by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Parkinson's Law, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 41 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Most important tasks
— From The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman
We all have a very long list of things to do on a daily basis, but not all of our tasks are the same: some of them are very important and some are not important at all. “Everything on your plate is not critically important, so don’t treat everything on your task list equally,” says Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA.
“A Most Important Task (MIT) is a critical task that will create the most important results you’re looking to achieve. […] If you want to make the most of your limited time and energy, it pays to focus on completing the tasks that will make the biggest difference first…”
As simple as this is, by taking a few minutes every morning (or preferably the night before) to identify the most important tasks, you’ll be able to focus on accomplishing them first. Kaufman recommends creating a list of two or three MITs and focusing on getting them done as quickly as possible. Further, he suggests keeping your MITs separate from your general to-do list, by using such things as a 3 X 5 index card or Dave Seah’s awesome Emergent Task Planner (free).
The key to figuring out what your MITs are, according to Kaufman, is to ask yourself the following questions: “What are the two or three most important things that I need to do today? What are the things that—if I got them done today—would make a huge difference?” Those are the only things that should go on your MIT list.
And to be über productive, Kaufman recommends combining your MIT’s with Parkinson’s Law. Remember, this is the law that states that, work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. (Wikipedia).
How do you do this?
Easy: set an artificial time limit. “If you set a goal to have all your MITs done by 10:00 am you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can complete the day’s most important tasks.”
And by doing this, you will create a state of focus and effectiveness (flow) that will give you permission to decline interruptions that aren’t important. “If you’re working on your MITs and someone calls you, it’s easier to ignore the call or tell the caller, ‘I’m working under deadline—I’ll get back to you later.’ By definition, everything that’s not an MIT is not as important, so it’s easier to say no to noncritical interruptions.
Combine this with the Be Awesomely Effective miniseries and you’ll be ultra-productive. And you’ll have the rest of your day to deal with anything else that comes up, or to dedicate to crossing off items on your non-MIT task list.
ACTION
TODAY: Take 5 minutes to figure out your MITs for today. Also, take a look at Dave Seah’s Emergent Task Planner. If you like it, download it, print it, and use it today (it’s a great, free resource). If not, think of the best method for you to have a separate list with your MITs.
FUTURE: As you continue to use the MIT + Parkinson’s Law concept, go back and read the Be Awesomely Effective miniseries. This will help you create the best environment where you will hopefully achieve a state of flow.
Know someone who could use some advice on creating MITs? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 42 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Fresh start
— From WHEN: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Dan Pink
July is the start of the second half of the year. Where did the first half go? It evaporated!
How did you do? Did you move forward in your goals? What did you accomplish? Where do you need to change course? Where do you need to start again?
I did very well in some areas and, frankly, I’m not proud to admit that I had no progress whatsoever in others… (!). But I must accept and learn what went well and what didn’t, so as to course-correct and move forward.
Tama Kieves, in her book A Year Without Fear, says “Focus on your present chances, not your past disadvantages. Are you repeating history by repeating the story of your history? The past is over. It’s a new dawn. It’s a new you. There are infinite chances to reinvent yourself. The past is over.”
As we move on with the rest of the year, today is one of those infinite chances to reinvent yourself. So, how about starting again in this second half of the year with those goals that stalled somewhere between January and June?
Dan Pink, in his book WHEN, says that “Just as we human beings rely on landmarks to navigate space—‘To get to my house, turn left at the [gas] station’—we also use landmarks to navigate time.” These dates are called temporal landmarks.
Further, some people use these temporal landmarks to start anew, and this is called “the fresh start” effect. Pink explains, “ To establish a fresh start, people [use] two types of temporal landmarks—social and personal. The social landmarks were those that everyone shared: Mondays, the beginning of a new month, national holidays. The personal ones were unique to the individual: birthdays, anniversaries, job changes.”
“Temporal landmarks interrupt attention to day-to-day minutiae, causing people to take a big picture view of their lives and thus focus on achieving their goals.”
Pink offers a list of 86 days in the year that are especially effective to make a fresh start:
- The first day of the month (12)
- Mondays (52)
- The first day of spring, summer, fall, and winter (4)
- Your country’s Independence Day or the equivalent (1)
- The day of an important religious holiday—for example, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, Eid al-Fitr (1)
- Your birthday (1)
- A loved one’s birthday (1)
- The first day of school or the first day of a semester (2)
- The first day of a new job (1)
- The first day after graduation (1)
- The first day back from vacation (2)
- The anniversary of your wedding, first date, or divorce (3)
- The anniversary of the day you started your job, the day you became a citizen, the day you adopted your dog or cat, the day you graduated from school or university (4)
- The day you finish [reading WHEN] (1)
ACTION
TODAY: Decide to make a fresh start on those goals that you want to get done this year. Today is the beginning of the second half of the year and a Monday too. Happy temporal landmarks!
FUTURE: Pick a few temporal landmarks between now and the end of the year to check in on your progress. That way you can always course-correct, pivot or start anew, remember that there are infinite chances to reinvent yourself.
Know someone who could use a fresh start today? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Goals, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 11 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Make time your friend
— From The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
“I wish you had more time for me” is what author and social media guru, Dave Kerpen, kept hearing from people important to him, both at work and at home. Kerpen gets requests every week by dozens of people who want his help or to work with him. Since he is so likeable and responsive, he replies to each person who asks for his help. (I know this first hand, because he responded to my request to interview him about his book, The Art of People, when it came out. You can watch the interview here.)
“If you’re at all like me,” Kerpen says, “you try to be nice—or helpful—and take every call, reply to every email, or even agree to every meeting. Yet he had a powerful realization when he attended a conference hosted by Verne Harnish (entrepreneur extraordinaire and author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up). Harnish said, “You can understand your professional strategy with one quick look at your weekly calendar.”
Kerpen took a look at his calendar on his phone and realized “it was filled up with meetings and phone calls with people [he] didn’t know who probably would make no difference to [his] business or [his] life.” At that point he had to set his priorities straight: first was his family, and second his employees, investors and customers.
The natural question that ensued for Kerpen was, “Why was [he] sacrificing time with [the people who were his priority] to take all those meetings with strangers?”
So he decided to set aside a two-hour slot every week that he calls office hours. During two hours every Thursday, Kerpen talks with the people who have reached out to him for help, by scheduling 15-minute conversations. Kerpen explains, “I still reply to and try to help each and every person who comes my way. But once the time slots are full, they are full, and people have to sign up for the following week’s office hours, or the next week’s hours, and so on.” This has made it easier on him to say no or to refer the person to the next available slot during his office hours.
In reflecting about his system, Kerpen advises, “You don’t have to create an office hours system and meet with everyone who wants your time, of course. But you do need to figure out a way to prioritize your time, the most precious asset you’ve got, carefully.”
Whether it’s plainly saying no or limiting the time you give others, the reality is that we all need a system that works for us. So take a look at your calendar and determine whether you need to make changes as Kerpen so aptly did.
ACTION
TODAY: Take a look at your calendar over the last month. What do you see? How are you prioritizing your time and with whom? Make a list of all the people with whom you’ve spent time and determine whether they fall into your priorities or not.
FUTURE: Develop a system that works for you, your priorities and your goals. Put it to the test for the next month. Explain to the people in your priorities what you are doing, so that they can give you feedback at the end of that month. After the 30 days are up, check in with yourself and with the people with whom you want to spend more time whether it’s working. Compare your calendar to the past month’s and see the difference. Adjust accordingly and test again, and keep going until you’ve built a system that works well for you.
How about sharing this post with someone in your priority list so that they can make you a priority too? You can share via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of the miniseries:
Duplicate yourself – Part 1
Duplicate yourself – Part 2
Duplicate yourself – Part 3
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 27 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Duplicate yourself – Part 4
— From Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! By Jennifer White
Welcome to the 4th and last part of this miniseries. So far we’ve learned how and what to duplicate, and todays’ idea will focus on knowing when duplication works.
This is very important, because part of planning for anything is figuring out what success will look like. To address this specifically, Jennifer White the author, writes:
Take a holiday where you cut yourself from the office. […] It takes courage to trust the folks you put in place. When you get back from your sabbatical, you’ll be able to see what falls apart, what doesn’t get done correctly, and what is substandard work. It’ll give you insights into where your duplication process works and where it doesn’t.
Will you ever be free unless you duplicate who you are? You’ll never know when you are free because you’ve been unwilling to test the system. Knowing that the system works gives you a sense of relief when you’re not working. You’ll certainly make more of your life without carrying all that guilt.
