doug smith training

  A proper goal prevents wasted time. We don't have time to pursue meaningless goals. What matters most needs most of our time. Take a look at your list of goals. Prioritize the top three. The rest will matter most when the top three are done. -- doug smith

Centered leaders must skillfully deal with one paradox after another. Here's another one: Priorities determine time, and time determines priorities. If we don't make time for our priorities, time will decide for us what is most urgent, most pressing, most noisy and we'll end up working on something we did not plan on. But, if we schedule time based on our priorities, the paradox gives way to true prioritization. I didn't make this up -- I'm just working on doing it more consistently. How about you? -- doug smith 

Maybe it's not a paradox. Maybe it just feels counter-intuitive. Still, it seems to be true: To get more done, practice creating times when you get nothing done. Schedule down-town. Focus on not focusing. Let your mind wander and explore. Creative artists know that this works. It might feel disorienting at first, yet it does work. To get more done, sometimes you've got to do less. -- doug smith  

Now is the time. My mind does wander, and when it does I lose a sense of being in the moment. Oh, I'm sure the thoughts are important, and flying all over the place looking for the next brilliant idea. Being here right now though is better. Moments that we show up for will belong to us forever. So that they'll be there for us when, you know, we should be in THAT present moment. It's not a perfect science. It's not a perfect world. Some moments DO matter more than others. I'm working to live right here in this moment. How about you? -- doug smith  

If you can do more when you're not interrupted then go where you won't be interrupted. Another room. Another building. Another floor. Go for a walk. Go for a ride. Find a place where you can hide. And then -- get stuff done. Will people object? Maybe...but only until they realize that is how you get stuff done. -- doug smith

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Entrepreneur Magazine frequently offers useful time management tips. Here are 10 that are helpful. Don't worry too much about the revolutionary declaration that most time management advice is useless -- that would make THIS advice useless, too. It's not. It all depends on how you apply it, particularly with the discipline that you apply it. All time management tips depend on people DOING them with the discipline to say NO to distractions and low-payoff items. Focus first (and most) on the HIGH PAYOFF items and you are likely to be happy with the results. Here are the tips for additional review and application: Carry a schedule and track all of your activities, conversations, actions, and even thoughts  - for a week. Identify your productive vs. non-productive times. Assign time for your important activities. Put it in your schedule! Plan to spend at least 50% of your time in the activities and actions that produce most of your results. Schedule time for interrupt

High performance leaders must take care of their time. Here's a quick video with 20 quick time management tips. (Unfortunately, the video has been removed from youtube. However, I did summarize the tips so I'll leave this post.) Since the video does go quickly, here are the 20 tips: Create a daily plan Peg a time limit for each task Use your calendar Use an organizer Know your deadline Learn to say "no" Target to be early Time box your activities Have a clock visibly placed before you Set reminders 15 minutes before Focus Block out distractions Track your time spent Don't fuss about unimportant details Prioritize Delegate Batch similar tasks together Eliminate your time wasters Cut off when you need to Leave bugger time in between Video Source:

It feels harder than ever these days to prioritize. We get pulled into so many directions it's hard to know what to do first. Every day feels like life on the edge of (or in the middle of) chaos. What to do? Common sense says priories. Decide what is most important and focus first on that. Build the future you want by working on it today. The place to start? The place to start prioritizing is with your goals. Limit how many you have. Rank the ones you have set by priority, and then focus your efforts accordingly. We all have to start somewhere. It might as well be with our goals. -- doug smith

Time doesn't care. No matter what you're doing, it just keeps moving along. For a large part of my life there seemed to be an insistent ticking going on in the background of my existence. Everything had an urgency about it because any distraction was keeping me from doing what I was meant to be doing. Whatever that was. Because that changed over the years. Goals change, people change, life changes. I have no patience for wasting time, even though it's one of my super powers. It's a gift to never be bored, but that also means that anything, absolutely anything, can become so fascinating that it's like falling down a rabbit hole with no end. Fun, interesting, fascinating, but sometimes (gasp!) wasting time. Goals help me with that. I set goals for every day. What 5 things do I NEED to accomplish today to feel good about how I've spent my time? What will bring me closer to my mission? What do I want to remember this day for? I don't always do it. And,

Who gets to waster your time? There's only one right answer to that: you do. Anyone else wasting your time is truly a waste a time. We can waste our own time in rejuvenation, in recreation, in contemplation. Then it isn't really a waste at all. But, if someone else is distracting you, annoying you, and just wasting your time, why on earth should you ever tolerate that? When someone is wasting your time, excuse yourself to work on a goal. It's better than an excuse: it's a positive (and necessary) reason. Goals must come before wasted time. Or it all becomes wasted time. -- Doug Smith

Do you have a problem that won't go away on its own? Have you scheduled time to solve it? I've made the mistakes of pretending that a problem will simply vanish on its own. Maybe it will solve itself. Maybe if I wait long enough it won't be a problem anymore. What do you think of that as a goal achieving strategy? It's not the most consistently winning approach. Your goal has problems. If its big enough, ambitious enough, creative enough - it's got problems. You know it. Your team knows it. Maybe even your customers know it. How will you solve it? Even if everyone knows about a problem someone needs to schedule time to solve it. It takes discipline. It takes initiative. It takes giving the problem what it's asking for: time and attention. What problem can you schedule time to solve today? -- Doug Smith doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervisors for Success

Do you show up on time? How do you feel when you're in charge of something and people choose NOT to show up on time? Not everyone - some people respect you enough and your work to show up on time. But what about those who make other choices? What about those who have de-prioritized your event? Yesterday I facilitated a training program on time management. Some people thought it was funny to say "I don't have time for time management." That's OK. I get it. Managing time is hard. It's a challenge in today's world of multi-tasking and parallel meetings. And yet, tossing the blame onto others won't manage your activities for you, will it? Not only were some people late for my time management workshop - some didn't show up until after lunch, when it was more than half over. Then, they wondered why they didn't find what they needed. Learning is an investment. Learning is a discipline. Managing time is all about managing yourself, and having t