Tag: Barbara Genest

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Organization Is A Daily Requirement

Did you know that around 91% of employees have reported that they believe they could be more productive if only their work and jobs organized better? It’s obvious, without organization, you may as well throw your business plan and daily to-do lists out the window. Even outside of business, your personal life thrives more on organization. It helps you achieve consistency and focus and provides the flexibility you need to be successful and in control of your life and business.

Be More Proactive and Less Reactive to Achieve Higher Success

From organizing your to-do lists, your office, or other workspaces, setting up the right business structure for your company, maximizing the best routes from your house to the grocery store, and other tasks and back. The organization makes it easier to handle many tasks throughout your day to be more productive and waste less time fumbling between functions or other objects in your way. In other words, if you want to achieve more goals easily and as stress-free as possible, you need to adopt the right organizational habits.

 

The following are a few tips to help you be more organized in life and business:

 

Create the Right Habits and Repeatable Routines

Being organized is about finding the routines and habits that keep the momentum going. Keep the process simple, and don’t overthink it. Stick to your schedule and commitments, don’t hit snooze, and find systems that make sense for the activities you are doing that are easy to accomplish.

 

Understand Your Priorities and Efforts

Organization takes effort and consistent action to be successful. Be mindful of your priorities and what is expected of you daily to ensure you adopt the right habits for you and your business.

 

Establish A Healthy Work-Life Balance

Set boundaries, expectations, and limits for work and your personal life to ensure they don’t overlap and run smoothly together. If you know your expectations for your personal life may interfere, you can better plan for challenges that lay ahead. However, if you commit to finding the right work-life balance for your personality and business, you will have fewer challenges to overcome and will more easily stay on your path.

 

Declutter and Categorize

Keep distractions out of the workplace, and don’t allow other items to come into that space. Develop dedicated areas for physical and digital things and always put them back before leaving for the day. For example, if you always forget your passwords, then make a dedicated password folder.

 

As you can see, all it takes is one repeatable movement with consistent action and the commitment to stay on track each day to be organized. The hardest part is getting started, but you will gain the momentum and drive to thrive once you get going.

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Kick Distractions or Else

If you enjoy personal and professional growth and genuinely want to live the life you imagine for yourself, then you must take responsibility and kick those distractions keeping you down. Distractions come in many different forms and come with their own set of consequences too.

 

Sensory or External Distractions

These include environmental and digital distractions such as your cell phone, browsing the web or social media websites, and your workspace, including those around you. While you may enjoy working at the coffee shop, constant interactions and noises are likely hurting your quality and time management.

 

Emotional or Internal Distractions

These are the distractions that your brain is telling you as you are working. These thoughts are self-sabotaging and can easily guide you in the wrong direction if you listen to them. Controlling your emotions is possible and will help you in life in many ways. Try studying stoicism to help you if you need extra assistance with this.

 

Personal Distractions

This is the category that you need to be the most mindful and honest about. No one but you truly know what is keeping you away from working at your best. It would be best to take accountability and ownership of your actions and things around you to be successful. If you wait around for others to solve the problem for you, you might as well throw your goal list in the trash.

 

The following are six tips designed to kick distractions so you can stay focused and on path: 

 

Set Clear Boundaries and Limitations

Fully understand what you are capable of and your limitations for each work requirement or personal goal.

 

Be Mindful and Realistic About Your Surroundings

In other words, create a workspace optimal for the tasks you plan to do and be realistic about your personality and what you can handle. For example, if you know, you will get too chatty with your clients, keep your meetings short, follow a list of bullet points to keep you on track, and only do them over Zoom or the internet.

 

Simplify and Automate Your Processes

Use technology and other resources to automate processes that don’t need your complete focus and attention or ones you know will only distract you in the long run. Utilize tools, cell phone applications, or Google Chrome extensions such as StayFocused that allow you to set time limits or block websites for a certain period of time — giving you the control and confidence you need to stay focused.

 

Be Honest and Stop Self-Sabotage

Stop negative thoughts before they control your actions. Most internal distractions are false and a result of low self-confidence, lack of knowledge, and experience. Experiment more, try more things, and gain as much knowledge as possible so you can learn yourself inside and out and gain back control of your life.

Multitasking Is A Lie

In the end, to kick distractions successfully, you must practice self-control and discipline. If you don’t, your business and personal goals will suffer.

