Jason Womack

17 minutes to a more productive day

"If I just had more time I would..."

Have you heard yourself say this...Recently? Chances are high that you could have used some more time over the past few days. Time to think, time to plan, time to finish a discussion with someone in the office, time to catch up on emails, time to work out, time to initiate a conversation with someone at home...

During our busy, busy lives, it is absolutely critical that we balance all we have to do, so that it all gets done. Often times, we're working "between things." Ever found yourself checking your email while you're on hold on the phone? Have you brought a magazine or book to an appointment, just in case it doesn't start on time? Have you ever called someone (using a hands-free headset!) while you were driving or commuting to/from work?

If you want to get more done, faster, without having to "always be read" to do something, try this productivity practice: Use a timer.

Buy a digital timer (one of those countdown timers you might use in the kitchen) and bring it to your office. Some people have found timers that have a silent vibrate function as to not be ringing aloud, disturbing your co-workers. When you decide that one area of focus deserves a significant block of your attention, set the timer - say, for 17 minutes. Then, work. Work focused; work hard; work deliberately. Work until the timer goes off, and see what happens when you work through distraction, through interruption.

 

When you keep a promise that's over 10 years old...

"Remember when you sent us those letters we wrote?"

This is what I heard at the Ojai Post Office just a few days ago. I turned around, and saw a young woman looking right at me...smiling. It took a moment, and a smile flashed on my face too. You see, we knew each other; she was in one of the classes I taught (at Nordhoff High School) many years ago! I'll admit, I had to ask her to remind me of her name, which she did (with another smile). Then, she told me her beautiful story...

When I was a teacher, I included the following activity during each term's final exam (I taught US History, World History, and Spanish Language). I passed out a couple of pieces of blank paper and a blank envelope, with this prompt up on the white-board:

Please write a letter to the future you. Give yourself advice, remind yourself of how things were, and tell your self what you think you might need to hear. When you're done, put the letter in the envelope, seal it, and put your address - the address you think will still be around - at least 10 years from now. I'll send it to you.

So, in the years since I moved on from teaching in the high school classroom, I've been sending dozens of letters each year...the same letters that the students wrote during the school years 1995-2000. This young woman looked me in the eye and told me about the day she had received her letter. What I'm sure could have been a much longer story (but there we were, at the counter of the post office!) almost brought me to tears.

She said that she read her letter, those words she had written. The whole letter was about a best friend of hers...a friend that had passed away, the summer she wrote the letter. She said she cried, as she remembered her friend, those times, and all that she had done since then. She said, "Thank you," and quietly turned away.

I walked away with many thoughts on my mind. Of course, I was wondering, "Was that a good idea? Would it have been better if she never had those memories come back?" I thought about the many students I worked for, the families I met along the way, and the promise I had made. What I'm sure of now is that there are a great number of students who are not thinking, "That Mr. Womack made a promise a decade ago, I wonder if..." No, instead, they're probably thinking - when they receive their handwritten letter - "I can't believe he remembered!"

This will be the last year of me mailing those letters back. (You see, I had asked the students to write down the day and year - ten years hence - they wanted me to post them. Not one student wrote down a year beyond the 10th one. So, those students who were in my classes in 2000...this is your year!) I haven't heard from too many of them...but in my heart I know I did what I said I would do.

What's left at the end of the effort?

At the end of what you finish, when you're within sight of the finish line, how do you stay engaged at your 100%?

Whether toward the end of a race, a typical work-day, a meeting presentation you're working on, or a large client project...it's very important that the last bit of match the enthusiasm, interest, focus and intention as the steps along the way; going all the way back to the beginning.

Productivity and the interruptive environment

Do you invite, allow, or initiate an interruptive environment while you're working? Imagine, create and test ways to minimize the number of "got-a-minute" type interruptions you handle daily.

Just the other day, I was in the middle of responding to an email from a client and by the second paragraph of text I was really on a roll. The content was new - I was responding to a request I'd never seen before - and I was completely present, in the moment of ideation and action. And then,

"Hey Jason..." I heard from someone in the office.

