by Helena Escalante | Growth, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
“Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what is not working.”
— From Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, by Derek Sivers.
The idea of persistence and dogged determination has been ingrained in us from a very young age. While there is enormous merit in being persistent, we have to make sure that said persistence will take us somewhere: sometimes we are just trying to fit a round peg in a square hole.
We do have to try (or see someone trying) to fit the proverbial round peg at least once into the square hole to realize it won’t work. Substitute this for whatever is not working in your business or life. Once you realize that this is not working for you or anyone involved, improve, switch, redesign, reinvent, modify… experiment and iterate again and again until you get it right. As Leadership Guru John C. Maxwell so wisely says: “Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.”
By failing “forward” you know that you will learn something and apply that learning to the next iteration of whatever you are doing. Eventually, like Edison*, you’ll find the formula that works. As Derek aptly says in his book:
“Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what is not working […] Don’t waste years fighting uphill battles against locked doors. Improve or invent until you get a huge response.”
How do you know it’s finally right? Derek says that your clients will tell you: “Wow! Yes! I need this! I’d be happy to pay you to do this!” Or depending on what you’re doing, you may get any other positive expression of love, gratitude and/or desire to acquire.
* The story goes that Thomas Edison, the inventor of the incandescent filament for light bulbs, experimented and failed ten thousand times before finding the one that worked. When asked about it he said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
ACTION:
TODAY: What is a proverbial round peg that you’re dealing with now? Ask WHY 5 times to see what’s the real reason why you’re not moving forward. What is one action that you can take today, (even if it’s just scheduling time in your calendar to deal with this next week) that will move you towards improving what is currently not working?
FUTURE: Grab a journal and take inventory of some—or all—of these areas of your life (the ones that apply to you): physical, intellectual, social, financial, spiritual, marital, parental, emotional, professional, and your hobbies. I’m sure you’re determined to make all of them work, right? (I hope so!) Where are you banging your head against a wall trying to make something work, but it’s just not happening? Write down a few experiments you’d like to try. Write the time/place/date where you will take action, then take action and see if your experiments work to improve the issue. If not, ask WHY 5 times to see what’s the real reason, write it down and try new experiments. Note: the experiments you try can be big, but I suggest breaking them down into small, manageable chunks. It’s easier when the chunks are not earth-shattering, enormously time consuming or eat up a month’s budget: minor tweaks work too.
I’ll share with you a couple of examples of small tweaks that worked for me recently:
- My husband and I, for a while, tried to have a “date night” on Wednesdays… dismal failure. Work and everyday obligations got in the way. The experiment? Switched it to Saturday mornings. The result? It’s just fantastic because we don’t have to worry about work the next day, and we can tackle any pending issues over the rest of the weekend.
- I was going crazy with one of my client’s electronic billing systems. I do some work for this client on and off; so it’s not often enough to remember clearly how to deal with the convoluted system, but often enough to deal with the system to the point of annoyance. Then I read somewhere that it’s worth establishing a system for anything that you do more than TWO times. Eureka! What a concept… eye-opening indeed! The experiment? Create a system. My “system” became a cheat sheet where I detailed the process—step-by-step—that I needed to follow every time. The result? Smooth sailing every time now that I use my client’s system. Voilà! No more frustration.
So now it’s your turn. Try out inventing, experimenting, improving, enhancing… and let me know how it goes!
by Helena Escalante | Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Time
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 50 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: TGIF*: Reframing the weekend
–From What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend, a short guide included in What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: How to Achieve More at Work and at Home by Laura Vanderkam
One of the many wonderful insights about this book is the idea of reframing the way we look at a weekend: from 6 pm on Friday when we leave work and the weekend “officially” starts to Monday at 6 am when the alarm clock goes off, we have 60 (sixty!) hours. Even if we sleep 24 hours, that leaves us with 36 hours to play, do chores, tackle our to-do list or all or this plus anything else we want to do. Thirty-six hours is almost the same amount of time as a week in a full-time job!
Laura’s point in reframing the weekend this way is the importance of planning: what gets scheduled gets done. Planning and scheduling ahead will result in your devoting the time to the activities that will help you achieve your goals, big or small. This is the best way to ensure that those goals will be met and you will be able to check them off your to-do or you bucket list. From cleaning your sock drawer to training to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, you can do it if you only plan for it.
For those of you that may be groaning now about the idea of planning your leisure time, Laura says: “people have a visceral reaction to the word ‘plan’ that makes them think of things they don’t want to do. I’m suggesting planning things that [they] want to do. […] I don’t want to fill every hour […] but there is a wide gap between planning every minute and planning nothing.”
