Welcome back! It's good to see you again. Please note that I am now publishing all new material at my hub site: StephenPSmith.com

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

Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling has some fantastic advice for salespeople, but I believe that anyone can benefit from reading this book.

Here are some of his tips for being successful, with a twist toward improving your productivity:

• Believe that you can - If you do not believe that you can get your act together and be productive you will surely fail. Ask Yoda.
• Create the right environment - Build a place where you can get your work done by minimizing distractions and interruptions. Turn off your e-mail program if you need to. Turn off your Twitter alerts, whatever you may need to get in the zone and get some work done.
• Have the right associations - If you hang around with other people that don’t get their work done, how do you expect to get any of your own done? Leave the moaners at the watercooler and kick the complainers out of your cubicle. You do not need them, they are not helping you. They are sucking you down.
• Expose yourself to what is new - If your current system isn’t working ask for help. Look at the people around you that accomplish everything they need to do and go hame at 5:00. What are they doing tht you can learn from?
• Plan for the day - It is a cliche that “failure to plan means planning to fail”. Start your day by making a list of 3 things that you must accomplish today. Then do them.
• Have the answers that your customers and prospects need - Develop the habit of carrying a notebook with you for capturing information. Then process it into your reference system. When someone asks you a question, you should have the answer at your fingertips.
• Take advantage of opportunity - Being aware of the things that you need to work on in each appropriate context means that you can take advantage of down-time to work on other tasks. Carry the reading material that you need to catch up on with you all the time. This way when you find yourself waiting for something, you can do a little reading.
• Take action - Your tasks and projects will not get done by themselves. Do something, anything, to move yourself closer to completion every single day.
• Take a risk - Sometimes you have to take a chance. Look at your tasks and projects, are they still worth doing? Ask yourself what would be the worst outcome if you just deleted some of those things from your list…Can you live with that? Would you lose anything important? Maybe you can just let it go.
• Keep your eyes on the prize - All of the tasks and projects that you are working on have defined conditions of completion. Know what being done looks like so that your actions move you toward that goal.
• Balance yourself - All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. The goal of improving your productivity is not to get 18 hours of work done in 12. The goal is to get your work done so that you can enjoy life. Be done and be happy!
• Invest, don’t spend - Time, energy, motivation. These are some of the various currencies that you have to exchange for being productive. Make sure that you are investing them in your work, so that you get a return. If you are just spending them, they go away forever.
• Develop and maintain a positive attitude - We all face adversity, obstacles, and painful situations. They will not last. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not an on-coming train (though it may feel like that sometimes). When you feel good about your work you will get it done faster, better, and more efficiently. It is the work that you do not enjoy that slows you down. Delegate it.

Which of these do you think is most important for you? Have you any other pithy pieces of advice youd like to share? Leave a Comment!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/67wpek. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

I spent a couple of days last week looking all over Maine for a bookstore that carried the Moleskine Citybook for Chicago. I wanted it so that I could have a separate place to capture all of my notes and contact info for the trip coming up in two weeks.

Try as I might, I could not find one. And I didn’t feel like ordering one from Amazon and having to wait for it, I wanted to work on it NOW!
So, I happened to have an extra 5″ x 8″ Moleskine-type notebook lying around, so I hacked it myself. Keep in mind that this is strictly utilitarian, and not meant to be pretty or elegant. Here are the pics:

This is going to be good.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5q3j6f. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Today’s post is from  The Daily Saint. 

There is never enough time to do all that I want to do and have it done right. This is a sentiment that I hear repeated quite often by busy executives and administrators. This type of comment led me to consider how I am able to juggle all of the different responsibilities I have. I thought about all of the literature, workshops, conferences, and professionals out there who have myriad ways of helping me get and stay organized. Upon reflection, however, it is something of my own design that works best for me. I utilize a 3-pronged preparation plan that doesn’t take long to employ, yet, is invaluable to me. 

Planning 1-3weeks out

Begin by spending a few minutes each week looking ahead 1-3 weeks out. Although I keep a calendar of events, activities, and meetings that covers several months, in my experience, to plan tasks and projects in any great detail beyond this point is time wasted. Consider the following steps as you begin planning:

• Look at your calendar and/or agenda books. Establish what is fixed (i.e. meeting with the boss) and what may be negotiable. Use this information to help plan benchmarks and deadlines
• Determine what projects and tasks must be worked on and/or completed in the next 1-3 weeks
• Break larger projects and tasks into parts; determine benchmarks and/or deadlines for each part
• Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize…What can wait until week 3? Week 2? What needs to be worked on next week?
• Create separate lists of tasks for each of the next 3 weeks.

The more you utilize this type of planning the more comfortable you will feel with it. Soon it will become second nature and the time spent preparing will decrease. Also, once you have the first three weeks planned out, each subsequent week will be mostly refining the work you have already done. The benefits of planning ahead 1-3 weeks can be enormous and include:

Gaining perspective (“10,000 foot view”) instead of just dealing with what is right in front of you

• Allowing you to deal with relevant and meaningful work based on intentional prioritization
• Helping you to avoid last minute rush jobs that are more likely to have mistakes and create much more stress for you and your colleagues
• Giving time to catch mistakes and make revisions before being finalized
• Allowing you to deal better with unexpected issues that inevitably arise

People will often ask me how I find time to do such preparation. I ask them, how can anyone work effectively without making the time to do it? You must make the time; planning your activities, tasks, and projects must become a priority. The time you spend planning will come back to you tenfold. I am convinced preparing this way will help you focus, deal with unexpected problems, and, ultimately, save you time. In the coming weeks as we discuss and you implement weekly and daily planning you will save even more time and your productivity and effectiveness will increase as well.

*Posted with permission from author, Phil Piercy 

Resources for the Road

Be Cool.  Be Organized.

One Simple Question About Productivity

Keep it Simple: Goal Setting

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5ntp3l. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen