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May31
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The project you’re putting time and energy into must not be redundant, obsolete, superseded, overkill or superfluous. It’s easy to take for granted that whatever you’re working on is still important. It’s easy to get caught up in the process and in perfecting irrelevant details. And it’s easy to lose sight of the goal when you’ve got your head down, working hard.
So, stop and confirm that the project is still viable. Communicate with others involved. Check that it will be a good use of resources. Examine your assumptions. Things change; don’t assume you should do something today because it was on your list yesterday.
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May30
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What’s the difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it? Deciding is super important; in fact, I even made it Rule #1. Even when you aren’t deciding, well, you’re just deciding not to decide. You can’t get away from it. But...
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May29
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I’m hoping my readers are happy today, Memorial Day And I’m hoping that the reason you’re happy isn’t mainly that you’re not at work. I wrote earlier about how negative emotions can lessen your productivity at work because they are associated with...
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May26
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I work alone a lot and I do a lot of writing, also alone. I usually have a pretty good idea of what I’m up to (I’d better!) but sometimes no amount of getting things down on paper can solve...
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May25
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It's Thursday, which is One Question Interview Day. Or 1Q Interview, that has a nice rhythm to it. Today's interviewee, Shirley George Frazier, is an author who lives on the Internet guiding her two sites, SoloBusinessMarketing.com and GiftBasketBusiness.com. Each site's blog...
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I’ve found myself falling into this trap recently. I’ve been taking taiko classes for about ten months now. It’s been the usual zigzag of leaps forward, plateaus and even some falling backwards, but forward progress is being made. I have...
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May24
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The wildly popular methodology of "Getting Things Done" (aka GTD) created by David Allen has inspired numerous blog posts, hacks and add-ons. I would say it has achieved cult status, although its adherents are a free-thinking bunch who customize it...
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Life should feel like water flowing downhill. People don’t read user manuals, for example (well, I do, but I know I’m in the minority. And I’m often frustrated when I read them, but that’s a different topic). They shouldn’t have...
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May23
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When your neck hurts or your lower arm starts to feel tingly, it can be hard to be at your productive best. People who work on the computer a lot (well, not always working ;)) suffer aches and pains for...
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Yesterday I wrote about using props to create a productive environment. Sometimes you’ll need to subtract distracting items from your environment to be productive. If you’ve got multiple projects going, try only having one at a time in front of...
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May22
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When you create an environment that really works, you automatically get into the state of mind of working when you enter it. You’ll be more productive when you don’t have to work at getting to work.
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May19
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In my strolls around the web looking for more information about prioritizing with rocks and quadrants, I came upon this website devoted to managing time with your PDA. In just a handful of pages, Bruce Keener covers a lot of...
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WaterWater is completely trivial stuff that wastes your time. I don’t know if it can be completely eliminated, and I can personally vouch for the momentary salutary effect of a few hands of solitaire; you just need to make sure...
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May18
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Today I'm inaugurating a new feature on my blog; actually, two new features. One is a "Top Three" list and the other is the "One Question Interview." This time I'm combining them by asking my interview subjects this question: "What are your...
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SandSand fills up quadrant III. This is where you’ll find compulsive checking of email and voicemail, interesting but ultimately irrelevant email discussions, poorly thought out meetings (some would say most meetings), reports that are regularly due but rarely read, interruptions...
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May17
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PebblesPebbles are quadrant I items. They’re not quite as important as your rocks in the larger scheme of things, but they’re urgent. I think it’s easy to confuse rocks with pebbles because it takes some practice and fortitude to schedule...
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May16
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Quotation of the Day:"The physiological effects of tiredness are well-known. You can turn a smart person into an idiot just by overworking him," notes Peter Capelli, a professor of management at Wharton.Stop right now. Are you working too hard? Are...
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Last week I wrote about the Pickle Jar Theory of time management, which is a riff on Stephen Covey’s "Big Rocks" theory. It involves labeling all you have to do as a rock, a pebble, sand or water, the...
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May15
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Important and Urgent (crises, deadline-driven projects) Important, Not Urgent (preparation, prevention, planning, relationships) Urgent, Not Important (interruptions, many pressing matters) Not Urgent, Not Important (trivia, time wasters) This popular technique (definitions courtesy of Amazon review) offers a way to...
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May12
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While I don’t think it’s very appealing to think of my most important tasks as big rocks, it’s a very graphic analogy. If I drop one of those rocks on my foot, it’s gonna hurt. The Pickle Jar Theory of time management...
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May11
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At the suggestion in John Richardson’s blog post, I just put myself on the beta tester list for Foldera, a new way to orchestrate your symphony of input, as they say in their blog. This free, web based service will organize...
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May10
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Why is time management so challenging? Because you can’t actually manage time. You can’t move it around or get more of it or bring back yesterday’s allotment. Think of it instead as task management, priority management and even self management. These all end...
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May 9
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It does not matter if you use paper or electronic. It does not matter if you write one to do list or many, sorted by type of action. It does not matter if you file by topic or straight alphabetical. ...
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May 8
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Nobody wants to waste time. We want to get the most out of life. Striving for life balance is a widespread goal these days. We want lives that have satisfying portions of productive work, meaningful non-work activities and rejuvenating recreation. We want a lot. ...
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One of the tips I gave in an earlier post was about contrariness. I suggested taking a statement you make to yourself and telling yourself the opposite instead. It’s a way to give yourself a “whack on the side of the head”...
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May 5
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Barbara Stoker (who I saw at the Professional Businesswomen of California annual conference on Tuesday) is very big on encouraging women to acknowledge themselves for all that they do everyday, even if they don't quite get through their to do...
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May 4
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Alison Levine's team didn't make it up to the summit of Mt. Everest. Does that mean they failed? Heck, no. They weighed their options carefully and made the logical choice. Faced with equipment failure and an impending storm, it didn't...
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For any mountain you are climbing, such as the one on your desk, you may experience this same one step forward, one (or two) steps back phenomenon. But you can see the top of Mt. Everest from Base Camp. Your summit may be the surface of your desk, or an empty in box.
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May 3
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Yesterday I went to the Professional Businesswomen of California annual conference, called The Power of Connection. 17 years ago it started as a handful of women. This year attendance was approximately 6,000, easily filling up many meeting rooms at Moscone...
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May 1
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Take time outs to reassess. Take a break to make sure that you’re working on the right thing and spending the right amount of time on it. Take time outs to reward yourself for focusing. If you’re on a...
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Inattentional blindness is the concept they’re illustrating here. It means that when you’re focusing on one thing, you often don’t notice other things that are blindingly obvious to others.
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How much information can you really handle at one time? Even if you don’t multi-task, having seen the light about how serial tasking is actually quicker and more efficient, you may still feel that your capacity to absorb new information is...
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