Category: vacation

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Accountability Get Organized Goal Setting Organization vacation

Achieving Balance: Summer Tips from the Overachiever Society

Practical Solutions to Tame Your Summer To-Do List

Welcome to the Overachiever Society. That’s what we might call our monthly Free Wisdom Warriors/UnscatterMe monthly gathering! This week in Wisdom Warriors, overachievers shared their struggles and aspirations. In this video and article, I want to discuss some of their challenges and the solutions we explored during our monthly session.

Our attendees had varied goals for the summer. They wanted to have fun, get outdoors, move their bodies, and enjoy nature. They also aimed to achieve significant milestones like selling real estate and letting go of clients as their businesses evolved. These business people juggle multiple responsibilities and ambitions. One person owns two businesses and works for someone else. Naturally, their to-do lists were extensive.

We focused on solutions to manage these goals during the busy summer months. Here’s what we discussed:

  1. Dump Out Your To-Do List: Start by writing down everything on your to-do list across all categories. This helps you see the full scope of your tasks.
  2. Ruthlessly Remove 80%: Trim your list down by 80%. You don’t need to discard these items permanently; just move them to a “parking lot” for later consideration.
  3. Prioritize the Remaining 20%: Organize and schedule these prioritized tasks. Importantly, schedule activities you genuinely want to do before your to-dos. Remember what you really want – whether it’s getting out in nature or moving your body.

One participant said, “I need to be stronger than my excuses.” This resonated with us because excuses often hinder our progress. We discussed small, actionable steps, like placing your walking shoes by the door to encourage daily walks.

Moreover, it’s the perfect time to re-evaluate your larger year plan with executable steps and a repeatable process to achieve your 2024 desires. Summer is an excellent time to reassess your progress. With half the year behind us, now is the perfect moment to check in, re-evaluate and adjust your plans. 

To that end, I’d LOVE to push your edges and provoke you to think deeper and more powerfully than you ever have in your life. Why not? Life is FOR you and with me at your side, you are both energized and organized.

But that’s not for everyone. Alas, I have 2 places in June and 2 in July. When these review sessions are gone, they are gone.

Will you be the brave, bold, badass person to hit reply and say HELL YES LET’S HAVE A LOOK TOGETHER? Ready, go!

Summer is short, especially here in New Hampshire. Between the black flies, pollen, and rain, it’s easy to get distracted. So, enjoy your summer, stay focused on your goals, and take advantage of these opportunities.

I believe in you. Action takers, this is your sign to hit reply. Enjoy the summer and make the most of it.

See you soon!

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Balance Positive Thinking Productivity Time strategies vacation Wellness

Why having fun is not bad for you

The counterintuitive way to get more done

Happy summertime!

It’s interesting – FUN has been coming up a lot lately.  I received an email from somebody  asking, ‘Should business be fun?’   This company takes six figure people and brings them into the seven figure realm…and they were asking the FUN question. There are loads of reasons why fun is so poorly considered, and they generally come from our upbringing. 

You might hear, in your head:

 “You must work hard and it must be difficult.” 

“You must sit for that exam.”

“You must have your nose to the grindstone.”

However, when you sit back and you take a look at the true success, in all the way (not just money and prestige from the outside), what do you see? Do you see a person who is happy inside and out, and you want to be him or her? I doubt it.

For example, look at students in Korea – look at their happiness levels and their success on their terms. Sure- they’re more successful perhaps in their grades in an overall way, but are they happy? What’s their mental health like? Consider then those living in Sweden, where the children are allowed to play  – there’s more flexible schedules and parents have more time to be with them because of the social safety nets that there are. Those folks-  generally speaking- are more happy. I believe that if we’re unhappy, it’s really impossible to be successful, truly successful (depending on your definition of success). 

I define success as being fully aligned with who we are in the world and how we want to show up in the world and we’re able to do, be and have the things that are important to us.

