by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Other parts of the miniseries:
Winning the war for time–Part 2
Winning the war for time–Part 3
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 56 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Winning the war for time–Part 1
— From Learning to Lead: Bringing Out the Best in People by Fred Smith (1915-2007)
If you find yourself in a crunch and need to make or find time, Fred Smith, leadership guru, gave us this miniseries a while back: How to find 5 extra hours per week.
However, those tactics are geared to win a short battle for time, as you cannot sustain them for the long run. Enter this new miniseries as a continuation of the previous one, also from Fred Smith’s book Learning to Lead. This time we will focus on, in the author’s words, winning the war for time.
“You can only win the war with a philosophical base,” says Smith. This means asking WHY you want to get more out of time: “Is it because [you] want to become famous or make money? [Are you] part of a peer group that always seems busy? What’s the real reason to squeeze more into [your] days and weeks?”
“These days, haste has become a status symbol. People assume, If I’m busier than you are, I must be more important.”
Smith confesses to being perplexed: “Maybe I’m missing something, but I always thought if you were successful, you had more time, not less. […] Lack of time is a status symbol, and that, to me, is backwards. If you really are somebody, you are in control of your time.”
What, then, should the best approach to time be? A very American idea is that of utilizing time to its fullest. Smith shares his thoughts: “I think optimizing opportunities and talents… is a valid reason to use time well.” And he says that this point of view arises from his philosophical cornerstones:
- Time is simply life’s clock. “Time is a tool—a means in life, never an end. […] Time is not something to be pursued for it’s own sake but for what can be done with it.”
- Life is measured by time. “I have a responsibility to control it,” says Smith. “Most of us don’t let other people spend our money; likewise, we should limit their power to spend our time also.”
- We all have the same amount of time each day as everybody else. “The great achievers of the world don’t have any more time than [we] do. It’s simply untrue to say, ‘I don’t have enough time.’ What is not the same for everybody is energy. Unless I recognize my level of energy and recognize that it comes in ebbs and surges, I won’t accomplish all I could.” (This miniseries can help with harnessing your energy and creating the time and space for being awesomely effective.)
- Know the ultimate purpose of your life. This is the only way you’ll be able to know whether you are using your time properly and wisely. Smith mentions that, if you don’t know that ultimate purpose, you have no way of judging your efficiency.
And I’ll leave you to ponder these thoughts today. Please come back tomorrow for another installment of this miniseries where Smith shares why it’s better to invest time than to spend it.
ACTION
TODAY: Ask yourself: What is your philosophical approach to time? Why do you want to get more out of time? Your answers will help bring you clarity.
FUTURE: With your newfound clarity about your philosophy of time, apply it now to your purpose. What activities do you think will be the best use of your time?
Know someone who is always battling time? Please share this post with that person. Thank you! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 53 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Warren Buffett’s little-known tool for prioritizing
— From Warren Buffett’s 5-Step Process for Prioritizing True Success (and Why Most People Never Do It) as appears in the Live Your Legend blog post by the late Scott Dinsmore. Today the site is run by Chelsea Dinsmore.
We’ve talked about prioritizing before, yet I’m always on a quest for additional tools and hacks that can I bring into my life and my projects.
Today I came across a great story in the Live Your Legend blog. It’s about Warren Buffet teaching his pilot a 5-step process on how to prioritize, and a great, new, little-known tool that everyone should adopt.
The story goes like this (taken directly from the post):
1. Know what you want – List your top 25. One day, a few years back Warren went up to his pilot (we’ll call him Steve) and jokingly said, “The fact that you’re still working for me, tells me I’m not doing my job. You should be out, going after more of your goals and dreams.” Warren then asked Steve to list the top 25 things he wanted to do in the next few years or even his lifetime.
2. Pick your Top 5. Once Steve completed his list, Warren then asked him to review each item and circle the top five that were most important to him. The ones he wanted more than anything. Steve was hesitant because, to him, they were all massively important. After all, that’s why he wrote them down. But Warren insisted that he could only pick five. So Steve spent some time with his list and after some deliberation, made five circles. “Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you?” Warren asked. Steve confidently replied the affirmative.
3. Make your Top 5 Plan. Warren now asked Steve when he planned to get to work on these top 5 and what his approach would be. They spent the next while discussing Steve’s plan. Steve explained “Warren, these are the most important things in my life right now. I’m going to get to work on them right away. I’ll start tomorrow. Actually, no, I’ll start tonight.” Steve went on to explain his plan, who he would enlist to help him, and by when all these items would get done. Warren was starting to get excited. With any luck, he would be out of a pilot within weeks…
4. Marry your priorities. Once the Top 5 planning session was over, Warren then asked, “but what about these other 20 things on your list that you didn’t circle? What is your plan for completing those?” Steve replied confidently, “Well the top five are my primary focus, but the other twenty come in at a close second. They are still important, so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I’m getting through my top 5. They are not as urgent but I still plan to give them dedicated effort.” To Steve’s surprise, Warren responded sternly, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Steve. Everything you didn’t circle just became your ‘avoid at all cost list’. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”
5. Know your ‘Avoid at all Cost List‘ and stick to it. Warren makes a powerful and somewhat unconventional point here. Most people would suggest ranking their second most important items just below their first. Makes sense at first, but as it turns out, this is the type of behavior that creates some of the most detrimental distractions in making big things happen.
I love the concept of the ‘avoid-at-all-cost’ list and, as of right-this-very-second, I am incorporating it into my life. I think it’s a great idea and another tool for focus, concentration, and success.
By having an ‘avoid-at-all-costs’ list, your mind will not be distracted by the priorities in that list. It’s as if you put them in a vault and forget about them. You can’t get them out until the other ones are done, so you will not spend precious mental energy thinking about those things that are not your immediate focus. Brilliant!
Do you like the concept of the ‘avoid-at-all-costs’ list as much as I do? Let me know in the comments here.
ACTION
TODAY: Set up some time in your calendar to follow Buffet’s 5 steps and create a plan to achieve your goals.
FUTURE: Once you have your plan, focus, focus, and focus on your top 5 priorities. That laser-like aim will enable you to devote all your energy to your top 5 goals and crush them!
Know anybody who could use this 5-step process to prioritize? Please share this post via Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 27 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Great Ones Think Big
— From 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class: The Thought Processes, Habits and Philosophies of the Great Ones by Steve Siebold
“The life each of us lives is the life within the limits of our own thinking. To have life more abundant, we must think in limitless terms of abundance.” – Thomas Dreier
In 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class, Steve Siebold makes an important assertion about successful people (whom he calls world class), “Their philosophy seems to be, ‘If you’re going to be thinking, you may as well think big.’ Their love- and abundance-based consciousness is the engine that drives their big thoughts and creative ideas.”
In contrast, Siebold states that “average performers think about how to survive with the least amount of pain and struggle,” instead of planning a brilliant future by thinking big.
The author suggests asking the people around you what they think about at any given time. He says, “You might be surprised to learn how many think about just getting by. The world class refers to this as ‘selling yourself short.’”
Siebold highlights the differences in mindset: “One group views the world as a scary place, and the other sees it as an exciting adventure with endless possibilities. [Most people] see life as a threat; the great ones see it as a game.”
In sum, Siebold says, the difference in mindset and worldview is so dramatically different between these two groups, that when you talk to them “it’s as though you’re speaking to people from different planets.”
“The great ones are fearless and focused on manifesting their ultimate dreams… [and their] abundance-based consciousness drives them to think and dream bigger with each passing success.”
ACTION
TODAY: This action comes directly from the book: “Review your vision for your life and think about your greatest dreams. Are you selling yourself short? Are you thinking too small? Are you letting fear hold you back from the abundance of life? Do you really have what it takes to hit it big? (Hint: yes!) Rewrite your vision today and go bigger than ever. Trust in your ability to find a way to make your dream come true. You can do it!”
FUTURE: Two great books to expand your mind to keep thinking big and see opportunity and possibility everywhere are: (1) The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz. Here are some posts I’ve written about it. This book was written in 1959, but the advice is as valid now as it was back then. (2) The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. This book is one of my absolute favorites and I can’t recommend it enough. Here are the posts I’ve written about it. If you like audio books, you’ll love listening to it: the music is beautiful, as Ben Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
Please share this post with the great ones around you, and ask them to share their worldview, it’s always wonderful to learn how they see the world! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Planning, Productivity, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 35 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Maker’s Schedule vs. Manager’s Schedule
— From Paul Graham’s blog by Paul Graham, Co-Founder & Partner, Y Combinator
A few years’ back, Paul Graham wrote a post on his blog where he finally deciphered the incompatibility between scheduling: there are people who deal with their time as managers, and people who deal with theirs as makers. And then there are the hybrids.
Hmmmm, what does all this mean?
Let me explain:
Graham writes in his blog, “The manager’s schedule is for bosses. It’s embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one-hour intervals… When you use time that way, it’s merely a practical problem to meet with someone. Find an open slot in your schedule, book them, and you’re done. Most powerful people are on the manager’s schedule. It’s the schedule of command.”
The makers are programmers, writers, and anybody who needs large chunks of time to devote to focus on making whatever it is that they do. “They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can’t write or program well in units of an hour. That’s barely enough time to get started. When you’re operating on the maker’s schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in.”
“Each type of schedule works fine by itself,” Graham continues. “Problems arise when they meet. Since most powerful people operate on the manager’s schedule, they’re in a position to make everyone resonate at their frequency if they want to. But the smarter ones restrain themselves, if they know that some of the people working for them need long chunks of time to work in.”
Managers and makers beware, now that we know how the others operate. Graham offers a solution that has worked for him: office hours clustered at the end of one day. That way managers and makers can indeed meet, but the meeting is not intruding into precious making time.
But what happens when you are a hybrid of both manager and maker? I know I am. And I thought I was going crazy for having a back-to-back meeting schedule on certain days, and reserving other days for long, uninterrupted chunks of time that I defended vehemently and refused to break up with meetings. On the latter, I’d go into “Monk Mode” as Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, calls it.
I had, not knowing, created maker’s days and manager’s days in my calendar. Thanks to Graham, I now know that this is not a crazy thing to do if you’re a hybrid. You can also partition your day into maker’s hours and manager’s hours.
Graham’s case is also a good illustration. As the founder of Y Combinator, one of the most famous companies to provide seed funding for startups, when he and his team were starting, he “used to program from dinner till about 3 am every day, because at night no one could interrupt [him]. Then [he’d] sleep till about 11 am, and come in and work until dinner on what [he] called ‘business stuff.’” He explains, “I never thought of it in these terms, but in effect I had two workdays each day, one on the manager’s schedule and one on the maker’s.”
Understanding these two schedules, and the way in which they interact or the way in which you can combine them if you are a hybrid, brought much clarity and peace of mind to me. I hope it will do the same for you and the way in which you use your time.
Are you a maker, a manager or a hybrid? Let me know in the comments here.
A reminder that, tomorrow, starts the 90-day sprint towards the end of the year — woohoo! Check out Achieve in 90 to focus on finishing your 2018 goals!
ACTION
TODAY: Figure out how whether you’re a manager or a maker, or both.
FUTURE: Now that you know about these two types of schedules, you can rearrange yours for your optimal performance as well as the optimal way in which you interact with your team and the outside world. Here’s a great post with some tips on how to do this.
Please share this post with managers, makers and hybrids, they will thank you! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 15 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Pomodoro Technique
— From The Pomodoro Technique (website). The book The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work by Francesco Cirillo (U.S. edition) was just published a few weeks ago and I can’t wait to read it.
Some of you have asked me how I am able to read as much as I read and write blog posts on a daily basis, plus focus on my work and do the many things that I do without going crazy.
Well, the crazy part does happen sometimes (just ask my husband…), but the productivity and effectiveness I owe to a well-known technique called Pomodoro.
Pomodoro means tomato in Italian. The Pomodoro Technique was invented by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. He was a college student back then, and had a kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato. Thus, he gave the name of pomodoro to his technique for interval-studying/working with a timer.
The technique is so simple that it’s hard to believe it works, but it’s incredibly effective for focusing, concentrating, tracking and saving time. Cirillo writes, “[The Pomodoro Technique is] a revolutionary time management system, it is at once deceptively simple to learn and life-changing to use.”
Yes, I agree. Believe me, life-changing is not an exaggeration. And not just for me: some of the most productive people I know use the technique or some variation that works for them.
Here’s how it works:
- Choose a task you’d like to get done. I always have next to me a piece of paper. In it I write down the task I’m going to work on: “in the next pomodoro I am going to do X.” X for me can be reading, writing, working, doing research on the internet, finishing a bunch of little tasks that I group together, etc. Then I turn off the phone, all notifications from my computer and social media, remove all possible distractions and have a glass of water (or a cup of tea) by my side.
- Set the timer for 25 minutes. Focus on working on your task without interruption. It’s only 25 minutes, so it’s not a hard thing to do. Cirillo states, “Usually, you can afford to take 25 minutes before calling back a friend or replying to an email. You’ll learn how to handle the inevitable interruption while staying focused on the task at hand.”
- Work on that task until the timer rings. Note that as you work on your chosen task, many things will pop in your mind. I write them down on my piece of paper as they surface, so that I don’t forget them later, and quickly shift my focus back to working on the task I chose for this interval. When the timer rings, reflect it on the piece of paper. Some people write a checkmark, I like to cross out little circles that I draw on my piece of paper. I pretend they’re tomatoes.
- Take a short break. Cirillo writes, “Breathe, meditate, grab a cup of coffee, go for a short walk or do something else relaxing (i.e., not work-related). Your brain will thank you later.” What I usually do is get up and walk around for 5 min, go get myself more water or tea, stretch, make a phone call, etc. I recently started doing a few jumping jacks and pushups or squats during the breaks (might as well make the breaks count towards my goal of 100 pushups…).
