Tag Archives: productivity
What to do when you’re thrown out of whack
I love food. Anyone who says food is not a reward for a job well done is obviously delusional. A potential down side to loving food, of course, is not loving the way too much of it leads to you … Continue reading
Don’t mess with the Mouse: What Mickey can tell you about playing your way to wealth
As I look forward to attending a conference in central Florida, I realize that the host city’s name is practically synonymous with one of the most recognizable faces in the world: Orlando = Walt Disney World = Mickey Mouse. … Continue reading
5 ways you’re choking the life out of your business
A few weeks ago I was the lay leader of the service at my Unitarian Universalist church. This meant I was responsible for choosing the theme, finding readings and stories to illustrate the theme, selecting congregational hymns, and … Continue reading
It’s a jungle out there. Which animal are you?
The entrepreneurs I work with most successfully typically represent one of three members of the animal kingdom: the mynah birds are continually seduced by shiny objects, AKA anything that’s touted as new, exciting, sure-fire, or what “all successful ____________ … Continue reading
Are you effective or efficient? And what makes you think you have to choose?
Sometimes it’s easy to confuse efficiency for effectiveness, and that confusion can really trash your business results. Why? Because efficiency is the ability to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort, while effectiveness is the ability … Continue reading
Think an entrepreneur can’t learn from a master harpist? Think again.
You’ve heard it time and again: Successful people have a whole spectrum of skills in common. One of those skills is an ability and willingness to learn from anyone who has good ideas – not just experts in their … Continue reading
Three ways to make counting down add up
I recently celebrated a birthday, which means I’m less than a year away from the Big 6-0. While I expect my family and friends to throw me a seriously butt-kicking party to celebrate this major milestone, I also realize that … Continue reading
Who’s running your business: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?
My husband, Joseph, is a confirmed movie fanatic. While we have a fairly enormous collection of DVD’s, he’s always sampling new ones from the library, and I never know what will show up next. Recently he brought home a … Continue reading
Are you a human being or a human doing?
Sometimes it takes a cosmic 2X4 to get my attention. Other times, a Nerf™ bat will do. This has been a bat week, fortunately. I’ve been getting all kinds of nudges that have a similar theme: slow down, be … Continue reading
Are you resolute or just obstinate?
Years ago I was working with a counselor to help me deal with having been widowed at a very young age. Once we did most of the grief work, we started exploring other areas. During one of those later … Continue reading
Are distractions strangling your business?
I’m one of perhaps seven people in the United States who actually likes the ground cover known as Creeping Charlie. The rest of the country views it as a noxious invader that will strangle the grass they’re so proud … Continue reading
Time for a change! 5 ways to squash your stress
Are you normal? For your sake, I hope not. “Normal” entails—at least in America—feeling overwhelmed, under-appreciated, tired, and stressed out. And while that may be the norm, that doesn’t mean it’s natural, and it’s certainly nothing that most of … Continue reading
Is it an epic fail or just a mistake?
There are just two groups of people in the world: those who have experienced the fateful moment when you realize your great idea turned out to be not so great after all, and those who will experience the fateful … Continue reading
“So what?” as a growth strategy
At some point, every one of us has heard (or said) that challenging, often-snarky question: While many teenagers may view its primary goal as parental aggravation, savvy entrepreneurs know that this simple question represents a powerful strategy for … Continue reading
Are you in there?
A premature burial is a great way to sabotage your success. While an actual in-the-ground burial will certainly slow things down, there’s a more subtle but almost equally effective way to bring your forward motion to a grinding halt. You … Continue reading
3 quick and easy ways to run your tank dry
Most of us would agree that running a business requires a fair amount of energy. You can probably identify activities that charge you up—as well as activities that suck all the life out of you. But if you’re concerned about … Continue reading
How to move from chaos to calm: 5 steps to making easier choices
One of the most common self-sabotaging habits out there is indecisiveness. For a business owner, the number of choices to be made each day is truly staggering. What are my top three priorities for today? Is this prospect likely to … Continue reading
5 steps to protect your business from YOU
Each year, people in the United States celebrate Independence Day on July 4th. But if you’re a solopreneur, you can choose any day to declare your independence from self-sabotaging habits. That’s what we’ll be exploring this month. ****************************************************** Of … Continue reading
Are you driving the bus or getting dragged behind it?
