Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

7 habits, Accomplishment, Achievement, Big Accomplishments, Getting Things Done, mini-habits, Small things

“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” John Burroughs

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_burroughs_120946?src=t_wisdom

Consistent Small Actions Lead to Huge Results

Sometimes taking the smallest action can lead to greatness. How many pages will you read in a year if you dedicate just 10 minutes a day to reading? How many pages could you put toward your book if you wrote one page a day? How many miles could you run if you ran a half-mile each day? How many books could you read, classes could you take, languages could you learn, if you only did a little each day?

I asked you all these questions to drive home a point. It’s the small actions, compounded over time, that deliver results. Not only do these small actions build upon one another, but they also build your confidence, improve your self-esteem, and give your brain a good dose of pleasurable neurochemicals.

I don’t care how big your goal is. Break it down into tiny, discreet, steps that you can accomplish in a short time. After a few months, you’ll see progress. That progress is motivating.

Another benefit of tackling these small steps is that you can work on multiple fronts and still accomplish a great deal. Read a little, write a little, exercise a little, pray a little, learn a little. Over time you will have accomplished a great deal, not to mention avoiding the stress of trying to take on projects that are too big, goals that are too big, or jobs that are too big.

Three Books

Consistent action, moving forward methodically, and just chipping away at something works. I learned all this reading a book called, Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. It is one of those books that you read again and again.

In fact, there are three books I read each year in December, right before kicking into the New Year. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen, and you guessed it, Mini Habits by Stephen Guise.

Each book contributes to my new year differently. 7 Habits contribute by refreshing my drive to improve my character. Getting Things Done helps me refresh my desire to be organized and productive. Mini Habits helps me revisit the power of creating life-long habits by doing “stupid-simple” tasks each day that transform into powerful habits over time.

I really enjoy reading and learning new things and always on the lookout for that next, great book that will have a real impact on my life. I haven’t found any new ones but I’m still looking. If you are having difficulty in your life and you want to take charge of yourself, these books are a great start. You may not get everything that I have gotten from them, but you will learn something and that “something” will alter your current glide path.

There are so many personal stories I could tell you about failure and disappointment but who wants to hear about that? Take my advice: Read these books. In combination, if you buy the Kindle versions, they’ll run you less than $30. Thirty dollars is two large pizzas, a Starbucks coffee for six days, or a trip to the movie theater. If you’re tired of failing, lost control of your life, and have lost track of where you want to go in your life, read these books. They are life-changing.

For those of my readers in the United States, I hope you had a nice Halloween. We had plenty of Trick or Treaters visit our home yesterday.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Thinking before doing

Tags

Contemplation, David Allen, Execution, Getting Things Done, Learning from Others, Prioritization, reflection

“Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” – Peter Drucker

Anytime I’ve taken the time to really think through a project before I begin working on it, the more effective I am. It took me a long time to realize the wisdom in this. I, like a lot of my colleagues, would just jump in and get working only to find out we wasted time, missed critical steps, or hit the wrong target.

This quote offers a simple truth: Anything we create is first created in our mind, then brought into reality. I accomplish this kind of work by thinking about what I want to do. Then, I take some time to research, investigate, inquire about what it will take to accomplish a certain goal. Most of the time, someone else has already done this. So, it makes sense to look at what steps they took and then use this as a model for my own projects. Obviously, there may be some unique steps you need to incorporate to accomplish your specific goals but always remain open to other people’s experiences. They may offer a way to do something that helps avoid problems they already experienced.

This idea was reinforced by David Allen in his book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free productivity. He talks about the natural planning model, which looks like this:

• Defining Purpose and Principles
• Outcome visioning
• Brainstorming
• Organizing
• Identifying Next Actions

Each of these steps is natural to the way we create things. We first develop an idea and begin thinking about how that idea would look in our reality. We then brainstorm and research all of the things we need to do to make our idea a real thing. We then organize the actions we uncover during our research and brainstorming and then begin working through these actions in the form of next actions.

The real challenge in using this model or way of working is to take the time to really reflect. What do we want? How do we get what we want? Take your time. Think. Then execute. After you begin executing the action steps you’ve devised, you’ll begin to realize some gaps or the need for further action steps, particularly if this is something you’ve never done before. That’s ok. The key is to reflect each day on what we did yesterday, plan what we will do tomorrow, and execute.

Planning becomes easier when we learn the length of time it takes to do something, it also helps us figure out what is really important for the next day and helps us complete things in the order we’ve set them to be executed. Take some time at the end of your day or at the beginning of your day to choose which action steps you’ll take and then get them on your calendar, keeping in mind all of the other commitments you have made (dentist appointments, gym time, etc.). Once you have your plan in place, just knock out the steps. Then do the same thing the next day.

