3 Secrets To Skyrocketing Your Revenue

Time and money.  Those are the two things we all want more of in our lives.

I started this blog to help people get back their precious time.  Showing you how to do more in less time and get back to the stuff you really love doing – like hanging out with your family and going on vacation – has really been a privilege.

But how about making more money?

This is something I want to know about too!  I’ve become a sort of accidental entrepreneur with my book Listful Thinking being released.  I never realized that writing a book is like having a little business.  Now that I’ve gotten the entrepreneurial bug – I’m hooked and I’m excited to grow ListProducer.com into even more! Read more

Why I’m Never Going to a Nail Salon Again

English: Beauty and nail polish salon. Havana ...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I read an article in the New York Times about the exploitation of migrant workers in nail salons last week. I shared the article on Facebook immediately because I wanted more people to know about it.  I was pretty shocked and horrified to hear about something I had been such an active participant in. I’ve been getting my nails done pretty regularly ever since I can remember. I’ve always over-tipped, as I felt like the manicurists were probably not receiving an excellent wage, but I had no idea of the extent of the problem.

The article explains how many workers are not paid a daily rate and rely solely on tips. Some of them don’t even get to keep those tips and are living in such terrible living conditions. Others explain how lucky they are to make $30 a day. I was blown away when I read this. Read more

Productivity Tricks We Can Learn From Politicians

elephant donkeyI always try to find productivity inspiration wherever possible.  And the race for the presidency is no exception.

Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio recently announced a bid for the White House.  And the usual eye rolling about non-stop campaigning is starting right along with it.

Now, without getting political, we should be asking why, if the election isn’t until late 2016, are they even bothering to start campaigning now? What do they gain from it? What does starting a major project early do for them? Does it actually help?

The simple answer is yes. A lot.

Using these candidates as a template, we can break down the different stages of getting a long-term project done:

Goal setting: Undoubtedly, long before they announced, these candidates and their team mapped out a pretty solid plan for the campaign. You need to have a hyper specific end goal in mind for any project.

What would that look like for any of these candidates? Surely not “Be elected president.” That is much too vague. More likely it would be something like “Achieve X number of votes”, or “Win states A, B, and C in the election.”

When you are setting your own long-term goals, remember to keep them as specific as possible. For example, if your goal is to lose weight you should have a specific number in mind. Be honest with yourself about what you really want.

Plan of action: Not only do you need a firm goal, but you need to understand how to break it down into manageable subgoals. For the Democratic presidential candidates, this might mean swaying certain swing states such as Ohio, while not spending very much time in liberal California. Likewise for the Republicans, states such as Texas are pretty “safe”, so they might try and spend more time winning over Florida’s votes.

Your own plan of action should have an equally well-defined path. Think about the day to day – what would be a realistic way to achieve your goals? For example, if you want to exercise more, would you do something every day, or on specific days of the week.

Prepare contingencies: If each candidate doesn’t win the state they deemed as most pivotal — then what?  How do they regroup and refocus their attention? That’s the key — this is all predetermined with “if/then” scenarios laid out in advance.

In your own planning, you need to prepare for unforeseen consequences. I firmly believe in always having a backup plan.

Set things in motion: Perhaps strangely, this step is last on the list. The beauty in planning out for long-term goals is that it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process. While we are only hearing about these candidates’ plans recently, they’ve probably known about this for months or even years. They certainly weren’t going to start campaigning until plans were set in stone. That gives them the freedom to dictate how the campaign will go, and not have the campaign dictate to them how it will go. The same thing should apply to your own goals.

How do you prepare for your own long-term goals?

Five Ways to Bounce Back After an Unproductive Morning

Asleep at phoneI like to get up at 6:15am, hours before I need to be at work. I know it’s a little crazy, but it gives me a chance to relax and ease into my morning. Unfortunately sometimes I get a bit bogged down and the morning gets away from me. I’m sure some of you have experienced this too – being on a busy schedule can be taxing. But should we let a productivity setback stop us from being efficient the rest of the day? No!

Here are five ways to bounce back after having an unproductive morning:

Talk it out with somebody: When you are too focused on a problem, you can get stuck in your way of thinking about it. Sometimes you need to just step away from the desk and find someone to talk it out with. You’ll get the benefits of face- to- face interaction with the added bonus of a fresh perspective.

Remove distractions: It’s easy to get caught up answering emails and calls all day. They seem like such pressing issues sometimes. If you find yourself dealing with everyone else’s problems, you might need to shut down. Sometimes I turn off my phone and close my email inbox so I can focus on a single task. Read more