Posted by Susan Lannis
How you spend your time is how you spend your life. Procrastination is another way of saying what I am doing is more important than what I am not doing.
If you frame it in that language on each action you are procrastinating about, you should see clearly that, either you are right or wrong.
If you are right and what you are doing instead IS more important - stop beating yourself up. You’re prioritizing not procrastinating.
If you are wrong and what you are doing is less important, you need to identify why you are ignoring an important action in favor of doodling away time on an activity that has less value.
- Are you missing tools or learning? – find them
- It’s too big to tackle? – step one is to break it down into smaller pieces
- If it is something you don’t like to do but you have to do? – do it first and get it out of the way. You might try listing on side of a piece of paper all the reasons why you are procrastinating and on the other side all the benefits you will gain if you got it done – that can motivate.
- procrasting on this task has become a habit? – create a new one by starting small – do one thing right now and then start each day doing one thing you have been procrastinating about.
- you are trying to swim against the tide – trying to do it in a way you have learned rather than one that fits your personal style? – there is more than one way to skin a cat – look at the outcome or objective first then ask yourself how you can get there in your own way
- if it needs to be done ask if it has to be done by you? – if not, delegate it by swapping your time for a payment to someone else or maybe a barter with someone who has something they need to do but hate doing that just happens to be something you love to do
The only difference between procrastination and prioritization is the guilt we feel when we procrastinate. It comes down to the value of your time and how you want to spend your life.
How you spend your time is how you spend your life. Procrastination is another way of saying what I am doing is more important than what I am not doing.
If you frame it in that language on each action you are procrastinating about, you should see clearly that, either you are right or wrong.
If you are right and what you are doing instead IS more important - stop beating yourself up. You’re prioritizing not procrastinating.
If you are wrong and what you are doing is less important, you need to identify why you are ignoring an important action in favor of doodling away time on an activity that has less value.
- Are you missing tools or learning? – find them
- It’s too big to tackle? – step one is to break it down into smaller pieces
- If it is something you don’t like to do but you have to do? – do it first and get it out of the way. You might try listing on side of a piece of paper all the reasons why you are procrastinating and on the other side all the benefits you will gain if you got it done – that can motivate.
- procrasting on this task has become a habit? – create a new one by starting small – do one thing right now and then start each day doing one thing you have been procrastinating about.
- you are trying to swim against the tide – trying to do it in a way you have learned rather than one that fits your personal style? – there is more than one way to skin a cat – look at the outcome or objective first then ask yourself how you can get there in your own way
- if it needs to be done ask if it has to be done by you? – if not, delegate it by swapping your time for a payment to someone else or maybe a barter with someone who has something they need to do but hate doing that just happens to be something you love to do
The only difference between procrastination and prioritization is the guilt we feel when we procrastinate. It comes down to the value of your time and how you want to spend your life.
Categories: 1. Time, 3. Productivity, 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship
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Tags: 3. Productivity, lannis, overwhlemed, Procrastination, professional organizer, small business, solopreneur
Posted by Susan Lannis
Attending industry or corporate conferences is a great way to get some great classes that are more focused on what you do. I rarely miss my professional organizers conference. Humans are herd animals and NAPO is one of mine. I thoroughly enjoy mingling with my herd once a year.
A couple of tips –
Budget and save for attending at least one major conference a year. It takes you outside your comfort zone, let’s you connect with peers who share your business experience and provides motivation, ideas and energy to move your business forward.
Have 2 -3 objectives – other than the classes you are attending – that you want to achieve while at conference. These might be ideas or information to gather, people you want to meet, or discussions you want to have with your colleagues.
Arrive well rested. It’s likely to be high energy the whole time and you want to absorb it all. You will hit overwhelm regardless but, you don’t want to be in that state at the first session because you arrived tired and stressed.
Ask peers what classes they found most helpful when they started out. Are there speakers they recommend or ones they would not recommend?
There is apt to be a lot of networking as well as the classes. Preopre a list of questions you want to ask more experienced members in advance.
