Listen up for a second: I want you to take a ‘time-out’ in your busy, over scheduled, hectic day for 5 minutes to read this.  Take a look at this You Tube video from the movie ‘Coach Carter’ and notice 3 things:

1. A Time Out is Called - Coach stops the action so his players can rest and get ‘outside’ the game for a minute.
2. Coach Reviews Actual Results vs. the Game Plan - what has happened so far and how does it not line up to the agreed ’Game Plan?’
3. Coach Encourages and Recommits the Team to Executing the Game Plan - sends them back out on the court ready to get back to ‘Richmond Oiler’ basketball.  

Have you ever stopped to think for a second about the habits or beliefs you hold that may be holding you back from more success in life?  Maybe habits or beliefs that aren’t (or shouldn’t) be part of  your own Personal or Professional Game Plan?  I have – both in my own life and the lives of my clients and friends.  Here’s what I have come up with:      

1. You are giving your corporate job too much credit, time, and chances to become more fulfilling.
Think of your job as if it is a girl you are dating.  If the dates suck and there is 0 chemistry, you end it.  Why?  Because there is no sense continuing something that you know is not right for you (or her.)  It’s the same with your job – don’t keep making excuses or giving it second chances.  If it is not right for you, quit and use the free time to find (or start) something that is more aligned with your passion.  

2. You believe that you need more time, money, or credentials to pursue the ‘great idea’ or dream that currently sits dormantly in your head.
Being an idea-preneur (or what I like to call a head-epreneur – great ideas, no action) is easy.  Anyone can come up with a good idea.  The real movers and shakers are those that take immediate action – despite not having a mission statement, logo, enough funds, a website, or the right credentials. 

Get this through your skull: the EXACT RIGHT TIME TO START ANYTHING DOES NOT EXIST IN THE FUTURE.  It’s right now.

Here’s what you need… an idea and the discipline to follow through on the first 3 actions steps to take by Friday of this week.  And someone in your corner to kick your ass if on Friday at 5:00 PM you are on Twitter instead of completing Task #3.  By the way, ‘create a website’ is not an action step. ‘Register a domain name’ is.

3. You suck at managing the first 2 hours of your day. 
Two questions:
1. Do you get up at 6 am (or earlier) every morning?
2. What do you do from 6-8 am?

Most people:
1. No (and if ‘Yes,’ absolutely hate it.)
2. Rush like a madman to work so I can get right to my E-Mail – no breakfast, no reading, no quiet time.

Getting up early and using the first 2 hours of your day to have a nutritious breakfast, read, study, think, and meditate/pray is the single biggest way you can make mind blowingly fast progress to a level of success you could only dream of.  Racing to work so you can jump right into your e-mail is a great way to stay right where you are.  

4. You suck even more at managing the other 22 hours.   
Spending 3+ hours per day on E-mail, Facebook, or watching TV is the best way I know to stay right where you might be right now or a few years from now – fat, broke, and with no life.  So why do people do it?  Because it’s easy.  When left to choose between an important task and an easy task, unless you are disciplined, committed, and accountable you will pick easy.  

Get this: checking E-Mail 30+ times per day or spending mindless time surfing people’s picture albums on Facebook will not move you closer to your dream.  Don’t give me that crap about ‘it’s how I stay connected’ or ‘I need to be available at all times in case my boss or important customer contacts me.’  That is BS and just your way to justify such kindergarten like behaviour.

5. You have not written down your Dreams and/or they are not big enough.   
I ask people this question a lot: ‘What is your dream?’  Most people have very little idea, have not bothered to ever write it down, or are shooting way lower than what I feel they are capable of.  How can you ever expect to reach something that you have never even bothered to write down?  And how can you motivate yourself when the dream doesn’t make you gasp in astonishment and disbelief at how big it is?

Bonus!
6. Being so action and task oriented that you never have time to reflect on where all this activity is actually taking you.
Driven, ambitious people are doers.  We take action.  This is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because action helps get things done.  A curse because more action can make us exhausted, unfocused, and wondering if it will actually pay-off in the rewards we seek.  What if you stopped a lot of ‘doing’ and took some time to think if all the ‘doing’ was actually leading where you wanted it to take you?  I think you don’t do this because you’re afraid of quiet, non-doing time and what you mind find if you try it.   

To sum up:

Cancerous thinking and terrible time management skills are costing you time, money, and happiness. If you simply worked on changing your thinking and managing your time better you would be in a much better position to pursue your dreams and become super successful. The solution is not doing more – it is thinking better and doing less. Don’t waste anymore time, money, or happiness – you only have one life, so make the most of it!

I am working on my tan this summer - a tall ordeal for a guy as white as I am.

There are a lot of great things about Summer – the weather for one and a lot of people seem happier and more relaxed.  Life is good! Throw some more shrimp on the Barbie and pass me a cold one.

However, if there is one thing I hate about Summer, it is this:

Using Summer as an excuse to be a PUNK about your life.

A punk?

Yes, you heard me. A punk!

What does that mean?

For me, a punk is someone who ‘shuts its down’ for the Summer.

It’s someone that sees Summer as a 2 month vacay – not only from those things we may need a vacation from (work, school, etc.) BUT ALSO the choices/decisions WE DO NOT NEED a vacation from.

Like what, you ask?

• Making a necessary decision (to START something new we badly need to begin or STOP something that is not working or hurting us, for example)
• Taking action on an idea that sits dormantly in our mind, screaming like a little kid to get out.
• Seizing opportunities to learn, grow, or expand ourselves.

The punk inside us says:

‘Screw that. I’m going to the beach. I’ll get around to it in September.’

And what do the rest of us do to discourage this kind of punk-like behaviour?

Nothing. We actually encourage it!

How? Look around you… how many groups, activities, schools, etc. do you know that shut down for the Summer? How many great things are postponed because Summer is a ‘slow time?’

I hate this.

It’s like we are Summer’s abusive spouse – enjoying the great parts but taking advantage of Summer’s generosity by deciding to not fully live.

No more.

Bottom Line:

Go to the beach. Get outside. Enjoy yourself. Live it up. But when you hear that little punk inside tell you that Summer is a time to watch passively from the sidelines as life passes you by, do me a favour:

Kick that little bugger in the butt and tell him not to come back until Christmas!

At the core, the WHAT is about finding less meaningful, time sucking tasks that make us feel good but drain away valuable time for harder, more impactful activities.

Now, the more important question:

WHY would anyone let a productivity draining behaviour (such as checking e-mail 50 times per day) prevent them from having the time to:  

• accomplish high value tasks at their job.
• exercise every single day.    
• read a book per week.
• spend actual quality time with friends.  
• solve world hunger (or any other wildly worthwhile global cause.)

If a low value activity (like incessant e-mail checking) is sucking up the time you could be devoting to more impactful activities like these, something needs to change. 

Let’s look at the top 3 reasons WHY you may be behaving this way:

1. Insecurity Around Preserving Your Precious ’Bizmage’ - (New word I just made up: BIZ (BUSY) + IMAGE = Bizmage)

‘I have to check my e-mail as soon as it is delivered.  What if I miss something really important?’

Reality: Being someone who gets majorly hard tasks done in a compressed time frame will make you the MAN at your office.  This is the image you want… you will stand out and move up rapidly.  As well, it will more than make up for any risk in missing something trivial because you haven’t checked your e-mail in the last 15 mintues. 

More importantly, I would question the productivity level of anyone that looks down on me because I am not ready to fully debrief the e-mail they sent me 87 seconds ago.  Maybe this person should also read this post as well? 

2. General Avoidance of Activities Perceived as ‘Hard’

‘I will just take a quick look at my E-Mail In-Box before starting ________.’ (very important activity)

Reality: The ONLY way you will advance in your career, become successful, and gain respect and admiration from your boss is by doing the HARD things.  Answering e-mail 50 times per day is actually a lot easier and will only make you appear busy… not effective.  Recognize this for what it is… an excuse centred on avoidance of the things you KNOW you need to get done.  Does this excuse show up in other parts of your life?  

As well, it is virtually impossible for anyone to just ‘briefly’ look at an e-mail in-box without wanting to answer, forward, or take action.  It’s like asking a fat person at an all-you-can-eat restaurant to order off the menu.  Not happening! 

3. Incorrect Assumptions About Others’ Expectations

‘I need to respond to this e-mail right away or I will be in trouble, lose my client’s respect, etc.’

Reality: Your perception of people’s reactions is 100% wrong: 

• First, despite the urgent tone, most peope are not expecting a response in 15 minutes.  In fact, the person sending the e-mail is actually the absolute worst person to assess urgency level.  Why?  Because EVERYTHING is urgent from their point-of-view.  It’s usually not.    
• Second, most people are simply E-Mail Jockeys.  They are trying to do as little as possible to move the message around while adding as little value to it as possible.  The worst thing you can do is get back to them quickly with another e-mail or the information they were looking for in the first place.  Why?  Because an E-Mail Jockey is trying to avoid meaningful, high value work in order to appear busy… that’s why they are sending you an urgent e-mail in the first place! 
• Third, people that respond to an e-mail within a few minutes actually make me feel weird… like they have been sitting around doing nothing for the last 147 minutes.  I know I am a pretty cool dude and all but is there anything else happening in their neck of the woods or am I it??!!    

The bottom line here is that I am asking you to take a real hard look at WHY you do things the you do.  Are your WHY’S really legitimate?  Or are they truly just an excuse/smoke screen to preserve a certain image but move you no closer to achieving the big, hairy, audacious goals that you are too busy to move closer to?

