Successful Blog

Use the Psychology of Focus to Get More Done

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Beware the Illusion of Multitasking

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Have you ever had one of those days when you felt like you achieved a lot of things, but when you thought about it before a good night’s sleep, you found you’ve actually achieved nothing?

That is the illusion of multitasking.

Or as Clifford I. Nass, a professor of psychology at Stanford University once said, “Heavy multitaskers are often extremely confident of their abilities, but there’s evidence that those people are actually worse at multitasking than most people.”

And he’s not alone with his opinion. Various psychological studies have since found that multitasking comes with a host of side-effect, which includes everything from dampened creativity to lower IQ, and ironically, decreased productivity.

In fact, studies have shown that your brain can really only handle one task at a time, and even though it only takes one-tenths of a second to switch from one task to another, these “little” delays can add up and account for as much as 40% of a person’s productive time. And that’s not even including the 15 minutes it takes, on average, for people to get back “in the flow”.

So you want to multiply your productivity and grow your business? The answer is simple: focus.

Optimizing Your Work Space

Most people think focus is an issue of “willpower”. That if you just “try to focus more”, the problem would go away. I believe the inability to focus are really two problems: a lack of willpower and an abundance of negative triggers.

Before I go on, let’s get one thing straight: willpower is a limited resource. It’s not a motivational issue. It’s a capability issue. Studies have shown that if you spend your willpower resisting a piece of cookie, for example, you’ll spend less time trying to solve a complex puzzle later.

Willpower can grow, just like a muscle can get stronger, but there’s always a limit. It is a resource that should be managed like time and money. When we run out of willpower, we need to take a break. And because focus takes willpower, I believe multitasking, therefore, is a form of “mental break”.

So my approach to focus is twofold: increase willpower and conserving it. The first approach — willpower — is not only widely discussed, it’s also a painful process. I won’t go through it in this article.

The cleverer approach is to cut down on the distractions that drain your willpower. And one of the biggest drains of willpower are triggers. What are triggers?

According to BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab, three things must converge at the same time for a particular behaviour to take place: motivation, ability and trigger.

So according to Fogg, if you want to stop multitasking, you can try to change your motivation (difficult, in my experience) or you can hamper your ability (eg: hire a supervisor to stand over your shoulder). None of which are ideal, of course.

The last, and in my opinion, the easiest way to avoid multitasking is to simply get rid of triggers. Triggers are reminders for you to multitask. They are like temptations.

So for example, if you’re working on this report and Outlook pops up saying you have a new email… guess what you’ll do? That’s right, you’ll immediately check out the email. The same is true with any other alerts and notices.

Other common triggers include:

  1. Advertisements. Have you ever surfed the web for research but clicked through an ad and as a result, abandoned what you were doing? Enough said.
  2. The people around you. I used to work from home and one of the biggest triggers for multitasking at the time was my wife – once in a while she would ask me to check her email, or come into the room with a plate of food (it was a loving gesture, but that doesn’t make it OK!)

In your case, the trigger maybe the colleague who keeps dropping by, asking if “you have a minute”. Or perhaps it’s your boss always looking over your shoulder.

Mental Drains

Other than triggers, here are two more common mental-drains:

  1. Noise. Try this: Close your eyes and just listen. Can you hear your computer buzzing? How about the air conditioner humming? Maybe it’s traffic speeding by?

    These background noises have been shown to lower willpower and discipline, even if the subjects didn’t perceive stress from them. And as we now know, as your willpower drains, you begin to multitask.

  2. This one is the least talked-about mental-drain: functional control of your working environment. Functional control means you have to be able to adjust anything you want in your working space, things like the temperature, where you sit, what’s on your desk, brightness, etc.

    Functional control not only gives you physical comfort, it also give you psychological comfort. The fact that you can control the space gives you a sense of territoriality and safe space. It’s the difference between working in a strange environment and a place you’re familiar with.

    Now some entrepreneurs I know of are perfectly comfortable working in a cafe, but most of us just couldn’t handle the lack of functional control. The fact that there are strangers around you all the time puts most of us on edge.

So there, 4 easy ways to conserve your willpower and focus more. Do you have any tips? I’d love to hear them in the comments.

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Author’s Bio:
Andrianes Pinantoan is part of the team behind Open Colleges, an accredited business management courses provider. You can follow him @andreispsyched.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Do You Manage the Objectives of Project Management?

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Focusing …

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What are the main objectives of project management?

