Tips & Insights for Top Performance

• 09Apr

  Increase Your Productivity Through ORGANIZATION!

  Effective Habits, Energy Management, Goal Setting, Performance & Productivity, Time Management No Comments

  When things get hectic from trips, being sick, missed work days, special projects that take excessive work time; one of the first things to go is our routines, habits and the organization of our space and mind. Quickly we become overwhelmed or stuck as we try to make headway, feeling like we cannot move fast enough. At this point it is easy to get into the urgent and reactionary mode. Operating in urgent is usually the less effective way to manage our time and get things done as you are working hard all day, but just seem to answer phone calls, plow through e-mail and respond to things, but the to-do list stays the same or gets longer!

  Here are 5 strategies to EMPOWER your productivity through Organization. This is organization of the mind.

  1. Brain dump. What is on your mind? What needs to be done and how much time will it take? What can be delegated and what do you have to do?

  2. Mind map. Push yourself to think beyond your brain dump, what else is there? You can write several columns with these headings or make circles with these in the middle and then list or make “lines” off your circles with what else might need to be considered: Look at work (marketing, business development, clients, staff, administration, finance, etc.), family, home/car, volunteer activities, meetings/events, friends/fun, money, health, and any others that have significant action items.

  3. Park it. Use the concept of a “parking lot” to put things that are concepts or ideas, not urgent or important, and can be done later. Keep this as a post-it, task list or sheet of paper, as new things pop into your mind, you can jot them down to manage later. (These are non-task items)

  4. Plan & Schedule. Mark the items that are very important or urgent and then plot out the next day or two of when you will do what and leave the rest of the list. Specify when you will do what so you can work through your list in a disciplined fashion. Plan blocks of time to manage phone calls, interruptions and other things that might get you off your schedule.

  5. Book mark. Use a future to do list or a planning tool like Outlook to assign the other tasks that will be handled in a few days, next week, or in the future. This way you can get them out of your brain and know that you will not forget them. Our minds are like computers. The more windows and things open, the slower it runs. Likewise, the more things you try and hold in your mind, the slower you run.

  Get everything out. Put it in the proper place (parking lot idea list, on a day schedule or bookmarked in a task list) and get going on the task at hand. Stay focused and do not divert. You will be amazed at how you make progress and how good you feel!

  Tags: Empower., Organization, productivity, strategies

• 02Apr

  Book Review: Exploring Productivity

  Book Reviews, Effective Habits, Energy Management, Performance & Productivity, Time Management No Comments

  The challenge of staying organized through busy workdays and life is a challenge for even the best.  There are TONS of books on organization strategies out there with many tips and tricks on how to master chaos and achieve a sense of order in your environment. The challenge is that many are filled with concepts to adapt and are more philosophical with prescribed action versus a handbook with steps of HOW to get organized. I found Exploring Productivity and like it for its “idiots guide” type approach. It is easy to pick and address an issue versus reading the whole book and feeling overwhelmed with evaluating how you might transform your whole system of operation (if it gets overwhelming, you will not take any steps to change). This is a great book to have on the shelf, easy to read and excellent to reference to address and overcome whatever organizational challenge you may be having THIS week.

  Tags: extreme productivity, Organization, productivity

• 19Feb

  Fear What? (part 2)

  Effective Habits, Performance & Productivity, Personal Growth No Comments
  So what causes these fears? Fears come when we feel anxious or apprehensive about a possible or probable situation or event.  The situations we fear can be created in our minds or be real possibilities.  Nonetheless they cause us to pause or stop our forward movement toward achieving what we desire.  The fears I am referencing are often subconscious and not directly thought of as the reason why we are not in action. We can try to mask these fears by making excuses, blaming others for the situation or convincing ourselves that we don’t have to face the fear. 

   

  Some of these fears are “soft” fears, meaning more emotionally based and at times difficult to identify.  These might include fear of failure, fear of success, fear of change, fear of loss, fear of the unknown, fear of reputation, etc.  Other fears are “hard” fears meaning they are more concrete and tangible.  These might include fear of snakes, dogs, small places, heights, etc.

    

  The “soft” fears are often what stand in our way of achieving our potential.  At times we ignore them, at other times we talk our way out of or around them.  Here’s my challenge to you.  Identify something that you know you should or could be doing, but aren‘t.  Honestly ask yourself, “What am I afraid of?”. Once you’ve identified your fears, ask, “What do I need to overcome them?”.  Some fears can be overcome by simply identifying the subconscious limitations. Other fears require just pushing through them with the help of others to realize that, despite our emotions, the reward is much greater than the risk or accountability.  Some fears are overcome by gaining knowledge about the process through personal reading or discussions with others who have faced similar fears allowing you to gain tips, tricks and wisdom.  Some fears may need professional counseling to overcome. 

   

  Identify and begin to overcome your fears today.  Beyond fear is a bold and powerful place where your potential comes alive, your confidence sores and you open yourself up to your next level.

  Tags: fear, productivity

• 17Feb

  Fear What? (part1)

  Effective Habits, Performance & Productivity, Personal Growth No Comments
  In this article we will:

  • look at fear
  • understand how it holds us back 
  • teach us how to overcome it so that we can do what we need to do to be effective and valuable  

  Fear shows up in many different ways and on many different levels.  Some feel insecure and fearful while others are confident and secure in what they do. No matter the level, everyone has fears.  What is yours?

   

  Maybe…

  • …you are an effective and thriving professional but you fear outgrowing your position if you do what it takes to be at your full potential. 
  • …you are considering a change and you fear losing the security of your current position. 
  • …you desire simplicity, but fear letting go and not having as much stuff or that you will need it if you get rid of it.  
  • …you know you need to advance your education but fear letting go of some current expenses and commitments to have enough time and money to go back to school.
  • … you are feeling the fire to stand up for yourself but you fear being criticized or looking stupid if you open your mouth.  

  The list can go on.  These are just some examples to get you thinking where your fears reside.

  Tags: productivity

• 15Jan

  Maximize Your Time: 10 Tips for Extreme Productivity

  Effective Habits, Energy Management, Goal Setting, Performance & Productivity, Time Management No Comments

  1) Know your work style and use the tools that match. If you work well with technology, use your computer and PALM for scheduling and organization. If you are a visual person, consider using a paper calendar and written to-do list. If you are a people person, develop a team around you to compliment your strengths. If you work alone, find time to focus and remain distraction free. If you are a morning person, attack the most important tasks early in the day.

  2) Use ONE calendar. Sometimes people will have several calendars. One for family and one for work; one electronic and one paper. Keep ONE calendar for everything. Use different colors or type styles to differentiate categories.

  3) Make a to-do list at the end of each day. Your mind naturally begins to work on the list as you sleep. When you awake, you are ready to work, are very productive and organized. Estimate how much time each thing will take you and only put on your next day’s to do list what is reasonable to get done.

  4) “Eat That Frog” first. This is a Brian Tracy concept to do the hardest thing you have to do all day, first, before you do anything else. Doing this will provide you with the feeling of success in having a ‘burden’ off your back and give you momentum to accomplish the remaining tasks.

  5) Have a clear goal and read it daily. When you have a goal you know what to focus on and work toward. If you do not have this at the front of your mind, it is easy to get caught up with the urgent things of the day or trapped in reacting to e-mail, phone calls, interruptions and other people’s emergencies.

  6) Have a “power hour”. Designate one hour each day to close the door, shut down e-mail, turn off the ringer on the phone and guard yourself from interruptions. Have a pre-picked project that you will work on during this time only. Make sure to go to the bathroom, get a drink, and do whatever else you need to in order to ensure you do not leave once this hour starts. Give yourself 30 minutes after this hour to return calls, e-mails and care for people with whom you need to follow-up that you missed during the POWER HOUR.

  7) Touch it once.  Sort through, e-mail, mail, papers, etc. and make a decision. File it, toss it or put it in a place for action. Sorting bins are helpful for this. Label your bins, folders, e-mails, etc. with things like: read, file, do this week, urgent, bills, etc. Paper, soft copy (computer), and e-mail folders should all have matching labels.

  Have daily habits. After you develop a routine of things that are simple but important, your body will naturally do them. This is important because we can get distracted by our regular routines and use them as vices to interrupt, procrastinate and prolong important things that really need to get done. If you start your day right, you will be ready to do those urgent and important tasks, increasing your everyday productivity.

  9) Prep. Have you ever been amazed on cooking shows how they make a complicated dish in 10 minutes? OK, part is edited TV time, but they also have everything preped for quick assembly. Why not do the same? Prepare your information packets and new client folders, turn common documents into templates, set up e-mail distribution lists for teams, etc.

  10) Maximize car systems. Listen to a book on CD/tape to maximize your windshield time and learn. Have a bin to put important things in rather than having them all over the car. Have a trash bag to catch the liter. Always have a bottle of water in the car with you; dehydration causes fatigue, memory loss and low concentration. Make sure your contacts are portable (palm, planner, business card file book, etc.) so you keep people and numbers at your fingertips (call if running late or caught in traffic, if you remember something while out and a quick call can take care of it). Enjoy relaxing, breathing and taking in the day while driving (rather than cleaning, talking on the phone, etc.)

