important work
Productivity Coaching, Time Management Consulting and Leadership Coaching for business and nonprofits - get your most important work done. Collaborating with leaders and their teams to become more strategic, focused and productive. Leadership and Board Coaching, Strategic Planning Facilitation, Productivity Coaching and Time Management Consulting, Professional Speaker.
Productivity Coach, Productivity Consultant, Leadership Coach, Time Management Coach, Business Consulting, personal productivity, time management, nonprofit, board coach, collaboration, strategic planning, facilitation, change management, leading productive teams, project planning, board development, volunteer engagement, association management, workplace productivity, executive director.
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important work Tag

14 May

Posted at 20:40h in Change, Envision Possibilities, Procrastination, Productivity, Stress Management, Tips for Easier Living

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Be future focused. Remember the why not the what. Motivation follow action.

Here are some of my favorite thoughts on productivity. They aren’t what you typically hear, but they’ve helped me and my clients. I hope they’ll help you too!

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

This is one of the hardest lessons to learn. We often think that because we can do something, we should just do it. But building in a pause and asking whether it’s in our best interest to say yes is a powerful shift. Here are some questions to consider when deciding if the answer should be yes:

  • If I say yes to this, what will I have to say no to in order to make time for it? Remember, time is finite. You can’t keep adding commitments indefinitely. Are you willing to give up time at the gym or working on a project that matters to do this?
  • Is there someone else who can do this well enough? Not only could it be a good opportunity for someone else on your team to learn a new skill, but it might also be better for you to stick to your high-value work and let someone else do this.
  • Will doing this help me achieve a long-term goal or intention? Look at your goals for the year. Does this action support them? If not, the answer is most likely NO.

Retraining your brain around this takes time—it’s a new way of thinking. 

It may be less about setting boundaries and more about considering the future result of saying yes.

This is what we call a “time horizon” issue. If you look at your calendar three weeks from now, it may seem like you have plenty of time, and you might believe you won’t need to compromise your boundaries to say yes. But is that truly the case? You know how often things pop into your life and take up time that you didn’t anticipate.

Ask yourself: How would you feel if you had to fit this event, action, or task into your calendar this week or today? Would you still say yes?  

When learning a new habit—remember the why, not just the what.

When we try to change something, our brain tends to push back. Doing something different— even if it’s for our benefit—can trigger the brain’s threat response, leading to fight, flight, or freeze. That’s not the ideal mental state for making lasting change.

When making a change, it’s natural to focus on the “what”: the specific steps to implement it. For example:

  • “I’ll go to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning before work.”
  • “I’ll do my daily planning with my coffee each morning.”
  • “Even though the report isn’t due until Friday, I’ll schedule time to work on it Monday.”

But what often happens? You know the answer! So try shifting your focus. Instead of just the “what,” consider the “why”:

  • “I know I will feel better physically and emotionally if I work out three times a week.”
  • “When I take five minutes to plan today’s tasks, I get more done, feel less stressed, and enjoy my free time more.”
  • “When I give myself time to write, pause, and revise, the quality of my work improves, and I feel more confident.”

Motivation follows action—not the other way around.

I often hear people say, “I just need more discipline.” But I believe discipline isn’t the key. How do you gain motivation? Simply—by taking action. Once you start, it feels good. Completing tasks feels even better. Success breeds success.

Remember, motivation follows action, not the other way around. This makes building habits easier. Give it a try: see if it’s motivation you need, not discipline.. 

A final note:

All these mindset shifts are valuable. But as we’ve discussed, trying to change too many things at once makes it harder to sustain those changes. My recommendation – pick one and test that for a few weeks.  Good luck! 

If you enjoy my blog, you’ll love the insights in my book, Productivity for How You’re Wired, available on Audible, in print, and as an ebook all on Amazon.

24 Apr

Posted at 13:23h in Meeting Best Practices, Planning Tools, Productivity, Tips for Easier Living

Coaching offers clients a safe space to discuss workplace challenges.  Often our conversations focus on navigating interpersonal conflict, figuring out appropriate levels of information to share within a team, or strategies to get clear on what others are thinking. A great tool I often use in these situations is reframing.

Reframing involves consciously shifting your perspective on a situation. I ask my clients to envision taking the issue out of the anxiety evoking “picture frame” and moving it into a different frame. This technique is helpful when you’re feeling stressed about addressing workplace dilemmas. Here are three examples:

From Fear to Opportunity

Difficult conversations or disagreements can be overwhelming, and many of us instinctively avoid them. However, confidence comes through practice. The more you engage in these necessary discussions, the more manageable they become, frequently yielding easier outcomes than anticipated.

