How Much is an Extra Hour Worth to You?

I have always been fascinated with the idea of how much our time is worth. It’s something I write about a lot on this blog. Whether we are Presidents, CEO’s or an up and coming entrepreneur, we all get the same 24 hours in a day and it’s up to us how we use them.

I did a Google Survey and I asked thousands of people ““How much would you pay for an extra hour in your day?”

The majority of people responded that they would pay between $0-$199. So not very much at all. How interesting is that?

That 72% clearly valued their money over their time in the end.

However, the second highest group of people (11% of those surveyed) said they would be willing to pay over $1000! To those people an extra hour was practically priceless.

So why this huge disparity in how people value their time? Read more

The Stars Are Aligned For You to Get More Done Now

It’s the beginning of the new year and everyone is already fantasizing about their grand plans for 2017.

You’re in luck because this is the perfect time to get moving on your goals. Not to get too “woo woo” but Mercury Retrograde came to an end on January 8th.

So what does this mean? Well many people believe in avoiding making life-changing plans or decisions during the retrograde, because it’s a time when everything is in flux. They save all this for after the retrograde, when the chips have all fallen and you can make firm plans for the future.

Whether you believe in this theory or not, January is a great time to start planning your future. So how are you going to make this year different from all the other years?

The only way to break out of these patterns and start accomplishing our goals is to take responsibility for our role in that downfall. For example, your diet didn’t fail because a donut place opened across the street from your apartment. (Yum!) It failed because you chose to go there! (Multiple times…)

Bad habits are not just the actions we take, sometimes we can develop bad ‘thinking’ habits. So you might think failure is inevitable, which subconsciously causes you to act in a self-sabotaging manner. This ultimately allows you to prove that you were right about being a failure in the first place and continues the negative cycle. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

This year it’s important to take control and understand how you can break out of that cycle and your bad habits and get more done.

One way for you to get the most out of your day is to sign up for my webinar – “5 Habits That Are Killing Your Productivity & How to Optimize Your Time”.

It’s time to stop being ‘busy’ and time to start getting things done!

I’ll be hosting two sessions of the webinar. One on Wednesday and one Thursday at 8pm Eastern. Pick a day that works for your schedule and sign up by clicking this link.

I’ll walk you through ways to rethink how you plan out your day so you can cut down on procrastination, make more attainable goals and have time to do the stuff you really want to do.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • How to make simple changes to your everyday routine to get more done
  • Discover how you’re really spending your time and find out how to optimize it so you’re not “busy” all the time.  
  • Start building momentum towards the things you want most by creating a time-management system that works for you.
  • Feel in control of your life and your goals instead of feeling stuck.
  • Learn the quickest ways to be more efficient for free without spending tons of time

I look forward to talking to you and showing you how to get more done this year! Join me!

Expert List Techniques You’re Not Doing – But Should! (+ a freebie!)

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’re probably a pretty savvy list maker. So how do you take it to the next level?

Getting the most out of your list, firstly, means understanding how priorities work. For example, today you might want to pick up groceries and also start planning the first chapter of your book. (That’s two separate lists – I’m sure you already know that!)  But how do you make sure that the here and now doesn’t override your long term goals?

Split your lists into lists: Immediate Priority vs Long-Term Priority

Not only do I believe in having multiple lists, but those lists can be split into different categories. We aren’t talking about daily to-do lists here to be clear. These lists are IMMEDIATE PRIORITY vs. LONG-TERM PRIORITY lists.

I like to use Evernote to keep my goals separate – and I split them into 2 notebooks. Your active list is what you are going to do for the week (like writing that book chapter!) or other important things that are on your mind – like knocking off some of your Christmas shopping! In another notebook I store my long-term priority list. This is where I keep all my ongoing projects and reminders for things I need to do later in the month or later in the year.

For example, if your goal for now is to write chapter one of your book, it’s a good idea to keep your outlines for the later chapters in this notebook. You don’t need them right now, but you’ll want to have them handy for reference. Or you can keep links to the Google Docs where you keep your notes or inspiration in this folder as well.  Anything that will make it easier for you to start crossing off tasks is helpful.

Be very specific  

With your IMMEDIATE PRIORITY list you need to be very specific. For example, I make my daily to-do lists at the end of each day. I think of every email or phone call I want to make the next day and I clearly write out what needs to be done.  Instead of “emails” I will write “send an email to Trisha about Monday’s event” This helps me to keep on task during the day.  I’m also automatically prioritizing as I write my list.  

To learn how to do that sign up for my free giveaway “Prioritize Like a Pro.”

With LONG-TERM PRIORITY lists it’s good to have an overarching idea of what you want to do, but it’s best not to get too bogged down in the details. To go back to the book example, you would set yourself a deadline for when you want to complete each chapter and write and outline for each of them. But you wouldn’t plan the days you’re going to write it until you’re closer to that deadline. Then you can pull from that list when the time comes to make your daily to-do lists.

Plus these lists can overlap each other – by that I mean you’ll be using them at the same time. So you should reference them and pull items from the long-term priority list and stick it on the immediate priority lists. Eventually it will graduate to the daily to-do list. Think of each list as a stepping stone – as you move from one to the next you’re closer to completing the task.

The reason I keep these separate is so that you can focus more on what’s on your daily to-do list without getting too distracted by those big goals. I would recommend checking in on your long term priority list every week or so.  This way you know what tasks you have coming up. But you won’t feel overwhelmed by everything you have to do.  

If you’d like to check out my system to Prioritize Like a Pro fill in the form below and I’ll send you my free giveaway.  






 

5 Things Productive People Don’t Do

Being a productivity expert means people are often ask me for ways to get more done. Many people, I find, approach this from the wrong angle. They want to know how they can write their lists for maximum efficiency or what smartphone app is going to manage their busy schedule. While these things can help, being productive isn’t so much about what you do, it’s more about what you don’t do.

I am a big believer in doing less with my day. This may seem like it’s at odds with being productive, but it’s much better to do a few things really well then lots of things poorly. For example, if you do a rushed job when you vacuum, you will probably have to go over it again in a couple of days. However, if you  try to reach into every nook and cranny you won’t have to worry about vacuuming again for a while. Read more

3 Ways to Have an Effective Lunch Meeting

I always look forward to a good lunch meeting, but it can be tricky to get it right because there are so many distractions. If the purpose of the meeting is to talk business you may have to plan ahead. There’s nothing worse than getting to the best part of your pitch when suddenly the waiter interrupts to take your order. Or when the food takes to long and makes you late to work.

The best way to ensure a successful lunch meeting is to put in a little planning beforehand. Here are some of my top tips.

Choose the location wisely – When I meet with my mastermind group for meals we have got them down to an exact science! When booking a place to meet we always ensure that we meet at a restaurant where you can go up and get your food and then sit down. This saves you getting distracted looking at the menu and dealing with the waiter. Plus once you’ve got your food you can sit down and get started quickly on whatever topics you’ve got on the agenda. Read more