How Will You Make the Most of This Year?

The confetti is cleaned up, the holiday decorations are put away, the resolutions are made. The celebrations are over, and now it’s getting real. The festive pause and optimism of the holiday season gives way to the cold truth that time waits for no one.  

So the existential question we face once again as we look toward a new year is: how will I make the most of my time?

The answer is simple: Get a plan. Without a plan, you may meander your way to achievement. But it will be unintentional, and most likely, not nearly as satisfying or impactful.

Creating a plan is the first step to harnessing the clarity, focus, and aspiration you need to create something out of nothing, to make your own "dent in the universe" as that dreamer and doer Steve Jobs called it.

“Creating a plan is the first step to harnessing the clarity, focus, and aspiration you need to create something out of nothing, to make your own “dent in the universe” as that dreamer and doer Steve Jobs called it.”

A plan is power. It is fuel. A true plan is not a perfunctory, bureaucratic exercise.  Rather, it is a living map for progress and accomplishment. What do you want to achieve by end of of the year? Your plan sets this vital, creative conversation in motion.

A plan in your mind is just a nice idea. Write it down. Give it form. Writing down your goals increases the likelihood of achieving them by 42%, according to a 2015 study conducted at the University of Dominican in California. It seems foolish not to take advantage of that kind of leverage.  We all know that the days can easily fill up with a million things to do. It stands to reason that having a written plan increases your focus day to day to stay on your course.

I recommend that you build a plan in the following time blocks:

YEAR: What do you want to achieve by December 31st?

SEASON: What do you want to accomplish in 90 days?

SPRINT: What do you want to accomplish in 2 weeks?

 

The Year: The Blueprint

The year timeframe establishes the destination and a rough blueprint to get there. Below is a sequence of steps to identify your blueprint for the year. You can brainstorm answers and then refine.

Step 1- Vision: See it

• It is December 31 of this year.  Write (without censoring) what you have achieved in:
  • Your professional work.
  • Your personal life.

STEP 2 - Focus: Structure it

•  List the areas in your professional work that you will focus on this year.
• List the areas in your personal life that you will focus on this year.

STEP 3 - Goals: Define it

• For each area, come up with 1 to 3 goals/results for the year. Be specific. Use numbers as applicable.
• For each goal, identify why the goal is important. This will help validate whether the goal is worth your effort and connect to it’s purpose in the larger scheme of things.

Step 4 - Projects/Deliverables: Map it

• For each goal, identify the key project(s) you will initiate to achieve it.
• Assign each project to a 90-day season(s). When will you work on this project? (e.g., January through March; April through June; July through September; October through December) This is a guestimate so that you begin to see the sequencing of activity throughout the year.

Step 5 - Verify: Refine it

• Review your plan and refine it. Consider:
  • Is it ambitious enough? If not, up the ante.
  • Is it too ambitious? If yes, simplify.
  • Are you missing something? If yes, add.
  • Are you satisfied with how it addresses the parameters and expectations of your stakeholders (e.g. organization, bosses, team, clients, family, friends, etc.). If not, adjust.
  • Is the general timing right? If not, adjust.

Remember, your plan does not need to be perfect. It needs to be the right mix of aspirational and reasonable. Throughout the year, you will make adjustments or perhaps completely revamp it as new information and circumstances come your way. Your plan sets a broad framework for an ongoing “conversation” about your direction, progress, and tactics.

Have fun with the planning process and make it work for you. Are you a digital type? Then use Evernote, Trello, Asana or other online tools to help you create your plan. Or create a document, spreadsheet, or slides. Are you an analogue type? Then get out the stickies and markers and white board and have at it. Are you ambidextrous? Then create with stickies and white boards and document with your digital tools. 

The Season: 90-Day Focus

When it comes to day-to-day activity, yearly plans and goals can begin to feel abstract and irrelevant. This is why many espouse the value of 90-day goals and plans. Achievement in a 90-day window suddenly gets real. It’s imaginable. It’s in your face.

The 90-day timeframe supports you to zero in on achieving the key the results that help you progress to your goals for the year. The 90-day segments, or seasons, provide a timeframe that is long enough for tangible achievement, while short enough to generate focus and momentum.

You can divide your year into four 90-day seasons. For example:

Season 1: January through March

Season 2: April through June

Season 3: July through September

Season 4: October through December

 

Step 1 -  90-Day Goals

• Keeping in mind the goals and projects you identified for the year, identify the key results or goals you want to achieve by the end of 90 days (the end of the season). Be specific and use numbers (quantify) when possible.

 

Step 2 - 90-Day Projects+Key Tasks

• Identify the projects that are part of achieving those goals.
• Identify the key tasks for each project.

Consider using the 90-day season to narrow your focus to make significant progress on one or a few of your goals for the year, rather than trying to make incremental progress on all of your goals. 

Your plan for the upcoming season may result in your adjusting your annual plan – as the timeframe will help you get real about what is possible and what is important. As a result, you may adjust, expand, or simplify your overall plan for the year as you work within seasons.

In your yearly plan, you approximated the season for your projects. However, you do not need to create the plan for each season at the start of the year – just the upcoming one (or the one you are in!).  What happens and what you learn in this season will impact how you plan for the next. Keep the focus on the next 90 days.

The Sprint: 2-Week Focus

When it gets down to day-to-day work, consider focusing in 2-week sprints. This timeframe intensifies the focus of the 90-days even further. With this immediate timeframe, you translate your goals/projects for the 90-days into concrete, day-to-day action.

 

Step 1 - 2-Week Goals + Steps

• At the start of each sprint, identify what you want to achieve within the next two weeks to advance you toward your 90-day goal(s).
• Identify the steps you will take and, press go! 

A plan is art and science.

The art part happens in the creative, intuitive thought that goes into projecting into the future, seeing what does not yet exist, and mixing the ingredients of time, energy, resources, skills, and environment.

The science part happens as you see each project, sprint, and season as an ongoing experiment and apply the lessons you learn from the data of day-to-day action. As you progress through the sprints, seasons, and year, you will fine-tune your plan for meaningful achievement in a real world. 

But mostly, a plan is conversation. It is an ongoing dialogue with the future. And the only reason to talk to the future is to change the present. Happy planning!

“But mostly, a plan is conversation. It is an ongoing dialogue with the future. And the only reason to talk to the future is to change the present. ”

Take Stock: Build Success on the Lessons of 2017

It’s December and like Dr. Seuss, I’m musing, “How did it get so late so soon?”

I know it’s kind of lame to lament about how fast time passes. Time clearly flies: when you’re having fun, and when you’re not. It’s basically one fast ride, no matter the mood or circumstance.

And in the speed of it all, amidst the frantic antics of the year-end holiday season, in the giddy glow of a big, brand new year just ahead, it’s oh-so-easy to let this little ‘ole year slip quietly by….  It’s yesterday’s news. On to bigger and better things.

But tomorrow’s progress is built squarely on top of yesterday’s effort. We build brick by brick. Day by day. Year by year. Yet, if we don’t have a clear accounting of this year, we will not have ready access to the assets we’ve accrued.

It’s the proverbial if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-and-no-one-is-there-does-it-make-a-sound quandary.  

If you don’t account for the progress you’ve made, if you don’t even notice it, does it even exist?

Taking stock. It’s not a fancy task, but it’s what those who achieve success and fulfillment,  whether professionally, or at the game of life generally, do as a matter of course. It’s built into their operating system.

Reflection. It’s not a new app. You could say it’s old school. But it’s the tried-and-true gold of success. Without it, we’re destined to live on the slippery slope of events, and rise and fall with little rhyme or reason. Or, we cover the same ground again and again and again - like a spinning merry-go-round. 

There are many ways to make reflection a habit. And certainly there is no time like the present. Or, as is the case now, there is no time like this natural, seasonally-constructed, socially-reinforced moment: the end of a year. And if you are reading this in the New Year (or mid-year, or whenever), no worries. You can still secure the assets of the past year and invest them. And then, watch while time (+ your action) compound their value. 

4 Steps to Take Stock

I've created a simple, 4-step process to assist you in curating the value of the past year (since curating is such a cool thing).

The steps include questions designed to help you tell the story of the year. Think about it: do you remember what happened last year? Or the year before? Or maybe the year before that?

Time has a way of blurring events and burying lessons. But what if you could easily review the years and consciously build a narrative of progress and impact going forward? What if you could really learn the lessons of each year? What if you could more easily connect the dots, and rise even higher? Well, then the sky would be the limit. Truly.

What is the story your work and life are telling? Do you know? Certainly, it's hard to see when you are the main character. You are wrapped up in your storyline. That's why the habit of reflection is so essential to progress.

Reflection keeps a success from being a fluke, and a failure from being catastrophic. But if you don't know the story you are in, it is virtually impossible to build on lessons learned. And, back to the accounting analogy, that's like leaving money on the table. 

“Reflection keeps a success from being a fluke, and a failure from being catastrophic. ”

When you go through this reflection process, chances are you are going to discover assets from this year that you didn't know you had. And, if the past year did not live up to your expectations, this process is a surefire way to redeem its value. I promise.

The very act of doing this stock-taking exercise will bring a return on your investment this past year and will position you ahead-of-the-game in the coming year. What's there to lose? Ready?

 

Here's what you will need:

• Blank paper, pen

• Computer

• 2 hours, or so

• Beverage + snacks (optional)

• Music (optional)

 

Step 1: Answer The Questions (Brainstorm)

FYI: My preferred brainstorming mode is mindmapping. My mind-map game is pretty basic. I just put the question or topic in a circle in the middle of a blank page and then draw branches out and list my ideas on the branches as they flow. Simple.

Below are questions that will help you recount what happened in 2017. Looking back at the events of the past year, brainstorm answers to four questions. Brainstorm - Remember? The more the merrier. Don't censor, or edit, or hesitate. Don't think too hard. Let it rip.

PROFESSIOnAL Life

1. What did you accomplish? Consider:

• High points

• Wins

• Achievements

• Lucky breaks

• Products or services you developed or delivered or both

• Connections or collaborations

• Events you hosted or participated in

• Things that excited you

• Things you learned

• Skills you developed

• Contributions you made

• Unexpected delights

• Etc.

2. What challenges did you face? Consider:

• Mistakes

• Misses

• Failures

• Expectations not met

• Disappointments

• Unfavorable conditions

• Unfavorable reviews

• Unlucky events

• Poor results

• Skill/knowledge gaps

• Weaknesses

• Things you meant to do but didn't

• Etc.

Personal Life

1. What did you accomplish or were high points? Consider:

• Health

• Family

• Friends

• Finances

• Home environment

• Passion projects

• Interests

• Community, civic duty

• Spiritual life

• Intellectual pursuits

• Enjoyment

• Events

• Personal development

• Etc.

2. What challenges did you face? Consider:

• Mistakes

• Misses

• Failures

• Expectations not met

• Disappointments

• Unfavorable conditions

• Unlucky events

• Poor results

• Skill/knowledge gaps

• Weaknesses

• Things you meant to do but didn't

• Etc.

Step 2: Refine. Distill. Cull. 

Review each of the four brainstorm lists and refine.

Is there anything missing? Are there themes? What stands out to you? Cull the most useful and relevant information for your yearly account. That means, maybe you will consolidate some answers or eliminate others. Circle. Underline. Embellish. Edit. Tighten it up. You want to end up with the crib-notes version, not the war-and-peace version. 

Once you've refined, create the master list of your accomplishments - one professional and one personal. There is no set limit on the number of items on your master lists.

Next, select the top 5 items for each of the four brainstorm questions. You will end up with the top 5 for:

• Professional Accomplishments

• Professional Challenges

• Personal Accomplishments

• Personal Challenges

Step 3: Extract the Lessons (Brainstorm)

Accomplishments (Professional and Personal)

For each of your top 5 accomplishments (professional and personal), use a separate, blank sheet and complete the following:

• Decribe (briefly) what happened.

• Brainstorm why the accomplishment mattered.

• Brainstorm why the accomplishment happened.

• Brainstorm what you learned. Looking back, what can you learn from this accomplishment or high point?

 

Challenges (Professional and Personal)

For each of your 5 top challenges (professional and personal), take a separate, blank sheet and complete the following:

• Describe (briefly) what happened.

• Brainstorm why the challenge happened.

• Brainstorm what you learned.

Working Principles

Your working principles are compact, portable reminders of your accumulated experience and knowledge. They are the gold, the asset of awareness that you use to propel your work and life. 

Examples of working principles could be statements like: Less is more; Progress, not perfect; Ask, Why does this matter?; Allocate double the time you think it will take; Debrief every project; Make decisions; Get feedback on your work; Reach out for help; Take small steps every day; Have phone-free time; Follow a morning routine; Move every day; and so on.

