Power of 3 in Sedona

Boynton Canyon in Sedona, AZ is surrounded by these magnificent rock formations. They are striated, like steps. Anyone can climb them (i.e., easy). 

For 4 days, this is what I woke up to on my private balcony. No phone, no cell phone, no email. Between the spa and the hiking trails, it's a great vacation destination. 

But I was there for a Power of 3 Retreat. Still jazzed from their first European tour, the Power of 3 attracted an incredible group of authors, speakers, business owners, entrepreneurs, artists and others to a powerful program of Powerful Internet, Media & Business Building Strategies for the New Economy, called Media, Mindset & Marketing. 

These three International Marketing Mentors: Debbie Allen, Marie O'Riordan and Tracy Repchuk are on fire.

What Is Our Addiction to Being Connected teaching us?

Excerpts from William Powers' NPR interview:

"Do you find yourself checking Facebook as soon as you wake up in the morning? Do you answer e-mails on your Blackberry while surfing the Web? Even as you read this article, is your right index finger twitching on the mouse, just itching to click on something new?

If so, welcome to the 21st century. Without even realizing it, we've signed up for a life in which we're all connected, all the time. Whether or not this is a good thing is the subject of Hamlet's Blackberry, a new book by William Powers based on an essay he penned in 2007.

Among the things that suffer from our overconnectedness, Powers says, are relationships.

Even denizens of the late 16th century (e.g., Hamlet), had a method("tables") for dealing with information overload.

But how are we of the 21st century supposed to cope with that same problem? Powers has one suggestion that's both utterly simple and almost impossible to imagine following: just disconnect...It's really hard to pull away. You have to know why you're doing it, and really believe," he says. "What I'm about here is trying to convince people that it's worth doing."

Kerri Salls
Breakthrough Enterprise

P.S. One of the best results of the Northeast Productivity Bootcamp is that business owners learn how to engage and reconnect with the people in their business and their lives because they stop multi-tasking. Relationships are about being present in a meeting or event - without IM, email, web-surfing at the same time.

Email, Procrastination, Productivity

Time management is a key discipline for running any business. It's so easy to get pulled into doing the easy tasks or the quick tasks first. From there, it's a small step to letting things become a crisis before you handle them. One of the first places we get bogged down is with email.

We are all on email overload. Even with spam filters and junk mail folders, we get far more email than anyone has time to read or respond to. Letting prime business hours be consumed with email is a clear sign of procrastination, avoidance and even resistance to working on the day's TODO list.

Use the following strategies to manage time, get organized, and keep digital messages from crowding out important tasks that need to get done.

Email vs. Telephone
Email and the telephone (or IM) are not always interchangeable. There's a simple rule about when to use email and when to use the telephone. Use email to share information or distribute information. Use the telephone if you seek an answer, a decision or a discussion.

Limit Messages
The fewer email messages that come in, the fewer you have to deal with.

• Set e-mail software filters for messages you want to receive, but don't need to read right away. They will automatically be archived or moved to a folder you designate. To set up a filter in MS Outlook, go to "Rules and Alerts". In the Tools menu; in Gmail, click "Settings" (at the top right of your screen), then the "Filters" tab. 
• Mark unwanted e-mails as spam. Future messages from the same sender will go directly to your junk-mail folder. Don't read them there either.
• Use a hosted e-mail-filtering program to limit access to your inbox. Programs, such as ChoiceMail, automatically approve e-mails from only the senders you know and trust. They include: SpamEater Pro, CA Anti-Spam Plus, SPAMfighter, ChoiceMail One, Spam Killer, Spam buster, SpamNet, Spam Agent, iHateSpam, MailWasher Pro. Unapproved senders are blocked. Here's a review of some of them.. 

Manage Messages You Do Receive

• Resist opening e-mails first thing in the morning. This is a reactive, not a pro-active way to start the day. Your priority list comes first.
• Don't allow others to set your agenda. Set a schedule to attend to e-mail. A schedule that works for many people is a half-hour before lunch and a half-hour before you leave for the day. 
• Turn off the e-mail notification function. This was the key for me regaining control of my work day. That ping (aka: You Have Mail) for each new message as it arrives suggests immediacy. By turning off that function, you control it and your time. You become more productive, just be completing tasks before you look at email again.
• Limit follow-up e-mails. Create a subject line that lets the recipient know exactly what your message is about. Re: Re: Re: doesn't tell your recipient anything. Take the time to give them a hint, or even the whole message, in the Subject line.
• Respond to any e-mail that requires a brief response as soon as you open it. Don't put it off to re-read later. (Same rule for snail mail too).
• Mark e-mails that require an action. You'll be able to quickly find the action items later on. 
• Empty your inbox every day. Set the goal that your day ends only when your inbox is empty. When you do, people quickly learn that they'll get an answer before you leave the office. It adds closure to the day and helps you clarify your priority list of actions for the next day too.

Managing email, on your computer, on your blackberry or any other device, takes discipline and consistent habits. The result is more time for money making activities or more time for fun because you are no longer on overwhelm.

