What’s Your Peak Performance Time?

When Are You at Your Best Productivity?

Do you know your peak performance time?  For most of us, it is early morning. Many people’s biorhythms drop in the afternoon, and some are night owls.  Track yourself if you don’t know and pay attention to when you seem to have the greatest clarity, vitality and mental acuity.  You will want to apply that to your most important priorities.

keys to success from Fired Up!Once you do know, schedule your day like this. Block out 90 minute chunks with absolutely no interruptions to work in-depth on your highest priority. (The one with the biggest ROI for you.) That means no calls, no emails, no people coming into your space:  total quiet and concentration time.  Work for 90 minutes on that one priority and after 90 minutes, take a renewal break. Stretch, connect with others, drink 8 oz. of clean water, eat some nourishing food and look at nature.  If you’ve been sitting at a computer, get up and gaze off long distance, to refresh your eyes.  If you can, get some physical exercise, as too much sitting can be dangerous.  (see earlier blog post.)


After a restful break, you’ll be refreshed and ready to tackle your next 90 minutes.  Try this technique and see how your productivity soars.  For more information on this concept, check out Tony Schwartz’s book, Be Excellent at Anything.

©2012 Snowden McFall All Rights Reserved. 
No duplication or reprinting without permission and author reference

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Are You Out of Time?

Time Management for Superstressed People – Part I

Stressed out Woman from Fired Up! and Stress ExpressIn this age of constant information, over scheduled lives and frenetic activity, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that you DO have control over your own time.  If you’re a parent, you probably don’t feel that way, but there are definitely steps you can take to make the difference in your life and schedule.

First, as Tony Jeary writes in his book, Finding 100 Extra Minutes a Day, ask yourself “What is the greatest use of my time right now?”several times throughout the day.  Make sure it is the highest leveraged, biggest ROI activity you can make it. And that does not mean necessarily a financial ROI.  It could be an emotional ROI where you spend much needed time with a neglected loved one.

Prioritize your week’s schedule according to your top priorities, which have the biggest leverage.  Make everything else work around those priorities, whenever possible. If you know you have to take your son to soccer practice two days a week, plan to bring your laptop or iPad and do work while waiting.  Maximize your time so when he comes off the field, you can focus on him.

Get in the habit of saying no.  Don’t over schedule yourself.  My brother had been shuttling his son to 2-3 different sports throughout the week, taking up way to much time.  They let him pick the sport and now it is down to one.  My brother and his wife have much more time to tend to their priorities.  You will, too, once you make decisions that support what is best for the entire family.

Part 2 on Wed.

©2012 Snowden McFall All Rights Reserved. 
No duplication or reprinting without permission and author reference

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Stress Express Tip: Complete What You Start

Get Fired Up By Handling Incompletions

Right now, examine your life.  How many projects are you working on simultaneously? How many books have you started and not finished?  How about unfinished articles you are reading or writing?  All of those are incompletions!

From Stress Express, image of messy home officeIncompletions drain large amounts of energy and actually create stress.  Anything from half-read newspaper to cluttered closets to the classic “to do” lists that never get finished; these are all incompletions.  Incompletions are a form of self-sabotage which can create anxiety, worry and tension.

At #Boss2011 this week, my friend Carrie Wilkerson, the Barefoot Executive, talked about finishing.  In my book Stress Express, I have an entire chapter devoted to completion.  Robert Fritz wrote extensively about it in The Path of Least Resistance. 

Why?  Because we all know how important it is to maximize your effectiveness.  We all have a finite amount of time and energy and anything that drags us away from high productivity time needs to be addressed.  So if you are constantly feeling overwhelmed and like you have way too much on your plate, try these:

•  Check your desk right now.  What can you handle and FINISH in the next 10 minutes? Do it.  Record it as a success.

• Recycle newspapers and magazines you are no longer reading.  It’s ok if you didn’t read the whole thing.  Declare it done!

• Examine your to do list.  What items can you delegate?  What really does not need to be done?  Prioritize your list in terms  of high leveraged items– ones that will have greatest ROI and take action on them.

You’ll immediately observe a difference in your energy, and you will feel a greater sense of satisfaction, productivity and well-being.

To sign up for Snowden’s ezine newsletter on stress, happiness, marketing and motivation, go to: https://firedupnow.com/firedupemailregister.html

 ©2011 Snowden McFall All Rights Reserved. No duplication 
or reprinting without permission and author reference.

Celebrating Small Successes for Stress Relief & Happiness

At the end of each day, record 10 small successes you’ve had that day. Anything you intended to do and did is a success. Catch yourself in the act of doing things right and see how much
happier and more fulfilled you are.

My birthday is in July and it was a joy to celebrate twice, once with women friends at lunch and then at a party my husband threw for me.  Celebrating life’s little moments of success and joy is so important to our stress levels, happiness and overall performance at work.  It’s rare that the huge successes happen; what matters is to acknowledge all the small achievements you have every day.

Cheering women
I love this quote from Norman Lear:

“Success is how you collect your minutes.
You spend millions of minutes to reach one triumph,
one moment,
then you spend maybe a thousand minutes
enjoying it.
If you are unhappy through those millions of minutes,
what good are the thousands of minutes of triumph?
It doesn’t equate.
Life is made up of small pleasures,
Happiness is made up of those tiny successes.
The big ones come too infrequently.
If you don’t have  all those
zillions of tiny successes,
the big ones don’t mean anything.”
Norman Lear
Here’s a tip: at the end of each day, record 10 small successes you’ve had that day. Anything you intended to do and did is a success.  Catch yourself in the act of doing things right and see how much
happier and more fulfilled you are.

Burnout Prevention Tip: Just Say No

An especially effective way to politely decline an invitation for leadership or board work is to say ” I only want to give you 100% effort and right now, I can’t do that with all my other commitments. Please ask me again next year and I can re-evaluate.” People appreciate your candor and would rather have you at your best.

Have you ever noticed that people who aren’t busy all the time never seem to get burnt-out?  That’s because somewhere along the way, they learned how to say no.

Say No
Man says no

It’s actually a very important skill to cultivate, especially if you have a busy work life and want to have a good family life.  How many nights are you out in the evening, at work or community -related events?  An excess of two nights a week starts to tax your energy and your family life.

So if you’re already feeling pressured and exhausted, start saying no. The next time someone asks you to do something new,  to take on additional responsibility, even to attend a new social event, politely decline.  Explain that you’re overtaxed right now, that you appreciate the invitation, but you need to take care of yourself and cut back on your time away from home.  Most everyone will accept that.

An especially effective way to politely decline an invitation for leadership or board work is to say ” I only want to give you 100% effort and right now, I can’t do that with all my other commitments.  Please ask me again next year and I can re-evaluate.” People appreciate your candor and would rather have you at your best.

 

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@2011 Snowden McFall.  All Rights Reserved. No duplication without permission