Productivity begins with a plan
“I’m going to be more productive”
It sounds so easy – just kinda rolls off the tongue. In fact it’s so easy to say that we’ve all parrotted this phrase hundreds of times. The problem is that saying is not doing. This is just another one of those “little details” that often gets ignored.
1. Productivity begins with a plan
(photo courtesy of akaalias)
You will not become more productive by accident! It requires a combined commitment of time and effort – but your rewards will be substantial.
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What do you want to accomplish? What is your goal? The point of being more productive is so that you can move toward the realization of your goal. Do you have a goal? If not, then you need to stop right now and decide why you need to be more productive and then write it down.
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What is your level of dedication? A person who’s vision is defective needs to have it corrected before he/she begins to drive toward some distant point. Trying to accomplish anything without a clear statement of your goal is as impossible as trying to drive with defective vision. How will you know if or when you have succeeded? This unwillingness to commit your goal to paper provides an easy way out for many people. In fact when goals are not written down, they have no power and therefore are ineffective as a source of motivation. No accountability = no action.
2. Productivity moves beyond time management
- Being productive doesn’t end with time management. Though increased productivity has a time component, but it encompasses much more as Dustin M. Wax states in the cited article – productivity involves your personal fulfillment.
- But don’t forget the time component of productivity. Time is our most precious commodity and how we use our time is directly responsible for our level of achievement. Guard your time against time bandits.
3. Prepare for a productive day
Preparation is the mother of accomplishment. Devote a few minutes each day to creating a routine and asking yourself a few simple questions:
- What one thing can I do that will have the greatest impact on my production today? Then do it.
- How can I perform my duties in a more efficient manner? Ask others whom you value if they can see areas of your life that need improvement.
- What can I do to motivate and encourage my employees or fellow associates toward the accomplishment of our goals?
- How can I add value to others?
4. Some things that I do
- I keep a notebook or voice recorder with me at all times. Ideas, phone conversations, commitments – if you don’t record your thoughts, they will disappear – forever or at least until you have been sufficiently embarrassed by failing to keep a “forgotten” commitment.
- I use my notebook as an idea farm, planner, reminder and journal.
- I read my notes – often.
- I use an inexpensive ($29.95 at Office Depot) voice recorder when driving. I bought one after leaving the highway while trying to record my thoughts. I missed the mailbox, but not the lesson. Get a voice recorder.
- I prioritize my notes, then do the highest priority first and move on down the line.
- Anything left undone gets reevaluated and re-prioritized for the next day.
- I review old entries for new ideas.
5. Goal accomplished!
(photo courtesy of Wolfgang Staudt)
Success is the reward of persistence – a video demonstration
Are you successful?
- If you have to ask the question, then the answer is NO!
- If you have the ability to do more than you are currently doing, then the answer is NO!
- If no one is asking you for your advice on being successful, then the answer is NO! Millionaire Mommy currently boasts a subscribership of 2848 readers and that number is growing. I’ll bet that they read her posts to discover how she became a millionaire. People want her advice because she is successful.
Do you want to be successful?
Everyone wants to be successful, right? Not really. Everyone dreams of success, but few “do” anything that moves them toward success. The “doing” is a requirement for “having and enjoying”. What are you doing that will lead you to success?
Here are some clues:
- If you are doing the same things as all your friends and associates, then you will not be successful.
- Successful people are different by their very nature. They separate themselves not because they have special abilities, but because they have developed common abilities to uncommon levels. Everyone works, but they work hard. Everyone has an idea, but they pursue their idea. Everyone starts a fitness program, but they continue it.
- Successful people realize that success can be achieved because others have done it. Success is not a secret – it leaves clues. Do what successful people do and you will increase your chances of being successful.
- Successful people don’t sacrifice the “excellence of achievement” for the mediocrity of “good enough”.
What does success mean to you?
Let’s get to the point – No one is going to “give” you success. You must earn it and that may take time. Watch the following video that I found on Dethroner – it defines success on so many levels. This video is about eight minutes long, but worth every second. Some points to remember as you watch:
- Obstacles can be in your way even when you don’t see them.
- Troubles can chase you down.
- When you are down, others want a piece of you.
- Always fight for what you want.
- It helps to be a part of a “strong support network”.
- Never give up! Never quit!
You will be successful when you want success as badly as this calf wants to survive. It’s as simple as that.
How to increase your blog or website effectiveness with Websitegrader.com
If you have a blog, then you probably spend a lot of time thinking about:
- your next post
- how to best convey your message
- where you will find sources for visual images
- how you can get more traffic
How to get more traffic
Okay, I’m not going to give you a list of things that you can do to increase your exposure or tell you how to get other people to link to your blog or web-site.
I’m going to tell you to visit Websitegrader. Simply input your url (or any url), scroll down to the bottom and click on the “generate report” button. Websitegrader.com will run a series of diagnostics that analyze your blog/website for:
- On-page SEO – which includes things like number of keywords (and why you don’t need more than ten), header summary, image summary, interior page analysis and readability level
- Off-page SEO – domain info, google page rank, google indexed pages, date google last crawled your site, links
- much more – you’ll be amazed at how much info they can provide you about your blog and how to make it more marketable
- free – that’s right, it’s free
My initial results sucked!
The first time that I ran soupornuts.com and therotater.com was pretty sad. I think that I scored a 79/100 for soupornuts.com and 63/100 for therotater.com. The beauty of Websitegrader.com is that they tell you what you can do to correct the problem.
For example, after I found out how low my sites were scoring, I got busy. I would make changes and check again. Pretty soon, I was scoring in the 90’s for both sites.
I ran soupornuts.com through just prior to beginning this post to see where I stood. I was surprised to see a score of 88/100. After a quick check, I saw that three of the images on my page did not have alt tags. I quickly corrected those and ran websitegrader again. Poof – 92/100!
I just ran therotater.com and it scored 92/100 as well.
More tools and information
Websitegrader.com can also check your site to see how it is grading for your keywords and how it compares against your competitors. And they have a great blog.
No matter how many times you use this service, it cost nothing and provides you with invaluable information. Give it a shot – you won’t be disappointed.
Three reasons why we never reach our potential level of success
1. We deny that we have any potential
(photo by LabGP & SigOther’s)
No one expects you to do anything that you are not capable of. Right? Just convince everyone that you are currently performing at your maximum level of ability. After you’ve done that, you just coast.
The problem is that maintaining this facade can be difficult when circumstances cause you to rise above the level of mediocrity. In times of:
- great need – you find another income source so that you can purchase something that you desire
- urgency – you do more in less time when there is a time component
- catastrophe – you rise to high levels of performance when the situation leaves you no choice
- personal desire – you become more efficient and productive so that you can leave early for vacation
2. Procrastination – The I’ll do it tomorrow syndrome
There’s always plenty of time. Right? No!
- There is a limit to the time that you have available
- There is a limit to the amount of time that you will be able to perform at high levels
Time is the one resource that is limited – you only get a certain amount
Here is something to think about. The things that you do today will determine your tomorrow. How can you expect an extraordinary future when you keep doing average things today?
Today is yesterday’s tomorrow.
- Is today remarkably different than yesterday?
- Do you expect tomorrow to be different than today?
- Why do you think tomorrow will be different than today if you keep putting off doing the things that can change your future?
3. Fear
(photo by Violator3)
Let’s face it – it’s scary if you stray too far from the herd of mediocrity. The great mass of commonness, sameness and in-the-box thinking is:
- where all our friends are
- feels safe
- easy – almost like no effort at all
- comfortable
- easy, easy, easy
Animals that stay together in herds do so because there is safety in large numbers.
- It is more difficult for predators to pick out an individual target.
- Weaker animals can be moved to the center of the herd and protected.
Do you need to be protected from success? Are you too weak to be successful? You’ll never find out until you separate yourself from the status quo.
How to be happy – four principles that help me stay focused
1. Count your blessings
- Can you walk?
- Can you talk?
- Can you see and hear?
- Did you sleep in a bed last night?
- Are you hungry?
- Do you have a job?
(photo by PJFurlong06)
We all have so much to be thankful for. Perhaps it is because of this that we tend to focus on what we don’t have. It’s really just a matter of perspective. If you live in America and are living at poverty level, then you are still better off than 90% of the rest of the people in the world.
- America is the great land of opportunity. If you live here, then you are limited only by the limitations that you place on yourself.
- Statistically, a person who immigrates to the U.S. is four times more likely to become a millionaire than a native born American.
- Why? They see what is possible and realize that the only things that stand in their way can be overcome with hard work, time, dedication and focus. They see opportunity – not the lack of it.
You really have to work hard to feel sorry for yourself when you put things into perspective.
2. Don’t take yourself to seriously – No one else does
We all spend a lot of time wondering what other people are thinking and saying about us. The answer is simple – how much time do you spend thinking about other people? If my guess is correct, then it is quite a bit less than we are willing to admit.
(photo by Jimmy Joe)
We all like to think that people are listening to what we have to say and that they care about what we think. They are really just waiting for us to shut up so that they can have their turn to talk.
It is only when we focus our attention on “the other” person that people begin to appreciate us. People don’t really care what we think until they know that we care. By taking the time to listen we demonstrate that we value the other person.
- We want to hear what they think
- We are open to their ideas
- We want to help them
3. Keep your promises
Keeping your word will eliminate most of the guilt that you feel and lighten the load of stress.
(photo by discoodini)
- If you can’t fulfill an obligation then inform the person to whom you have made a commitment to as soon as possible. This will give them the chance to find an alternative and demonstrate your integrity. If you put it off, then you limit the options of the other person and put yourself in an even worse position.
- Don’t make promises that you know you can’t keep. Don’t promise the moon if you know that you can’t deliver it. You’ll lose credibility. People will lose respect for you and you won’t be taken seriously. It’s not worth it.
- Promises to you children (and spouse) count the same as a promise to a customer or colleague. Even though they’ll overlook your shortcomings in this area (for a while), it will eventually affect the long-term health of your relationship. It’s kind of difficult to tell a teen that you are interested in their life and problems when you haven’t been spending time with them.
- Apologies get old and no one takes them seriously if they are said too often. Keep your promises and you’ll have fewer apologies to make.
4. If you have a dream – then you owe it to yourself to pursue it
(photo by @n@bou)
Don’t blame others for your inability to do what you want to do. If you want it badly enough, then you will find a way to make it happen. Often the problem is that that there is “no easy” way to do what we want. There seldom is.
- Realizing a dream does not happen without effort – your effort.
- Show your passion – it shows that you are serious and lights a fire under others as well.
- Move confidently in the direction of your dream every day. Small steps add up. Do something every single day that contributes to the achievement of your goal.
- Ask for help. Others want to help and will help. Don’t be too proud – besides, sharing an accomplishment makes the accomplishment mean that much more.
Success is in the little details
I am a detail guy – they are important to me. Maybe it’s because I used to restore, build and paint custom cars. People (especially relatives) would see the car that I happened to be working on at the time and ask me how much I would charge them to paint their cars. They were always “surprised” by what seemed to them, to be an exorbitant amount. The reality is that I was probably a little low.
(photo by starmist1)
Your attention to “little” details is revealing
People think that a great paint job is in how well you apply the paint – they are wrong. Don’t misunderstand me, applying the paint is important, but it’s only important if all the preceding steps to having a great paint job have been properly done.
It doesn’t matter how well you apply the paint if:
- all the dents and dings have not been removed
- the underlying primer coats have not been sanded to “baby butt” smoothness
- you have used chemicals that are not compatible
My point is that people judge you by your attention to the details.
Crappy customer service is the result of poor attention to detail
The Rotater is rolling. On February 11, the Birmingham News ran an article entitled “Industrial Mechanic invents tool to improve shoulder mobility, finds niche in athletics”. This article drove massive traffic to the Rotater website and our blog, Shoulder Performance & Rehab and resulted in a huge number of orders for the Rotater.
Great – right? Yes and no! The traffic and orders were great – our blog crashing was not. I wrote about it in “The Good Stuff, the Bad Stuff and the Other Stuff”. Well, guess what? It happened again, twice this week. At least this time, I did not spend two days trying to figure out what the problem was.
I called customer service and waited on hold for about an hour. I didn’t get too worked up, because I put the phone on speaker and spent the time searching for a new host.
When someone finally answered the phone, I told her the problem expecting it to be corrected right away – I was in for a fight. This company’s situation is so bad, that they have resorted to having a “front line” person screen technical support issues. Essentially her job was to find out what I wanted and then she would prioritize and have technical support get back in touch with me.
I told her that this solution was not acceptable.
- She stalled – I didn’t budge.
- I asked to speak to her boss. He/she was not there.
- I asked to speak with technical support – they were busy.
- I asked to speak to “anyone” other than her – she put me on hold.
- I threatened to change hosts – technical support came on the phone.
The Rotater article is picked up on the newswire
The article that I mentioned above, was picked up by the Ann Arbor News and ran this week under a different title – “Rotater Cuff Injuries Inspire Invention”. (I have not been able to find a link to the article, but I have seen a copy of the article.)
The result – more traffic, more orders and more down-time for the blog. My problem is that I don’t want to alert our current hosting service to this third assault on our blog, because they informed me when I had it reset the second time, that if it happened a third time – they would suspend our account. Because we are exclusively a web-based business, this would put us “out of business”.
Solution: Pay attention to the “little” details
I have found a new host and am in the process of moving our website and blog. It is slow, tedious, time-consuming and scary, but hopefully all will be finished by this weekend.
I started this post talking about “attention to detail”. People noticed my paint jobs as a result of my attention to the details. Your success or lack of success is the result of your attention to the details. Let me try to explain.
The Rotater is a marvelous shoulder rehabilitation and stretching device – invented by an industrial mechanic – with a very southern accent. Not exactly where you would expect a revolutionary piece of medical / athletic training equipment to come from. But when people come to our website, they don’t see a bunch of hype.
- We tell them what the Rotater does
- We show a video demonstrating how the Rotater works
- We provide links to exercises that they can down-load and show to their doctors and therapists
- We provide real testimonials of real people, real doctors, real athletes / trainers and real physical therapists
- We include links to publications who are noticing the Rotater ( we’ve been in business since August 2007 and have been published eight times – and more is to come)
People who visit the Rotater website don’t know me or Scott, so we’re very careful to pay attention to the details:
- We answer every email – as quickly as possible
- We return phone calls – every time
- We deal with any issues – right away
- We don’t try to sell to every person – the Rotater won’t help everyone
- If someone is not happy – we refund their money (out of thousands, we have had two Rotaters returned)
People learn about you because of your attention to detail. Here is the take home message – There are no small details, everything counts and someone is paying attention to how you handle every situation.
It’s the small stuff that has the greatest return on you investment. Make it a point to pay attention to the details – Hey it works for Nordstrom (they are legendary for customer service) and it’ll work for you.
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