Tips & Insights for Top Performance

It happens to most people I know, including myself! We get swept up with our work and life and before you know it any systems you had set up to help you balance important and urgent tasks that were working, are unintentionally eroded. The systems are gone and have been taken over by the suck of fast paced demands and pulls of the 21st century world we live in.  

In Stephen Coveys book, First Things First, begins to explain what is happening. He says, in the book, “consider whether you look at life through a basic paradigm of ‘urgency’ or ‘importance’?” He explores the effects of urgency addiction” and promotes a new perspective, “more than ‘time management’, it’s a generation of personal leadership. More than doing things right, it’s focused on doing the right things.”

What does this mean and how do you do it? There are many things to say about this but to me one of may favorite and first steps to tackle a life that has been consumed by the race of the urgent is to simply stop and get focused. This is a daily habit or practice that is good to do each day, ideally in an AM or PM routine. Here is how you do it:

1) brain dump everything that is on your mind onto a sheet of paper (please do not think that keeping lists in your head is effective, just like a computer will freeze up when to many windows and programs are running, so will your brain)

2) review your personal values (these are your passions, motivators and what makes you uniquely you)

3) review your big picture focus or goal (what are you aspiring to achieve in their period of your life)

4) select the 3 most important things you need to accomplish in order to move forward and remove the heaviest weight that is burdening you (often what weights on us is not what we do – that is what we procrastinate about – what we do is usually quick, insignificant to-do’s). Write these 3 things on a sticky note and post it where you can see it all day.

5) commit to 30 minutes a day to work on one of the items. Ideally an hour first thing in the AM, but protecting some time to really work on the top 3 each day is a great start.

This is the first step in thinking about your life strategically vs. reactionary. There is much more to balancing all parts of your life, living in line with your values, prioritizing, etc. but at times when we get so overloaded it is good to have a simple approach to remove yourself from the beginning of a crisis cycle and get back to putting first things first.

Be strategic!
Christy

In the book, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, a new paradigm for time management is presented. The premise focuses on encouraging people to leverage their energy rather than time. We have all known for years, you cannot get more time, no matter what you do you only get 24 hours a day. Loehr says, “The ultimate measure of our lives is not how much time we spend on the planet, but rather how much energy we invest in the time we have.” Focusing on the concept of harnessing your energy to be in FULL ENGAGEMENT will help you to empty your plate and get what you need to accomplish done. A few tips the book emphasizes are:

1) Manage your energy, not your time

What this means is start paying attention to your body. If you notice that you are tired in the afternoon, consider what is contributing to that. Diet? Little sleep? When you are trying to ‘push through’ things when your energy is low, you are ineffective. It takes much longer to accomplish tasks when your focus is off, when you are thinking is not sharp and your energy is dwindling. So, instead of trying to figure out how to get more into your time, notice you energy.

* When do you have the most energy? Do you hardest projects then.

* When do you have the least?  Take a break. Schedule a power nap, workout time, filing, or other activities that do not require hard focus.

* Consider what is zapping your energy? Are you doing things that are not in line with your values? Are you procrastinating? Are you not taking breaks? Identify the times that you have energy and times that you don’t. What are you doing differently?

2)  Downtime is key for your success

While it would be great to run at 110% all the time, our bodies were not made like that. We require food, rest and relaxation. In today’s society, relaxation is becoming harder for people to really do. Even on vacations, we are checking e-mail and voice mail, we take work along, etc. We really do not allow our working minds to be shut off. In order to relax, we need to shut off for a period of time, this is what Loehr and Schwartz are talking about when they say ‘downtime’. Several highly successful people recommend one day a week that you do NO WORK and have downtime. If you do this, you will have more energy for the other 6 days of the week and will be more productive, then if you keep running all 7 days of the week. You will be less productive on all days and the impact is a haze of feeling not quite as productive as you could be, but unable to figure out where you could possible squeeze another minute of time. Take a day off, no work, no e-mails, no voice mails. Don’t Cheat, it undermines the rest of the week and your ability to charge up energy. Think of it like charging a battery, if you keep unplugging it and using it, you will continually drain what was just charged, therefore after all day of charging with a few interruptions, you will still not be fully charged. Also, when it takes  3x as long to charge something once it is dead then to keep it charged (besides the risk that you might run out of juice mid task), so don’t wait until you are dead, charge yourself weekly with downtime.

3) Rituals help to maintain focus

Have you ever heard of “open brain circuits”? It is the concept explaining how our brains work and how we get overwhelmed. When we are overwhelmed or overloaded, we do not operate effectively or efficiently and therefore are no using time to our advantage and inevitably need more time. It is like a computer, when you have to many programs running, you computer starts to slow down. It takes longer to do anything. It is the same with your brain, when you have a lot of open tasks, thoughts and to do’s in your head, all the circuits are open and you just start to ‘run’ slower. This is why Loehr and Schwartz recommend RITUALS for optimizing your energy (and thus your time). When you have rituals, you set up a reoccurring time and pattern for tasks and behavior that need to be done.  A common program many coaches use is establishing 10 daily habits. These are daily rituals that support what you have to do anyway, however by linking them together in a set time and pattern, you do not forget them or need to think about them, rather you become on autopilot and can accomplish them quickly and easily. Daily habits or rituals are things you should do daily, take a short amount of time and add to your productivity. Examples might be: make a to-do list, confirm daily appointment, stock forms in car file box, turn on music, pay bills, check mail, clear desk, file client folders, return phone calls, check e-mail, check traffic on web, send updates, drink water, eat fruit, light a candle, feed fish, excreta.

4) Purpose fuels performance

Know what you are doing what you are doing. Often we get caught up in doing tasks because we always have, think we need to or just should. First of all ’shoulds’ are a performance killer. They are things we have on the list to do, but they never quite reach priority status. So, identify why you are doing the task or activity. Why is it important? Why do you care that it gets done? If you have to think about the consequence of what will happen if it doesn’t get done, that is still a purpose. When we just do things without a reason, it is hard to keep those as priorities. Things that we approach in a lackadaisical manner take longer to accomplish, stand to be interrupted, put off, and left ½ done or completed with loose ends. When you work with purpose, you can complete things quickly, staying focused and generating momentum as you go. This will allow you to finish the current objective in less time and actually go on to get other things done in the time you would still be working on a purposeless project.

5) Work in sprints (small bursts of focused energy)

Reality we are all busy. Life is full of interruptions and constant urgent tasks that need to be attended to that we did not plan for. This is reality. So, how to you keep yourself and your whole day from falling victim to a reactionary cycle where you just run from one urgent thing to the next, praying for a minute to last longer? Schedule sprint times where you are 100% focused on one thing. You sprint to accomplish it. In coaching I usually recommend sprints be 30 minute or 50 minute time blocks. You close the door, shut off the phone, have a full drink, e-mail shut off and any other distractions cleared for your sprint time. Know exactly what you want to accomplish in that time, and work only on that. You will be amazed at how much you can get done. Again it creates momentum and the focus lends itself to natural energy that builds. You will get more done in this period often then what you can get done in a whole day of random interruptions and urgent demands. Usually this is a great time to plan to work on what is important (writing, billing, customer service, excreta. Things that if they don’t get done will not kill us now, but will need serious time and attention if neglected).

What is important that you need to do?
What will you plan and to doing right now, that will allow you to harness your energy and gain more time?

In a world where activities and demands are constantly pressing, there are more schedules to manage and pulls on our time. In general, we want to be helpful and accommodating to people. Therefore we hate to say “NO”. People often do anything to avoid this word. We will avoid people, redirect conversations, make excuses, be non-committal or simply say “YES” to things we know we will have a hard time following through on. Reality is we simply cannot do everything. When we keep saying “YES” to things we are adding on “stuff” to our “plate” which causes overwhelm, stress and frustration. Even though we would like to answer “YES” to everything, in order to have a peaceful life which exhibits quality, balance and basic sanity, we must learn how to say “NO”.

How do you do it? When you say “YES” to a new activity, you have to say “NO” to remove something else that is already on your full plate. Here is how:

1. Be clear on your priorities and what is important. If you are not clear, you will not have a compelling reason to say “NO” when you feel drawn to accept a new item on your plate. Try to strike a balance with the Essential 8: family, friends, work, health, budgeting, fun, physical space (home, office, car), and personal growth (spiritual, educational, personal development). i.e. #1 Family. I will spend 5 hours a day taking care of my family and making sure they get their needs met. #2 Work. I will spend 8 hours a day working on projects that product an income of $5000/mo. so I can provide the best for my family, etc.

2. Set filters for each of your Essential 8 areas. You want to have your Essential 8 listed by priority and set a filter for each (take the purpose/goal for each area and then be clear on what fits and what does not). Take special note of the proportion each area is getting. If priority #1 is family, #2 is work, #3 is health and you have 100% work commitments and no family time or personal care several things will happen. Your health will suffer which will then jeopardize your physical ability to complete those tasks and your family will interrupt and demand super human feats for you to squeeze their needs onto your already full plate. These filters will help you discern to what things you need to say “NO” too in order to maintain balance.

3. Evaluate what is on your plate. Considering each of the Essential 8 areas and your priorities, determine what your “needs” are. “Should’s” need to more to one side of the fence. Do you need it or not? Consider your balance so you have some big projects (meat), some personal care (veggie), some daily necessities (good grain/filler), and a hobby/fun thing (dessert). These are the things to which you are saying “YES!”

4. Say “NO” to the things that do not meet your filters. These may be the least important things on your list OR new things that come up in your life. Remember whenever you say “YES” you are saying “NO” to something. If you say “YES” to a weekend project at work, you are saying “NO” to your family time that weekend. You may not have to tell your family “NO” but that will be the result. If you say “YES” to volunteer at the evening carnival you are saying “NO” to your workout – which could result in your being more tired and lethargic and therefore less productive the next day.

When you say “NO” you have more power to say “YES” to what is important. Remember “NO” can mean never, it can also mean, “no, not right now”. Let yourself have some space to do what is important. You will experience the power of balance and boundaries which will result in you being more effective and productive. You will enjoy less stress and peace with your life.