In my early days as a hotel manager, I was nervous about speaking with upset guests. Over time, as I handled these situations repeatedly, my perspective changed. Instead of dreading complaints, I began to see them as opportunities to transform an unhappy guest into a satisfied one. The more complex the issue, the more motivated I felt to resolve it creatively, benefiting both the guest and the hotel.

The Reframe: Shift from a “Fear” frame (“This is scary” or “They’ll be angry”) to an “Opportunity” frame (“How can I turn this challenge into a win-win?” or “This is a chance to understand and improve”). This change can turn anxiety into a proactive desire to make a positive difference.

From Fear to Empowerment and Trust

Deciding how much information to share, especially as a team leader, can pose a challenge. Often, the hesitation stems from a fear of misspeaking or potential repercussions, sometimes fueled by past experiences with rigid corporate communication protocols.

However, withholding information often backfires. Team members sense when something is withheld, and the assumptions made in an information vacuum can be more damaging than the reality. This uncertainty also consumes energy that could be focused on productive work.

The Reframe: Move away from the “Fear” frame (“I can’t tell them anything!” or “What if I screw this up?”). Shift into an “Empowerment & Trust” frame. Think: “Sharing helps my team do their best work,” or “Being open builds trust and stops the rumor mill.” See communication less as a risk and more as your job to help everyone focus and do their best work.

From Fear to Becoming an Information Gathering Detective

If I had a dollar (maybe ten!) for every time I’ve asked a client, “Have you actually asked them what they’re thinking?” and they sheepishly say “No”… well, I’d probably be sending you this blog post from the beach! It’s like we’re hardwired to play guessing games instead of just asking. But imagine how much easier problem-solving could be if we simply asked clarifying questions.

Consider these scenarios:

  • A manager can’t figure out why an employee isn’t following instructions correctly. Instead of assuming incompetence or defiance, what if the manager asked, “Is there anything I can explain more clearly to help you with this task?”
  • Someone worries about how going to the gym after work might impact their partner. Instead of stressing, they could ask, “I’m trying to fit workouts into my schedule. How would you feel about me going to the gym after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays?”

The Reframe: Stop the “I’m scared to ask,” “I should just know,” or “I’ll guess” cycle. Put on your “Information Gathering Detective Hat” frame instead. Asking clear, kind questions isn’t nosy; it’s the quickest and smartest way to understand what’s really going on, solve the actual problem, and strengthen relationships.

Applying the Reframe to My Own Work

Speaking of asking questions, I’ve been blogging somewhat regularly since 2008 – that’s a minute! Sometimes I’m not clear about what would be helpful to you for me to write about.

So, instead of guessing (my old frame!), I’m putting on my Information Gathering hat (my new frame!) and asking you directly:

  • What are your biggest challenges when it comes to productivity or leading others?
  • If you had me as your coach for an hour, what’s the one thing you’d want to tackle?
  • How can I make this little corner of the internet genuinely helpful for you as you strive to work better and live better?

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Please share in the comments below or email me directly at [ellen at ellenfaye dot com]. I’m excited to find out what’s on your mind and address your questions in future posts. 

If you enjoy my blog, you’ll love the insights in my book, Productivity for How You’re Wired, available on Audible, in print, and as an ebook all on Amazon.

12 Mar

Posted at 12:38h in Meeting Best Practices, Planning Tools, Productivity, Tips for Easier Living

Meetings and breaks are often viewed as disruptions to a productive day, but I’ve come to see them as essential anchors that provide structure to an otherwise unstructured day.

I’m not talking about a day where you have appointments all day long, rather one of those wide open days where you plan to accomplish boat-loads of work and where you see yourself getting tons of tasks marked off your list or make great progress on a big project.  What happens instead is the lack of structure results in lagging, procrastination, and the feeling you have so much time that you don’t move into action.

Don’t get me wrong, I can usually get a ton done on those days designated for “focus” work.  However, my productivity soars when I have a couple of meetings or appointments scattered throughout the day.  Let’s say I have a meeting at 11. Instead of frittering my morning away, my mind knows it has a couple of hours to complete tasks before I have to stop for the meeting.  This does two things:

  1. It pushes me into action much earlier
  2. It pushes me to push towards completion of the task I’m working on before the meeting.

Even scheduling activities like going to the gym can serve as a productivity boost. Actually, I love that as a pusher, since if I want to work another 30 or 60 minutes I can without consequence. It’s the idea that there is some structure in my day to help me be my best and do my best work.

