Resources – 5 hats – Rising Star Systems

The Ugly Truth About Time Management

Debra Russell — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 01:36:12 +0000

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
– H. Jackson Brown

If we all get the same amount of time, why is it that some people seem to be incredibly effective and get tons of stuff done, while other people struggle to get anything done and most of us kind of fall somewhere in the middle?

I remember watching my Mom as she managed 4 kids, a full-time job, and at one point going to school at night for her Bachelor’s to get her CPA degree, and just being dumbfounded at how she pulled it off. How did she do that? How did she manage her time so well?

Even with a beautiful model of time management efficiency, I’ve struggled my whole life with time management. Just observing her wasn’t enough to give me the skills I needed. Because she didn’t actually teach me HOW to do it.

I guess I must have forgotten everything I learned in my time management class at school… Oh, wait…

We weren’t taught time management in school – we were just expected to get our homework in on time, right? And if we didn’t, no matter the reason, we were punished for it and often shamed and embarrassed for it as well.

But even when we are taught time management by our parents, we’re taught what worked for them, which may or may not work for us.

Because we’re all different, and our relationship with time is unique. So, you need to design a time management system (affiliate link) that works organically the way your mind and biorhythms work.

The Truth About Time Management

When I teach time management in a live class, I always ask:

What Are Your Time Management Challenges?

Without fail, I get the following Top 5 answers:

Procrastination (Usually a symptom of something deeper going on)
Overwhelm (To much to do!)
Difficulty prioritizing (knowing what to do when)
Fear
Interruptions (lack of boundaries)

Pretty much every answer fits into one of the top 5. And here’s what I tell them:

The truth is, you cannot manage time, because time just is.
BUT, you can manage how YOU use time.

Time Management is a SYSTEM

You can buy time management systems and products – physical calendars, virtual tools that work on your tablet or phone. You can take classes and courses. You can read books.

What I have found is that these systems will only work for you,
if you make them yours.

Because these systems were invented by someone who developed their own personal time management system and said, “Well if it works for me, it’ll work for anyone.”

Except that’s simply not true when it comes to time management, because we all work differently. Our biorhythms are different. The way we think about things is different.

So thinking that there is a one-size fits all system for time management is a recipe for failure. The biggest mistake I see people make in creating their time management systems is that they try to impose somebody else’s system on themselves. They don’t do the work to discover what’s actually going to work in their unique mindset and circumstances.

The best time management systems are ones that are organically generated, that work with your natural tendencies and existing habits.

If you design a time management system based on how you “should” work, or what’s “supposed to” work, without examining your personal relationship to time, you will be doomed to failure. And what’s worse, you may then decide it’s your fault – that you’re hopeless and just no good with time.

But you’re not broken, nor are you a failure, you just haven’t yet designed a system that works the way you work.

Time Management is a SKILL.

To actually address and solve your individual challenges with time management is going to take time, effort, very possibly several weeks or months of real implementation and practice, just like any other skill. You have to design a system and hone it and polish it.

You also have to develop your skills in

Decision making,
Estimating how long things take,
Effective planning,
Prioritizing,
The ability to recover from mistakes, and
The emotional intelligence skills of persistence, discipline, resilience and determination.

It’s not about doing more stuff.
It’s about doing the right stuff at the right time… for YOU.

Learn the skills and create the structures that you need to function optimally. The details will be different for every person because we’re each unique and different. That’s a good thing! Embrace your difference, and create a system that works for you!

Time Management is a HABIT.

Finally, once you’ve created your system and developed these skills, you have to build the habit of using this system that you’ve created.

I’ve seen it over and over in myself and with clients. We think that we should be able to just change everything and have it work. And when that fails, we blame/shame ourselves and often give up.

But it takes time, attention and commitment to build a new habit. You don’t just decide to do things differently and voila you’re perfect. You must decide over and over and over again, each day to use your new system. If you commit to taking the time, keeping your attention on your new system and implement it, one day you’ll realize that you just did it, without thinking about it. That’s when you know you’ve created your new habit.

You may still need to tweak things from time to time. You may still need to make sure you maintain the habit when times are stressful. If you create the habit now, it will be much easier to return to it if overwhelm makes you slip back into old habits.