Watch the video

It’s true in our business, and it’s true in our lives. 

The above argument shows that having fun is NOT bad for you. In fact, it will help you get more done. Please absorb these 3 points about fun and getting things done, and why they’re important. Then take some action on at least one of them. Hit reply and tell me what transpired 🙂

  1. FUN is embedded in the 3 pillars of success from my dear friend Susan Cowan: MOTIVATION, CHALLENGE, AND NOVELTY. Fun is so important in all of those, and particularly in motivation. If it is not fun for you, the motivation is going to be almost nil. It’s therefore very important that your task, dream, or desire  is fun for you in some way.
  2. Fun is embedded in our culture. We live in an entertainment culture. People like to play games. Children like to play games; adults like to play games.  There’s “words with friends” that folks play remotely. For people that are scattered, maybe they have AD/HD, games are really important. They raise our dopamine level. Dopamine is a feel good hormone. AD/HD has lower dopamine levels so therefore it’s really important to have that. 
  3. We are in a fun deficit in 2023. 2020 had a low level of fun. 2021 the same thing. In 2022 we started emerging and started to have some fun. But we’ve got two and a half years of fun not happening.  Now, people are back integrating. We’re having a lot of fun. Slowly but surely the cloud of unfun is lifting and we are finally saying “You know what? We get to have fun because you know what we do?” I’s important to have fun because when we have fun, we get it done. 

Yesterday I was on a free webinar regarding a new software I was checking out, and the woman who was giving the webinar, the leader of this new software, said ‘Flowi is fun’. In other words, “the technology (Flowi) that I’m showing you won’t just be another burden.”

So I ask you this, how can you make your life fun? 

I try to do it every single day. That’s why I made my productivity success signature system into a cake – because guess what? When’s the last time you frowned while eating a piece of cake? 

Go and have so much fun. Have your cake and eat it too. 

Go, go dance in the sunshine. 

Pretend you’re a little kid again, at least for five minutes. Raise up your hands and scream and be so happy. 

You’re going to be more of a magnet to the people that you want to have magnetized around you. 

Your stress levels are going to decrease. 

Your health is going to increase.

….. and it’s free. 

It’s free to have fun. People want to be around you. You’re going to get more done. You’re going to enjoy it more. You’re going to be more in alignment. At the end of the day, you’re going to be more successful. 

So don’t forget the fun. 

And hit reply to let me know, how are you going to have fun today? 

Categories
Positive Thinking Time strategies vacation

How to get the most out of the holiday season, guilt free.

Truth time:  As we approach the holiday season, are you enthused and eagerly anticipating the gift shopping, the preparation and the family time, or is there an element of stress and, dare I say, guilt nestling in there, too?

If so, you’re not alone.  According to research, “Festive Stress” is real, with 31% of Americans describing the holidays season as “frantic”.

The problem is, we’ve all been conditioned over the years to expect that the holidays will be “magical” and “wonderful” – but the truth is that many of us feel drained by the hustle and bustle and we really just work too hard in a bid to have the “perfect” holiday experience. In addition, there is the stress of enforced down-time from work, while we chit chat with family over the turkey, or dive into another slice of pumpkin pie, all the while mentally checking our office to-do list.  It’s no wonder that, far from being the most wonderful time of the year, the holidays can feel like one big diversion of our attention from “the important stuff” – our work life- and guilt that we are “wasting” valuable time, all because for a couple of days, we step off “productivity path” and indulge ourselves with family-time.

But this guilt has a real knack for distracting us from what’s really important.  For most of us, work is a HUGE part of our lives, and a work-life balance is something we talk about, but never quite achieve. Before we know it, that romantic vision, that excited anticipation of time away has become a guilt-fest, leaving us more stressed than if we were actually at work.

The truth, however, is that the holidays give us a perfect reason to push that reset and recharge button.  Just because it’s time away from the office, doesn’t mean it can’t still be used productively.  Here are three tips to getting the most out of the holiday season.

