by Judy Rathwell | Oct 10, 2016 | Habits, Leadership Aha!, Newsletter, Productivity
Many of us begin our day feeling rushed and stressed- feelings that persist throughout our busy days. Being better organized, prioritizing, and just taking care of yourself can lead to a more successful and focused day. Here are nine easy steps to reducing stress, improving your mood, and feel more organized:
- Prepare your things the night before: Decide what you are going to wear, make your lunch, and pack a snack. By taking a few minutes to plan ahead, you can start your day less rushed and stressed. Having a routine for basic tasks, leaves margin for more creative thinking in other areas.
- Make a list of things you need to do and prioritize them. Do your most important tasks first every day and get them over with. “Eat that Frog” by Brian Tracy is an excellent book on this subject.
- Learn to say “no”. Acknowledge that you can’t do everything. When you say yes to everyone, you will leave yourself trapped with little time. By saying no, you will have more time to focus on your top priorities and obligations.
- Make your bed every morning. Not only can making your bed create a calm environment, it can help you start the day feeling productive and organized.
- Wake up 15 minutes earlier. Give yourself time to make a good breakfast or take a longer shower, reflect, etc.
- Listen to music that makes you happy. Music can not only boost your mood, but also reduce stress and help lower your blood pressure.
- Turn off your electronics for at least an hour or two a day in the evenings. You may also consider using the “Do Not Disturb” setting so you can check emails and texts at your leisure, rather than feeling as if you must address every notification that comes through your devices.
- Organize and declutter your desk- at least the surface. Clear random papers cluttering your work space to help increase focus and concentration.
- Do something nice for others. Whether you hold the door for someone or offer a sincere compliment, you can boost you own mood by boosting the mood of others.
“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows” –Anonymous
by Judy Rathwell | Sep 27, 2016 | Habits, Leadership Aha!, Newsletter
Leaders are defined by their ability to achieve breakthroughs. They can quickly adapt to changing conditions, spot new opportunities, and create innovative solutions to overcome whatever obstacles they face. Here are some best practices of a leader:
- Identify your make or break. Go through your objectives and strategies to identify the critical factors that will lead to success. Next, clarify the actions required. Make sure your team knows not only what is required, but why its vitally important.
- Look through your customers’ eyes. Identify their expectations at each phase and the key actions both you and your client must take.
- Connect with employees. Engage energetic and passionate employees with questions such as, “What do you think?”, “How do you think we could solve this problem?” or “What would you do?”.
- Learn from dissatisfied clients. Always begin by acknowledging their point of view. This is not the time to fix or explain but simply to listen. Engage with them to gain their perspective. Identify new ways to pursue client feedback.
- Know when to recharge and re-energize. Encouragement, optimism and confidence are hallmarks of energized employees. Monitor your energy and that of your team.
Source: Amy Fox, Success Magazine
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” –Ronald Reagan
by Judy Rathwell | Jun 27, 2016 | Habits, Leadership Aha!, Newsletter, Productivity
Do you have trouble being productive in the morning? Eva Wisnik shares her advice on how she gets more done before lunch than most people do in a day! Here’s how you do it:
- Get your head in the game. Some people keep their brain shut off until the moment they reach their desk. However, you’ll be more productive with some morning forethought before you start working. It is helpful to sketch out your plan either the night before or on you morning commute. If you’re going to be chained to your desk for 8 hours, treat yourself before work. This will give you an energy spike and help you start your day in control. This could be wearing your favorite shirt or stopping for your favorite morning treat.
- ID your to two. Identify the two most important things that must get completed that day. Write out small manageable steps for completing these important tasks and get to work! Aim to complete these tasks before lunch.
- Do the worst things first. Avoiding dreaded tasks from the beginning can lead into a day filled with procrastination. Completing these tasks first will allow you too move through your to-do list rapidly.
- Focus on critical emails. On average, only 30% of emails require an immediate response. Flag these important emails and work your way through them before lunch!
- Stop interrupting yourself. When distracting tasks pop into your head such as, text messages, appointments, or online orders, it feels as if they must be completed at that moment so they won’t be forgotten. However, these interruptions will eat up your morning. Keep a piece of paper handy where you can jot down these non-urgent personal to-dos and complete them at a later time. Minimizing these interruptions will increase efficiency in your morning.
Source: Yelena Moroz Alpert
by Judy Rathwell | Apr 11, 2016 | Executive Leadership, Habits, Leadership Aha!, Leadership Development, Newsletter
“What is your number one secret to productivity?” Kevin Kruse, NY Times Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur has asked this question of over 200 ultra-successful people, including 7 billionaires, 13 Olympians, and a host of accomplished entrepreneurs, yielding some fascinating suggestions. What follows are some favorites from Kevin’s findings.
- They focus on minutes, not hours. Most people default to hour and half-hour blocks on their calendar; highly successful people know that there are 1,440 minutes in every day and that there is nothing more valuable than time.
- They focus on only one thing. Ultra-productive people know what their “Most Important Task” is and work on it for one to two hours each morning, without interruptions. What task will have the biggest impact on reaching your goals.
- They don’t use to-do lists. What task will have the biggest impact on reaching your goals? Instead schedule everything on your calendar and live by that calendar. It turns out that only 41% of items on to-do lists get done.
- They delegate almost everything. Ultra-productive people don’t ask, “How can I do this task?” Instead, they ask, “How can this task get done?” They take the ‘I’ out of it as much as possible, eliminating the control issues, and they are not micro-managers.
- They make it home for dinner. Intel’s Andy Grove, who said, “There is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done.” Highly successful people know what they value in life. Yes, work, also life outside of it.
- They use a notebook. Richard Branson has said he wouldn’t have been able to build Virgin without a simple notebook – he takes it with him everywhere. Free your mind by writing everything down as the thoughts come to you.
- They process e-mails only a few times a day. Schedule time to process emails quickly and efficiently, versus checking often throughout the day.
- They touch things only once. How many times have you opened a piece of regular mail or even email —only to deal with it again later? Highly successful people try to “touch it once.”
- They practice a consistent morning routine. Most of these highly-successful people nurtured their bodies with water, a healthy breakfast, and light exercise; they nurtured their minds with meditation or prayer, inspirational reading, or journaling.
- Energy is everything. You can’t make more minutes in the day, but you can increase your energy to increase your attention, focus, and productivity. Food is viewed as fuel, sleep as recovery, and breaks as opportunities to recharge in order to get even more done.
You might not be an entrepreneur, an Olympian, or a billionaire, yet their secrets may help you to get more done in less time and help eliminate that feeling we can get of being overworked and overwhelmed. What do you do to stay productive?
Excerpt from Dr. Travis Bradberry, TalentSmart, April 2016