If you got value from this blog post – or you hated it and disagree with everything I said – please let me know in the comments!

The Top 5 Priority Pitfalls

Debra Russell — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:00:31 +0000

One of the most important success and leadership skills, in the time management area, is the ability to create clear priorities and align your choices with those priorities.

Making these fundamental decisions are part of our executive function. And with the amount of stress, overwhelm and challenges in our everyday lives, knowing and honoring our priorities becomes more and more complicated and important.

In business, priorities and strategy are inextricably linked.

There are 3 levels of priorities:

Big Picture Life Priorities – What are your dreams for your life? (Or the life of your business)
Medium Term Priorities – What are your big hairy goals for the next 1-5 years?
Short Term Priorities – What’s due in the next week, month, quarter?

The brain is hardwired to focus on short term priorities. What am I doing now? What do I want/need now? How do I get it, now?

This makes defining clear priorities challenging. I see those challenges manifesting in multiple ways in myself and for my clients.

When you look at the three levels of priorities – the most important thing to notice is, are they aligned with each other?

Do your short term priorities feed your medium term and long term priorities and goals?

Here are the Top 5 Priority Pitfalls:

Perfectionism – everything is equally important
Overloading schedule
Lack of clarity on goals
Failure to delegate or ask for help
Ignoring personal well being

5 – Perfectionism

When it comes to perfectionism, it can infest every area of your life and may look different depending on the context.

With regards to prioritization, perfectionism looks like making everything equally important.

Because perfectionism (often a coping mechanism based in an insecure childhood) demands perfection in everything you do. So, it all must have equal importance and urgency.

4 – Overloading Schedule

When you are not clear on your Big Picture Life Priorities, it can be easy to say, “Yes” to everything. Because you don’t have any criteria with which to evaluate the opportunity in front of you. So, other imperatives (being liked, for example) can drive your choices.

Remember, when you say, “yes” to one thing, you are saying “no” to a lot of other things.

Overloading your schedule so that you can’t keep your promises is also a passive-aggressive way to say what you really want to say, which is, “No.”

Knowing your priorities at all three levels and being clear on your goals will enable you to make strong, aligned decisions when taking on a project or request, keep your promises and commitments, and stay focused on what is most important to you.

3 – Lack of clarity on goals

It is extremely hard to look at a huge list of To Do items and prioritize that list if you don’t know what your goals are. Or if your goals are vague and without deadlines. Don’t feel bad if you aren’t able to do this. I’ve personally never met anyone who can clearly prioritize a task list without knowing what the end game is.

When we don’t know what our goals are, everything looks equally important and urgent. And if we have some external driver (work deadlines, family needs, etc.) then we tend to do the urgent (what’s important to someone else) over the important, but non-urgent (what’s important to us).

When everything is equally important because we haven’t organized our tasks by goal or goal area in order to perceive the correct order of actions within that context, we tend to do what’s easiest, most comfortable and gives us the quickest shot of success endorphins.

These actions, while giving instant gratification, often do not tie in with our big hairy goals. And as a result, we actively avoid doing what is most important in the big picture.

2 – Failure to delegate or ask for help

As I quoted in an earlier article, “No man [or woman or child] is an island.” The bigger your goals and dreams, the more you will need to build a team around you to realize them.

Learning how to delegate, not abdicate, and how and whom to ask for help are critical success and time management skills. Very often its also a financial consideration. And there are ways around those challenges.

The most important area to explore around delegation and asking for help is to answer the question, “Am I the RIGHT person for this job?” Just because you can do a job, doesn’t mean that you are the right person for that job.

Is it your core specialty? Is this the part of your business that you love the most? Or could your energy, mind and creativity be better invested in other activities.

1 – Ignoring your personal well-being

“You can have all the riches and success in the world, but if you don’t have your health, you have nothing.” Steven Adler

This is a fundamental truth. Take it from someone who has spent half of her life either seriously ill or seriously injured.

Prioritizing self-care is challenging, especially because our society looks down on it. We should all just be able to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get on with it, right? If you are healthy, count your blessings. And know that if you don’t take care of yourself, there will come a day when you aren’t.

Don’t wait until your body gives you no other choice. Prioritize taking care of yourself, so that you won’t ever be faced with the choice – your life or your life.

Think of prioritizing self-care like making sure you fill your car with gas. Because without gas, your car won’t go. And without self-care, eventually neither will your body.

To create real success in your professional life, personal life, and spiritual (whatever that means to you) life, get clear on your Big Picture Life priorities, and align them with your values.

Then create long term goals (5 years at most) in order to define your medium term priorities.

Then work backwards to 1 year, 9 months, 6 months and 3 month goals that will keep you on your path to the Medium Term goals you’ve set. Once you have your 3 month goals, then your short term priorities become obvious, real, and concrete.

In the Time Management Mastery Intensive program, I will teach you a simple way to prioritize your task list, get clear on your big picture priorities and build them into your time management system, task management system, and skill mastery. A new program will be starting soon. Register today to gain mastery on the most fundamental success skill that all other skills depend on.

Top 5 Task Management Essentials

Debra Russell — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 20:14:44 +0000

Today’s blog is the third installment of my Time Management Mastery series. If you missed the first 2 in the series, you can find them here:

If you find them valuable, please leave a comment and share them out to your community. I appreciate it!

In the first 2 posts in this series, I’ve been talking about Time Management and how critical having a functioning system is for your productivity, wellness and satisfaction with your life.

But without a task management system, your time management system is hollow – what do you put inside it?

A well-designed task management system that works the way you think, organically, will not only improve your productivity, it will also improve your lifestyle and levels of satisfaction and well-being.

I’ve seen many styles and designs of task management systems and often, when a client’s life is dysfunctional, the task management system has major gaps or flaws that cause many of their problems.

Clients have increased their income, created stronger relationships with family and friends, felt more in touch with their spirituality and created greater well-being and happiness in their lives, simply by creating a functional task management system that fits seamlessly into their time management system, and then creates the habits that maintain both.

In my upcoming Time Management Mastery Intensive, we’ll be spending time designing and implementing your task management system.

In the meantime, here are the Top 5 most important elements of a task management system that will support your productivity, lifestyle and well-being:

Top 5 Most Important Elements of Your Task Management System

1. User-Friendly Interface:

Your task management system needs an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that facilitates quick task entry, organization, and tracking. Whether your system is analog or digital, you need to be able to work with it easily and effortlessly. The learning curve needs to be short and fast.

2. Task Creation and Editing:

You need to have the ability to easily add, edit, and delete tasks, including options for setting due dates, priorities, and other relevant details.

It may seem like writing a task on a post-it or making a list on a notepad offers those abilities. But how many times have you lost the post-it or it got buried under a million other post-its? And how many times have you had to rewrite your list because you’ve added to it and crossed stuff out and it’s become unreadable? And how many versions of that list do you have piled up on your desk? And how long is that list? Pages?

A big list is a sure way to create overwhelm. It also wastes time.

For example, you have a spare 15 minutes and want to cross one thing off your list – how much time do you spend reading your list deciding which thing to do?

You may prefer analog – but digital eliminates many of those issues.

3. Organization and Categorization:

A system with features that allow users to categorize tasks, assign tags or labels, and create folders or projects for better organization is critical.

Every task should be connected to a specific goal and/or project. Tasks that are not connected will be forgotten or resisted and resented.

You need to be able to look at only one project or goal area at a time. This will quickly eliminate overwhelm by allowing you to focus in on your priority for this block of time.

Your system needs to have the ability to break large tasks (or goals) into small enough chunks that you can work through them in the block of time you’ve got available.

Your system also needs the ability to easily sort by priority, due date, start date, and estimated time of completion.

This way, when you have 15 minutes, knowing the goal you’re focused on, you can quickly sort out only the tasks that you can complete in 15 minutes by priority and choose which one to tackle.

4. Prioritization:

One challenge people have is feeling like everything is a top level priority. If you’ve organized and categorized your tasks by projects and goals, then you can assign more accurate priorities (or order of action) to each task.

A system with the tools for assigning priority levels to tasks will help you focus on the most critical and time-sensitive items.

In the Time Management Mastery Intensive, I will be teaching you a very simple prioritization system that will clearly identify the most important (and urgent) items on your to do list.

5. Due Dates and Deadlines:

Until you’ve chosen what date and time you’re going to address a specific task, you are essentially blind to that task. Setting due dates and deadlines needs to be part of the functionality of your system.

And this is an area where people really get into the weeds. Because often one task depends on the completion of another task and sometimes you’re waiting on other people performing those tasks.

But it also depends on your ability to know how long a specific task takes. This is a critical time management skill that many people struggle with.

In the Time Management Mastery Intensive, you’ll create a functional task management system that is built into a broader time management system.

I’ll be teaching you how to implement new habits, behaviors and structures in ways that befit how you organically and intuitively think and function. You’ll explore what task management system best fits your style. And you’ll test and implement that system.

This program isn’t about forcing you into how someone else thinks you should manage your time because it worked for them.

Finding the right task management app may take some testing and practice, because there are a lot of them. But once you understand what your needs are, it becomes a lot easier to evaluate the tools available.

In the Time Management Mastery Intensive program, we address most of these 10 issues – because they are critical to creating a time management system and skill mastery. A new program will be starting soon. Register today to gain mastery on the most fundamental success skill that all other skills depend on.

Top 10 Causes of Procrastination

Debra Russell — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 19:52:07 +0000

I’ve been putting off writing this blog post on procrastination… (only slightly kidding)

Let’s talk about procrastination – procrastination is an overwhelmingly common time management problem:

20-25% of people procrastinate chronically.
88% of workers procrastinate 60+ minutes daily on the job.
80-95% of college students procrastinate to some degree.
75% of people consider procrastination a personality trait/problem.
Procrastination costs the US economy an estimated $70 billion per year.

https://www.zippia.com/advice/procrastination-statistics/

So what is procrastination, actually? According to Merriam Webster:

transitive verb
: to put off intentionally and habitually
intransitive verb
: to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/procrastinate

While there is a lot of shame/blame associated with procrastination and a lot of shoulding all over ourselves, it is important to remember that procrastination is a symptom.

Focusing on the symptom will only deepen how stuck you feel. So, let’s look at the top 10 most common causes of procrastination:

Impaired Executive Function
Preference for Instant Gratification
Task ambiguity and a lack of accountability combined with external pressures
Decision Paralysis
Lack of Clear Goals
Avoidance Coping
Overwhelm
Poor Time Management
Task Difficulty
Perfectionism

10 Impaired Executive Function

Challenges in cognitive processes like planning and organization can contribute to procrastination. Clinical issues such as ADHD, autism, depression, Alzheimer’s, etc. can cause impaired executive function.

But executive function is also deeply affected by emotional intelligence, and personal and professional development.

I’ve found in working with clients that executive function can be improved with training and practice. And even those with functional decision making challenges can create time management systems that significantly improve their executive function.

9 Preference for Instant Gratification

When you prefer instant rewards over long-term benefits, it can result in procrastination, especially when facing a larger project.

Often the procrastination is justified using a lack of necessary resources or feeling ill-equipped or ill-prepared as an excuse. So preparation and gathering of resources far beyond what is necessary for the favorable outcome can result.

This is also called over-functioning.

This preference can be overcome using short-term intermediary goals and getting very clear on what resources and preparation you really need.

8 Task ambiguity and a lack of accountability combined with external pressures

There are several aspects to this source of procrastination that can combine in different ways.

For example, feeling pressured to do something without clear instruction and little to no external support can make us feel resistance and resentment, and uncertain of our ability to complete the task (with an accompanying fear of failure).

These combine to make us not only procrastinate, but feel fully justified in our procrastination – a deadly combination! An example of when internal shame can convert to external blame, both of which cause us to stop in our tracks.

7 Decision Paralysis:

Also known as analysis paralysis, decision paralysis is a difficulty in making decisions which leads to postponing actions.

The truth is sometimes you’re actually not ready to make a decision. You’re missing critical data or need to develop skills and structures in order to move forward with a project.

