So I just realized that I’ve been a mechanical keyboard nerd for nearly a decade. (Wow.)
Anyway, I’ve got a plethora of keyboards in my office, and the one I have now is my favorite by far. It’s the Keychron Q2. My model is the Silver Grey A, with the knob, and blue switches.
You can’t control your outcomes, you can only control your effort. And so, as you continue to work toward accomplishing your big, wild goals for 2023 … focus on the things you can control.
Myth: “Taking the time to schedule my time is a waste of time — the schedule never works out perfectly anyway”
This common myth is tricky because there is some truth mixed in with it.
While it’s true that a schedule never works out perfectly (nobody’s does — the mess of real life always plays a factor).
But…
It’s okay if your schedule doesn’t work out perfectly. In fact, that’s normal. Your schedule is just a blueprint for how you’re hoping to spend your day. It keeps you moving forward and helps you stay proactive instead of reactive with your time. When things come up, take longer or shorter, etc. that’s fine. Just roll with it.
Billy Oppenheimer put together an excellent summary of some pretty alarming findings from this research study. In short, when folks have a task list that is full of various “levels” of to-do items — some that are important, some that aren’t, some that are urgent right now, some that aren’t — folks end up prioritizing only the tasks that are urgent right now but are not very important at all.
(Inside the Focus Course, we have a simple framework for eliminating Urgency Mindset and the Urgency Effect for you and your organization.)
These are incredible photographs by Xavi Bou, with some insights into how they’re made.
One of my favorite little upgrades in our kitchen was to get this wall outlet that also has two USB-C plugs in it. We can plug in / charge any of our devices without a wall wart. And it’s got enough power (30W) to even charge our iPads and MacBooks.
Stack a new habit next to an old one to help you build your new habit more easily.
This is a gorgeous, stow-away desk / art piece.
Tomorrow I’m hosting a free, live Zoom call to walk a few business owners through my “$10k Schedule Audit” to help them identify some quick and easy wins around their tasks and time.
I’ll also be answering questions about my upcoming Productivity Intensive happening next week.
Goals give you a direction and help you make progress. If you had to stop everything you were doing and could only pursue one goal what would that be?
If your organization is spending time on things that are not important, it will be nearly impossible to maintain motivation for yourself and your team; it will be difficult to find enjoyment within the tensions and pressures of business.
When you can get clear about your goals, you can get clear about the action you need to take. Goals help you and your team move from a passive / reactive state to an intentional and proactive one.
PS: If you’re a business owner, next week I’m hosting a two day intensive for business owners only. Find out more here.
This month I’m teaching a productivity intensive for small business owners, and as part of my prep, I came back across this quote from 4DX:
“The more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish. [But] smart, ambitious leaders don’t want to do less, they want to do more, even when they know better.”
Want to join us? Register here!
Your friendly reminder that your to-do list should exist on your calendar. (A sneak peek at how I do it.)
“The more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish… Somewhere along the way, most leaders forget this. Why? Because smart, ambitious leaders don’t want to do less, they want to do more, even when they know better. … there will always be more good ideas than you have the capacity to execute.” — 4DX
I recently came across this article showing how stress rises when you’re in back-to-back-to-back meetings. But the thing that really stood out to me was how individual productivity doubled as meetings were reduced.
If you’re in too many meetings, it may be a symptom of a bigger issue. When there are too many meetings it means there is a lack of clarity and focus. And so meetings end up becoming a short-term, band-aid solution for trying to develop vision and strategy and get things done.
P.S. Speaking of Margin… in a few weeks we will be kicking off our Margin Reset booster for the 300 members inside the new Focus Accelerator membership. ?