Successful Blog

Is Productive What You Really Want to Be?

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I've been thinking . . .

about being productive.

I am competent. I get things done well, on schedule. I keep my promises and keep my clients happy. I don’t spend time on things that don’t move the game forward. I don’t spend time on things that get me looking in the wrong direction.

Is that productive? It seems so.

When I hear the word unreliable I get an image of a boy skipping his chores and sleeping under a tree. I sure am not unreliable. I just couldn’t bail when I knew someone was waiting for something I’m supposed to do. I value my credibility.

That’s probably productive too.

On a Friday when the sun is shining, I wonder whether I get so invested in productive endeavors that I forget to refuel. Do I really have to be productive every minute of every day?

I’ve slept under a tree. It’s a most relaxing way to spend time. Maybe this weekend I’ll be unproductive. Unproductive sounds like a synonym for free.

Are you productive? Can choosing to be unproductive be a good thing?

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Social Media: How to Get Off the Fast Train and Get More Value

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Worth Saying Again

The Living Web

Comment on my YouTube Vid! Be part of my wiki! Join my Ning! Are you a member of these Facebook Groups?!! Do you Stumble, Digg, Mixx, Reddit, and the others?!! Where’s your account on Flickr?! I haven’t seen you Twitter in hours!!

With all of that to do, how do we do anything else — write a blog post or send an invoice, for an example?

Social Media: How to Scale Back and Get More Value

Quickly enough, we figure out we can either be overwhelmed or make some choices. Am I sounding redundant? Probably a little. (But the horse isn’t dead.) What I said yesterday is worth underscoring with the words of a friend.

In the first of a series for Freelance Switch, m. saleem suggests that we opt out of those we can.

The first thing to keep in mind is that while it may not be impossible for you to dabble in all these different mediums, it is important that you ignore most of them.

I so agree.

Here are some simple tips for how to scale back and get more value from the time you invest. It’s easier to decide if we set up criteria and eliminate what doesn’t meet those standards.

  • What’s your purpose? What’s does the site deliver? Are you looking for community, for friendship, for business or some combination of those? Pick a site that supports your purpose. Do you really need to be on both Pownce and Twitter?
  • Who do you know there? Social networks are popping up all over. Everyone can’t participate everywhere. Some I joined were gone by the time I returned there. Be a slow adopter. Look for where your friends already are.

Then decide which networks you value most and what percent of your time you want to spend on social networking tasks. We don’t try to read every book or see every movie. It’s as fruitless to try to use every social networking site.

One of my favorite sayings goes something like this.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Use the time you gain from scaling back to

  • Interact more at the sites you stay a part of.
  • Be a stronger presence and write stronger content on your own blog.
  • Spend time in other networking pursuits: visiting blogs, meeting clients, and working with people.

It’s okay to get off the social media fast train. Sometimes less really is more.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

Using Common Wisdom and Goals to Avoid Perceived Productivity

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Working Hard and Getting Nowhere

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Every company that I work with has some issue with perceived productivity — people working hard at things that add no value. It might be a team that’s lost direction or a culture that does things as they’ve always been done. It could a department who never evaluates the effectivenees of their process.

I suppose that comes from a misaligned perception that hard work is equal to a positive contribution. It’s not so. A positive contribution is any work that moves us closer to our goals — sometimes that’s hard work; sometimes it’s simple and elegant.

When we work at home, it’s easy to fall victim to the lure of productivity that gets us nowhere. We feel like we’re working. No one says our time investment isn’t worth it. In the past few months, people have said these things to me:

I’m all I can and in the last 6 months, I’ve only made $600.

I work 14 hours a day. I guess you need money to make money.

In my last job, I was a high performing VP. Now I can’t get a client to talk to me.

Every time I asked what they were doing. They answered with common wisdom about successful blogging.

  • I spend hours writing high-quality blog posts.
  • I spend hours writing comments and social networking.
  • I tweak my blog to make it more inviting.

If you’ve got a blog, you know that it’s work to do all of that. It’s highly productive work, if the goal is to build a first-rate blog audience. But the folks who came to me had a goal to build a client-based business. They were working hard on some things that wouldn’t take them where wanted to be.

It was perceived productivity. Wisdom needs to match up wth where we’re going.

Each person took a minute to apply their goals to what they were doing. The wisdom matched to their goals made a new purpose and new direction. Every high-quality blog post and every hour spent networking and commenting was considered in light of their business. A slight shift made a big difference. Time spent became highly productive.

Wisdom + goals = direction, purpose, productivity

Ever been victim to perceived productivity?

I have. Now I keep my goal in front of me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

25 Days to Organize a Blogger’s Life in Time for Holiday Fun

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Problems, People, Paper, and Plans

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I looked at the calendar this morning. Roughly 6 weeks stand between me and the end of the year. I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions, but I love the feeling of new beginnings when everything is cleaned up, put away, and ready to rock. On the other hand, I don’t like to make work, especially at holiday time. So this morning, I’m putting together a plan that I’m calling . . .

25 Days to Organize My Life in Time for Holiday Fun

At this time of the year, conflicting goals can intrude on the most uncluttered life. They can stress and overwhelm the calmest soul. Chaos like mine is already out of control.

This year, with that in mind, I’m organizing my life to avoid possible nuclear meltdown. I’ll do something each day to wrap things up so that I totally enjoy the end of the year fun.

I plan to clean up my live AND catch up with my friends as we make the season merry and bright.

I. Problems and Solutions

Day 1: Get help with common problems. I’m going to quit trying to figure out everything on my own. It silly for me to invest time digging up basic answers, when Simple Help has probably already figured most of them out. Simplehelp.net is a site that is both interactive and re-active; if you can’t find the solution to your problem, you can request content and the tutorial will be created for you. If I let other folks share what they know, I can save my time for the problems so unique to my situation that only I have the experience and detail to solve them efficiently. I have a couple that need attending to right away.

Day 2: Ask for help with my blog, too. I’m going to let more people know that I welcome guest posts on my blog. Though my blog can’t offer revenue it doesn’t earn, it’s got visibility and an intelligent, cool audience that’s priceless. AjaxNinja suggested seek out guest writers and I’m doing it today . . .

This is an invitation. . . . If you can submit an appropriate post by Friday morning, I sure could use your help. I’ll be in the UK Dec 1-9, 2007, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to blog while I’m gone. You’ll find my email address and topic ideas on the Guest Writer page.

II. Thousands and 150 Important People

Days 3-8: Update one of my “networks” each day from this group of sites:
MyBlogLog,
StumbleUpon,
Digg,
Facebook,
LinkedIn,
and Propeller.
When I find folks who have common interests, add them to my contacts.

Day 9-14: Review other “social networks” I belong to: Xing, Ning, Spock, Zude, Rapleaf, 8apps, Pownce, BlueChip, Zaadz, and Doostang. Decide which I should stay with and which I will resign from.

Day 15-17: Use MyLifeBrand or social url to incorporate the remaining Social Networks into one global platform. Make this a 15-30 minute part of each day moving forward. Place that block during a time that my mind needs a break from other kinds of work.

Day 19-20: Sort and group my email address book. Email is my most natural social network. Delete entries for folks I don’t recognize or haven’t corresponded with in less than 6 months. Email folks on the 6-month drop list that I want to keep current. Check my email settings. Delete old emails I no longer need need.

Day 21-22: Go through the contacts in my phone in much the same way. Delete those I don’t know and calling those I’ve not spoken to but want to keep on as a contact and part of my life.

III. Paper and Plans

Day 23-24: Clean off my desk and clean out my paper files. Maybe I’d better start doing a little bit of this one every day from day 1 . . . hmmmm.

Day 25:Develop an Editorial Calendar for next month using the form below. Allow for spur-of-the-moment ideas and variations.

Editorial Calendar

Then sit back with a nice glass of my favorite beverage and listen to my favorite tunes. . . .

How would your 25 day plan to organize for some fun work out differently?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Are You Fragging Your Brain with a Multitasking Traffic Jam?

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I Need a Brain Defragger!!

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Does this sound familiar?

You’re working. You’re thinking, typing, planning, talking, and eating . . . all at the same time. A friend, a family member, a person you care about deeply, comes to where you are and says,

“I’ve just cut off my finger! I’m bleeding all over the carpet!”

A full-two minutes later, you actually hear what was said. You stare blankly into space as you try to process the message.

“Um. Oh. Did you just say something about the carpet?”

The message had to fight through the traffic jam on the neuropathways of your multitasking brain.

Multitasking is on its way out for me. I’ve suspected for sometime it was a major source of what made me tired and cranky.

“What?!!! Who cares what we’re having for dinner?!!”

Every new and stressful detail made me wish I had a defragmenter for my brain.

Multitasking didn’t get any more done. I was just doing more at the same time. I knew that doing many things at once is not efficient. Somehow I got sucked into the multitasking vortex, anyway.

Soon enough I thought I was developing an attention deficit. Truth is I was just fragmenting my brain.

Continuous Partial Attention

That’s what it’s called, Continuous Partial Attention — CPA. Keeping our eyes and ears alert to everything, always scanning the environment in case something we need might pop onto our radar — we use multiple screens. We check for multiple priorities.

Scanning is great when what we’re doing is routine. It’s disastrous when a task requires reflection, concentration, or humanity.

“Why do you interrupt?!!! You take your life too seriously.”

We scan because of anxiety . . . we can’t miss anything. Linda Stone described it in a Newsweek interview with Stephen Levy.

. . . there’s a problem in the workplace when the interruptions intrude on tasks that require real concentration or quiet reflection. And there’s an even bigger problem when our bubble of connectedness stretches to ensnare us no matter where we are. A live BlackBerry or even a switched-on mobile phone is an admission that your commitment to your current activity is as fickle as Renée Zellweger’s wedding vows. Your world turns into a never-ending cocktail party where you’re always looking over your virtual shoulder for a better conversation partner. The anxiety is contagious . . .

I read that and I decided to make a change.

I cleared the traffic on the neuropathways of my brain. I became my own defragger. I do one thing at a time, and I get more things done and with fewer errors.

I’m breathing slower and liking myself better.

And now, when someone talks to me, they often get a human answer. I’m pretty proud of that.

Do you need to defragment your brain?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

How to Master an Overwhelming To Do List

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Worse than herding Cats

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I admit it. To my thinking, one thing is worse than herding cats. It’s wrestling with the things I have to do. In my world, a To Do List can quickly get overwhelming. It can be filled with things I don’t know how to do, little things that are labor intensive, and too many things that are unrelated yet need getting done in the same time period. It always seems that part of the list is extremely URGENT and can’t wait for my learning curve. I can’t get to done that way.

How to Master an Overwhelming To Do List

To Do items are in the flow of things when there are only a few. When there are many, I have to get out of the details to where I can see to move them into a organizational groups. These are key steps to mastering a To Do List.

Every item I write begins with a verb. When appropriate, they begin with “Learn to” to remind me that they need more time and more steps.

  1. Brain dump. Write all of the items down a list in any order. Do it first thing in the morning, or last thing — to be able to hit the ground running when a new day begins. Get them out of your head and on paper or on computer. A spreadsheet works nice. It allows one item per box, and they’re easily movable.
  2. URGENT Sort. Group those things that are URGENT. Define URGENT as something of high consequence will be impaired, if this action does not happen in the next 24 hours. Calculate the amount of time these actions will take. If the time to do them is less than the time you have, get help now. Set the rest aside until the URGENT list is under control. Looking for URGENT items should be routine. Finding them should be rare.
  3. Action Sort. Sort all projects three ways to get things done. Group actions that are better done together. Two criteria rule this step: time sensitivity and power to make things happen.
    • HOT List. Sort everything about the most time-sensitive (HOT) project. List all related actions that need to be executed in the next 2-3 days. First apply these two questions to the HOT project. Then apply the questions to the whole list you have made.
    • What can I do in a few minutes that will get someone else working when I move on to the next item? List these so that you can do them first. Two people working move two parts forward.
    • What similar things can I do in series to save time? List like activities together, if doing them that way will save time. Blocking time to make all phone calls or writing all email related to the HOT project can save bundles of time. When is the best time in your day to do each type of task?
    • Quick Hits List. Sort short 5-10 minute tasks that are not HOT!! but need to be done in a timely fashion. This list is one to keep close. When a few minutes open up, or a piece of writing gets stuck, you’ll be able to grab the list to move something forward. Then switch back to regularly scheduled programming.
    • To Do List. Sort the remaining items. List them by their importance and time sensitivity. Then schedule them into the next 2-3 days.
  4. When new actions anitems arise add them to the list where they fit.
  5. Have a partner on call for emergencies. Some folks, like me, are drawn up to the macro level, we work well organizing strategy. We work best at the 30,000-foot view. Other folks are down to drill down to the beauty of details to build structure at the micro view. When time is short and a pile of action details demand attention, nothing compares to a working partnership — one person sorts the relationships, the other makes the lists.

Attend to the HOT List immediately. Attend to the Quick Hits as time opens — carry it with you to take advantage of opportunities wherever they arise. Attend to the To Do List when you have scheduled each item. Turn off interruptions when you’re working. Revisit your plan every morning to sort, list, and schedule the day.

You might think that three lists are more work than one, but in fact, three shorter lists allow focus and save time when scanning for the next thing to do. The key, of course, is to list everything that needs doing and doing everything on the lists.

Did I just confuse you?

–ME “Liz” Straus
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.