If you aren’t feeling good about what you’re getting done, it might not be an organizational issue – it might be a matter of health. When we push our bodies to the limits, it’s not a surprise when the quality of our work suffers.
Here are some easy steps you can start this week to improve your health. Continue reading
If you’re having trouble getting traction on your organizational goals, it may be time to take a step away from your work, take a deep breath, and look for root causes.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself. Continue reading
I’m working with a new client who’s having trouble keeping his entrepreneurial work organized. He told me he has problems with his physical office space, and that he takes on too much work to have a private life.
I’m meeting with him next week and have been working on my notes. My first thoughts were around the space he’s in and the work he produces… Continue reading
When you “mind your business,” you’re doing a couple of really important things.
I’m starting to work heading up a big project that involves dozens of people in a mix of locations. This weekend, I felt immobilized by the volume of work and information I need to understand, and by the number of people I need to connect and work with.
It’s one thing to get yourself organized. It’s quite another to lead a large, highly efficient team – especially when you’re joining a team that’s used to working in a certain way and you’re the newest member.
So what do you do? I start by brainstorming a list of everything that’s knocking around in my head that needs to get done. Continue reading
My daughter, Samantha, graduated from Duke a couple of weeks ago. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was the commencement speaker and gave a great talk. I love that we have guides everywhere. When you’re open to new ideas, a hot morning in a football stadium can turn into a cool well of inspiring thought.
Here were a few of my favorite take-aways from Mr. Cook. Continue reading
I love this exercise from Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. You do stuff everyday. Some of it you choose to do. A lot of it you have to do. Each day your energy flows around your tasks, sometimes up and sometimes down.
If you want to have more up-energy, try tracking your energy flow for a week. You can either set up an activity log, or better yet, just mark up your planner. At the end of the day, look at each thing you did and check off or highlight things that raised your energy.
What’s cool about us is that we’re all different. A high-energy part of your day could be: Continue reading
If you’ve been thinking about doing something cool, set a deadline and put together a schedule. A deadline is effective even if it’s something only you know about; when you write a due date on a calendar you’re making a written commitment to yourself to get something done.
A cool benefit of having a schedule, besides meeting deadlines and getting stuff done, is the peace that comes from deciding what you’re working on and when you’re going to do it. You may feel like a schedule limits you. I would counter that when you schedule something, you quiet your brain and the idea stops nagging at you.
“Are you going to work on me now? Now? Now?”
A friend at work recommended a blog about how to get stuff done. I checked it out and read through a long, long, long post about why I should pay the blogger to help guide me through an 8-week sprint to get a creative project done. I read – and read, and read – and thought, “I don’t need a coach. I just need to do the work.”
Here’s the plan I came up with for my 8-week sprint. Continue reading
Organizational Habits 