Most people don’t have the courage to test their duplication system. They don’t want to feel superfluous. They want to feel as if the whole world would crash around them if they weren’t there.
[…] Don’t hinder your ability to Work Less, Make More by needing to feel needed. You want to feel superfluous. You want to be taken out of the picture. You want to have such strong people around you that you no longer have to worry that the job’s getting done.
It’s the only way to free yourself up to live the life you want to live. Don’t worry. You’ll find more interesting, exciting things to propel yourself forward, and you have the space to be the creative force behind your future success. Think duplication.”
This reminds me of the process that lifestyle design guru Tim Ferriss created to be able to let his business work without him. He duplicated himself by creating systems, training a team and setting up the technology(ies) needed to make this happen. You can read all about this in his bestselling book The 4-Hour Workweek. (Here’s a post on productivity from that book.) Ferriss says that if your goal is to “free your time to focus on bigger and better things […] it’s not about working smarter. It’s about building a system to replace yourself. […] Preparing someone to replace you (even if it never happens) will produce an ultrarefined set of rules that will cut remaining fat and redundancy from your schedule. Lingering unimportant tasks will disappear as soon as someone else is being paid to do them.”
Another entrepreneur who duplicated and “outsourced” himself was Chris Ducker. He did it in about a year. And he did it with a virtual team and systems. As a result of blogging his journey to fulfill his goal of becoming a virtual CEO, he eventually launched Virtual Staff Finder, a company that helps busy people find virtual assistants. You can read about his journey and how to get help from virtual assistants in his book Virtual Freedom.
ACTION
TODAY: Jennifer White suggests doing this great exercise: “Draw a line down the middle of a blank sheet of paper. Write delegate on the left side of the page. Write duplicate on the right side. Evaluate each task you do. Can you delegate this task or should you train someone to duplicate. Don’t stop until the entire list is done. You’ve just developed a plan—once you have the right technology and people in place—to allow yourself to take three months off without losing money. It’s up to you to put the plan into action.”
FUTURE: If you like this concept of duplicating yourself to work less or simply work on other things that bring you more rewards and satisfaction, give some serious thought to duplicating yourself to free up time and space in your life.
Hope you enjoyed this miniseries! 😀 Please share it with someone who would like the idea of duplication. You can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of the miniseries:
Duplicate yourself – Part 1
Duplicate yourself – Part 2
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 44 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Duplicate yourself – Part 3
— From Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! By Jennifer White
In this miniseries we’ve been talking about the importance of “duplicating” parts of yourself, and so far we’ve learned what is and is not duplication, as well as what to look for in our “clones.” Today we will determine what to duplicate and how to do so.
While duplicating yourself could possibly entail hiring someone, Jennifer White (the author) says, “that’s limited thinking.” She explains: “You can find the right people who will become partners, vendors, suppliers, strategic allies, independent contractors or employees.”
When you hire employees, you naturally have to deal with a lot of other issues: salaries, taxes, vacations, and so much more. White says you shouldn’t box yourself into thinking that. Instead, “ think about creating a virtual support team. A team you personally select to duplicate parts of who you are.” Technology today enables us to do this and much more.
On Part 1 you answered the questions that enabled you to figure out which qualities in yourself you need/want to duplicate. Now you need to look at the abilities that you need to duplicate. “What is it that these folks will do? Look at the three most important things you do, the activities that add the most value. Within each area, a multitude of items must get done.”
White gives the example of connecting with customers. Let’s assume you are a master at that. Then a very important part of building and maintaining those relationships with your customers is the follow up phase (phone, email, etc.) “What if you could train someone or something to duplicate your follow up process? It would happen automatically—without your doing one thing—and the customers will feel cared for because the follow up was way beyond their expectations.”
ATTENTION HERE: we’re talking duplicating and not delegating the follow-up process. “The difference is that the person/system you create duplicates exactly what you would do if you were to do it. It’s not about you dictating a letter that your assistant types. In that case you’re still doing the work. Duplication means you do not do anything to generate what needs to get done. Nothing.”
Was that last “nothing” appealing but sounded too good to be true? Here are some possibilities for duplicating this example of a follow-up process:
- The right person. Someone who could be an employee, independent contractor or customer service rep can follow up for you. “This person has the exact same personality that you do so the customers feel as if they were talking to you.”
- Hiring a salesperson. This person would handle the contact from first visit to sale. While this normally happens when companies are in the growth stage, White asks, “Why wait until that happens?”