The key is that they represent the knowledge of what you have learned-by-doing over the past year. They may be more evocative than prescriptive. In other words, they trigger a storehouse of experience and wisdom on that topic. They are reminders, like alerts on your phone. 

They are called working principles, because they are not vague niceties. They speak to the mechanics of efficacy. They are a work in progress. As you work them, you will refine them, change them, or even toss them out. They are not some ultimate credo. They are your working assumptions about how to make progress and achieve the success you desire, based on your on-the-ground experience and experiments. They are the truth as you've lived it.

• On a new sheet of paper, brainstorm a list of working principles, based upon what you have learned from the past year of accomplishments and challenges.

  • You may separate your principles into professional and personal, or combine them. It's up to you. Many principles will transcend those distinctions. However, there may be some principles that clearly fall into one camp or the other.

• Once you've brainstormed the list, refine and select the top working principles, not more than 10.

Step 4: Create Your Account of 2017

In this step, you create a document that has the results of steps 1 - 3. I've created a free Yearly Account template that you can download to capture this information. Or you can create your own format.

This document is the final product that is your account of the year - the crib-notes version. You will be referencing the notes you've taken so far in the brainstorming preparation, and will select the key points.

You will be able to reference this yearly account and continue to build on the value of what happened in 2017. And should you decide at some future date to write your autobiography, you will thank me. 

Here is the basic outline of the "official" account:

Professional

• Accomplishments. For each of up to 5 accomplishments, include (bullet) points on the following. Pick the top points from your brainstorm notes :

  • Description (the basic facts)

  • Why This Mattered

  • Why This Happened

  • What I learned

• Accomplishments - the full list.

• Challenges. For each of up to 5 challenges, include (bullet) points on the following. Pick the top points from your brainstorm notes:

  • Description (the basic facts)

  • Why This Happened

  • What I learned

PERSONAL

• Use the same outline used for professional above.

Working Principles

• Document up to 10 principles based on what you experienced and learned this past year.

Want the already-prepared-for-you template? It's free! Get it below. You'll get access to three versions of the template: two options if you prefer to capture the account digitally (Google Doc and Word Doc); and an option if you prefer to put pen to paper (PDF to print for the analog lover).

Curate the lessons of the year before you forget them using this free Yearly Account Template. Create an account every year and watch the march of progress.

 

Moving On Up

For your working principles to qualify as working, you will need to figure out how to bring them into work and life. Post them. Share them. Make a habit of looking at them regularly. Reference them in your planning routines. Test them. Change them. Challenge them.

These working principles encapsulate your hard-earned reflection. They are the elixir of your efforts and your awareness. And they are more powerful than you might realize. They allow you to direct the narrative you are creating in your work and life. These working principles animate an empowering story worthy of the time, energy, and life you have put into it.

So, take stock and take heart. If you know the lessons of 2017 and build on them, you will reach new heights in 2018 and beyond. 

Are You Playing Outside Your Comfort Zone?

© Mikael Damkier | Dreamstime.com

Long time, no see. Holy cow, has it really been 7+ months since my last blog post?

So, what exactly have I been doing? Well, I’ll tell you: I’ve been running around outside my comfort zone. That’s what I’ve been doing.

You see, one of my goals for this year was to create my first online course. I thought I would experiment with something relatively small – you know, like a little course on managing email, or something like that.

But my wish showed up at my door as a bigger opportunity. In March, a corporate client asked if I could provide one of my flagship courses – Workflow Mastery – in an online format for their staff. I said, “Yes!” What could be better than having a built-in audience for my first online course? And so began my venture outside the comfort zone.

Keep in mind that this is a course that I’ve delivered to, by now, thousands of professionals, and refined over the years. It’s not like I had to design a new training. I know the content like the back of my hand. So, I reasoned, it would take me about 2 weeks to record videos and upload them. I mean, honestly, how hard could that be? 

But from here, standing on the finished side of the project, my naiveté seems charming, if not comical. Because the bald truth is that it actually took me a little over three months. 

This project required me to do things I have never done before. I had to script the training word for word – something I don’t do for my in-person courses. I had to find the right visuals, find the right tools and technology – and teach myself how to use them. The Google and I became inseparable. I was looking up how to put together the lights I bought, how to turn my iPhone into a teleprompter, and why one of the videos wasn’t displaying the time. And I had to do voice-overs. You know, record my voice.

The voice-over thing is no joke. It took a whole day and often multiple days to do an audio recording for a 15-minute video. I would listen to the recording of my voice and hit that record button again, and again, and again. Let’s just say my perfectionism went a little wild outside the comfort zone.  

And everything else in life basically paused. For three months. This new thing took all of my waking attention. There were days I thought I would: Never. Finish. But I did. And now, I’m resting up to go back out there. I’ll be headed back outside the comfort zone to learn how in the world to market it to a broader audience.

I share this with you because I have been thinking a lot about the comfort zone, and why getting outside of it is vital. Even though it’s, well, you know, uncomfortable. 

I’m in the process of expanding my business. This effort to go beyond the natural limits of my current business requires me to step out of what I’m confident in – into the unknown. To try new things. To learn. To push my skills. To expand my reach - and my exposure. I can say with confidence that it is uncertain, and yes, uncomfortable.

In 2009, accomplished writer, producer, and storyteller Ira Glass gave an interview on the creative process. Ira speaks about how when you are a beginner at something, there is this gap between your taste and your work. Ira says,

“For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this.”

The antidote to this: do a lot of work. Ira says,

“It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

Ira captures what it’s like to be smack dab outside the comfort zone. It can feel tenuous, vulnerable, humbling, maybe daunting or even scary. And the impulse to retreat back into what you know - the familiar, the comfortable - is real.

So, if it's so uncomfortable, why in the world do you want to go there?

The answer is simple: It is outside the comfort zone that you find the zone of learning. And learning fuels performance. 

Take a look at world-class athletes. What makes them great? What keeps them competing? They're dedicated to pushing the limits of their abilities. They're always working on their game - outside the comfort zone.

I am a big fan of tennis player Rafa Nadal. He is a consummate competitor, who is achieving at the highest levels of the sport beyond what many had imagined. Commentators often mention his workman-like approach both on game day and in practice.

© Zhukovsky | Dreamstime.com

Many tennis players get known for their particular “weapons” as the commentators like to call them. Maybe it’s their serve, their footwork, their fitness, or their forehand winner. It would be easy to rely on these dominating skills.

But those who endure at the top of the game constantly push their learning edge. They don't neglect the part of their game that is weaker. They work on it. And the only place to work on that is outside the comfort zone, in the place where you haven’t yet reached your potential, where you are not as good as you one day will be.

