Decision Making | List Producer

The Productivity Hangup You Probably Have Too

October 12, 2015/in Children, Decision Making, Happiness, Home, Increase Productivity, Learning With a List, List Making, People, Reduce Stress, Saving Time, Tea/by Paula Rizzo

A few weeks ago I was invited to a dinner party to celebrate my book Listful Thinking. My friend and colleague Joya Dass runs a women’s networking group called LadyDrinks and hosted the event.

So I was thrilled when she asked me to recreate the magic with an afternoon tea theme in Princeton, NJ. (You know how much I love tea if you read this blog regularly! So I was all in on this.)

Most of the women at the tea were professional moms who juggle careers in industries ranging from technology to medicine. They all had one question – “How can you balance everything?”

It’s not easy, I struggle with this too and it’s only me and my husband at this point!

One of the pitfalls and mindset issues I noticed coming up time and time again as we went around the room chatting was the idea of setting boundaries. I think mothers who work outside of the home tend to feel guilty about not spending enough time with their families. And then they feel guilty about not working enough when they are with their families. That’s a recipe for overwhelm and disaster.

Taking time for yourself is super important for your productivity and for your sanity. Here’s the fix: boundaries. Read more

I’ve Never Had So Much Fun Cleaning Out My Closet

September 21, 2015/in Books, Decision Making, People, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

My closet before!

I truly believe I’ve found my spirit animal — it’s Marie Kondo.

I’ve written before about her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. But this week I finally got around to listening to the entire audiobook and I have to admit I’m a convert (mostly.)

Now I understand why she’s such a rockstar in Japan and why there is a waiting list to work with her!

In her book, Marie explains that she started “tidying” when she was 5 years old. Like a classic middle child she did it to get attention and praise from her parents. Since then, for Marie, tidying has become a celebration. She even dresses up for the event.

Marie says everything you own wants to be of use to you. Isn’t that such a nice way of thinking about it? That was a huge mindset switch for me. Read more

Make This List to Get More Out of Your Day

September 14, 2015/in Benefits of List Making, Books, Decision Making, Fellow List Producers, Happiness, Learning With a List, List Making, People, Reduce Stress, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

From CEOs to janitors, we all have the same problem – we don’t have enough time.

In fact, when you think about it, time is an equalizer. That’s because we all only get 24 hours.

Even the President is forced to squeeze all his tasks into that 24-hour time frame.

So how do we do it?

I recently visited the Google headquarters with my husband in Mountain View, CA. Our gracious guide Gopi Kallayil discussed this conundrum with us as he showed us around the gorgeous campus.

At one point he asked us, “If you only had one hour what would be the next one thing you would do with it that would maximize the quality of joy, presence and life?”

It’s a great question for unveiling your true priorities.

Often you’ll be surprised by how little time you dedicate to the things you would put at the top of that list. Read more

5 Common Ways We Hold Ourselves Back

August 10, 2015/in Decision Making, Happiness, People, Reduce Stress, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

Sometimes we are our own greatest enemies.

No matter how confident I am — there are moments when I feel not good enough. It happens to all of us. We can’t all walk around feeling super confident all the time – although that would be nice!

Ironically this attitude can often stop us from performing at our best and send us in to self-sabotage mode.

So how do you get over these feelings?

It’s hard work in the end. Once you’re aware of it you can start to make changes. Here are some of the ways we hold ourselves back, and how to fix it: Read more

Eliminate Small Annoyances to Boost Productivity

August 3, 2015/in Apps, Decision Making, Decorating, Happiness, Health, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Saving Time, Tea, Technology, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

We all experience them, those little everyday things that get in our way.

But you deal with them even when they set you back. I do it too.

I’m sent tons of magazines and books at work and they are good resources for story ideas. However they take up so much space.

I keep them on my desk because I always plan on looking at them. But in the end they just get in my way and slow me down and create clutter.

They topple over onto my keyboard.

They spill onto my notes and pencil and often I can’t find what I’m looking for — but there they are…under that stack of magazines.

So why don’t I just move them! Right? We’ll it’s a lot easier said than done. These types of irritants are only slightly annoying so we let them slide. Read more