Kerri Salls
Breakthrough Enterprise

P.S. In the Productivity Bootcamp, we teach you the right and wrong ways to use email and your email system to make the best use of your valuable time.

Procrastination - it's a problem

In an email today, Joe Vitale noted:  "the number one thing I hear people say is a problem is this --
Procrastination.

They simply don't do what they know they need and may even want to do.

They keep putting things off. They keep delaying, postponing, escaping. They keep procrastinating -- even when they actually know what to do."

On his website, Joe's conclusion is "the secret is clear: the more action you take, the more results you get."

My solution is to commit to the tools, processes and system provided in the Northeast Productivity Bootcamp, to create the environment where you no longer want to put things off or procrastinate because you are saving time and being more productive.

If you'd like to know more about it, email me for the Fact Sheet.

For a free report, signup at Breakthrough Enterprise.

Kerri Salls

Breakthrough Enterprise

Multitasking: Bad for the Soul

Here's a quote from Jennifer Grant's article on multitasking:

"...I learned to multitask.

In recent years, of course, we’ve learned that it is actually impossible to multitask. Study afterstudy after study chide us for believing we can make our brains do more than one thing at a time. “A core limitation [of the human brain] is an inability to concentrate on two things at once,” says René Marois, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. When we are multitasking, we are actually just switching from one task to another at astonishing speed. It’s unproductive, distracting, and dangerous to multitask, we are told.

But over the years, I became something of a multitasking expert. And I began to suffer from it. I answered e-mail from my phone while waiting for a freight train to pass. Before picking the kids up from school, I’d troll around the neighborhood, choosing a parking space based on whether I could find a Wi-Fi signal in order to get an additional few minutes of work done.

I felt, to use the old expression, that I was drinking from a fire hose. Equally compelled to answer unimportant messages (“Thanks for letting us use your car-top carrier. We left it on your front porch”) as more critical ones (“Can you remind me where I’m supposed to be for the photo shoot this afternoon?”), I was losing perspective."

It's true. Multitasking isn't the answer. What is the answer:

 Do one thing at a time. As much as possible, do only one thing.

Kerri

Breakthrough Enterprise

P.S. For more information on what multitasking is and why it's a myth, get my report: Jumpstart Your Productivity at Breakthrough Enterprise.

Complacency is Death

Join this teleseminar on Thursday, July 15, 2010 4:00pm ET.

Renew YOUR Business for Success in the Economic Recovery

What do you do now so your business can thrive?

You survived the downturn in the economy. That is a major accomplishment in itself! Give yourself credit for being a winner in this biggest test of business grit, commitment, creativity and resourcefulness in 3 generations. But what do you do now so your business can thrive as the economy struggles to come back?

What you  cannot do is sit on your laurels expecting everything to go back to normal. Indeed, complacency is death. The 'new' normal hasn't been defined yet.

Join us for an hour to brainstorm ideas for working on your business on the other side of the recession including 10 radical strategies to reinvent/reinvigorate your business for this decade.

Register now.

Time Wasters to Eradicate

We all have too much to do to willingly waste a lot of time. when I thought about it, I realized, there are many ways we waste time that can be eliminated very quickly just by changing how we tolerate those time wasters. Here are my pet picks (add yours).

1. Standing in line to register at an event.
   Instead:register ahead of time, show your receipt and pick up your name tag to get in to the event.
2. Paying dues live at an association event. It's just not a good use of your time on site.
   Instead: Join or renew your membership online. 
3. Manually sorting junk mail.
   Instead: let someone else do this or better, send a postcard with to get your address off those lists. 
4. Manually sorting SPAM in your email.
   Instead: Set rules so you never have to see those messages. 
5. Automated telephone systems that send you to an extension that never picks up.
   Instead: Ask for a live person/stay on the line for a live person. 
6. Those '2 minute' interruptions that take 20 minutes.
   Instead: train everyone around you and on your team when you are available for interruptions/2 minute questions/etc. and when you are not. 
7. Quick 3 minute phone calls that put you on hold for 20 minutes waiting for the next available operator. Instead: Use their online live chat feature. It's always a quicker response. 
8. Service providers (utilities, electricians, plumbers, repairmen) who require you to wait for them for a 4 hour or all day on a weekday so they can do 10-15 minutes of work.
   Instead: Seek out providers who have a better handle on their scheduled workload and can schedule you accordingly.
9. Meetings just because they're scheduled.
   Instead: Hold meetings based on an agenda, as needed. 
10. Not starting meetings on time. It's inconsiderate to those people who make a point of being on time. Instead: Regardless of how many people show up at the start time, start the meeting. Others will quickly learn to show up on time. It's a better use of everyone's time. 
    And the corollary is: Not adjourning meetings when the business is done. Too often people think they have to keep everyone for the full alotted time.
    Instead: When your business is done, adjourn the meeting.

For more productivity and business process ideas and tips, go here. 

Kerri

Breakthrough Enterprise

P.S. For more productivity tips you can apply now, get my report: Jumpstart Your Productivity at Breakthrough Enterprise.