The key is to do it ahead of time. I’m so guilty of waiting until Saturday morning to start planning, and by then, it’s already Saturday afternoon when the weekend “starts.” With a bit of planning ahead (hint, hint, today is Thursday, the weekend starts tomorrow at 6!) we can make the most out of our time and have a super productive, super fun, or super _______ (fill in the blank) weekend. And yes, you can use the word relaxing in there – it’s part of it if you decide to make it so. The important thing is to plan ahead to use our time wisely, according to our needs and wants.
So let’s not wait any longer to get going! What are you going to do with your 60 hours this weekend? Let me know. Happy planning and happy weekend! 🙂
ACTION:
TODAY: Take 10-15 minutes to plan your weekend from 6 pm on Friday to 6 am on Monday (or whatever schedule works for you around this new way of seeing the weekend). Schedule it in your calendar: you can be as rigid or as flexible with your time, as long as you plan your main activities.
FUTURE: Schedule a recurring time on your calendar for Wednesdays or Thursdays every week to plan for the weekend ahead. Try this out and tweak it to fit your schedule and lifestyle until you find what suits you best. Then set up a calendar reminder in 3 months to email me and let me know how this is going for you!
*For our international gurupies who may not be familiar with the acronym TGIF, it means Thank God It’s Friday!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Habits, Planning, Productivity, Tools
TODAY’S IDEA:
“A good-day’s work”
— From Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Whether you work remotely or not, Remote offers some gold nuggets for all. One of those nuggets is how to measure progress and what’s a good-day’s work based on reasonable expectations.
In today’s working culture, it’s unfortunate that overwork and lack of sleep reign supreme. These two terrors are widespread; at best they are temporary and can be avoided, but at worse, they are carried as badges of honor horror (!). Working constantly can be a menace, because it can lead to serious burnout before you even know it. And this is true especially if you love your work. Why? Because we’re constantly connected and just a device away… thus it is easy to check email one more time, and to respond to that message at 10 pm to get it out of the way. And if you have 1 hour on Saturday morning, it’s easy to use that time to work on a project instead; or if it’s rainy outside, might as well make the most out of it and start working on the presentation for next week…
I’m not denying the importance of sprints once in a while, but over the long run it’s not sustainable and it’s not healthy. As the book says, there are no “hero awards” for overworking, as the work should be seen as a marathon instead. “It’s crucial for everyone to pace themselves.” This quote opened my eyes:
“One way to set up a healthy boundary is to […] think of a good-day’s work. Look at your progress toward the end of the day and ask yourself: ‘have I done a good-day’s work?’ Answering that question is liberating. Often, if the answer is an easy yes, you can stop working, feeling satisfied that something important got accomplished—if not entirely done. And should the answer be no, you can treat it as an off day and explore the 5 WHYs (asking why to a problem five times in a row to find the root cause). It feels good to be productive. If yesterday was a good day’s work, chances are you’ll stay on a roll, and if you can stay on a roll, everything else will probably take care of itself, including not working from the time you get up in the morning until you go to sleep.”
This is such a simple and basic but oh-so-powerful idea, because you are the judge of your progress and you can learn from this process to keep making it better. I am guilty of loving my work and trying to squeeze as much of it as I can in a day. But I have found that I work so much better and I’m so much more productive when I’m well rested and when I also do other personal things that are important for my physical health and emotional wellbeing. We all really need to take our mind off work for a while to rest and renew, and to come back better and stronger.
ACTION
Whether you’ve been naughty or nice in terms of a “good-day’s work,” keep a log (nothing complicated, any calendar will do). You’ll be able to see progress with all the yes answers, and with the 5 WHYs method you will be able to get to the core of why it wasn’t a good day’s work and solve it right away. If that or other problems keep emerging and you see patterns preventing your progress, analyze them so that you can solve them too. Get to the root: What can you learn? What can you change so that you can have more good days?
I wish you nothing but good days, and would love to hear from you: how do you measure a good-day’s work?
by Helena Escalante | Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Willpower
TODAY’S IDEA:
When you’re dreading doing something and simply can’t find the determination, mechanical action can propel you forward.
— From The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. (Read an excerpt here.)
We’ve all been there: we’re stuck. We have to do something and we simply can’t muster the will to do it. Whether it’s waking up early, working out, writing a report, calling someone, going somewhere… something is making us dread it and we want to put it off but we can’t, so we wait to make a decision, but we can’t make a decision… and time passes by… and, at best, we feel bad with ourselves but, at worst, there may be repercussions if we don’t take action. Ugh.
So what can you do to snap out of the funk immediately? Rather than wait for inspiration to strike or willpower to show up, simply take mechanical action. Put the alarm clock far away from your bed so that you have to get up (mechanical action) to turn it off (yes, I implemented this one, and apparently I’m not the only one that thinks this is a good idea, check out this alarm clock that runs away from you!). Pick up the phone and and start dialing; start putting on your socks followed by your running shoes; turn the computer on; start writing an outline of your document or presentation in a piece of paper; get in the car and put the keys in the ignition… That movement (mechanical action), no matter how small, is the push we sometimes need to get going.
ACTION:
Today is Sunday, and the leisure of the day can help look at the circumstances where we get stuck a bit more objectively and detached than when we are right in the midst of them. So this makes it a great day to think about those things that we dread on Mondays, or that we are dreading this particular week, or dreading for a project, or ______ (fill in your particulars here). Where are you stuck or where do you normally get stuck? What’s ahead of you? What do you need to get done? What kind of mechanical action will you take? Try it and let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear how you get unstuck!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Networking, Planning, Productivity, Time
TODAY’S IDEA:
Be intentional with your networking efforts.
From Build Your Dream Network: Forging Powerful Relationships in a Hyper-Connected World by J. Kelly Hoey.
Networking… an activity that most people dread. Yet networking does NOT have to be dreadful and, on the contrary, it can be wonderful if you focus on making it intentional, meaningful and purposeful. The rules of networking are generosity and trust and, if we follow them, we’ll create meaningful connections.
Give yourself the opportunity to really connect with the people who can help you, and you will find a way to help them too, preferably before they help you. Goes without saying, but it’s very important to treat everybody kindly and respectfully. Be of service to them, offer something of value, enjoy their company if you can, celebrate their wins, open doors and make introductions for them, point them to a resource they need, or simply give them the gift of your enthusiasm and gratitude. Remember Zig Ziglar’s quote:
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
Be intentional as to the people that you want to meet and “avoid random acts of networking.” Kelly Hoey advises to focus instead on “networking as a way to go about solving problems.” “People open doors, write checks, and extend opportunities—always have. Need something? Turn to your immediate, trusted network of friends for recommendations.”
Look back at a time when you first met the people who you now call friends, colleagues and acquaintances. How did you get to be where you are today in terms of a relationship with them? How long did it take? Solid relationships take time to build (months, years) and social media is no different. On the contrary, it’s where the principles of generosity and trust are of utmost importance nowadays as we tend to forget that behind every email and every social media account there is a person just like us.
ACTION:
Be intentional and make a plan for your networking efforts in the near future. Implement it and tweak as you go along until you are comfortable with it (and it becomes a win-win for both parties in the long run). Yes, your plan can be in the back of a napkin—it doesn’t have to be elaborate—the goal is to think this through so that you can take all the steps needed to make it happen. And by virtue of planning you’ll save lots of time and heartache. Here are some pointers:
- Who do you want to meet to reach a particular goal?
- What do you need to do to communicate and ultimately meet that person? (Meeting can be virtual.)
- Or who can help open doors to get you closer, or introduce you directly to that person?
- How can you show gratitude to the “door opener”?
- How can you be helpful or of service to the person you want to meet?
- When do you need to meet this person by? Is there enough time to build a relationship or do you need to take another route?
- How much time and effort are you willing to put into meeting and forging a relationship with this new person? (The answer will dictate what kind of relationship you can have, ranging from an email, to a friendship, to a job, etc.)
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below, I’ll be happy to answer them and help you with your plan. Best of luck with your networking!
by Helena Escalante | Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Productivity, Time
TODAY’S IDEA:
When an opportunity presents itself, it’s either “Hell, yeah!” or “NO.”
— From Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers
This idea comes has quickly become one of my favorites. It’s very simple, but powerful:
“When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell, yeah!” then say no.”
By operating from this stand point, you will ensure that you do not overcommit or commit to things that you’d really rather not do simply because you didn’t want to disappoint the person who asked you for help…
“When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say, “Hell, yeah!”
Be very careful and vigilant with your time, because it’s one of the finite resources that we have! Want to know how to make more time? Yesterday’s idea is very helpful.
ACTION:
Examine your commitments. Which ones are a “hell, yeah!”? Which ones will you get rid of, or perhaps diminish/soften the commitment? This exercise was a great eye-opener for me, I’d love to hear how it goes for you! Please let me know in the comments.