I love discovering new productivity tools, and the stopping point is one such discovery for me. I imagine this is like what Frances Cirillo discovered with his Pomodoro technique.  Cirillo coined the term Pomodoro Technique in the late 1980s when he created a system to help him move through work with greater ease.  He built regular breaks into his work time.  A typical pomodoro (named for the tomato shaped egg time he used…pomodoro is Italian for tomato) is 25 minutes of work, and a 5-minute break  repeated 4 times.  You know when a break is coming, which is helpful  to keep you working.  I personally get frustrated with the 25-minute/5-minute cycle. I’m just getting into flow at 25 minutes and the last thing I want to do is stop. And 5 minutes is certainly not a long enough break for me.  But since we can make our own productivity rules, I changed my cycle to 50 minutes on and 10 minutes off.  You can experiment with this as well.

Incorporating structure into an otherwise unstructured day, along with strategically timed breaks, offers a powerful opportunity to test and discover the ideal amount of structure you need to do your best work and reach your peak productivity.

If you enjoy my blog, you’ll love the insights in my book, Productivity for How You’re Wired, available on Audible, in print, and as an ebook all on Amazon.

04 Feb

Posted at 11:19h in Focus and Prioritize, Meeting Best Practices, Productivity

If there’s one improvement I could wish for my clients, it would be to spend less time in meetings and more time on high-value work. While I believe meetings are crucial, the real value lies in the ability to act on decisions and initiatives post-meeting. Without this follow-through, meetings become a poor investment of valuable business time.

Assess Your High-Value Work

Not all work is equally important. It is crucial to prioritize tasks that have the most significant impact on reaching your business goals. That’s where your time should be focused. If your days are filled with emails, chats, and long meetings, the essential work driving your success isn’t being accomplished.

Applying the 80/20 Rule for Success

Pareto’s principle, the 80/20 rule, illustrates this concept. If 80% of your results come from 20% of your time and effort, then you should allocate more time to high-value work that directly contributes to long-term business growth. This involves reducing time spent on less impactful activities like emails, drafts, and meetings.

Why 50 Minutes

For a meeting to be effective, there must be time to implement decisions made during the meeting. Clients often rush from one meeting to the next, leaving little time for action, or even to identify actions. This results in pages of meeting notes that are rarely acted upon, rendering much of the meeting’s work useless.

Additionally, the first few minutes of meetings are often wasted waiting for latecomers. If they hang up or end at the top of the hour, they can’t be somewhere at the same top of the hour if they have to go to a different room or office, or even if they one to take one minute to run to the restroom.  When people they are late, they are wasting everyone else’s time. Many times we wait a couple of minutes for everyone to show up, and even if we start on time, then we end up repeating ourselves.

Adopting a 50-minute meeting strategy results in the following improvements:

  • Time to record meeting actions on to-do lists/task management tool.
  • Brief breaks between meetings to refresh and refocus.
  • Prompt arrival at the next scheduled meeting, respecting everyone’s time.

To optimize productivity, I recommend companies implement a 50-minute meeting policy, ensuring meetings are focused, and efficient, and result in actionable outcomes.

If you enjoy my blog, you’ll love the insights in my book, Productivity for How You’re Wired, available on Audible, in print and as an ebook on Amazon.

05 Mar

Posted at 09:01h in Planning Tools, Procrastination, Productivity for How You're Wired, Time Management

What if you could set yourself up to do your focused, deep, important work successfully?  What does it take for you to get into flow?  Why is it so hard to get started?

Deep focused work carries a fairly heavy cognitive load. To get results, you need to be fully present. That doesn’t just happen. Many productivity pros say it’s critical to do this work at the time your mind is sharpest. But THERE IS SO MUCH MORE! 

As important as it is to understand your body clock, it is equally, if not more important, to identify the conditions YOU need to be successful doing your Focus Work. Being specific and identifying and integrating these conditions will help you get into flow. 

What are Your Conditions for Success?

Timing

  • You don’t have to wake up early! Embrace your body’s natural rhythms and maximize your best times. If you are an early-bird who likes to wake early, great. However, if you’re a night-owl, don’t feel badly about it and don’t push yourself to be someone you’re not. The people who say “to be successful you have to wake up at 5 a.m.” are people who like to wake up at 5 a.m. 
  • If you do your best work at the crack of dawn, or 4 p.m., or 11 p.m., it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you own it and PLAN to do your Focus Work when you can get it done! 

Other Work

Do you need to jump in when your mind is clear and uncluttered, or do you need to clear the decks in order to focus? Consider the following:

  • Loose Ends – Do you need to tie up any loose ends that will take you off task prior to beginning your Focus Work?
  • Email – Are all important emails addressed? Would it be helpful to schedule email time before or after Focus Work to support turning it off during?
  • Social Media – Would it be helpful to schedule social media time before or after Focus Work to support turning it off during?
  • Information and Data – Do you have all the information you anticipate needing so you don’t have to stop as often? Every time you go to the internet to look something up, you are opening yourself up to the temptation to go off task. 

