Archive for Productive
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
What Is Draining Your Resource Pool?
Posted by: | CommentsImagine that your body is a car. Your fuel is obviously the food you put inside it, much like the gasoline you pump into the tank of any Ford, Chevy or Dodge etc. This fuel is converted into energy to propel you along your life’s course, physically and mentally. The car uses the spinning motion of the engine to generate electricity for the lights, radio, power windows, power brakes, sensors, air conditioning, safety equipment and so on. When you use more and more of these pieces of equipment on your car, your fuel is depleted faster and faster. Most of us have experienced the fuel drain when driving a long distance running the air conditioning on full blast versus how much fuel is used when the air conditioning on is not on. Or the drain on the engine when climbing a steep hill with air conditioning on versus much easier the car seems to negotiate that same hill without the air conditioning on.
These same principles work on you in your daily life. As you go though your daily activities your level of energy needs rise along with your fuel consumption. If your working hard on a stressful job you use up energy quickly and your fuel level decreases. Pausing for a good meal, pumping fuel back into your ‘tank’ raises your level back up. But one thing we need to know is that it is not always what we do that has a drain on your pool of fuel.
Every action you take of course has a drain in your pool of resources. But one thing many folks do not consider is actions you do not take can have a serious drain on your fuel tank, mentally, buy cheap Probalan online and emotionally. Taking away energy that could be put to far more productive use. Think about if for a moment, you get up early, take an invigorating shower, and you are off to work. You listen to good music or positive motivational material on the way to work. You are feeling great as you pull up to the office. Getting to the door you open it and there it is, the disorganized room that you have been meaning to clean up for some time. This instantly has a depleting effect on your energy reserves, bringing them down. To build on this, on your way to lunch later you remember that you need to get your oil changed, more than seven hundred miles ago. More energy gets drained away.
These are only a couple simple examples. What if you have parents that live more than a thousand miles away and you realize that they are not going to be around much longer? Or, you are working on that big project and keep putting off that one task that really is not the most appealing to you, yet is critical to the completion of the project. These are just a couple more things that will drain your energy away and yet you are not ‘doing’ anything. So you can see it is not only what you do that depletes your energy, there is also what you do not do. They distract you, make you feel guilty, and siphon away at your fuel reserves. All this energy would be far better used on accomplishing your goals.
If you flip open the hood of your car you will see power cords and fuel lines connecting the engine to all the individual components of your car. This same principle works in your life, all those inactivitys have a ‘power cord’ to them draining your battery of its precious resources. Watt by watt, gallon by gallon all these power cords and fuel lines to things like unreturned phone calls, needed oil changes, disorganized desks and homes, unappealing yet necessary tasks undone, late bills etc., all of these will slowly (or often quickly) deplete your fuel tank. What you need to do is sit down and identify and eliminate all this drainage from your life. Below I am including a few things that are common drains on your energy resources:
- Spending too many hours in front of the Television
- Car needs an oil change or other service/repair
- Disorganized desk, office, home, garage
- Clothing that is tattered or in need of update
- Home décor that does not nurture your values/preferences
- Negative people
- Not being in a supportive relationship
- Being in a relationship that needs to end
- Working with people that result in you compromising your values
- Lack of proper or needed office equipment
- Overwhelmed with the mass of information that is bombarding you
- Avoiding conflict or confrontation
- Consistently stressful work leaving you exhausted/unsatisfied
- Not enjoying your job
- No personal interests that stimulate your mind
- Having a health issue that you are not getting help with from a qualified professional
- Not getting regular physical/dental check-ups
- Partaking in food that is not good for you too often
- Too much month at the end of the money
- Paying bills late
- Paying taxes late
- No plan for your financial future
- Insufficient insurance coverage (life, home, auto etc)
These are but a few examples to get you started on your own list. Once you sit down and compile your personal list of items stealing from your energy pool, count how many there are. Now do you see where a lot of your energy is going? While you may not be taking action on these, you will still be expending energy on them by way of them stealing it from you. Suppose the list above was your list and each one of them represented two watts of power. Now if you only have one hundred watts to work with each day, these twenty-three items would be stealing forty-six watts from your daily one hundred. Forty six percent of your energy is depleted as a result of your inactivity, leaving you with only fifty-four of your original one hundred watts. This will obviously have a serious impact on what you can get accomplished in your activities towards your goals, dreams and desires.
