The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

Without a plan, life just sort of happens to you. But with a plan, you’ll make sure your daily activities support what you want to create next week, next month, next year…until, at the end of your days, your activities have contributed to creating and living a successful life. Your plans should be purposeful, so your life moves in the direction you desire, based on your ideal vision for yourself. These tips can help you get there.

1. Have a personal mission statement for your life. You need an essential, written document that helps you make decisions about the way you spend your time and evaluate your choices. This is who you are, and what you’re all about.

2. Maintain a list of your life’s goals and dreams. Take each dream and phrase it in the form of an objective statement — and then make plans for its accomplishment, sooner rather than later.

3. Try to gain flexibility at work. Determine how the business of life and the game of work are going to fit together. Strive to create a lifestyle that’s flexible, one in which your personal life works with your job and your job works with your life.

4. Keep effective to-do lists. Set everything down on paper (or on your computer screen) so things don’t slip through the cracks.

5. Break larger projects into smaller ones. Big projects tend to get thrown over in favor of the little ones that are quickly done. To avoid leaving something on your list for months, break it into single steps that are easily accomplished.

6. Prepare for the next day the night before. It’s easier to put together a plan early on and then execute it when the time comes, rather than create it from scratch right when you need it.

7. Plan for chaotic transitional periods during the day. Expect transitional times (such as from workday to evening) to take a little more effort than you expect. You can control the confusion, however, if you have a checklist to follow.

8. Prevent crises by preparing well in advance. You can’t plan for everything, but there’s a difference between a true emergency and a "crisis" created because you didn’t do something before it was due. You’ll be amazed at the level of calm you experience when you get things done before you need them.

9. Embrace flexibility and weather change. Things will change — get used to it. There’s no going back to the "good old days." In a storm, it’s the trees than can bend who survive; the stiff ones break. Whatever you face, this too shall pass.

10. Continuously work to improve your efficiency and effectiveness. Don’t expect to regain control of your time all at once! It takes effort and practice to get it right. The secret is to take it inch by inch, step by step. 

The lesson here is to approach your life with a sense of structure. While you’ll never be able to plan for everything, you should have systems on hand to help you create order from chaos when it occurs. You should also have a clear plan for your life’s goals and dreams, so you’ll be able to work toward them and accomplish them sooner.  When you plan, you wake up each day with your marching orders. All you have to do is march!

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

Nowadays, so many things compete for your attention in the workplace that it can be hard to concentrate on what’s important. If you need to improve your ability to stay on target and focus on the task at hand, implement the tips outlined below.

1. Set up your office for maximum productivity and minimum distractions. You need privacy to concentrate and discuss sensitive issues. Don’t just take what you’re given; reorganize it into a configuration that works best for you.

2. Avoid wasting time by daydreaming. Daydreaming can be a real productivity bandit — but as long as you don’t use it to procrastinate, it can be very helpful. Harness its creative powers, and use it for thinking time that can lead to productive ideas.

3. Remember things more easily. Busy people need good memory skills to help them remember details. Sharpening your memory can be as simple as using good memory tools: always writing things down, keeping running lists, leaving yourself voicemails, etc.

4. Focus on priority projects without getting distracted. Be like a postage stamp: stick to one thing until it gets to its intended destination. Learn to juggle multiple tasks and projects effectively, but don’t flit around from one item to another without completing anything.

5. Focus on one thing at a time. Don’t "multi-task" or attempt to do too many things at once. Start by focusing one on item instead. Don’t interrupt yourself, and prioritize your tasks so you know what needs to be done first.

6. Make lists and record everything you need to do. To keep from dropping the ball, capture every thought using either paper or electronic methods. This pulls what you need to do out of your memory and relieves your brain of the burden of repeatedly thinking about everything you need to remember.

7. Read quickly and maintain concentration. Learn to benefit from new reading techniques designed to boost productivity, and toss whatever’s boring or useless to you. Getting through your reading more quickly frees up time for other priorities.

8. Recognize signs of brain overload. If you have no idea what to do first or where to begin, learn how to get your mind focused again. For example, create structure and deadlines for your work, jealously guard your attention from distractions, or try some deep breathing exercises.

9. Get absorbed in a task. Become fully present-focused. Learn to "get in the zone" and achieve a state of momentum where time seems to fly. Start by mastering your job, ensure no interruptions, and always strive to be in the moment.

10. Concentrate on a task that bores you or doesn’t really interest you. Even tedious tasks must be completed. Get them done early so the rest of the day is more enjoyable, reward yourself for getting the job done, and vary your activities.

You can’t get your work done if you’re distracted. Learn to trim away all the minor things competing for your attention, and fine-tune your concentration to a laser-like focus. You’ll be surprised at how much you get done — and how much time you’ll have to spend on what’s really important.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

Discipline is your ability to maintain consistent, productive behavior. To maximize your productivity, you need to learn to do what must be done, and to exercise restraint over your own impulses, emotions, and desires. If you’re self-disciplined, you exhibit consistent focus in your daily work — even when you don’t feel like it. Try these tactics to keep you on track during the day.

1. Know your natural energy cycle and work effectively during peak times. We all have a natural time during the day when we feel up (prime time) and a natural time when we feel down (down time). Knowing both your prime and down times and knowing how to handle them is an important productivity enhancer.

2. Control perfectionism. Realize that some things are good enough as they are. If you suffer from the disease of perfectionism, things may never get done to your satisfaction, so learn to be flexible.

3. Avoid procrastination. Don’t put things off, or wait until the last minute to do them. Otherwise you’ll always have a sense of impending doom hanging over your head, and will end up operating in permanent crisis mode.

4. Force yourself to slow down when necessary. Realize that speed can be counterproductive; some tasks need to be done slowly in order to be done properly. As the saying goes, the only person who ever had his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe! 

5. Determine on your own what you will accomplish each day. Don’t allow others to dictate your schedule, insofar as this is possible. Set rules about the things you choose to do, and the people you choose to interact with.

6. Work productively from your home office and avoid distractions. Working at home comes with its own set of distractions. Be aware of your personal weaknesses, and create rules about what you may and may not do during the day.

7. Handle common, routine tasks on a daily basis so things don’t pile up. Practice clutter control. Taking care of common tasks every day — especially those you don’t really enjoy — will keep them from getting out of hand.

8. Arrive at appointments and meetings on time. In fact, try to be early on a consistent basis. Instead of annoying people with your lateness, reap the benefits of arriving before everyone else.

9. Avoid workaholism. Try not to work more than 40 hours per week, and don’t take work home with you, on vacation, or to bed. It’s fine to be a conscientious employee, but don’t be compulsive about it.

10. Work hard, and "put your nose to the grindstone" every day. It’s not necessary to work ten or twelve hour days, but you should work hard the eight hours you’re in the office.

Strive for the self-control and confidence gained when you enforce your own rules. It may be a pain, but in the end, it gets the job done. Following these tips will help you complete your high priority tasks, without getting sidelined by menial or trivial activities.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

Its About Time

Pareto is very busy in the sales world.  You know the 80-20 rule.  In this case, it means that only 20% of salespeople spend 80% of their time on selling activities.  Are you in this group?  See if you recognize yourself.  If not, here’s how you can join the group.      

Put your fingers on it fast.  Laura Stack is a professional speaker and author of Leave the Office Earlier® and Find More Time.  She sees several time wasters that cost salespeople valuable selling time.  One of the biggest time wasters is lacking a system to track client history.  The system should include notes on conversations that took place, with whom, and when they took place.  Stack says, “To be truly organized you should be able to have a prospect call you out of the blue and you should be able to immediately refer back to a conversation that took place years ago.”  Without the system, you can’t be effective. You may even frustrate clients who have to repeat themselves and might have to rely on facts that aren’t correct.   Stack uses ACT! to take notes while talking with clients on the phone.  Many salespeople are unaware that Outlook can be used to track history.  The journal feature allows you to take notes and attach those notes to the contact.  Stack adds that you can use a manual folder system if you prefer. What is essential is to have a system to aggregate and retrieve client history. 

