25. How to Set Up an Ideal Week

February 17, 2020 | Full Focus Planner, Productivity Practices

You’re focused on productivity, which means that you’re constantly getting tapped for greater responsibility. You start each day with a plan, but you quickly get sucked into “reaction mode.” Urgent requests and demands on your time crowd out your own priorities. It’s exhausting.

Fortunately, we know a great way to take control of your time and direct the flow of work coming at you. It’s called the ideal week. This simple tool will help you take back control of your time. You’ll say goodbye to reactive mode, get focused on your high-leverage projects, and get a lot more done.

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23. 4 Questions to Learn from Mistakes

February 3, 2020 | Goal Achievement, Productivity Practices

You’re a high achiever, so you like to attempt big things. The problem is that things don’t always turn out the way you planned. That feels lousy. It makes you want to bury last week and just barrel ahead.

There’s a better way. We’ve discovered a simple process for redeeming your regrets, big and small. Your mistakes and even failures don’t have to keep you stuck. You can learn from your mistakes and emerge even stronger by asking yourself four simple questions.

When you do, you’ll no longer feel ashamed of the past or afraid of the future. You’ll gain the insight and confidence you need to make positive changes and achieve better results in the future.

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17. Stop Goal Exhaustion with This Simple Fix

December 23, 2019 | Goal Achievement, Productivity Practices

Does it ever feel like you’re on a treadmill? One week ends, another begins. One quarter ends, another begins. You hit your goals this month. Yay! Now get back to work. It never ends.

It’s enough to make you sick of the word goal.

Goal achievement should not be that way. The last thing you should feel about setting a goal is dread. We’ve got a simple hack that will make you feel excited every time you set a goal. Do this one simple thing, and you’ll never again dread the start of the quarter. Here’s how to create a reward that will keep you motivated to achieve.

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16. How to Get Instant Momentum on Goals

December 16, 2019 | Goal Setting, Productivity Practices

You’ve set some great goals. They’re exciting and challenging. But that creates a lot of complexity. There is so much to be done. Your project plan is solid, but it’s hard to find the time to make progress. The whole thing just seems overwhelming.

Based on achieving lots of big goals, we’ve learned that complex detailed plans are not always helpful. You don’t need to plot the entire course. All you need is the next step. It’s time to stop thinking about “the plan” for your goal and just identify the next action.

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11. How to Connect Annual Goals to Daily Productivity

November 11, 2019 | Goal Visibility, Productivity Practices

As a high achiever, you love to set big goals. You thrive on strategic planning sessions because it’s a time to dream big.

But daily life is just not conducive to goal achievement. You’re pretty organized, but major goals and projects come on top of your “real job.” It’s hard to make progress on the big things when you’ve got so much other work to do.

Good news: there is one thing that makes you much more likely to achieve your goals. It’s called goal visibility. You’re going to make progress at anything you see or touch every day. So the key is to create consistent points of contact with your most important goals. And we can show you how to do that with three levels of goal review.

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10. Keep Your Focus with This One Tool

November 4, 2019 | Productivity Practices, Self-Awareness

We know you want to get stuff done. So you sit down to make some calls, or empty your inbox, or write a report. But before you know it, you’re answering Slack messages and scrolling Instagram. What just happened?

What happened is that you fell into the Palo Alto honey trap. Computer software is specifically designed to grab your attention and hold it. Forever.

But we’ve got a secret weapon. It’s one of the oldest technologies on the planet, and it still works as well as it ever did. It’s called paper!

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7. A Simple (Yet Overlooked) Strategy for Achieving Goals

October 14, 2019 | Goal Setting, Productivity Practices

As a high achiever, you want to get stuff done. You love to achieve goals and celebrate wins! And to do that, you’ve downloaded every productivity app every made. You’re a wizard with productivity tools and hacks.

But there’s a problem. All those tools create a lot of complexity. Every tasks has a due date, and it exists somewhere in your ironclad system. But where? Outlook? Asana? Slack? Or is it on your calendar? In Excel?

Before long, you’re spending more time managing your system than actually doing your work. Productivity plummets. Until you reach for the next new app!

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6. How to Get Ahead of Every Week

October 7, 2019 | Goal Achievement, Productivity Practices

You really want to love your job. But it can be overwhelming! Work starts coming at you even before you’re in the building by emails and texts. It’s exhausting. There’s got to be a better way to start the week.

Here’s help. We’ve got a proven, easy-to-use method for taking control of your week before it starts. Try the Weekly Preview, and you’ll finally quit dreading Mondays! You’ll enter each week feeling relaxed and in control—and you’ll get more done.

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3. Not Making Progress on Your Goals? Try This

September 16, 2019 | Productivity Practices, Self-Awareness

Everybody has big projects or goals they’d like to achieve. The problem is that our “real work” keeps us from making progress on our goals. It’s frustrating to watch your goals slip away, or get sidelined for another year.

That can change! We’ve got a simple hack that will ensure you make progress on your goals every single week. And it really works! It’s time to trade your frustration for achievement. You’ll make huge progress on your goals and end every week feeling on top of your game.

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1. Get More Done (By Doing Less)

September 9, 2019 | Productivity Practices

Everyone wants to be productive at work. But there is just too much to do! Your to-do list grows throughout the day, and you never get finished—no matter how long you work. It’s exhausting.

But we’ve got the answer. By narrowing your to-do list, you’ll actually achieve more by doing less. As a result, you’ll escape the sick feeling of always being behind, and you’ll get your most important work done every day. This one change will transform your days from out of control to perfectly focused.

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