I write a monthly column for MorningstarAdvisor.com This month's column is full of inspiration and motiviation. It will challenge you to live outside of your usual comfort zone. While it is obvious that many of us want to be different. It is not always easy to do things differently to achieve life goals.
This is a story of amazing courage - it the story of how one woman changed her life with one Decision.
She decided to go skydiving on her 50th birthday. You can read the MorningstarAdvisor.com article by clicking here:
The video alone will make your heart pound. Congratulations to my friend, she had a dream and she lived out her dream. We can learn a lot from this story and the video.
Recently, we asked the subscibers from our website, www.TheSevenMinuteDifference.com to share their favorite time management ideas. We received many great ideas and recommendations. Here are 5 great time management ideas we received that can help make you more productive.
Time Management Idea #1 I have found that when I put a deadline on a task, it gets done.It’s kind of like preparing to go on vacation...you know you have to get a lot done prior to leaving so you work very diligently to make this happen.If you’re supposed to be out the door by noon, it’s amazing how efficient you can be.I’ve transferred the same philosophy to the tasks I assign myself each day.I have seven that I want to get done and they’re in a special place in my Day Planner.I’ll block off a certain amount of time for each activity and know that the task needs to be done within that time frame.If I’m interrupted, I’ll just let the interrupter know that I’m free at the end of the time period I’ve defined.No hurt feelings, and I always get back to them.Just an idea that has helped me manage my day more efficiently. Todd Kelley
Time Management Idea #2 I set up appointments on a daily basis with myself to get things done.By allowing time instead of doing it when I have time helps me.I also delegate those duties or tasks that don’t need to be done by me.These two things allow me to spend my time networking and advising individuals and business Dean Boucounis
Time Management Idea #3 1.only touch a piece of mail or paper once 2.keep one open file on your desk at a time 3.do what you are great at - downstream the others 4.do what you are supposed to be doing John de Montel
Time Management Idea #4 I have started taking my laptop to meetings and I key my notes in during the meeting. This eliminates hand writing notes and keying them in later.In addition, it is easier to share the notes with my team by sending them in an email. Donna Feyen
Time Management Idea #5 I found the best way for me to get a jump on my day was to write out my prioritized To-do list right before I went to bed.It took it off my mind, helping me sleep better, and it was ready for me to mindlessly follow come morning. Anita Patel
Thanks to everyone who submitted their favorite time management ideas.We would love to continue to receive more time mangement and productivity ideas.Feel free to email us your favorite time management ideas. Please send them to:
As with any to-do list, it is important to actually DO what you’ve set out to accomplish. However, for a variety of reasons some tasks just don’t get done. In David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, he calls unfinished tasks “open loops.” As the name suggests, these open loops circle continually in your unconscious mind, popping up periodically in your consciousness. As soon as you remember that you have not completed a task, your brain focuses on it and prompts you to do it—immediately. You might be able to successfully bat it away like a pest from your consciousness, but it will fester and send out distress signals in your unconscious, making you miserable. The cycle continues until the job is done.
Now, consider this: On any given workday you may have anywhere from 30 to 50 unfinished tasks. Regardless of the size or scope of the tasks to be completed, they are stressing you. These incomplete loops perpetually interrupt concentration, pull focus, and induce anxiety. That’s why it so important to put unfinished tasks onto a master to-do list. By placing them in a single, safe place you stop the open loop process and put your mind at ease. It is tantamount to your conscious mind reassuring your unconscious that it need not worry; the task will be done in a timely manner.
The attached “Unfinished Tasks Checklist” has space for up to 120 unfinished work projects and 60 unfinished tasks at home.
As you work toward starting and completing all the items on your list, make sure you keep track of everything you accomplish by marking off with a checkmark each item one at a time. The simple power of the checkmark is in itself a mysterious motivating power. In a sense these lists create a written contract you make with yourself. By creating these lists, you are making an emotional commitment to complete these daily activities. As straightforward as it may seem, there is an incredible power of emotional accomplishment each time a task is finished completely and marked off your list.
For more great free time management resources visit:
Great public speakers have a lot in common. First and foremost they have a passion and a love for the message they are sharing with their audience. Their entire lives seem to become a drum beat of a message that they repeat over and over again.
Here are 5 ways anyone can become a better public speaker
1. Love Your Topic My favorite public speakers are the men and women who can capture my attention from the first moment they walk on the stage. It stems from the glimmer in their eyes, even from the back of the audience you can see how excited they are to be there. You can see it, you can feel it, you can almost smell it -the love of their message oozes out of them and it is contagious.
2. Read Everything To become a better public speaker, read books, article and blogs written by other public speakers. There are many really simple things you will learn about: - Why you may only have 2 seconds to capture your audiences attention (Blink, Malcolm Gladwell) - Why love matters in business (Love Is The Killer App, Tim Sanders) - Practical steps to becoming a professional speaker (Speak and Grow Rich, Walters and Walters)
3. Listen To Other Speakers Another way to quickly improve your public speaking skills is to listen to a LOT of other people give their presentations. Some of my favorite speakers include Earl Nightingale, Dale Carnegie, and Brian Tracy.
4. Speak At Every Opportunity Like every other skill in life, practice is the key. Public speaking is hard for everyone, but the more you speak the more you learn about becoming a great public speaker. Accept every opportunity to speak - my audiences have included: Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, Girl Scouts, Sunday School Classes, Women's Groups, Junior High Students, and of course very young children...
Not only do I speak on time management, I am an illusionist! This is a 2 Minute video segment of a program I shared at a local community center for about 150 children...
5. Inspire Yourself You will become a better public speaker if every time you step off the stage you have inspired yourself. If you truly love the topic you are sharing - just having the privilege to talk about it will make your heart pound with enthusiasm.
Life is about sharing meaning and purpose and hope. Being a public speaker is one of the greatest opportunities.
To find out more about Allyson Lewis and her time management and productivity ideas - please visit www.TheSevenMinuteDifference.com
in 2006, I received enthusiastic emails, letters and phone calls from people all around the country whose lives have been touched by my book. During my seminars and workshops I witnessed over and over again countless Aha! moments when people began to understand not only that they could change, but how quickly they can could transform their professional and personal lives through small, systematic, repeatable steps.
I’m living proof that Change Happens in an Instant®. I have worked in the financial services industry since 1982, yet it was in 2003 that my life was profoundly changed in exactly 7 minutes. Our team had scheduled an off-site quarterly planning meeting. About mid-morning, I was asked to take 15 minutes to write out what my purpose in life is. I had no idea what to say. With the timer ticking, my mind wandered aimlessly. Eight valuable minutes had lapsed by the time I regained focus. With just seven minutes left, I picked up my pen and started writing straight from my heart.
"My purpose in life is GROWING," I wrote. "In life I want to grow and change. I want to be different tomorrow than I am today." I realized that I wanted to be a better wife, mother and spiritual person. I also wanted to grow my skills as a financial advisor so that I could better help my clients grow their assets. "I want each day to be filled with fun and excitement and challenge," I concluded. "And, I want to help others bring about meaningful changes in their own lives, by sharing my discoveries and ideas. My purpose in life is fulfilled by growing and through helping others grow."
I was surprised by how easily and succinctly this came to me. But I was even more surprised by the key words that were evident when I read what I had written: "growing" myself and helping "others grow." This exercise changed my personal life, launched a new career, and laid the foundation for my second book, The Seven Minute Difference.
With The Seven Minute DifferenceI have been able to help thousands of people nationwide through my straightforward tenant: The moment you decide you truly want to be different you can change in an instant.
As I have traveled the country teaching people how to refocus and reinvigorate their lives by taking small steps to big changes, I have grown as well. I have learned how to better teach my 7-minute method, making it more accessible by being more hands-on. The 7 Minute Life™ is the culmination of what I have learned. It is a teaching tool designed to be used everyday to achieve the change you want. It will help you think differently about everything you do, and it will help you make healthier choices. By using The 7 Minute Life™ you will think your way to a happier life, both professionally and personally.
I was riveted by behavioral science writer Winifred Gallagher’s latest book, Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life. Her insights on leading an intentional and attentive life profoundly affected me. Many of her observations in Rapt dovetail with The 7 Minute Life.™
Gallagher points out that because your life is the sum of what you focus upon, skillfully managing your attention is the key to happiness and fulfillment. You choose what to pay attention to and what to ignore. We all have a multitude of distractions in our daily lives, but as Gallagher shows it is attention’s essential function to translate the chaotic larger world around us into our own orderly world. Your focus can literally change your brain and your behavior. Taking charge of your attention is the key to personal power and freedom, Gallagher writes. By focusing on the positive or productive elements in situations, you can shape your inner experience and expand your world.
I have discovered that the essence of living a conscious life is to Prioritize, Organize and Simplify®.
By prioritizing your core values, organizing your goals into a plan of action, and simplifying your daily focus, you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to and live the life you want.
will help you unlock your purpose, potential and passion to transform your professional and personal lives. Focusing on activities that capture your attention and excite your soul gives you boundless energy and provides a new sense of meaning and fulfillment. Become intentional about these activities and make them a consistent part of your daily life. Now is the time to pro-actively determine where your focus will be and how you will live the rest of your life.
Make your meetings more productive and more efficient. A tremendous amount of daily work time is spent in staff meetings. Choose to create an agenda for the meetings you are in charge of planning. Take the time to outline the concept or reason for the meeting, what the desired outcome of the meeting is, and who really needs to be involved.
Seven Minutes, Inc. created this "Meeting Planner" page to help you add structure and clarity to every staff meeting. It is important to put into writing the purpose or the intention of the meeting. Next, the most effective way to begin a meeting is determining the outcome of the meeting in advance. This requires thoughtful preparation on the part of the co-ordinator of the meeting.
The third section of this "Meeting Planner" page encourages the meeting planner to decide who needs to be involved in the meeting. It is important to have the right people in the right place.
And finally, during the meeting, each attendee should make a list of the specific "action steps" that they will be responsible for completing in order to accomplish the desired outcome of the meeting.
View our 51 second video on "How to Plan a Meeting".
Seven Minutes is designed to deliver time management and productivity tools for busy business people. Here is a link to the "7 Minute - Meeting Planner" PDF:
