Why You’re Really Not Getting Anything Done

If you are anything like me (and if you’re reading this blog you probably are) then when you first start a new project or set a new goal you throw yourself in headfirst.

We can all get caught up in the moment. Sometimes I’ll even spend more money than I should buying ‘essential’ items that I think I need to finish my project.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all felt that compulsion to buy $200 sneakers the second we decided we need to get back in shape.

However as time goes on, the excitement fades and our brand new sneakers sit in the closet collecting dust. Just like in relationships our passion for our projects can fall into a rut or get stalled before they even start.

So how do you keep the spark alive? Here are some of the ways to pick up where you left off and actually follow through on those projects:

Go back to the drawing board – I’m not saying you should start over, but sometimes it can be beneficial to take a look back. What were your initial plans – if there were any – for this project? Perhaps they were very ambitious or didn’t have enough scope. Altering your initial ‘blueprints’ can help to breathe some life back into your project! Ask a friend to sit down with you and go through the bullet points. You might have a change of heart or find some motivation this way. Read more

List of 10 Gluten-Free Grains for Everyone

Everything seems to be gluten-free this and gluten-free that these days. I was a bit skeptical in the beginning when all of these “new” foods started hitting shelves. But I did a shoot with a nutritionist named Kelly Dorfman and she told me about a story from her book “What’s Eating Your Child?

The story was about a young child who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She was prescribed a cocktail of medicines and her parents were frustrated and wanted to help their child. They went to see Kelly in their last efforts and it turned out the child wasn’t bipolar at all — she had a gluten intolerance! Amazing isn’t it? What you eat has such a huge impact on everything. Read more

The 3 Classic Flaws of Productive People

What makes a person organized? If you ask my friends and family they’d say that I was born with stellar time management and organizational skills – but that’s not true!  I’m actually a procrastinator and it wasn’t until I became a TV producer that I got my act together because I had no other choice!  When your segment is going live – you need to be ready…no procrastinating allowed!

When I started to think about it – I  realized this is actually the case of most of the super-organized people I know. Many of them were once disorganized or procrastinated just like me.

So what changed? How were they able to overcome it? They found a coping system. A hack to make sure they accomplished their tasks despite their flaw. Here’s a few of the most common ones:

 

Being Forgetful – Whether it’s true or not, I forgot always sounds like the lamest excuse. While we are all permitted the occasional bout of forgetfulness, frequent memory lapses are seen as an excuse for laziness or a lack of motivation. In order to get by,  genuinely forgetful people turn to list making and organization as a way to keep themselves in line. Many forgetful people will develop a daily routine so that they don’t forget key tasks. They tend to struggle with too many lists as they compulsively write everything down.

Tip – A great trick that I use all the time myself is setting reminders in my phone. If a friend tells me she’s heading off to vacation on Friday, I set a reminder in my phone and then I don’t forget to wish her a good trip.

 

Perfectionism – It seems obvious, but many productivity obsessed people are perfectionists from a young age. Everything must have a purpose and a place – there is no room for error. Perfectionists also turn to lists because they hate it when things go wrong. So they will often make a backup plan for a backup plan! Their only downfall is they can sometimes waste time making sure their list is juuust right instead of getting on with it. Part of the problem here is also getting everything in line before getting started on a task.

Tip – Sometimes you just have to say “I’m going to work on this thing for 10 minutes and see how it goes.” Oftentimes that’s the only push you need to get started and combat being a perfectionist.

 

Handling Procrastination – As I’ve always said procrastination is my fatal flaw. I can always think of at least 10 other things I could do instead of the task I should be working on! So I started using lists to force myself to keep on track. The one problem I have though is that I will often waste time looking up apps or websites that could help me complete my tasks, when it would have been quicker to just do it!

Tip – Making daily lists of what I need to get done and breaking up a task into steps has been amazingly helpful when getting through my daily to dos.

What’s your flaw that forced you to be more productive?

 

Make These Two Lists Everyday to Boost Productivity

Do you ever sit down to write your daily to do’s and the list just goes on and on? It can be really discouraging. But, just because your list seems never ending, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to finish all your tasks that day.

Ruth Carter, a lawyer I met in a virtual mastermind group for entrepreneurs called ShankMinds, was having just this problem.  So I suggested a creative solution to this problem.  I told her to make two list per day.  A before lunch list and an after lunch list.  

Now each morning she divides her page in two and splits her to do lists into things to do in the morning and things to do in the afternoon. She wrote about how much it helped her here. It may seem simple, but splitting your list into two can make your day seem much more manageable. Read more

Best Free Resources for Life Long Learning

For the first 18 years of our life we are focused solely on learning. Kids these days are learning every day by going to school, and still learning when they go home and watch cool songs with a learning theme. We study, make flash cards and brainstorm new ideas. For some of us this learning goes on well into our twenties with college. But once we leave university, most of us move on from learning into the workplace and never really go back.

I loved learning when I was a kid and I always make it a point to learn something new whenever I can. As a journalist I’m naturally curious and one of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to become an expert in many different subjects even if just for a day.

Just because you’ve left school doesn’t mean you have to give up on life-long learning. In fact, many of the long-term bucket lists that I see include learning a language or new skill. But these long term goals tend to get overlooked because they can be quite costly or because people don’t think they have the time to achieve them. Read more