Who are the people in the organization you like/admire/appreciate? You might e-mail them in advance and arrange time with them over coffee or at one of the meals. Once everyone is on-site these kinds of arrangements are hard to make. Again, you might ask the successful peers who they would recommend you meet – they might even be able to provide an introduction.
Conferences should be a positive experience. The trick is to pay attention to how quick all the energy and learning dissipates! Take really good notes. If you have a smart phone – get a recording app so you can record the sessions if possible. It sounds a little crazy but arrange for people to e-mail info to you after the event is over – seeing them in your inbox stimulates memory and can slow the inevitable dissipation. Plan to communicate with people you felt a strong connection to – that helps also.
I keep of list of to-do’s for when I return that is separate from the other notes. I jot down ideas, suggestions, people to thank etc. all through the conference and then tackle that list when I get back to my office.
Make the most of your investment in attending conferences – it can pay dividends the rest of year.
Categories: 3. Productivity, 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship, Information Management
| Tags: 2. Organization, 3. Productivity, Information Management, professional organizer, small business, solopreneur, time management
Posted by Susan Lannis
"Think 6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast"
You know how sometimes you hear some little thing and it sticks – it resonnates in some way that captures your attention. Recently, my honey Ron and I got around to enjoying Johnny Depp in Alice In Wonderland. What ”stuck’ for me was a line near both the beginning and end – “think 6 impossible things before breakfast”.
It happens, because I believe in life-long learning – that after more than 20 years in business, I am in Business Boot Camp with Patty Keating. It was challenging me to project forward – something that pretty much defeats me. I am much better at scanning for opportunities and following them – that’s a different post. Anyway, since I had just seen the movie and the phrase “think 6 impossible things before breakfast” was stuck I decided to try an experiment. Would writing six impossible things every day unblock my thinking and allow me to project forward in time?
It did actually, but something more amazing and wonderful happened. Every impossible thing I wrote down not only expanded my thinking but it triggered my thinking. My mind began shifting perspective, turning the impossibles upside down, bringing into consciousness clarity about my wants and feelings in ways that began to show why what I wrote was possilbe rather than impossible!
One of the first things I wrote was ” I own a beach house in Yachats” – my favorite spot on the Oregon Coast – impossible for several reasons but finances being the biggest. As soon as I wrote it, I found myself thinking – why do I want to own another house? Am I not in the process of simplifying my life? What I really want is to spend more time in Yachats so why not find a rental or time share and plan several trips. Not nearly the expense and work of owning a vacation property. Yachats was totally possible when I looked at it from the right perspective and clarified what I really wanted. Wonderful!
Not every impossible thing I wrote found an immediate path to possible, by every single one started a rich thinking process and many of them have become possible in a short period of time. It also generally expanded my ability to think bigger in a powerful and exciting way, which was the point of the dialogue in the movie. You have to think impossible things, in order to achieve impossible things. Powerful! What do you think? Are you willing to try the same experiment? Write down 6 impossible things and see what happens.
Categories: 4. Thinking, 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship, Life Lessons
| Tags: 4. Thinking, Change, professional organizer, small business, solopreneur
Posted by Susan Lannis
Maybe it is just me. Maybe it is just a fluke for today. Maybe I’m just so different from the average small B2B business that information doesn’t apply to me.
I am getting major reinforcement that what ‘experts’ are telling us to do is more wishful thinking and promotional that solid advice. What I think of as the marketing message to reality-of-use gap. I see it all the time. Shop here today – but the store doesn’t open for six months. Call from anywhere at anytime – but there is no signal here or here. You know what I mean. The marketing to the projected future ideal when the present is somewhat more problematic.
I am working with Charles Montgomery at NWeSource to spiff up this blog and make it the main website for my business and nicely SEO’d. To make good decisions on my side of the project, I have been doing some research.
While reading an article on how to use review and answer websites to both build credibility and drive traffic I was referred to Bizmore.com as a Q & A site for small to medium size businesses – right in my target market. A visit however, shows that the last question was posted 8 months ago. I had a similar experience with the referred to yahooanswers.com. When I look for small business questions, the posting are a year old or more. The article I am reading is current but the references and link backs are way outdated. Makes me wonder if the author actually looked or if he was just looking for links to improve his SEO.
I’m searching for keywords and phrases for the SEO on my sight and got all excited when I found a website devoted to Solo-preneurs – the thousands of us running one-person companies. “Join our community”, “hook up with others and create a virtual community of support”. It sounded so terrific until I started looking further and found that there are barely a handful of members – 5 to be exact – listed in the directory. Great looking site but the message and marketing don’t live up to the reality. It has more flash than substance.
I don’t mean to imply that this is always the case. It is absolutely not. I have learned a great deal from a number of experts who ‘walk their talk’ – where the marketing is perfectly aligned with the reality of the experience. Those are the experts worth listening to, worth my time and worthy of my trust. I want to be just like them. If there is some flash it is totally outweighed by the substance. How about you?
I’m getting off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.
Categories: 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship
| Tags: lannis, small business, solopreneur
Posted by Susan Lannis
For some, seeing is doing
A lot of people still subscribe to the idea that being organized means ‘pulling a Felix Unger’. The popular Odd Couple character was the fussy one that had to have everything clean, put away and in order. Felix was not organized – he was a neatnik.
Being organized is not about the ‘stuff’ – it about how you think, relate and exchange energy with the ‘stuff.’ It’s about the flow of energy and the movement to – through – and out of your life.
For some people, that does mean having a clean clear work space with just one project at time out and visible. But for others, it does mean being able to see their ‘stuff’. Both can be organized but it is done differently.
If you someone who HAS to see their stuff, you need to be careful about is just how much you keep visible. Just about everyone I know is trying to do too much – they have too many to-do items. It leads to overwhelm – whether it takes shape as a daunting list or tipsy pile.
If you are someone who just ‘has’ to see your ‘stuff’ you still need to be selective. Organize to your natural working style. Use tables instead of desks. Use shelves, bins and clear containers rather than drawers and cupboards.
You need still need to separate by priority and deadlines – you just use different containers.
You are still limited by time so don’t just add to a pile – decide how much time and when you will do it. Let your containers and piles represent something other that just a pile.
So what’s your style?
Categories: 2. Organization, 3. Productivity, 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship
| Tags: 2. Organization, lannis, overwhlemed, paper management, professional organizer, small business, solopreneur
Posted by Susan Lannis
I was visiting a companion I Take the Lead group earlier this week. Also in attendance was Dr. Sean Harry who taught the class where I learned how to blog – I highly recommend it. During conversation he joked that I should blog about 76 Ways to Simplify Your Life. Silly of course, but it did give me the idea to write the simplest of all how-to-lists. So, here is one way to simplify your personal and work life.
Whenever you are faced with a task or project, ask yourself how you would do it if it had to be done in an hour. Parkinsons’ Law states that things expand to fill the space available and the same is true of our planning and ideas. By first drastically reducing the time, you will focus in on the critical actions and short cuts. As long as the objectives are met, the short cut is as good as the long road but uses a lot less time and fewer resources which equals simpler. Just like this post! :>)
Categories: 1. Time, 3. Productivity, 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship
| Tags: lannis, professional organizer, simple, simplicity, Simplify, small business, solopreneur
Posted by Susan Lannis
A double mastectomy was enough to let one woman clear her schedule. What about you?
I was reading an article in the March issue of Fortune about Esther Dyson and her position as stand-by cosmonaut. After first turning down the option to be a backup crew member on a Space Adventure flight because she was busy elsewhere, Esther had a epiphany. Shortly after turning down the opportunity and faced with double booking her time, she found herself thinking if only she had just had a double mastectomy, like her sister just had, she could clear her schedule.
