by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 15 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Posteriorities
— From The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success by Brian Tracy.
Much has been said about priorities, but what about posteriorities? In his wonderful book The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, author and business guru Brian Tracy says, “Before you start something new, you must discontinue something old.” That is the Law of Posteriorities.
Our lives are full to the brim with many things to do and little time to do them. It’s time we examine all we do and determine whether we need to continue doing so.
“As your life changes, your priorities change as well. Certain things that were important at one stage of your life or career are no longer as important as you move to another stage of your life or to another level of responsibility. You must continually ask yourself, What activities in my life can I cut back on, delegate, or discontinue to free up more time for my most important activities?”
I’m sure you’re familiar with an organizing method that recommends giving away something when you get a new equivalent to avoid clutter. Say, you buy a new pair of shoes, then you give away an old pair of shoes. The law of posteriorities works in the same way, but with our activities instead of our closets.
“To start anything new, you must stop doing something old. We say that ‘getting in means getting out.’ Analyze your time carefully and have the courage to stop doing things that are no longer as important to you as other things could be.”
Keep in mind what we learned in this post: while “giving up” an activity sounds like a heavy sacrifice that we must reluctantly make, the truth is that it is not when we reframe it and simply see it as a choice.
Happy posteriorities!
ACTION
Note: On this post, both actions come directly from the book (instead of coming from me). After each rule is explained in the book, there’s a section called, “How you can apply this law immediately.” I liked the section for this Law so much that I’m including those actions below verbatim!
TODAY: “Analyze your work and make a list of the items that consume most of your time. Which of these activities could you discontinue or delegate to free up more time for higher value work?”
FUTURE: “Compare your daily activities against your annual income. Would you pay someone else our equivalent salary to do the things you are doing? If you wouldn’t, stop doing those things immediately and pass them on to someone who can do them almost as well as you can.”
Know someone who could use the Law of Posteriorities to free up the activity clutter in his/her life? Please share this post! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Planning, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The power of positive rituals
— From The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.
In The Power of Full Engagement, authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz state that only 5 percent of our behavior is consciously done in the moment. Instead, they point out, we truly are creatures of habit: “As much as 95 percent of what we do occurs automatically or in reaction to a demand or an anxiety.”
If that is the case, how can we harness the power of habits or rituals? In this post we learned from Peter Shankman the importance of creating rituals. Rituals work because they become ingrained habits that lead us to the successful outcome we want.
But what is so special about rituals?
The power of rituals is that they “conserve energy,” that is, they are so deeply instilled that we don’t think about them. Every morning, among your ritual activities you brush your teeth. Do you think how to do it? Likely you don’t. You do it on autopilot. And it’s such a set ritual that you would never go a day without doing it!
Contrast rituals to will and discipline: “[the latter] imply pushing ourselves to action, [whereas] a well-defined ritual pulls us. We feel somehow worse if we don’t do it.”
Positive rituals are, “precise, conscious, acquired behaviors that become automatic in our lives, fueled by a deep sense of purpose.” The key is to keep our purpose and our goals in mind, and build positive rituals around them in all dimensions of life—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. And when we create the environments and the routines for the rituals to take place, the payoff is clear because every ritual reinforces each other; and all together they push us to the top.
“Positive energy rituals are powerful on three levels,” the authors state. “[First,] they help us to insure that we effectively manage energy in the service of whatever mission we are on. [Second,] they reduce the need to rely on our limited conscious will and discipline to take action. Finally, rituals are a powerful means by which to translate our values and priorities into action—to embody what matters most to us in our everyday behaviors.”
ACTION
TODAY: Think of your established rituals. What additional ritual could you build and peg to one of them so that it can help you reach your goals faster?
FUTURE: Don’t try to set up a bunch of new rituals all at once. Give yourself time to turn them into habits according to your values and priorities. Create one new ritual and do it for 3 months. Once you feel that you are missing something if you don’t do it, then you know it’s become a habit. That is when you know it’s established and you can then go on to build the next one.
Please create a ritual of sharing the daily posts with someone so that more people can benefit from the EntreGurus daily ideas. 😀 You can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Time
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 18 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Creativity is subtraction
— From: Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
In yesterday’s post we were talking about setting limits and constraints. Today we will continue along those lines, yet we will focus on creative work according to Austin Kleon’s concepts in his book Steal Like An Artist.
But first, let’s remember that we’re using the term creative in a broad sense, as described by Todd Henry (in this post) who says, “if you’re responsible for solving problems, developing strategies, or otherwise straining your brain for new ideas, I’m going to call you a creative.”
Under that light, we are all creatives and, as such, we may sometimes experience a creative block. “The way to get over a creative block,” Kleon says, “is to simply place some constraints on yourself. It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom. […] Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities.”
Kleon points out that one way of doing this is simply choosing what to leave out and getting started. “Don’t make excuses for not working—make things with the time, space, and materials you have, right now.” You can start a business without capital, for example. “Shoot a movie with your iPhone and a few of your friends. Build a machine out of spare parts.”
This reminds me of the famous quote by Arthur Ashe: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
Kleon mentions that the right constraints can lead to your best work, and shares his favorite example: “Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat with only 236 different words, so his editor bet him he couldn’t write a book with only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss came back and won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.”
“In the end,” Kleon sums up, “Creativity is subtraction. [… It] isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out.” So, he advises, “Choose wisely. And have fun.”
ACTION
TODAY: Think about the limitations that you can set for a creative project in which you’re involved now. What will you choose to leave out?
FUTURE: As you come across new projects or ideas, think of the limits you can set by leaving things out. Sometimes the selection of what to leave out is as easy as the recognition of what is missing or what we are lacking: money, a cofounder, a team, a finished product, etc. When you get started, these constraints will point you in the direction of becoming leaner and more agile, and your mind will come up with very creative ideas to make things work.
Know someone who needs to subtract things from his/her creative endeavors? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Parkinson's Law, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 31 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Minimum and maximum limitations
— From The Art Of Less Doing: One Entrepreneur’s Formula for a Beautiful Life by Ari Meisel (read 2 chapters for free)
Productivity guru, Ari Meisel, is back! In a previous post I had shared his idea of The Hour of Power. Today I’ll share his concept of minimum and maximum limitations that comes from his awesome book The Art of Less Doing.
Let’s remember that Meisel found himself very sick and unable to work more than one hour a day for a while, so he became incredibly productive during the little time that he had to work. Nowadays, he’s made a point of continuing to set limits for his work: he gets everything done and still has plenty of time to devote to his family. “The fact of the matter,” Meisel says, “is that everyone functions better with constraints.”
We’re likely very familiar with setting time limits. We’ve talked about Parkinson’s Law before (here, here, and here). It’s the law that says: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. And if you only have a certain amount of time to do something, very likely you will get it done within that timeframe. Thus the importance of setting time limits to avoid open-ended projects that never get done. Deadlines are important.
And setting limits can apply to physical spaces too. Meisel explains, “If you’re a pack rat and have rooms filled with clutter, tell yourself you’re permitted one box of clutter per room and that’s it!”
To further understand the process of setting limits, Meisel goes into detail about the concepts of minimum versus maximum limitations. “Minimum limits are actually more challenging than maximum limits. It’s easier to be restrictive than to be expansive. For example, it’s much easier to say ‘I have to turn the TV off by ten o’clock at night’ (maximum limitation) than it is to say, ‘I will read ten pages of nonfiction every night’ (minimum limitation).”
Minimum limitations are very effective when it comes to creating habits. “Once you create a habit and couple it with another, your rate of potential success skyrockets.”
Let’s think of exercising with this concept. Find something that you love to do (Activity 1) and set a small goal. Then find something else you love to do (Activity 2) and tell yourself you cannot do the second activity until you’ve finished the first one. For instance, you cannot watch Netflix (Activity 2) until you’ve taken your yoga class (Activity 1). Meisel says this is even more effective if you can combine both, thus setting yourself up to win: “Tell yourself that you can only listen to podcasts [Activity 2] while you’re on the treadmill [Activity 1]. In that scenario, you’ve set up a restriction to help you succeed.”
Time, as we saw earlier, is an easy limitation to set. Money is another one. But you can work with setting constraints in any area of your life that you want to improve on. “This process of setting limitations can almost become a game, and you need to figure out how to work within your restrictions. […] Find a balance between challenging [yourself] and being realistic in terms of [your] lifestyle.”
Save the date! Ari Meisel will be at the Business Library in New York City on July 17, from 6-7:30 PM. It’s a free event. Registration and details here. I look forward to seeing you there!
ACTION
TODAY: What is a limit that you can put on yourself today for the benefit of your work, time or leisure? How about working with Parkinson’s Law and setting a time limit to finish your work at a certain time? That way you can go home to enjoy your family or to enjoy non-work-related activities.
FUTURE: Think of a habit you’d like to establish. What kind of minimum limitation can you think of to create the habit? Remember to find your Activity 1 and set a goal. Then do not indulge in Activity 2 until you have finished activity 1. Linking those activities will help you stick to them and create the habit you want. Let me know how it goes!
Do you know someone who would benefit from setting limits? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 36 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Head-to-heads
— From The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice by Todd Henry
The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is a great book about prepping yourself to do your best creative work and generate good ideas consistently and purposefully. By creative work Henry doesn’t mean just those professions in a typically creative field, such as the arts or advertising. He says, “You may even cringe when you hear the word [creative] applied to you. […] You may prefer the term ‘strategist’ or ‘manager’ or something else that feels more concrete. Call yourself anything you want, but if you’re responsible for solving problems, developing strategies, or otherwise straining your brain for new ideas, I’m going to call you a creative—even if you ended up being one accidentally.”