There’s an unexpected time waster—the BlackBerry.  It’s hard to use one for taking notes because you can’t type that fast.  Stack sees salespeople taking notes on scraps of paper, place mats and even their hands. That haphazard system makes them more disorganized.  She suggests, “Understand the features and benefits and decide if it’s for you.”  It’s important once you do take notes to enter them into your system as soon as possible so they don’t pile up.

Get to work fast.  Another time waster is when salespeople lack a plan or poorly plan their daily activities.  It starts by having a system to schedule follow up tasks like telephone calls.  If you tell a customer you will call in two weeks, you must follow through.  Some salespeople think they can remember everything they promise. That’s far too taxing. Instead, a technology supplied or manual system works well to keep your promises.  She says, “People will work with someone who is reliable more than someone they like.”  Some inefficient salespeople begin each day thinking, “Who am I supposed to call today?”  Stack says that when you come to work each day you should already know whom you’re supposed to call and what you’re supposed to do.  If you work in inside sales, your planning can be the last task of the previous day.  If you do a lot of driving, a week out is sufficient and more time is required for air travelers.  In addition, at the beginning of each month Stack recommends reviewing activities for the coming month.

Work on selling.  Stack sees many salespeople wasting time on activities that take them away from selling. One activity is constant email checking which she suggests reducing to once per day. She sees salespeople who take notes on spiral notebooks only to waste time flipping back through the notebooks to locate a particular piece of customer information.  She often hears complaints about completing reports that are time wasters. Yet when she asks, “What have you done about it?” she often gets the response, “Nothing.”  Stack reports, “If leadership knew, they would care as it’s directly impacting the profitability of the sales force.” 

You may think you don’t have time to plan your selling.  You really do.  Stack says, “Organization is an enabler. Once it’s in place, it allows you to make more sales. It’s a launching pad to reach more sales revenue.”  Sounds like it’s time to take the leap and join the 20% that are selling more effectively. 

Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals on skills and strategies so they can sell more and be more productive at work.  She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results which is available at www.BestatSelling.com.  She founded her company Best@Selling in 1997.  You can reach her at 972.380.0200 or info@Bestatsellling.com. 

Okay dear readers, you know I would NOT normally write about anything that I consider a waste of your precious time.  But since only productivity enthusiasts read my blog, I know you will appreciate this.  Even though it’s out of character for me, I am recommending you take a stress break and waste a good ten minutes watching Nick Pudder’s gag videos on how to be more productive.  I’m still laughing.  It’s Dilbert in real life!

With my thanks for the laugh to Golden Jokes for this great joke on tracking wasted time on a time sheet:

Dear Staff,

In an effort to maximize productivity in our department I will be implementing a tool used in many industries. You will be tracking your time working on certain activities and sending me a time sheet weekly showing me how your time has been spent.

Attached below is a sheet specifying a job code list based on some observations of employee activities. Please begin using this job code list immediately and let me know about any difficulties you encounter.

Thank you.
Your boss.

Code
Number Explanation
5316 Useless Meeting
5317 Obstructing Communications at Meeting
5318 Trying to Sound Knowledgeable While in a Meeting
5319 Waiting for Break
5320 Waiting for Lunch
5321 Waiting for End of Day
5322 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker
5323 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker While Coworker is Not Present
5393 Covering for Incompetence of Coworker Friend
5394 Blaming Incompetence of Coworker Who is Not a Friend
5400 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who is Not Interested in Learning
5401 Trying to Explain Concept to CoworkerWho is Stupid
5402 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who Hates You
5481 Buying Snack
5482 Eating Snack
5500 Filling Out Timesheet
5501 Inventing Timesheet Entries
5502 Waiting for Something to Happen
5503 Scratching Yourself
5504 Sleeping
5510 Feeling Bored
5600 Complaining About Lousy Job
5601 Complaining About Low Pay
5602 Complaining About Long Hours
5603 Complaining About Coworker (See Codes 5322 & 5323)
5604 Complaining About Boss
5605 Complaining About Personal Problems
5640 Miscellaneous Unproductive Complaining
5701 Not Actually Present At Job
5702 Suffering From Eight-Hour Flu
6102 Ordering Out
6103 Waiting for Food Delivery to Arrive
6104 Taking It Easy While Digesting Food
6200 Using Company Resources for Personal Profit
6201 Stealing Company Goods
6202 Making Excuses After Accidentally Destroying Company Files
6203 Using Company Phone to Make Long-Distance Personal Calls
6204 Using Company Phone to Make Long-Distance Personal Calls to Sell Stolen Company Goods
6205 Hiding from Boss
6206 Gossip
6207 Planning a Social Event (e.g. vacation, wedding,etc.)
6210 Feeling Sorry For Yourself
6211 Updating Resume
6212 Faxing Resume to Another Employer/Headhunter
6213 Out of Office on Interview
6221 Pretending to Work While Boss Is Watching
6222 Pretending to Enjoy Your Job
6223 Pretending You Like Coworker
6224 Pretending You Like Important People When in Reality They are Jerks
6238 Miscellaneous Unproductive Fantasizing
6350 Playing Pranks on the New Guy/Girl
6601 Running your own Business on Company Time (See Code 6603)
6602 Complaining
6603 Writing a Book on Company Time
6611 Staring Into Space
6612 Staring At Computer Screen
6615 Transcendental Meditation
7281 Extended Visit to the Bathroom (over 10 minutes)
7400 Talking With Divorce Lawyer on Phone
7401 Talking With Plumber on Phone
7402 Talking With Dentist on Phone
7403 Talking With Doctor on Phone
7404 Talking With Masseuse on Phone
7405 Talking With House Painter on Phone
7406 Talking With Personal Therapist on Phone
7419 Talking With Miscellaneous Paid Professionals on Phone
7931 Asking Coworker to Aid You in an Illicit Activity
8000 Recreational Drug Use
8001 Non-recreational Drug Use
8002 Liquid Lunch
8101 Surfing Vacation Sites on the Internet
8102 Surfing Porn Sites on the Internet
8103 Surfing Humor Sites on the Internet
8200 Reading e-mail
8201 Distributing humorous e-mails

Here’s a nice article on 5 Ways to Stop Being Late.  Made me start thinking about punctuality.  A quiet amusement of mine is to watch the expression of people who arrive late for my time management seminars. Tail between the legs, these people shuffle in sheepishly mumbling something about traffic, while their friends tease, “How can you be late for a time management class?”

The number one complaint I receive from managers who hire me to coach their staff on performance is something around “the inability to meet deadlines, is always late, is constantly running behind, or he/she forgot.” There are actually three types of people I see:

1.      “Late” people are typically perpetually late, for everything. 

2.      “On time” people typically arrive a minute or two ahead or behind the goal. 

3.      “Early” people are rare and generally arrive early to everything. 

People are much more irritated by lateness than we ever know; it can dampen everything from promotions and raises to friendships. Late people crowd us, physically and mentally, all the time. We all hate the fact that their lateness undoes our schedule and disrupts our day. Showing up late for work or sending something in late, no matter how well done, still means a black mark against you.

I’m an Early, not because I’m so incredibly productive, but because I’ve discovered the benefits in doing so. For one of your productivity goals, I’d like to encourage you to become an Early. Why is it important to be early?

·        You get the first choice of many things.

·        You gain admiration and respect.

·        You are able to relax and not sweat.

·        You get good press and publicity.

·        You get time while waiting to relax or read.

Being an Early makes you look competent and lets others know you can be depended on. Being a Late, however, makes people wonder if you’ll come through this time. You’ll always be bringing up the rear, never totally trusted, no matter how skilled you are. Even if you’re on “on time,” that’s fairly typical…boring? It just doesn’t stand out. It’s okay…just expected…yawn. Don’t be simply “average.”

LATE says, “I can’t make deadlines.”  EARLY says, “I don’t need deadlines.”

LATE says, “I’m out of control.” EARLY says, “I’m in control.”

LATE says, “I can’t look beyond the moment.” EARLY says, “I look ahead.”

So how do you become an Early? It has nothing to do with setting your watch five minutes fast and “fooling” yourself, because psychologically, you know it’s five minutes fast and make up for it anyway. Keep your clocks on the correct time. It’s less about time management and more about planning. In fact, this simple, inexpensive principle will actually prevent 50% or more of your “time management” problems.

Instead of thinking, “I begin speaking at 9:00 AM,” my thoughts are this: “I should plan on arriving at 8:00 AM to set up and get prepared.” Then I have to figure out how long it should take me to get there at eight, not nine! If I do arrive early and have some “free” time, I’m prepared.  I have bills to pay, magazines to peruse, or thank you letters to write. Before you relax each night, have your clothes selected, school papers signed, lunches made, briefcase packed, and schedule outlined.

Best of all, become an Early and you won’t have “deadlines.” They will become unnecessary because you’ve already completed things early. Deadlines were made for people who would not get things done without it. Work for the completion of a project or task, not for the deadline. Deadlines are often irrelevant, because the task gets put off until the deadline when it could have been done much sooner. Telling yourself you’re “more creative under pressure” is just an excuse to procrastinate and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What To Do With Low Priority Items On Your To-Do List

You already know you should work on the most important things—duh—but are you doing it? The next big question becomes—what should you do with all the lower-priority items? Here are some questions to get you started thinking about what to do with the rest of your list:

• Can you give it to someone else to do? Your goal is to push the activity to the lowest pay possible without compromising the result. I used to pick up my mail every evening—an important task—and sort it and get it to the right people. Once I relinquished a bit of my obsessive control over the process, trained my assistant Dana how to do it, and resisted the urge to go to the mailbox at the end of the day, I saved about twenty minutes a day. She picks it up on her way into the office, and after several months, there hasn’t been one thing that couldn’t have waited until the next morning for me to see. Part of my learning here was to stop seeing my mail as a present, like a little child dying to open her Christmas presents, and seeing it as simply another task that was demanding my time and attention. 
• Can you simplify the process? I give over 100 keynotes and seminars every year on personal productivity topics. Every client needs certain information from our company to publicize the meeting or event. As different staff members handle different areas (travel, logistics, contracts, etc.), the client would receive multiple emails. Instead of sending multiple attachments from multiple people, we simplified the information into a single Meeting Planners guide, which a multi-page PDF, that provides all the information in one place, one email, one person. No more confusion on who the client should ask and who has already provided what. We also upgraded our contact management database to ACT 2007, so any user in our office can see real time what another person just sent to a client. 
• Can you become more efficient? Once an engagement was underway, a client might need information (not initially provided in the Meeting Planners handbook), such as a photo of me, a course description, or my introduction. So after receiving call after call and sending this information piecemeal to whomever needed it, we thought—duh—we should put it on our web site. Now we proactively let clients know at the time of booking where they can find anything they need. We now have more information than anyone would probably want on the web site. If it’s requested more than one time, we add it. Less staff time on our part, and clients can get what they need more quickly. 
• Can you stop doing it? Have you ever asked yourself the question, "If I didn’t do this at all, would anyone notice?" Seriously! That’s a darn good question. I chatted with an administrative assistant who was generating training reports every month for the operations group. She was sure what the customer was using the reports for, but it took her about four hours to create each month. So she called and said, "We generate this report for you, and we’re happy to continue to do that, but we just wanted to check out its importance with you. Do you use it? Is it valuable? Can we skinny it down a bit? Can we stop sending it altogether?" It turned out the user looked at it every once in a while and was fine with changing it to quarterly. It’s important to keep the communication open with your "customer" and find out what really has value. Focus on what you could be doing in that time instead to get greater recognition and abandon things that don’t add value. 
• Can you create a checklist to handle repetitive tasks quickly? Before I leave for a speaking engagement, I have to know that certain things are in place: books are shipped, travel arrangements are made, workbook copies have been produced, an LCD projector will be available, etc. So we automated the process of providing this information to me. At the time of the booking, each staff person includes a checklist in the central client hardcopy file and marks things off as they are accomplished and put in the file. I simply have to pull the file and scan the checklists and see what’s been done and any exceptions. It ensures that each person completes all the necessary tasks prior to an engagement, and I don’t have to ask whether things have been completed. 
• Can you lower your standards? Does it have to be done perfectly? I worked with the president of a car manufacturing company who called someone in IT to get a figure to put into his talk. The president was thinking the guy would spend 15 minutes on it and be able to quickly ballpark a number to drop in a speech. Turns out the employee spent 10 hours coming up with an exact number to 7 digits, when the president was only looking for was a high-level guess—5 million or 50 million? Both of them are at fault. The president should have said "I’m looking for this type of number, and I’m thinking it will just take you 15 minutes or so to ballpark it +/- a few million dollars. Does that sound reasonable? Then the employee could tell him what it would actually take to create that figure and the president could decide if it’s worth it for that particular speech. 
• Can you use a shortcut? How about a standard response template? I found myself providing or replying to the same type of emails over and over again and typing out the same information over and over again, such as replying to media requests for quotes, thanking people for kind feedback to a presentation, sending invoices, etc. I used to keep standard templates in Microsoft Word and cut and paste them into Outlook. But I have saved SO much time by setting up the standard templates as Signatures in Microsoft Outlook and titling them by the type of response or letter. I simply create or reply to the email, Insert, Signature, and pick the name of the signature, customize a couple things like the name, and hit Send. Simple! What a great shortcut. 

Hopefully these examples will give you a few ideas on how you can deal with low-priority items on your list. Remember: productivity isn’t how many hours you work or how fast you work; it is how much value you produce. 

When you promise someone you will complete a task by a certain timeframe, do you do it?  Or does the deadline slip past once again, with you muttering to yourself, “Stupid! What is wrong with you?”  Now you aren’t able to focus on anything, always aware of this dark cloud hanging over your head.  Guilt sucks the energy right out of you!  Instead, decide today that you are going to be a person of your word.  Are you reliable?  Can people count on you to do what you say you’re going to do?  Do you have integrity and keep the deadlines you promise?  What’s others’ perception of you?  Do you live out what you affirm?  Do you do what you complain about in others?  What things do people "jokingly" say about you and your behavior?  Seek to control yourself.  If you say to yourself, "I probably shouldn’t be doing this right now," you’re probably right.  If you’re honest with yourself, how many hours could you save every day by being more disciplined?  And could you leave the office earlier with that saved time?  If tomorrow, you arrived at work and didn’t get a cup of coffee…didn’t get on the Internet…didn’t talk to your friend…didn’t get your new blog postings…didn’t get sucked into email for 90 minutes…what could you use that energy on instead that will made you proud and give you a boost of satisfaction for the entire day?  When you finally complete the task you’ve been putting off, the freedom from the stress it was causing you is its own reward.  Good things begin to flow into the space the negative guilt used to occupy.  You’re no longer paralyzed, and you get your energy back.

Happy New Year!  I read this quote posted on the 43 Folders blog from the Scottish mountain climber W. H. Murray:

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

I believe this is, indeed, a truth.  Take vacation planning, for example.  Countless business people in my seminars have told me their schedules are so hectic, they can never fit in a vacation.  That’s the wrong approach.  You should first schedule the vacation, then work around it.  You will NEVER miraculously find a block of time on your calendar in which to rest and spend time with your family.  You have to make it happen.  Once it’s on your calendar and PAID FOR (book the cruise, put the deposit on the Club Med vacation, etc.) it’s amazing how you can move heaven and earth to make that a reality.

So in the the New Year, decide what you are going to commit to and START.  It doesn’t even have to be big.  You don’t have to have all these grand project plans broken down by the day, and objectives set so high you’ll give up in two weeks.  Take tiny steps toward your bold goals.

For example, I’ve committed to participating in the Danskin Triathlon in Denver on July 14-15, 2007.  Nope, I’ve never been in a Triathlon.  But Santa brought me a new XBox 360 program called Yourself! Fitness, and I’m just going to take it one step at a time, without locking myself into a set of unrealistic exercise expectations. Now that this is on my calendar, I’ve commited to it, and I’m taking steps toward it, I know that it will happen.  That’s the power of starting.

Now that I’ve put it out there, I’m waiting for Providence to find  a workout partner in Highlands Ranch who’s interested in training with me or anyone in Denver willing to meet me at the Triathlon.  Know anyone?   

What are you going to start?