In this week’s episode we take a look at how you spend the 168 hours we each have every week. I rarely meet anyone who doesn’t complain that there aren’t enough hours in the day but the simple truth is there will never be any more than 24 hours each day. So rather than wish for more time, I take you through an exercise that shows you where you are spending some large chunks of time each day and where some “extra” time may be hiding.
This exercise involves “mapping your week” on a worksheet to give you a visual of where you are spending your time. This is not meant to be a minute by minute account of your week, but rather a general indication of how your time is divided between work, sleep, and other routine activities.
Welcome to my first episode of I Take Success: Time Management and Productivity Podcast.
The goal of this podcast series is to discuss how we think about time, how to track your time and analyze what you find, as well as share tips and techniques to help you take back control of your time.
In this episode I introduce myself and how I became (and am still working on being ) a time management master. Then we get right to the meat of the episode – dealing with the number one time management frustration: interruptions. I give you three quick and actionable tips to help you deal with at least some of the barrage of workplace interruptions one faces each day.
Making a vision board is one of the best ways to get clear about your goals and keep them front and center in your daily life. If your goals are part of your every day focus, then you are able to use them as a reference point in making decisions. If you want to publish a novel this year, then deciding between sitting in front of the television for a few hours in the evening versus sitting in front of the computer (or typewriter? or notebook with pen?) to write is made easier if you are reminded that your goal is publishing a novel. What facilitates this process of keeping your goals visible? A Vision Board.
What is a Vision Board?
Quite simply, a Vision Board is a board (physical or digital) that holds or displays pictures. Those pictures represent goals you want to achieve:
Obtaining something material, (like a new iPad)
Completing a project (like a kitchen remodel)
What your life looks like when you achieve your goal(s) (sipping drinks from the beach)
What you want your life to feel like (calm, peaceful, relaxed, healthy)
Any or all of the above. It’s your board, so you get to make the rules. If you are creating a physical board, then you need something to contain and display the pictures. I have used poster board and glued photos to it and I have done boards using a cork board and push pins which allowed some flexibility in arranging and changing the pictures if I needed to.
How to Make a Vision Board
My business goals vision board for 2016
1. Gather Materials Needed
It’s pretty simple, really. You just need some picture sources (magazines, printouts, catalogs, photos, etc.), a background (poster board or cork board work great), a way to adhere them (tape or glue or push pins), and a place to hang your finished board.
2. Figure Out What Your Vision Board is About
Does your goal involve material things (car, iPod)? Are you trying to capture a mood or feeling (serenity, energy, abundance)? A place you want to visit (Ireland, Paris, Australia, Napa Valley)? Or a combination of these? Make a list so you can find the inspiring images, which is the next step.
3. Find Appropriate Images
Clip images from magazines or catalog, and/or download images from the web. Anything that inspires you to think about a particular goal. One of my business goals is to offer weekend retreats for women on topics like Overcoming Fear, and Finding Your True Self. I have an image of women around a table enjoying a meal together, as that photo represents the sense of community I want my retreats to have. Additionally, I have the words “FEAR NOT!” clipped from a magazine ad that fit my retreat goal.
4. Lay Out Your Board
Now that you have a pile of images, you can arrange them any way you’d like on the cork board or poster board. Play around with this a bit to find an arrangement you’re happy with. Don’t spend too much time to perfect the layout as it’s more important to just get the images onto the board so you can begin to display it.
5. Look At It Every Day
Your board does no good if you set it in the back of closet, buried under out-of-season clothes. Put your board somewhere you will see it every day. It has to serve as a daily reminder of what your goals are, that way you will recognize opportunities that lead to goal achievement as well as be able to make goal-based decisions.
Now Go Do It!
To help you along, I’ve created a little video tutorial (see below) to walk you through the steps. I know that there are some of you who are still overwhelmed by the thought of actually doing a vision board. So I have created a How to Make a Vision Board booklet with step-by-step instructions, along with three layouts for you use with some ideas for things to put on the board.
Do vision boards work? Well, I have a picture of rolling green pasture that I put on one of my vision boards about two years ago to represent my bucket list item of going to Ireland. Guess who’s going to Ireland in June?!
Last year’s vision board captured the mood I wanted for the year: peaceful, calm, relaxing, healthy. I’d have to say that overall, those are words I would use to describe 2015, even though there were plenty of upheavals and uncertainties.
Are you ready to get started on YOUR vision board? Watch the video…
The first day back to school after winter break was a proud momma moment for me. Child #1, a high school freshman, prepared the night before by making lists of things to remember to bring, what to pack for lunch, and what things she needed to do after school (which included laundry!). This was impressive to me. It showed great organization and foresight. But what impressed me even more was the fact that she also wrote herself a positive affirmation: Make it a great day.