Cue the cymbol clash and lightening bolt! Esther realized “Wow! There is something wrong with your life if you need a double mastectomy to clear your schedule. You need a better excuse.” For her it was changing her mind and saying ’yes’ to her life long dream of space flight. She cleared months of time to attend space training camp in a snap.
You can start with all the buts – but she has money to burn and I need an income – but I have a family – but… you get the idea. When I read her words, I knew a blog post was in front of me. What was resontating was the idea that we are pushed to plan and fill our time and to view it as set in stone. Busy-ness and a full calendar have become equated with success and fulfillment. Even when an unexpected emergency causes us to abandon our plans, we try to pick it all back up and squeeze it in somehow.
We need to take a more flexible, less stuffed view of our time. Following Pareto’s Principle – the 80/20 rule – probably 80% of what you planned for today has no real lasting impact on your life or your business. It’s minutia that, left undone, has no impact but it fills our time and wears us down.
Look at that pile of projects sitting on the corner of your desk. Other than taking up space, creating a lot of guilt and negative pressure has there been any lasting impact in leaving it undone?
Interesting question! Life changing question. Again using Pareto, maybe only 20% of that pile is highly impactful or maybe 20% has no lasting impact. You need to decide. But more importantly, what is important enough for you to clear your calendar? What would you jettison today if you knew you were going into the hospital for surgery tomorrow followed by 3 weeks of recovery? What about jettisoning the same items to attend a game your kid really wants you to see, or lunch with a friend or just for time to sit quietly and think? What about something that moves you closer to a long-held dream like Esther?
What is worth clearing a space for in your calendar?
Categories: 1. Time, 4. Thinking, 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship, Life Lessons
| Tags: 1. Time, 3. Productivity, 4. Thinking, lannis, small business, solopreneur, time management
Posted by Susan Lannis
I toured President Garfield’s home yesterday while in OH and I had that ‘everything-new-is-old-again feeling’.
While touring the library Garfield’s wife Crete (short for Lucretia) set up in their home as a memorial to the assassinated President, our tour guide, Charles, pointed out a desk given to Garfield as a sample.
The craftsman, named Woodson if I heard our guide correctly, had created a marvelous desk – top of the line in storage options with two swing out arms full of cubbies – top to bottom – for easy sorting and accessing all kinds of papers. He was trying to crack into the business market with his innovative desk design and he hoped Mr. Garfield, with all his prominence, would influence industrialists to use this kind of desk in their corporate operations. Celebrity endorsement anyone???
But, it never caught on. Why? Probably a lot of different reasons - we live in a black-white-and-shades-of-gray, multi dimentsional world. But, one of the main reasons was because at the same time, another innovation was making its way into the business market. It was called a file cabinet. It was a pretty radical idea at the time. Who says you have to keep all your papers folded and stuffed in cubbies in your desk anyway? Woodson’s desk was an incremental innovation on desks and how they stored paper. The filing cabinet was a radical change in where and how papers were stored. Woodson had bad timing with a good idea.
Sometimes, increment innovation works – small improvements on an existing product are nothing new and they are an effective way to build brand loyalty and keep your customers interested. At other times a leap in technology or radical change is either needed or worse for you, taking place somewhere outside your business. E-mail and texting is having a significant impact on our postal system, digital readers and the internet are shaking up the print world.
Are you paying attention to the innovation and change as it is happening all around you or are you focused in only on what you are doing? We are living in a world that is changing both incrementally and exponentially faster than ever before. If you want your business to stay relevant, it is not enough to just have incremental innovation anymore (it was fine in the 80′s and 90′s) you have to create and watch out for massive shifts in what people are doing, how they are doing it and you need to keep an eye out for changes happening outside your immediate sphere that can have a market shifting impact on your business.
Categories: 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship
| Tags: Change, lannis, paper management, small business, solopreneur
Posted by Susan Lannis
Those of us naturally inclined to organization can take as much ribbing asthe pack-rat. We have been referred to in unflattering terms – fuss budget, “a”retentive, neat freak – you get the idea.