But fear can shift this logical postponement into procrastination until you can’t move forward even on the actions that will give you the data or skills you need.

Understanding exactly what you need, and creating a functioning list that you can check off as you accomplish the intermediate tasks will help to break this log jam.

6 Lack of Clear Goals:

When your goals are unclear or vague you may have difficulty initiating, let alone completing tasks. This can look like a lack of interest or boredom in the activity, a lack of motivation and/or feeling easily distracted from these activities.

Once you’ve connected them to a clear, specific goal, even mundane tasks like cleaning your home or doing laundry, can feel more important and gratifying.

5 Avoidance Coping:

We humans often use avoidance as a way to cope with stress or negative emotions. Whether its conflict avoidance, avoiding anticipated pain or struggle, or avoiding some other negative emotion, including boredom, procrastination is a common coping method.

Self-awareness is key to shifting this source of procrastination – because once you get really clear on what you’re avoiding, you have the power to shift your coping methods into something more productive.

4 Overwhelm:

Facing a large workload or many tasks simultaneously can be paralyzing. Decision paralysis can also contribute to overwhelm – simply deciding which thing to do first can be paralyzing!

Chunking tasks down to their smallest steps, deciding to do one thing for only 15 minutes, giving yourself rewards for doing the hard stuff can all help to minimize overwhelm.

But the real trick is to narrow your focus until you feel able to move forward.

3 Poor Time Management:

Including the inability to prioritize tasks and allocate time effectively can all contribute to procrastination.

This becomes even more disruptive when it applies to a lack of a productive routine. The absence of established routines can make it challenging to initiate tasks consistently or accomplish them in a timely manner.

2 Task Difficulty:

When a task seems too challenging or complex, we often delay starting it.

When a task involves new technology or acquiring any new skill, the anticipation of the pain of the learning curve is often blown out of proportion to the point where it seems so impossible, why even bother trying.

Understanding the 4 stages of learning and recognizing where you are in that process can often ground you and return your experience back to a manageable task.

1 Perfectionism:

Setting excessively high standards can make starting a task overwhelming.

Perfectionism is the enemy of success. There is no such thing as perfect – in art, music or life. Perfection is boring.

Instead of seeking perfect, seek excellence.

Perfectionism is a complex issue and I will deal with it in a future blog. It is often a survival coping method held over from childhood.

If you struggle with perfectionism, contact me. I can help you through coaching or a Personal Breakthrough Session, especially if this coping skill is connected to childhood trauma.

It’s important to note that procrastination is complex and often involves a combination of these factors. Understanding the specific causes for an individual can help in developing strategies to address and overcome procrastination.

And remember, the actual cause of your procrastination may be different depending on the task you’re postponing.

One last note – procrastination isn’t always unproductive.

I often procrastinate when it comes to writing. I’ve discovered that I’m not actually procrastinating. I’m gestating.

So, when I’m ready to write, I sit down and it pours out of me with ease. When I try to force myself to write something when I’m not ready, it’s like pulling teeth!

I’ve learned to allow myself the time to gestate on an idea (unless I have a deadline). I struggle and suffer less and enjoy my writing process so much more!

The Power of Habits

Debra Russell — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 01:34:13 +0000

Here it is the beginning of the second quarter of 2019. How are you doing with your New Year’s Resolutions? Did you make them? Have you kept them?

No? Well, you’re not alone.

“Studies have shown that less than 25% of people actually stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days, and only 8% accomplish them.”
Forbes

In the above quoted article, the author recommends that you turn your resolution into a goal. Now, I’m a big believer in goals, but when most people make resolutions, they aren’t looking at creating a particular goal.

Generally, people are looking to shift their day-to-day behavior. And when we’re talking about shifting every day behavior, we are always talking about habits not goals.

What is a Habit?

Definition of Habit
a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior
an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary
a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance
Merriam-Webster

This is exactly why most people fail with their New Year’s resolutions. Because they think that all they have to do is decide once, on January 1st, to make this change. But a habit is behavior that you don’t think about! It’s behavior you do automatically.