Our Family Mantra
This happens to be the mantra I say to all family members as they leave for work or school each morning. I’ve been saying that to them for years, and have even had a child come back into the house after leaving if I’ve forgotten to say it: “Mom! Aren’t you going to tell me to make it a great day?!”
You may notice I say make it a great day and not have a great day. Many years ago I saw an interview on a morning news show where someone pointed out the psychological difference between telling someone to make it a great day and have a great day.
It’s about control.
Have a great day implies that you are at the mercy of what the day brings: bad weather, traffic, spilled coffee, or flat tire can lead you to a rather rotten day. But to make it a great day implies that you have control on how you view the day. So even if all those bad things happen, you can choose to still find some good in the day; perhaps the cafe had your favorite muffin or you found $10 in your coat pocket or you simply are thankful that the day is over and tomorrow is another day. I can’t control the weather, but I can control how I react to it.
After my daughter left for school, I glanced over her lists again. Below the “Make it a great day!” she had written: “Hope you had a great day today.” It certainly was for me.
Sometimes I have laser-like focus. With task at hand I plow through and get the work done, barely taking time to drink water and breathe. This was the case in preparing my 30 Day Self-Care Challenge in 2015. From concept to fleshed-out plan took less than a week. But not all my endeavors are like that. Actually, most aren’t.
There are days when I show up at my desk and stare blankly at the screen. This in spite of the fact that I have taken time the night before to contemplate what one thing I plan to focus on for the day. Some days, it just doesn’t click.
So what is an entrepreneur to do? Sit around and eat bon-bons while catching up on Game of Thrones and Outlander? Tempting, but I recently sat down and put together a list of 5 things to do when I’m feeling unfocused but want to be productive. Consider making your own list (and feel free to use my list as a starting point!).
Productivity even when unfocused:
1. Delete email
Zero inbox? Me neither. Not even close. So set the timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes (or whatever time you want) and start deleting and filing. I try not to get caught into reading old emails. If I run into a bunch that I want to read (often from signing up for some list), then I make a folder and stick them in it. I do take the time to unsubscribe from those that I no longer have an interest in or have turned out to not be what I thought they’d be. Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe – besides lessening your inbox load, you are doing the sender a great service. Your not opening their email hinders their open rate. If you haven’t opened a single email from them in the last month or so, unsubscribe.
2. Read articles saved to reading list
Facebook has this really great feature where you can save an article link that someone posts. In the upper right hand corner of the post is a light grey downward pointing arrow. If you click it a menu appears and “save link” is an option (but only if the post contains a link to an article). Click that and the article is saved to a list. How to access the list? When logged into Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/saved and your list will be there.
When I find interesting articles via Twitter (often accessed from my iPhone), I save them to Safari’s Reading List.
3. Sort favorited pins on Pinterest
I favorite way too many pins, and always with the intention that I’ll go back later to see if I really want to commit to pinning it. Sometimes I’m not sure to what board I want to pin it; sometimes I don’t have time to follow the link to the original website to see if the information is really what I’m looking for. Sometimes I’m just lazy. But taking a few minutes to pin (and then unlike) a Pinterest pin is a good thing. Ideally I’ll get down to under 20 likes (I’m at 491494 746 – I couldn’t help myself – as of the writing revision of this post).
4. Sort photos
Whether on my phone or computer – a few minutes of time can be well spent cleaning up “bad” (blurry, useless, dark) photos. Good bye duplicates. Good time to sort and tag as needed too. Certainly makes searching for that Pre-K graduation photo (to compare to the 8th grade graduation nine years later) a whole lot easier! Well, it would have.
If you’re not a Mac user, sort your photos in whatever program organizes them. You can take this task old school and sort through the shoebox of photos too!
5. Tag my Evernote notes
I don’t utilize this feature nearly enough. I’m still trying to master organizing in Evernote, and I really like how Michael Hyatt approaches this with tags. So besides tagging my notes, I guess I could use unfocused time to figure out an organization hierarchy as well!
Not familiar with Evernote? Then take some time to check it out. I have it installed on all my devices (it synchs across them all and with the cloud version), and I just learned how to clip web articles to it. The basic version is free (which is what I use).
So there you have my list of 5 things to do when your feeling a bit unfocused. Just remember to set a time limit. I find that I often get inspired by something (series of pins, interesting article, etc.) that sends my mind spinning and my creative juices flowing. Next thing you know – I’ve written a new blog post!
I accompanied my 13-year old daughter and a group of her friends to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC as part of their 8th grade field trip. Although they’d been studying World War II in history and literature classes, there was a disconnect for them. It went beyond imagining “olden days” before technology. It was taking them to a place that was beyond their imaginations; a place so horrific that it seemed as real to them as a B-horror movie. These are girls who have never been touched by tragedy. They were only infants when 911 happened, and even then were isolated by being tucked away in a rural farming community.
