priorities
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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priorities Tag

What does success mean to you?

Don’t just say what you think you should say.  Stop.  Think.  Each and every one of us get to define success on our own terms.

  • For some success is defined monetarily
  • For others it’s more about lifestyle
  • And for others it’s about making a social impact
  • For you it may be a combination of these or something completely different.

What’s really cool is that you get to choose how your actions impact your definition. There are many things to consider as you create the life you envision or perhaps envision the life you wish to create!

This week’s exercise is a brainstorming about the life you wish to live. I don’t want you to write goals here (standard goal writing takes the form of   SMART Goals with the SMART meaning Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.)  Rather I’m asking you to consider SMART Intentions.  This is your opportunity to reflect about what success really means to you.

This exercise doesn’t have to take long.  My guess is that you know the answers already. And remember your brainstorming guidelines:

  • Don’t judge your thoughts – write down anything and everything that comes to mind
  • Wild ideas are helpful and encouraged – the more creative you get the clearer you’ll become

To organize this information, pick one place to keep your notes.  This can be a Word doc, a Google doc, an Evernote, a OneNote, or a simple notebook or file folder.

What does success mean to you?

  1. _____________________________________________________
  2. _____________________________________________________
  3. _____________________________________________________
  4. _____________________________________________________
  5. _____________________________________________________
  6. _____________________________________________________
  7. _____________________________________________________
  8. _____________________________________________________
  9. _____________________________________________________
  10. _____________________________________________________
  11. _____________________________________________________
  12. _____________________________________________________
  13. _____________________________________________________
  14. _____________________________________________________
  15. _____________________________________________________

Sit with this list.  Highlight or asterisk the top few that feel most important.

Creating Your Very Own Success Formula Blog Course Details – This is the 2nd in a multi-series of posts.  Check last weeks post for the big picture. Future posts can be delivered to your inbox by signing up for my blog. And please share this opportunity with your friends and colleagues.

When I begin working with productivity coaching clients, I ask them to share their goals for our work together. One of the most frequent responses is “how do I know what should be a priority?” Many variables impact the answer:

  • Do you work for yourself or do you have to consider the company/boss you work for?
  • Are we talking just about work, or do you want to understand this both professionally and personally?
  • What else and who else do you need to consider in this?

When we start coaching, I can help client’s triage by looking at their tasks and deadlines, however for long-term results it takes stepping back and deciding what’s important overall.  And this means setting intentions about the life they wish to live and setting goals to attain that life.

Until you are clear about what’s important, it’s next to impossible to know what to say yes to and what to say no to.

For the next few weeks I will walk you through (at no cost) my 7 steps to CREATING YOUR VERY OWN SUCCESS FORMULA program.  By the end you will have much more clarity about what’s important. Then setting priorities becomes easier.

And no worries, if you miss a week, it will all be posted on my blog. As well, each week’s exercise will be effective as its own learning experience

Here are the topics we’ll discuss over the next few weeks:

S – Success Defined of Your Terms

U – Unique Areas of Focus For Your Life

C – Characteristics of Your Focus Areas

C – Core Values

E – Essence of Your Yes

S – Space to Think

S – Success Formula to Guide Your Priorities

For a short-term fix, try prioritizing those items that if you didn’t do would:

  • Embarrass you if it didn’t get done
  • Let someone down you care about
  • Let yourself down
  • Cost you money if you didn’t do them
  • Cause you to miss a really good opportunity

For a long-term fix I hope you’ll follow my blog and gain some clarity about what is really important to you.  Those answers will underpin your actions moving forward.  Please share this opportunity with your friends and colleagues. By signing up for my blog they too will get the course delivered to their inbox in 7 manageable chunks.

When you know what’s truly important knowing what to say yes to and what to say no to becomes much easier.

Strong leadership is critical for good productivity and good productivity is critical for strong leadership.  As most of you know, for the past two years I’ve served as volunteer President of the most fabulous 3500+ member, non-profit, education based national association ever (NAPO.net.) To say that I dedicated much of my free time to NAPO would be an understatement – but it was all incredibly gratifying and worthwhile. I grew and learned in ways that one could never imagine.

Most specifically I became very clear on how critical good leadership is to productivity and how critical good productivity is to leadership; this is the direction in which I plan to take my business next.  My term is ending soon and I had planned to resume blogging shortly thereafter.  But as luck would have it I was contacted by the Leadership Editor at CNBC and he published the article below yesterday. This is the perfect way to launch my next chapter with you.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/05/try-these-3-productivity-hacks-to-have-a-more-successful-monday.html

Looking forward to sharing my weekly tips with you regularly, and stay tuned for my updated website coming soon.

Ellen

Time management is such a funny phrase.  We all banter it about like we understand it, but really what does it mean?  My definition of Time Management is getting done what you have to do so there is time to do what you want to do. There is such a wealth of information and tools to help manage your time – but as with everything I espouse IF IT’S NOT EASY, IT’S TOO HARD.

What works?  Here are some simple strategies you can implement starting now: (more…)

Why does LIFE BALANCE seem to be so elusive? Because it’s imaginary.  No one is ever in equal balance.  An admired colleague once described it more like a symphony where different parts are louder than others at different times, but when listening to it as a whole it is harmonic and beautiful.

What would be possible if you gave yourself permission to live in harmony and not strive for perfect balance all the time? (more…)

Most days we have too much to do, too much on our plate so to speak.  If we continually fill our lives with things to please others or only do those things we think we should do, our lives become unfulfilling and mundane.

Think of life like a Thanksgiving plate.  I’m confident that on Thursday you’ll be selective about what you put on your plate so that you’ll have room for all your favorite things.  If you fill up on rutabagas and parsnips just how much room will you have for sweet potatoes and pie?

Live your life like you fill your Thanksgiving plate – be selective about how you spend your time – and you’ll be more satisfied and fulfilled.