How to make BIG leaps with just a step a day

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:34:33 +0000

Remember that HIGH importance, LOW urgency quadrant we spoke about before?

What if you took just ONE step closer to your goals every single day?

Just one.

It sounds harder than it is.

Honestly.

Let’s say your goal is to write a book. Many people have this on their “things to do before I die” lists so I know this resonates with a lot of you.

What is the absolute first step? Decide what to write about. This step looks simple but you need to see if people would read it, if publishing houses would buy it, if there’s a market so it will actually sell.

So maybe the first two weeks is spent checking all that out.

The rest of the month might be outlining the whole book – what do you need to cover, how many chapters? Etc, etc.

And then comes the writing. Now if I were coaching you, I’d make you write at least 5 minutes a day because writers WRITE.

To some, that seems like nothing much but 5 mins a day is 35 mins a week which is over 2 hours a month, at the very least.

And of course, some days just getting those 5 minutes done will be a miracle but other days, you’d spend 30 minutes or more easily writing.

That’s exactly what I mean when I say you can make big leaps with just a step a day.

People ask me how I get so many things done and it’s because I do exactly this.

Now I will tell you I don’t always feel like writing or recording audio or _______ (fill in whatever you don’t like doing) but I do know that it will move me towards my goals.

I have a rule. Every week, come hell or high water, I need to do at least one thing to move me towards my goals. This helps me focus on outcomes even when I’m really busy.

Think about one of your goals. Let’s say you want to go on a holiday to Ireland

Let’s break it down.

1. Decide exactly where in Ireland you want to visit.
2. Investigate prices of airfare, hotels, B&B’s, tourism, food, etc.
3. Check your savings account to see what you have available.
4. Based on the shortfall, decide on the amount of money you need to save every month.
5. Decide length of holiday and itinerary while there.
6. Book flights and check if you need a visa.
7. Book accommodation.
8. Book car rental/ decide on method of transport.
9. Pack your bags
10. Go!

Grab a piece of paper and write your own steps for your goal.

Your challenge this week is to take at least ONE step towards your goal this week.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Marcia Francois is a time management and business organising coach who helps small business owners break out of overwhelm, make the most of their time and get important projects done. Visit http://organiseyourbusiness.com for your free 7-part audio series, 7 tips for time-strapped business owners.

What to do when it all gets too much…

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:33:52 +0000

I get so many emails from small business owners who tell me that it all just gets so overwhelming they don’t know where to start.

One day everything is okay and the next it seems as if the paper is all over the place, they can’t find what they need on their computer, they have 14 000 emails in their inbox (yes, really!) and they are paralysed with overwhelm.

They can’t even get to urgent tasks, let alone important, marketing and business development opportunities.

This is what I suggest:

1. Tackle one thing at a time

If your paper is driving you crazy, then spend an hour or two focussed on nothing else but sorting the paper. If it’s your email, then set your timer, set a goal and start replying.

I’m a very visual person and so I can’t work with an untidy desk. I keep nothing on my desk except the current project and usually if I’m feeling very overwhelmed, I first clear my desk and then I can focus on my to-do list.

2. Maintain the area

Now the key is to spend 5 minutes a day maintaining that organised space. It is amazing how spending just 5 minutes in each area of your office will set you up for success the following day.

It means that you can “hit the ground running” when you start the next day’s work. If you spend a half-day with me on my Business Organising Intensive (virtually or in-person), I’ll show you exactly how to set up your day, week and month so that your business feels fun and doesn’t frazzle you

3. Use 10-minute pockets of time

Make a list of 10-minute tasks and keep it on your desk, in plain view. Next time you have 10 minutes before you have to leave for a meeting, or you’re on hold with a customer services representative, check your list and see what you can do to organise your office.

Some tasks that I like to keep for those 10 minutes are:

* filing
* tidying my desk
* decluttering a file
* making a phone call or two
* going through my sent items and following up on email
* easy web maintenance
* uploading blog photos

If you stick to these 3 steps, you should be more focussed and productive with your work.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Leave the office earlier

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:33:04 +0000

I get many questions from clients and readers and one of the most common questions is this one:

How do I leave the “office” earlier? I am working so late every evening and I don’t have a life outside of my work.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Make a list at the end of every day
This will help you to hit the ground running every day when you get to work.

2. Focus on your priorities first
Use the eat the frog form and do nothing else before your main priorities (frogs) are accomplished every day.

3. Set some boundaries
If you are currently working until 6 or 7 every night (or even later), then set a small goal that says you won’t work until later than 6 every night next week (or earlier if you can). Then stick to it.

The next week set your goal a bit earlier – 5.45 and then 5.30 until you’re working until 5 normally (or whenever you’d like your work day to end). You can work late now and again (if you absolutely have to) but don’t make it a habit.

4. Set reminders in Outlook
Set a recurring appointment for the next month.

The appointment should be made for 30 minutes before you want to leave your office and should say tidy desk and write tomorrow’s to-do list.

Time tip - If you really find it hard to leave, make an appointment outside the office so that you absolutely have to leave at a certain time.

When I find myself slipping into the bad habit of working late, I start scheduling earlier gym classes and I hold myself accountable to a gym friend.

If you put these four tips into practice consistently, I guarantee that you will soon be leaving your office earlier to enjoy the rest of your life.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Are you using Parkinson’s Law?

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:31:59 +0000

Have you heard of Parkinson’s Law?

Yes? No?

Well, Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

It means that if you allow ONE HOUR to clean your office, it’ll take ONE HOUR to get it clean.

It also means that if you allow just 20 MINUTES to clean your office, it’ll take just 20 MINUTES to get it done.

See?

Or if it does take you longer to do it, it will be just a fraction longer than the allowed time.

Either way, you still SAVE time.

On a recent holiday to Cape Town, my laptop did something weird and I suddenly couldn’t access my email.

I had directions in my email account to meet a fellow professional organiser in Cape Town later that day so I really needed to get to my emails.

Fortunately the hotel had a business centre with (obviously) exorbitant rates per 15 minutes. I was determined to only use 15 minutes so I bought a coupon, accessed my email, printed the directions and while I was in my account, quickly responded and processed all my email. In 15 minutes!

Yes, in just 15 minutes.

Now if I’d had my laptop, it probably would have taken me upwards of 30 minutes to process the same daily batch of email.

Because that’s how it is.

You check out links, read everything slowly, delay decisions, etc.

For the next two weeks, I want to challenge you to apply Parkinson’s Law in 3 ways.

1. If you blog, reduce your blogging time, set a timer and just start writing. (This is exactly what I do).
2. If you usually take two hours to clean your house, set a timer and only allow one hour.
3. If you usually take one hour to sort through all the paper in your house, take just 30 minutes.

Are you up for the challenge?

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Focus! Don’t multitask

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:31:27 +0000

I know many people think multitasking is the best thing since sliced bread.

I don’t.

The truth is that we can really only do ONE other thing if an EXISTING task is one being done on AUTO-PILOT.

For example, you can listen to the radio while you’re driving because you don’t have to think too hard about the driving for the most part

But what happens when you get lost?

You switch off the radio (or at the very least, turn it down) so you can CONCENTRATE.

Why?

Because you suddenly have to think about the task that was being done on auto-pilot and you need to focus to help you find your way.

Multitasking is like trying to play tennis with two balls – crazy, right? You wouldn’t know where to focus.

Can you picture Andre Agassi (or any other tennis player, for that matter) having that same single-minded focus if there were two or more balls coming at them all the time?

Of course not!

So why do we think we’re different when we try to juggle (1) answering emails with (2) blogging and (3) working on a report and (4) talking on the phone all at the same time?

We wonder why it takes so long to get everything done.

It’s because each of those things needs our FOCUS and CONCENTRATION!

Remember you can only do one mindless task at a time!

We’ve all been on the phone with people who sound like they’re a million miles away. They’re probably reading their email while they’re talking to you!

When you do this, either you’ll stop listening to the conversation or you won’t be fully taking in what you’re reading in the email.

This week, I’m challenging you to work on your FOCUS.

Do only ONE THING at a time, be fully engaged and watch your productivity soar.

Are you up for the challenge?

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Get more done by doing this one thing

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:30:51 +0000

There is a little-known secret that, once understood, will absolutely change the way you run your life.

That secret is using your natural energy cycles, or playing to your strengths.

When you work with your energy cycles instead of against them, you save time because you do things faster, with more clarity and with greater focus.

Quickly grab a piece of paper and answer these four questions:

1. Are you a night owl or an early bird?

If you’re a night owl like me, then plan your life so that you start the day off slowly and work up to your peak. Or vice versa.

2. When do you do your best creative work?

I don’t know if the real creative types will agree with me but I think that any form of writing uses the creative side of our brains.

When I need to do some writing, I’m generally great first thing in the morning (well, for me) or very late at night (9pm onwards). If I try to write from lunch-time onwards, it takes me FOREVER! When I leave the project and do it at one of my prime writing times, the ideas flow easier and the quality is just better.

3. When do you do your best logical/ reasoning work?

This involves things like budgeting, playing with spreadsheets (that’s what I call it to make it seem more fun!), working with numbers, etc.

Figure this out and as best as you can, try and schedule these kinds of tasks when that side of your brain is awake and kicking!

4. When do you prefer to exercise?

Um, never Okay, let me rephrase: if you had to exercise, when would be the best time for you?

This usually works the same as number 1 but if you find that if you’re stuck, lacking motivation or just feeling overwhelmed, you might want to add in some exercise to jump-start yourself.

This week’s coaching challenge

a. Pick a task you’ve been procrastinating on.
b. After you’ve identified the type of task, work on it at a different time of day.
c. Get it done

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

5 reasons why you should have a master to-do list

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:30:00 +0000

There is something so powerful about a central place to store all of your ideas, thoughts and to-do items.

You don’t feel distracted and scattered because everything is in one place.

Whenever I start feeling overwhelmed, I make a master to-do list of everything I need AND want to do.

My current list contains emails I have to send, projects I’m working on and documents I need to update, like my travel checklist, some e-books and coaching tools.

So why a master to-do list?

What’s wrong with the back of an envelope and millions of post-it notes?

1. Writing it all down frees up your brain for big picture thinking so you don’t have to concern yourself with remembering details.

2. It eliminates all those bits and pieces of paper, post-it notes, backs of envelopes, etc.

3. There is something about the act of actually putting pen to paper that seals things in your mind. If you’ve heard my goal-setting teleseminar, you know exactly what I mean.

4. Once you see it in black and white, you can deal with reality so much better rather than imagining how bad it all is.

5. You can choose the exact number of tasks you want to tackle every day (I don’t recommend more than 6) without feeling overwhelmed. Move these 6 tasks to your daily to-do list.

My challenge to you

* Download my paper-based master to-do list from my website or use Outlook if you like the electronic version. The method doesn’t matter much; what matters is that you have a central place to collect your tasks.
* First brain dump everything – go wild, you can sort it out later.
* Now, make categories and then start attacking that list.

Happy organising!

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

6 steps to an organised office while you’re on vacation

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:29:19 +0000

Do you remember what it’s like getting back from leave?

You’re all relaxed, birds are chirping, the sun is shining, there’s no tension in your shoulders and everything’s wonderful.

Then you get to work.

After you look at your desk, and then see the 2000-odd emails that have piled up, you’re about ready to take your bag and your car keys and go right back home!

I have a few ideas to help you prepare and get organised for your holiday:

1. Advise your clients and friends that you’ll be away.

I suggest that you write separate emails because…well…the tone and content will be different for each of them.

For clients, you’ll be explaining how long you’ll be away, what to do for queries and who your stand-in is. For friends, I like to tell them to please not send me any personal emails. After all, you don’t want to return to an Inbox full of PowerPoint presentations and the friends who really want to talk to you have your cell phone number if they want to chat. Right?

If you’re on Facebook, update your status too.

2. Delegate as much as possible

You need to be motivated to delegate! Now just think how lovely it will be when you get back from your holiday and after scanning through your emails, you only have to attend to about 10% of the emails.

You can delegate to a virtual assistant or my favourite, an auto-responder. I have an auto-responder set up to manage my mailing list so that it delivers my book automatically to any subscribers and removes people who want to unsubscribe. Just putting this one thing into practice saves me at least an hour a week.

3. Update your website

Go through your Sent Items to see what type of questions you get a lot. If they’re not questions you have to think about and answer fresh every time, they probably belong on your site as a Frequently Asked Questions site or on your website somewhere else.

4. Turn on your out of office assistant

Remember to give the dates you’ll be unavailable, if your clients need to route their query to someone else and a number to contact you if it’s urgent.

5. Declutter

Do a good clear-out of any paper, both on your desk and in your files. While you’re feeling the lovely rush of endorphins, do a good clear out of email and document folders too.

6. Plan for when you’re back

Write down the top 3 – 5 things on your to-do list for the day you’re back at work. Jot down a maximum of 5 items because you know you’ll be catching up on email!