Obstacles to Better Habits

In my experience, there are two major obstacles to changing your habits:

Your existing habits
Forgetting that you decided to do things differently

You decide on January 1st to do this thing differently, but within 24 to 48 hours, you’ve forgotten that you made that decision and your existing habit takes over.

You may notice that you forgot. You may feel bad about it for a bit and try to remember. But inevitably, your existing habits override this decision and you’re back to doing what you’ve been doing.

See, habits are really powerful. They are your brain’s way of automating everything it can, so it can conserve your energy for the decisions you have to make intentionally. So, your brain creates all these short cuts called neural pathways.

The more frequently a neural pathway is used, the less energy it takes to trigger it. And so the longer you’ve had a habit the easier it is to continue that habit.

Creating a new habit takes a lot more brain power, concentration and intention and most of all memory! You have to remember to do things differently!

Bottom line – you don’t eliminate old habits, you replace them with new habits.

And in order to do that, you must remember to repeat the behavior over and over and over until you no longer need to think about it. Until your brain has hardwired the new neural pathway.

I’ve heard that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. That has not been my experience. I think if you can remember to do it every one of those 21 days – by the end of that three weeks, it may have reached the level of automation that makes a habit. But because people forget, and then they have to remember again, it usually takes longer.

Why Are Habits Powerful?

When we study people who are highly successful and look at what they do and don’t do, what we find is that the only difference usually between them and us is simply a matter of their habits. Whether its a behavior or a habit of thought, it is very often a person’s habits that create their results in their lives.

And so many of us who are on this crazy journey called life try to emulate those habits. We make New Year’s Resolutions to incorporate those habits into our lives.

Benefits of Strong Habits

Reduce decision stress
Create consistency of behavior which generates momentum
Requires less energy

Strong habits reduce decision stress. Because the essence of a habit is that the decision’s already been made. Once something is a habit, you don’t have to think about it. You don’t have to weigh the pros and cons. And you don’t have to be “in the mood” to do it. You just do it, without thought, automatically.

And doing this behavior automatically generates momentum. Every time you have to pause to think about a decision or make a choice about a behavior, you sap your momentum. The better your habits the better your productivity, your satisfaction with your results and your enjoyment of your life.

How often have you felt like changing things is a bit like Sisyphus pushing that boulder up the hill only to find the boulder back at the bottom of the hill the next day. It’s exhausting! But once that behavior is a habit, it becomes easy, effortless and obvious. Of course, I brush my teeth every night before bed. I don’t even have to think about it…

For example, effective time management is essentially a mix of strong structure and effective habits.

Think about it, most people don’t really think about planning or scheduling – they just do. It’s a habit. People with effective time management habits are more productive. People with poor time management habits struggle with procrastination, being chronically late and stress about their deadlines and obligations.

When I work with clients on effective time management (which is the MOST common goal area), we essentially create a strong structure and then I hold them accountable to their new time management habits!

How to Build a New Habit

First choose a habit. When you choose the new habit think about these questions:

Make this new behavior as simple and as clear as you can.
Think about how it fits into your life.
When will you do it?
What will come before and what will come after this new habit?
Why do you want to do it (what’s the benefit)?

Then, once you’ve chosen your new habit and defined it very specifically, then you must implement it. Set up reminders. Ask for support to help you remember. Set up whatever structure you need to make it easy to remember and maintain.

For example, my New Year’s Resolution for 2019 was to reduce and eliminate my use of single-use plastic. It was a very clear, simple behavior. And I’m clear about why I’m doing it – to reduce my footprint on the planet.

I looked at where I was currently in the habit of using single-use plastic items and set up some structures for the new behavior. For example, I purchased a refillable water bottle for my car and now I refill it every morning when I packed my lunch for the office. I put my reusable shopping bags in the car and purchased reusable vegetable bags, adding those to my shopping bags. When I go grocery shopping, I put the shopping bags with my purse in the front of the car, so I don’t forget them.

I have also told a few people about it, so they could help me remember.

And what do you know, I’ve been doing really well with this new habit.

So what new habit would you like to implement in your life? Tell me about it in the comments below!

