential questions to maximize your time and energy (we will do this 3/5).

 

And here’s a preview of the next 3 steps; more will be coming in future articles and on our call 3/5/18:

STEP FOUR
Removing Distractions

STEP FIVE
What needs to change?

STEP SIX
Celebrate!

Yes, some procrastination is good…more on that next time. In the meantime, just start on step one and watch your productivity skyrocket!

Categories
Get Organized prioritize Productivity Time strategies

Success = When a plan meets an opportunity

In December, those of you who were on the Lunchtime Love Group Coaching call decided to dream, plan, and Kickstart 2018. There was talk of vision boards and planning. In January, we overcame our obstacles.

Now, as we move through the first quarter of 2018 in full swing, we have our game face on. We are ready, we are headlong into the New Year, with new clients, and new opportunities! Right? If this is you, you may have wanted this “yesterday”- and are feeling a little impatient if it is not “quite happening yet.” Perhaps that impatience has led to not completely planning; kind of “winging it” and trying “lots of stuff.” Maybe you are busy listening to a lot of webinars, and reading a lot of things from “gurus” to help you succeed. Maybe.

I have lots of experience with this, and it’s not all pretty. For years, there I was, the Queen Of Productivity, doing lots of things and not getting very far. I was having fun, I was “organized enough” and I had clients. But I was totally missing the Real Boat…which is the boat to Success on My Terms. I’d love to share with you how I turned my boat around and how you can do the same, if this resonates with you. We can do a deeper dive into ensuring your success at our complimentary Lunchtime Love Group Coaching on Monday February 5, at high noon Eastern time.

What changed for me and how can it help you?

There were two main shifts for me to reach what I consider success.

First:

I focused. Before 2015, I was doing so many things. I was organizing. I was speaking. I was giving workshops. I was doing webinars. I was teaching. I was coaching. I was Evernote Consulting. I was even a contracted rental coordinator! Wow! Imagine the cash I was bringing in. Right? Wrong. I was spread too thin, and, as a single mother, I had a crazy amount of guilt around leaving my kids alone for too long, so I worked less, oh my goodness…not pretty. I felt like a failure when I looked at my bank account with bleary eyes from the exhaustion. At the end of 2015 I decided to focus on coaching. Each year since then I have watched my available free time increase, my income increase, and my sanity and peace of mind return.

 

Second:

I learned and implemented a system. While I did have a system(s), they were not as cohesive or comprehensive as they needed to be for my own success. I was the proverbial “shoemaker without good shoes.”  I invested in a “back end office system” called the Coaches’ Console. Since I decided to focus on coaching (it was either that or get a job), I decided I’d better invest and get serious. It was hands-down the best move I have ever made. It took a while! I had to get trained in the system and un-do some stuff and re-do some stuff. That was not so easy. I had to say NO to the “fun stuff” on the weekends (the was really hard for me since I love fun) so I could say YES to being financially successful, as I learned and practiced my new system.

One of the owners of the Coaches’ Console, Melinda Cohan, has a saying that goes like this. “When preparedness meets opportunity, success is inevitable.” I might have that phrase “slightly wrong” but the intent is there. We must be ready for success (being prepared). Then, we must take the steps to be successful (noticing/harnessing the opportunity). If we skip either of those, we will not find the success we deserve, and we will start telling ourselves how undeserving we are…and…well, let’s not “go there”.

Instead, let’s discuss the steps to take, to insure your success in the new year; being prepared for your success.

  • Step One: Determine what “success” looks like for you. Dare to dream, then quantify it. Get specific. (For me, this was the Focus)
  • Step Two: Inventory. What’s working? What isn’t? What are the gaps? (For me this was also the Focus)
  • Step Three: Invest. Where do you need to invest? Do you need software, hardware, staff? Education? More hours available to work (if you are working less than 40 hrs. per week)? (For me, this was my Coaches’ Console back end office system)
  • Step Four: Identify milestones. Measure. (The nice part about my system is it helps me Measure)
  • Step Five: Hold yourself accountable. Join a mastermind. Hire a coach who is works in your industry and/or with your specific challenge to achieve the maximum possible results in the shortest amount of time. (I have both of these and they are super helpful! We cannot do it alone!)
  • © 2024
  • Productivity Success Cake