  Be the master of your domain. When you implement a few simple productivity strategies and develop them as time saving habits, you will quickly enjoy the benefit of more time and energy and overall increased productivity.

  Tags: "Eat your Frog", extreme productivity, productivity, to-do list, work style

• 25Dec

  Three Steps to Maximizing Your Productivity

  Effective Habits, Energy Management, Performance & Productivity, Time Management 1 Comment

  Are you finding you have a lot to do, but never seem to have enough time?

  1) Assess how you are spending your time. Here are a few common time eaters to watch out for:

  • You have a long list of things to do and focus on all the little thing so you can mark off more things in an hour.
  • You are straightening, cleaning or micro-working.
  • You are spending hours on e-mail.
  • You can’t find things and spend a lot of time looking and discovering things you have not seen in a long time.
  • You spend social/idle time on the phone.
  • TV, newspaper, errands & shopping (things that don’t contribute to bottom line)
  • Maintenance items that absorb time
  • Internet, computer games, chat rooms, etc

  2) Identify your weakness. Look at what is holding you back from doing the really important things on your list. Some common reasons our “BIG” projects are not accomplished are:

  • Lack of planning
  • Lack of time
  • Overwhelmed with the project
  • Lack motivation
  • Distractions/Interruptions
  • Other priorities
  • Emergencies
  • Tired & frustrated
  • Lack of resources
  • Lack of clarity of vision
  • Excuses (life)

  3) Create a routines and strategies for how you operate.

  • Simple and effective Daily Habits.
  • 10 min. daily pick-up time.
  • Keep a clean desk.
  • Check e-mail 3x a day; limit time to 30 min. for each checking.
  • Touch it once and put it in its place (file it, toss it, etc.)
  • Pick one big project you need to do each day and complete it before doing anything else
  • Keep a weekly plan of activities with the top 5 things you will do each day
  • Keep regular tools as your fingertips (healthy snacks, water, books, Palm, etc.)
  • Develop management systems – templates for things you do often.
  • Block one hour a day for quiet time to focus exclusively
  • Pick one news source & read as reward for task completed.
  • Have a system to organize contacts, calendar and tasks (Outlook is a great tool)

  Bottom-line.When you have systems in place and are neat and organized you can get more done. When you do what is important first, it will free your energy to have the big project done and also give plenty of time for all the little things. When you assess, identify and strategize you will easily maximize your productivity!

  Tags: effective daily habits, organized, productivity

• 01Aug

  Time Estimating: Empty / Fill with the Important

  Work Environment No Comments

  Many of us make to-do lists. Usually they are long and filled with a variety of tasks. Not only is it essential to prioritize the list of items, but also estimate how much time each task will take. Often when you do this, you find you have two days worth of to dos on your list. One thing that zaps our energy is feeling overwhelmed and getting distracted. When you have long to do lists that are not even reasonable to accomplish, often much less gets done.

  If you take your list, budget how much time important tasks will take, you can then plan them into your day better. If you have a 10 minute task, you can plan that for a 15 minute downtime period. If you don’t do this, people usually take 10 minutes just to figure out what they are going to do and then they only have 5 minutes left to do something, which is not enough time, so then nothing gets done (or they start a project and are stressed and then late for the next appointment.)

  It also helps you to plan your day to see that you need 2 hours of blocked time to eat your frog (the #1 most important to do). This way you can plan your day to get that big thing off your plate. I guarantee when you get the weight of a large project off your back first thing in the morning, you will be super charged and excited for the rest of your day. Then knowing what you will do, how long it will take you and “budgeting” when you will do it, creates a clear focus and drive for you to accomplish many more things in your day.

  Action:
  * Take your prioritized list of to dos and write behind each how much time each will take (pad more time then less time)
  * Look at your schedule for the day and plan when you will do which tasks. If you have a large tasks, see how you can break it down into parts that fit into your day.
  * Write specifically what you will do on the calendar. (i.e. budget 1 hour to write newsletter. Have a 15 minute opening in the AM; plan to write the intro to the newsletter.)