David Allen defines a project as a task which contains more than one step to accomplish. Subsequently, you probably have a lot more projects to accomplish than you would initially think. Take the time to brainstorm each of these projects. What do you need to do first? What do you need to do next? What other steps need to be added based on your current activities? Take the time to think through all of these things and you’ll get closer and closer to your goals much sooner and in a more organized fashion. You’ll also capture the things you learned along the way, so if you ever tackle this type of project again, you’ll have a much easier time knocking that one off of your to-do list the next time around.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. I hope you have a great Wednesday!

Until next time.

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Pablo Picasso – Procrastination

Tags

David Allen, Discomfort, Fear, Getting Things Done, Pablo Picasso, Procrastination, To-do Lists

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso

Well, this quote deals with procrastination.

Why do we procrastinate? There are quite a few reasons. These reasons can all be distilled to two things—Fear and Discomfort.

We fear we’ll screw up. We’ll fear that we aren’t good enough. We’ll fear that we’re wasting time.

Discomfort deals with those tasks we just don’t want to do. We don’t want to clean our home, cook that meal, or go to the gym. They are all uncomfortable. Most people don’t want to do these things. So, we put things off and off and off and we end up adding to a pile of things we haven’t done that we should have.

How do we counter procrastination? By taking action. We do something. Whether it’s writing a page toward your new book, grabbing a vacuum cleaner and do one room in your house, or grabbing that first dirt dish and putting in the dishwasher. Take action, regardless of how small that thing we have to do is.

Once you complete this little action you’ll feel better. You’ll feel a sense of accomplishment. You’ll feel relief that you did one thing on that long list of to-dos.

Or don’t. It’s your life. You can let the things you need to do pile up and get to a point where you won’t know where to start. You’ll be paralyzed. Your stress levels will increase because things that are not done produce stress, particularly if you know you have to do them at some point.

So, take some time today to brainstorm and write all of the things down you need to do. Some of these things will be daily activities that you’ll have to add to some sort of checklist. Others will be “one and done” tasks. You do them once and they’re done. Others will be more complex and tasks that may take a few months to complete. With these, you’ll have to spend some time breaking that task down into meaningful steps and knock each one out as you go in the order that makes the most sense to you.

One book I read every year is Getting Things Done by David Allen. This is one of the best “how to” books on personal time management there is. I highly recommend it. The book will give you a system of tracking your tasks, executing those tasks, and how to keep moving forward. I highly recommend it.

Well, that’s it for today folks.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Multitasking is a No Go

Tags

Dan Millman, David Allen, Getting Things Done, Mono-tasking, Multitasking, Time Chunking

Today’s quote:

“I learned that we can do anything, but we can’t do everything…at least not at the same time.” – Dan Millman

I used to be a consummate multitasker. I’d be on the phone, while looking at my email, thinking about a project later that is coming due, and gandering at Facebook or a menu at a restaurant I was contemplating for lunch. Obviously, this is a horrific way to conduct business.

The book that got me thinking this way was Getting Things Done, by David Allen. In his book, he talks about categorizing tasks into contexts. These contexts could be phone calls, computer work, reading, writing, etc. By putting your to-dos in a context-driven format, you will be more focused on getting “like” things done. For example, if I have to call 40 people today, I focus on making those calls in one big chunk on my calendar. Time chunking is a great way to remain focused on one single group of to-dos.

As you move from one call to the next, you become more efficient as you go, because this is a collection of tasks that all require the same actions. Look at the number, type the number into your phone, dial the number, run through your agenda with the person your talking with, terminate the call, and document the call in your CRM software.

You can do this with anything you have to do. I chunk my time to do the writing for school, writing for my blog, writing for my book. I chunk my time into reading the various books I have on my reading list. I chunk the time for hitting the gym and exercising. I chunk the time for eating, meditation, etc.

I combine this chunking with a disciplined use of the Pomodoro technique to remain focused on the one thing my “time chunk” has me doing. If you can run your day this way, I promise you will see a huge jump in your productivity.

The lesson today: Do one thing at a time or group like things into a time chunk on your calendar. Use some means of timing yourself so you stay focused on that task(s) until your timer goes off and it’s time to take a break.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

David Allen, Getting Things Done, GTD, Next Actions, Organization, Planning, To-do Lists

Today’s Quote:

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.” – David Allen

If you have not read David Allen’s Book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, I highly recommend it.

His book will open your eyes to how efficient you can become by merely capturing all of your next actions and learning how to put them into various silos that indicate what status a particular next action is in. For example, if you have to do something, but that something needs someone else to do something first, you can put that into a silo called “waiting for”. This is just one example of the many tricks in David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Click on the title above and it will take you to Amazon.com to purchase. I’m not an affiliate or anything. I read this book annually and it is just terrific.

Well, that’s it for today folks.

Until next time…

Dave