So Much To Do…So Little Time

I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that we live in a world with endless possibilities and opportunities. The bad news is that all of these possibilities and opportunities can get overwhelming and you may find yourself not accomplishing anything.

Often as I speak with my clients or (to be completely transparent here) even as I look at my own desk, I get the sensation of drowning in a pool of options and to-do’s.

Different people have different reactions to all of the options. Some people end up freezing and doing nothing, while other people may jump from one thing to another in an effort to get everything done. The end result is the same…at the end of the day you wonder where the day has gone and marvel at how little you’ve accomplished and how much more there is to do.

Since there are so many things that my clients and I either want to do or feel that we “should” do, we sometimes create one of those “brain dump” lists to get everything out of our brains and into one spot. I wish I could simply wave a wand and accomplish everything on my “brain dump” list but I can’t because the reality is that we only have 24 hours a day.

Maybe it would be different if the list was stagnant but it isn’t. Somehow the universal law of to-do lists seems to be to always add more than you can possibly cross off. If you try to do everything all you’ll manage to do is engage in a race against the clock that you will never win and you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and in the end, unproductive.

When I see this happening either for myself or my clients it means it’s time to Read more

5 Strategies to Manage Your Email

Recently one of my clients told me how excited she was because she brought the number of emails in her inbox down from 1,500 to 500. A consultant I was speaking with said that she went ahead and deleted 7,000 emails from her inbox without even looking at them. Frankly, I can’t remember any client where the subject of email management did not come up.

I get well over a hundred emails a day. I tell you this not because I think the number is so big or so small but because, whether you get 5 or 1000 emails a day, they add up and they add up fast. What’s more is that email management seems to take on a life of its own. We spend hours every day “doing email”. It’s a huge time sink. What happens with email is that everyone else’s demands, requests and even simple “hello’s” become equally important and take precedence over the things that you really want or need to do.

So how can you manage it? Here are 5 strategies for you to try. By the way, these are the same strategies that I use and that I recommend to my clients. Read more

Are Diamonds a Girl’s Best Friend

I bet you’ve heard the saying “a diamond’s a girl’s best friend,” well I’m not so sure it’s true. Read these two examples and tell me what you think…

About five years ago I received a wonderful present from my mother-in-law. She gave me a pair of 18 karat gold earrings that she had inherited. What’s more is that the earrings were covered with 44 smallish but nearly perfect diamonds. It told you it was a wonderful present!

But there was a problem… Read more

Want to Streamline Your Business? Target Will Show You How…

I went for a walk the other day and saw a squirrel gathering acorns for the upcoming winter. I was thinking about how much easier his life would be if only he could go to Target for all of his acorn needs.

I pictured the sale Target would have in order to attract the squirrels and imagined what would happen.

All of the little gray squirrels would show up in droves and rush around Target. They would each be pushing big red shopping carts overflowing with acorns. The squirrels would shop until the shelves were empty and they had filled every available nook and cranny in their trees.

During the winter there would be more than enough acorns so hunger was never an issue but it came at a price - squirrel homes became so full that the squirrels could no longer stretch out comfortably in their tree homes.

When spring came there were still a lot of acorns left in the trees but there is so much fresh food available – yes, Target made sure of that - that the squirrel leaves their tree and stocks up on fresh food. They decide to keep last year’s acorns…they’re still good, there is no reason to get rid of them…right? And the cycle begins. Read more

How to Get Yourself Focused and Moving

Here are ten strategies to use for those times when you find yourself staring at your to-do list but can’t seem to get going on anything.

1. Break up the project into mini-tasks and do just one tiny piece of the project.
2. Since starting is often the hardest part, agree with yourself to work on a project for JUST 5 minutes. At the end of five minutes assess your experience. Was it as bad as you thought it would be? Would it be okay if you worked for another 5 minutes?
3. Ask for help. Sometimes just having someone in the room with you will help keep you grounded and motivated.
4. Identify the time of day when your concentration tends to be weaker or drift and do things that require less concentration and effort at that time. On the flip side, identify the times of day when your concentration tends to be stronger and it is easier for you to stay on task. Plan to do things that tend to be more difficult for you to do at that time.
5. Set realistic goals…don’t try to do everything at once.
6. Write down the exact steps of what you plan to do. Then post your plan so you can see it and refer to it as you move through your day.
7. To keep you motivated as you progress, think about why you really want to get this project done. What’s in it for you? What’s in it for your clients? What’s in it for your friends and family?
8. Ask yourself, what is the single most important thing for me to do right now?
9. Recognize the things that typically distract you like your cell phone, computer, other people, the TV, email or noise and avoid them (or better yet shut them) when doing things that require your concentration.
10. Be accountable to someone by telling them your plan and asking them to check in on you as you proceed.

Do you have any other tricks you use?  Share them with me right here in the comments section!

Do you Constantly Race Against the Clock?

I’ve got good news and bad news for you.  The good news is that we live in a world with endless possibilities and opportunities.  The bad news is that all of these possibilities and opportunities can get overwhelming and you may find yourself not accomplishing anything.

Often as I speak with my clients or (to be completely transparent here) even as I look at my own desk, I get the sensation of drowning in a pool of options and to-do’s.

Different people have different reactions to all of the options.  Some people end up freezing and doing nothing, while other people may jump from one thing to another in an effort to get everything done.  The end result is the same…at the end of the day you wonder where the day has gone and marvel at how little you’ve accomplished and how much more there is to do.

Since there are so many things that my clients and I either want to do or feel that we “should” do, we sometimes create one of those “brain dump” lists in an effort to get everything out of our brains and into one spot.  I wish I could simply wave a wand and accomplish everything on my “brain dump” list but I can’t because the reality is that we only have 24-hours a day.

Maybe it would be different if the list was stagnant but it isn’t. Somehow the universal law of to-do lists seems to be to always add more than you can possibly cross off.  If you try to do everything all you’ll manage to do is engage in a race against the clock that you will never win and you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and in the end, unproductive.

When I see this happening either for myself or my clients it means it’s time to Read more

Your Weekend To-Do List

It’s Saturday morning and I woke up really early.  My brain was really busy thinking about my “weekend to-do list”.  It’s a mile long and frankly I couldn’t figure out what to do or how to do it.

Then I figured it out and decided to shoot a short video telling you about my weekend plans.

Go ahead and watch it…it’s only 4 minutes long.  If I look a bit tired it’s because I am…that’s what happens when you’re trying to get too many things done.

I hope you enjoy the video…I’m off to enjoy my weekend!

Oh yeah…here’s the link I referred to in the video:  www.CarrieThru.com/jumpstart

Jump Start to Getting Organized:  Take Control of Your Time, Tasks and Things begins Wednesday June 16th…

Click here to learn more & join me

Calm the Overwhelm by Saying “No”

I received an email recently that summed it up best…

“I’m overwhelmed, over stimulated, interested in everything … recently got a promotion…have more responsibility that I don’t feel prepared to handle…feel like quitting and hiding from everyone.  I’m spinning my wheels and not accomplishing anything…I’m burnt out to the point of avoiding everything, and not caring what happens and really creating a point of no return for myself.”

Overwhelm is everywhere.  There are so many things that you think you should do, have to do, or want to do.  How do you find your way through the maze of these ideas in order to accomplish anything?

For many people, especially entrepreneurs like myself, the overwhelm often comes in the form of ideas.  It might be projects or programs that you want to create or take part in, ideas to follow up on, events to attend, people to connect with and even clients to work with.

New ideas are tantalizing.  To me they symbolize “bright, shiny object syndrome” better than anything else.  You find yourself reaching out and grabbing them.  Unfortunately, the reality is that when you reach out and grab too many they end up sitting in piles on your desk, or muddled in your mind.  The ideas aren’t bright and shiny anymore, in fact they get old and tarnished.  Read more

Managing Your Email … Part 2

Step2: Five Strategies to manage the time you spend “doing” email. Read more

5 Strategies to Manage Your Email

Recently one of my clients told me how excited she was because she brought the number of emails in her inbox down from 1,500 to 500.  A consultant I was speaking with said that she went ahead and deleted 7,000 emails from her inbox without even looking at them.  Frankly, I can’t remember any client where the subject of email management did not come up.

I get well over a hundred emails a day.  I tell you this not because I think the number is so big or so small but because, whether you get 5 or 1000 emails a day, they add up and they add up fast. What’s more is that email management seems to take on a life of its own.  We spend hours every day “doing email”.  It’s a huge time sink.  What happens with email is that everyone else’s demands, requests and even simple “hello’s” become equally important and take precedence over the things that you really want or need to do.

So how can you manage it?  Here are 5 strategies for you to try.  By the way, these are the same strategies that I use and that I recommend to my clients. Read more

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