Hi all,
You can now find me at fireundereverybutt.com.
C'mon over.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Ready, Set, Achieve!
I can't say enough about using a timer to generate immediate results and excitement.
So when you tell yourself... 'Butt, I just don't have the time right now to get that done so I'll just feel like shit, leave it on my mental never-ever-to-do list and go watch the kick-ass flick, Kick-Ass.'
Yeah, how many of us hear this self-bull-dung in our heads?
Rather then get overwhelmed with the whole endeavor of creating my new product offering for the 'Well LIT Culture', I broke this into multiple activities. I set my iPhone timer to ten minutes. Ready-set-go. With my iPad, I pimped and pumped out a set of what LIT and what un-LIT looks like for one of my 'Sub LIT Cultures'. 'You rang?', says the timer. Badda bing bada boom. Done. Fini. Was so friggin' fun, useful and energizing that I decided for another round of ten.
Twenty minutes and two major accomplishments of 'good enough'. Combine that with yesterday's and tomorrow's performances and I will have strung a series of average activities to produce a doing-and-done of effectivity. All while sippin' on a steamer at the coffee shop office.
Go on now and light a fire under your own butt!
So when you tell yourself... 'Butt, I just don't have the time right now to get that done so I'll just feel like shit, leave it on my mental never-ever-to-do list and go watch the kick-ass flick, Kick-Ass.'
Yeah, how many of us hear this self-bull-dung in our heads?Rather then get overwhelmed with the whole endeavor of creating my new product offering for the 'Well LIT Culture', I broke this into multiple activities. I set my iPhone timer to ten minutes. Ready-set-go. With my iPad, I pimped and pumped out a set of what LIT and what un-LIT looks like for one of my 'Sub LIT Cultures'. 'You rang?', says the timer. Badda bing bada boom. Done. Fini. Was so friggin' fun, useful and energizing that I decided for another round of ten.
Twenty minutes and two major accomplishments of 'good enough'. Combine that with yesterday's and tomorrow's performances and I will have strung a series of average activities to produce a doing-and-done of effectivity. All while sippin' on a steamer at the coffee shop office.
Go on now and light a fire under your own butt!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Dare To Simplify And Get More Done
With so much data and complexity in our lives and yet with our brains no more capable then what our ancestors could assimilate, I am constantly looking for ways to simply learning, communication, tasks, projects and most other daily activities at work and home.
Consider some of these practices and tools to simply getting more done:
Consider some of these practices and tools to simply getting more done:
- Write emails according to this policy at five.sentenc.es
- Share notes between people and devices with write.fm
- Simplify communications by only using email and phone while trashing Facebook, IM, texting, voice mail and others
- Consolidate all class, seminar, book and other notes into a single page to really 'get it'
- Check emails only twice per day
- List today's tasks as future accomplishments
- Only do tasks that increase personal energy
- Stay focused on a task by using a timer that goes tick-tick-tick-tick
- Get everyone to stand in all work meetings
- Set email out-of-office notifications informing others that you will be deleting all email upon return from your vacation
- Use a Mac
- Go paperless and save everything to Evernote.com, Delicious.com and Instapaper.com
- To get shit done- figure out what to do, write the steps, complete the first steps
- Manage all sites securely while remembering just a single password with Keygrinder.com
- Schedule meetings and stay on track with NextUp.info
- Keep a notepad and pen next to the shower
What's in your toolbox?
Friday, August 20, 2010
I'm Mad As Hell And I Ain't Gonna Email No More
Email is perhaps the single most time and brain wasting activity of modern man.
Most people have email running all day, with notifications, while checking and responding continuously to notes that are mostly insignificant, time-wasting, concentration-busting, insecurity-enabling activities resulting in getting-little-done ...all day long, one day after another. Don't just take my word for it.
Do an experiment by walking around your work place (since your not getting shit done anyways) and note how many fugly mugs are buried in Outlook. Do this for a week and in the comments section for this post, tell me I suck if you find otherwise.
I swear, Al-Qaeda is brilliant for devising such a trick for getting western man to flail via email. What a useful tactic to bring us to a stall.
I have not seen any job roles, titles, responsibilities, performance awards, or any other honors for rewarding hours per day spent on email activities.
Checking email frequently breaks up concentration and lessens personal performance. Our brains are not really good at frequent task switching and twitching.
Concentration is a terrible thing to waste.
Many emails are not even worthy of being addressed. I used to think it was rude to not address every email. That's bunk! When did someone else's lack of planning become my emergency? Don't enable this behavior. As well, stick to pertinent items that directly relate to what's on your monthly, weekly, daily task list so you can be laser focused on effective activities (Ah... you do have a list aimed at solving the big stuff, right? Another topic, another time).
Do a search for 'email productivity' and you'll see lots of tips to improve email practices.
I have a slew of turbo effectivity tips myself (Also, for another time).
Butt for now, try these on:
- Do not start your day by checking email
- Do not end your day by checking email
- Run your email program only when working on emails. Otherwise, shut it down.
- Turn off all email, Facebook, Twitter, and all other social notifications
- Set daily tasks for when you work with email (I only work my email program a couple of times a day).
OK, now you might ask, 'What Pratel, are your ideas for actually working with the crap in my inbox?' Here's one nifty approach.
Be bold and give yourself permission to Get LIT by getting more done in less time, with better results having more fun with increased confidence, energy, focus and simplicity while inspiring others to do the same.
Most people have email running all day, with notifications, while checking and responding continuously to notes that are mostly insignificant, time-wasting, concentration-busting, insecurity-enabling activities resulting in getting-little-done ...all day long, one day after another. Don't just take my word for it.
Do an experiment by walking around your work place (since your not getting shit done anyways) and note how many fugly mugs are buried in Outlook. Do this for a week and in the comments section for this post, tell me I suck if you find otherwise.
I swear, Al-Qaeda is brilliant for devising such a trick for getting western man to flail via email. What a useful tactic to bring us to a stall. I have not seen any job roles, titles, responsibilities, performance awards, or any other honors for rewarding hours per day spent on email activities.
Checking email frequently breaks up concentration and lessens personal performance. Our brains are not really good at frequent task switching and twitching.
Concentration is a terrible thing to waste.
Many emails are not even worthy of being addressed. I used to think it was rude to not address every email. That's bunk! When did someone else's lack of planning become my emergency? Don't enable this behavior. As well, stick to pertinent items that directly relate to what's on your monthly, weekly, daily task list so you can be laser focused on effective activities (Ah... you do have a list aimed at solving the big stuff, right? Another topic, another time).
I have a slew of turbo effectivity tips myself (Also, for another time).
Butt for now, try these on:
- Do not start your day by checking email
- Do not end your day by checking email
- Run your email program only when working on emails. Otherwise, shut it down.
- Turn off all email, Facebook, Twitter, and all other social notifications
- Set daily tasks for when you work with email (I only work my email program a couple of times a day).
OK, now you might ask, 'What Pratel, are your ideas for actually working with the crap in my inbox?' Here's one nifty approach.
Be bold and give yourself permission to Get LIT by getting more done in less time, with better results having more fun with increased confidence, energy, focus and simplicity while inspiring others to do the same.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Roe v Wade
Just kiddin'.
Think, What v How.
A while back my awesome, well LIT entrepreneur coach enlightened me about the concept of 'whats' versus 'hows' and how they can impede progress during personal and/or business vision questing.
Often, when pondering, brainstorming or developing goals (the whats), we intertwine how we can, or more importantly, cannot achieve such goals (the hows).
'WHAT to do vs HOW to do it' can, and often, should be seperate discussions, strategies and plans. Duh.
WHATS and HOWS get in the way of each other and often prevent committing to what's important, the vision. A committed vision (collection of whats) is a powerful force that if important enough, will prevail among any obstacles (collection of hows).
Since then, I have noticed many times how I and others have dumbed down the WHATS with the HOWS. How lame.
WHATS and HOWS do not mix well together in these scenarios. Kinda like the Hatfields and McCoys, pickles and milk, congress and the senate, Arnold and O'Donnell, the French and everyone else.
It's good to be conscious of this to remain focused and committed to determining the WHATS by kicking the HOWS's asses off to another planning discussion that won't detract from WHAT you wanna achieve.
My purpose is to improve human lives by integrating people and processes to achieve business and personal success with a hot roasted rump of enthusiasm. A most definite WHAT.
HOW? Stay tuned and come back to this site often.
Get, be and stay LIT by keeping your vision sessions apart from your implementation sessions.
Go for it now. Implement later.
Can you think of areas where you do or see this?
Think, What v How.
A while back my awesome, well LIT entrepreneur coach enlightened me about the concept of 'whats' versus 'hows' and how they can impede progress during personal and/or business vision questing.
Often, when pondering, brainstorming or developing goals (the whats), we intertwine how we can, or more importantly, cannot achieve such goals (the hows).
'WHAT to do vs HOW to do it' can, and often, should be seperate discussions, strategies and plans. Duh.
WHATS and HOWS get in the way of each other and often prevent committing to what's important, the vision. A committed vision (collection of whats) is a powerful force that if important enough, will prevail among any obstacles (collection of hows).
Since then, I have noticed many times how I and others have dumbed down the WHATS with the HOWS. How lame.
WHATS and HOWS do not mix well together in these scenarios. Kinda like the Hatfields and McCoys, pickles and milk, congress and the senate, Arnold and O'Donnell, the French and everyone else.
It's good to be conscious of this to remain focused and committed to determining the WHATS by kicking the HOWS's asses off to another planning discussion that won't detract from WHAT you wanna achieve.
My purpose is to improve human lives by integrating people and processes to achieve business and personal success with a hot roasted rump of enthusiasm. A most definite WHAT.
HOW? Stay tuned and come back to this site often.
Get, be and stay LIT by keeping your vision sessions apart from your implementation sessions.
Go for it now. Implement later.
Can you think of areas where you do or see this?
Friday, August 13, 2010
Aid Your Biz
The other day I was playing basketball at the club when a kid went down hard on a drive to the bucket after catching an inadvertent elbow to the kisser from a defender.
Kaboom! He remained there for a couple of minutes. He wasn't knocked out, just knocked down...hard.
Somewhat recently, I attended an all day CPR/first aid class offered at my last job.
The dude was able to breath on his own (first most important point) and so no need for face-to-face. Whew.
The other guys moved him over to the bench where he sat up all goofy-eyed.
Done deal. I asked the gym manager to call 911.
The instructor reiterated throughout the class that if we detect any non-normal symptoms, then consider the person to be 'dead until proven otherwise' and get immediate professional assistance.
The dude behind the desk was like, 'are you sure, Todd?'.
'Yup'.
A few days later upon return to the gym Mike thanked me and said the guy had a major concussion and was appreciative of my insistence for assistance.
Felt swell to know what to do in this situation.
It makes good business sense to offer a first aid course for employees.
See some reasons here.
And of course, it makes even more sense to take a first aid course.
I'm glad to have this in my personal arsenal, even if it means I might have to use my kisser on someone other then my cute wife. Of course, when I was recently in LA and passed by Charlize Theron...
Do you have any CPR stories to share?
Kaboom! He remained there for a couple of minutes. He wasn't knocked out, just knocked down...hard.
Somewhat recently, I attended an all day CPR/first aid class offered at my last job.
The dude was able to breath on his own (first most important point) and so no need for face-to-face. Whew.
The other guys moved him over to the bench where he sat up all goofy-eyed.
Done deal. I asked the gym manager to call 911.
The instructor reiterated throughout the class that if we detect any non-normal symptoms, then consider the person to be 'dead until proven otherwise' and get immediate professional assistance. The dude behind the desk was like, 'are you sure, Todd?'.
'Yup'.
A few days later upon return to the gym Mike thanked me and said the guy had a major concussion and was appreciative of my insistence for assistance.
Felt swell to know what to do in this situation.
It makes good business sense to offer a first aid course for employees.
See some reasons here.
And of course, it makes even more sense to take a first aid course.
I'm glad to have this in my personal arsenal, even if it means I might have to use my kisser on someone other then my cute wife. Of course, when I was recently in LA and passed by Charlize Theron...
Do you have any CPR stories to share?
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Be Clear, Considerate And Effective
Have a gander to absorb its simple and effective policy.
I have been using this approach for most of my emails which forces me to be clear with my thoughts and words.
It's feels great to be lazer focused while being considerate of others by communicating clearly and concisely.
Check out all the buzz about this topic on one of my favorite sites, ridiculouslyextraordinary.com.
So, how did I do with these last five sentences? Do share.
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