In that instant, I was taken out of focus, literally my fingers stopped typing, and it took everything I had to turn around and address a "quick" interruption. Psychologically (and biologically?) we are prone to respond to the latest, the loudest, the brightest and the newest input around. Consider this "Productivity Experiment:"

For the next 24 hours, keep track of every and any thing that pulls your focus from what you were about to do. Yes, this is going to be a LOT of work. Over the time to write this post on the airplane, I have gotten up out of my seat one time, asked to have my glass of water refilled, looked out the window to see another jet flying off our right side, and thumbed through my journal looking for a quote to add to this mini-article. Speaking from experience of doing this with dozens of clients over the years, when you identify your distractions, it's going to make it easy/obvious to pick the things to change.

 

Ojai's amusement park!

Just the other day, Memorial Day in fact, was a full day...friends, travel and fun. The morning started off with a visit in Menlo Park - a surprise meet-up with a group of folks reading our book, The Promise Doctrine.

7 hours (and a bit of traffic) later, we rolled into Ojai...and, that is where the fun continued! Once I got home, I took out my new Mountain Bike (thanks to Bob Coble at Bicycles of Ojai for steering me in the right direction) and turned uphill from my house.

Just up Foothill Road (have you been lately?) is a fire road that turns into a smaller trail, which culminates in some technical single-track that eventually ends up at Gridley Road. Whether you're on foot, on bike or on horseback, the views are spectacular, the hills are HUGE, and the space is quiet.

So, was I amused?

Not in the same sense of the word as when I was a kid and my parents brought me to Disneyland for the 4th of July holiday...10 years in a row!

But, I was in awe (just like I was the first time I saw Captain EO, Star Tours, Br'er Rabbit come to life at Splash Mountain) of the absolute majesty of those hills up behind our home.

Sometime this week, drive along the valley floor, and look toward the north. See if you can pick out one of the peaks - Chief's Peak, or the Topa Topas for example - and wonder. Wonder what's there, who's there, what it's like up there. Then, some day, maybe, you'll get a book, read a magazine article, or find a buddy and get up there for a visit yourself!

want a Time Management tip? Here is the best: Tell all of the truth, all the time

20 minutes ago, Les McKeown left our little meetup here in Ojai. And...he left me a copy of his book that came out last week, "Predictable Success."
Opening to page 152 (yeah, I do that, open to a page after asking, "What do I need to read?"), I saw this page on truth-telling. If you're interested in managing/mastering your time while you're growing a department and business please...pick up this book. It'll be worth it.
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When the ideas are needed...go to where you can submit them!

Check out the USAToday A section, page 3.
This was a submission by Bill Horne...he's 82, an engineer, is from North Carolina, and went to New Orleans to gain an audience w/ BP. He went there to add his knowledge to the potential solutions being discussed.
Talk about a man willing to Show Up!
(Mr. Horne, I would like to send you a signed copy of the book I wrote with my father. Please contact me with a current mailing address!)
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Inspiration and Education - the Chicken and the Egg

Wow, what a seminar day THAT was. Starting at 7:45am, I was talkin' shop with bankers here in New York...all the way until about 10:30pm! I went from a Seminar to a lunch meeting to another Seminar to an afternoon meeting one more New York client dinner. Of course, over those 13+ hours a LOT happened. Here are the two things that are standing out from today:

It's more than just inspiration we need. Before the formal course started, three people were in the room ready to go. One said, "Jason, I've heard you're a pretty enthusiastic person. Have you always been inspired like this?" We talked (for just 5 minutes or so) about the power of purpose, intention and clear goals. I explained my "dry erase" pen-on-the-bathroom-mirror technique of getting ready for each seminar and coaching day. (*See below...)

When we're inspired, I maintain, it's because the information we're seeing/hearing/experiencing matches up with one of the promises - implicit or expressed- we've made about who we are, what we do, and how we're going to do it. Which leads me to...