But now that you realize these are stealing away from your ability to reach your goals. You can reapply some of that stolen energy to get them accomplished and cleared off of your to-do list. The simply action of beginning to work on these items, that are distracting and draining you, will give you a tremendous relief. As you take care of these one by one you will begin to additionally feel a sense of accomplishment and a boost in your energy. This boost will be a motivating force for you to take on and clear off the next item. The action on the next item will again fuel your relief, sense of accomplishment and give you yet another resulting energy boost. Through the action on each item the cycle will begin again, until you have pulled the plug on all your energy draining items.
Imagine what you will be able to do when you go from fifty-four watts up to ninety or even your full one hundred. You will feel better, you will work more effectively and efficiently and you will get more done towards your goals. Mostly I personally believe the biggest win is that you will enjoy your life ever so much more.
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s TOP Motivated Coaches & Author of Sucess Atlas Programs
Motivation is the Spark
Posted by: | Comments“Motivation is the spark that lights the fire of knowledge and fuels the engine of accomplishment. It maximizes and maintains momentum” – Zig Ziglar
Well I can think of no better way to fire up this post than with that very quote. It speaks so well to the truism of motivation being the enabler of our success. As you go through that article, and any other article the causes you a moments pause about your direction, ask yourself this question: Do you merely drift along the current of life like a leaf on a stream? Pushed along the ebb and flow without choice or reason. Or do you take change of your direction? Know this, the answer to this question has a major impact on your life, (both personal and professional) because life is filled with ups and downs. The trip along life’s road is loaded with pit-fills, quick stops, blind turns and incomplete paths. Then, on occasion after our trails, we are blessed with a period where there are smooth paved avenues, lined with beautiful trees and no obstacles. However, this to shall pass and the next barrier, obstacle and challenge will offer itself up.
Motivation is a critical ingredient to our resilience and ability to get back up when we have been knocked down (or out). When you are down the right attitude and motivation can and will be the difference between responding positively or reacting negatively. This difference has many impacts personal, professional and financial.
Let me give you simple example. Some years ago I moved to the suburbs of the great city of Atlanta. This growing metropolis has the same challenges around traffic that I’m sure most of you face if you have to journey into a major metropolitan area during peak traffic periods. Even though I am about the most upbeat and positive guy that you will meet (short of Zig of course). I have to admit that occasionally I have uttered discouraging comments about the traffic. Whacked the steering wheel of my car and barked out orders to the driver in front of me. All of which was a pure waste of time. Because after all of my banter, the traffic was still there, and so was I. However, now my emotions were running on the negative side so any little thing just irritated buy cheap Pro-Erex online them all the more.
Now my typical commute can be about an hour each way. That’s two hours a day, five days a week, bringing us to about 500 hours a year with vacations etc. If I were to make this barking, whacking banter a daily routine, I would certainly be flirting with potential accidents as I challenged drivers around me in my irritated state. Let’s not forget the physical effects that these negative emotions bring about (headaches, high blood pressure etc.)
No for me the obvious thing to do is take advantage of this time to in a more positive manner. I have a full library of audio education and motivation on MP3and CD. As soon as I get in the car to start my commute I drop in my CD or put on my iPod and I’m off down the road to work, and up the road to success. I have reviewed the works of Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins, Brain Tracy, Napoleon Hill, and Dale Carnegie. I have taken 1 00s of hours in personal/professional development courses in subjects like e-commerce, goal setting, creativity, growing IQ the list goes on and on. This automobile university has served me well in numerous ways. Paying off in the motivation that has sparked ideas I have turned into actions in the real world.
FACT – the audios I listened to during these drive times never once said, “Tracy here is the solution to your problem.” Some of my audios gave me information others gave me some positive thoughts to ponder. A person, who wants to maximize their life, will schedule regular motivational input and regular educational input. This input will be about their job, about who they are or who they want to be, or even about something entirely new and unrelated to anything they do currently. These injections of new concepts, ideas, confidence-building thoughts, and opinions will energize you, building your momentum and your motivation, thus bringing you up emotionally! You learn more when you are up; you perform better when you are up and people will react to you more positively when you are up. So right now is the time to take out some motivational insurance. Take out your scheduler and schedule yourself regular intervals of motivational and educational input. Do this now – it will pay off in big rewards!
Lets take a look at the dictionary for the definition of motivation (motivate, motive)
Mo-ti-vate:
to provide with, or affect as, a motive; incite.
Mo-tive:
1 – an inner drive, impulse, etc. that causes one to act; incentive.
2 – of or causing motion
Combining your regular infusion of motivational material with your educational materials will provide the drive and impulse (motivational material) to set into motion the new concepts, ideas, confidence-building thoughts, and opinions (educational material) that will energize you. This will further build momentum and motivation, bringing you up higher! Are you seeing the pattern here?
You can not stand in front of the stove of life and say “Stove give me some heat and I’ll put some wood in you!” You will have to put some work into it first by stoking the fire that will warm your motivational soul.
Let me share with you 10 things you can do when you can’t seem to get motivated.
- Get some rest. One of the major de-motivators in today’s society is lack of rest. Go to bed an hour early so you catch up on your rest. Or you could take a nap instead. A good night’s sleep is essential to your level of effectiveness and motivation.
- Get some exercise. Take a walk, a jog, workout or whatever level of physical exercise you can partake in. Exercise gets your endorphins flowing and this will do wonders for how you feel. Not to mention you’ll be doing your body some good to. (be sure not to hurt yourself) – every day should start with your Hour of Power (more on that in another post).
- Tap the sap. Figure out what is sapping your energy and get rid of it.
- Pamper yourself. Take some time for you. This could be a mini-vacation (a few hours to a day or two) Get away from everything and enjoy yourself. Clear your head and come back refreshed.
- Review your goals. Review and remember why you are doing what you’re doing. If you decide now is not the time for a goal, them dump the goal. Remember you can always renew that goal again when the time is right.
- Play with it. Get out a calendar and leave yourself some cute notes or pictures (sticker work great here) about your goals and activities. Send yourself letters in the mail to keep you up and charged. Here is a way you can use those free things on the net. Places like Yahoo.com have free calendars that will send you notes and reminders. Make them fun!
- Use trusted advisers as a cheering section. You can have them send you notes (see #6 above). You want them to motivate you but don’t let them white wash the facts. Constructive criticism is key tool here. That way you are motivated to grow or keep growing.
- Find your song. We all have a song or songs that move us. Make yourself a Mp3 or CD full of these motivational songs. High-energy songs are best whether they are Bach or Backstreet Boys as long as they move YOU
- Listen to your motivational audios/CDs. Your car does not have to be the only place you go to get motivated.
- Hire some help. I hired a maid for my wife. I have a martial arts trainer and a personal success coach too. These coaches and trainers can help you accomplish those things you can’t handle alone.
Motivation enables you to effectively use not only recently acquired knowledge, but also it will ignite, incite and enable you put in motion, things that you thought were long ago forgotten. Science has shown us that inspirational information conveyed in an enthusiastic manner activates the pituitary gland, which releases neurotransmitters that enhances our energy, creativity, and endurance. Keep your motivation up with your regularly scheduled motivational injections (articles like this one are a good start). Keep your pool of knowledge growing so you have more wood to stoke that fire with.
“Your motivation will positively fuel your attitude. Your positive attitude builds the confidence necessary to be persistent. And of course we already know persistence pays off.” – Tracy Brinkmann
Think Successfully & Take Action!
Tracy Brinkman
One of Today’s Top Motivatated Coaches
Developing Passion
Posted by: | CommentsPassion for anything you want to have, be or do occurs at the very moment you get a peek at the potential for the goal. Whether your goal is self-improvement, a project, a mission or any other worthy objective.
My mission with these blog is to give you a peek at your own potential. A fleeting look at what you are able to have, to do and to become. Once I have accomplished that goal, there will be born within you a spark of passion. When you fan that spark it will grow into a burning desire that no one can stop. Those with a burning desire have persistence and they reach their goals, every time.
How do you develop passion? Well I was recently asked that question so I sat and thought about it for a while and came up the following:
1. Know what you truly want and develop a plan to get it.
During the course of my life a number of pivotal events have developed passion deep with me. The birth of my first daughter, the death of my second daughter, the birth of my third daughter, hearing the applause of an appreciative audience for the first time, the list goes on and on. While each of these events sparked a life changing passion, most of the time my passion comes from a careful review of my dreams, desires and goals. What do I want out of life? Where do I want to be in 1, 2 or 5 years? A careful review of your goals (long and short-term), and the development of a detailed plan (a Success Atlas)to attain them will do wonders do develop the passion you need.
You check out these previous posts for more Goal Setting tips:
10 Ways to Stay Focused on Your Goals
5 Tips to Map Out Clear Goals
Value of Goals – Goals of Value
3 Tips for Goal Setting
Ways to Climb Your Mountain
2. Daily action toward your goals.
Once you have completed step one, (remember in 100% of the cases I have found that anyone that will not take step one… will never get to step two) and developed the plans to reach your goals. Take DAILY steps towards their attainment. As you take these daily steps, your goal will become increasingly closer, increasingly more real, more vivid and more enticing. This will fuel your excitement, enthusiasm and your commitment to follow through on your goals until they are attained. A bonus gift here is, with each step you complete, each little success you achieve, your self-confidence and self-esteem will increase. It is a like a river feeding itself. Complete a step, feel better, gain confidence and passion, become more committed to your goal then take the next step towards the goal. Then you complete another step, feel better, gain confidence and passion, become more committed to your goal then take the next step towards it. Are you seeing the pattern here?
3. Direct your passion.
The next time you are passing a construction site take a moment to notice the immense power of the vehicles at work buy cheap Prilosec online there, dump trucks, tractors, and cranes to name a few. Each weighing tons and able to move far more than their weight across a road, up hundreds of feet into the air or down the freeway at considerable speeds. The next time you see one of these powerful vehicles roaring down the highway, take a quick look at the driver behind the wheel. All 180-220 pounds of him (or her) are controlling all that power. What would happen if you were to remove that driver from the steering wheel? The power would be rendered useless or worse yet would roll on without regard to its surroundings wreaking havoc until it came to a crashing halt.
We need to be at the helm of our passion, making effective use of the power our passion holds, much like the driver of those massive vehicles. Effectively steering your passion synergizes all of your great qualities into a finely tuned ‘machine’. Each of these qualities working in harmony with the other. Creating an overall ‘power’ within you that is greater than each of your qualities individually. So bring your passion to focus on your goal.
History is filled with stories of average everyday men and women who have accomplished great things with little more than a passion in their hearts and a goal in their head. Apply your passion to goal, job, profession, family or to yourself and you will see the difference between just getting by and real success.
Then once you have that passion here are some post to help you keep it through all the trials and tribulations that world will throw at you:
Three More Ways to Stay Positive
Four Ways to Stay Highly Motivated
Think Successfully & Take Action.
Tracy Brinkmann
One of Today’s Top Motivated Coaches & Author of Success Atlas Programs
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