thrive

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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26 Apr Productivity That Fits How You Are Wired

Posted at 10:33h in Envision Success, Productivity 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered why that book on time management didn’t help?

What about that article espousing the top 5 things you must do each morning to have a productive day?

And how about that author who focuses on the one great thing you must do to be successful?

Have you thought “what’s wrong with me – that will never work?”

I have good news for you. Productivity is not one size fits all. These “experts” are talking about what works for them. They are sharing the secret to their success. They are not sharing the secrets to your success. They are not considering your unique needs; your brain wiring based on your life experiences, your learning style, your body-clock, or your temperament.

How can they even imagine what will work for you?

The one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty, after spending the last 20 years helping clients get more organized and be more productive, is that what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. There are many right approaches.

The secret is in actually figuring out what the best “right approach” is for you.

We look for clues:

What has worked for you in the past?
What doesn’t work for you?
When have you felt most in control?

And then we create a strategy based on those clues. And we don’t stop there. We test the strategy. I tell my clients to think of themselves as a science experiment. We test and we tweak until we end up with a “best solution” that really fits.

Meet my client Margie (not her real name!) Margie has ADD and understands the value of exercise in keeping her brain functioning optimally. She came to me wanting to create a structure so that she could get up each morning at 5 am and exercise before her work day began. She had read that this was the one best thing she could do to manage her ADD; her doctor agreed.

However, Margie didn’t fit the norm. She worked from home, she liked to work at night, and often got her most important work done in the wee hours of the morning. Margie hated mornings and hated exercise more.

I had this suspicion that exercising at 5 am wasn’t Margie’s best solution.

We discussed when she’d been successful exercising in the past (when her daughter was young and she’d drop her at preschool and exercised right after.)
We learned that having a time-driven deadline prior to exercising was helpful.
And we talked about how badly she felt about herself when she pressed the snooze button at 4:45 am and didn’t get out of bed, though she couldn’t really go back to sleep.

Alas, Margie wanted to try. So, we did. However, I asked her to try 5 different times to exercise and to track her success. This is what we learned:

Exercise Success	Time of Day to Exercise	# of workouts in one-week period
Week 1	5 am	zero
Week 2	9 am	1
Week 3	Noon	1
Week 4	4 pm	3
Week 5	7 pm	zero

Turns out 4 pm was Margie’s optimal workout time. She wanted to have dinner with her family at 6:30 pm. Working out at 4 gave her time afterwards to shower and get dinner on the table. That time-driven deadline of a 6:30 pm dinner helped motivate Margie to get started exercising at 4 pm. She found the late-afternoon break refreshing and that she actually enjoyed her workout. And the extra couple of hours sleep in the morning was really helpful all around. When the system fit it was easy to implement and easy to stick with.

One-size did not fit Margie? Does one-size fit you? Is there something you should rethink that might fit you better? Try the following 5-step process to create your best solution:

Look to the past for clues
Create an experiment with different variables
Test the variables
Assess the results
Pick your “best solution”

I’d love to hear what you learned.

09 Mar Maximizing Productivity While Working from Home – COVID 19

Posted at 10:23h in Productivity, Productivity for Leaders, Space, Time Management 2 Comments

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has more people working from home. Follow these tips to maximize your productivity.