Choose a Theme for the New Year

Debra Russell — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 19:11:12 +0000

This time of year you hear a lot of talk about New Year’s Resolutions. Do they work? Don’t they? Everyone has a theory. I’ve written about methods I recommend for creating a successful New Year’s Resolution in the past. And, of course, I’ve written a ton about setting goals and creating plans.

But this year, I’m going to try something a little different for myself. See, over the last few years, I’ve noticed that my years seem to have themes. The theme isn’t readily apparent at the beginning of the year, but I can usually identify the theme by mid-year. Some years have been about health. Others have been about family and relationship. Some years I’ve really focused on my business.

But whatever the theme turns out to be, it hasn’t really been a conscious intentional choice on my part.

So, this year, instead of setting New Year’s resolutions, I’m choosing a theme intentionally and then I’m going to use that theme as a focusing tool as I go through the year. Rather than letting the theme choose me in an unconscious way – I’m picking my theme for 2018 and using that as my guide for my goals, my time management, my choices. And I invite you to come along on this journey with me.

How to Pick a Theme

I’ve spent the last few weeks asking myself:

What do I want this coming year to be about?
Where do I want to put my focus?
What kinds of endeavors do I intend to pursue and is there a common motif, topic, question or issue?
What opportunities are showing up for the new year – and again – is there a common theme?

When I looked at it from this perspective, the theme became really clear to me – 2018 will be about education – my own learning and myself as educator. (Stay tuned for some cool announcements about the opportunities aspect of this.)

So, what is your theme? What will your coming year be about? Please share with me in the comments!

Use Your Theme as a Guideline

So, great, you have a theme. Now what?

Set Your Goals

I recommend posting that theme where you will see it often. Then, sit down and make your goals for the coming year, and work backwards so you have quarterly goals. As you’re considering your goals, ask yourself, “Are these aligned with my theme? Do they share a focus?”

If your answer is, “No!” Then ask yourself:

Is this a “should”? (If it is, what do you want to pursue?)
Is this truly something I’m committed to for the coming year?
Could I reframe this goal in light of my theme? (This might just be a language reframe, but it could also be a complete shift in focus.)
Is this goal an outlier? (If it is, do you want to put the energy into it this year? And if so, how will you make sure you get to it? So often we make outlier goals, but we just don’t get to them. Because … outlier)

Not to say that you can’t have goals that don’t fit perfectly within your theme – but I think you’ll find this a useful tool of inquiry.

Create Your Time Structure

Now that you have a theme and goals – you need to set up your days so you actually work on them! For me, I will need to build time into my schedule for activities like:

Study, reading and class projects (for me as student)
Research (both as student and educator)
Class Content Creation (both for Debra Russell Coaching as well as upcoming teaching opportunities)
Writing (Blog, book, articles for others)

When I first started thinking about this, I felt really resistant and overwhelmed. But when I put it in context of my theme for the year – I found myself actually anticipating spending my time this way. I came into alignment with the demands instead of overwhelmed by them.

Support and Accountability

Now that you know your themes and your goals. And you’ve created a plan for how you will incorporate this focus into your day-to-day life. You will need to find ways to be disciplined and maintain your theme focus through out the year. I recommend:

Working with a coach (I mean, you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?)
Accountability partners (perhaps meeting once a week, perhaps more frequently)
Sharing your intention and focus with your significant other, family and business team.
Checking in at the end of each month and each quarter – how did you do? Did you maintain your plan? What are your goals for the next month/quarter?

It will be important in the coming year to manage other people’s expectations of you – as you make this shift into clear focused action. Particularly if you work from home and/or others are used to you being available or easily distracted by what they want you to focus on.

Remember the best way to manage other people’s expectations is to under-promise and over-deliver. Teach them to expect less. And then when you can, you surprise them!

Can you see how choosing a theme goes way beyond setting New Year’s resolutions? I’m really curious, myself, to see how I do with this. And I’ll be curious to hear from you what theme you choose and how it goes for you – please share in the comments and check back over the year to let me know how you do!

Create Mastery in Your Business for 2018

If your Theme for 2018 is taking your business to the next level or improving your systems (such as time management, finances, marketing, etc.) Let me help you make 2018 your BEST YEAR EVER!