- Every 4 pomodoros, take a longer break. 20-30 minutes works well. Dedicate that time to clear your mind. Cirillo says, “Your brain will use this time to assimilate new information and rest before the next round of Pomodoros.” I keep (or take with me) the piece of paper if I go somewhere during this longer break, because usually ideas and thoughts will keep popping up, so I can take action on them during this break (e.g. make a phone call to set up an appointment) or later on.
And this is it. Super simple indeed, but if you use it, you’ll become tremendously effective. And you can also modify it to suit whatever you are doing. Play with the focus and break times to find what serves you best. I sometimes do 45-50 minute pomodoros followed by a 10-15 min break if I know the task I have in front of me will take me longer than 25 minutes.
Pomodoros are wonderful to measure the amount of time that something takes to complete, as well as to see how much time I dedicated to each task at the end of the day.
There are plenty of physical and online timers that you can use. Give this technique a shot and I’m sure you’ll be hooked on it as much as I am. Highly recommended.
And if you’d like to learn more productivity techniques and hacks to achieve your goals, my program Achieve in 90 is starting on October 3rd. I’d love to have you join our wonderful group and focus on finishing your chosen goals before the end of the year.
ACTION
TODAY: Set up 30 minutes in your schedule to try out a 25 min pomodoro followed by a quick 5 min break and see how you like it.
FUTURE: Create the habit of incorporating pomodoros in your professional and personal time. You’ll be so much more effective and save a lot of time. You’ll also become more aware of how you spend your time.
Please share this post with someone who might be interested in trying out The Pomodoro Technique! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 16 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: There are only 3 things leaders must do to succeed
— From The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
“Are you kidding me, Dave? There may be no ‘I’ in team, but there sure as hell is an ‘I’ in leadership. Now quit [clowning] around and step up and become a leader!”
Wow… Dave Kerpen, social media guru and author of The Art People, recalls being admonished with those words by Robb High, a mentor of his, after Kerpen had mentioned his belief in “everyone being equal, working together as a team, and supporting one another.”
The answer from High? “That’s all fine, Dave. I’m all for teamwork. But every team needs a leader.”
Kerpen says, “In an effort to have everyone feel that his or her voice was heard and that everyone was important, I had failed to become an effective leader.” And while he recognized the importance of what High was saying, “the problem was that [Kerpen] had no specific idea how to become a leader.”
Have you ever been in this position?
“Chances are, you have chosen to become or have been asked to be a leader at some point in you life. But what does leadership mean? Does it mean leading by example? Yes. Does it mean inspiring others? Absolutely. Does it mean doing the right thing (after figuring out what the right thing is)? Yes. Leadership includes all of these things. In fact, leadership can mean many different things to many different people…”
Fortunately, the author met Verne Harnish, a renowned business guru and author of many books, including the well-known Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. Harnish told Kerpen there were “three and only three things on which great leaders have to focus… [By] doing those three things well, everything else will fall into place.”
These three things will help you lead whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 or the CEO of your home. The author and his wife have applied it, both, to their business and to their growing family of 5, and it has worked wonders for them.
So, what are those three things?
1. Setting and communicating the overall vision for your team. “This is most important but is often overlooked. What is your grand mission? Your purpose? Your overall vision for how things will be? It’s important to develop this because everything else can fall into place once you have it. Once the vision and mission are established, it is essential to overcommunicate it!” Everything else you and your team do must be in alignment with this always.
2. Making sure you have the right people in the right seats on the team. “Beyond you, it’s essential to make sure you have the most talented, most appropriate people surrounding and leading the way… There are only two questions to consider in making this determination about your people: How capable are they of doing their jobs? And, How aligned are they with your vision and values?”
3. Making sure you have enough resources and money to help the team succeed. “Whether this means applying for more funding, getting creative, or somehow figuring out MacGyver-style, it’s your job to make sure the team has everything it needs to succeed so that the team members don’t need to worry about it.”
ACTION
TODAY: Whether you lead a company, a large or small team, a group of volunteers or your household, make an (informal) audit to see how well you are doing in these three areas.
FUTURE: Based on the results of your audit, determine the changes (or not) you need to make. Do you have, and have you communicated your overall vision? Do you have the talented help you need where and when you need it? Do you have enough money and resources to succeed? Create a plan to begin or continue implementing these three things. And speaking of plans… if there’s something that you and/or your team need to get done before the year is up, sign up for Achieve in 90, my online program to guide you and keep you accountable during the last 90 days of the year.
Cheers to your success!
How about sharing this post with someone you know who is in a position of leadership? Email, Facebook or Twitter.