...the fact that it's very, very important to combine INFORMation with INSPIRation. The question that became the overall theme of our morning seminar:

"If there is information out there, that will change the way you work so that more of your resources are used, less of your time wasted, and all of your talents are tapped...when would you like to know?"

I say it with a smile, because I remember when my mentor asked ME that question! Of course, my answer was, "Right Now!" So, start reading, going to classes/courses, calling people to interview them about what you want to more about. If you're going to include a mentor or coach along with you on this journey, consider bringing something for them to SEE that demonstrates what you're working on, preoccupied by, frustrated about...then, seek out the information/knowledge you can use to change HOW you interact with your workflow (not necessarily WHAT you do, but how you do it...make sense?).

There are two things we need to acknowledge about this goal setting and goal achievement process: Inspiration and Education.

3 Reasons to Think Bigger

I live in Ojai, and I admit it's a small town. A long time ago, I heard that there was a "city thing" that says no building can be over 3 stories tall... of course, don't know if it's true, I never walked down to City Hall and asked. As I think about it now, thought, I don't know if there ARE any 4, 5, or 6 story buildings near where I live.

So, when I get to cities like New York, or (below) San Francisco and I get to work on one of the upper floors, I'm always reminded of the importance/significance of perspective and a long-range view. The higher up I look from, the further out I can see. When it comes to goals and thinking, this same, well, thinking applies!

There are at least three reasons I can come up with to think "bigger." And, I'll ask you reading this to add your reasons below in the comments area. I'd love to hear from a few people - what reasons do YOU have to think bigger?

Enhance collaboration by reducing inconsistency: A highly collaborative culture is an extremely risky culture. What do I mean? In a collaborative culture, you hear things like, "Hey, gotta sec?" "Are you available to go to a meeting right now?" "Can you look at this, I have to present on it in 15 minutes?" and more.

Organizations, departments, and teams need to observe, experiment with, and objectify certain routines and habits when it comes to productivity and working "together." Some areas to begin observing: 
- How many hours/days go by between the time you email someone or leave a voicemail for them and you get a response back? 
- Who (specifically and how many times per day) interrupts you throughout the day?
- What time do meetings actually start (that is, what is the delta between the "invited" time and the "actual start" time?

Clarify communication by increasing knowledge: There are bound to be some things about your industry that you don't know yet. For me, it's the next book I need to read, the next course I need to take, the next expert I will invite to lunch or coffee one morning. When I communicate - whether one-on-one with an executive I'm coaching, or to a group of 1,500 at a trade convention in Las Vegas - I'm always sourcing the "newest" information I could find.

New doesn't need to always be "recently found," it could be something that has been around for a while that I just found - a new discover I made of something that everyone else may already know about. My job, then, is to frame and present it in a way that engages the listener and promotes further development and thinking.

Pick your workspace...wisely

Two things to consider when you're planning for a more productive day:

1. Where do you need to be?
2. Where are you interrupted the least amount of times each day?

Now, that first question may actually deem the second irrelevant. You know what I mean? If someone tells me, "I need to be in my office, with my door open, email open, phone available and Instant Messenger going," I can predict to certain level of accuracy what kind of "productivity day" they're going to have.

The second question is a bit more strategic. Over the years of asking these two questions (and, I ask them in and out of order), I continually hear people answer the second question by saying,

• "At the coffee shop."
• "In my boss' office, when they are away in meetings."
• "In a conference room down the hall."
• "At home, before my family wakes up in the morning."

In fact, if you want to be more productive tomorrow, try this four-step plan:

1. Identify the one BIG project that needs a continual stretch of focus (30-45 minutes).
2. Call a mentor/advisor/colleague/manager and ask them to call you in the later afternoon tomorrow.
3. Start your day by going to the place you need to be in to be interrupted the least, and most productive.
4. Get ready to report to the person calling you just how productive you were!