Nadal has worked this way since he was a kid. Nadal’s coach and uncle famously trained right-handed Nadal to be a left-handed player. That’s pretty much outside the comfort zone.

What does an elite athlete have to do with the rest of us? They amplify for us the mechanics of performance.

Back to my story. Yes, I could rely on how I’ve always done things, what has worked for me in my business. I could comfortably coast. But at some point that game plan won’t keep pace with the realities of the marketplace, or my own drive to have an impact.

To keep pace professionally, particularly in today’s rapid-fire world, to continue to make the contribution you want to make, you have to try out new things. You have to perpetually push the edges of your knowledge, technique, and craft. And when you start, you won’t be as good as your vision. And that can be uncomfortable.

As President John F. Kennedy said,

“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

Now, don't get me wrong: playing outside the comfort zone isn’t all discomfort and difficulty.

In fact, playing outside the comfort zone can be downright invigorating. It can add a spark of vitality and engagement. Think of children playing. Everything for a toddler is outside the comfort zone – and they love it! They are enthralled, curious, interested. They aren’t bored – they are all in!

Playing outside the comfort zone brings those same benefits to adults. The learning and discovery that goes on outside the comfort zone energizes. You become absorbed and alert. And this has the residual effect of boosting overall performance – even to those skills inside your comfort zone.  When you find ways to dabble outside the comfort zone, you kill the complacency that degrades performance. 

“When you find ways to dabble outside the comfort zone, you kill the complacency that degrades performance. ”

Yes, creating my first online course brought the vulnerability that goes with being a beginner, climbing slowly up a steep learning curve, and exposing fledgling skills. At the same time, it was enormously stimulating, interesting, and engaging. And, I connected to the confidence of my courage – the courage to try my hand at something new, to work at creating something of value, even if I hadn’t yet mastered all the technical skills. I discovered new aptitudes and interests. Playing outside the comfort zone is both humbling and confidence building.

Another benefit of venturing outside the comfort zone? You get a front-row seat to progress. When you witness even the most modest improvement or result, you tap into your own efficacy. That sense of efficacy - the awareness that your actions have impact - stimulates the neurochemistry of motivation. Motivation is not a random feeling. It is the biochemistry of action. Playing outside the comfort zone is highly motivating.

I don’t want to give the comfort zone a bad rap.

Truth is, many of the things that were once outside your comfort zone are now in it! You just don’t want to be held hostage to the comfort zone. You don’t want to become so enamored with being comfortable that you start to shrink in the face of new opportunities, challenges, and callings. One way to think about it is to find your “learning edge” – a place that is buoyed by your strengths and reaches just beyond. The comfort zone can give you the confidence and energy to venture outside it.

“You don’t want to become so enamored with being comfortable that you start to shrink in the face of new opportunities, challenges, and callings. ”

What are some telltale signs that you are playing outside the comfort zone?

• You are figuring out how to do something.

• You are in a new environment, community, or culture.

• You feel out of your element.

• You are practicing a skill you have not yet mastered.

• You experience the flutter of anticipation, excitement, or nerves at the prospect of doing something.

• You experience twinges (or attacks) of self-doubt or that pesky imposter syndrome.

• You take a leap and are not sure how, or if, it will turn out.

What are some hints that maybe it’s time to get out there and play outside the comfort zone? 

• You feel bored or not engaged in your work and/or personal life.

• You question whether you are in the right job.

• You feel stuck in some way.

• There is something you wish to do, but fear stops you.

• You feel you are on autopilot or "dialing it in."

• You are dissatisfied or feel something is missing.

• You lack that spark of curiosity, interest, or exploration.

• You sense you are not living up to your potential or contributing the way you want to.

 

Life has a way of inviting us or compelling us to learn, change, adapt, adjust, grow. Whether you decide to venture outside the comfort zone or simply find yourself there unexpectedly, it's important to have strategies for playing out there. 

There are two main approaches to playing outside the comfort zone. 

Incremental

In general, the incremental approach is a sustainable way to play outside the comfort zone. You add a little learning or exploration to business-as-usual. What are you interested in learning more about? What do you want to do more of? What are you resisting but want to be able to do? What small steps can you take to play outside the comfort zone?

Immersive

From time to time, you may be called or inspired to a more immersive approach. This is what I did with the online course. A meditation retreat or traveling to a country you’ve never been to might be an immersive approach to playing outside of your comfort zone.

Typically, a new job is in this immersive category as you may be on a learning curve of new responsibilities or a new environment. A crisis or tragedy may thrust you outside the comfort zone. 

How can you make playing outside the comfort zone a little more comfortable?

1. ReCall Your Competence and accomplishment.

Keep a running list of your skills and accomplishments - professional and personal. When you are in the throes of vulnerability outside the comfort zone, consult this list to tap into the confidence-boosting power of what you have achieved in the past. This is not your first rodeo. Really, it's not. And you have skills and accomplishments to prove it.

2. Remember WHY.

Purpose motivates. Aspiration fuels effort. What do you want to achieve and why does it matter? When you are connected to the bigger goal - whether it is to make a greater impact, express yourself creatively, push your capability, overcome a fear, serve better, pursue an interest - you access the peace of perspective. The nagging anxieties of being a novice or newbie abate when you turn your attention to the bigger picture. 

3. Find a tribe.

Often being outside the comfort zone, by choice or by "force," can feel isolating. Go find people who have been there, done that (or are there, doing that). What you will find is: you are not alone. You are not the first to discover the jitters outside the comfort zone. 

When I decided it was high time to expand my business, I started listening to business podcasts and found my tribe. Every day when I go for a run, walk, or drive, I listen to a podcast episode of a business owner talking about what they have learned - the good, the bad, and the ugly. I've learned practical tips, yes. But even more valuable: I've been inspired by their real-life stories of mistakes, confusion, failures, successes, and figuring their way forward. This innocuous habit of listening to podcast interviews has had a big return: I have realized that I am not alone. Others have been exactly where I am and lived to tell the tale. And that is very comforting when you are outside the comfort zone.

You can find a tribe anywhere. It can be a group of friends who encourage you. It can be others who are or have been in your situation. Or it can be a bunch of people you have never met on podcasts. 

4. Protect Your Play.

Playing outside the comfort zone is vulnerable by nature. Be smart about when and with whom you share your efforts and findings. If you expose your efforts to the opinion of too many too soon, it may be unduly scorching. I am not suggesting that you hide out. Simply discern the people and the pacing that will be most supportive of your experiments outside the comfort zone. 

