Goal Setting and Gratitude
Posted by Kaizen in Goal Achievement, Personal Development on January 29, 2010
So, you’ve formulated a list of goals for the coming year and you’ve broken them down into action steps. You are making sure that you consistently make progress on these steps on a daily basis. Excellent!
However, in this mad quest to achieve bigger and better things, I’d like you to make sure that you do one very important thing on a daily basis:
Be grateful …
Goals are necessary if we want to continually improve – don’t get me wrong. But we need to balance that goal-getting journey with gratitude.
It’s so easy for us to lose focus on the wonderful things we already have as we are trying to achieve more. This can lead to serious feelings of inadequacy and lack that can cripple our progress and well-being.
Life is good, as long as we are always looking for it in everything we do and have.
Here is a video that will help you get grateful in a hurry. I apologize if you’ve already seen it, but I just watched it for the first time a few days ago and it got me on track mentally – immediately.
Powerful …
So, if you woke up on the right side of the grass this morning … be grateful.
If you’ve got a roof over your head and food on the table … be grateful.
If your kids are healthy and happy … be grateful.
If you’ve got a decent job during this global economic downturn … be grateful.
Always strive to be the absolute best that you can be. But always take some time out to be grateful for what you’ve already been blessed with …
- Scott
3 Simple Time Management Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity
Posted by Kaizen in Goal Achievement, Personal Development, Productivity on January 26, 2010
Here’s a question you may want to ask yourself regularly: What am I doing with my 24 hours?
In other words, every day, what do you have to show for burning through another 24 hours of your life? If the answer is, ‘next to nothing’, or ‘not nearly as much as I would like’, then I’m happy to tell you that you can change that right now, and in a moment.
In this post, I’m going to give you a simple system for doing it. Following this system has completely changed how I approach each day, and the results for me have been dramatic.
If you’re ready to put more life and more action into your day, then get a pen and paper and write down this simple time management and productivity system.
It consists of 3 basic steps. Here they are:
1. Write down all the tasks you want to get done today
2. Assign a specific block of time for completing each task (like 30 minutes)
3. Select a task, start a timer (check out eggtimer), and focus on nothing else until that task is complete!
That’s all there is to it. Simple, yes! Incredibly effective, YES! By itself, this system can put your productivity into high-gear – if you use it.
Here is a free downloadable chart that summarizes these 3 steps in text/graphic detail. Print it out, and put it up somewhere visible to help keep you on track:
The challenge for most of us is that in a day and age of technology and automation, writing things down on paper and using something like an egg-timer can sometimes feel a bit clunky and inefficient.
But I’ve recently discovered an incredible piece of software that not only automates this system in a very unique way, but includes some tools such as simple reports (so you know WHERE you spend your time), as well as a very slick and intuitive interface.
I highly recommend you watch the demo video, which shows the software in action, by clicking this link (you’ll find the demo video about half-way down the page):
Have a great, productive day!
7 Ways to Simplify Your Life and Improve Your Productivity
Posted by Kaizen in Goal Achievement, Personal Development, Productivity on January 21, 2010
Here’s a self improvement tip that is sure to have a long-term and powerful impact on every area of your life as a whole:
Simplify …
One of the best changes we can make in our lives, that will have a cascading effect in every area of it, is to stop overloading ourselves with long to-do lists, overbearing goals and an obsession to fill every waking moment with manic-like productive activity. Take a breath!
Yes, goals are important and “things need to get done”. But there is a balance we can strive for, and it is a far better long-term strategy to simplify our lives and accomplish a few internally important goals and tasks than to try and be superhuman during the whole self improvement and productivity process.
Additionally, you will find that once you start getting a smaller number of tasks and goals accomplished, you will be energized to continue the process by adding newer and higher goals or writing a new to-do list now that the original is finished. Compare that to the self-beatings we can sometimes give ourselves by not “getting enough done”!
So, how do we start this process of simplifying our lives while improving productivity at the same time?
Here is a list of 7 things you can do right now to help you get the ball rolling:
1) De-Clutter!
Take about 30-60 minutes – it’s okay, your “list” can wait – and clean off all unnecessary paperwork, piles and ’stuff’ from workspace and desk. This will give you a clean slate to start from. Don’t skip this step!
2) Unload Your Excess Books
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a stock pile of books and reference materials that you have planning on getting to for months or years. Bad news – you won’t be getting to them. Get rid of them by either donating them to a worthy cause or selling them on ebay. This will further help you ‘de-clutter’.
3) Check Email Twice Per Day – Maximum!
Email is probably the single biggest time thief you’ll encounter on a daily basis – if left untamed. Schedule a time period 0f 15-30 minutes to deal with email – once in the morning and once in the afternoon or evening. Be vigilant! Either you control your time spent on email, or email will control your time, guaranteed.
4) Keep Your Inbox Clean
This will help you control your email time commitment. Process your inbox quickly and immediately … file what needs to be filed, and delete what you really don’t need. I also utilize a folder I created called ‘To Process’, and I put non-urgent but necessay emails in that folder for later viewing.
5) Prepare for Tomorrow, Today
Each night before you go to bed, write out a list of the 6 most important tasks that you need to accomplish for the following day – then prioritize them. This will allow you to rest easy knowing you’ve got a plan all set to go for the following day.
6) Hit a Lead-Off Home Run
During the first hour of your work day, do nothing else but focus on completing an important task (preferably #1) on your to-do list. This will set the tone for the day and get one important task knocked off your list immediately … empowering!
7) Work in 1 Hour Blocks
As you continue to work through your task list, schedule 1 hour work blocks consisting of 50 minutes of uninterrupted, focused and productive work time (no email!) – followed by 10 minutes of relaxation and prep for the next block. Believe me, this step alone will send your productivity skyward.
To assist you in your time-block management, here is a free online tool that I’ve found incredibly helpful for tracking my work and productivity time:
If you follow these 7 steps, there is no doubt in my mind that your work life will be greatly simplified, and your productivity will increase dramatically.
In closing, I’d like to leave you with these words of (productivity) wisdom from Mark Yarnell, best-selling author and business maverick:
“Do one thing at a time … Do it right … Finish it!”
DandyID
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