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“Power Office” Your Workspace

As you already know by now, organization is one key ingredient to increased productivity. Every step of business planning and implementing requires it. Good organization skills lead to better time management, consistency, and focus on getting work done on time, and more.

 

One of the most important areas to organize and get right first is your work environment or office. You need to power office your space or set it up to work for you to lead you to success.

 

What Is A Power Office and Why Is It So Valuable?

A power office is the work environment you create to do your work but explicitly optimized for success. A power office is organized to match work processes and the tasks required to achieve your goals. It inspires confidence and gives you a distraction-free area to highly concentrate and focus on your work.

 

Here’s what you need to set up your own power office successfully to achieve productivity:

 

Analyze What’s Not Working First

When you get to work, what causes the most frustration and anxiety? Do you have paper and knickknacks all over the place? Is there furniture or extra things causing more distraction than good? Before you change your space, go to work first and be more mindful of your emotions and surroundings to get a better sense of the space you need to work optimally.

 

Always Keep in Mind Your Work Objectives

When creating your workspace, keep in mind your main objectives or tasks. If you are on the phone a lot, for example, be sure the phone is right where you need it, or your cell phone charger is there to keep you on track.

 

Adjust the Layout, Setup, and Location

Find the right location and layout that work for your professional and personal needs. If you know you like freedom while you work, don’t use the smallest or most affordable location you can find in your home or elsewhere. It will only do the opposite and stall your work.

 

Declutter and Designate

Let go of all the stuff that you don’t need. In other words, trim the fat and put it somewhere else. If it doesn’t pertain to work or provide any kind of motivation and inspiration to get you to work, it doesn’t belong there.

 

Make It Personal but Simplified

Add things of value you know will inspire you or make you happy but don’t add too many things. You already decluttered the workspace. You don’t want to add it all back. Be mindful of each item you add.

 

Test and Adjust

Test the space and keep in mind when working on the things that are causing frustration and work to adjust those areas. Over time, your needs and business will change, which means your work environment should too.

 

Don’t let your work environment be the reason you can’t get your work done. It will only require a few minor adjustments to make your surroundings work hard for you.

 

Home Office Automation Tips

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Five Tips for Better Task Prioritization

The secret to a successful to-do list or plan is understanding how to prioritize your goals and requirements for life and business. Prioritization orders tasks in the importance of urgency or in the most organized fashion to promote a consistent and smooth workflow. If you think planning is getting in your way of success, it’s likely your priorities that are in disorder.

 

Here are five tips and methods that allow you to prioritize more effectively to be sure you start each day more productively and better manage your time:

 

Consolidate and Analyze All Tasks First

Categorize and break it down into similar properties, deadlines, or time it takes to complete.

 

Keep in Mind All Requirements for Tasks

Consider the effort and the time it will take to accomplish each task as well. Who may you have to work with, or what environments may you need to change?

 

Remember the activities that you have a little resistance to or cause extra stress and anxiety. These tasks should likely be higher on your to-do list as they may take longer to accomplish.

 

Assign A Priority Number

Each day list your tasks in the order they should get done for optimal productivity. Keep in mind due dates or how urgent and vital it is to get done compared to the other tasks. If something is easy, it doesn’t always mean it is the best idea to get it done first when you know you have a deadline for a completely different project coming up tomorrow, for example.

 

Create A Priority Matrix

From the list you created earlier, take each of the tasks and organize it into two categories: important or unimportant. Then list whether the task is urgent, not urgent or if you should delegate and eliminate it instead—the following chart is an example of a priority matrix you can use to order your tasks better.

Chart

 

Use The “ABCDE” Method
Invented by Stephen Covey, the ABCDE method uses a grading system to apply a straightforward approach and visual representation to each task. Allowing you to quickly see what you should get done first without having to analyze too much.

Learn to Create Realistic Schedules

The rules to this method are as follows:

 

  • A – High priority tasks
  • B – Medium priority tasks
  • C – Low priority tasks
  • D – Delegate the tasks to others
  • E – Eliminate the tasks completely

 

This information will help you create your daily to-do lists or 90-day action plan to ensure you use your time efficiently. The last thing you want to do is have the right plan for success, just in the wrong order.

 

 

 

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The 2-Minute Rule You Need

This is the 2-minute rule you need to finally end your procrastination or other bad habits and achieve more out of life. Procrastination and other lousy time management habits lead to many missed opportunities and chances for personal growth to build up your business. It encourages laziness and lacks accountability, in turn stalling your momentum, focus, and consistency needed for success.