Henry shares his methods and insights for all of us, creatives or “accidental creatives,” to create faster, better and more effectively to fulfill the demands of our lives.
One of the strategies that he suggests as a way to enrich relationships and enrich our mental ability to create is called head-to-heads. “We rise to the level of our competition,” says Henry, “we need others in our life to help us stretch and grow.”
He draws a parallel with sports, where you compete with others head-to-head, such as in running, and this helps you keep the pace. The same principle is applied to your creative life as Henry suggests establishing the practice of head-to-heads.
“In a head-to-head meeting, to people get together, and each party is responsible for sharing new insights and new resources they’ve encountered since the last meeting.” Here are four principles to set up effective head-to-heads:
1. Set a time and be consistent. “Agree to a date, time, meeting place and frequency for the meetings with the other person. Choose someplace quiet and comfortable and make it a priority on your calendar. Once a month is a good frequency because it leaves enough time between meetings for each of you to have experienced something new to share and to have generated a few fresh insights that would make for interesting conversation.”
2. Vary your subject matter. “Don’t harp on the same topic month after month. The idea is to challenge each other with new insights and to spark conversation about things that may otherwise never show up on the other person’s radar.”
3. Choose someone you respect and admire. “Preferably someone within your area of expertise. This will enhance the conversation when you get together, leading to ideas and insights more appropriate to each person’s context. Ask yourself, ‘If I could see inside of anyone’s notebook right now, just to see what they’re currently thinking, who would it be?”
4. Prepare about 15 minutes of content. “Don’t just show up with a sandwich. Spend time putting together materials to discuss. Build them around a topic or insight that you are presently working on or just fascinated by. Again, choose a topic of potential interest to both of you.”
The topics you select are up to you and your creative goals. Henry suggests asking the following questions: “What are you currently interested in or curious about? What have you read or experienced recently that you think the other person knows very little about? What new insights or thoughts have you had that are ripe for application?”
These head-to-heads are a fantastic opportunity to build strong relationships as they challenge and stimulate both of you with the new insights. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
ACTION
TODAY: Think of someone with whom you would like to set up a head-to-head set of meetings and touch base with that person to see if he/she is interested. Set up a time to meet. You don’t have to make a lifelong commitment to do it, simply set up an initial amount of meetings, say 3 or 4, and then review how each of you is doing and whether you want to continue.
FUTURE: Following the principle of building a FAB PAB, where you set up your own advisory board for a particular project, think also about setting a head-to-head for a particular season or a particular project. This way it may be less daunting, more focused and then you can decide—when it naturally comes to an end—whether you want to continue.
Have someone in mind for a head-to-head? Send him or her this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Touch it once
— From The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies by Chet Holmes
What would you do with a gift of 90+ hours/year to spend however you see fit?
To explain this, let me share this scenario, and you tell me if it sounds familiar:
“You come into your office, and there on your desk sit three folders and two letters that you must respond to. You look at the first letter and read a few sentences. Dealing with it is clearly going to take more time than you have right now. You put it aside. In one of your folders is another task. You handle that task and your phone rings. You answer the phone and get pulled in a new direction for 10 to 15 minutes. Then you go back to the folder, but, just as you do, an email comes in. You stop to read the email, which contains a task that must be dealt with but requires more time than you have right now.”
Can you identify with this? If you spend “just 15 minutes every day to revisit, readdress, or reread documents or emails, you will waste 91 hours per year where no action is taken.” (!)
Chet Holmes, business guru and author of The Ultimate Sales Machine, had a simple, yet practical and very effective way of handling paperwork and email: deal with each thing just once.
“If you touch it, take action. […] Don’t open that email or letter until you are ready to deal with it.”
And dealing with it may take many forms, but at the very least, it means adding the action to your to-do list and saving the email to a particular folder. Holmes says, “the more files you have for work in progress and the more organized you can be in that process, the more productive you will be. So, for example, suppose I open my email from my PR firm that requires me to approve a press release. I have a PR folder. On my to-do list I write, ‘Approve press release. See PR folder.’ That’s how organized you need to be today.”
Short and simple, yet profound in changing the way we work and handle the demands for our time. Plus, the amount of time we’ll save from not having to revisit is astonishing! (For other time saving tips, read this post from Time Traps.)
ACTION
TODAY: Try this touch-it-once approach today and see how much time you save and how much more organized you get.
FUTURE: Make this touch-it-once philosophy a part of your productivity habits. As with every new habit, it will take time and tweaking to adapt to your specific needs, yet I strongly suggest giving it a shot since it will save you much time!
Know someone who’s wasting much time on revisiting things? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