5. Know Yourself, Coach Yourself.

Sometimes you need a pep talk when you're playing outside the comfort zone. Get in the habit of encouraging yourself - of giving yourself the courage - to play outside the comfort zone. Get to know your go-to reactions outside the comfort zone. Do you go to self-doubt? Do you catastrophize? Do you hone in on fear or anxiety? Do you play the victim? Do you quit? 

Once you know yourself, you can coach yourself. Reframe the situation, remind yourself that things take time, redirect your attention, reset your expectations. Coaching yourself is not about being hard on yourself. If you want a quick way to quit, be hard on yourself. Instead, be kind to yourself. Acknowledge the best in yourself. Just don't be bamboozled by your avoidance techniques. 

6. Take Care.

It takes a lot of energy to run around outside the comfort zone. And, when you are outside the comfort zone, it's easy to neglect yourself. So take care. Let me be your mother for a moment: Get sleep. Eat well. Exercise. Outside the comfort zone can be all-consuming - particularly if you go the immersive route. Care for yourself. Your nervous system will thank you. Remember, your brain exists in a body. Care for it so that you have the energy to play well outside the comfort zone. 

7. Chart Progress.

Devise a way to chart progress outside the comfort zone. Even the slightest progress can keep us in the game. And keep in mind that staying with something when you haven't yet seen progress - is progress. Sticktoitiveness is a major accomplishment. Seriously. Don't underestimate it.

When you chart progress, you may need to simultaneously adjust expectations. As I said, creating the online course took me much longer than I expected. I had to keep adjusting my focus from how slow it was going to the incremental progress I was making each day. That kept me motivated to stay in the game. 

I love this quote from the poem, The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver:

"...Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"

To me this is the most compelling reason to play outside the comfort zone: to discover and extract the best of life and the best of yourself. The long-term rewards of playing outside your comfort zone are many, including more fulfillment, happiness, confidence, competence, and contribution.

Playing outside your comfort zone need not be fancy or dramatic. Just dabble. Maybe it's a class here or a conversation there. Maybe it's reaching out to someone. Maybe it's raising your hand for the project at work. Maybe it's learning to sing or to paint or to dance for no good reason - at your advanced age. Maybe it's speaking up. Maybe it's remaining silent. Maybe it's going for the job. Maybe it's saying you were wrong. Maybe it's making something. Maybe it's giving something. 

Tell me, what is it you plan to do to play outside your comfort zone?

---

Count Your Accomplishments

Work is not fancy. It’s day-in-day-out kind of stuff. It’s emails and meetings. It’s jotting notes. Rejiggering slides. Figuring out technology. Fixing mistakes. Creating lists. Googling. And so on. It’s little pedestrian details. Day in. And day out.

And all these details take time. Much more time than I ever expect. And then there is the formless work – the fluid mulling, the thinking, the internal sculpting part of the process – the part that takes up time and space, yet doesn’t give the immediate reward of a tangible task to tick off the to-do list.

Work isn’t simply mechanical steps. It is a dance of steps – a choreography of time, tools, energy, input, and intellect that combine into accomplishment. But drill down into the moment-to-moment work of each day and nothing special is going on there. In fact, it often looks like nothing is going on at all. A random step here.  A side movement there. A lingering pause. A moment of confusion. A little of this and that.

It isn’t until we step back and take in the bigger performance made up of those minute, unremarkable steps that we experience the accomplishment they built.

 

How I learned to Count Accomplishments

Right now, I am working to expand part of my business. There is a lot to learn and do. And most of the time, it feels like it is going super slow. It perpetually feels like I’m not getting enough done, quickly enough. Recently, I discovered that I am wrong about that. There is fallacy in my perception. Let me explain.

At the start of the project, I decided to send monthly updates to a friend to let them know what I had accomplished and what I next planned to do. Simple. I knew my friend was genuinely interested and I thought the update would be a motivating accountability for me.

However, when it came time to write the first update, I dreaded it. I was embarrassed because there was nothing tangible to report. I hadn’t achieved what I had hoped. It seemed like I had wasted time. And now, my friend will know.

I plowed through the dread and began the update with simple bullet points under the bald heading “Accomplishments.”  Bullet one, okay good. Bullet two, oh right I did do that…. Bullet three…. One page of bullets became two and three. As I scanned the last few weeks, I found accomplishment after accomplishment hidden in plain sight.  From the first bullet point to the last, I went from being discouraged to being encouraged.

By the time I wrote my name at the end of the update, I was genuinely surprised by how much I had accomplished without even realizing it. The update may have been interesting for my friend. But it was essential for me.

I went through this update exercise several more times in the months that followed – starting with trepidation and regret and ending with satisfaction and confidence – before it finally dawned on me that there is something important about counting accomplishments.

 

Counting your accomplishments

Counting your accomplishments changes the way you see. You connect the dots of your daily effort to the bigger accomplishment or milestone. You see that those unfancy actions have an impact. You have an impact. When you see that the steps you have made have combined to produce something, you access the golden fuel of motivation.

This is the proverbial "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"  Do your accomplishments make a difference if you don’t see them?

Journalist Charles Duhigg, in his book Smarter Faster Better, crystalizes the research about motivation this way:

“…those small tasks become pieces of a larger constellation of meaningful projects, goals, and values. We start to recognize how small chores can have outsized emotional rewards, because they prove to ourselves that we are making meaningful choices, that we are genuinely in control of our own lives. That’s when self-motivation flourishes: when we realize that replying to an email or helping a coworker, on its own, might be relatively unimportant. But it is part of a bigger project that we believe in, that we want to achieve, that we have chosen to do. Self-motivation, in other words, is a choice we make because it is part of something bigger and more emotionally rewarding than the immediate task that needs immediate doing.”

If I had not noted my accomplishments, I would have missed them completely, and missed out on the motivating, productive force - the fuel they provide to keep at it, to keep going, day in and day out. 

If I had not noted my accomplishments, is it possible that I would eventually lose motivation to keep going, that the project would begin to fade or fail in the face of the daily unfancy work that feels like it is going nowhere?

If you don’t count your accomplishments, you discount them. You sever the connection of action to outcome, action to impact, action to progress.  Your perspective becomes skewed and stuck in the false, debilitating mindset that you are not doing enough, you are not making progress or a difference.

“If you don’t count your accomplishments, you discount them. You sever the connection of action to outcome, action to impact, action to progress. Your perspective becomes skewed and stuck in the false, debilitating mindset that you are not doing enough, you are not making progress or a difference.”

Day to day, there are no choirs singing as you take a note, no symphonies playing the hallelujah chorus as you google something you don’t understand, no fans cheering as you send an email, no exhilaration as your figure out how to fix your printer. Day to day, it is the discipline, the attention, the detail, the stick-to-itiveness, the craft. It’s not fancy. It’s work.

But if you train yourself to connect the dots, to see the bigger composition, you will fuel your daily efforts with extra energy and clarity. You will propel yourself to accomplishment; you will stay the course and have the impact you desire.

If you count your accomplishments, you will make your accomplishments count. You will see that even days that seem stuck or less-than-stellar are part of the dance of progress.

Make it part of your routine to count your accomplishments. Monthly or every other month is a good frequency. It gives enough time to build tangible accomplishments, while fueling a steady stream of motivation and sense of efficacy.

On a daily basis, you can build your "accounting" muscle by closing the day by dashing out a quick list of what you did. The things that stand out. Or even one thing you did that day. Don't judge it. Just let it be. There will be days here and there that will shine for their obvious productivity. There will be a lot more days that will pale in comparison. You will later see that those days, too, brought something to the dance. 

I use the journal app OneDay for this. I jot down a few things I did that day and add a photo if I'm inspired. 

 

Your accomplishments in 2016

And now, as we ride toward the summit of 2016, it is a perfect time to count your accomplishments of the year. I promise you will be happily surprised. A surge of confidence and resolve will carry you into 2017.

Get out a piece of paper, open a Word doc and start writing those bullet points.

Here are some questions to jumpstart your list for each of your projects, goals, or aspirations - professional and personal:

• What elements or pieces or components have I created?

• What milestones have I reached?

• What exists now that didn’t exist in 2015?

• What have I created that I didn’t expect?

• What have I learned that I didn’t know before?

• What am I proud of?

Count everything. Each aspect of your projects or goals or efforts is an asset. It is part of the larger performance, part of the dance of 2016.

Count your accomplishments and carry these riches with you into 2017.

Count your accomplishments and make them count.

Are You Gritty?

In the perpetual search for what leads to success, to achievement, Angela Duckworth has given us something to chew on.

As Angela describes, she left a demanding job as a management consultant to take on an even more demanding one – as a math teacher in the public school system. As a teacher, she wondered why some students were successful and others were not. What made the difference? Was it talent? IQ? Socio-economic status? Family life? Opportunity? 

Eventually Angela’s curiosity got the best of her and she left her teaching job to study and research this topic. And what did she discover? Angela found that a key predictor of achievement is not talent, not natural ability, not IQ…  but grit.

She shares her findings in a TED Talk and details it in her recent book, Grit. She writes in her book:

“[N]o matter what the domain, the highly successful had a kind of ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction. It was this combination of passion and perseverance that made high achievers special. In a word, they had grit.”

 

 

While no one is saying natural ability or talent doesn’t matter, Angela has found that it matters much less than we think. As she says it, “as much as talent counts, effort counts twice.”

Angela provides a way of thinking about talent, skill, effort, and achievement that goes like this:

Talent X Effort = Skill

Skill X Effort = Achievement

Effort counts twice.

What Angela has done is taken talent off the pedestal. She has taken away its mystique. 

When athletes do those superhuman feats in the Olympics, we chalk it up to being exceptionally gifted. We don't see the unfancy, dogged day-in, day-out determination that kept them in the pool, on the bars, or at the track.

Grit is a power. Grit brings our gifts to life and grows them. Grit is the bridge between potential and impact. It is the force that nourishes the proverbial seed and allows it to become the tree. Without grit, gifts go dormant; talents go to sleep. With grit, even lesser ability can become mighty, can make a difference. 

Angela's work shows us that success isn't stacked by genetic luck. The playing field is more equal than we realize. 

So the question is: what does it take to tap into grit? If we can figure this out, then success is no longer a mere wish. Success is within reach.

Angela concludes her book like this:

"We all face limits - not just in talent, but in opportunity. But more often than we think, our limits are self-imposed... To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight." 

Think about your own life. When have you been gritty? When have you persevered? When have you kept with a worthy goal even when it was tough? When have you made a mistake, learned from it, and continued on? When have you met an obstacle and found a way around it, or through it? 

What in your life is calling for some grit? 

So yes, discover your genius, your talent - but power it with grit. Find what you care about and commit. This is not blind trust. This is the hard, humble work of engaging in the business of life. Learning, practicing, perfecting. Gritty step, by gritty step. Sooner or later, success will be yours. 

Gratitude, the Super Power for All Seasons

As I write this, it is the day before Thanksgiving in the US. People are busy wrapping up work; traveling distances to be with loved ones; making last-minute runs to the grocery store; making pies (if you're lucky); rehearsing the timeline for the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes; and coming up with a strategy to avoid heated conversation about politics or those pesky buttons that, when pushed, derail many a family gathering. 

Today, on the busy eve of Thanksgiving, it’s a good time to talk about gratitude.  

Do a quick survey of the habits of successful people, and you will find many who swear by their gratitude practice. It could seem like new-age  fluff – this gratitude thing. But truth be told, this habit has teeth. Gratitude is a potent force that can change your brain, your body, and your behavior.

“It could seem like new-age fluff – this gratitude thing. But truth be told, this habit has teeth. Gratitude is a potent force that can change your brain, your body, and your behavior.”

The practice of gratitude – the deliberate act of recounting the positive things in one’s life – nourishes the brain with the happy hormones of dopamine and serotonin. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that a happy brain changes how you experience your life and the world you live in. It's true: when I am in a good mood, anything seems possible.

But it’s not just the feel-good aspect of gratitude that gives it a super-power status.  Studies show a link between gratitude and altruistic action. Gratitude wires us to act generously in the world – for the benefit of others. To make the equation even more powerful, acting generously increases the experience of fulfillment. Gratitude is a productive, reinforcing loop of perspective, connection, and contentment.

And it doesn’t stop there. Gratitude is linked to decreases in stress and increases in the body’s immune function. In fact, gratitude supports the limbic system – the system that makes our bodies function well. And to add to this happy cascade of effects, the more you practice gratitude, the more it becomes your MO, your default position. Your brain gets wired for gratitude.

Gratitude fuels the human drive for social connection – of experiencing ourselves as connected to one another and to the world we live in. And so, this year, I’d say that Thanksgiving isn’t coming a day too soon.