 

What Exactly Is The 2-Minute Rule?

It’s a stress-free approach to starting new habits and kicking bad ones. It’s a rule designed to help you achieve more goals without feeling overwhelmed and keeps you from delaying action any longer than you should.

 

The two main concepts for the rule include:

 

  • If it only takes two minutes, then get it out of the way right now.
  • Establishing new habits or routines should only take two minutes to begin with.

 

As with most methods, if they are misused, they provide the opposite results than you intend.

 

Here’s how to use the 2-minute rule effectively to kick your bad habits and achieve max productivity:

 

Keep It Relevant and Realistic

Only use the rule if it is relevant to whatever you are doing at that time. In other words, don’t just do whatever task comes to mind if it doesn’t relate to what you are actively doing.

 

For example, if you are trying to finish your next content package for your client, it’s not a good idea to go ahead and get that email notification about your next business meeting out of the way. It is unrelated and will ultimately get you off track and prevent you from finishing your course. Instead, think, “what can I do in two minutes to finish this course?”

 

Don’t Make It Hard

You don’t need to gain success or be the best overnight. Don’t make adopting new habits challenging and overwhelming by speeding up the process. Small gradual changes make it easier to accomplish and stick around long term. For example, science proves that those who lose weight over a more extended period of time maintain the weight longer than those who lose it very quickly.

 

Meaning you shouldn’t focus on what you can’t do; rather, what you can do instead. For just two minutes, what can you do towards changing one bad habit? Then the next day, add two more minutes and keep repeating the process.

 

It’s All About Perspective

The main goal of the 2-minute rule is to change your perspective on how you see a challenge or annoying tasks. You can trick your brain into believing a task is simple and easy, even though it can be hard. Anyone can deal with something for just two minutes, and sometimes the most challenging part is just starting.

 

Give this 2-minute rule a try the next time you feel that you need to push off your work to Monday. You won’t regret giving it a try.

The Secrets to Time Management and Why You Need It

 

 

 

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Do This to Be More Consistent in Life and Business

Consistency is about doing repeatable tasks each day, night, or week depending on the goal you are trying to accomplish. Consistency is a smooth and repeatable process combined with the right actions to achieve your goal more efficiently.

 

Just think about the last place you ordered food. It’s likely that one of the top reasons you selected this choice is due to predictability and knowing they will do it right or be consistent in delivering the food you expect. Their ability to provide you the same food each time is why you keep coming back and why they are successful.

 

Become more consistent in life and business by following these five tips:

 

It’s Not Always About Being Comfortable

Push through even if you don’t feel like it or want to do it. It is pretty understood amongst successful entrepreneurs that continuous daily actions, no matter if you feel like doing nor what other problems are currently going on, is the path that leads to success. Even the happiest people realize they will experience discomfort, and it doesn’t stop them from getting what they want.

 

Understand Your True Wants and Intentions in Life

How do you define success, and what values do you live by each day? If you can’t answer these questions quickly, then take a moment right now to answer them and understand them.

 

If you don’t know yourself honestly, you can’t expect to achieve goals, especially not the right ones. Imagine for a moment that you have accomplished everything you want out of life and create a vision board to match it. This way, you can have a daily reminder to help you back on track.

 

Clarify Your Mission and Expectations

Highlight your goals and clearly outline what resources and other requirements you need to get there. The easier it is to understand, the easier it will be to make processes and systems that better flow for you and your business — giving you the resources you need to be more consistent.

 

Organize and Work in Batches

Be sure the work you set to do each day is organized and relevant. For example, schedule a separate time for checking emails or responding to clients and don’t allow yourself to work on anything else during this time.

 

Establish Healthy Routines

The first step you take in the morning is the most important as it determines your path going forward and how well you do. For example, if you wake up each morning in a bad mood, you will likely drag your feet trying to get work done — making your day that much harder to get going. Find the routines that allow you to live at your most optimal mental and physical health to always start on the right foot.

 

Being consistent should be at the top of your priority list and easy to do as long as you plan correctly and commit to it each and every day.

5 Rituals to Boost Your Energy and Productivity

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Be More Proactive and Less Reactive to Achieve Higher Success

Reactive people go about life unprepared and unplanned. To put it simply reactive people, wait around until things happen and then decide to do something or not. They have unclear goals and intentions for what they want and often use their feelings and conditions as excuses to not get work done and are often driven by their feelings and emotions.

 

For example, they commonly use excuses like “I can’t run today because it’s raining” or “I can’t do this thing until this happens.” They are more likely to blame others and hardly take full accountability for their actions or lack of effort. They also tend to build their lives around other people’s emotions, making them feel more dependent and reliant on others.

 

Proactive people are the direct opposite. They are and strive to be organized as much as possible and always take accountability and ownership. They always see failure as an opportunity to learn and do better. Their behaviors and actions are a conscious choice as a direct result of their values or morals.

 

They use other people as inspiration but compare it to their values before they react and hardly feel dependent on others. They are confident and believe they have what it takes to get it done, and they never wait for success to come; they make it come to them. They act and never avoid it or make excuses. With these attributes, it’s obvious to see why being more proactive leads to more success.

 

Here are a few ways to be more proactive and less reactive in life:

 

Always Look for Ways to Improve

Research shows that those who look for things to do at work rather than wait for instructions from higher-ups are more likely to get promoted. Don’t wait around for change to happen or for the stars to align perfectly to go after your goals finally.

 

Act and understand that it is your responsibility and only yours to get going. Find more ways to educate yourself and never skip opportunities that allow you to improve or invest in training.

 

Understand Your Values, Morals, and Goals

Have weekly self-evaluations and highlight what you believe in and hope to strive for. Use these morals to guide your day and to control your emotions to stay on the right path.

 

Strive and Welcome Change

Anticipate problems and never expect things to stay the same. Change and stepping out of your comfort zones are crucial to personal and professional growth. Long-term success relies on your ability to adapt and change as needs change. Otherwise, you’ll only be left behind.

 

Ultimately being proactive is about acting and finding what you need to do to get the things you want done. Don’t let your emotions or lack of action take away your chance of success. Use these tips instead to be more proactive with your life and accomplish more of your dreams.

How to Find Your Most Productive Hours

 

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Multitasking Is A Lie

I know that I’m a killjoy. Sorry, but stop saying you’re a multitasker as if you’re proud of it.  Multitasking is really a big lie. You are only broadcasting your lack of understanding of how productivity works. While it may be harsh to hear, scientifically, it is the truth.

 

Your brain cannot multitask the way you think and uses more time and resources to do so. This is because your mind is forced to take the time to switch in-between tasks and to refocus and concentrate, which takes time that could have been used more beneficially.

 

Unfortunately, many organizations and companies have adopted this widely misunderstood and popular term to find the workers or employees that are willing to overwork themselves and do tasks that usually require two or more people—ultimately saving them money. However, productivity is undoubtedly lacking, and there are many more reasons to stop this bad habit.

How to Use the Right Tools and Technology for Your Business

Here are four common reasons why multitasking is actually bad for business:

 

Promotes More Mistakes and Poor Choices

When you multitask, you are not providing your brain the time it needs to filter out irrelevant information. Which, in turn, creates shoddy quality work, more mistakes, and possible injuries that directly harm your productivity and reputation or trustworthiness as a business.

 

Promotes Anxiety and Poor Health

Studies prove that the more you do it, the more harm you are causing to your brain and memory loss. One of the most common reasons for multitasking is a lack of efficiently setting time limits, causing you to speed and increasing anxiety to get it all done. Often the process of going back and forth can be overwhelming as you try to relearn information too. Everyone knows that being in a constant state of anxiety will only cause more harm than good.

 

Inhibits Innovation and Creativity

Multitasking kills your ability to fully concentrate and focus, blocking your ability to be creative. Innovation and creativity are vital to a successful business as, obviously, if everyone had the same business idea, no one or only a select few can make money.

 

You Can’t Enjoy the Process

Just because it is business and requires work doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be enjoying it. Sure, there will be tasks or tedious things that are not enjoyable all the time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something to change it and make it more enjoyable for you. The more you personalize your business, the happier and more passionate you will be about it. Since perception is reality, if you feel more successful, you are more successful. When you are so glad and love something, you won’t want to let it go.

 

As you can see, multitasking is only harming you and your productivity. Instead, break down your work into similar categories and only work each task alone. As you continue to do this, you will see just how much better your work gets and how much more free time you really have in the end.

 

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Treat Yourself and Take A Day Off

Skipping breaks and other self-care needs neglects your business just as much as it, does you. As a business owner, it’s important to pay attention to your health, physically and mentally, before it negatively impacts your success.

