In the Zone

Dec 24 2014

Beyond Time Management – Getting Things Done in 2015

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” -Steve Jobs

Continual Connection – Information Overload

Time management strategies were developed at a time when people had few communication channels, received information and documentation by post. The underlying assumption was that once people knew how to more effectively manage their time, their performance and productivity would improve.

To-do or not To-Do: That is the Question

Now we are subjected to a barrage of constant calls, texts, emails and social media notifications. Many of these are time and energy draining request and demands. Most of us have a rapidly growing to-do list, which typically gets added to rather than addressed. These factors contribute to a massively distorted sense of time.

When I work with clients to increase their productivity, with the aid of technology I help them audit how they really spend their time. They frequently find that their perception of how much time they invest in their most important tasks is double what the amount of time they actually invested.

Upgraded Time Life Management

While time management still has a part to play in contributing to better performance, productivity and quality of life, it should only ever be a single component of a holistic strategy.

The following 5 steps will help you get more out of your days and weeks:

Increase your focus and attention. When you increase your focus, you’ll get far more done in the same amount of time. Research indicates that every time a person’s focus on a task is distracted it takes approximately 25 minutes to get back to the same point they were at before the interruption. In addition to employing daily practices to increase and maintain your focus, consider taking advantage of focus enhancing technologies.

Increase and preserve your energy. Obvious but so often overlooked. The higher your energy levels the more you will accomplish in a shorter space of time. When you have more energy you are more likely to tackle the most important tasks that you keep putting off. The contribution that sleep, nutrition and exercise make to increasing performance and productivity cannot be overstated.

Accept you will not complete your to-do list. While to-do lists serve the function of helping you keep track of the things you need to do, they should not dictate how you structure your day and spend your time. Prioritize those tasks that will help you make the biggest leaps forward. The 20% that will give you the 80% return. Allow yourself to be ok with the fact that you will never complete your to-do list. After a while you will find that many of your to do’s were not that important in the first place.

Say No. Productivity warriors are master of saying ‘No!’ to the many time and energy vampires that are ever present. The demands of others can usually wait and often be dealt by someone else. Time is the most precious resource we have and we must guard it fiercely.
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Use Technology. There are hundreds if not thousands of productivity apps. But there only a few that are truly awesome. Apps can be incredibly useful in freeing up your brain so that it can focus on getting the important things done. These include apps to plan, track, remind you, increase your focus and store your thoughts. Always remember that these apps exist to support, not replace, your system.

Dec 18 2014

Goals Serve a Purpose but this is Critical to Success

Legendary Coach John Wooden was well known for de-emphasizing winning and losing while focusing on effort and process. To some extent this may seem at odds with the teachings of countless ‘success’ books and coaches that clearly defined goals are critical to success.

While goals serve a purpose, they should be secondary in terms of focus and effort to the process you follow and the system you have in place for achieving your goals. This is something that is often overlooked and undervalued by those advocating and using goal setting. To achieve goals the focus needs to be more on the journey than the final destination.

The Downside of Focusing on Goals

When there is too much focus on the goal, it can be a distraction from the actual process itself. To use a sporting analogy; if a basketball player is focusing on the fact that he must get the 3 point shot to win the game, this will impact on his ability to focus on how he takes the shot.

The very essence of focus is that it can only be directed on one thing at a time. Plainly the process for getting the ball into the basket is more important than what rides on the outcome i.e. the goal. Research has demonstrated that focusing on the process both reduces psychological pressure and increases enjoyment of the task.

When you have a system for achieving specific, measurable goals that builds in daily tasks, milestones and accountability, the actual achievement of the goals appears to take care of itself. You’ll arrive at your intended destination, more efficiently and with less stress.

The Upside of Goals

The above comments should not be taken as devaluing the importance of goal setting. Without clear, measurable goals there would be little point in creating a system or process for achievement. There needs to be some clarity about what the desired outcomes are.

Professor David Kohl, formerly professor emeritus at Virginia Tech University, found that those who write down their goals are 9x more successful than those who don’t.

Goals can provide inspiration and motivation. If the goals are big enough and you are emotionally connected to their outcome, they can be the fuel that keeps you going through the days, months and sometimes years of process. So make sure you have clear, measurable goals but keep always your focus on your process and system.

Dec 18 2014

IF Your Willpower lets you Down, THEN use this Simple, Effective Technique

Neuroscientists and psychologists agree there are many ways we can increase our willpower. Psychologist and author Roy F. Baumeister contends that willpower is like a muscle, which can be developed through specific exercises.

Research also makes it clear, however, that our willpower is limited. Making decisions and taking action requires mental effort, which neuroscientists explain, equates to physical effort. Continually making important decisions often results in ‘Decision Fatigue’.

Preserving Presidential Willpower

Preserving his decision-making powers is why President Obama wears the same suit every day. As the President told Vanity Fair

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” [Obama] said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”

Defeated by the Dimension of Distraction

Most people have the experience of wanting to make progress on an important project but end up getting stuck in the dimension of distraction, being drowned by a tidal wave of tasks or suffering from decision fatigue.

This means an effective strategy for achieving your goals and increasing your productivity, cannot rely on willpower alone.

If-Then to the Rescue

A highly effective technique for getting things done while preserving willpower is the ‘If-Then’ technique. This powerful technique is backed by over a hundred studies including time management, diet and negotiation.

I have found If-Then a particularly useful tool for clients who are either in a position of great responsibility with never ending demands on their time or individuals who believe they lack sufficient willpower to make progress in key areas of their lives.

The focus of If-Then is on process rather than outcome. In other words, the ‘when’ and ‘how’. At its simplest, the technique can be described as

If X then Y

In practice this might mean:

If it is 6am then I workout; or

If my phone rings more than 3 times between 10-1 then I will divert it to voicemail

If I am on a long journey then I will catch up on my personal development reading.

If Then can be applied to any goal and almost any situation. The power of the technique lies in not relying on willpower or choice. Although you may not have thought about it in this way you are probably already using If-Then on a daily basis. Most people wake up in the morning and brush their teeth without considering it an exercise of willpower.

Must vs. Should

When we view the specified If-Then as a rule, something we must do, rather than something we ought or should do we are far more likely to follow through. Our brains are hardwired to operate more effectively this way.

To implement If-Then, create a daily plan of your most important tasks, being careful to specify the action and the circumstances in which you must take that action. If you practice this technique consistently for a few days you will then find yourself finally making progress on those important but neglected goals.

I have found If-Then a particularly useful tool for clients who are either in a position of great responsibility with never ending demands on their time or individuals who believe they lack sufficient willpower to make progress in key areas of their lives.

The focus of If-Then is on process rather than outcome. In other words, the ‘when’ and ‘how’. At its simplest, the technique can be described as

If X then Y

In practice this might mean:

If it is 6am then I workout; or

If my phone rings more than 3 times between 10-1 then I will divert it to voicemail

If I am on a long journey then I will catch up on my personal development reading.

Dec 14 2014

Use This Spartan Technique for Increasing Your Mental Toughness and Resilience

Talent is overrated and the mentally tough are more likely to succeed in business and in life. Resilience and robustness are preconditions to achievement. Most people are now aware of this, but unclear how to take things from the realm of interesting information to practical benefit.

The good news for those who aspire to greater things is that mental toughness can be increased. This is something that sports and military psychologists have known for years. There are an increasing array of mental conditioning processes, validated by Neuroscience, that can make the mentally weak strong, and the strong, stronger.

One of the simplest ways to increase your mental toughness is by conditioning your brain to accept and embrace discomfort on a regular basis. By pushing boundaries and introducing new daily and weekly challenges, your nervous system will adapt and you will grow stronger.

These ‘ challenges’ can be minor tweaks, walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, doing 50 push ups instead of 25, waiting that bit longer for your next meal or going without, giving social media a miss for a week or anything else that causes you discomfort on some level. The objective is to be comfortable being outside of your comfort zone.

Cold Shower Therapy

Taking cold showers is one way of bringing instant discomfort as well as providing many health benefits (increasing testosterone, boosting the immune system and decreasing inflammation to name a few). I have been taking cold showers for a few years now and no longer enjoy a hot shower (perhaps I need to mix things up and push myself by taking hot showers).

Taking it one step further, there are an increasing number of world-class athletes who take regular ice baths for 30 minutes or more. Having experience of ice baths, I can assure you that this is not a practice for the faint hearted.

The Spartans, who didn’t know the meaning of ‘comfort zone’ and despised weakness of any kind, used cold water to develop their toughness, bathing in freezing water on a regular basis.

If you decide to use physical challenges (including cold showers) as a tool for developing your mental toughness then take things gradually (if you have any health conditions or are infirm in any way then consult your doctor). Push your boundaries by increments e.g. change the water temperature slightly every day.

Stick with your daily discomforts for a month and soon you’ll start to embrace challenge as your brain makes the link between challenges leading to mental toughness.

Martin Soorjoo works with teams and individuals helping them increase their performance and resilience.