I know the history of WWII and the Holocaust and the plight of the European Jews. I read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl when I was in grade school and was profoundly effected. More recently I’ve read The Book Thief and Once We Were Brothers. I’ve seen the movies, each with a unique perspective on the war: Schindler’s List, The Pianist, and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas to name a few. And the words and pictures, as horrific and unsettling yet moving and inspiring of hope all paled when I got to meet Nesse Godin, Holocaust Survivor.
There aren’t many survivors left. Nesse is 87 and was a young girl when Hitler’s forces invaded her native Lithuania. She works as a volunteer at the museum and was on hand to tell her story. At age 13 (the same age as our group of 8th grade girls), she and her family were rounded up and sent to one of the Jewish Ghettos. She survived there and was then sent to a concentration camp. She survived there only to be herded into a Death March of women, a last ditch effort of the Germans to kill as many more Jews as possible before the Soviets liberated the camp. Nine hundred women and girls died on that march; only 200 survived.
Strength and Willpower?
It is hard to imagine the strength required to survive the Ghetto – with barely any food and poor living conditions. It is harder to imagine the determination required to survive the concentration camp, where not only food, but clothing and heat were scarce. It is hardest to imagine that after four years of starving and freezing the amount of perseverance required to survive a march that you know has the sole purpose of killing you. But Nesse survived.
Nesse Godin, Holocaust Survivor
“How?” I asked, tears welling in my eyes. “You must have had so much will to live.”
“No,” Nesse said. “I wanted to die. Many times I wanted to die. But Jewish women kept me alive. ‘Why do you cry little girl?’ they would ask. ‘I am hungry,’ I would say. They placed tiny crumbs from their own meager rations in my mouth. ‘Why do you shiver so?’ they would ask. ‘I am cold,’ I would say. They showed me how to wrap myself in straw. Who knew you could gather warmth from straw? They would tell me, ‘God doesn’t want you to die. He wants you to live. You must promise that you will share your story so these terrible things never happen again.’ So here I am.”
Her story left me in awe. I always imagine that it takes great strength and willpower to survive whatever atrocities life throws our way (and none in my life even come close to what Nesse went through). But she gave me a different perspective: perhaps it is not strength we should seek, not determination we must muster, but rather surrounding ourselves with loving support and selfless kindness that can carry us through life’s storms; that the giving souls, who had nothing to give, still gave and cared for a soul more lost than their own.
I hugged Nesse. Blessed that I had heard her story. Thankful that I could share it with others. As I hugged her I told her I was so glad she had survived. She chuckled and smiled, “Me too, my dear, me too.”
[Note: Book and movie links are Amazon affiliate links. I receive a small percentage of the sale should you make a purchase on Amazon using one of the links. This does not effect the price you pay. Thank you for supporting me!]
The new year is upon us, looming on the horizon with possibilities and potential. People often view the new year as a time to shed their old skins and create new ones. And the goal setting and resolutions begin: great expectations of what can be if only willpower holds out.
If you are familiar with the acronym SMART in relation to goal setting, then you know that the “S” stands for specific. It’s not enough to say “I’m going to get out of debt.” You want the goal to be more specific. A more specific goal would be “I’m going to pay off my $3000 credit card debt in the next six months,” or “I will pay an extra 10% on my student loans each month for the next year.”
Now let’s see if one of our specific goals is measurable. We’ll be able to take a look at the monthly statements to see if the balance is decreasing, so yes, that goal is measurable. If losing 20 pounds is your goal, then having a scale so you can weigh in weekly makes that goal measurable. If reading 50 books over the year is your goal, then keeping a list of the books read makes that a measurable goal. Measuring isn’t difficult, you just have to have a means to track progress along the way.
How attainable is your goal? If you are between jobs and your goal is to pay off that $3000 credit card debt in six months, that may not be an attainable goal (at the moment – don’t give up yet!). If you want to get your weight down to 150 pounds (and you’re currently 250), think about when you were last 150 pounds. Was it a few years ago? A couple of decades ago? Middle school? Have you arbitrarily chosen 150 as the magic number? If you were 150 pounds within the last decade, it’s probably an attainable goal. If you were last 150 in middle school, and you’re middle-aged now, then revise that immediate goal to a more attainable number. That’s not to say that you’ll never get down to 150, just that you’re making the current goal more attainable.