1. Stop, just stop! We all know that one person who pulls off an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, while juggling the unexpected guests, the over-excited children …and the impossibly perfect home. We marvel at how they can do it all and still fit in baking cookies with the little ones and remaining civil with the Mother-in-Law. Yes, our lives are busy and there never seem to be any limits to the demands on our time, but no one person can and will be 100% productive all the time.

It’s an illusion, people!

What’s important is that you recognize the importance of time away and don’t fall into the trap of wrapping your self-worth up with how busy you are, like a present under the tree. Stop comparing yourself to others who appear to have it all down pat. It’s not some sort of competition to see who can rack up the most hours.  That’s just a one-way route to inadequacy highway. Think about it; the world can’t be filled with super-humans and you’ve been left out. Actively stop the comparison thing and shut off that inner (oh, so critical!) voice of comparison. Finally, concentrate on your inherent self-worth.  You work hard.  You are entitled to time away, free from guilt. Period.

2. Set an intention.  What do you want to achieve with your away-time? By identifying what you want from your break beforehand, you are far more likely to be able to meet those needs and in so doing, enjoy quality time. Maybe focus your away-time on all those “Important, but not urgent tasks” you have been meaning to do but…

Need some help with setting these intentions and boundaries? Check out our next blog on this important topic.

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Productivity productivity in the workplace Time strategies vacation Wellness

The sublime art of slowing down

Last week we discussed the benefits of a summer vacation. But what about when you don’t want to work AT ALL in summer? What about when you have children and you are trying to also run a company? Scroll to the bottom to address this tricky issue.

First, let’s address the real benefits of slowing down. Why does this work so well when we are addressing productivity?

Slowing down gives space to our subconscious, letting our intuition come to conclusions in a less logical way.  Letting our creativity flow is a big step towards being more productive, after all, we are human beings, not robots.  Our productivity doesn’t depend on speed and efficiency, it depends on our creativity, intuition and innovation, and these things need space to flourish.  Nothing shuts down inspiration faster than forcing it.  Yup, it’s counterintuitive.

Creativity is everything.  Many jobs can be exported, and have been, to people who can work for far lower pay than us.  The only thing that truly sets you apart is your creativity and innovation.  Creativity stems from connections between disparate ideas, but unless you have explored a variety of experiences, you will not have anything to draw from.  Going on vacation or simply taking some time off work provides a wealth of novelty to spur creativity.

When we slow down and give ourselves time to think, we notice the difference between getting things done and getting the RIGHT things done (and doing them well).

“It’s only when we start asking ourselves questions like “what am I actually doing here?”, that thinking time starts to feel productive”

The human body and mind need breaks and vacations to provide rest and benefits that have a much greater influence on success and happiness than clocking in overtime at work. Overworking yourself isn’t going to make you more likely to succeed.  If anything, it may make you resent your work, lower its quality, and negatively impact your happiness.

OK, so, maybe it’s your situation that you are an entrepreneur with kids home for the summer. Yikes, what do you do?

This is not easy! Camp is expensive. Running kids around or trying to work with loud and needy kids in your home is far worse though.  You may be thinking “I’ll just take the summer off.”

Here are some items to consider:

  1. Can you afford to take the summer “off”? Do you need the cash flow? If you stop working, how will this affect your workflow/cash flow in the fall?
  2. Get real. Even if you take 4 weeks off of the 8-10 weeks, doing so purposefully is a much better strategy.

I work all summer.  I also take vacation.  As my children grow, their needs change.  Being real about what you expect is critical – boundaries come into play here.  Our children love to push our boundaries, and we don’t do what we “should” do.  We do what we value.

This is tricky! We will talk more about this in our July Lunchtime Love.   Also feel free to email me at Carol@eps-time.com to untangle the web of conflicting voices in your head….

Be amazing, be bold, rest well!

Carol

 

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

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