When you’re a business owner, you want to be in the driver’s seat. After all, a big reason many people start a business is so they can be their own bosses. The problem is that, if you’re not strategic, intentional, … Continue reading
Are you looking at the world through flies’ eyes?
It’s often challenging to be an entrepreneur, but it could always be worse. You could go through life as a fly. Not only are flies short-lived, annoying, disgusting disease carriers (let’s not even mention what they eat), but their view … Continue reading
Curiosity may kill the cat, but it can save YOUR butt.
Curiosity is a great business-development tool, despite how folk wisdom blames it for a lot of feline deaths. Why is this? Because curiosity will: create a can-do mindset that enables you to assume there is a solution to any obstacle, … Continue reading
How to make your planner your friend
Despite a recent mini-rant about how “productivity-enhancing” tools and technology can actually decrease your productivity, I do acknowledge that certain tools, used properly, can be an enormous amount in growing your business. A case in point is whatever you use … Continue reading
How to stay calm and focused (even if you’re now frantic and scattered).
You’ve been there. I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. You’ve got a zillion items on your Too Much To Do List, they’re all demanding your time and energy and attention, you’re trying to take care of as many as … Continue reading
Focus + creativity + powerful mindset = success.
The greater your focus on the important stuff, the greater the probability of you rising high in the ranks of successful entrepreneurs. Continue reading
Focus on the right activities leads to business success.
Have trouble focusing? Here are some tools to improve this crucial skill. Continue reading
Mindset, money, BrickBreaker – oh, my!
A positive, powerful mindset is crucial to business success. How’s yours? Continue reading
Are you dealing with eMAIL or eMAUL?
Successful entrepreneurs know how to manage their inbox so it increases their productivity instead of making them crazy. Continue reading
How to use “not now” to propel your business forward.
You can’t be productive if you don’t stay focused. Continue reading
How much of a hypocrite are you when it comes to walking your talk?
Most of us have probably heard the expression, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Kind of stinks, doesn’t it? That’s because its implicit message is, “What I’m telling you sounds good and I think you should do it, … Continue reading
The Few. The Proud. The Survivors.
Last Monday, I addressed how easy it is for your business to become a failure statistic. Let’s switch the focus today to how to become one of the minority of new businesses: the winners that get to celebrate their 10th … Continue reading
The minimalist guide to business development
You don’t have the luxury of bouncing from one business-building ploy to another. Here are some ways to keep you laser focused on activities that will actually pay off for you. Continue reading
Are you doing things for the first time EVERY time?
Reinventing the wheel is a common mistake that robs entrepreneurs of time, energy, and opportunity. An uncomfortable sense of déjà vu is typically an excellent clue that you’ve fallen prey to this results killer. For example, you may notice that … Continue reading
Three MORE time-management mistakes you don’t realize you’re making.
Isn’t it special that there are so many ways to misuse your precious time? In case you didn’t find any of your personal favorite weak spots in the post earlier this week, see if any of the following sound familiar. … Continue reading
Would you rather be comfortable or prosperous?
Jeff Olson, in his book The Slight Edge, observed that “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” In other words, unsuccessful people value their short-term comfort more than their long-term results. This seems to be a … Continue reading
5 Shortcuts for Clearing Up Backlogged Emails
Are you drowning in emails? What is that costing you in terms of energy, time, and money? Use these 5 shortcuts to tame your Inbox From Hell. Continue reading
7 clues that you’re busy instead of productive
Are you simply doing stuff, or are you making progress? See if any of these traps are keeping you busy and unproductive. Continue reading
Forget about improving on your weaknesses. Build on your strengths.
You’ll get a much bigger payoff and feel a LOT more confident and satisfied if you do more of what you’re good at and less of what you’re lousy at! Continue reading
The Evils of Stop-and-Go
The problem of stop-and-go business activity is that you never really acquire momentum and you waste huge amounts of time getting your head back in the game once you’ve walked away from an important task. Here are some strategies that will get you started and keep you moving forward. Continue reading
Runnin’ on Empty: The Importance of Re-charging
I’ve been feeling stressed lately and have had a hard time figuring out what was up. After a certain amount of whining, pondering, and ingesting mass quantities of chocolate, I realized I’ve been pushing too hard. Does any of this … Continue reading
