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I am a small business Conversation Consultant and public speaker that uses the power of the internet to leverage your success. Productivity in Context is a web magazine focused on Productivity and tools for organizing. Make this your headquarters for improving your life and work through increased mindfulness, education, and workflow practices.

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I have a new post up at the work.life.creativity blog about dealing with ADD.

I had a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine on Saturday morning. We haven’t been able to keep in touch as much as we would have liked, especially with the way that 2008 ended for my own family. So we took some time to catch up, talk about how our businesses were going, and how we could work together in the future.

She happens to have a great deal of experience working with people who have ADD and chronic disorganization problems, and our conversation veered off into that territory in short order. It was a very profitable discussion, since I was able to “step back” and look at some of the things that had happened last year and how to avoid them in 2009. I have written about this before, but I believe that this is probably a good time to bring it up again:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective ADD Adults

First, let me start with the qualification that ADD and ADHD and other “Attention Inconsistency” difficulties are real, and that I am not a doctor. I struggle with this situation daily, sometimes I do well, other days are less than excellent.

These practices and this outlook work fairly well for me, your mileage may vary.

In order to get the most from the positive aspects of the ADD mind, such as creativity, originality, it is important to do our best to stay away from those things that make ADD a “negative” aspect of our lives. While many ADD adults resist structure, the truth is that our minds crave it. The secret is to discover a structure that engages our imagination, encourages our creativity, and is flexible enough for our individuality.

Read more — >

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/aec97w. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

At long last the e-book is ready! I have compiled all of the posts and worksheets from one of my most popular series into one download.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People E-book

If you are looking to get more information on how to implement the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in a Getting Things Done-style system you are in the right place. Over the course of the next few pages you will encounter lessons in personal change that can transform your life.

Because this is not exactly a simple concept to implement, I have created a set of 7 lessons that will guide you through the stages of implementation over the next 7 weeks. This should give you a chance to focus on each new habit in your life for one full week before implementing the next one. Some of the lessons are supplemented by a follow-up worksheet that I have created to help you start implementing the new habit.

Many of you have been requesting this, and I am pleased to provide the totally free information here:
For those of you who may not have read Stephen Covey’s landmark book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, here is a brief synopsis:

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

The chapters are dedicated to each of the habits, which are represented by the following imperatives:

1.Be Proactive. Here, Covey emphasizes the original sense of the term “reactive” as coined by Victor Frankl. You can either be proactive or reactive when it comes to how you respond to certain things. When you are reactive, you blame other people and circumstances for obstacles or problems. To be proactive means to take responsibility for everything in life. Initiative and taking action will then follow.

2.Begin with the End In Mind. This chapter is about setting long-term goals based on “true north” principles. Covey recommends formulating a “personal vision statement” to document one’s perception of one’s own vision in life.

3.Put First Things First. Here, Covey describes a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at short-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear not to be urgent, but are in fact very important. Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed upon in advance, rather than prescribed as detailed work plans.

4.Think Win/Win describes an attitude whereby mutually beneficial solutions are sought that satisfy the needs of oneself, or, in the case of a conflict, both parties involved. One of the most valuable benefits of this strategy is that all parties are involved in the mutual agreement. In this type of scenario, all the parties will be committed to the plan of action.

5.Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Covey warns that giving out advice before having empathetically understood a person and their situation will likely result in rejection of that advice. Thoroughly reading out your own autobiography will decrease the chance of establishing a working communication.

6.Synergize describes a way of working in teams. Apply effective problem solving and collaborative decision making. Appreciate value differences. Build on divergent strengths. Leverage creative collaboration. Embrace and leverage innovation.

7.Sharpen the Saw focuses on balanced self-satisfaction; regain what Covey calls “production capability” by engaging in carefully selected recreational activities.

In each lesson we will look into how to apply each of the Habits (or parts of them) in a meaningful ways, to synchronize with your own, personal productivity practice. I will ask you to take on three simple activities each week that will help you administer and adjust to your new habit.

Share your thoughts

I am very interested in how this e-book may be able to help you, especially in the new year as so many folks are working hard on their resolutions. Please leave a comment below.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/7wgj24. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

One of the pitfalls when you work at home is maintaining a consistent and persistent attitude toward getting your work done. When I am “working for myself” on a project that I have assigned to myself, the deadline seems less real, less urgent.

Last week I sorta jumped from one thing to another, until I was able to land a couple of client consultations and some marketing work. (…read more about my services here…) Then I was able to spring into action, getting the work done on time and under budget. This week, I have two of my own projects to complete, and there is a bit of a real time-element to them. I would very much like to have them done in two weeks. It’s time to buckle down.

Create a Weekly Schedule

I used my Open Office spreadsheet program to create a weekly schedule template. It runs Monday through Sunday, and includes all of the hours from 5:00 am to 8:00 pm (I like to get up early!):

This is a much-simplified version of the “7 Habits Weekly Planner” that we discussed previously. In fact, if you have trouble with filling in the 7 Habits planner, you may want to use the simple one as a rough draft for filling in this one:

In any case I used the worksheet on Sunday when I ran my Weekly Review in order to prepare for the tasks and projects that I wanted to accomplish this week. For more information about the 7 Habits Weekly Calendar please read these posts:Implementing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

And, as always, you can download the PDF version of the basic Weekly Schedule Planner.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People E-book

If you are looking to get more information on how to implement the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in a Getting Things Done-style system you are in the right place. Over the course of the next few pages you will encounter lessons in personal change that can transform your life.

Because this is not exactly a simple concept to implement, I have created a set of 7 lessons that will guide you through the stages of implementation over the next 7 weeks. This should give you a chance to focus on each new habit in your life for one full week before implementing the next one. Some of the lessons are supplemented by a follow-up worksheet that I have created to help you start implementing the new habit.

I would really like to hear your comments, start a discussion.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/3wjc9e. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

I have finally completed a series of posts on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and I am ready to release the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People E-book!

For the new readers, here are all of the posts in the series:

7 Weeks, 7 Habits, A Better You

• Habit One - Be Proactive
• Habit Two - Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit Three - Put First Things First, part I
• Habit Three - Put First Things First, part II
• Habit Four - Think Win/Win
• Habit Five - Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
• Habit Six - Synergize
• Habit Seven - Sharpen the Saw

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People E-book

If you are looking to get more information on how to implement the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in a Getting Things Done-style system you are in the right place. Over the course of the next few pages you will encounter lessons in personal change that can transform your life.

Because this is not exactly a simple concept to implement, I have created a set of 7 lessons that will guide you through the stages of implementation over the next 7 weeks. This should give you a chance to focus on each new habit in your life for one full week before implementing the next one. Some of the lessons are supplemented by a follow-up worksheet that I have created to help you start implementing the new habit.

Leave a comment, or send an e-mail to - stephen [at] hdbizblog.com

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5qzslq. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen