It is really difficult to meet someone who has had a linear, planned out, perfect life, much less a predictable planned week. The number of variables to manage are too vast. The accident you did not plan for happened. The new competitor who got to market faster was not on the roadmap. Reality did not play out according to the financial plan or family budget that was meticulously engineered. Read more

Bug Me

Your level of busyness can keep so many things off your radar that need to be on your mind. On the one hand, to be a high level performer, you need to decide and act on information to get results. This is the difference between performers and non-performers. However, there needs to be a place in your psyche for the things you need to stay committed to. I have used 43things as a tool to keep me self-pinged on what I need to keep on the horizon of my life. Try it out and see if you can move towards what you say is important by staying conscience and committed to it.

Cluttered Minds

I was speaking with a client recently who was dismayed at the erosion of etiquette in business. He remembered when people returned voicemails and were more approachable. Today is a different time. Our ability to create information so much faster changed the rules. We have to change with those rules or we become irrelevant. How fast are you at your work? Get faster or go extinct.

Because a person does not work on their mental mechanics - reading, typing, comprehension, decision making - they will limit their value. How does it play out? Here are a few symptoms:

1. Your customers are disappointed in you because you are slow
2. You lose opportunities
3. You do not see opportunities because of your backlog
4. You react rather than create
5. You drift rather than live

If there were a video camera on you today and how you worked, what grade would you get compared to a high performer? Keep focused on getting better. There is a consequence to neglecting this.

One-input System

David Allen has said in his book, Getting Things Done, that the edges have become blurry in knowledge work. Many of us work with information. At the end of the day, you have produced more focused, directed information for yourself or someone else. You are moving information around all day. You are receiving information.

In knowledge work, you can likely be twice as productive. It requires personal processes. What happens when you get something new? An email, memo, or verbal instruction? What system does it enter? Is your personal process consistent and predictive? Such a system would give you peace of mind as you work and more capacity to be ready for anything. For starts, try to minimize the number of places where you get stuff. Commit to one place. If you use Outlook, it may be your inbox. Email yourself tasks or reminders. Get an efax account and fax yourself paper documents that will come to your email. Minimize the number of collection points as a start. From there, the process begins. You can learn more at www.zeroinbox.com.

Increasing Capacity

A recent Runner’s World article featured interviews with CEO’s of major corporations. These are guys under immense pressure from their responsibilities. The temptation they all have in times past has been to work harder and longer. However, over time they realized they were hitting walls usually in health or sanity. They started doing the counterintuitive thing - they started getting out to run in their already busy schedules.

What did this do for them? It actually gave them more capacity to work and execute. They created some space to gain perspective and let their subconscious mind work on all their collected problems. They gained creative answers in the process. One guy got in the habit of creating lists he wrote down right after his run as new ideas emerged.

I have experienced this in my own life. Sometimes you are so close to the action you can’t see perspective. Your mind accumulates problems and is not synthesizing answers. Furthermore, I lack peace of mind and overall steadiness. I have found I always have time to work out. It pays me back the time I think I have lost in better execution.

Whether it is running, motorcycle riding or pitching horseshoes, elevate your game by making your pastime work for you. Think of it as having double return on your work.

Custom Productivity

Some of us are highly focused people. Others are scattered. Some like music in the background when working. Others need quiet. Some people need a desk. Others feel more comfortable on the floor. We are each wired differently and some of the form factors around us help us thrive or get stressed out.

In case you feel the pressure of executing your tasks or projects a certain way, don’t be. Align with how you are wired. David Allen’s Getting Things Done is a fantastic read on productivity It mixes the artfulness with the technique as you flow through a day of execution. Sometimes the right thing to do now is to clean the room. Sometimes it is doing the bills first. He speaks about how doing what your intuition tells you frees up a lot of energy and doing sometimes what you may feel is a force fit is actually counterproductive.

Find your custom groove. If you are wanting that extra edge in execution, it may be a simple matter of learning how to choose the right things at the right times. You want to achieve a peace of mind about your undone tasks and have systems that cater to your custom style of executing. I enjoy helping people order their worlds to execute. In the next week, become a student of productivity and your eyes may be wide open. Contact me if you want to get to higher levels of productivity to add increased value to your life or profession.

Function Follows Form

Had you ever noticed that if you set things up a certain way you are more apt to do them? We are creatures of inertia. By this I mean that it is easier for us to stay in motion or do the lowest resistance activity in the area or space we are engaged in. If we are sleeping we like to sleep. If we are working we like to work. Perhaps it’s “groove” or being “in the zone”.

If you want to be strategic about how you move, do an out of body exercise for a day and watch how you move. Do you notice that you do things easier that are within reach? Do you find you seem to not be able to get to the next step on a project because of inertia?

Why not use your nature to your advantage. Align with it and manipulate your spaces so you’ll do the next action naturally. Your movement will take you there. Put a book by your bed so you will read. Have your tools laid out so you can work. Place your ironing near the ironing board so you can get started. Whatever it may be, you can structure it so your function follows your form.