Identify Your Most Important Work Each Day
1. Organize your tasks by priority – know what has to be done this week, what you want to get done this week, and what MUST be done by the end of the work day. Focus there!
2. Make a physical list of today’s tasks and keep it in front of you. If it is not in front of you, it won’t be top of mind. (Hint: on your phone or computer isn’t as effective as a written note in front of you.)
3. Some clients find it helpful to estimate duration and identify task start times of the physical today’s tasks list. That helps fight the “time expanding to the time available” challenge.
Create a Workspace That Supports Your Success – Most of what is written about working from home is how to use your time and how to prepare for work. I know plenty of effective people who work in their pajamas or exercise clothing all day. For many, what they are wearing doesn’t drive productivity. The biggest obstacle I’ve observed is not being physically set up for success. Having a work space that supports productivity is crucial:
1. Have Supplies in Reach: Have pens, pencils, markers, post-its, letter pads, files, action priority lists in reach. While your “office” may be your kitchen island, your dining room table, your back porch, or a comfy chair in your family room, you still need to designate a space (a close by drawer or cabinet perhaps) for the things you need to get your work done.
2. Set Up Your Technology: Do you have a printer handy? Is it connected to your Wi-Fi and computer? Do you have a second monitor for detailed projects (this can increase productivity exponentially.) Do you have a handy place to charge your ear pods, and mouse and other technology? Is your Bluetooth hooked up? Many people say “I’ll do that later” and never get to it. Taking the time (or hiring someone to help you) get your tech set up makes a huge difference.
3. Find a Quiet Space: Are you able to have a conversation without interruption? Yes, we know that it’s great to have your kids close by, but sometimes you need to be able to close the door and focus. If you are working in a “public” space, I recommend having a backup location designated for times you need quiet.
Get Clear to Beat Procrastination – There have been some good articles written lately that procrastination is more of an emotional issue than a discipline or work-habits issue. I agree and have typically found procrastination to be driven by one of two things:
1. Lack of Clarity About What’s Most Important – when you’re not clear you end up doing fun or easy stuff instead…
  1. If you work for yourself it’s helpful to create annual goals/objectives/priorities to help you know what to say no to and what to say yes to. If you aren’t clear about what your priorities are, then it’s going to be really hard to achieve them. (I address this in this blog series)
  2. If you work for a company, I recommend a sit-down with your manager to discuss priorities and what is actually important. You’d be amazed at how often it’s just assumed that everyone is on the same page…and they aren’t.
2. Not Knowing How to Do Something or Where to Start – so you just don’t start.
  1. When I dig down into it with my clients, they procrastinate because they aren’t clear about how to do what they want to do. Often, we will come up with a step by step plan, identifying actions, order, and steps for completion. Once they have that plan, they can move into action.
  2. Sometimes you just need more information. Once that’s identified then my clients can figure out how to gather that data, and once they have the information, they can proceed.
  3. Sometimes things just need to percolate before moving into action. Listen to Adam Grant’s Ted Talk on Pre-crastination!
Set Boundaries to Minimize Interruptions
1. Set boundaries (rules) for those who are home with you about when and how you are to be interrupted. Schedule breaks and share those time with your family/friends/roommates so they don’t feel the need to interrupt as often.
2. Set work hours and be sure that people in your sphere know you are WORKING from home. Many people think it’s ok to call and chit chat or that you can take an hour walk or lunch break. If you want to avoid working 24/7 then setting specific work hours is crucial.
Leverage the Benefits of Working from Home
1. Quiet, Uninterrupted Time: A lot of my clients really struggle working in open spaces. There are constant interruptions and sometimes headphones don’t screen out the noise. In some offices it’s not politically correct to wear headphones, or to wear them all the time. Even a day a week at home, to do project work, can make all the difference. The brain is not set up to handle multiple inputs. Practically all people have trouble focusing and getting into flow when they can’t hear themselves think.
2. Time Efficiency: You can get your work done more quickly working from home and/or accomplish more during your work day. Of course, there is the obvious too – not taking 15-minute breaks at the coffee machine to chit-chat, not going out for an hour lunch (yes, take a lunch break, but you don’t need a hour!), and not being asked to answer the phones or pick up the slack because there is slack to be picked up and you are there to pick it up.

31 Jul Find Time to Think

Posted at 14:37h in Envision Possibilities, Focus and Prioritize, Productivity for Leaders, Space 0 Comments

Thrilled to be quoted in the same article as Bill Gates!

As the boss of Microsoft, Bill Gates would take one week, two times a year, and escape by himself to a secret clapboard cabin somewhere in a cedar forest in the Pacific Northwest.

It was what he called his “Think Week.”

Gates would arrive by helicopter or sea plane, and spend the week reading papers written by Microsoft employees pitching new innovations or potential investments. He read as many papers as possible, sometimes doing so 18 hours a day, staying up until the wee hours of the morning, according to The Wall Street Journal.

”…I would literally take boxes out to a beach place and sit there for a week reading them day and night and scribbling on them to putting it entirely online,” Gates said in 2008 video of of Microsoft’s CEO Summit.

Work done during one Think Week eventually led to Microsoft to launching Internet Explorer in 1995. And in 2005, Gates was reading a paper called “Virtual Earth” that described building a virtual map with information on traffic and live images of final destinations.

Gates’ Think Weeks started in the 1980s; the first ones were quiet visits to his grandmother’s house. As they evolved, no visitors were allowed to the cabin during Gates’ Think Week (other than someone who dropped off two meals a day at the cabin, and on year a Wall Street Journal reporter) and Gates’ cabin was stocked with Diet Orange Crush and Diet Coke.

“When I talk about the early days, it’s hard to explain to people how much fun it was. Even with the absurd hours and arguments, we were having the time of our lives.” – Paul Allen

Gates’ “week in the woods” idea is smart, says Laura Stack, president and CEO of consulting firm The Productivity Pro. “I would recommend this approach,” Stack tells CNBC Make It. “People should have a ‘third place’ that isn’t work or home, where they can find focused time to think and create and clarify your strategic thinking,” Stack says. “We must create an environment that gives us the ability to focus our minds without interruption from coworkers, spouses, children, pets and technology, or we’ll never be able to concentrate on higher-order activities.”

Leadership coach Ellen Faye agrees: “While exercise, yoga, and meditation are great solutions to managing the stress of every day, there’s nothing like disconnecting for a longer period of time to create the space for important decisions and objective creative thought,” she tells CNBC Make It.

“I think of it as a one week long shower. Because we know that in the shower we have these really great thought processes, but those are flashes and moments, and when you go away for a period of time alone you’re able to get more significant results,” she says.

Stack and Faye both employ the technique in their own careers.

“I check myself into my third space — a local hotel up the road — every quarter to write for 48 hours. I’ve published eight books in 14 years using this approach,” Stack says.

Faye says she spends at least four or five days alone at a yoga retreat every year “for deeper creative thought.”

But your “third place” doesn’t have to be far away or fancy. it could be “Starbucks, the library, or the gazebo in your garden. I recommend at least eight hours, but it’s best to take several days to ‘clear the decks,’” Stack says.

As for Gates, his Think Week eventually expanded from just him reading about ideas and providing feedback, to later Microsoft’s top 50 engineering “thinkers” throughout the company doing so.

In the 2008 summit video, Gates said, “We have institutionalized it as kind of a grassroots process and this is a way that somebody who is even just a year or two into the company and has ideas that may or may not relate to the group they are in can write something up.”

24 Jul Success Formula Blog Course Week 6: Creating Your Very Own SUCCESS Formula

Posted at 10:40h in Focus and Prioritize, Productivity for Leaders, Space, Stress Management, Time Management 0 Comments

Look at how you filled your parking spaces last week. There are 10 spots. Our math savvy friends know that each spot is 10% of your disposable time. We will use this to create your formula.

Some of you may have created two parking lots. One that reflects how your life is today and one that reflects how you want your life to be. The one that reflects the way you want your life to be will drive your success formula.

You are creating a vision for success – a “SUCCESS FORMULA” based on

your definition of success
your unique focus areas
your core values
your aspirations.

Keep in mind that each spot is equal to 10% of your disposable time.

Now assign a percentage to each of your parking spaces…

Example:

if you have 5 spots for work that’s 50%
if you have 3 spots for family that’s 30%
if you have 2 spots for self-care that’s 20%

This is my success formula:

What’s your success formula?