Amidst the wreckage of a brutal and prolonged Presidential election season, and the ensuing angry political climate that is broadcast through news and social media 24/7, we need the healing balm of gratitude. Now, more than ever, we need to pull ourselves out the unproductive mindset of isolation and disconnection. We need the elevating, high-leverage mindset of gratitude to inspire our efforts to contribute productively and give our best each day.

Thanksgiving is a harvest festival. It is a time to gather, assess, and acknowledge the fruits, the gifts, that have come from our own labor and from the labor of others. It is a time to acknowledge the value, blessings, and hidden gems of here and now; and to remember we are part of something bigger.

Certainly, you can check out the studies on gratitude to be convinced of its productive impact. Or, better yet, you can conduct your own experiment. See for yourself. 

Try taking one minute at the close of each day to recall three to five things – major or miniscule, tangible or intangible, that you are grateful for that day.  There is no limit to the things in our world to be grateful for. Perhaps it is a new project, a great idea, an inspired thought, the perfect cup of coffee, the comforting presence of your cat, the support of a friend, the ability to listen to someone’s pain, the laughter of a child, the hopeful feeling that you are making progress in your work, the smile of a stranger, the impulse to smile back, the beauty in your home, a good cup of tea, the joy you feel when you make something or give a gift, the talent of another.... 

I recommend that you write down your gratitude list. It helps to add a physical habit (writing) to support a mental one. I use the app Day One to capture what I am grateful for - in a quick list, sometimes with an added photo. A journal or notepad will also do the trick. Do this practice at the same time every day and link it to other habits so that you remember. Maybe you do it before you turn off the light before sleep. Or before you exercise. 

This gratitude training will help you count rather than discount the beautiful details of your daily life. This is the secret recipe those successful people have discovered: When you make the effort of gratitude, you color your world into one of opportunity, clarity, optimism, and inspiration.  

Try it out, and see if it doesn’t uplift and transform the way you feel and how you see. Build the muscle of gratitude to shed light on your life, appreciate your bounty, and share your gifts with the world. Use the gratitude super power to live an epic, everyday, productive life of purpose, perspective, and contribution. Gratitude saves the day and works wonders. And it's as easy as pie. 

On my gratitude list today? All of you – those who seek to do great work. You inspire me and give me hope. And without hope, nothing gets done. With hope, anything is possible.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Truth about Email and What You Can Do About It

It's time to talk about email. 

Just the mention of it and eyes roll, heads shake in resignation, stomachs tense. If there is a resounding, visceral complaint from my clients, it’s about email. They can’t keep up with it. They are wasting too much time on it. They are overwhelmed by it.

Studies show that professionals spend (on average) 25% of the day on email and check it 36 times an hour.  Yes, an hour. To make matters worse, the constant fielding of email has shown to have negative cognitive effects, resulting in a decrease in IQ by about 10 points – equal to losing a night’s sleep. Apparently, the brain does not like the constant interruption of email.

“Apparently, the brain does not like the constant interruption of email.”

But the complaints don’t tell the whole story. Our relationship to email is more complicated. 

Take a look around.

© Hootie2710 | Dreamstime.com

On the street, people are walking while focused on their mobile devices, checking email (along with texts and social media). And even those who are not checking their phones are clutching them, like a digital security blanket. In restaurants, people sitting together are glued to screens.

Back at the office, an email notification pops and we jump. We hang out in our inbox and can’t seem to get to our “real work.” And at home, after the kids the go bed, we are back at it. For the most part, email runs us – in and out of the office.  

So, what’s up with that? 

I know, we have good reasons to check email constantly. We need to be responsive to our bosses, to our clients, or to our colleagues on the other side of the planet. Or we just fear getting more behind.

These reasons may be valid. Yet, they serve as a convenient cover to another reality: When it comes to email, we are compulsive. In fact, we may be addicted.

“When it comes to email, we are compulsive.
In fact, we may be addicted.”

Turns out, checking email can stimulate the release of dopamine in the brain - the natural, feel-good hormone. It is, apparently, in the anticipation of checking email that dopamine gives its happy hit.  This is why, in email, new is always better. The next email is way more enticing than the one we are reading.

© MNStudio | Dreamstime.com

Psychologists say there is another factor that drives our compulsive habits around email: the concept of “random reinforcement.” You never know when one of those emails has information that will make you happy. So in the perpetual quest for feel-good news, you check and check and check.

Now that the addiction element is on the table, let’s get real about how we "manage" our email.

So much information is flooding through the gates of our inbox that we naturally end up hanging out there. It’s where the action is. By default, we turn the inbox into a makeshift control center. In the name of efficiency and expediency, we make our inbox do double duty as a to-do list.

Pretty smart, right? 

Wrong.

Here’s why that doesn't work:

It Keeps you in the reactive mode.

“Using the inbox as a to-do list will keep you in the reactive mode. You are relying on others to prompt your action (through email). It puts you on your heels, rather than on your toes. ”

Using the inbox as a to-do list will keep you in the reactive mode. You are relying on others to prompt your action (through email). It puts you on your heels, rather than on your toes. On defense, rather than offense. What about all those things that you are to initiate, lead, champion?  They often don’t happen – because you are focused on email – other people's email. This is the genesis of the reactive, fire-fighting, emergency-driven work culture.

Yes, some people try to address this by proactively emailing themselves tasks. But that is a short-sighted work-around that only adds the busywork of reading and processing email. If you have to email yourself to get your attention, it's safe to say that your system may be broken.

You have to keep defining your actions.

Thinking of your inbox as a to-do list is actually misleading. It is not a list of clearly defined actions; it's more like a pile in which the actions are buried, like needles in haystacks. The actions you need to take as a result of an email are not usually stated. They are implicit. You have to pull them out of the paragraphs of information and your tacit knowledge about the context.

Simply flagging all the emails that are relevant for your actions is like having a big stack of paper that you have to keep rifling through to re-define what it is you need to do. This approach wastes time and energy, keeps you buried in weeds, and is a recipe for things falling through the cracks.

It sets you up for constant Interruption. 

When you use your email as a to-do list, you will likely live in your inbox most of the day. And that opens you up to constant interruption from all the shiny, new email coming in. 

The capacity to maintain focus is an essential skill for productivity. Hang out in your inbox for awhile and you will destroy your focus - distracted by the stream of incoming email. Even if you are able to stay focused despite the incoming email, you are doing it at cost - the cost of the willpower you must exert to not follow the trail of every incoming email. 

If you do get distracted by incoming email, studies indicate that it will take you about 12 minutes to recover your original focus. And FYI, professionals spend approximately 2 hours every day recovering from interruptions - either from others or self-imposed (like hanging out in your inbox).

