Be A Time Management God.

Over the past few weeks, I've been aggregating many time management tips I share with my clients to get more done in the limited amount of time they have.

It's a mix of managing your time more effectively and dealing with that old devil — procrastination. By the way, if you feel you're the worst offender in the world, get in line. We ALL suffer from these ailments:

• Time management is really prioritizing your tasks. If you really want to get something done, block time for each task in your calendar (yes, keeping an accurate calendar is critical). Ensure you add buffer time (prep work, travel time, etc.) or your calendar will fail miserably.

• You will always find an excuse to procrastinate. Procrastination has its own in-built solution, usually involving panic and adrenaline (read this).

• Take frequent, short breaks. Falling back to regroup can help many people recharge and regain focus when things start getting fuzzy or monotonous. Go for a walk, stretch, get a coffee — move away for a few minutes and then come back to it.

• "Perfect is the enemy of good." I develop a good balance of quality and time — I schedule a strict deadline and work to it. The result won't be perfect, but it will be close to perfect every time. My articles take 60 minutes to write — they’re not Shakespeare, but thousands of people read them and let me know how many of my crazy ideas have changed their lives.

• Work for 50 minutes out of every hour. The Pomodoro technique works pretty well for me and many of my clients.

• Learn what your productivity kryptonite is. For some it's surfing, coworkers, surfing, clients, phone calls, surfing — download an app if you don’t have the willpower. There are a bunch of plugins/apps you can download to block yourself from distracting websites: StayFocusd (Chrome plugin) or SelfControl (Mac program).

• Always have a notepad handy. Write down anything/everything you may think you will forget in short form. You can then transfer it to your calendar.

• Plan out each tasks into smaller, more achievable steps. Keep your to-do lists short — meaning nothing more than 2 or 3 steps. I've found that if I follow this, there's a better chance of completing them and less chance of becoming overwhelmed and giving up.

• Go to a public place where we feel we might be judged if we are not doing work. It might be the public library, Starbucks, central conference room or the company cafeteria.

• Make a schedule of what you will do in one day and stick to it. At first, it will be difficult to accurately estimate a solid workday — but you’ll get better at it with time. Reward yourself for achieving your goals that day — you deserve it.

• Buy this book by David Allen. I read it years ago and I felt more relaxed in the first week — it really helps you to focus on the things that really need to be done.

• Find out which hours you are at your BEST. For example, I’m a morning person so I try to do critical tasks early in the morning. Many problems arise when we try to do the hard stuff when we’re not mentally/physically ready for it.

• Eliminate elements which tend to eat your time like unnecessarily long phone calls, useless chats with people, etc. Figure out what they are and cut down doing them.

• Don't play the victim. If I get distracted by something, it isn't the fault of what/who distracted me, my cluttered-brain, whatever's making me sad, or some ADHD affliction — it's my fault. I did that. Own it and move on.

• Start each day with the proper mindset. I think the song ‘Don't Stop Believin’ by Journey describes the mindset I aim for. I listen to motivating music, podcasts, or books EVERY DAY.

• Buy AirPods. They’re a giant productivity boost for me — they allow me to focus on getting important things done and they discourage wacky interlopers.

And finally, my favorite:

I construct each weekday in such a way where the only work that needs to be accomplished is incredibly important to me — like coaching my clients. Try to put yourself in a position where what you do is what you love.

10 Tricks To Get Control Of Your Email.

I say email is dying! New generations are moving towards texting to communicate — I welcome that improvement! But email is still around for the short term — and if you're like me — you get hundreds of emails a day. And if you're like a lot of my clients, it's hard to navigate all that email without a few tricks. So here they are:

1. Eliminate your email alert setting in Outlook or MacMail. If you find yourself watching the email alert bar move up and down or the small circle alerting you to the number of unread emails - you're letting email control YOUR life.

2. Read certain times of the day. Set up times during the day to read your email — say 9 AM, Noon, and 4 PM. Otherwise, do real work. If it's an emergency, let everyone know to call, stop by or text message you with an 'URGENT' or 'IMPORTANT' header.

3. Take action, delete or file. So many people who jump into email and need to jump out quickly tend not to act on emails. They scan and then move on — they know they need to do something with the email, but they don't have the time. So they whip through their list and then rush off to a meeting. If you commit to an email, read it and then act, delete or file. It's that easy.

4. Don't start chain emails, pick up the phone. Even better, instead of writing a long and boring response email (that no one will really read), pick up the phone and take care of the issue immediately.

5. If it isn't filed, trash it. I know it's hard, but kill email whenever you can.

6. Don't print emails — only if you REALLY have too. If you print, you have now brought the electronic into the real world. And you have to now find a place for all those emails. Good luck!

7. Minimal file folders — no parent/child lists. I love it when people have HUGE lists of file folders and sub-folders. Don't you know about search? I use search every day and it works perfectly.

8. Clean up daily. If you decide to file the email, do it immediately and don't let them build up. At the end of every year, I bunch up all of my filed emails and archive them. Guess what? I only access the archive a few times a year. Go figure.

9. Email is a POOR communication vehicle. You have to realize email causes a lot of problems — missed messages, hurt feelings, arguments, unnecessary wasted time, etc. It's NOT 2-way communication. Pick up the phone or stop by the person's office. And if it's really important, set up a (short) meeting.

10. Don't worry. So many people obsess about email — they love to complain about it. A number of years ago, I took an approved sabbatical from work for 30 days (we were allowed those back then). I set up an email rule to let everyone know not to email me (I wouldn't be reading them) and that I would be back in 30 days. Guess what? I still received 3750 emails. Under the advice of my coach, I:

• Took the emails and filed them in their own file folder named 'Sabbatical'.
• I only read emails from my boss to me.
• I only accessed that file five times over the next three months.

What Would Happen If You Disconnected From Email?

Take a trip with me. You have your smartphone and you unlink your email settings from your email server, making it impossible to receive email on your smartphone. You could probably still access your email via the browser on your smartphone — but that is so time-consuming, you'd rather not.

Your last email to your team, clients, and colleagues is to let them know you will be checking email at regular intervals during the day while you are at the office and if there is an actual emergency, to call you on your smartphone. But for all intents and purposes, you are not reading or responding to emails when you're not in the office.

What would happen?

1. You might get a few more phone calls.

But that's not a terrible thing. Instead of getting into a viscious email communication chain on some obscure topic, you can probably handle it with a quick 3-5 minute call. And you can group your callbacks and keep them short.

2. You get more organized and focused when you did access your email at the office.*

Initially, it would build up. But as team members, clients, and colleagues would notice, email would cease to be a primary communication vehicle for you. Since you only had a limited amount of time to read your email, you would only focus on those emails that were from key members of your team or were directly sent to you. Anything else most likely can fall by the wayside. *I totally understand if you spend 90-100% of your time away from the office — your smartphone is critical. But what would happen if you just checked emails when you opened your laptop? Or if you checked your smartphone at discreet times during the day and not ALL the time?

3. You would get slower replying to email.

No more quick responses — email is not texting or twitter. In fact, I would ask you not to use those tools either. The whole idea is to limit interruptions to your day to be able to focus on the important and strategic things happening in your life. If it's tactical- or emergency-based use the phone.

4. You would get faster communicating with your staff, clients, and colleagues.

No more long-winded emails — no death-defying email chains that go on forever. Just small phone interruptions (or grouping of phone calls) to connect and engage, manage, or inform. You can get a reputation of fast phone calls, keep them to 1-2 minutes or less and focus on the task at hand and make decisions or take action. Email prolongs debate — how many times have you been put through the email wringer with various vicious email cycles?

A number of clients of mine have done this and they've found a significant lightening of their load AND they are getting more things done. Why?

Email is not a very good communication vehicle.

It takes a long time to compose an email, there are many instances when you do give direction and someone doesn't see it, or the email message is misconstrued in a way where you come of yelling or reprimanding. Bottom line - email is not 'two-way' communication — it's a broadcast medium. In fact, it's worse, when you run into CC: and BCC: transmissions of the same email.

These reactive responses deliver the wrong message — not promoting or pushing projects and people forward — they actually get into email ruts. Trust me — I've been there.

Finally, email turns into heroin for some people. You know who you are — reading your email constantly like a stock ticker — responding instantly to people. How much productivity is wasted with this type of communication? What might be a better way of communicating?

So if you're brave — try unlinking your email today. If you just want to try it, don't check your email at all today — have an email response: "I won't be able to check my email today on my phone, please call me if it's urgent."

Go for it.

15 Steps to a More Productive Workday.

We often face the challenge of getting the most productivity out of our time and achieving maximum efficiency. To be successful, you’ll have to place a priority on productivity and find techniques that work for you. From the blog:  Vandelay Design

Each of us is unique and no process will work for everyone, but all of us have plenty of things that we can do to improve our workflow. In this article I’ll cover some of the lessons that I have learned through my own experience.

For me, productivity is a constant goal, and always interested in finding new ways to get more out of my time. I’m far from perfect in these areas, but making consistent improvements. Hopefully some of these things will help you in your own work.

1. Have a Task List for the Day The best way to have an unproductive day is to work throughout the day without a clear definition of what you need to accomplish. Simply having a to-do list will go a long way in keeping you on track.

One of the problems with work is that there is usually a million different things that you could be doing on any given day. While all of these things may be helpful to your business in some way, they’re not all equal in terms of importance and urgency. Without a task list you run the risk of working all day on things that seem like they are benefiting your business, but in the end you’re not focusing your efforts on the right tasks.

2. Prioritize Tasks One of my biggest frustrations in my daily work is that it seems like I’m never able to do everything I want to do in a day. In this case, a task list is likely to have a few things left untouched at the end of the day. Because of this, it’s important to not only create a task list, but also to prioritize the items that you’re looking to get done. Your tasks will differ from day-to-day, but it’s likely that you’ll have a few very important things that must get done, and then some others with varying levels of importance and urgency.

My personal approach with prioritizing is to simply to set the tasks that must get done, and then I also list a few stretch goals for the day. If and when I get all of the most important items done for a particular day, at that point I can move on to the stretch goals, which usually carry less urgency than my main tasks. This way I don’t finish my work early and have nothing to do, and I also don’t have too much on my plate that causes adverse effects when I can’t get everything done.

3. Finish Tasks Rather than Starting New Ones Most executives have a few different projects going on at all times. On top of that, each project may have several different tasks that need to be done, and you may even have some of your own personal projects that require time. With all of these things fighting for your attention at once, it’s tempting to dig in to new tasks before completing others. By doing this you’ll usually be costing yourself more time and effort later when it comes to finishing those tasks and projects.

In order for an executive to keep the income flowing, it’s critical that projects are getting finished. Being able to finish a project will help you to get paid sooner and allow you to move on to another project. From my experience, when I’m struggling with too much to do, it’s best if I can devote time to tasks and projects that are near completion. Being able to get things crossed off the list feels good and helps to reduce stress and create a more productive environment.

4. Know the Strongest Times of Your Work Day Some people work best early in the mornings, others prefer afternoons or evenings. Everyone has times of the day that are stronger than others in terms of focus and productivity. I tend to get up early, but I’m not at my peak for the first few hours of the day. I’ve found that rather than fighting this and trying to get more done at the start of my day, I’m better off to use that time for tasks that are less demanding mentally. During the times when I struggle to concentrate I’ll clean out my email inbox, moderate and respond to comments on my blog, evaluate my overall process on current projects, or anything that requires time but not the highest amount of mental focus.

With this approach I’m able to make productive use of my least productive times of the day, and that will save my best hours for more taxing activities like working on a client’s website or writing articles. With the varied tasks of a executive, there are always plenty of things that need to get done that require different levels of intensity in terms of work and focus. If you can match your best times for work with the most intense tasks, and your least productive times with more routine tasks, you’ll get more out of your day.

5. Give Yourself Some Flexibility I’ve already talked about the importance of having prioritized tasks and the use of different times of the day, but it’s also important to not get so rigid with this that you don’t leave yourself some room for flexibility. There will be some days that don’t go quite as planned and when you don’t feel like you do most other days. Allow yourself to have some flexibility to change things around according to the circumstances.

6. Have a Specified Ending Time for Work One of the biggest challenges that I face throughout the week is knowing when to end my work day. When you’re working for someone else it’s much easier to make a clear break, but as a executive there is always a temptation to keep working.

With so many things to do and your income riding on getting things done, it seems like you will be more productive by working longer days. But from my experience I’ve found that I often feel like I get the most done when I have something going on that forces me to end the day at a specific time.

With a set ending time it’s easier to get moving quickly and to get more productivity out of each hour, since they are limited. Without a set ending time I often find myself working with a little bit less efficiency since I feel like I have plenty of time.

On those days I wind up with less time away from work and I often don’t seem to get that much more accomplished, even with the extra hours of work.

7. Bulk Process With so many different things to do, it’s likely that your day is broken up into many small blocks of time for specific tasks. In order to achieve more efficiency and productivity, try to use larger blocks of time and get similar things done all at once (depending on the nature of your work this may or may not be possible).

For example, if you can avoid working with your email open you may be able to spend less time each day on email by checking in 2 or 3 times throughout the day and emptying your inbox each time. Checking email many times throughout the day may lead to more time than necessary. An example from my process is writing blog posts.

My preferred method of producing content for my blogs is to have specific days set aside where this is my only focus. I can finish one post and move right on to the next. I may have a list of ideas that I want to work on so I don’t waste time trying to decide before I start writing. With this approach I feel like I’m able to get more out of my time as opposed to writing a post here and there whenever I have time.

8. Track Your Time You might be completely surprised to know exactly how you spend your time throughout a work week. Tracking your time can help you to find inefficiencies and ways to improve your productivity. Without knowing how your time is spent, it’s hard to know how you can improve the use of your time. I’m not suggesting that you need to track your time everyday, but if you do it for a few typical days you may be surprised at how easily you can identify some areas for improvement going forward.

9. Recognize Your Distractions One of the benefits of tracking your time is that it helps you to identify things or activities that may be distracting you in your work. Whether or not you are tracking your time at any giving point, one of the first steps to working productively is to recognize your distractions. Eliminating or controlling these distractions will lead to greater efficiency, but in order to do so you’ll first have to accurately recognize and understand specifically what challenges you have when it comes to working productively.

10. Have Realistic Expectations Ambitious executives will often feel the pressure to get more done than is humanly possible with a given amount of time. This can obviously lead to increased stress and pressure, not to mention a lower quality of work. Realistic expectations will allow you to be able to accomplish the things you set out to do with a day of good work.

The biggest part of having realistic expectations is the amount of work that you assign yourself for the day. Taking on too many projects at once and trying to juggle too many different tasks will result in a cluttered work day with unimpressive results. Resist the urge to try to get too much done, and focus more on doing your best work with what is currently on your plate. If you struggle in this area you may be able to increase your productivity by outsourcing some of your tasks.

11. Plan Your Next Day at the End of Each Day This is probably more of a personal preference, but I have found that if I take a few minutes at the end of my day to plan for the next day, I’m typically more aware of things and I can do a better job as opposed to waiting until the next morning to plan the day. If I wait till the next morning I find that it takes me a few minutes to remember exactly where I was on certain items at the end of the last day, and I may overlook something that I would have remembered had I taken care of this the day before.

At the end of each day I can look at my to-do list for the day and quickly see where I stand on the items that I wanted and needed to get done. At that point, planning for the next day is a quick process and I know exactly where I need to start, without running the risk of forgetting things. Now I’ll waste no time the next day trying to figure out what I need to do.

12. Get Enough Sleep the Night Before During my time as an executive, particularly when I was freelancing part-time on top of a full-time job, I’ve averaged less sleep than at any other point in my life. However, sleep is an important part of a productive schedule. Each of us functions differently in this area, but personally I tend to notice it the most at the very beginning and end of the day. If I’m feeling well-rested I can be productive through these times. If not, I struggle to stay on task.

13. Eat Healthy The food that you put into your body can have a big impact on your energy level and your feelings in general. I’m not going to go into detail here because I’m not that knowledgeable on the topic, but generally eating healthy foods will allow for better productivity.

14. Get Fresh Air One of the things I dislike about working from home is the amount of time that I spend inside the house. I often find that it helps just to take a few minutes for a walk or a drive to get some fresh air. Sometimes working in a different environment and getting out of the house for a while can really lead to a boost in productivity. This is something that you can accomplish with just a few minutes of your time, but it may have a noticeable impact for the next few hours.

15. Work in a Comfortable Environment As a executive, you’ll probably be spending a lot of time in an office. Making that office a comfortable space is important in terms of increasing your productivity. What you do with the office isn’t really important, but it should be an area that allows you to focus on your work comfortably for long periods of time. I recently wrote a post at DesignM.ag on the essential qualities of a home office that takes a more in-depth look at this subject.