Author Archive
12 Rules to Increase Your Productivity
Posted by: | CommentsDoes your productivity ever get hampered by your desire to find the best possible solution? As you seek the easiest or fastest route to your goal, you may find yourself stopped entirely. Sometimes you may even do this on purpose, to keep from having to make a decision.
However, there’s a work-around. Maybe you’ve heard of the term, “heuristic.” Heuristics are rules that allow a solution to be found more quickly. With a heuristic, a resolution can be found even when the entire path isn’t clear from the onset.
For example, if there were no roads, but you lived in New York and wanted to make your way to California, a heuristic might be:
- Walk west as far as you can.
- Walk around any obstacle, if possible.
- If faced with a mountain range, walk toward the space between 2 small peaks.
- Repeat until reaching California.
Does this heuristic give you the most efficient solution? No; however, it will get you where you want to go, and you won’t waste a lot of time trying to make up your mind.
Try these behavioral heuristics to increase your productivity:
- Choose the right time. Nearly everyone has times of the day when they are most effective and times when they tend to drag. It’s smart to schedule the most critical tasks for your most effective time of the day.
- Toss it. If a task doesn’t really need to be done, just get rid of it altogether.
- Get the bad stuff out of the way. Do the unpleasant items quickly and as early in the day as possible.
- Set a goal each day (or night). In the morning, decide what you want to accomplish that day. This can be even more effective when planned the night before. Once you have a sense of direction, you can spend all your time getting things done!
- Eliminate all communication. While you’re working, turn off the phone / cell phone, and don’t check your email. Hang a sign that says, “Do not disturb,” if necessary. You don’t have to do this for all your tasks, but at least do it during the more difficult items.
- Batch similar tasks together. Do all your emailing at one time. Make all your phone calls at another. Open your snail mail during a set block of time. You’ll waste less time by doing your work in this fashion.
- Set a timer. Even if a task might take hours, starting will seem easier if you simply give yourself 30 minutes to get as much done as you can. A time limit seems to help many people concentrate and work better, too.
- Set targets. For example, if you have to make cold-calls for your sales job, tell yourself that you’re not getting up for any reason until you’ve made at least 100 calls. Regardless of what happens, refuse to stop until you hit your target.
- Use the Pareto Principle. This principle states that 20% of the actions you could take will provide you with 80% of the benefits. So focus on the tasks that will accomplish the most. Unfortunately, these are frequently the tasks that are not enjoyable. You might be surprised how little you really have to do if you focus on the critical 20%.
- Delegate some of your work. Is there anyone else who can help you? The people around you are resources. When appropriate, use their time and talents wisely to get things done more quickly.
- Set a deadline. Having a specific endpoint will really help to focus your time and energy. If a task doesn’t feel necessary, chances are that it won’t get done.
- Increase your speed. It sounds silly, but this can really help. Try doing everything a little faster. Walk faster, talk faster, type faster, and read faster.
Implement these heuristics into your life and you’ll find yourself getting more done in less time. The ultimate secret is to stay on task and not waste any time. These rules will help you do just that.
Think Successfully & Take Action
Tracy Brinkmann
5 Tips for Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions
Posted by: | CommentsYes I know it is the end of January and most people are no longer talking about their New Year’s Resolutions or their goals for the year. However, I have found that this is mostly because they are no longer applying themselves with the same level of passion to the goal that was there when they made the New Year’s Resolution. If you have a habit of setting resolutions at the beginning of the year and then abandoning them a few days or weeks later, now is your chance to try something a little different. Imagine how, by just trying something a little different, the course of your life could change for the better when you follow through on your resolutions until you achieved your goals!
Change Your Thinking
With a few basic tips, it is very possible to overcome your habit of giving up on New Year’s resolutions. First and foremost, avoid viewing your resolutions as something to aspire to and then neglecting them when they are seemingly less pertinent no interesting. New Year’s resolutions like goal setting can be enormously self-improving and enriching if you will just find a way to maintain them and their importance to you throughout the year.
Here are some tips for keeping your resolutions (and other goals you set as well):
- Make a commitment. In order for your resolutions and goal to be successful you must be willing to make a firm commitment to change. Believe in yourself, know deep inside that you can, and will, accomplish what you are setting out to do. When you give yourself such unwavering support from within, then you will strengthen that conviction and achieve what you seek.
- Choose New Year’s resolutions and goals that you genuinely want to achieve. Avoid picking a resolution or goal that someone else wants for you that you truly do not want for yourself. Then, make positive resolutions. Focus on all the positive aspects of achieving the goal.
- Share your “give up” goals and resolutions (I’m giving up smoking, giving up drinking etc.) with everyone. When all your true friends know what you are setting out to achieve, they can help hold you accountable.
- Share your “go up” goals (I’m going to be the number one salesperson, I’m going to be valedictorian) only with those that will be supportive. If you have competition for your “go up” goal you might not want to share that goal with those you are competing against.
- Plan ahead. Avoid choosing your resolutions at the last moment. Spending more time planning and preparing for your resolution goals will exponentially improve you results.
- Be Realistic. Achieving your goals relies heavily on continued motivation. By setting the bar too high you risk setting yourself up for failure, which can be profoundly de-motivating and result in a spiral in the wrong direction.
- Set your sights realistically, rather than too high. Do not get me wrong, you should give yourself a challenge, but not so much of a challenge that you cannot not believe in it and end up setting yourself up for inevitable failure. Also, remember you can break down larger resolutions into smaller goals – then focus on that smaller more realistic step!
- If this year’s resolutions are mimicking last year’s (or are very similar), step back and consider why last year’s resolutions faltered. Determine first what did not work last time and why. Then you can plan accordingly to avoid a repeat performance (or lack of performance).
- Write down your goals. When you put your resolutions into writing they become more concrete, you make them real. Put your commitment down on paper, then display your goals where you will see them daily (actually many times a day), in that written form. This way you will be frequently reminded of what you are striving to achieve this year.
- Map out your goals. Just saying the words on January 1st is only a small step. You need to take the next and most often forgotten step. You need to plan the how of achieving your goal. Write out a plan for each resolution that you are going for rather than just hoping for the best.
- Create flexible goals. Remember everything is not going to work out just the way you hope and plan, so be flexible and create flexibility within the goals that you set. Rigid resolutions can throw you off track when something does not go quite how you planned it (and it often will). Try to predict the obstacles you will face, and create a back-up plan for getting around over, under or through those obstacles.
Bottom Line
With a little bit of planning and preparation, you can keep and achieve your New Year’s resolutions. Just like any goal setting process, the key is to be realistic about your goals and the challenges you may face in trying to achieve them. The more realistic and flexible you are, the more likely you’ll be to achieve your goals.
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
5 Ways to become Action Oriented
Posted by: | CommentsOver the course of my time studying and teaching about personal development I have shared many tips on how to get what you want faster than you dreamed possible. In order to become a high performing person myself and teach others how to become the same I have taught everything from goals setting to brain storming to masterminding. However, while all these are true anchors in one’s travel to success, perhaps one of the most important traits of the high performing man or woman is “action orientation.” For if you do not take action all the brainstorming, masterminding and goal setting in the world will not help you. You have to become an action oriented person if you want to achieve your dream, goals and desires. So here are five ways to become an action oriented person.
- SET ASIDE TIME TO THINK AND PLAN
Action oriented and successful people set aside time to think about their goals and dreams, to plan their next steps and ways around potential obstacles and of course to set priorities in all these goals, dreams and next steps. All this thinking, planning and priority setting enables them to focus on taking action on the important tasks and execute large chucks of work far faster than the people that spend that same amount of thinking, planning and action time on activities that do not take them closer to their goals – assuming that those people even know what their goals are. - GET INTO THE ZONE
One of the benefits of that thinking, planning and priority setting is that you will be focused on high value tasks as your next steps. When you take action on your high value next steps continuously you will get into ‘the zone.’ All of us have experienced it at one time or another – that state when things just seem ‘to come to you’ with minimal effort. You feel clear of mind and almost euphoric as everything you do seems effortlessly accurate, and just want to keep going. - STAY ALERT AND AWARE
Keep a mindful eye out for some of the interconnected ways that people and circumstances can be leveraged to help you achieve your wants, dreams and desires even faster. Remember that one of the fastest ways to get what you want is to help others get what they want. So while you are in ‘the zone’ use that heightened state of creativity and mental precision to spot ways you can help others reach their dreams. I find that these unselfish acts always find their way back – with interest. - HONE YOUR SENSE OF URGENCY
I can hear the question now “How do I get into the zone Tracy?” Well one of the quickest ways is to hone your sense of urgency. Your sense of urgency needs to be impatient, for that is when it will motivate you and drive you to get things done. Your sense of urgency when impatient will stoke that inner drive or desire you have to reach your goals. When you have a sense of urgency and begin taking those next steps towards your goals, dreams and desires you will find yourself in ‘the zone’ far more often than you ever had before. - Be prejudice against procrastination
I do not like to lean to the negative but when it comes to procrastination, negative is what we need to be. When you hone your sense of urgency you will become very negative to procrastination and lean more towards being action oriented. You will find yourself talking less about when you want to do and actually doing it. You will find yourself coming up with ideas and next steps (probably back in step one) and immediately want to do something with that idea – so do it!
Okay now that you have the five ways to become action oriented what can you do now?
- Pick one goal, dream or desire that you have and jump into it right now. Yep right this very minute. Heck I don’t even mind if you stop reading this post to do that – your dreams are WAY more important than this post.
- Ok well your still here. Hopefully that is because you want more advice not because you don’t have dreams and goals. Anyway the next thing you can do is take these five steps EVERY single morning so that they become a habit. Then you will be realizing your dreams, desires and goals fasters then you ever imagined!
Think Successfully & Take Action
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Personal Development a Brief History
Posted by: | CommentsAt the risk of prompting you to say “DUH,” I will start this off with the obvious… Self-help and personal development is not new to humankind. In his book “First things first” Steven Covey notes that literature on wisdom dates as far back as 2500 BC, some using this as validated of their version of fundamental human needs. Some have looked at the poetry of Hesiod as an early adaptation of eastern wisdom. Writings from the ‘mirror or princes’ genre has a long history in Islamic and western renaissance literature. Of course let us not forget the proverbs from across the ages that embody practical advice for all humankind, for all cultures, and all types of peoples, to follow; whether for success or just for the enriching, soulful feeling of doing what is right to, and for, those we encounter during our stay on this big blue planet.
I have read and heard some say that the current self-help or personal development ‘movement’ was launched by Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) with his publication of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” in 1936. Carnegie, after trying and failing at a number of careers became interested in success and its connections to self-confidence, self-esteem and personal values. He studied this topic of years and as a result has sold over 50 million copies of his books on this topic since.
I personally am lucky enough to have an original printing of “The Law of Success” by Napoleon Hill, a protégé of Carnegies. This hardcover book has a copyright date of 1937, with the previous version’s copyright date being 1928. I put all this in here to say again that self-help and personal development is not new. Actually those that want to learn this very personal arena of development and self-help have been listening to those willing to teach from centuries, and those willing to teach will continue to do so as long as there are people like you and I willing to learn.
What is it that you would like to learn in your personal development quest?
What questions to you have that are currently unanswered?
What answers have you found that you have benefited from?
Please take a moment and comment below on the answers to these questions – I am sincerely interested in hearing your thoughts/experiences – take a moment and be a teacher to those willing to learn.
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches and Author of Success Atlas Programs
Motivation and Principle Truths
Posted by: | CommentsTeaching and motivating others motivates me. I stumbled across this some years ago while working on my goal to become a better public speaker. One of the steps I took was joining a great organization called Toastmasters. The Toastmasters program is built around giving speeches focused on a specific goal each new speech building upon the last. Sounds like a sound formula for success doesn’t it? During some of the speeches I was giving I found that I became very motivated when I was teaching my audience about personal, professional and life success skills. Skills that I learned and had personally put into play to be more, do more and have more.
This thrill and literal adrenaline rush became quite addictive. So addictive that I was able to achieve all of my Toastmasters goals in a very short period of time, faster than anyone else in my club ever had. But these awards, while gratifying, were not the true driver behind my Toastmaster speaking success.
The driver behind my success was the feedback I was getting from those people in the audience. The more they learned from my message, the more I was driven to seek and teach them. Of course in order to teach I had to learn. I had to test. I had to apply. I have come across lots of information, tips, techniques, and gurus that did nothing for me. There were many methods I could not get to work for me. However, does that mean the time was waste? No!
You see, every single book I read, seminar I attended, or audio I listen to did one of two things (often they did both.) It taught me something new that I needed to go out and try; and/or it drove home something I had already learned and needed to continue to implement – because some facts are core principles to personal, professional and life success.
But this blog and these posts are not just about me – they are here to help you learn that things you need to go out and try or perhaps remind you of the tips and techniques that you know already and just need to get out there and implement because as you already know – some facts are just principle truths.
Principle truths in life are time tested and everlasting. For example, he time tested truths of nearly all religions i.e. do unto others as you would have them do unto you; though shalt not kill and so on are founding principles that just work. Whether you believe in the rest of the text offered by any given religion, the writers core message is still sound, focus on and work towards a worthy goal then good things will come back around to you tenfold.
These types of principles were here a thousand years ago, are still being taught today, and will be taught and applied a thousand years to come. The names of the teachers will change; the names of the students will change. Heck, even the method by which the message is shared will change. But the core success principles will still be there firm and strong, unyielding and unmoved by the sands of time.
You could sum most all success principles into this:
- Figure out what you want.
- Find out what you need to do to get it.
- Start Doing That – TODAY!
I chuckle as I re-read that last part of this post. Why you may ask? Well because it is that true. It is so true you honestly do not have to read any more of my blog, my courses or any of my articles. Those three things are so sound that you could close this internet window and never come back to this site. But I hope you do come back because I go through some great ways for you to make each of those steps a little easier. To avoid procrastination inside any of those steps and avoid running out of energy or motivation along the way – so again, keep reading.
But before you leave today – let me ask you this. What core success principle have you read, heard or learned over the course of your lifetime. Like I said this blog is not all about me – I want to hear about you. Let me hear about what core personal, professional or life success principles you have learned – leave me a comment below so I can learn from you too!
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches and Author of Success Atlas Programs
