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Get Organized

Written by John on January 14, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Get Organized with FoldersToday is “Organize Your Home” day, so following on from Monday’s post on clearing your desk, let’s take a look at other aspects of organization that you can implement to make your home run more smoothly.  I should point out right at the start that I don’t have kids and I’m not a ‘domestic’ guru – I’m simply sharing the tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the years and applying them to the household.  If you’re juggling several children as well as a full-time job, maybe you can add some of your own tips to the comments section so that others can benefit, too?

In my opinion, organization falls into 2 distinct areas:

  • Sorting
  • Planning

Let’s look at each of those in turn.

Sorting

One of the key tricks related to organizing is to have a place for everything.  I’ve seen countless people who keep all their paperwork in a shoe-box, then wonder why their finances are completely disorganized.  Heck, when I first met my wife, she was horrified to see that all my paperwork was dumped just as I’d received it in a removal box, and the box was more than half full! :o

The only way you can keep on top of the reams of paper that seem to bombard us every day is to have a clear and simple filing system.  This can either be hanging files in a filing cabinet, 2, 3, or 4-hole files on a shelf, or even a compact home file.  Make sure that every category (such as electricity, car insurance, mortgage, employment, taxes, etc.) has its own section so that you always know not only where to find something, but more importantly, where to file it.  If you go back to Monday’s post, you’ll see that I outlined a strategy for dealing with clutter on your desk.  This same strategy can now be applied to any paperwork that comes in, with the ultimate goal that you handle the piece of paper only once.

Planning

TimePlanning is simply a more understandable word for ‘Time Management’.  However, I always find the notion of managing time quite funny as no matter what we try to do and how hard we try to do it, we all end up with the same 24 hours every day!  So, rather than trying to manage time itself, we have to learn how to manage ourselves in such a way that we use the time we have available most effectively.

Also note that I’m not just talking about being efficient.  Efficiency is about doing things right – effectiveness is about doing the right things right!

I find that I work best by making an overall plan each month regarding what I need to do during the following month.  This gives me an overview that I can work to each week.  Every weekend, I then sit down and plan out the coming week.  Finally, I take a short time every evening to schedule out the next day.  Doing this is the only way that I’ve found to hold down a full-time job, write 2 blogs, market on the Internet in several niches and be a loving husband – as well as fitting in time every day for God.

Take some time to think about how you can apply these ideas to your own life and please share your thoughts, tips, experiences and ideas in the comments below.

Best wishes,

John Landells

Posted in Attitude | Tagged ,

Clean Your Desk

Written by John on January 11, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Person at DeskAs a tribute to “National Clean Your Desk Day”, I thought that now would be a good time for me to share my thoughts on clean desks.  Since January is also “Get Organized Month”, this seemed like an ideal opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

As someone who used to thrive in the chaos of a messy desk, I could never understand what all the fuss was about.  When anybody tried to get me to change, I used to remind them of Einstein’s comment on tidy desks:

If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?
Albert Einstein

More recently though, I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of working in a clean and tidy environment.

Last year, I was off work for some time suffering from stress and this led me to look much more closely at everything that I was doing to identify every last pressure that I was experiencing and find ways to remove them.  I noticed that whenever I sat at my desk in my home office, I started to feel stressed.  I remembered reading at some point that clutter on the desk serves as a constant distraction to your subconscious.  It’s always calling out “I need attention”, or “remember you have to work on me”, or even just “you forgot to file me – you’ll never find me when you need me!”  With all this going on in our minds, whether we realize it or not we end up more stressed – and it’s no wonder really!

Once I had this eureka moment, I set about tidying and sorting and filing and organizing and even cleaning my workspace then sat down again to see what difference it had made.  It was amazing.  It was like night and day.  I could now relax at my desk and focus purely on the task at hand!

Since then, I’ve been very careful about keeping my office tidy and organized and it’s had a real calming influence on me.  I’ve become much more productive with my blogs which could never have happened in my former chaos.

If you’re facing a similar challenge, here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Start by removing everything from your desk

If you have on your desk only the things that belong there, you automatically feel calmer and more able to focus with the chaos that you’ve probably just dumped on the floor (tip – don’t cut off your exit route in case you need to get away from the debris for a while!)

2. Make a decision about what to do with every item that you removed in step 1

It’s no good leaving everything on the floor and just having a tidy desk – you need to work your way through the rubble so that your whole office ends up organized.  There are only four options that you have for each thing that you pick up:

  • Do it
  • Delegate it
  • Diary it
  • Dump it

What do these mean?  Well, let’s take a look:

Do It

This means that we deal with it right now.  Maybe it’s a form that needs filling out and mailing.  Maybe it’s a reminder to send a quick email.  As a general guideline, we’re talking here about things that you can do in a minute or two then be done with it.  Once you’ve done it, you can either file the associated paperwork or bin it.

The other key part of doing it is to file everything that needs filing as soon as you pick it up.  Quite simply, if you need to keep it but don’t need to do anything with it for the foreseeable future then get it filed and move on.

Delegate It

Some of the things that you pick up could maybe be handled more effectively by someone else.  I found that when sorting my office, much of what I was hoarding on my desk were actually things that my wife would normally deal with!  If you can delegate it, do that immediately.

Diary It

Most often you’ll pick things up that need more than a few minutes work but do need you to spend some time on.  Create a file for these items and make a note in your daily planning system to follow up with it at a specific time (you DO have a planning system don’t you???)  One idea that I like to work with is a 1-31 file.  Let’s say I have something today that I don’t have time to work on right now but I know that I’ll have time on Friday.  I simply put this in the pocket labeled 15 (since Friday’s the 15th)  and schedule time in my diary to work on it.  Each day, I then take out the folder for today and everything that I need for today’s tasks is at hand!  At the end of today, my file goes to the back so that tomorrow’s folder is at the front.

Waste BasketDump It

This is the easiest of the four to understand.  If you don’t need it, throw it away.  At first you may find this challenging, but trust me, once you get going you’ll find it really therapeutic! :)

It’s important to be ruthless here and throw away everything that you don’t really need to keep.  It’s better to throw away that magazine you’ve been keeping “just in case you need to refer to the article one day” and to regain your sanity than to have it (and its friends) preying on your psyche!  If you really do need to refer to something, the chances are very high that you can find it on Google!

3. Keep it up!

It’s easy to drop back into your old habits after doing an exercise like this, but that’s the worst thing that you can do!  Think of all the effort that you’ve just put in to get a clear desk?!?  Now that it’s free and you have the freedom to focus, get into the habit of handling everything that comes across your desk just once, using the 4 decisions above.

If you find that you need help clearing your desk, I can recommend an excellent book called “Clear Your Desk” by Declan Treacy.  This book is a little old, but the concepts in it are timeless.  This book was the first place where I ever came across the 4 decisions and was very helpful when I made the decision to get organized last year.  Like I said, if you’re struggling, go and read it.

I’d love to hear from you.  Do you work best with a tidy desk or are you with Einstein on this one?  Do you have any other tips that we could all learn from?  Please leave a comment and let me know.

Good luck! :)

John Landells

Posted in Attitude | Tagged ,

Blogs of the Week – w/c 4th Jan 2010

Written by John on January 8, 2010 — Leave a Comment

It’s been an interesting week in the personal development blogosphere.  There don’t seem to have been the volume of posts as usual, and those that were there weren’t up to the usual high standard.  Either that means that my circle of blogs is too restricted, or people are starting the New Year more slowly.  Whatever the case, here are the blog posts that did stand out to me:

How to Make Unstupid Goals – On Monday, I wrote a post about New Years Resolutions and why I felt that they were often unproductive.  This post from IttyBiz makes the same message but from a different angle.  Well worth a read.

How to Make that Change Stick: The 11 Point Checklist for 2010 – I’m a big (and relatively new) fan of the Positivity Blog and I’m guessing that you’ll see regular entries in my “Blogs of the Week” posts from them.  This is a great post for anyone looking to create lasting change this year, and I particularly like it because it goes to 11…! ;)   (please excuse the obscure Spinal Tap reference!)

CAT Scan – Zig Ziglar is someone who I really admire and draw huge inspiration from.  I know that his health has finally forced him to slow down a little, but it’s great to keep up with him via his son Tom’s blog.  This week, we learn about a health scare which had Zig making an unexpected trip to the hospital, and what really inspired me was how he handled it.  If you’ve ever heard Zig speak, you’ll know what a great sense of humor he has and this is evident from Tom’s writing.

“The Checklist Manifesto” – Whilst my Christian background makes me wary of much of the “Law of Attraction” teachings (more on this in the future) I do have a lot of respect for Dr Joe Vitale.  Apart from anything else, he’s a great copywriter and any of us who write for a living can learn massively from him.  In this post, he talks about how we can use checklists in our business.  As is typical of his style, he puts the message across in an incredibly gentle and simple manner which I would encourage you to read for yourself.  Once you’ve read it, take some time to reflect on it and you’ll find great power in his words.

The Power of Beginning: Three Thoughts from the Last 2400 Years – I told you I was a fan of the Positivity Blog – here’s another great post from them!  There are times in our lives when we profoundly experience the “A-ha Effect“.  As I’ve been focusing on my personal development over the past few years there have been 3 significant moments like this for me.  If only this post had been available a few years ago…! ;)

That’s it for this week.  I’d love to hear from you regarding any posts that spoke to you this week.  Please drop me a note in the comments to share your finds.

Best wishes,
John Landells

Posted in General | Tagged ,

Book of the Month: Think and Grow Rich

Written by John on January 6, 2010 — 2 Comments

Think And Grow RichNapoleon Hill spent 20 years of his life interviewing the most successful people of his time, with the support and direction of Andrew Carnegie.  The result of this extensive work was a multi-volume archive of the complete success principles entitled simply “Laws of Success”.  A little later, Napoleon Hill wanted to produce a more accessible version of his research which resulted in the classic “Think and Grow Rich“.

The book can be thought of as a complete handbook for success and the themes taught in it were used by Andrew Carnegie himself when coaching young men who went on to become very wealthy.  The principles are as applicable today as they were when they were first written over 100 years ago, which is witnessed by the continued success of Think and Grow Rich almost 40 years since the author’s death.  Each chapter deals with a specific element of success such as “Desire”, “Decision” or “Persistence”.  Hill explores each principle in depth and gives tips, exercises and formulas to help you to internalize his teachings.

The book is squarely aimed at anyone who is dissatisfied with their current lot in life.  Its aim is to help us find the confidence to make the changes for the better and then goes about equipping us to have the best chance of success.  It’s for anybody who believes there should be something better, but doesn’t know how to find it.

One of the interesting quirks of this book (and I’m of the opinion that Hill had a few quirks!) is that he clearly states in the introduction that the real secret that we need to learn from the book is not spelled out and that we need to figure it out whilst we’re reading it.  Depending where you are on your personal development journey, this secret might jump straight out at you or you may have to read the book several times to finally understand it (as I did!)  However, I agree fully with Mr Hill’s prediction that once you do figure out what the secret is, it will change your life!
[Note: Please don't ask me what the secret is - it would spoil the learning experience for many people if I post it here!]

Whilst on the whole this is an amazing book, there are a few areas where that quirkiness of Hill’s does make for some challenging reading!  When I first heard about this book it was from the late, great Jim Rohn who described Hill as “part weird”.  He said of these quirky (or “weird” as he called them) sections of the book as nothing to worry about and something to simply skip over when it gets too weird for you.  I would agree with his judgment on this and simply say that the few weird bits don’t detract from an otherwise amazing book.

Mountain VistaThe biggest thing that I got from this book personally was from the section on persistence.  This chapter takes you by the hand and works with you to put aside anything from your past that may be holding you back and essentially helps you to “get over yourself”.  It’s really easy in life to procrastinate (in fact there’s a whole chapter just on dealing with procrastination in this book!) yet we all know that it’s the people who just push on, often with a grim determination, who ultimately succeed.  Look at Colonel Sanders – he was told over 300 times that his chicken recipe was no good before he finally find someone who would take it on.  That’s the kind of persistence that I want for you as well as for myself.  It’s that persistence that reminds us that the end result will be worth all the effort.

This blog only exists thanks to Think and Grow Rich!

Why Should You Buy It?

If you’re serious about changing your life and achieving your full potential, then I truly believe that Think and Grow Rich is the best book available to help you do this.  In my opinion, this book should be required reading for everyone who dreams of living a better life.

I would strongly recommend that you get yourself a copy and read it from cover to cover.  If you don’t finish the book feeling incredibly excited about your future, then read it again and look for what you missed the first time through!  Whatever you do though, invest in yourself and do read this book!

Buy Think and Grow Rich here

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , ,

New Years Resolutions

Written by John on January 4, 2010 — Leave a Comment

New Years ResolutionsIt’s at this time of year as we look back at what we would have liked to have done better last year and what we want to do this year that people sit down and write New Years Resolutions.  The challenge with this is that what the majority of people do is to write a wish list of things that they’d like to improve – if they even bother to write them down at all!

Too many people think up a few weak resolutions and tell a few friends.  Things such as “I’m gonna lose weight this year” or “I’ll stop smoking this year” or even “I’ll try and get a better job this year”.  As we all know only too well, this is precisely the type of resolution that rarely makes it past the end of January!  As a side note, you might be interested to know that more people sign up for gym membership in January than at any other time of the year, but only a tiny percentage are still regular attendees by February – even though most gyms now demand a 12 month contract!

What’s Wrong with These Resolutions?

There are a few things that jump out straight away:

  • In most cases, they’re not written down.  The simple act of making a written commitment to yourself can have a dramatic impact on whether or not you succeed.
  • They’re vague!  In my post on setting SMART goals, I talked about why it’s important to not only be very precise about what the goal is (i.e. how much weight to lose) but also to set a specific deadline.  With no specific timeframe, you sub-consciously set the end of the year as the target, which is way too far off to be effective!
  • They are often spur of the moment, random thoughts based on the way the person making the resolution is feeling on that particular day!

How Should We Make New Years Resolutions?

In my opinion, what most people think of as New Years Resolutions is what we in the personal development field would consider as “goals”.  Since we should be setting these anyway in line with our desired direction in life, I prefer to think of resolution setting as a checkpoint.  It’s a time to review our goals and our direction, but more importantly, it’s an opportunity to reflect on our attitude.

I propose that we all make a New Years Resolution to have a more positive, focused attitude in the coming year than we had in the previous.  If we all achieve this, then we’ll all climb to new levels of success in 2010 and make this our best year ever!

If you disagree with me and you’ve set New Years Resolutions this year, please share them in the comments and we’ll see how we can go about supporting you in reaching your goals for the coming year.

John Landells

Posted in Goals | Tagged ,

Success Comes in Cans

Written by John on December 30, 2009 — Leave a Comment

Success“Success comes in cans, failures in can’ts” is a popular quote in self-development circles.  It’s often attributed to Brian Tracy, but I’m not sure anyone really knows the source of this powerful saying.  From my own experience, I find that focusing on the first half is more powerful than thinking about the whole quote.

So what does “success comes in cans” really mean?  Does it mean that you can buy a can at the grocery store and when you open it you’re successful?  No – not really.  However, I love the image that this creates – the thought of a stack of cans next to the baked beans, all labelled “Success”!  Keep that image in your mind whilst reading the rest of this article and it will help you to keep hold of the necessary frame of mind that we’re looking to encourage.

So if we’re not talking about actual tin cans, what does the expression mean?  Well, it comes down to attitude.  As children, many of us had loving, protective parents who told us “don’t do that, it’s dangerous” or “you can’t climb up there – you’ll fall” all of which was well-meaning, but leaves us as adults as unwilling or unable to turn our minds to an aspect that will lift us up and propel us dynamically towards guaranteed success.  That doesn’t mean that we’re irreparably damaged just that we need to make a conscious effort to develop a “can-do” attitude.

Practitioners of NLP will tell you that if anyone can do something, then the rest of us can learn how to do the self-same thing by modelling.  This is great news for those of us who constantly strive to better themselves as it means that whatever we’re asked to do, we can choose to answer “yes” even if we’ve never done it before, confident that we’ll either figure it out easily or that there’ll be someone somewhere who we can model.  It’s this confident, can-do attitude that’s the essence of the saying “success comes in cans”.

Consider a real-life scenario where you’re asked to do something at work that’s way outside your remit.  Assuming the request is reasonable and congruent with both your own values and those of your employer, you have two choices: “yes” or “no”.  If you’ve never done this particular task before, your initial instinct might be “I can’t do that” or “I don’t know how to do that” or even “I wouldn’t even know where to start”.  Clearly, this path is not particularly productive and whilst it may not have any immediate impact, your boss will probably label you as someone who lacks ambition.  However, if you take the other path and say “of course I’ll do it, although I may need a little guidance” you’ll stand out as a “can-do” person and your boss will be only too happy to help you to grow either directly, or by having you consult with someone else who’s done this task in the past.

What’s the worst that can happen if you say “yes”?  Well, you could try and fail.  However, ‘failure’ is a great learning opportunity.  If you go back to your boss and tell them that you’ve tried but you’re not getting anywhere, they’ll be only too happy to give you a pointer in the right direction.  That way, you still grow and your boss knows that you’re someone they can rely on.

Use the imagery if it helps – I know it does for me – but whatever you do, I would encourage you to always keep in mind that “success comes in cans”.

Posted in Attitude | Tagged ,

How to Set Smart Goals

Written by John on December 28, 2009 — Leave a Comment

Be SmartIn the personal development world, people are always talking about setting goals.  By now, we all know that goals are important, but fewer people recognize that there are right ways to set goals and wrong ways.  If you go for the ‘wrong’ way, what you end up with is little more than a hope or a dream.  For example, many people set goals like “My goal is to lose weight”.  If I hear something like this, I always ask “how much weight, and by when?”

You see, goals have got to be laser-focused for them to motivate us.  A goal should be something that we’re driven to achieve.  It should be something that inspires us to take effort in order to reach it.  It shouldn’t simply be an intention or a “nice to have”.

In order to produce good goals, it’s helpful to follow the “SMART” goal setting formula:

Specific – Your goals should always be precise.  Instead of “lose weight” you should think of a precise amount of weight that you want to lose – i.e. “I will lose 20 pounds”.

Measurable – It’s no good being specific if it’s not something that can easily be measured.  Weight is a great example as it can always be measured (even if we’re often reluctant to actually measure it!).  It’s helpful though, if it can be broken down into smaller chunks so that you can measure whether or not you’re on track as you take action towards your final goal.

Achievable – It’s no good setting goals that are simply out of your reach.  Goals are meant to stretch us – not break us!

Realistic – Following on from achievable, the goal needs to be realistic.  If your goal is to earn an extra million dollars next month and you’re currently working as a janitor, then short of a lottery win, it’s simply not going to happen.  The problem here is that your brain is not dumb!  It takes one look at your goal and if it’s completely unrealistic (as opposed to just being a stretch) then it says “not going to happen” and stops even trying.  Trust me – your brain needs to be on side with goal setting!

Timeable – I’ve often heard it said that a goal without a deadline is just a wish.  “I’m gonna lose 30 pounds” meets all of our other criteria (assuming I’m at least 30 pounds overweight) but if I don’t specify a date, it could be “before I die” or “within the next 10 years.  Your goal has to be specific, such as “I will increase my income by $50,000 a year by 1st July 2010”.  Now we’re talking – we have a deadline and our subconscious mind will start working towards a solution.

One tip I can give you here is that once you’ve come up with your SMART goal, write it in the present tense, as your subconscious doesn’t process past or future all that well.  Using the last example above, I would write “Today is the 1st of July 2010 and I’m thrilled to have increased my annual income by $50,000!”  Notice the emotion that I’ve added, too (“thrilled”) as this helps the brain to be excited about the goal.

Take these tips away and look at your own goals.  Make sure they’re all ‘SMART’ goals and make sure you’re living life to the fullest extent possible.

Why not share some of your goals in the comments?

Posted in Goals | Tagged

Why Goals are Important to Your Success

Written by John on December 26, 2009 — Leave a Comment

GoalsMuch is spoken about in self-development circles regarding goal setting and its impact on a person’s results or achievements in life.  In this article, we’re going to consider why goals are important to your success and what we can do to make them more effective.

Many people who talk about goal setting refer to either a Yale study of 1953 or a Harvard study of 1979.  You’ve probably heard about these studies already and if not, you probably will.  You should know though, that they never happened!  The studies from Yale and Harvard are both Urban Legends.  However, due to the prevalence of the resulting statistics in various reference books and training material, the Dominican University has undertaken some research and validated the results quoted in the original stories.

So what are these results?

It’s been shown through study that people who set goals are more likely to achieve success than those who don’t.  This may seem obvious when written down in this way, but more than 90% of the population simply don’t bother.  What isn’t obvious though is that setting written goals and making a public commitment to reach them increases the likelihood of achieving your goals by a considerable factor!

We also know through research that we engage more fully with something when we take action to involve ourselves in it.  With goals, thinking: “I will lose 30 pounds by the end of the year” may be a reasonable goal, but it’s just in your head – in other words, it’s a daydream!  However, as soon as you write your goal on paper, you automatically become more involved.

Try it:

Think of a goal that you’d like to achieve – preferably one that would be a stretch.  Consider how you feel whilst it’s just in your head.  Now write it down and put a date against it when you plan to hit the goal.  Feels more scary now, doesn’t it?  Now go and tell your best friend what that goal is, and ask them to hold you accountable!

It’s that last step that gives us the real power in goals.  The more people you tell about your goal, the more your subconscious mind will push you to achieve it in order to keep your actions congruent with the words that you’re saying, the words that you’re reading (you do read your goals every day, don’t you?) and the thoughts and images that are going through our minds relating to the success that we’re anticipating.

I would encourage you, if you don’t already, to start embracing the full potential that goals can bring into your life by writing them down, setting a deadline, then broadcasting them to your world.  If you do this, you’ll achieve more than you ever thought possible and you’ll come to appreciate just why goals are so important to success.

Posted in Goals | Tagged ,
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