Audio Interruptions

  • Notifications – What if you turned off all notifications, pop–ups, and interruptions on your computer? There are apps that limit web–surfing and social media if needed.
  • Phone – Can you silence your phone or put it on do not disturb? Better yet, can you put it out of reach?

Environment

  • Digital Clutter – Can you close windows, apps, and other distracting technology?
  • Physical Clutter – Would you be less distracted if your workspace was cleared of clutter? 
  • Music – Would you be more attentive if you played music?
  • Location – Do you focus better in an environment where you won’t be easily interrupted, or in settings with background noise and activity?

Self–Care

  • Movement and Meditation
    • Will exercising or meditating before starting your Focus Work result in better outputs? (Test it!)
  • Sleep 
    • Are you rested? How much sleep do you need? Are you getting it?
    • What do you need to do to ensure enough sleep? Schedule bedtime? Limit screen time? Set a reminder that it’s time for lights out?
  • Nutrition and Hydration
    • What foods help you concentrate?
    • What foods give you brain fog?
    • Does coffee help or hurt? How much? With or without sugar?
    • Do you have healthy snacks or chewing gum handy to keep the brain online?

Breaks 

  • Will a walk, nap, or meditation support your outcome?
  • Are you more effective taking a break after a certain amount of time or would it be more effective for you to take a break after reaching a certain target in your work?
  • Is it helpful to schedule breaks using an app so you know you can’t stop working until the outside tool says you can?
  • Would you benefit from an app that tells you to get up and move?

Communication

  • How can you signal to your coworkers you shouldn’t be interrupted? 
    • Can you put a sign on your door or cubical? 
    • Can you wear headphones?
    • Can you inform your colleagues you are doing Focus Work and not to interrupt you unless it is really important?
    • Is there any good reason to NOT show your calendar as busy?


There are many variables to consider. The sooner you learn your personal conditions to do your important focused work, the better chance you have to actually do it!

This is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.

19 Feb

Posted at 08:38h in Planning Tools, Procrastination, Productivity for How You're Wired, Time Management

Planning Facilitates Action

The most valuable thing about planning is that it forces you to slow down and think! There are lots of proverbs about planning:

  • People who plan like to plan but they don’t
  • We plan, God laughs.
  • Life is what happens when you’re busy planning.

And the famous Dwight D. Eisenhower quote “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

From a productivity perspective, planning is indispensable. Are plans useless? Probably not. The question is how to plan most effectively.

For some, identifying individual steps is enough. They gain the greatest benefit from thinking through the plan. Others benefit from regularly referring to the plan. Still others like to refer to the plan and document their progress along the way.

Planning project steps makes the execution so clear that your move into action is logical and easy.

Plan to Plan

Assuming that planning will happen without intention will set you up for not planning. The first step is to plan to plan, and that means adding the action of project planning to your task list. Then when it’s time to create your plan you can follow my easy 6-step process.

Ellen Faye’s 6–Step Project Planning Process

  1. Grab a stack of sticky notes – Write down each task associated with the project on its own sticky Don’t worry about writing them in any order, just write as fast as the ideas come to you. Be sure to use a new note for each individual task.
  2. Put the sticky notes in order – Consider what has to come before another step and the most logical order to do the work. During this process, you may think of extra steps. Create sticky notes for those steps and insert them into the process. Try organizing your notes on a vertical surface like a window or blank wall. You will be able to see how things relate and be able to easily move your notes around.

post it planning

NOTE: Sometimes these first two steps are enough. If others are involved, it’s time sensitive or very complex consider adding in steps 3 to 6.

  1. Assign a length of time to each step – Jot down on each sticky note your projection for how long the step will take, be it 15 minutes, an hour, or a week. When making your time estimates be sure to include thinking time, ramp–up time, interruption time, and break time. A good rule of thumb is to double your initial time projection.
  2. Assign due dates – If you have a deadline, start with the last sticky note and write the deadline on that note, then using the time projection, work from the last note backward. Date each note with the day it is due. If you can’t make the deadline as projected, look to see where you can adjust your timing, or if the deadline can be extended.

If there is no hard deadline, start on the first sticky note and assign due dates moving forward.

  1. Assign responsibility – If more than one person is working on the project, it’s helpful to identify who is responsible for each specific task and write it on sticky note.
  2. Place for easy reference – Transfer the information to your Priorities Task List, share with your team, copy to your planner, or simply leave the plan up on the wall.

For some, the tactile act of writing out the tasks and moving them around on sticky notes brings the project to life. Others are more comfortable doing this electronically on a simple spreadsheet.

project planning template

Regardless of the tool, following the steps compels you to think things through, and that is the real value of planning.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. The Project Planning Templates is included via the time tools link discussed in the book.