Simply put, project management simply means the planning, organisation and management of the resources necessary to bring about a successful conclusion to a specific task (‘deliverable’), or group of tasks. There are numerous software packages available setting out detailed methodologies and providing project management training for managers who are new to the role.

Project objectives define a project. Projects by their very nature dictate that a number of different parties are involved in completing the various elements of the project and it is vital that all those participating are totally clear on what the final deliverable is, and what the staged objectives to achieve that deliverable are. It is the overall project manager’s job to draw together each of the separate strands of work, on time and on budget and oversee the project to a successful conclusion where the deliverables are presented to the client as agreed at the project outset. In the case of large projects where multiple teams are assembled, some project management training may be required by less experienced project team leaders and this may take place either prior to the project commencing or ‘on the job’ as a learning curve.

There are three primary elements which make up the basic project objectives to be realised.

  1. Firstly, a ‘drop dead date’, or completion date by which the final deliverable must be achieved, must be agreed and recorded in the project plan. A series of milestone dates should then be applied to the project plan by which the various smaller tasks must be completed to keep the overall plan on schedule. It is important to incorporate short periods of ‘slippage’ into the project plan around the tasks most likely to be delayed and it is the project manager’s responsibility to identify such tasks and accurately estimate the amount of slippage to be allowed for. Clearly, one of the key skills of the effective project manager is time management, both his own and that of his team.
  2. Project costing must also be explored and integrated into the overall plan. The financial aspect of costs will be recorded in a separate budget spread sheet. It is extremely important that the financials are projected as accurately as possible and are monitored closely as the various stages of the project are completed. Other costs are measured in terms of the personnel who make up the project team, third party suppliers who will be required to make a contribution at certain stages and equipment or materials required depending upon the nature of the final deliverable.
  3. The final main project objective is the quality of the final deliverable. This must be to a standard acceptable to and agreed with the project sponsor and client. Most contractual agreements between the project sponsor and client will have a clause dictating that a forfeit will be levied should the project fail to be produced on time, on budget and to the required standard.

Know your objectives and you’ll be able to report with clarity. Your role will be mission critical in keeping everyone aware of how the project is progessing and how to keep it on track.

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Author Bio

Blathnaid Magill has an MBS in Electronic Business from University College Cork, Ireland. She enjoys writing about software and technology. She is currently writing on behalf of QA, who are the leading providers in Project Management Training.

Thank you, Blathnaid!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

How To Write Great Blog Posts – Quickly

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Successfully Working From a Home-based Office

A blog is a convenient tool that can serve many purposes. It can be used to chronicle personal events, marketing or branding. There are millions of blogs on the internet and the competition is fierce. The job of the blog writer is to write interesting posts so that it proves useful to the readers and keeps the search engines interested. The onus should on writing quality articles and not on increasing the number of articles mindlessly.

Think of blog post ideas

You should devote some time to think of blog post ideas or go into the admin section of the blog and add them in the drafts. This will save a lot of time and you can find the topics very easily. You can also think of using a timer if you take a lot of time in writing a single article. Once you are using a timer you will not be tempted to check your email or open the social networking page in the middle of writing an article. Always try to complete your articles before the deadline that you set.

Write what’s in your mind

This is the simplest way to write. Just write what’s in your brain at the moment. Choose a topic from your list, give yourself a 60 min time and start writing. Just keep writing whatever comes to your mind so that you do not lose the flow. If there are any spelling errors, you can always correct it later. Start by jotting down the facts related to the topic. Then one-by-one starts expanding on those topics and provides useful ideas. Readers are always in search of ‘benefits’ and ‘tips’. So write accordingly.

You can do your own research or just read 2 – 3 articles on the topic and summarize that information in your blog post using your own words. However, copying or duplicating information is strictly unethical. By the time your timer goes off, you should have a reasonably good content at your disposal.

Think of a good headline

All great blog posts boast of good headlines. It is prudent that you think about the headline of the article after you finished writing it. It is always easier to create a catchy and accurate headline once you have finished writing the post.

Add the final touches

Once you have completed writing the post, read through the article at least twice to ensure that there is no phrase which does not sound right. Your post should not sound like an editorial; the reader must feel that you have written the post exclusively for him/her. Talk to the individual and not to the general public.

If there are any spelling errors, correct it. Run the spell check function in MS Word to be doubly sure. If possible add photos to your post as they introduce an element of interest in the article. You can create your own photos or get them from Google but use only those photos which are not copyrighted or has watermark in it. If you follow these guidelines diligently then you can soon write great blog posts quickly.

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Author’s Bio:
About the Author-: Brianne is a freelance writer and writes about most expensive cars and Lamborghini Aventador. She has also written a number of articles for different blogs. She loves writing on technology and luxury. You can find her on Twitter as @Brianne. ”

Thank you, Brianne!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Every moment is January 1.

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A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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It’s the end of the first week of January. Did you already start slipping on some of those resolutions? Well quit beating yourself up, you’re not alone. The mystical pull of January 1 gets us every year. We take deep breaths, ponder the future, and muster up the guts to make some decisions about our lives and our businesses. And then….life happens.

Here’s the most important trick: Every morning is January 1. Every moment is January 1. You can make a decision right this very second to take action on one of your primary goals. In fact, stop reading this right now and go do one thing that will get you closer. Send that email, follow up with that customer, finish that report, call your grandmother. We’ll wait.

……….if you’re back, then you did your one action, right? If you didn’t, go away and do it now!

…and…see how easy that was? Now keep the momentum going by allowing yourself to have space in the day (or evening) to proactively plan the next day, week, month, in increments you can handle. If you want to wake up on December 31, 2012, having accomplished something big, then you need to chip away at it all year long. And you need to have periodic check-ins with yourself so that you can course-correct if necessary.

I’ll share my check-in secret sauce. It’s a hot pink Moleskine that goes everywhere with me. In the front are the big goals for the year, and then broken-down goals for each month that will draw me closer and closer throughout the year. There is no one-size-fits-all method, but the key is to avoid drifting.

Now go and take the second step. And write down what the third, fourth, and fifth steps will look like.

Feel free to brag about your audacious action in the comments. We’ll do this together.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Be Still

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A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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“Still, still, still…one can hear the falling snow…” That’s the opening of my favorite Christmas carol.

It speaks to something buried deep inside us that craves absolute quiet and solitude. Picture a midnight snowfall, before the footprints. Picture being alone on the beach in the early morning. It doesn’t matter what your spiritual beliefs are, or your religious tradition, we all need to withdraw occasionally from the heat of battle and restore ourselves.

How does this relate to our online selves?

Here are some ideas:

  • White space on the website
  • Pause between questions in the conversation
  • Room to breathe
  • Remove one popup window
  • Say no to animated gifs
  • Clear every single thing off your desk
  • Offer a single button
  • Don’t pitch in every communication
  • Stop keyword stuffing
  • Think for a moment before typing a response
  • Don’t hold yourself to a 5 minute turnaround on all emails
  • Turn off the social alerts for part of the day
  • Cut back on the multitasking

And now that you’ve read this, sit up straight in your chair, close your eyes, and breathe in and out slowly five times. Be still for a moment.
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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Has a CFD Experience Cost You Business?

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In 2007, I proposed an adventure on my blog. I invited bloggers to submit five bits of information that would promote their blogs:

  1. the name of the blog
  2. the blog url
  3. the tagline
  4. what makes the blog worth visiting
  5. one bit of advice for new bloggers

and I gave them 2 days to submit the information, clearly stating that the deadline was Friday noon Central and pointing out the clock in the sidebar of my blog.

How hard could it be to gather and email me those five bits of information?

Yet …
82% of the entries came in with information missing.

Which led Small Biz Survival Owner, Becky McCray, and I to describe a new syndrome — CFD: Can’t Follow Directions.

Is CFD Hurting Your Business?

In the case of that blog promotion, perhaps no one was hurt by the fact that if enough information was missing, I didn’t bother to hunt down the sender. That the entry wasn’t included might not have made a difference to their potential blog traffic. We’ll never know.

But I can tell you that it happens regularly that when I’m looking for help on a paying project, the presence of CFD makes a huge difference. Let me explain why …

  • CFD means that I can’t trust the work. I’m telling you what I need and how I need it delivered, if the business can’t follow directions, then I’m going to get back something other than I requested.
  • CFD means that things will take more time. When I have to repeat what I need, that second iteration means it takes twice as long to get the work done.
  • CFD means more cost. Guidelines and directions are meant to make the work easier, faster, and less costly. Whether something was missed because it wasn’t read or because it wasn’t understood, it adds up to corrections or adjustments. Corrections and adjustments cost time and money.
  • CFD means missed opportunities. What I might have been doing with the time it took to do things over is a huge hidden impact of CFD.

So I’m hugely biased toward people who listen, read directions, and ask questions if they don’t understand for certain what we’re trying to do together. They get my loyalty and my repeat business.

I run from people who show signs of CFD.
CFD not only hurts your business, but it hurts mine too.

Has a CFD experience cost you business?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!