Archive for How To
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 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
Focus on the Log (Goal)
Posted by: | CommentsSo many of can use some help with our focus. Our life’s and our minds are so busy with numerous little distractions that we lose our focus on the main objective or goal. Also, society and technology is not helping us keep our focus – I mean have you seen the commercial for the satellite cable service that will enable you to watch six to nine games at the SAME TIME. WOW, talk about spreading your focus around. Our world is becoming much like that television service – spreading your focus so thin that some of the ‘facts’ are evading your attention. Problem is, some of these facts can and often will make or break your success or at least how fast you can attain it. So as you can see, focus is an important ingredient to your recipe for success.
When I was in basic training for the US Army we frequently had to run the obstacle course or as we called it the “O” course. This was a trail running through the beautiful woods of South Carolina populated with various crawling, climbing, jumping and dodging obstacles. Your task was to run the “O” course in a set time frame or less. One of the obstacles was a ‘log walk.’ Simply put there would be telephone pole sized log lying on the ground and you would need to walk across the top. Simple right? Yes! But here is what I found interesting. As long as the log was on the ground or at least low to the ground – the runners focus was on the log and they traversed it easily. However, once you raised the log up 5 or more feet into the air – their focus went from walking across the log to the risk of falling. Guess what? Yep, you guessed allegra order prescription it – many of them fell, because they took their focus off the main goal (walking across the log) and instead focused on the risk (falling).
The point I want to make sure you walk away with today is Focus is very important! Most of us have a tendency to lose our focus in life, business or relationships because we take our eye of the main goal and focus on the all the negatives possibilities. Basically we stop focusing on our goal’s log and instead focus on the worries and fears of the fall.
When you focus on what you want and how you can attain it, it will start to come into your life! When you stay focused on what you want as it starts to come into your life, it will starting coming faster. When you focus on being a happy and motivated person, guess what? Yep, that’s right – you will become a happier and more motivated person!
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Motivated Lies to Reach the Truth
Posted by: | CommentsI remember an exercise I did in Toastmasters years ago to practice my selling skills. allegra non prescription The goal was to promote a product and its benefits to the audience, to motivate them to want to purchase or at least recommend the product to their friends. The product I decided to motivate my audience to buy (or buy into) was ME! So my goal was to make them want me. (OK, insert your giggle here)
My goal was to create a motivated presentation filled with intentional exaggerations, or pictures of the man it was my goal to eventually become both as a person and as a professional. But here is what I really found interesting about the project and the motivational message I want you to walk away from this post with. As I wrote the speech I found myself getting motivated by the speech as I wrote it. Then I found myself becoming even more motivated by the speech as I practiced it. So, guess what happened when I finally delivered this presentation to my audience. Yep you guessed it, I became even MORE motivated by its content as I shared it with my audience. Now, with me being so motivated by the content I was delivering do you think I gave a better presentation to my audience? You bet I did!
Most of us find it difficult to see the truth of who we could become over the course of our life. This difficulty is reinforced by so many things in our society. Sometime it is even reinforced by those close to us. How many times have you heard someone who cares for you say “You will never be able to….” Well for me it was a lot – but as I wrote that speech I inserted stories outlining what my future self had done to become the person I was selling to my audience. So I was creating a lie to reach the truth. The truth is I could become the person I was pitching (and have since I gave that speech 7+ years ago). But until I sat down and penned out this lie or fantasy I could not really “see” it.
You see, your subconscious mind does not know the difference between what you imagine or fantasize verses what has or is actually happening. If you vividly picture yourself getting that promotion, eating the tasty cake, or crossing the finish line first – your body will reach to that picture, literally. Think about it for a moment, have you ever thought about the smell or the taste of a ripe freshly picked lemon? Did you pause to imagine the smell that would waft up to your nose the moment you began to peel it, then the sprinkles of juice that would shoot around as you split the peel lemon apart. Finally that tart yet sweet flavor that would fill your mouth the moment it touched your tongue followed by the explosion of flavor that would fill your mouth as you bit into that sweet, juicy ripe lemon?
If you paused to let you mind go as you read that last paragraph I bet your mouth begin to generate a little extra saliva as you created the pictures in your mind via my words. You see your subconscious did not know you were just reading it. Rather it was reacting to the stimuli generated by your reading it. So use this to your advantage, by creating motivating lies or fantasies of the person you want to or need to become in order to reach your goals.
The research I have done on this panned out so well that it became the basis for my eBook “Write Your Success Story” – which by the way will be launched into a full video coaching course this weekend. So sit down and think up some motivating stories about who you would be motivated to become, the things you would like to do and the goals you would like to reach. As you do that you will find that these stories will create a map (or as I call it a Success Atlas) for reaching your goals and that map will stir the motivation within you to take the 1st step towards their accomplishment. After all, if you cannot and do not picture yourself in high regard, then you will never live or hold yourself in high regard. Like they say “Fake it, until you make it!” This would be one the time I would say it is ok to create a motivated lie in order to reach the truth!
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
Consideration – Reaching Your Friends Clients and Employees
Posted by: | CommentsConsider this, one of the most important of motivators in a relationship, whether personal or professional, at work with your client/customers or at home with friends and family, is consideration. Employees report that the best friends and managers they ever had were people who considered their thoughts, cared about their feeling and about them as people as well as friends. These friends and managers were considerate enough to take the time to ask them questions about their lives, and to listen patiently while they talked.
The flip side of this consideration motivator is the demotivating feeling that the boss is inconsiderate and/or doesn’t 10 mg abilify care. This is almost invariably expressed in a lack of recognition, a lack of appreciation and a general failure to pay attention to the employee over time.
Consider this, the amount of time that you spend talking to and listening to a friend, family member, employee (or even a client) is a signal to that person that he or she is considered important to you, to the family and/or to the company.
To empower and motivate your customers, your suppliers, your friends and so on, you simply need to be a genuine, considerate, positive and cheerful person. Develop a positive thoughtful attitude. Insure that you are easygoing, friendly, patient, and open minded.
Remember, everyone is primarily emotional. Everything that people do, or refrain from doing, is triggered by their deeper emotions. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to consider and connect with their higher and more positive emotions so they feel so good about you.
Here are two things you can to work these ideas into Your Success At Last:
- First, get out of your house or office and go mingle with your clients, coworkers, friends & family. Ask them about their personal lives and concerns, and then listen considerately to the answer. You might be amazed at what you hear!
- Second, resolve to be a genuinely positive & thoughtful person under all circumstances. Be the kind of person people feel happy being around and working with.
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