- An automated system. This sends letters, emails, etc., at specified times as follow up. The system duplicates the process. When we feel overwhelmed or overloaded, it is natural to ask who can help you. White, however, suggests you ask a better question: “How can I automate this so no one has to do it?”
As you can see, there are many ways in which you can duplicate yourself and what you do. Both technology and manpower exist at very reasonable costs nowadays to be able to do it, even if you are a solopreneur.
ACTION
TODAY: Jot down the areas that you could potentially duplicate. While it’s counterintuitive, those things that nobody does as well as you do, are exactly what you should duplicate to enlarge your reach, grow your practice, have more time, or whatever your goals are. Once you’ve found out what you want to duplicate, then come up with at least 3 ways to duplicate that activity. White says, “Think in terms of technology and people. How can you automate the process? Who can you bring to your team to duplicate you?”
TOMORROW: Come back to read Part 4 to learn how to know when duplication works!
FUTURE: Keep jotting down the ideas that come to mind about parts of you that you can duplicate with people, systems and/or technology. Remember that there is no such thing as a shortage of ideas. The more parts you duplicate successfully, the more freedom you will have to spend your time and energy in the pursuit of other (related or unrelated) goals.
Please share Part 3 of “Duplicate yourself” with someone who could use a little duplication, you can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of the miniseries:
Duplicate yourself – Part 1
Duplicate yourself – Part 3
Duplicate yourself – Part 4
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 14 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Duplicate yourself – Part 2
— From Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! By Jennifer White
In yesterday’s post we learned that we can, and should, “duplicate” parts of ourselves to increase our output and “make more,” as the title of the book suggests (Work Less, Make More). This does not only refer to money, but also to time, and to the freedom to make the most out of life for ourselves and our goals and dreams.
So let’s jump right in: How do you go about finding the right people to duplicate you?
Jennifer White, the author, has outlined a few aptitudes and attitudes that people should have in order to substitute you well. Give this some thought as you go about this process. (Note: This will help you figure out WHO will duplicate you if you can go that route. However, don’t get discouraged or stop reading this miniseries, since we will also consider WHAT (technology/systems) can duplicate you).
1. Find people who have the right personality for your chemistry. As we saw yesterday, your same chemistry needs to be present in the person that will duplicate you. Find someone with the same characteristics and “don’t downplay the importance of working with folks who have the same chemistry as you.”
2. Find people who have a track record. People’s track records speak for themselves. “Saying you can do something is different from actually doing it. Find people who have already done what you most need. They could bring a new twist or a new idea to what you’ve been doing for so long.”
3. Find people who are willing to commit to the long term. “Developing a powerful relationship requires that you’re both committed to the same vision and the same long-term plan. The last thing you want to do is to train people to duplicate you, and then they jump ship. Be very clear on what you expect from them, and find a way to determine what they want.”
4. Find people who are coachable. “A vital part of duplicating yourself effectively is training. Select folks who are coachable. They’re open to looking at their performances and improving them. You’ll become their coach to ensure they’ll duplicate what you want duplicated. If you’re not willing to coach and train people how to duplicate you, don’t bother looking for the right people. Their success does depend on how much time, energy, and passion you invest in them.”
5. Find people who have the right attitude. “Make sure when you’re looking for the right people that they have a positive mental attitude. There’s nothing as frustrating as working with people who don’t see the positive side of things. No matter how brilliant they are, their bad attitude will wear you down. If you find the right attitude, you can usually teach the rest.”
One final note on this before we move on to Part 3 tomorrow: keep in mind that finding the right people takes time. “Do not rush this process and settle for just anyone. Duplicating a part of who you are is serious stuff. […] You can’t settle for second best.”
ACTION
TODAY: At the end of the chapter in the book, White lists a few exercises to help us succeed at duplicating and at thinking about a few other things. Here’s an important one that you can do today: “Ask yourself this question: ‘What parts of myself make me the most crazy?’ Be clear on your weaknesses so you can identify them in other people as well. When you find the right person to duplicate a part of who you are, don’t be surprised if they also duplicate the not-so-good parts. Are you prepared for that?”
TOMORROW: Come back to read Part 3 to learn how to determine what to duplicate, and how.
Please share Part 2 of “Duplicate yourself” with someone who could use a little duplication, you can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