What about relevant? By relevant, I mean how important is this goal to you? If it’s not important, then the chances that you will take any action towards the goal are slim to none. Do you really need to get out of debt? You are more likely to want to stick to the goal is you’re trying to get out of debt in order to buy a house or car versus just trying to get out of debt because you think that makes a good goal. Likewise, you’re more likely to want to lose weight if you’ve had a health scare and the doctor has told you if you don’t lose weight you will likely have a relapse. Think about what your motivation is to reach this goal. Is the motivation – the WHY you are doing this – strong enough to carry you all the way to the finish line? If not, you’ll want to revise the goal.
Finally we’ve come to the “T” in SMART – timely. Do you have a specific time frame in which to achieve the goal? With whatever goal you make, be sure to answer the question: by when. “Someday” is not a time frame that your mind can work with when it comes to achieving goals.
The new year brings great expectations, and you can bring those into realization with some thoughtful planning. Have you made resolutions or goals for the new year? Stop by and share in the comments below or on our Facebook page.
Emily Dickinson’s famous poem, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” is often quoted. Usually just the first verse is referenced, but there are two other verses. Here is the poem in its entirety:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
I thought it quite telling in the last verse that the poet points out that Hope never asks for anything from us, but is content to sit by us through the storms of life, singing its sweet song constantly. Hope warms our souls on the coldest of days. It is always there, and we have only to take a moment and listen for its song to reassure ourselves that there is hope.
Although I don’t make my future dependent upon hope, I do hold hope quite dear. I have hopes for my children to be productive and contributing members of society. I have hopes that humanity can find the good in every situation. I have hopes that the future of the world is bright and beautiful. I can’t control any of these things myself, but I can make my small contribution.
I can teach my children that it is important to be responsible, caring citizens in their community. I can find the good in a situation and help others see it and find good for themselves. I can do my part to provide a brightness and beauty to the world; for me, that’s through writing and art. Emily Dickinson certainly did her part, in reminding us that hope is always there.
I really thought it would be easier to write about hope than it proved to be. I wondered why that was. I consider myself to be a hopeful person, yet there was no hope for me.
I believe in hope insofar as its meaning that what is wanted can be had. I have hopes and dreams, but in the last year or so, as I’ve explored what those were specifically and more concretely, I’ve been putting those hopes and dreams into action.
I used to be more of a daydreamer. Lots of thinking about “what if…” and “if I had this, then….” type of mind ramblings. Now I frame my future with “what can I do now to make that happen?” Hope, in the sense of maybe one day it will come true, no longer has appeal. That’s the kind of hope that makes me feel powerless; that I don’t have control over the outcome. I’m no longer that person.
Taking Action
Now I take the bull by the horns and charge forward with a plan. Well, maybe not charge – most days I tiptoe cautiously forward, but definitely with a plan. So for my own personal goals and dreams, I know that I control the journey to get there. I still have hopes and dreams and goals, but I’m not waiting around for them to appear in my path. I’m actively taking steps to see them to fruition. Sometimes I stumble and make mistakes, but that is all part of the beautiful journey.
Last year for Christmas, a friend of mine gave me a Kindness Bracelet. It was a lovely thing with 12 beads and a charm strung on cording and a little card that explained how the bracelet worked:
When you are kind or kindness comes your way, slide a bead toward the Kindness Charm. As you slide your beads back each evening reflect on the kindness you experienced that day.
I was intrigued and starting wearing the bracelet almost every day. People would ask me about it and I’d get to relay the story of how it works. Of course, I moved my beads as I took notice of acts of kindness I witnessed or took part in. I was so moved by the effect this had on my day that I purchased several to give as gifts.
A few months ago I attended a women’s business luncheon and guess who was in attendance? The woman behind the Kindness Bracelet, the original: Grace Foxwell Murdock. I knew she lived in the area, but I hadn’t expected to ever run into her. Several women in attendance rushed up to her afterwards to share how the bracelet has affected them or a loved one.
The philosophy behind the bracelet is that by acknowledging small acts of kindness, we create a brighter, more positive space around us. The idea for the bracelet was born out of a very dark time: after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The outpouring of love and support for the families and community of Sandy Hook came from all over the world, and Ms. Murdock wanted to help people focus on that hope and love and kindness rather than dwell on the tragedy.
In this week’s episode we take a look at how you spend the 168 hours we each have every week. I rarely meet anyone who doesn’t complain that there aren’t enough hours in the day but the simple truth is there will never be any more than 24 hours each day. So rather than wish for more time, I take you through an exercise that shows you where you are spending some large chunks of time each day and where some “extra” time may be hiding.
when I was in grade school and was profoundly effected. More recently I’ve read 
and 
. I’ve seen the movies, each with a unique perspective on the war: 
, 
, and 
to name a few. And the words and pictures, as horrific and unsettling yet moving and inspiring of hope all paled when I got to meet Nesse Godin, Holocaust Survivor.