  Tags: dealing with overwelm, productivity, time managment, To do lists

• 17Jun

  Important vs. Urgent: Staying out of crisis mode

  Goal Setting, Performance & Productivity, Personal Growth, Work Environment, Work from Home 3 Comments

  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

  Tags: energy managment, follow-thru, growth and development, life balance, performance, productivity, time managment

• 15Apr

  Important vs. Urgent: Getting Out of Crisis Mode

  Book Reviews, Goal Setting, Performance & Productivity, Personal Growth, Work Environment 6 Comments

  Steven Covey, in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about one of the traps of people is getting caught in doing the urgent rather than the important. Bottom-line this trap is reacting to life rather than responding.  While urgent things will come up, they seem to happen more when you are not planning. Eventually everything will become a crisis. STOP. When you give attention to what is important you will have less urgent things to deal with. There will always be truly urgent things, but these are called emergencies and priorities, not daily urgent tasks. Spend some of your day on this area, but spend more of it on what is important. Make a list and determine what is important for you to do to move forward with your business (or life). Important things often seem like it will not matter if they get done today or tomorrow and therefore often are perpetually put off until tomorrow or until they become urgent. It is similar to the bad habit many of have in school with projects or homework. The teacher gives important weekly assignments, i.e. pages to read for the week. Students are busy and do not read what is important and let it go until a few days before the test when there is 200 pages of reading, now the assignment becomes urgent. Thus the cycle begins as we create urgent tasks that would not be urgent if we did the important things we need to do each day. Action: Recognize the cycle and how much time you spend reacting to the urgent List what you are trying to accomplish (your goal) What is important to do today to reach that goal? What is important this week to reach that goal? Highlight these things on your to-do list Block at least one hour in your day to do the important tasks Force yourself to do the important today and watch how the overflow of urgent tasks decrease off your plate

  Tags: Business-Coaching-Services-Leadership-Corporate-Training-Development, follow-thru, life balance, office organization, Personal Growth & Development, productivity, time managment

• 15Jan

  Benefits of Coaching

  Uncategorized No Comments

  PERSONALIED – VISION – MOTIVATION – FOCUS – CLARITY – ENERGY – SPEED – PRODUCTIVITY – RESULTS – SUCCESS – and more.. What could you do with this?

  PERSONALIZED. Every person has unique strengths, gifts and talents. Every person things and operates in their own special way that works for them. It is great to read books, listen to audios and be mentors by others that have gone before us. We can learn from these resources, AND they do not always for work us. Coaching allows a dynamic conversation to happen to meet you where you are at that day and personally customize and adapt what you want with strategies and tactics that are in line with how you naturally function. Coaching takes a holistic view at your short term goals and places them in line with your long term goals not only for the area of focus but also your whole life. This is unique and critical as many things “happen” in life that can distract, lure and pull us off the course. Coaching looks to understand you, your goals and your path in a way that is customized to work with the way you think, act and function in life.

  VISION. You will have a clear idea of where you want to go and how to get there. Often we know the end result, but do not see what it takes to get there. This is critical for your success. You cannot do what you cannot see first. Coaching will ask you questions to make sure your vision is strong.

  MOTIVATION. You will know what you really want and understand your unique values and motives to keep you moving forward. Stop procrastinating, delaying and putting off because of fears, perfectionism and doubts.

  FOCUS. You will be able to operate with clear priorities, doing what is most important things which will allow you to excel in the midst of ‘urgent’ demands and busy chaotic schedules and lives.

  CLARITY. Each coaching session deepens your learning about how you work and think. Coaching also prepares you for action and supports you in getting crystal clear on the steps to take. By work with a coach, you will get a helicopter perspective so that you can return to your business and navigate quickly because you have taken time to assess where you are going. You will be able to see what is right in front of you and developed a plan to forge ahead.

  ENERGY. You will find yourself working at your optimum potential. Why? When you are operating in line with your values, life just simply comes together in an easy way. Coaching will give you with the encouragement, momentum, and natural dynamics to operate more efficiently and effectively. You cannot get more hours in the day, but if you have more energy, you will get more done and feel great!

  SPEED. You will be more effective. Through planning and strategizing, you will be able to eliminate ineffective methods and enhance those methods that are most natural to supporting you in reaching your goals quicker.
  
  PRODUCTIVITY. You will simply get more done. Coaching will keep your goals clear and in line with your vision. Next, it ensures that what you are doing is important to furthering the bottom line, not just want is urgent, easy or obvious. Then, the regular accountability provides a structure that will keep you moving forward, so you can really get it all done.

  RESULTS. Through regular coaching and consistent follow-up, you will increase your bottom-line results. Profits. Clients. Personal Passions. Weight Lose. Whatever your objective is, coaching is a strategic partnership to support you in getting what you want as quickly as possible. If you are ready and motivated, you can actually double what you accomplish in a period of time.

  SUCCESS. You will be more successful. Through keeping focused on what you want, the goals and the plan, coaching helps you keep the big picture in mind while you implement the small steps. While focusing on the goals, coaching monitors the balance in your whole life, so you are not distracted with life pulls but have all the elements of your life complimenting your actions. Before you know it, your goal is complete!

  Tags: CLARITY, ENERGY, focus, motivation, PERSONALIED, productivity, RESULTS, SPEED, SUCCESS, VISION

« Previous Entries