 

The following are crucial reasons why you should never skip breaks or feel guilty about self-care:

 

  • To De-stress And Optimize Health – To promote mental clarity and happiness to make the right choices and decisions for your business. Poor self-care leads to depression, cardiovascular disease, and many other health problems that can ultimately change the trajectory of your life you don’t want to go down.
  • For Gratitude and Generosity – Mental clarity provides you a moment to be thankful for the things around you that inspires happiness.
  • To Inspire Creativity and Innovation – Studies show a link between alone time and increased creativity.
  • To Maintain Energy and Focus – Ultimately improving your performance, communication, and engagement.
  • You Deserve It – Lastly, and probably one of the most important reasons to take a day off and treat yourself is because you deserve and are worth it.

 

Here are a few tips to help you more easily take breaks and treat yourself even with a busy schedule:

 

Schedule Them in And Be Strict

Add short breaks, vacation, and essential appointments for self-care to your schedule and clear a spot for them first. Then don’t permit yourself to skip them.

 

Just as they say that you should always pay yourself first, including adding in time off and other vital needs right away before you allow yourself to schedule over it, remember, your health should be a top priority; otherwise, your business won’t be one either.

 

Commit to It and Take A Day Off

Practice self-discipline and do absolutely no work during your day off to reap the fullest benefits. Don’t use this time for chores or planning your next business moves. Rest and commit to activities make you happy.

 

Release Guilt and Be More Selfish

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being more selfish in life when protecting your mental and physical health. Stop feeling guilty for your purchases or days where you do absolutely nothing and recognize their benefits.

 

Establish Proper Time Management Habits

Simply put, the more time you have, the easier it is to take a day off. Find the right habits that allow you to get ahead or maximize your productivity in the shortest amount of time possible. A 90-day action plan and working in block schedules are great ideas and areas to start.

Stop neglecting your health and using the excuse that “I just don’t have time.” The only thing that statement is saying is that you don’t value yourself or your business enough to make time.

5 Rituals to Boost Your Energy and Productivity

 

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Managing Your Energy Is A Must

Fatigue leads to poor choices, potential injuries, and more problems that will only waste your time and deplete your skills. For maximum productivity, you need persistent consistency, which requires you to manage your energy. Burnout will destroy all the work you put in along the way. To better manage your energy, you must add it to your plan, ensuring that the habits you build work for you, not against you.

 

Here are four ways to help you better manage your stress so you can be more productive in life:

 

Adopt the Right Diet and Exercise Routine

No one likes to hear it, but it’s crucial and one of the most valuable tips to managing and harboring energy. If you don’t adopt the proper diet and exercise routine, it won’t matter how many other habits or practices you adopt. If you are unhealthy and your body needs crucial vitamins, you must listen to your body.

 

Being a professional athlete or adopting the next fad diet isn’t required for success here. You need to find the proper balance that works for you and your schedule. This requires honesty and mindfulness to be done successfully. Providing your body the right food and resources it needs go far. If you’re serious, you’ll research ways to use up all the extra energy you have instead.

How Sleep Impacts Your Productivity

Stop Being Busy All The time

Believe it or not, the most productive people have free schedules. They are not always busy because they understand that it’s more about the quality of their work and how it impacts their ultimate goal that leads to productivity. The goal is to do less, with less but achieve more or maximum success.

 

Being busy drains your energy and prevents you from performing at your best, and makes you forget your life goals as you work to get through each day. When you give yourself a more realistic schedule, you can better use your energy to master your skills and achieve goals more efficiently with ultimate focus and precision.

 

Stop Trying to Make Everyone Happy

Unfortunately, you won’t, can’t, and shouldn’t please everyone. This high expectation will only overwhelm you and lead to poor communication and engagement among your audience. You would have to juggle a million different personalities to please them all successfully. In everything you do for your business, all focus should be on your target audience — only. Your target audience is unlikely to be everyone and is something you should narrow down right away if you haven’t already.

 

Don’t Dwell on What You Can’t Control

Stop negativity in its tracks and only focus on the things you can control. It’s a draining and exhausting never-ending rabbit hole otherwise. You can’t make everyone buy your products, but you can control the quality of work and put the best product out there to change their minds, hopefully.

 

As you can see, with a bit of change of perspective and adopting the right habits, you can manage your energy efficiently. Maintaining your energy is essential so you can consistently use it to focus on what truly matters for you and your business needs.