Productivity & Accomplishment in 2005
by Leo Tonkin
5...4...3...2...1
After most count downs, something explosive is supposed to happen, right? O.K., so I lock lips with my girlfriend, give a few hugs, extend well wishes to everyone around, finish my glass of champagne and go home. Now what?
Well, at least I started the New Year off right with my first accomplishment—no hangover! It’s January 1, 2005—another new year. "This year is going to be different," I say to myself. "Of course it is," my little voice inside my head boldly responds. "Every year is different… even every day is different," as my little voice sarcastically mocks me. "You’re not going to make a bunch of new resolutions again, are you?" As if my little, so-called friendly voice was trying to tell me to avoid the inevitable…futile exercise.
But this time I quietly told myself that 2005 was going to be different. I was going to break the habit of playing ‘pinball’ with my life—I was going to set a clear path and create a detailed plan. I’m not going to ‘bounce’ around from one thing to another, ‘bumping’ here and there, letting the game end in ‘tilt’. "Sure," said the little voice in the quiet background.
For many of us, the New Year starts with some variation of this internal dialogue. Typically, the little voice shouts back things like, "Tried that before…," "That won’t work…" "How long will this last…" Especially when you attempt to change something or accomplish something you tried before. You then muster up your internal strength, you try to build momentum, maybe even try a different approach—but alas, your resolutions start to fade only to tempt you again for the coming New Year.
Eventually we all begin to question our commitment, our true intentions, our abilities—we succumb to the cynicism around us and fade back into mediocrity to what we call normalcy.
What if you had the power to accomplish anything you set out to do? What if the only thing that was missing, was a way for you to manage and handle everything in your life—personally and professionally—with power, freedom and peace of mind? What if nothing falls through the cracks, there are no last minute surprises and nothing to remember? Now what’s the little voice saying?
Imagine 2005 as the year you produce extraordinary results, with real accomplishments, without the stress and overwhelm. Imagine 2005 as the year you have time for the things you are committed to and you achieve that sense of balance that seems to allude us all?
Well, there are tools to help you achieve this endeavor. However, most of our established and familiar routines for being productive were created and popularized over 20 years ago. And now that we are in the 21st Century; these practices leave us unprepared for the speed, volume and complexity of our work and our lives. The countdown has begun again…
3… 2... 1... Introducing Mission Control
While Mission Control may sound like something from Apollo 13 and N.A.S.A., it is a global educational corporation that designs and delivers productivity programs and products for the 21st Century. Their tools, techniques and practices provide a radical shift in the way people think about and approach everything there is to do and handle in life. Like mission control in N.A.S.A.’s Houston operation, imagine having all the levers and dials of your life in a vivid display for you to see the status of where everything is at? It is always accurate, up-to-date and right at your fingertips.
Brian Stuhlmuller, CEO of Mission Control, is a former executive at Day-Timer, a company that makes day planners and other organizational tools. He founded Mission Control a few years ago because, he says, he came to realize that such tools could take people only so far.
Stuhlmuller had met with more than 300 managers from Fortune 500 companies and found that many of them had regularly felt overwhelmed. Stuhlmuller concluded that there needed to be a new way to think about productivity.
As I attended Mission Control’s Productivity & Accomplishment workshop this past November, I was first skeptical. What more could I learn about being productive. After all, I too was a former executive in the ‘time management’ industry, first leading MoreTime: A Results Management Workshop and then working with Covey Leadership Center (now Franklin Covey) leading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First programs.
I was the consummate participant. I was eagerly waiting for this program to do it to me. "Maybe I was going to get some new software, or a new day-planner, or better yet a new gadget," my little voice said, thinking that those ‘things’ were going to have me be more productive and better organized. Well, within the first 30 minutes of the program it was clear to me that this program was not going to fit into what I thought it was going to be. There was none of the motivational rah-rah about how I could cram more into my day or get more done by using a ‘To-Do’ list with some new fangled priority code.
"First of all," Brian said, "what you need is a powerful way of dealing with what you’re not doing." "What I’m not doing?" my little voice shrieked, "there’s so much of what I’m not doing right now that I should be doing instead of being in this workshop." Brian’s assurances of no more revolving to-do lists sounded compelling. I had these on-going lists that just kept getting bigger. Everything in my life, it seemed, was always in some sort of holding pattern. It was as if—someday, one day—I was going to get ‘that one’ done when the time was ‘right’ or when it became urgent.
Being powerless in the face of all my lists, Stuhlmuller presents a solution: We first have to focus on our ‘concerns,’ not worries but the most meaningful matters of our lives; such has our family, our careers and our health. Then we must fit these concerns into our day, which are divided not into hours but into ‘nows’— distinct periods, ranging from 15 minutes to four hours, dedicated to completing a specific task. Brian explains, "When you want to do something, you commit to doing it now or in a period of nows."
This made sense. As I listened to the other participants, I noticed that most people start their Mondays with a ‘to-do’ list and have this sense of hope that things will get done. Whatever doesn’t get done moves to the next day and so on until Friday comes with this huge list. It’s no wonder people look forward to the weekend to escape.
As the day progressed, I began to recognize the habits I had adopted that I wasn’t even aware of. I started to distinguish between what I can’t do as much as what I can do. Stuhlmuller introduces two new lists; "Not-doing-nows" are things you might be able to schedule soon. "Never-doing-nows" are things you wish you could do but realistically don’t have the time for. Brian explained that this list contains items that if it doesn’t happen, you won’t really be unhappy.
The rest of the workshop was very practical. Common sense principles were being presented that just weren’t common practice—yet. One of the most useful ideas of the Mission Control system is the one key piece of tangible goods: the ‘capture tool.’ My little voice was waking from its dormant state.
Your capture tool must be with you and available at all times, wherever you go. The whole point is to get everything off your mind. And as you can tell, like everyone else, my mind, my little voice goes all the time, non-stop. When I’m driving I have thoughts about things to do, ideas, phone calls, bills to pay, shopping lists, etc. But how and where do we capture them all when they occur? The capture tool can be anything from a PDA to a voice recorder to a note pad. The idea is simply to put everything that comes up during the day in one place. No more Post-it notes, no more back of business cards or scribbles on receipts. As a gadget junkie, I had too many capture tools—my cell phone, a voice recorder, my pocket Filofax, my Palm Pilot. Besides, I didn’t always have them with me and I never really used them to their full capabilities.
With my pockets less full, I now just carry my new Treo 650 which is a cell phone, PDA voice recorder, and more-- all-in-one.
There were many more distinctions that were presented throughout the day that made just as much sense, if not more, like how to finally configure Microsoft Outlook to actually not only conform to the Mission Control system but to really use it.
Now, almost two months later and the New Year, comes the $429 question: Is it all working and am I more productive and accomplished? Well, let’s just say that my little voice is much more quiet and things don’t fall through the cracks. My attention deficit disorder has been cured and my training and organizational development firm has recently become a licensed partner with Mission Control. In fact, Brian Stuhlmuller and I will be leading the upcoming Productivity and Accomplishment workshop together in February in Miami and Boca Raton. Bring your little voice and join us. You’ll have a remarkable 2005 and beyond. Let the countdown begin…
Leo M. Tonkin is the CEO of Distinctions, Incorporated—a global training and organizational consulting firm, whose purpose is to empower and enable organizations to generate extraordinary business results and an exceptional quality of life for their people. Leo can be reached at ltonkin@DistinctionsInc.com or call (561) 210-8484.
Put Kabbalah to Work for Success in Business
by Bari Auerbach
Stressed out executives…
unhappy employees… lost accounts. When things aren't going well in the world of business, the study of Kabbalah can make a world of difference by giving you the tools to create positive energy in the workplace.
Kabbalah teaches students of all religious affiliations how to "extract fulfillment and serenity out of life's challenges."
In addition to many different subject matters taught at Kabbalah Centres around the world including healing, astrology, reincarnation and meditation, courses focusing on Kabbalah and business have helped students learn how to achieve lasting fulfillment at work - and even how to know when the time is right to make a deal.
The power of positive thinking
According to Harvard research, 77 percent of our thoughts are negative and the majority of people are worried about things that will actually never happen or past events that can't be changed.
Kabbalah teaches that positive thinking is the most effective way to deal with worries, obstacles or uncertainty. Usually when a person is having problems in a business, the first reaction is to downsize rather than "think big!" The Kabbalistic approach is to set lofty goals and put plans into action to accomplish them.
Making money in good conscious
A study about the six most common fears revealed poverty is at the top of the list - and that the more money a person has - the more he is afraid of losing it.
Kabbalah emphasizes that financial stability and prosperity can evolve from the consciousness behind the cash register. When the goal to make money is accompanied by the right consciousness, everyone shares the wealth.
Creating unity
Many corporate leaders struggling to increase sales and profits through motivational messages, incentive programs and bonus plans don't understand why their staff is actually becoming more unproductive.
From a Kabbalistic perspective, creating unity between management and staff can increase productivity more than any spiffs or speeches ever will. Fostering a partnership type relationship based on mutual respect with growth opportunities is one of the best ways to eliminate the need to always be looking over someone's shoulder to make sure they're getting the job done.
Pros are proactive
Letting an associate go so the position can be filled by a professional better suited for the job or moving on to find a new career opportunity where you'll be happier are proactive steps for climbing higher on the corporate ladder.
When you find yourself blaming the boss or a co-worker for troubles on the job, remember the Kabbalah philosophy that the cause of dilemmas can be found by looking in the nearest mirror. Taking a hard look to see if there is anything we can do to improve ourselves before placing blame on the boss or anyone else for lack of fulfillment at work can also be the key to unlocking the executive suite.
Kabbalah is everyone's business
With Madonna's hit song Ray of Light inspired by Kabbalah and other celebrities becoming avid followers, interest in the ancient study is increasing.
In addition to Florida, there are now Kabbalah Centres in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Mexico City, Paris, Toronto, Montreal, Sao Paolo, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Caracas.