The truth is we all live on a continuum and we are all subject to the same natural laws. The messiest person can have useful systems and be organized somewhere. Conversely, the most organized among us can be late because of traffic or overwhelmed because we over-promised our time. We also have to set aside time to get organized because our well-oiled systems are impacted by change as much as anyone else’s. That’s what I did this weekend.
This past weekend, I found myself remembering the implications of Parkinson’s Law – “things expand to fill the space available”. My house has lots of storage space -so much that some I have never used. This allowed me to store my tax records… and just keep storing them… and storing more until I had over 20 years worth.
Like any client of mine, I was experiencing the the same feelings of overwhelm when I looked at the size of the project and thought about having to handle all those pieces of paper.
I also had the same warm memories – my first client file – or laughing at myself over a reminder of a past lived in a world so different from the one I occupy now – my 1991 presentation at NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) conference – “How To Decide if Your Business Needs a Computer”. I even had the handout I printed using an old daisy wheel printer.
Sorting is time consuming and dirty. I don’t want to have to do this large a file purging project again. From now on, when I file away one year’s documentation, I will take a few extra minutes to eliminate everything I no longer need from eight years ago so I only have what I need to keep for 7 years or permanently in sotrage. One year at a time sounds much more manageable than 20 at once!
Like any client, I felt lighter as each box was reviewed and dispursed to either the permanent file, the recycle bin or the shred bin. Thanks KGW for having a free shred day yesterday so I could finish even that piece of the project quickly!
I took breaks to relieve the boredom. I alternated work to keep from wearing out my willingness to do any one activity (as I finished a box, I left the attic to put the folders in my office supplies, take the recycle paper to the bin etc.). I allowed myself to remember without getting stuck in the past. When it was all said and done I felt good about what I accomplished that day and all that I have accomplished with my business in the past 20+ years.
What task do you postpone until it becomes a big project?
Categories: 2. Organization, 5. Small Biz Mgmt., 6. Solo-preneurship, Life Lessons, Personal Stories
| Tags: Information Management, lannis, lannis small business organizing, liberate time, overwhlemed, paper management, professional organizer, small business, solopreneur
Posted by Susan Lannis
You hear it all the time – “I need more time.”. But where do you ‘find’ it? You don’t ‘find’ it of course, because it is not missing. You can liberate it however if you are missing something. Huh??? Here’s one place to look that you probably wouldn’t consider.
Liberate time by sleeping more
Look at your bed. One secret to finding more time in your day is to sleep more. Sound crazy? Maybe. But according to James Maas, Ph.D., a Cornell University sleep researcher, sleep deprivation is a time thief. “Being sleep-deprived makes you do everything more slowly and with less focus. Most people don’t realize what it’s like to be fully awake and how much they can accomplish when they are.”
When every mental, emotional and physical function is working optimally, you get things done faster and better and that liberates time. Are you laboriously replying to e-mails or are you firing off answers? Are you struggling to decide what to do first or are you focused on what you need to accomplish today and knocking off your to-do items with speed and accuracy.
To test if sleep deprivation is one of your time thieves – other that looking at how often you you grab for coffee to perk you up – add one hour of additional sleep to your night. A study done at Henry Ford Hospital’s Sleep Disorders and Research Center in Detroit, MI showed test subjects who slept one extra hour experienced a 25% jump in alertness.
Who knew you could liberate time by using for something but you can sleep more – it’s a good investment of your time!
How you choose to spend your time is how you are choosing to spend your life. Do you want to spend it on full alert and fully engaged in everything you do or do you want to stubble through it, half aware and half asleep? I know my choice and it starts by slowing down by 9 pm (no more engagement with work or the outside world) and in bed by 11 or so.
Sleep one extra hour for the next week and let me know if it helps you liberate time.
Categories: 1. Time
| Tags: 1. Time, 3. Productivity, lannis, liberate time, professional organizer, small business, solopreneur, time management
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