Tag Archive for: List Producer

The 3 Classic Flaws of Productive People

/1 Comment/in , , , , , , /by

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

/6 Comments/in , , , , , /by

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

The Secret to Getting on TV

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

“How do I get on TV?” It’s probably the question I’ve been asked most often in my career.

If you’re new to this blog — shoutout to all my new followers in China, Japan and the Netherlands now that my book has been published there — I’m thrilled to welcome you.  The new readers may not realize that not only am I an author and productivity expert but I’m also a television news producer. That’s my “day job,” and I’ve been doing it for more than 15 years.

I put my producer hat on at the BlogHer16 conference in Los Angeles as a featured speaker this past week.  I was alongside my close friend and colleague Terri Trespicio.  We talked to bloggers in all categories: health, wellness, politics, food, money, etc., about how to take their message and pitch it to the media. We talked about how to become a go-to expert and what really stands out in the eyes of producers and editors.

That’s how Terri and I met after all. I booked her for a TV segment when she was a senior editor for Martha Stewart’s Whole Living Magazine. And years later when I started this blog – I pitched her a related idea it in the magazine. Fun, right?

Since Terri — as a former magazine editor, radio host and now a branding strategist and media coach — gets the same question about being on TV as I do — we’ve decided to team up.

We’re going to release a 4-week online course this September about how to get and keep media attention.

It’s called Lights Camera Expert! It’s designed for entrepreneurs, authors and experts of all kinds. We will be teaching you how to crack the media code, craft the perfect pitch and crush it on air — click here to join our list to be the first to hear all about it.

As a thank you we’ll send you our free ebook called, “5 Things You Should Never Say to a Producer.” We had a lot of fun putting it together.

We are so thrilled to teach something so near and dear to our hearts and help bloggers, authors, entrepreneurs and business owners boost their brand in the media.

I’d love to keep you posted on my newest endeavor Lights Camera Expert — check it out here and please tell anyone you think might be interested as well.  Appreciate your support!

Come Visit Me In LA

/0 Comments/in , /by

Since the first time I attended a BlogHer conference in 2012 I always wanted to be a speaker there. And now I’m getting to do it! I know many of my West Coast blog readers often feel left out as most of my events happen here on the East Coast. However I’ll be making my way over to you August 4th-6th for BlogHer16.

I’ll be there with my television producer hat on filling BlogHer attendees in on how to get and keep media attention. Something that is so important to bring eyeballs, credibility and clients to your business. I’ve booked thousands of guests and know who will make the cut and who won’t. I’m excited to share what I know.  Plus I’ve been on the other side as a guest when I promoted my book Listful Thinking.

I’m going with my friend and colleague Terri Trespicio. We’ll be speaking together on a panel called Crafting Your Pitch and Cracking the Media Code. Terri used to be a senior editor for Martha Stewart so she handles the print side of the discussion.

We’re asked to talk about this topic so often we’re even creating an online course together called Lights Camera Expert.  It’s aimed at teaching authors, experts and entrepreneurs how to get and keep media attention. I’ll tell you more about that next week.

If you’re in LA and are interested in meeting content creators, social media stars, entrepreneurs, top brands and activists, you should come by and say hello. If you sign up through my link I can get you a 30% discount on tickets! Just enter my code SPEAKERFF30 at the checkout.

See you in LA!

Best Free Resources for Life Long Learning

/1 Comment/in , , , , , , /by

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