Here are some other examples to spark your creativity:

Now you have a visual based on YOUR DEFINITION OF SUCCESS.

Use Your Success Formula to Drive your Priorities

Create a visual that is motivating and appealing
Post your visual where you can see it daily
Use your visual to drive how you spend your time, and how you set your priorities; ask yourself:
- Does saying yes to this support my success formula?
- If I say yes to this what will I be saying no to?
Do the math – if something gets 10% of your formula then it gets 8-10 hours a week. If something gets 40% of your formula that is 32 to 40 hours a week. Try logging how you spend your time. You’ll be amazed at what you learn.

Integration: A key component of experiential learning (which is doing while learning, which is what we did in this blog course) is taking the time to integrate the learning. Here are some questions that can help you to integrate the learning:

What did you figure out?
What do you see differently?
What one change will you make first?

Wishing you SUCCESS on your terms!

Creating Your Very Own Success Formula Blog Course Details – This is the 6th, and final, in a multi-series of posts. Check this post for the big picture. Future blog posts can be delivered to your inbox by signing up for my blog. And please continue to share this blog course with your friends and colleagues.

16 Jul Success Formula Blog Course Week 5: Life is Like A Parking Lot

Posted at 00:00h in Focus and Prioritize, Space, Stress Management, Time Management 0 Comments

Life is like a parking lot…

When the lot is full, no matter how much you’d like to, you can’t pull in until another car pulls out.

Is your parking lot full?
Do you have more cars to park?
What car has to leave to put a more important car in?

We all have 24 hours in a day and we all have 7 days in a week. We can’t control that. What we can control, however, is what we do with those hours.

If we break this down, we can agree:

We need to sleep: there goes 7-8 hours a day
We need time for essential self-care: eating, grooming, emptying the dishwashers, etc. – we’ll give that 3-4 hours
24-12 = 12 or 24-10 = 14
You have 12-14 disposable hours a day! That is 84 – 98 disposable hours a week.

How are you going to fill your parking spaces?

For my analytical readers – depending on your disposable hour calculation above each space is 8.4-9.8 hours.
For my creative readers – figure 8-10 hours a week per space!

Consider your “Unique Focus Areas” you created in Week 2. These can guide you to fill your spots with the things that you identified as mattering the most.

This is how my parking lot looks: 4 spaces to work, 1 space to volunteering, 2 spaces to self-care, 1 space to personal/professional development and 2 spaces to my family.

This week’s assignment: Fill your spots. You may want to do this twice. Once for how it is now and once for how you want it to be.

Creating Your Very Own Success Formula Blog Course Details – This is the 5th in a multi-series of posts. Check this 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.

04 Jul Success Formula Blog Course Week 4: The ESSENCE of your YES

Posted at 23:32h in Envision Possibilities, Stress Management, Tips for Easier Living 0 Comments

I love the word essence. It’s deep and alluring. It goes places that other words don’t go. It’s germane to many of the choices we make.

Last week’s core values exercise tells you about who you are and what you want in your life to be your best-self and live your best-life. Essentially, these should guide your decisions about how you are spending your time and give you insight into your true priorities.

There is that word again, essentially…

Essentially – the crux of the matter
Essentials – the fundamentals
Essence – the intrinsic nature of something

When we are in our essence, we are making the choices that are congruent with our intrinsic nature. We are not fighting ourselves. We are not trying to shove a round peg into a square hole, or trying to fill in the corners of a square peg in a round hole.

Are you in essence?

Are you saying “yes” to the right things?

Think about that while you listen to this amazing song by singer songwriter Karen Drucker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhpZKpnrOCQ

This week’s exercise is to make a “NO” LIST. Name 5 things you will say “no” to that are not in essence with your core values.

______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________
______________________

What did you learn?

What do you have to let go of to make room for success?

What is important to you about your success?

Are important “yeses” coming into focus?

Creating Your Very Own Success Formula Blog Course Details – This is the 4th in a multi-series of posts. Check this 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.