doug smith training

Using time productively is of course important. Managing work and activities, reducing wasted time, optimizing performance, these all matter. And you know what else matters? How you feel about it. The time is yours. Even when other people make decisions about your time, your approach to what you do is always up to you. It's not just what you do with your time that matters, it's also how you feel about what you do with your time. What's your answer? -- doug smith  

  There was a time when time seemed to close in on me like a shrinking cell. I could hear the ticking like a serious soundtrack constantly reminding me that urgency had to rule or time would shrink away. But time doesn't shrink away. Time does not care what you do about it and if you hear ticking it's from a real clock, not your lost time. Time is not a ticking clock, it's a fluid sea of possibility. Find the wave and ride. Connect with your school of creatives and invent new boundaries. Swim and win. The possibilities are endless. And...so is time. -- doug smith

The bad news is that you are the biggest thief of your time. The good news is that you can change that. We all waste time. We can all waste less. Productivity is a choice. -- doug smith  

Are you a strong starter, a strong finisher, or both? (Let's not even consider "neither" as a viable choice for any high performance leader.) Time will tell, as my grandmom used to say. Time will tell. However you approach performance, the performance will emerge. It just depends on whether you want to celebrate that performance or regret it. The test of time does not grade on a curve. What you want will require work. The goals that you set will need a plan that you work on relentlessly.  Are you going to achieve your best goals? The test of time will tell. -- doug smith  

  We're in this, too. All the stuff. All the things. The changes, the strangeness, we're in. Impacted by what happens, what other choice do we have than to impact what happens? "These times!" you say. "These times are tough!" Yep. And so are you. The times make us what we are, more than we realize,  but then we also make the times. Let's make them good times. Let's do better. I'm in. How about you? -- doug smith

If it feels like other people are deciding things for you, take comfort in the fact that it has always been the case -- always -- that some people will do their best to decide everything for you. Whether you allow that or not is up to you. Whether you lead ahead or follow (and fall) behind is also up to you.  This time is your time -- embrace it completely. -- doug smith "The present time has one advantage over every other -- it is our own" -- Charles Caleb Colton Source

There's a secret way to stretch your time. Well, it's not that BIG of a secret, and some people might disagree, but if it works for you, wouldn't you make use of it. Here it is: Fill your time with joy and you find you have more time. More time, better time, easier time, wonderful time. It's just a feeling, of course, because as far as we know we all have equal amounts of time -- from moment to moment. Creating great moments though last and so, tada! you find you have more time. It's worth a try...even if you don't end up with more time, you do end up with more joy. -- doug smith  

If you've ever been on both sides of the fence, you know the differences all too well. Having been blessed with a long and interesting work life I have spent some of that career as an employee and much of it as a contractor.  When I first started, contracting was less common and the distinctions were clear. Employees were expected to be loyal to the company and contractors had their own agenda: they served their current assignment without any expectation of extended loyalty. Contracting, or gig-working, has become so common that many people within a company will assume that they can expect the same behaviors from a contractor that they would from an employee. Some do everything they can to lock in a gig worker without actually providing any of the benefits of being committed that they have to hire lawyers to ward off lawsuits and organizing. That does not create an engaged workforce. Expecting loyalty from a temporary worker is the silliest of assumptions. You know they aren't...

The person you were in the past remains in the past. You are now in this moment the person you create. -- doug smith

What if time didn't matter? What would you work on? What if you did that right now? -- doug smith

Do you ever daydream about the past? How you would have done some things differently? If you could go back in time would you be the same person you are today? Of course, we can't go back in time, but we can learn from it. Things that we would change point in directions we might want to consider for now. People we might have offended may still be waiting for our amends. Opportunities we may have squandered might still be there -- or might beckon us toward new opportunities we have been missing. We don't need to regret what we missed. There's so much good that's still ahead of us. What have you learned from your past experiences? -- Doug Smith