What do you do with a snow day?

You have made your plans, set up your calendar, set your sights on the goal, and you are ready to GO!

Then, it snows, your kids get sick, you get sick, there’s an accident tying up traffic on the highway, the dog eats your report and the computer dies.

What do you do?

Do you react? Or, do you respond?

Well, it might depend on how thorough your planning has been. Did you take the time to brainstorm all the possible courses of action? Did you look at what the most likely road blocks could be? Have you thought through how you are going to deal with the breakdown that will always happen?

Or, did you map out your route and set off on your way without thinking about any kind of disaster planning?

If the former – then most likely you will have already figured out your response to the weather, traffic, ill health, or any other breakdown you can think of. And you will be confidently moving along the alternate route – correcting and adjusting as you go.

If the latter – you are going to react! And your first reaction is going to be that this is just wrong! This shouldn’t have happened! Your plans are in shambles! YIKES! You might even come to a full stop.

Kids will get sick, pipes will burst, team members will drop the ball, you will get stuck in traffic. Taking a little time and thinking about what could take your plans off course will pay off in the long run.

Life happens! What’s your plan b (c, d, or e)?

Because, really, without a life, what’s the point?

How do normal people do it?

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on different approaches to improving productivity.  Pretty much all of the authors agree that one starting point is getting yourself and your stuff organized. Good advice. But how, exactly, do you fit ‘getting organized’ into a schedule that is already stretched to the max?

Many sources advocate setting aside up to several days to get through everything in one massive burst. I know that approach makes a huge difference. I also know that most of the people I work with just don’t have several days they can put towards this effort. At best they might have to set aside some of their vacation time or weekend to do it.

Since I am not an advocate of using your time off in this fashion – I was wondering, how do normal people tackle this task?

What works best for me is the ‘eating the elephant’ approach – you know, one bite at a time! It doesn’t seem as if spending 15 minutes on a regular basis will make a dent in the years-long accumulation of stuff, but it is astonishing what can be accomplished.

One saying I like is ‘this didn’t accumulate overnight – it is unreasonable to expect it to be cleared up overnight.’ That really takes the pressure off!

So, if ‘get organized’ is one of your priority items – try setting a timer for 15 minutes, and work on one stack until the timer goes off. Then walk away until the next time. Bit by bit, it will all get done over time.

I am going to leave you with a quote from Rosabeth Moss Cantor: The middle of every successful project looks like a disaster.

When will you schedule your 15 minutes?

Because, really, without a life, what’s the point?

Confronting fear, embracing risk

I got to cross a big thing off my bucket list this week.

Falling out of a perfectly good plane, for no good reason – aka skydiving! I have had friends who love skydiving. I have even gone and been the cheering squad when they did that. And I often had the thought – that looks like fun. Of course, I also had the thought – they must be crazy, you couldn’t pay me to do that.

So, of course, it wound up on my bucket list. Then while planning the year of events with the Diva Development Committee of Success in the City – we came up with the idea of ‘confronting fear, embracing risk’ as a topic for a panel discussion. And one of our members said – wouldn’t it be cool to go skydiving as part of the event?

I never said I wasn’t crazy, so I immediately agreed to participate. Then, to make sure I wouldn’t back out, I registered, and then paid for it (knowing there were no refunds).

Well, after two false starts due to weather, we did it. AND IT WAS AMAZING!!!

We are all planning to do it again.

And now the huge goals I have set for myself in my business don’t seem quite as scary.

Are you working too hard?

A friend and colleague sent me a fascinating article last week from the October issue of Fast Company. All about how hard work is overrated and could even be detrimental.

Now, isn’t that a different way to look at things?

One part of the article really hit home:

We agreed that a lot of what we then considered “working hard” was actually “freaking out”. Freaking out included panicking, working on things just to be working on something, not knowing what we were doing, fearing failure, worrying about things we needn’t have worried about,… getting distracted by competitors, being at the office since just being there seemed productive even if it wasn’t– and other time-consuming activities…

Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on.

(You can read the entire article here.)

I challenge you to look at your day – how much of your “working hard” if “freaking out”? Are you actually giving yourself any time to think? Or are you just reacting all day long?

Since one of the ideas the authors speak about is the power of daydreaming (turns out your brain is actually very active then), do you let yourself do that?

I am going to build in some daydreaming time! What about you?

The real source of great results

Saw this today, and thought you would enjoy it. This is the real source of great results!

Smile
Move

How do you manage all your good ideas?

Have you noticed that you can think of far more great ideas than you can possibly act on at any given time?

What do you do? How do you keep track of your ideas? Do you write them down? Do you just let them float around in your head? Do you find yourself wondering what might be possible ‘if only’?

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.  – T. E. Lawrence

Write them down! You might not act on all of them at once, but you will act on some of them. And that will make you dangerous!

Everyone needs a supervisor?

Apparently so. I am going to introduce you to my supervisors today.

There are two of them. Lucky me!

Chanel, aka Queen High Empress of the Universe and Boss of Everything

One actively supervises me – she believes that, left to my own devices, I will most likely goof off. She might be right!

This is Chanel – the big boss. Has a very no-nonsense attitude, and an imperious approach to life. Tail is always straight up. Only occasionally bothered by her son, Sebastian. Even given that most cats are very imperial, she takes it to a whole other level!

Sebastian, the other cat, just thinks that wherever I am is the best place to be.

A sweet prince, he is the security around the place. He has made it quite clear that he will lick any intruder to death. A real love bug. His favorite place to sit is on me. If he can’t do that, then he will figure out a way to snuggle up as close as he possibly can (read – mostly on me). And if I make even that impossible, he will be curled up at my feet. Very un-cat-like, but there you go. We all like to be adored.

Sebastian, taking a nap with Cthulhu

As you can see, Sebastian is a really fluffy guy.

Both cats are purebred Persian/Himalayan – and both have beautiful blue eyes. So, very thick fur, and very long fur, and I am always chasing dust kitties. Sebastian loves to be combed, and would bring me his comb if he could get his teeth around it. Chanel not so much – she lets me know she has claws and knows how to use them. So, brushing her is usually more like an ambush, and it can take a week or more for me to get to all her parts.

So there you go – my supervisors. They keep a sharp eye on me, and make sure I am not working too hard.

Shameless self-promotion

Recently I was contacted by Carolyn Semedo of The Enterprising Moms. She was working on creating some educational offerings for her members, and one of the members suggested she talk to me about speaking with her group.

When we talked, she asked if I would be willing to create a case-study to use as a presentation. She suggested I work with one of the members, and then we could jointly present the before / during / and after of the work. And, being a smart, savvy businesswoman, she volunteered herself!

Well, she has been blogging about her experience. (Excerpted below)

A few of the key points that really shifted my thinking …

• I’m a highly visual person. If a thing is not in my line of vision, it’s likely to fall off my radar. What I learned is that my visual cues (polite term for ‘overflowing step file holders’) are overstimulating and overwhelming; and that there are more visually appealing and less stress-inducing ways of keeping track of active projects. Music to my ears!
• Many of the systems I have in place are well thought can work well for me, once I work out all of the kinks. For instance, I have numerous email accounts to help me keep track of different types of email (bills, personal, shopping, business, admin, networking, etc.). While some people use filters, I chose different accounts. My system for separating email works, but the way I process my email doesn’t. I’m working with Terry to implement a system to process my in-box and keep it empty.
• Most of the projects I’m working on require large chunks of time, something I rarely have. Terry helped me to shift how I think about my projects and my progress on them. By breaking projects up into smaller tasks, scheduling blocks of time for tasks (even as little as 15 minutes) and using a timer to keep me on task, I can make steady progress and achieve a sense of accomplishment while working towards completion.
• I don’t have to start from scratch. Terry explores how I work, what works well, and then works with me to put structures in place that support the way I work. So, it’s not about implementing a canned system, but building a system that works with my work flow.

Read the before post here.

Read the rest of the excerpted post here.

I love my clients!

Managing expectations (part 2)

In an earlier post, I was talking about managing interruptions.

The first step was to identify the interruptions (phone calls, email, drop ins, etc.).

Second was to identify the expectations (prompt response, things done on time, etc.).

Finally, identify the communication needed that would allow you to manage the expectations.

Managing the expectations of other people who would want or need to communicate with you throughout the day is a simple matter of communication.

Think back to the last voicemail you reached when you were calling a colleague. Did it say:

“Thanks for calling. I am away from my desk. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

How useful is that message? How much confidence do you have in your call being returned. And when will it be returned anyway?

What if instead the message said something like:

“In order to keep to all my deadlines, I am not answering my phone right now. However, if you leave a complete message (including why you are calling), I will return all phone calls between 11-12 or 3-4.”

And you knew the person would actually do that? I don’t know about you, but I am more inclined to leave a message (and only one message) when I get a voicemail like that.

And it is the same issue for emails. If you have already set up your email protocols (and I hope you have), and you are not checking email all day long, then all that is needed is a simple auto-response letting people know when you will be checking and responding to your email.

Two simple steps to free you up to get more done. Worth a try?

Managing interruptions = Managing expectations

Have you noticed how many interruptions there are in any given day? Maybe you even find yourself grumbling about all the interruptions?

“I could get this project done if the phone would just stop ringing!”

“I had so many emails coming in I just couldn’t get focused on anything today!”

“Even though I had my door closed, people kept popping in with ‘this will only take a sec!’”

“My desk is such a disaster, I spent half the day looking for the report I needed!”

Been there. Done that. It is no wonder we are a culture operating with a high level of inability to focus! It is pretty clear that more and more we need to be very proactive in managing the interruptions. But how can we do that?

Part of it, I think, comes from being able to manage expectations – our own and others’. What do I mean? Well, if you expect to get a certain piece of work done, but you know it will take 8 hours of focused action, and you (1) only schedule 4 hours, and (2) allow yourself to answer the phone and check email during that time – then you are not doing a very good job of managing your own expectations. And you will be disappointed.

If you let your phone go to voicemail, and don’t check your email, and you haven’t set up anything to manage the expectations of the people attempting to contact you – you will end up with multiple messages from the same person, most probably expressing an increasing level of frustration and annoyance, and you could end up alienating a key client, friend or colleague.

How can you overcome this?

First, identify the interruptions:

• phone calls
• email
• having to locate resources
• people dropping by
• your preferred method of procrastination
• etc.

Second, identify the expectations:

• a prompt response to phone or email messages
• resources are available
• project/task will be completed on time
• etc.

Finally, identify the communication needed that will allow you to manage those expectations.

More on that in the next post…