• Day 1 – Created Heavens and Earth, created light, separated the light from the darkness – called light ‘day’ and darkness ‘night’
• Day 2 – Separated the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens – called the waters of the heavens ‘sky’

My Question for God: ‘Why not combine the activities of Day 1 and Day 2 to get more done?’  
God’s Answer (I am guessing as he actually didn’t respond verbally): ‘I know what I am doing, kid.’   

Currently, I am in the midst of my own Day 1 or Day 2 creation in setting up this Blog and a Life Coaching practice focused on improving the lives of Young Professional Men (YPM’s.)  While on Day 1 or 2, it’s really easy for me to get caught up in the pressure, anxiety, and stress of all that needs to be created (ie. Day 3-6 stuff) like setting up a website, posting on my blog, using Twitter/Facebook/Linked-In, etc.  There is always more and more to do, read, or learn. 

However, this morning, I tried to look at creation of the earth (slightly more important than what I am doing!) from God’s perspective.  It appears that he went about a major task like this with much more ease… here is what I see in my imagination (by the way, I am pretty sure God would speak in italics and bold):  

‘I have some big things to do today here on Day 1, such as creating the Heavens and Earth… I will do my best at that and leave Day 2 stuff, such as creating the sky,  for Day 2.’

There’s a freedom and ’lightness’ for me in seeing that God handled the creation of the earth as a 6 day process… no rushing, pressure, or anxiety around trying to do more in less time.

What are you creating right now that you feel anxiety over because you are trying to do Day 2 stuff on Day 1?    

• Finding the most relevant information and not drowning in the tsunami of web pages, resources, and books that you could find in the search
• Capturing this data in a way that you will retain it
• Effectively use the data when you are actually in action mode

• What essential data are you missing?
• What’s the best way to gather and use it?  

• Encouragement/support
• Accountability (get your ass in gear pursuing this, friend!)
• Ideas to refine or execute the Dream
• Resources or connections with other people 

• What impact will this dream have on the people it affects?
• What impact will this dream have on you (your outlook on life, energy level, aliveness quotient) and the people you come into contact on a day-to-day basis? (your family, friends, neighbours, community) 

• I see positive, optimistic, loving people that care for each other, the community, and the world.
• I see less social problems.
• I see more people saying ‘YES’ or ‘HOW CAN WE DO THIS?’ vs. ‘NO’ and ‘THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN’
• I see less time devoted to thinking about how much life sucks, how tired/drained/busy we are, and how badly we need a vacation/drink/drug/tub of ice cream to make ourselves feel better.  

1. Lack of Time

• check e-mail every 30 seconds
• send 75 text messages every 5 mins 
• ‘tune out’ in front of mindless television
• view your Facebook ‘friend’s’ 300 photo albums

2. Lack of Worthiness

3. Lack of Experience

4. Lack of Certainty (ie. risk is too high)

5. Lack of 80/20-ing the MEANS (path) to your END (dream) 

Creating too many seemingly related or connected steps that move you no closer to pursuit of the dream and actually cause you to give up or move further and further away.

• find 2-3 very effective steps (the 20% that produces 80% of the result) that you can take in the next 24 hours (very compressed time frame)
• start doing them! 

Here is what I think are the 4 Major Contributors to lack of productivity… in essence, this answers the question:

WHAT causes me not to get things done?

1. Time ‘Vampires’ - low impact activites that suck lifeblood (seconds) away slowly but surely. 

• Socially Acceptable Time Wasters with Unclear Time Limits and/or Objectives (ie. meetings, lunches, golf tournaments – yes, I belive even golf tournaments should have some purpose in them other than a free day away from the office)
• Responding Reflexively to Interuptions as they happen (ie. e-mail alert gongs – YEAH!  I HAVE 1 NEW MESSAGE! SWEET!, unscreened phone calls)
• Ridiculously Unproductive Habits that Resemble a Crack Habit (like checking E-Mail 50x per day… seriously, you might as well just buy heroin) 
• General Go-To Time Wasters with No Objective or Time Limit (mindless tv, web surfing, blog reading, social media networks – start doing this and try to stop… you can’t… bring some potato chips while you do this.)
• Number and Length of Set/Scheduled Commitments (5 mins before it starts, how pumped are you about attending your 9th scheduled meeting of the day?)

2. “To Do List” Problems

• To Do List is non existent - you exist completely in reactive mode.
• To Do List is not ranked by Importance (too long, lacks 80/20-ing, no connection with overall goals)

3. “Next Steps/Actions” Problems 

• Overestimate Time to Complete - (‘That’s pretty important so I should have it done by 2019.’) 
  • Parkinson’s Law (we attribute more time to completion as items increase in importance… usually, this just causes a delay in getting started)
• Next Action not clear (without this, it’s really easy to see a steep mountain in front of you called ‘Mt. Do It Tomorrow’)

4. USER (ie. YOU and ME) Issues

• Lack of Overall Energy
  • Sleep, improper nutrition, sporadic exercise, lacking renewing or recharging activities (not fueling yourself with high grade gasoline will cause a transmission failure)
  • No Downtime – constant action/motion leading to energy depletion.

• Distracting and Debilitating Mindsets

  • General Negativity/Cynicism/Discontent (not knowing what the heck you are doing is like a mind cancer)
  • Mind distractions/drains (thoughts focused on your poor health, relationship struggle, or debt suck up motivation and productivity like a sponge)
  • All or Nothing Thinking – 1 thing goes wrong so the whole day is shot (throwing away a whole day, week, or year over a failure makes absolutely no sense)
  • Stacking – a disruption (lack of morning routine, traffic) or conflict that stacks (like a teapot ready to blow due to pressure)  
• Environmental Roadblocks 
  • Cluttered home, office, desk, computer, or e-mail (look at your desk or e-mail inbox and confidently tell me that these are 100% organized)
  • Lacking, broken, or inappropriate tools such as computer software, phone, etc.  (Is there stuff in your home or office that doesn’t work because you haven’t changed the batteries??!!)

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be writing a series of posts on what I think is even more important than the ‘WHAT?’ list above… which is ’WHY?’:

WHY do we let productivity zappers prevent us from achieving and moving forward in our lives?

Feel free to comment below on WHAT causes lack of productivity in your life.

I found a cool Blog called PluginID (www.pluginid.com) I am going to implement 2 of the ideas I found there over the next 31 days:

1. The 21 Day Challenge (I am making it 31 days!)

http://www.pluginid.com/21-day-challenge

The basic premise is to find an area of our self-image or self-talk that we want to work on.

Here is mine…
I find that while walking or being in public places (gym, restaurant, store, elevators, etc), I generally avoid contact with strangers because I feel that they are preventing me from my fulfilling my agenda at that time (get from Point A to Point B.)

In fact, I find myself thinking the worst of people sometimes as I am in these settings… the self talk in my head resorts to finding what is wrong with them rather than what is right.

I want everyone to see me as friendly, funny, and caring. I want to see others as creative, resourceful, and whole… not broken, annoying, or unlovable.

Here is the method…
a. Vividly Imagine a Time When You Were Being How You Wanted
For me, the last time I was acting the way I wanted on a consistent basis was when I worked as a Bouncer (friendly, no fighting, and not a goon) at an on-campus bar in University – I am going to use this.

b. Picture Yourself in a New Scenario, Being How You Want to Be
I will picture myself walking through the streets and in public places as above.

c. Realize You are Going to Die
Great to put things into perspective!

d. Think of a Problem or Issue that is Holding You Back
Explore it by asking yourself if there is a rational reason to hold this.
That people I don’t want anything from (ie. in public places) are generally annoying. NOT TRUE OR RATIONAL!

2. 5 Ideas to Get More Done

http://www.pluginid.com/get-more-done/

Read the article to learn more about the 5 ideas… here is how I am implementing these:

a. Do the Hardest Task First
1) Work – tasks I find the hardest to do:
a. Update Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software program with my Sales activity.
b. Find and contact new Prospects
2) Personal – tasks I find the hardest to:
a. Update Coaching CRM, Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In)
b. Show Love to my Network

I will start each segment of my day by doing these activities.

b. Process E-Mail Once per Day (I have tried doing this several times but I am not going to commit fully.)

c. Adopt a Numbers Based Schedule (THIS IS BRILLANT! I PUT TOGETHER A MONTHLY CALENDAR CHART – see below)
1) In Bed @ 11 PM
2) Reading – at least 15 mins per day.
3) 15 mins of meditation 2x per day.
4) 1 Blog entry per day.
5) Dance naked around our condo to music 1x per day
6) Read Affirmation/Goals 2x per day
7) Visualization Exercise (21 Day Challenge above)
8) E-Mail checked 1x per day to empty

d. Read My Goals and Get Emotional

e. Have Visible Affirmations
Mine:

1) I make $20,000 per month.
2) I work hard and provide value.
3) I work on one task at a time.

3. 31 Days to a Better Blog

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/05/28/get-your-own-copy-of-the-31-days-to-build-a-better-blog-workbook/

My 3rd idea to implement… I purchased this E-Book online and started working through it. However, to really sink in the learning, I am going to Blog about each day.

So, for the next 31 days (except for a couple here and there where I won’t have access to a computer) you will see:

• Anywhere I faltered on Ideas 1 and 2 above – accountability.
• My summary of the Better Blog step for that day as well as the action that come out of it.