New Year's Resolutions

I certainly don't agree with all of these.  And I highly resent that the wardrobe suggestions are all for men. (Hello?  What century are we in?)  But some of them I liked.  The reading and taking online courses.  Of course I do that anyway.  Also, to suggest that it's okay to drink until you black out is insane.
http://www.businessinsider.com/gselevator-guide-to-new-years-resolutions-2013-12

Time Management (again)

This post was a good reminder of many of the time management skills that have been helpful to me.  If only I would do them...  Since I never have to have meetings, those posts were ignored.  The graphic is odd, but information good.
http://www.businessinsider.com/time-management-and-productivity-hacks-2013-4?utm_source=alerts&nr_email_referer=1#-27

Do Less to Get More Done

This is a rehash of things I've read in other places, and bears emphasizing.  It's similar to the concept of lions on the hunt.  They don't waste their energy on small prey, they wait for the large prey.  But it can be harder for those of us who employ ourselves, when sometimes it can be a guess of what activity may or may not have the most impact.

"In a time of constant movement, constant communication, continual achievement and an ongoing list of to-dos, at the end of the day, we feel we’ll never get ahead. It seems like our days are controlling us, rather than us controlling them.

This constant busyness can actually take you off course from your high-value goals; hurt your physical, psychological and emotional system; and even damage or destroy relationships.
I’ve been studying some of the top executives, CEOs, authors and millionaires over the past couple of years, and I’d like to share some things I’ve observed that might help you work at your productive best:

1. 80/20 everything.

This is called Pareto’s Law. It can be summarized as follows: 80% of your output results from 20% of your input. Out of 10 tasks and activities you want to accomplish, two of them will produce more results than the other eight combined.
Sometimes when we get busy, we feel we must get more done rather than focus on the tasks that create bigger results. Challenge yourself to really think intelligently about what 20% of your work you can do with absolute focus that will yield huge results.

2. Most things don’t matter.

I remember Tim Ferris stating that “most things make no difference.” Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant.
Being selective and taking more intelligent action is really the path to high productivity. Focus on the important few and ignore or delegate the rest.

3. Doing something unimportant well doesn’t make it any more important.

Activities that aren’t connected to an outcome or purpose are the drain of all fortune. Understand that what you do is a lot more important than how you do it. Effectiveness is still important, but it’s useless unless applied to the right things.
There are a handful of things you could be focusing on that will create exceptional outcomes for your goals. It’s easy to get caught in a flood of trivial matters.
The key to not feeling rushed is remembering that lack of time actually means lack of priorities. Take time to stop and refocus your priorities as often as needed. Intelligent thinking combined with the right action will get your productivity to a level few attain. Remember what Jim Collins stated in his bestseller Good To Great: “If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.”

4. Obey Parkinson’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will become of larger importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. I have personally found high value in deadlines. If I give you 12 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the essentials. If I give you a week to complete the same task, it will most likely be six days of validation, excuses and procrastination and one day of rushed work. If I give you a month, it usually becomes a mental monster.
The result of deadlines is often higher quality due to greater focus.
Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to your income, and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines. If you haven’t identified your critical tasks and set aggressive start and end times for their completion, the unimportant becomes important. Even if you know what’s critical, without deadlines that create focus, the minor tasks forced upon you will rise to consume time until another minuscule task jumps in to replace it, leaving you at the end of the day with nothing accomplished.
I’ve spent months jumping from one interruption to the next, feeling run by my business instead of the other way around. Don’t make the same mistake — instead, adopt these four strategies in your life and business today."


Read more: http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2013/11/13/4-strategies-for-cranking-up-your-productivity/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=4-strategies-for-cranking-up-your-productivity#ixzz2kokXIqEe

5 things to consider doing in the a.m.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2013/10/02/5-things-super-successful-people-do-before-8-am/

Work Spaces

Curiosity about other people's work spaces is a sort of sub theme of this blog. This guy's work space is truly awe inspiring.  Click through to see the rest of his photos. Catnip to someone like me.

Die Empty

Tricks to stay motivated and focused?

Not sure if I like that title so much, but it harkens back to Buddhist thought and even Carlos Castenada, to keep death at your shoulder.  But it this context, it's to be more focused and fearless and motivated to do work that is crying out from your inner self.

“Did the work I did today really matter?”  

Others I’ve met are incredibly successful at, vested in, and highly compensated for their work, but over time they’ve grown stagnant. They sense they have something more to give, but they can’t quite put their finger on why they’re stuck in first gear.  

This begs the obvious question: How do you set in motion a course of action that will allow you to unleash your best, most valuable work while you still can?  

The marketplace is filled with (often simplistic and unhelpful) platitudes about living a life of fulfillment, landing your dream job, and discovering your purpose, but when you are in the midst of the fray it can feel futile to think about anything other than hitting your deadlines and chasing the next promotion. It’s easy to get lost, and wake up many years later asking yourself, “Who am I, how did I get here, and how do I go back?” 

In my first book, “The Accidental Creative,” I recounted a meeting in which a friend asked a strange and unexpected question: “What do you think is the most valuable land in the world?” 

Several people threw out guesses, such as Manhattan, the oil fields of the Middle East, and the gold mines of South Africa, before our friend indicated that we were way off track. He paused for a moment, and said, “You’re all wrong. The most valuable land in the world is the graveyard. In the graveyard are buried all of the unwritten novels, never-launched businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all of the other things that people thought, ‘I’ll get around to that tomorrow.’ One day, however, their tomorrows ran out.” 

That day I went back to my office and I wrote down two words that have been my primary operating ethic for the last several years: Die Empty.  

I want to know that if I lay my head down tonight and don’t wake up tomorrow, I have emptied myself of whatever creativity is lingering inside, with minimal regrets about how I spent my focus, time, and energy. This doesn’t happen by accident; it takes intentional and sustained effort. 

My new book, “Die Empty,” is about cultivating the mind-set and the methods you need to unleash your best work each day, and to increase the odds that, at the end of your life, you will not regret how you spent your days. It lays out a set of core beliefs that will help you be more purposeful in how you approach your work. They are: 

You have a unique contribution to make to the world. 

This is not self-help mumbo jumbo; it’s the truth. You possess a one-of-a-kind combination of passions, skills, and experiences. There is something you bring to your work that no one else could. If you relinquish that power, then it will never see the light of day, and you will always wonder “what if?”  

No one else can make your contribution for you.

Waiting for permission to act is the easy way out. Everyone has to play the hand they’re dealt. This means that you can’t make a habit of pointing fingers, blaming others, or complaining. As painful as it can be, unfairness is baked into every aspect of life, and to make a contribution and empty yourself of your potential, you have to come to terms with it and refuse to be a victim. 

Your contribution is not about you. 

You cannot function solely out of a desire to be recognized for what you do. You may be rewarded with accolades and riches for your work. You may also labor in obscurity doing brilliant work your entire life. More likely, you’ll fall somewhere in the middle. Cultivating a love of the process is the key to making a lasting contribution. 

Avoid comfort. It is dangerous. 

If making a significant impact were easy, it would be commonplace. It’s not common because there are many forces that lead to stagnancy and mediocrity. Organizations often make it easy to settle in, providing you with a good salary, a nice title, or a sense of stability. But the love of comfort is often the enemy of greatness. Greatness emerges when you consistently choose to do what’s right, even when it’s uncomfortable. 

Take a stand. Don’t shape-shift. 

You are better positioned to make a contribution if you align your work around your values. Don’t be a mirror, passively reflecting the priorities of others. You must dig through the rubble to the core principles that guide your life. Then commit to engaging your work with a clean conscience. If you don’t stand for what you believe in, you will eventually lose yourself in your work. 

Your understanding of your “sweet spot” develops over time like film in a darkroom. 

Too many people want to come out of the gate with a clear understanding of their life’s mission. There is no one thing that you are wired to do, and there are many ways you can add value to the world. However, these opportunities will only become clear over time as you act, giving you clues as you experiment, fail, and succeed. You have to try different things before you will begin to see noticeable patterns. 

You must plant seeds today for a harvest later. 

What you plant today you reap tomorrow, or farther down the road. You must structure your life around daily progress based on what matters to you, building practices and activities that allow you to plant new seeds each day, with the knowledge that you will eventually see the fruits of your labor.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/unleash-your-best-work-to-die-empty-2013-10#ixzz2hW4UnIPD

Kill the Quitter Inside

http://the365effect.com/2013/02/28/no-excuses-ever-3-simple-steps-to-kill-the-quitter-inside/

Step 2 -

Try! – Get out there and do it.  I don’t care what it is that you’re trying to do but you have to put yourself out there and TRY, TRY, TRY.  No one else is going to do this for you.  Let me repeat that:

NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO DO THIS FOR YOU

You’re the only one that can take the first steps and try.

You must be willing to look foolish, to get dirty, to make a mistake, to get up after being knocked down, to bleed and to fail.

If you want it, you are going to have to get it. You can have results or your excuses, but you can’t have both.  The Quitter Inside likes to tell you that “other people have tried and failed” or that “Its been done before” or the ever popular “I don’t think I can”.  The truth of the matter though, is that The Quitter has never tried.  The Quitter has never taken that leap of faith or tapped into the intestinal fortitude that truly makes life great. “Look before you leap, but leap you must”.