The first time I competed in the Victoria Marathon I was swept away by the setting - ocean views, horse-drawn buggies clopping along Wharf Street, sailboats navigating Inner Harbour and classic west coast architecture. And then there’s the run. If you’ve ever experienced the legendary runner’s “wall” you’ll know how tough it is to keep moving when...
There's something magical about booking an appointment to work on a project. The date is confirmed, you protect the time - work gets done. Nice. But what happens when it’s just you - the deadline is looming, and procrastination could rear its head? Simple: block time. I stumbled across this simple time management hack years ago, and...
When I teach time management, there is one lesson that always gets my audience leaning in - how to create boundaries to protect your time and be more productive. Like a lot of lessons about productivity (see my article on creating a Stop Doing List), this one is also counter-intuitive - doing only one thing...
It’s 10:30 AM and your day's already falling apart. Sure you had a plan, a to-do list, mostly carried forward from yesterday. But interruptions, emails, and colleagues needing “just a minute” hijacked any semblance of what you thought your day would look like. It’s déjà vu, in the worst way. Experts have been writing, blogging, making videos,...
[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"] If you’re anything like me, this year has been a wild ride. More than ever, I find I’m constantly fighting off distractions so I can work on that small, but mighty, list of what moves the needle and makes an impact. In fact, it’s easy to blow through a whole day and...
[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"] We all know New Year’s Resolutions don’t work. A study at the University of Scranton found that almost half of Americans make them, but only eight percent keep them. That’s bad math. You hope this year will be different, and suddenly you will be transformed into a promise-keeper and all your goals...
[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"] I was driving to my office this week for the first of our annual planning meetings. Normally I look forward to these. No phone calls, no email, just blue-sky thinking and creative brain storming about what to add for next year. But, instead of being excited, I was dreading it. It’s been...
[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"] Let’s face it, nobody is perfect. We all waste time - a bit here, a bit there. But, what if we were talking money? When I was a kid my Dad would often lecture me that “time is money.” That didn’t mean anything to me - I had nothing but time. Later,...
[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"] Maybe you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule (or Pareto’s Principle that says 80% of our results come from just 20% of our effort), the rule of three (we tend to remember lists of three items), and Parkinson’s Principle (work expands to fit the time allotted). What about the 10-minute rule? Never hear of...
[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"] One of the nastiest traps small business owners fall into is being a “Doer”. I’ve been there, and it goes something like this: You know a bit about accounting, so you do your own bookkeeping. You know your way around your website, so you post your blogs and make website changes. You know how...
