Fresh Focus On Productivity!™

Welcome back!

As much as we’d like to think so, we are not superheroes. We cannot leap tall buildings (or projects) in a single bound, nor do we have X-ray vision to see through the files of paper on our desks to see what really needs to get done (and if you’ve been following this blog, you shouldn’t have piles of paper!).

We can only be as strong as the people that surround us

This is true in both personal and business. If we own our own businesses, we are only as strong as the people that we hold close in our support arenas. Whether it be an online support group, friends, family or clients, we all have those around us that help to support what we do. And you know what? More than likely those people are willing to go the extra mile and help us when we need it. But you know what?

You have to ask for help in order to receive it

Oh, yes. Take that chip of pride off your shoulder and through it to the wind! When you need help, ask for it. Do not allow yourself to falter just because of your pride. Those that know and can ask for help are those that succeed! Those that do it alone will usually fail and burn themselves out in very short order. And when you ask for help,

Be specific about what you need done

I’ve talked to many people that tell me that they are better off doing it themselves so that it will get done correctly. My question to that statement is: “Did you give them explicit and written instructions on the Task, Process and Outcome that  you desire”? Most of them answer with a sheepish “no….”. Well, come on people! How can we expect things out of people when we haven’t set the expectation for them? We can’t. In order to have help, you will have to set some time aside to define the task, Process and Outcome you desire. You are then well on your way of having someone that can be a really benefit to you and realizes what you expect.

So let’s recap:

• We can only be as strong as the people around us
• You have to ask for help in order to receive it
• Be specific about what you need done

This is a key tool to success and sets apart the those that have great success and those that don’t. Now go forward and ask for help! That’s an order! 

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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Our featured author Cheryl, asked this question in her last post:

My next question (which Kris, I’m hoping you can give me some pointers on) is how to condense all my business stuff into the tickler file.

Let’s discuss that today.

I don’t recommend having separate tickler files for each business: that would be just too much maintenance. We have two options here. Condense it into one tickler file set, with each item for all businesses in its date specific folder. Or, use different sets of ticker files for contexts, @trade show, @research, @consulting, etc. But that sure would be a good deal of tickler file sets and I would think that overwhelming.

If it was me, I’d have one tickler file and use it for all the businesses. You can them drop all information for a particular date in one file. Think of it this way: each folder is a date on which something needs to be completed. It doesn’t matter what business it pertains to, it still needs to be completed. Now what I might do inside each tickler folder is paperclip like items together by context: @trade show, @research, @consulting, etc. That way you aren’t jumping all over creation and back within one folder, but can handle each thing in context for that day, and by doing so I think that you will see that you can be more productive by concentrating on one context at a time, instead of jumping from one piece of paper to another.

I think that was the question that wasn’t quite verbalized in your post: how do I control all of my businesses from the tickler file without losing productivity. I hope that this helps, Cheryl, and please let us know the success or failure of it and where you’ve tweaked it for optimal results!

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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One of my favorite expressions (and as it happens, vineyards here on the French Riviera) is Carpe Diem – which translates to “Seize the Day.”

It’s a very powerful statement when you decide to consciously make it a part of your life mantra (which I’m doing as my big “Five-Oh” birthday is fast approaching), but it’s also very powerful in business.

One of the things that I love about life – and business – is that every morning we start out with a blank canvas.

No matter what happened the day before – we get to start out with a “fresh focus.”

We have the power to decide to grab hold of the day, and make the things happen that we want to do – or we can give up that power and let circumstance, fate and life’s distractions take the wheel.

As I’m writing this post, it’s actually Sunday, November 1 – and for me, it’s the unofficial start of my New Year.  It’s always been this way for me, since I turned 18.  I use the month of November to plan my next year.  I start with my “Things to Do, Places to Go and People to Meet” List and then I go from there.  And I take some time to look back on the current year, and see where I met my goals, and where I didn’t – and why.  It’s one of the things I love about November, being able to look back, and celebrate the achievements.

I’m going to be talking more about this this month in my personal blog ReinventingtheFword.com (And no, it’s not THAT        F- word), but today I wanted to focus on seizing the day in your business…and I’d love to know what you think, and get your feedback…

I like to plan my next day every night, so that as soon as I’m up, I hit the ground running so to speak.  And that’s one of the things that attracted me to the GTD system too – because it really works with what I’m already doing, and makes them (and me) more organized.

I don’t know about you, but if I don’t plan my day ahead of time – and have my list of 3 to 5 things that I want to accomplish – it’s SO EASY to just fritter away the time – and suddenly, before I know it, it’s time for lunch…or for the kids to get home from school, or to close my office door, and focus on my family.

In fact, one of my favorite expressions is this one:

“Procrastination is the natural assassin of opportunity” (annon)

I also have my own morning rituals that I use to make sure I’m starting out productive and keep the momentum going.  Part of that for me means having a system in place. I guess the easiest way to explain it is to just show you:

1. Plan – I create my plan for the day the night before, mainly because I’m a night person, and my brain doesn’t really kick into high gear until somewhere between my cup of green tea and my first glass of diet coke with lime.  So by having my plan – and I’m working on changing over to the GTD system, but at the moment I use my planner and online calendar – sitting in front of me, it helps me to jump right in to my day. And since it’s November, I’ll also be creating my planning calendar and schedule for 2009, then broken down into quarterly and then monthly planning.

2. Systems – I’m a huge believer in having systems in your business that help you to replicate your business and clone yourself. In fact, one of my goals this week is going through my training system – I use process maps, how-to videos and an operations manual, because one of my business partners and I have just hired a new VA, and we’ll be starting to train her this month. So I want to make sure what we’re training her to do is what we want and need done.

3. Goals – I love setting new goals and breaking them down so I can achieve them – I think it was the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland who said something like “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how you get there” -for me, goal setting is the roadmap I use to get where I want to go.

4. Celebrate – I’m also a believer in using the reward system.  I figure if I’m working hard, and getting things done, and am being able to cross things off my “Get it Done” list – then I deserve a treat.  We all have our own list of things that qualifies as a special treat, and I really believe that you should celebrate your victories and accomplishments along the way.

So, in my journey to becoming a user of the GTD system, I’d love to know how you use the GTD system to plan your business day, and what successes it’s helped you accomplish…

Have a great week…and I hope you “seize the day” today, and every day!

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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Welcome back! Sit down and get ready: this is Episode II of the screencast training for clockingit.com. This will be a multi-part series, as I want to be able to go into detail with you about clockingit.com and it’s features. Please view the screencast below and let me know what you think or if you have suggestions on any improvements I could make.

Click on the “Fullscreen” icon in the video control bar in order to enable fullscreen mode. Pressing the ESC key will exit you out of fullscreen mode. Comments and critiques are welcome!

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You've read the series, now get the E-Book! Special EXTRA material not included in the blog series, plus three FREE templates!! Templates included are Time Management Matrix, Goal worksheet, and The Completion Journal. Only $24.99 for the book!


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If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!