The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it.
- Alan Saporta
During physical activity, your mind is stimulated and potentially very  creative; yet few people take full advantage of this opportunity.

Use the time you spend doing physical work or exercising to come up with new ideas or resolve problems. When you do come up with solution ideas immediately pause to jot them down.

So don’t just “zone out” when doing something physical, use that increased blood flow to harness the power of your mind.

Have a great week!
- Bob

Photo by jef safi

Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.

- Albert Einstein

When is “good enough”, good enough?

That’s a question that haunts many of us. Perfectionism, while important in brain surgery, can become a roadblock.

One of the best examples of “good enough” is the MP3 audio file format. It delivers less that perfect fidelity, but because of its ability to compress audio files with an acceptable sound quality, an entire industry was born. Witness the growth of iTunes, now the largest distributor of music in the world.

True audiophiles may turn a deaf ear to the quality of an MP3 file, but to the rest of us it’s just fine. If the creators of the MP3 format tried for perfection, we’d still be listening to CDs or even vinyl records.

Where are you striving for perfection where “good enough” is all that’s needed?

Have a great week!

-Bob

Successful people choose to do the things unsuccessful people choose not to.
- Unknown

I learned this quote from a mentor many years ago.  It has stuck with me ever since.
We are blessed to have freedom of choice. But sometimes this works against us. Too often we choose to avoid doing positive things that are uncomfortable like changing habits or delivering bad news.

What are you choosing not to do?

Take a minute to identify some things you are choosing not to do.  Pick one and make a conscious effort to do it routinely over the next month.

Have a great week!

- Bob

Photo by BasileLeConquerant

I must create a system or be enslaved by another Man’s.
- William Blake

Whatever system you use to manage your work must use almost no thought on your part during it’s execution. If you find yourself asking “what do I do with this” or “where do I put that”, then you aren’t performing at your best.

The purpose of your workload management system should be to get everything in its place with little thought on your part. Thus saving your energy for more important matters. Your energy is highly valuable and very limited so don’t spend it on routine matters.

The efficiency of your system can be observed when processing your e-mail. The next time you work through your e-mail inbox pay attention to your own thought process. Do you find yourself having to make a decision about each message or do yo know instinctively what to do with them? And how many times have you made a decision about some of those messages in your inbox?

If the answer is a lot, you’re spending more time an energy on this then you should. It’s time to streamline.

It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important.
- Doris Lessing

What’s the most important thing you could be doing with your time right now? (Other than reading this post of course.)

Are you doing it?

We often gravitate toward the easy things when it’s time to decide what to do next.  It’s comfortable and gives us a false sense that we’re accomplishing something. It’s an easy trap to get into when things become hectic.

Don’t get lured into this trap. Each time you have to decide what to do next, think of your time as an investment to be used wisely.

Have a great week!

- Bob

Photo by Seq

Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years it can boast of a long series of successes.
- Ebner-Eschenbach

Do you find yourself wasting time in one-on-one meetings that go on too long?

Our mothers taught us to be polite to guests, which includes not asking them to leave. And many people just don’t catch on to the
subtle hints that you are finished.

So why not hold your meetings at their place instead?  This way you have control of when you leave.

Also try to pick times that help create a hard edge around the time, like just before lunch.

Be sure to bring some other work with you in the event the other person keeps you waiting.

Have a great week!

- Bob

Photo by Shenghung Lin

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the
significance of a clean desk?
– Laurence J. Peter

A colleague once said that clutter is the result of unmade
decisions. Look around you at the clutter in your office or home
and ask yourself what you should do with it. I’ll bet you’ve been
avoiding the answer. I know because I do it all the time.

One of the major reasons we allow things to accumulate is because
we don’t have a place to put them. Rather than do something about
it we allow it to sit until there’s time to take care of it.

This is a perfect week to make space or (or eliminate) the stuff
that has been accumulating throughout the year. First look at your
storage (filing space). Do you have enough room? Are your file
drawers bursting with old documents? If so block out a half day to
purge the old so that you have room for the new.

Have a Happy New Year!

– Bob

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded
our humanity.
– Albert Einstein

Recently at a very nice restaurant I observed a young gentleman
pecking away at his iPhone. He did this while sitting at the bar
with a friend and later throughout dinner…while he was eating. I
couldn’t help but thinking that he was missing out on a very good
meal and some quality time with a friend.

This incident made me realize how much we are allowing gadgets to
come between us and others. At the gym everyone (including me) is
plugged into an iPod. As a result there’s almost no interaction
between members. Are our our earbuds are turning us into solitary
beings?

As a geek myself I know how enticing these devices can be. But just
because we can be “connected” 24/7 doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
After all we’re still human and it’s important to connect with
others.

No productivity tip for this week. Have a wonderful holiday!

– Bob

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
-Gustave Flaubert

I often hear people say imposing a system on their work will stifle their creativity. But the opposite is true.

Having a system for handling routine tasks takes the thinking out of it which frees your mind for more creative pursuits. Each decision you make about where to put something what to do about it drains you a little of your energy.

Having a routine system for dealing with new e-mail, paper mail and voice messages removes much of the decision making. The decisions are made for you by the process. This liberates you from the energy drain of making a thousand little decisions (or the angst created by avoiding them).

So be more systematic and set your mind free.

Have a great week!

– Bob

You may delay, but time will not.
-Benjamin Franklin

Time management is really a misnomer. Unlike a football game, you can’t mange the game clock of your life. It keeps running whether you like it or not.

Because you can’t manage time you must instead manage how you choose to spend it. The choice is yours and yours alone. Always.

Sometimes we feel as if we have “no choice.” But is that really true? It may seem that way when all options are bad. However we still have the freedom to select between the bad ones.

What choices are you making about how you spend your time? Who is really in control?

Have a great week!

- Bob