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

There’s a Lot to Learn About Personal Goal Setting From Football

It’s that time of year again! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – The Superbowl offers a great acrostic game opportunity for learning productivity techniques.

What does time management have to do with Super Bowl football?

Everything!

Football pros competing in the Super Bowl use great goal-setting techniques. By studying the game, you too can learn a lot about how to set objectives. Successful football teams devote a great deal of thought and time to planning how to move the ball down the field.

And successful people devote time to planning what they’ll accomplish in business and in life. Ask the coaches who’ve led teams to the Super Bowl. They know you can’t win without a good game plan.

The term “SUPER BOWL” describes nine components for making touchdowns in your life:

S = Specific. Progress in football is measured a yard at a time. Similarly, you’re wise to measure your progress toward a goal in numbers, percentages, milestones, or dates. “Learn software program” isn’t specific, but “Spend five hours a week learning software program” is. “Lose weight” isn’t specific, but “Lose thirty pounds at one pound a week” can be measured by simply stepping on the scale. “Make more calls” isn’t specific, but “Make five new outbound prospecting calls a day” is.

U = Us. The quarterback doesn’t attempt to score by himself; he hands off the ball to other players. Individual players can’t win without help from their teammates. Reaching a goal requires an entire team of people to be accomplished. You’ll experience limited success if your department or family doesn’t buy into your goal, so understand your strengths and know when to delegate pieces of the task to others. Where can you save time by passing the ball to others qualified to do the task?

P = Plan to succeed. Top teams don’t go out and just start playing. They prepare, plan, and study the playbook. They determine in advance what will be effective and how to spend their time. Similarly, don’t tackle a job without drawing up a plan of attack. List all the steps it will take to execute your plan in a logical sequence. Each night, draw up your plans for the next day so you are focused and
purposeful.

E = Effort. Teams get to the Super Bowl through effort, not luck. Yes, you might reach your goals through sheer luck, but the odds are much better if you work hard. Injuries can put the very best team out of the playoffs, so players put effort into staying healthy. Scoring a touchdown isn’t easy, but it’s attainable with effort. Similarly, your goals should challenge you without being unrealistic. Don’t set yourself up to fail, but do force yourself to stretch. When you experience success at reaching “stretch” objectives, you
gain confidence. Also know when to take a time out and rest, so you don’t burn out or get fatigued.

R = Reward. Players have unique ways of celebrating a touchdown—through a gesture, a dance, even a back flip. Have a plan to celebrate your accomplishments, too. You’ll stay motivated to work toward your objective when you know the rewards. The vision of earning a Super Bowl ring keeps players pushing toward that end.  What will be your reward once you’ve accomplished your goal? What is exciting enough to make you want to shoot for it? A vacation? A massage? A round of golf? Rewards can also be intrinsic, such as increased self-esteem, more confidence, or the pleasure of a job well done.

B = Belief. Football players have a burning desire to win, and so should you. Have confidence in yourself! Picture yourself in the moment you achieve your goal. Determine how you will feel. Use positive self-talk and hear what others say when your goal is achieved. Enlist your friends and create your own personal cheering section. Your fans help you maintain your enthusiasm, and you’ll rise to the level of your own self-esteem. When you’re having a slow day, call your fans and ask for encouragement.

O = Obstacles. Teams spend a lot of time studying the competition and determining how to beat it. What obstacles do you face when working on your goal? What might prevent you from obtaining it? Consider early in the process what could go wrong, then put contingency plans in place and anticipate problems before they occur.

W = Written. Many people dream about what goals they want to accomplish, but few actually write them down. Coaches don’t have all the plays memorized; they refer to their playbooks. Written objectives are tangible and concrete. Make them uplifting and phrase them in a positive way. Review your progress at regular intervals and track it as you go. For example, measure your weight each week, summarize your sales calls every day, or determine how many pages you wrote each day.

L = Limits. Football games have four 15-minute quarters, a framework in which players have to succeed. Break your goal down into manageable pieces with well-defined start and stop dates. Many goals will have multiple action steps, each with a target date. Don’t think of a project as a 10-hour task; think of it as 10 one-hour tasks. A goal is a series of first downs—mini-goals that help you see your progress and keep you motivated.

Remember, you don’t have to move 100 yards all at once. Take small steps toward your goals every day or every week. Get moving, and you’ll soon feel the positive effects of the change. And every little bit of change can lead to long-term healthy habits, which last far beyond the Super Bowl party!

Make it a productive day!

I was reading an article in Information Week appropriately titled, “Eaten by the Email Monster.” http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/08/eaten_by_the_em.html

It links to several useful articles on how to handle information overload. I thought I’d add my thoughts on how to efficiently process email: the 6-D Information Management System™:

1. DISCARD = Delete it

2. DELEGATE = Forward it

3. DO = Reply immediately if it will take you three minutes or less

4. DATE = Needs work but not now. The key is to somehow get it out of your in-box. Pick one favorite method and try to be consistent, so you don’t confuse your brain about what you did with that email. Options:

* Move to a process folder called “Action” or something similar.

* For emails that require action, move (NOT drag, which creates a copy) them to Tasks (or drag to the to-do icon in Lotus) by right-clicking the message and selecting Move to Folder, and then Tasks. A new Task automatically opens and inserts the email into the text portion of the message, which can now be replied to right out of the task). This physically removes the email from your in-box, not just create a copy.

* For time-sensitive emails (meetings or appointments), follow the same procedure above, but select Calendar after you Move to Folder, which will open a new calendar item and automatically move the email message to the text portion of the window.

* If you’d rather work with a paper copy, print the email and file it in your tickler folder. Create a personal folder called @Tickler and drag email there that requires follow-up. When the paper copy (trigger) comes up in your tickler file, you know the original is in your @Tickler folder. That will save you from having to retype the email message when you respond to it.

* Copy the email into the contact’s record in your contact management software (such as ACT or Goldmine) and schedule an activity to follow up.

* Set an email reminder (NOT a calendar reminder or Task reminder) by right-clicking in the flag area (NOT setting a flag) and selecting Add Reminder. Fill in the day and time you want the reminder on the email, and move the email to the proper project folder. You will get a reminder when the email isn’t in your in-box (Outlook 2003).

* Forward it back to yourself, select Options, and check “Don’t deliver before,” fill in a date and send. Delete original.

* Drag to the proper email personal folder, and write a to-do on your paper planning as a cross-reference to remember to do it.

5. DRAWER = If no action is required, but you’d like to keep the email for reference, create a personal folder for the project or reference type and drag the email to the correct folder. Or you could create a Word or other word processing document and save it on your hard drive.

6. DETER = Unsubscribe from email lists and tell your friends to stop sending you their “joke of the day”! Or use the Office Assistant (under “Tools”) or other Rules to automatically moving email from particular people to certain folders (or just delete it then).

I hope this helps! Force yourself to do one of the 6 D’s every singe time you look at a new email. All the email in your in-box will be new, and you will stop re-reading messages over and over. Do a major processing spree like this at least three times a day, but do NOT check them as they are coming in. Turn off the global alerts, set Rules to play for important people, and control your OCD trigger-happy email finger!

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) discusses the use of technology and how to keep it from controlling your time. (C) 2011 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. http://www.TheProductivityPro.com

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), talks about multi-tasking and why it doesn’t work. (C) 2011 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. http://www.TheProductivityPro.com

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“There is nothing that the busy man is less busy with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.” — Seneca, Roman philosopher

“I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work.” — Bertrand Russell, British philosopher

“The commonsense rules of the ‘real world’ are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions.” — Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek.

In 2007, Timothy Ferriss created a sensation in the business world with his provocatively titled book, The 4-Hour Workweek. In it, he outlined his philosophy that once you’ve worked hard to build your business, it’s possible to maintain that business at a profitable level by working for just a few hours per week.

Ferriss believes that the rules that bind us to the 9-to-5 grind are a pointless legacy of a time that’s long past, because in the modern knowledge economy, what matters isn’t how many hours you work—it’s how well you perform. Furthermore, he asserts, it doesn’t matter how much money you make if you don’t have the time to enjoy it.

How Does It Work?

Using his personal example, Ferriss outlines a method of ruthless time management using (among other things) the 80/20 principle, extreme outsourcing, and what he calls “cultivating selective ignorance”—that is, not trying to constantly keep up with every little thing at all times. Instead, he suggests, you should just catch up whenever it’s necessary to do so. This allows you to narrow your focus to the critical few items that really matter, so you can cut your workweek to a length that seems ridiculously short to many of us.

All this seems to work for Tim Ferriss— but can it work for you? Is a 4-Hour Workweek really possible? The answer is…well, kinda.

Working the Plan

I’m with Ferriss on the basics. My entire business is based on teaching people how to develop their time management skills so they can boost productivity, and I agree wholeheartedly that it’s an excellent idea to delegate/outsource everything except the few tasks that are the most profitable and valuable to you. As for selective ignorance, that’s basically the process of eliminating distractions and interruptions—which I’m all for as well.

Certainly, all these things can help you decrease your work load, especially when you apply them as rigorously as Ferriss apparently does. But does he really have a 4-Hour Workweek? I doubt that. First of all, the title of his book is clearly a catchy exaggeration, intended to drive sales. And Ferriss appears, in fact, to work much more than four hours a week, not just in promoting his book (and a recent sequel) but in maintaining his business interests and an informative blog.

Love It or Leave It

But here’s the thing: Ferriss’s construct works for him, and for many of his disciples, because he’s redefined the concept of work. In the context of the 4-Hour Workweek, work is anything you don’t like doing. That means that anything productive and profitable that you enjoy doesn’t count as work—no matter how long or hard you work at it. Some observers consider this specious reasoning; to them, work is work, even when it’s fun—because no matter what, it takes time, effort, and focus.

I can see their point, but I can see Ferriss’s as well. In fact, one lesson that I think you should take away from The 4-Hour Workweek is that if you truly want to maximize your productivity, you have to enjoy what you do. So yes, go ahead and use his methods (and others) to pare your work life down to its essentials, the critical few things that all of us time management gurus tell you to focus on. Then look at them critically; and if you don’t love them already, learn to love them—or change careers.

As you’ve probably learned by now, there’s nothing as soul-crushing as grinding your way through a job you just don’t like.

The Bottom Line

The concept of the 4-Hour Workweek is a valuable one, but like so many other business concepts, it only works under specific conditions. Remember, Ferriss had already built his existing business to steady profitability before he was able to arrange life so that he could abandon his 80-hour workweeks for 4-hour ones. So this is a maintenance concept only; if you’re still building your business, don’t expect it to work for you.

Moreover, this method can’t possibly work for every business, no matter how well-established. The concept of “fun work isn’t really work” aside, a business that requires your constant presence—especially service businesses where you are the product—can only be pared down so far. If, for instance, you’re a musician and you have to be present at your gigs every night, there’s only so much that you can delegate. The turning point of a business like this, of course, comes when you’re so much in demand that you can charge what you like for your services. Then you can scale back to the number of hours that suit you.

Ultimately, the concept of the 4-Hour Workweek is somewhat misleading, but the basic concepts underlying the Ferriss method are sound. You may never cut your workweek back to just four hours by following it, but you can certainly trim a lot of unnecessary fat from your schedule.

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) talks about doing too much. You can’t be productive if you’re overloaded. (C) 2011 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved http://www.TheProductivityPro.com

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), discusses matching your tasks to your energy level throughout the day. Know your own rhythms and plan your work around them. (c) 2010 Laura Stack – All Rights Reserved
www.TheProductivityPro.com

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) discusses how “I’ll do that later” can affect your productivity. (c) 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved