Invest in Your Personal Library
The late Jim Rohn said…
“Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book”.
“The book you don’t read won’t help”.
Wise words.
It’s why I believe you should invest regularly in your own personal library. Learning isn’t something you do during your first two decades on the planet and then forget about.
Learning is a lifelong process. If you’re not adding to your knowledge base daily you’ll soon be the only dinosaur in the neighborhood. While it is impossible to learn and assimilate every bit of minutiae out there, you should still strive to stay current in your area of expertise.
My personal library is full of different titles on a myriad of subjects, but the broad categories that are important to me involve business, self-improvement, and marketing. Also, having a good reference section is invaluable.
Identify which categories are pertinent to your own self-growth and add to it regularly. If cost is an issue, there are low-cost alternatives to buying new. Amazon, ebay, and of course, the neighborhood used bookstore.
In addition to having an extensive pdf library on my comp I still prefer the tactile feel of the printed page. Whoever predicted the demise of the local bookseller couldn’t have been more wrong. It seems they’re thriving now more than ever.
The medium you choose to store and read the information doesn’t matter; I use both electronic and print, but what does matter is the content and your assimilation of it.
Who has time to read? Well, as it turns out… most everyone. We all have moments where were sitting in waiting rooms, standing in line at Starbucks, or waiting patiently for a flight.
Those downtime minutes can become the most valuable minutes you spend during your day. Self-education doesn’t come in the form of a pill or a brain download (at least not yet)… so it becomes your responsibility.
I would like to suggest one book to read to help you process the written word quicker and although its copyright date is 1992, the info in it will help you read much faster. I found the little paperback gem buried in my own library, back behind a stack of larger books. The pages have yellowed over time but the words are as inspiring now as when they were originally penned.
The book is the source of inspiration for this article and is titled The Evelyn Wood Speed Reading & Learning Program. (I know, I know…) but it’s worth the few minutes it takes to read it. Three US presidents thought enough of the program to implement the techniques for themselves but also wanted their staff to use the techniques too.
Begin your building your own library today. It’ll be worth it many times over down the road.
Take Massive Action
Anthony Robbins had a unique view on the principle of taking massive action. Tony wouldn’t do only the minimum necessary to achieve a goal. He would actually double or triple the effort needed to achieve the goal.
The idea is to gain as much experience in the shortest amount of time available. Robbins had cited the example of learning to become a better public speaker. What did he do?
Rather than booking only one talk a week, he booked many talks during the week, multiple times daily when possible. The actual time period that it took him to gain the skill and experience escape me at the moment but imagine this… in a very compressed period of time (weeks), Robbins gained a year of experience extremely quickly.
That’s an incredible feat. A feat not many are committed to doing.
Fear of making mistakes holds us back from our goals but the advantage many don’t consider is this: If your going make mistakes anyway why not get them out of the way as fast as possible. Learn and make the adjustments quickly, then apply them at the next opportunity.
Robbins took action everyday when the same approach took weeks for other speakers.
Calculate how much effort you would need to apply to reach a goal of your own. Now, double or triple that effort…
If you’re a salesperson who is compensated on pure commission… To close more deals you need to do more presentations. To get more presentations you need more appointments. To get more appointments you need more leads. Regardless of your industry’s ratio, let’s say its takes 10 cold leads to get one appointment. Now triple your self-marketing or prospecting efforts to get 30 leads and… well, the math is in your favor now.
Use the principle of taking massive action to reach any goal in record time. Do more than you think is necessary whether its pumping out more pushups, writing more words in a sitting, or getting belly-to-belly with more potential clients.
Don’t be afraid to fail fast. The greatest learning occurs as a result of making errors early and if there is such a time as being allowed to make mistakes… it’s when you are a beginner.
Nobody will appreciate the fumbling and error-filled performance of an unrehearsed musician especially if he is standing in Carnegie Hall.
Sure it’s an extreme example but only to make a point. I think you’ll do much better if you put in the time. Practice, and multiply your efforts, in your specific endeavor.
Time management: Myth or Miracle?
Untold volumes of literature have been written about the concept of time management and personal productivity. I’ve produced many articles on the subject of better performance, procrastination, and organization. Add to that tips, techniques, and tactics to help you get more done.
This idea of providing advice where “the rubber meets the road” is well and good. But it’s a ground level view of life and it’s easy to forget the bigger picture “why-we-do-what-we-do” kind of thing.
Is time management really about managing all the time we have available from when we arise in the morning to the evening when our heads hit the pillow?
Is time management all about maximizing every minute to the best use possible?
Is time management an answer to low income, poor health, and broken relationships?
Is time management just for the solopreneur or freelancer? Does time management help the factory production worker? The single working mom? The busy homemaker? The writer, architect, and fireman? The programmer, secretary, and entrepreneur?
Can time management solve all of our worries, hopes and dreams?
Is time management itself the panacea we would like it to be?
The answer is yes. And no…
Yes, as part of your plan to get where you’re going you’ll need a method and several techniques to help you free up time to do the necessary actions. Reaching for goals and aspirations requires time and hard work to bring them to fruition.
On the other hand, The answer is no… Not because time management techniques don’t work… they do. It’s just that time management is not the area of focus when it comes to achieving goals, it’s about the goal itself. Time management is a means to an end. Time management really isn’t about managing time… It’s about managing our own selves and how we use the time we’re allotted. Knowing our own particular inclinations such as laziness and having a technique to combat that.
Maybe we have habit of arriving late. Having a cheat to use like setting your clock ahead 15 minutes ensures your on time.
Coming to grips with a lack of focus might be as simple as writing down your tasks and doing the number one priority item first and not quitting until it’s complete.
The ingenious techniques we espouse are answers to questions that hold us back and hinder our productivity. The problem rarely is a lack of time because we all possess the same 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day. Many people have achieved great things and done great exploits in the same 24 hour period.
Our productivity or lack of it is dependent on us. So it becomes our lot to take responsibility for our own results and set on task of improving those results.
Is time management a myth and a skill only possessed by the elite or is it a miracle tool that can help you get far more done that you ever thought you could do on your own?
It’s just a tool… the miracles happen because of it.
Productivity Solutions for a Weary Mind
Occasionally I get days when I have a lot of widgets to crank but my head isn’t in the game. My productivity is hampered because I’m guilty of pondering these weighty issues when I should be working. Bearing the mental burden of this kind is enough to induce a procrastinational (is that a word?) coma.
The thing is the widgets still need to be produced. A one-person army cannot afford too many days of unproductiveness. I’m always on the look out for new ways to combat this particular malady that affects the solopreneur.
Usually most small nagging annoyances are quickly dispatched using tactics like working with a countdown timer and short work periods, taking breaks, or changing tasks frequently.
The other kind of mental battles we wage are heavier. These kind of weighty issues are the deeply personal and emotional charged ones. Loved ones passing on, kids moving out on their own, and big life career changes all qualify. Maybe we should just take the time off to sort through this stuff. That’s a great idea but not always practical, or possible. After all, we make our living cranking the widget lever, right?
Here’s a brief list of ideas to help beat down these monsters:
- Writing down your thoughts in your journal helps to sort out stuff. Just let the emotion flow out of the pen onto the paper. Who knows… A little cathartic release just might be the tonic you need.
- Reframe the thought. Is this something I can change or do something about. If not, then come to grips with accepting it and living on in spite of it.
- Talking the matter over with a trusted confidant. Having a sounding board to listen while you ramble on until your out of gas… or tears.
- Making peace with someone if you hurt or wronged them.
- Offer forgiveness. If someone hurt you or wronged you.
So what in the world does this have to do with personal productivity? Not much. Except that this stuff resides in your head and no matter how much you’d like to wish it away, it’ll be there until you decide to do something with it.
Once you figure that out, then you can get back to the business of cranking out those darned widgets.
SMART Goals (with a tweak…)
It took me a long time to get acquainted with goal-setting. At least in a structured sense. Moving through life you achieve milestones even if you never consciously thought about how to get there. The process of goal-setting was at work in one way or another.
Learning about goal-setting happened mostly by osmosis. I can’t recall when or where I learned about them. Much of the sales, marketing, and motivational literature I’ve read about has elements of the goal-setting process in them so through the assimilation of these things, they found their way into my psyche. The following formula is pretty well known and if you follow any of the success gurus, the process has been dubbed the SMART goals mnemonic.
For the benefit of those who haven’t seen this before, this is the overview …
(S)pecific — Every goal must be specifically defined in terms of actions or events
(M)easurable — Every goal must be quantifiable and must have a way to measure the outcome or result
(A)ttainable — The goal stretches you but must be believable and achievable for you.
(R)elevant — The goal must have value to you; something you strongly desire
(T)ime-bound — The goal has a completion date.
It is a valuable formula, no question. It works like this…
Let’s say you want to lose some weight. That’s a wish. Here’s how to turn that wish into a goal:
- I want to weigh 190 lbs. (that’s specific)
- I want to lose 2 pounds a week by exercising 3x a week and eating a low-carb diet (that’s something you can measure)
- Losing ten pounds using these methods is very believable (and attainable)
- Looking great at the beach sporting a svelte body has a high emotional stake to it (very relevant if you’re self-conscious)
- Allowing 6 weeks to achieve this is realistic (a reasonable time period)
So the stated goal in the declarative sounds like this:
“Starting today, May 1, I will lose 10 pounds by exercising and diet to bring me to a body weight of 190 lbs. on or before June 15”.
Simple, huh? But what happens if you don’t reach the goal? It could mean you missed one or more of the elements of the mnemonic. Maybe the goal didn’t mean enough to you. Maybe it was unrealistic. Maybe the time period allotted wasn’t reasonable.
Maybe the S.M.A.R.T. mnemonic needs one more element? I would suggest this additional letter — “S”, so now it reads: S.M.A.R.T.S.
The “S” stands for “stick-with-it”.
If the goal is worthy of you, then persistence is the thing you need. Stick-with-it until you achieve the goal. Think about it. If you set your goal to reach $100K in 365 days and you only earned $95K during that time, would you give up and say it was hopeless? Or would you put in the extra few days?
Similarly, If you didn’t meet your weight loss goal and only lost 8 out of the 10 lbs in the allotted time, would you throw up your hands in exasperation and quit? Or would you put in the extra few days?
Sharing your goal with someone who supports you will help you reach the goal. You will need a hand. Probably a push. And a good shot of motivation sometime during this process.
What’s the Big Deal About Being Productive?
Why in the world would anyone really want to be productive… what’s the point anyway?
It’s a fair question.
In an existential moment I’ll find myself staring out of the coffee shop window watching the early morning commuters going to and fro, hither and thither. What are all those people doing with their time today?
The scene reminded reminded of conversation I had with another solopreneurial friend. He had recently took a long-deserved holiday in a warmer climate than the one we live in. He talked about the beaches, the weather, and the people… the usual stuff.
Then he told me about the one thing that bugged him. He said he went to Mexico to relax and get his mind off business…
“I got out of bed and went out for a nice breakfast only to be jostled by the same morning crowd I left back home. It’s the same thing there as it is here… y’know, people hustlin’ around tryin’ to make a buck. It kinda made me irritated. I don’t know why I even went there.”
Obviously, he went to recharge the batteries, but I still found his comments amusing. I think, almost everyone… in one way or another is trying to improve their lot in life. It’s the reason they get out of bed and put in time at the job. Work hard for a while to gain enough (cash?) to better their existence. The whole “human condition” thing Maslow wrote about.
So working for a living is a given. Just showing up is enough to get a paycheck.
Why bother with productivity?
The world is full of people who settle for mediocrity. The masses who commute back and forth taking whatever is offered.
I’m not against contentment. Far from it.
I just figure, if you’re gonna work… why not do the best you’re capable of?
You benefit. Your boss (if you have one) benefits. The people who buy the stuff you (or your boss) sell, benefits. Everyone benefits because you do your part. You make more money because you produce higher quality than the next guy. You’re compensated even more because you get twice as much done than your peers do. Promotions come easier. Maybe even awards, special bonuses, and quota-busting, all-expense paid trips too.
Recognition, admiration, and praise for superior performance are incredibly strong motivators… in addition to the monetary kind.
But the one thing I’ve noticed among productive people is…
They simply love the thought of being productive.
It reminds of a quote I heard recently:
“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters…”
Just thinking…
An Efficient Time Management Program Needs This…
Working throughout the day I glance at the large wall clock sometimes wondering if the battery needs replacing. Other times, it appears as if the minute hand sweeps so briskly I dare not sneak a glance for fear of losing that precious microsecond of productivity.
Regardless of how I feel… whether I’m a procrastinator or producer, one thing becomes necessary to keep your productivity high…
The need to recharge. Clear your head. Break the tedium of cranking the widgets.
Is it always good to take breaks? For the most part, yes.
Exceptions? Of course… When I’m on a roll and things are flowing smoothly I hate to stop. Momentum is a great thing to take advantage of when it happens. If you’re feeling strong and inspired, keep going and don’t quit until you’re satisfied you’ve reached your goal.
Conversely, an efficient time management program needs to have breaks built into the schedule for you to operate at maximum productivity. Typical industry standards allows for one 15 minute break mid-morning, one for mid-afternoon and the half-hour lunch.
As a solopreneur, I don’t work on that kind of schedule. I have a more spontaneous approach to breaks and take them as I need them. The one caveat is not to let them go too long (email and surfing have stolen untold amounts of time from the drifting solopreneur).
I have heard of various tactics other productivity pros use in regard to breaks. The tactics really just involve working for set periods of time then taking a short break. Some advocate for a 15 minute work unit, others prefer a 30 minute interval, and still others like a 55 minute work period.
In any case, they all take a short break after every work period, to get their wind back. The break length typically is 5 minutes or so and not the usual 15 minutes.
Chronic procrastinators can use this technique as reward-for-work enticement to push themselves onto greater productivity. Often, just starting a task is enough to get the procrastinator going and inertia kicks in a helping hand (or foot, as the case may be).
Overall, most of your days become more productive if short breaks are built in to your routine. The most admired perks of the work-at-home solopreneur is the ability to call your own shots, live life on your terms, and work when you want to work. Using the best time management techniques available makes the time you put in… profitable.
Common Sense Productivity
Boosting your productivity is matter of doing the right things, at the right time, in the right order. Elementary school math taught us the value of doing things in order. If the rule was violated or ignored… The end product was incorrect.
You wouldn’t think of putting your shoes on before your socks or your pants before your boxers. Likewise, the same common sense should apply to the idea of processing and tackling the stuff you think is important.
How do you define “what’s important”? Where should you put your “to-do’s”? When is the best time to get these things done?
Similar to the basic math you learned early in life, the questions become easy to solve once you learn the right order of operations.
Here we go…
Gather and collect. Buy a stack of 3″ x 5″ index cards to records details. Next, take as much time as you need to jot down everything you are thinking about… one item per card. The stuff that nags at you, the details that dance at the edge of your mind, and all the things that you need to get done. This pile should catch every thing thats occupying floor space in your mind. Don’t let the stuff stay in there because it ends up as obstacles to work around.
Process the cards. All your stuff is there in a big pile. Now the next thing to do is sift through and use the 4-D method. Each item on the pile will need your full attention. Sort through each item and decide immediately: should I do it, delegate it, defer it until later, or just dump it in the trash.
So now you have 4 piles to get rid of …
Dump. Well, the trash pile is the easiest to deal with. Toss it. You’ll be surprised how good this feels!
Defer. Stuff that doesn’t have a deadline, or can’t be acted upon, or is in the “maybe-I’d-like-to-do-someday” category, goes into a tickler folder for follow-up. Put a date on it to review and forget about it.
Delegate. Another easy one to handle. Find some able-bodies to handle these tasks.
Do it. If can be done quick, say under 5 minutes, do it now. If more time is required, schedule bigger blocks of time to meet that.
There you have it. A simple method to get a grip on the loose threads that most of us have in our lives. Arguably, the most important step is just getting a bead on all the errant thoughts scurrying around our noggins. Once in the crosshairs, pulling the trigger on the critters then becomes easy.
Of course, the information here is purely common sense, but at times I’m guilty of complicating things because I forget to follow this simple guideline.
Another Ten Time Management Tips
I read widely as much and as often as I can. There is no shortage of good stuff to sift through. What I find particularly helpful are the top ten lists on different subjects. Oftentimes you can find great nuggets, tips, and hints that the author took the time to capture in word for you. The brevity of the “top ten list” also helps to minimize the reading if your strapped for time.
Okay, onward…
Sometimes you gotta say “No”. Especially if you have no possible way to meet the deadline. Taking on work you know you won’t be able to finish in time is a sure-fire way to destroy your credibility.
If there is no deadline, you pick one. Jobs have a way of sticking around for a long time without a deadline. They have a habit of getting bumped to the bottom of the list and never climbing up to completion. Having a deadline solves this sticky problem.
Plan your day; the night before. Allow your subconscious to work on it through out the night while you rest. Lots of data to support that which we’ll look at in the future.
Cut-off the time wasters. Twitter. You Tube. Facebook. All fun diversions but hardly profitable. Figure out your worth hourly and divide by 60. That’s your cost per minute. Multiply that by every minute you spend watching a pointless video or receiving a pointless message. Make it hard for yourself to access these things. Instead, use these diversions as a reward for a few hours of productive work instead.
Interruptions. We all have them. IM, text messages, and email alerts are great communication tools but a real distraction when doing focused work. Switch them off freeing you to concentrate on the job in front of you.
Carry a notebook and pen. Great ideas, random notes to self, and important names and dates need never be lost again. No matter how good you think your memory is, no matter how great the thought was, if you don’t record it, you’ll lose it. Take no chances.
Get enough sleep. Inadequate rest will lower your productivity. People are wired differently and it’s up to you do discover how much rest you need to perform at your best. I suggest you test different durations and see how you feel.
Do your research. If you write articles for pay or promotion you need to develop a tickler file for ideas. Don’t leave it to chance hoping for the best. Set up a file folder on your comp to dump snippets of interesting fodder for your target audience. Label a physical manilla folder “tickler” for hard copy storage of article ideas.
Mindmap or Web. A great tool that you use to dump the ideas in your brain onto a napkin, paper or document created on the computer. The medium used doesn’t matter. Getting the ideas down does.
Take a full day or two to set goals. Book a weekend out of town where you can go over the year ahead and plan. Personally, I like a day of quiet to unwind, reflect, and ponder, and another to record things I’d like to accomplish for the year. Think it, then ink it…
There we have it. Just for fun Google this: Top ten list for (whatever your interest)… I promise you you’ll find all kinds of good things here.
Daily Production Goals
9 to 5… 8:30 to 4:30… 7:30 to 3:30… We typically define our workday by the amount of hours we put in. Some of us, by choice or necessity, put in longer hours than normal folks either for more income or more productivity.
Is that what real productivity means? Does working longer hours mean more productivity? Well, certainly… that’s one way to get more things done.
But…
Jumping on the treadmill you call your job and dutifully going thru the motions until the quittin’ time bell rings, did you feel you were as productive as you could have been?
It’s frustrating to busy all day and really have little to show for it. I have those days. I’m relatively sure you have them too.
I ran across an idea from a very productive writer who suggests that you set a daily production goal to meet. You should set a target for yourself, for example:
- 3 full pages written
- rough draft of 1500 words
- 3 articles produced…
The point of the goal is simple: If the goal is reached in 5 hours, 4 hours, or 2 hours, then you can feel that no matter what else happens that day, you were as productive as you could have been.
A corollary to this is your output is easy to track. If you take a moment to write down the daily goal, the specific units (ie. words written) and the date, you can see at a glance what you have produced in a week, month, or year.
How valuable would that be to you?
Not only does this idea apply to your work or job, but you can apply the idea to any activity you engage in.
Try setting daily production goals for yourself. Depending on your area of interest some examples might include:
(ie.) 3, 4, or 5 pages written, 30 push-ups, perform 50 scales flawlessly, sprint for a mile, write 1500 words, rehearse your speech 3x, execute 200 reverse punches, shoot 200 hoops, swim 20 laps, etc…
Having a quantitative goal to meet every day will get you closer to writing that book, the black belt, or performing at Carnegie Hall because you’ll be able to see the progress every day. Nobody likes breaking a winning streak and looking at the numbers might give you the extra push you need when you’re not feeling up to the task.