This is the season that can become extremely hectic if we are not deliberate in what we choose to do.  There is shopping for Christmas, gathering with family and friends, school events and plays at church.

To stay productive at the highest level the essentialist believes in cutting out everything but the most important.  Her job is to filter out most everything.

The Model for Essentialism is:

Less but Better

The essentialist thinks:    I choose to.   Only a few things really matter.   What are the trade-offs?

He pauses to discern what really matters.  Says “no” a lot.

Chooses carefully in order to do great work.  Feels in control. Gets the right things done.  Experiences joy in the journey.

If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.

The Payoff

The reward for saying no, to almost everything is doing more of what really matters in work and life.  As you go through this very busy time of year choose what is the most important.

Question of the week:  What can you cut out of the life to do what is important?

Quote of the week:  “The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.” –  Timothy Ferriss

Do you ever think that retirement is right for you?  Setting around, playing golf, fishing, and traveling may seem appealing for a time but will get boring fast.  Those that do nothing only last for an average of four years.  Playing golf or fishing is only fun for a time and then becomes boring.

The Buy OFF

For many in the past retirement was the way those in leadership kept people loyal.  Augustus Caesar paid his officers well in retirement to keep them loyal.  In the industrial age, the carrot of retirement was used as an inducement to work in soul-killing jobs.

Today the use of retirement as a carrot is changing but is still used.  Retirement is often used to move someone out of the picture and replace that person.  In my parent’s generation, it was a way to keep the ball rolling.

Killing Your Heart

Retirement can be a terrible way to treat people.   To move them out once they are a certain age.  It assumes that after a certain age a person has no value. You are told to suck it up today because in retirement it will be all green pastures and lush.  It’s going to be wonderful in a few decades.

Cost of the Trade-Off

1. It encourages taking jobs that aren’t fulfilling.
2. It brings with it, reduced mental function, heart attack, and stroke.
3. It assumes that most have lived past their prime, and don’t have anything to contribute to society.
4. It deprives the community of the contributions that many have to offer.

Are you watching the Bear’s game, filling out a contract, checking e-mail, talking on the phone, and planning your week all at the same time?  If this sounds like your work habits, your brain is in trouble.

Research at Stanford University by Dr. Clifford Nass and his team, to their surprise, found that when individuals attempt working on multiple projects they have trouble focusing on any one project. They have trouble controlling their memory and cannot switch from one task to another effectively.

The idea that if someone is a heavy multitasker is more productive was proven to be false. Surprisingly people who focus on one task for an extended period and then work on another project are far more productive.

What the researchers found was that when multitasking keeping information from different tasks separate in the mind was not possible.  Multitaskers were less efficient and took longer to finish the tasks compared to focusing for at least 20 minutes on one task.

The French medical research agency Insurm discovered that the brain has a two task limit to be effective.  Working on more than two tasks decreased the brain’s effectiveness.

To get more done focus on one or two tasks for at least 20 minutes or until the task is finished before switching.  To be more productive avoid distractions, have set times to check e-mail, check voice mail or preparing documents.

Question: What are some ways you improve your focus ?  You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Quote of the Week: “Juggling is an illusion. … In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession. … It is actually task switching.” ― Gary Keller

For more information about Radon Mitigation in homes, schools and commercial buildings visit us at www.nelsonradon.com.

I admit I am a huge proponent of Evernote.  It is a powerful tool that can boost your productivity.  The uses are about as endless as your imagination.  I use it to make check lists, store Excel files, clip information from the web, save scanned documents, keep track of ideas, store pictures, and archive emails.

Think of Evernote as a virtual file cabinet having hundreds of drawers with files in the drawers and sticky notes or tabs in the files to help you find information in the file. Evernote is your digital filling cabinet.

To take advantage of all Evernote features, I recommend the Premium upgrade (Cost is $45 annually). When you begin using Evernote, become comfortable with how it is arranged, how to create notebooks and how to use tags.  The best resource that I have found to use Evernote to its full potential is Brent Kelly’s Evernote Essentials (Cost is about $13).

Let’s get started with some Evernote basics.

1)      How Evernote is arranged (Notes, Notebooks, Stacks, and Tag

 a.     Notes

Everything stored in Evernote is stored as a note.  Notes can be anything: web clippings, pictures, text, audio files, video clips or emails. Just about anything digital can be stored in a note. In the note window, you can name the note, add tags, move to a notebook, and share notes.

 b.     Notebooks 

Notebooks are where all of your notes live.  They are your files in your digital filing cabinet.  The first notebook is auto created by Evernote using your log in name and all notes will be stored here initially. The default notebook name can be changed and additional notebooks can be created to organize your notes.

c.     Stacks

Creating a stack is a way to group notebooks together.  Stacks are virtual file drawers that have two or more notebooks stored in them.  As an example, I like roasting green coffee beans.  So in Evernote, I have a notebook for coffee info that has notes for different coffee companies and coffees that I order. Also, I have a notebook on coffee equipment.  I have these two notebooks in a stack named Coffee.

d.     Tags

Tags give us greater flexibility to group our notes in ways other than notebooks.  It is a powerful way to add identifiers to your notes or notebooks. Multiple tags can be used in each note to further describe the content.  To stay with my example of coffee, in my notebook named “coffee”, I have information on coffee companies, coffee varieties, and description of each variety.   I could have tags for “Bold “or “Complex” to describe a note. This will also aid in searching the notes.  More on searches later.

Photo courtesy of Kathy Nelson

We live in a busy and crazy world.  We can be pulled in a hundred different directions from our vocations, avocation, and kids’ activities. Even though our children are young adults I remember when we shuttled back and forth from home to school five times in the same night.  There were times when we went to two different ballgames in towns that were over an hour away from each other to watch the first half of one game and watch the second half of the next.  It was a lot of fun but a little crazy. Building margin in our lives can be challenging.

Based on the popular StrengthsFinder 2.0 personality assessment tool, my top personality strength is Achiever.  Tom Rath author of StrengthsFinder 2.0 describes people with this characteristic as: “…having a great deal of stamina and work hard.  They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.”  This can be both an asset and a liability. I derive a great deal of satisfaction in getting things done. The dark side of this strength is that I find it hard to turn off my mind and relax.  I have to work at creating margin for family, friendships, and relaxation.

Whether you are a solopreneur, have a team, or run a small business it is difficult to make room for down time.  Taking a vacation or a long weekend to relax can be a challenge since you still need to return calls and respond to emails.  If you find it hard to relax, try these strategies to turn off work and unplug.

Five strategies to take care of customers and still enjoy time off

1)      Set up specific times to take care of business.

I recommend scheduling a short block of time to check your voice mails and emails. What I do is schedule 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.  By scheduling a couple of time blocks for business its allows me to focus on business for these two periods of time and then focus on relaxing and enjoying the vacation the rest of the time.