This will ensure that you hit the ground running and that you beat the feeling of overwhelm.

Enjoy your vacation!

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

How to set healthy boundaries by Marcia Francois

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:28:23 +0000

What is a boundary? In a physical sense, it is easy to understand that a boundary marks off where your property starts and where the neighbour’s ends. You are responsible for your property but not for anything that happens on your neighbour’s.

While not as easy to mark off, our emotional boundaries also mark off where our responsibilities start and end. Too many people feel out of control of their lives because they don’t have good emotional boundaries.

Boundaries are like fences in that they keep bad things out and good things in. This means that you protect yourself from things or people that might hurt you and you nurture things or people that help you. Notice I said fences and not walls. A wall means that nothing gets through from either side whereas a fence allows flow.

Boundaries are limits or barriers that protect you, your time and your energy. When your boundaries are well-defined, they help to prevent conflict within your relationships. They are like your personal rules or policies.

Laura Stack says it beautifully, “setting limits is a way of defining who you are and what you’re all about, what you will do and what you won’t; what’s acceptable to you and what’s not”.

Setting boundaries means owning and taking responsibility for your personal choices and the consequences thereof. You make the choice, you take responsibility and you can make a different choice if you don’t like the consequence.
You can’t control other people’s behaviour but you can control the extent to which it affects you. In other words, control your exposure to people.

For example, I don’t allow people to make racist remarks around me. Now I can’t control what they will say but I can control whether I continue to listen. Another example is I don’t allow anybody to speak to me in an abusive manner. Again, I can’t control what they say but I will warn them before putting the phone down. It’s their right to say what they want but it’s also my right to not sit there and be a doormat.

Here are some physiological signs that your boundaries are weak:
• Knots in your stomach when you agree to do some things
• Anger and resentment
• Deep feeling of dread
• Feeling shocked or being appalled at something someone said

The first step to creating stronger boundaries is to learn to say no.
Remember if the reaction to your setting boundaries is not great (sulking, anger, etc), it’s not about you – it’s about them. That feeling belongs on their side of the “fence”.

Write these 3 sentences on a piece of paper and write out as many statements underneath each as you can think of:

1. People may not…
2. I have a right to ask for…
3. To protect my time and energy…

Here’s to setting healthy boundaries!

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

5 steps to dealing with overwhelm

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:27:38 +0000

So many people write to me with this question: Marcia, how do I deal with overwhelm?

I’ll answer that in a moment but let me share a personal example first.

A few weeks ago, I was dealing with my own overwhelm.

I had many meetings day after day after day (which means you get behind on the office stuff), my normal business activities plus I had to re-write a LOT of the copy for the website. All on deadline!

Add to that the things of life like cooking and cleaning and gym and you can see why I felt overwhelmed.

Doesn’t it feel good to know you’re not alone?!

We all have our own stories but the FEELINGS are exactly the same – a sense of being out of control and a to-do list a mile long!

So what did I do to cope?

1. Make a list

I printed out 10 of my master to-do lists because it felt like I had hundreds of things to do.

I used one page for each project – website, clients, etc…

The amazing thing was my imagination was much worse than reality because in the end, I only needed 4 of those 10 pages Honestly, it does help to see how bad it really is, or isn’t.

2. Ask yourself a key question

When you feel overwhelmed, it’s important to realise that “this too shall pass” and to CONTINUALLY ask yourself this question:

What is the MOST important use of my time right now?

Remember, it’s not about being busy, but about being effective!

3. Cut out all non-essentials

Once you have the answer to the question in number 2, it’s easier to cut out the non-essentials.

For example, let go of the minor website changes and the email responses to your blog comments. Rather answer only client emails.

When the busy period is over, re-look at those non-essentials and REALLY question whether you even need to add them back into your life.

4. Focus and eat your frog

Now that you know what is MOST important, switch off cell phones, email, etc. and get it done.

If you have to do a proposal for a company, do nothing else until it’s done. That’s so that even when your day is done and the to-do list is still half a mile long, at least you have a sense of accomplishment because you completed the most important tasks.

5. Categorise and batch

If you’ve eaten your frog, and you still have energy, then categorise whatever’s left and tackle those items in batches.

Take your to-do list and use letters in the margin, like P for phone, E for email, etc. Then pick up the phone and make all your phone calls in one go. You save energy because you prepare once instead of 5 different times in the day.

And THAT is how I dealt with my overwhelm.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.