© Daniil Peshkov | Dreamstime.com

Want to take back control of your email? Here's how:

 

MAKE YOUR INBOX AN INBOX.

Most people have a mess in their inbox. Here's what is stashed in there:

• Unread emails
• Read emails
• Emails that you've read and marked unread
• Emails to act on
• Emails to respond to
• Emails to remind
• Emails to figure out
• General reading
• Important emails
• Irrelevant emails
• Interesting emails
• Why-did-they-send-this-to-me emails
• Emails to act on right away
• Emails that may be useful one day
• Junk 

For most, the inbox is a big box of apples and oranges and bananas and pears and - you get the idea. There are all manner of items sitting together, unorganized. When you are in your inbox, your brain hums under the surface (re)sorting and (re)grouping and (re)figuring out what it is that you are looking out. With this mishmash of stuff in the inbox, the chances that something gets lost goes way up.

What should be in your inbox? Email that you have not read. 

“What should be in your inbox? Email that you have not read. ”

Every time you look at your inbox you will know immediately what you are looking at: emails you have not read yet.

Making your inbox an inbox is not to achieve an award for the ever-elusive "Inbox-Zero" status. This is about running your email rigorously, efficiently, effectively. The reward is clarity, decisiveness, progress.  

What do you do with the email once you have read it? Read on... 

 

PRACTICE Front-End Decision Making. 

When you read an email, decide what you need to do. I know, radical. 

Most people interact with their email by reading a new email and moving on to the next one (remember, new is always better). This is a sloppy and costly habit.

Every time you move on to the next email without deciding and defining what to do next, you are pushing work into your future. People's inboxes are overflowing with indecision. This scanning habit doesn't move the work forward. It keeps you stuck rereading and recycling through email. It puts an extra burden on your brain of all the implicit actions that are buried in your email. 

If you aren't in a position to make a decision about your email, don't read them. It's a waste of time. The only thing you are doing is freaking yourself out.

For example, don't use the time walking from your office to a meeting to look at your email. What is the point ? You make yourself vulnerable to distraction, which means that you won't be ready to make a great contribution in the meeting. 

Better to read email fewer times a day with full focus and decision-making muscle, than to read absentmindedly throughout the day. 

When you read the email, decide on the specific action you need to take. This is called front-end decision-making. This habit alone will revolutionize how you work for the better. Front-end decision making will save you from the cumulative hell of indecision and ambivalence. 

What do you do once you decide the action you need to take? Read on ... 

© Sergey Khakimullin | Dreamstime.com

Stage your email for Action.

Once you decide what you need to do as a result of the email, you will move the email out of the inbox and stage it for action.

To do this, set up staging folders. These folders are not permanent resting places. Instead, think of them as temporary lists that indicate what you need to do next. Here are the basic email staging folders:

01 RESPOND

This folder is for email you need to respond to or forward. If, in addition to responding, you need to do an additional action, note the action on your to-do list.

02 ACTION SUPPORT

This folder is for emails that you do not need to respond to, but you do need it in order to complete an action. Note the action on your to-do list. 

For example, someone sends you comments on a paper you wrote. Note the action on your to-do list (Incorporate so-and-so's comments on xyz paper). Move the email with the comments to the 02 ACTION SUPPORT folder so that you can quickly access when you are ready to do the task. 

You also use this folder for emails you need related to an event on your calendar, such as an agenda or meeting materials. 

The emails in 02 ACTION SUPPORT do not prompt action. Rather, they support actions that are indicated on your to-do list or calendar. 

03 READ

This folder is for emails that you want to read, but are not directly related to actions you need to take. For example, you may want to read about a new corporate policy or a newsletter on a topic you are interested in. 

Warning: This folder can get out-of-control very quickly. Apply some rigor. Don't put everything you would like to read if you had unlimited amounts of time. That will only make you feel bad.

Move emails in 03 READ that the real you can read given the scope of your work and commitments. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to managing your email and your work, and just about everything else. 

04 KEEP

This folder is for emails that you want to keep, but that you do not have (or need) another reference folder (topic/project) for.

I am not a big believer in thousands of reference folders. Reference folders for some projects can make sense. But when you've gone into the 100s with your folders, you've gone too far. It will cost more to maintain all that filing, than you will get in benefit. And, for most things, the search function works quite well. 

Note: Gmail users do not need this folder, because Gmail has the archive button. If you want to keep something, you can move it to a reference folder or simply archive. It will leave your inbox, and you will be able to find it in All Mail. 

05 INBOX 2

This folder is for the set-up of this new method of managing email. When you set up the staging folders, you will begin by staging the emails in your inbox, starting with the most recent going back in time. Stage email back about a week. Then, select what is left in your inbox and move it to 05 Inbox 2. This will allow you to reset your inbox to only those emails you haven't read - without having to process the 14,000 emails currently in your inbox. It is not a good investment to process email from last year. It's handled. 

Changing your inbox to a real inbox can be a big habit change for some. If initially you feel uncomfortable not seeing those thousands of emails, you can jump into 05 Inbox 2 and see what your inbox looked like just before you changed your ways for the better!

A few staging notes:

• When processing your inbox, don't forget you can use the delete key.
• After you have handled an email in 01 RESPOND, 02 ACTION SUPPORT, or 03 READ, move it out - either to 04 KEEP, a reference folder - or delete. 

The staging folders establish boundaries of meaning. Your brain no longer has to do mental gymnastics to understand what you are looking at.

Looking at your inbox? Those are the emails you haven't read.

Looking at 01 RESPOND? Those are the emails you need to respond to. 

Looking at 02 ACTION SUPPORT? Those are the emails that relate to something on your to-do list or your calendar.

Here's the secret to success... 

If you set up this email staging system, here's what could happen at first: You panic. You look at your inbox and all the stuff you have to do is not there. You fear that you are going to forget about it. Out of sight, out of mind.

Here's the secret to success to make this system work: When your email is open, you should "default" 01 RESPOND, not your inbox. You don't camp out by your mailbox at home, waiting for the mail to arrive, and you don't need to do it with your email either.

01 RESPOND is your work - that's where you should be when your email program is open. You go to your inbox to define and stage only. Then, get the heck out of there - or you will be sitting in the field of distraction. 

Are you ready to run your email, rather than have it run you? Then, try out these strategies and gain time, clarity, energy, and peace of mind.

Stay tuned for posts on additional email tactics to run email like a pro.