Toward that end, I am running a ridiculous sale on the Marketing & Business Mastery Lab for a limited time!

Check it out!

An Idea is Only as Good as the Implementation

Debra Russell — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 20:01:33 +0000

What is implementation?

im·ple·men·ta·tion /impləmənˈtāSH(ə)n/ (noun)
the process of putting a decision or plan into effect; execution.

As a creative business owner who loves what you do, you are probably inundated with great ideas every day. You probably get them in the shower, as you’re driving, while you’re sweating on the treadmill. But how many of those great ideas do you put into action and see through to fruition?

That’s what I thought. I know, I know, it’s hard! You’re so busy running your business. It’s hard to find the time for something new. A new idea may require you to learn new skills to bring to fruition. It may involve getting help, spending money, investing time.

And new is scary. What if it doesn’t work out? How do you know if its the right idea at the right time?

Of course, there are no guarantees. But think about it. What if Steve Jobs had never moved forward on the iPod? What if Ford never invested in the assembly line? What if John Adams and Thomas Jefferson quit before writing the Declaration of Independence?

What world changing, business revolutionizing, life impacting idea have you set aside because you just don’t have time?

So, how do you, as a ridiculously busy entrepreneur make your ideas a reality?

“It is not always what we know or analyzed before we make a decision that makes it a great decision. It is what we do after we make the decision to implement and execute it that makes it a good decision.”

–William Pollard

Create the Structure for Implementation

If you are not implementing ideas, it is likely because you don’t have an existing system or structure for taking an idea, developing that idea into a plan of action and then implementing that plan. So the seed of the idea floats around for awhile but doesn’t find the fertile ground to settle into and begin to grow.

Put a few simple structures into place and your ideas will have a place to land:

Have a notebook (online or a physical notebook) to record your ideas when they come to you.
Schedule time in your week – every week – to explore and develop new ideas. Back in the day (they aren’t doing this anymore, I don’t think) Google used to allow their employees to take 20% of their time to work on ideas. You don’t need to spend 20% of your time – but set aside an hour or two every week. It’s the quality and consistency more than the quantity of time that’s important.

Implement One Idea at a Time

I recommend serial monogamy when it comes to projects – 1 project at a time! Too many projects means you won’t effectively deliver on any of them. So pick one idea and for all the rest, keep them in your idea notebook for the future.

So how do you decide which idea to pursue?

Remember, you’re jotting down your ideas in your notebook – is there an idea you’ve written down more then once? Is there an idea that keeps popping up, over and over? That might be the first one to go with
Maybe go through your list and pick the one that seems most exciting, most shiny to you.
All your other ideas, go into the notebook for later. Keep writing them down – but don’t let them distract you.

Once you’ve picked your idea:

Use the system from the One Page Business Plan, by James Horan to evaluate your idea – this will give you a really good sense about it’s viability.

You may discover from this process alone that your idea isn’t really going to work. That’s OK – it’s not wasted effort. Because you will have learned a lot – and you may find a way to pivot your idea or this may open up other ideas or clarify ideas you’ve already had. Just pick the next idea and move forward.

Put Your Idea into Action

Once you’ve made the decision that this idea is the one you’re going to move forward on, make a specific schedule in your week for when you will work on it. Get coaching and support and most importantly get into action.

Use the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. methodology to develop the idea to an actionable plan
Implement the plan!

Let me know how you do in the comments!

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Procrastination as Information

Debra Russell — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 19:30:26 +0000

When clients admit to procrastinating on an action in session, they are usually shrouded in shame and embarrassment. As if somehow they are a failure, because they’ve been procrastinating.

Does this sound familiar:

I DON’T WANNA!

It feels like there’s a part of you that knows you “should” be doing this action and that part even wants to be doing it. But there’s another part of you that’s like a whiny 3 year old, stomping your foot, saying, “I don’t WANNA!” You beg and plead with that 3 year old inside of you, but you just can’t get into action. And the more you push against it, the stronger the resistance.

Some of my clients think that, as their coach, I can fix them, force them, make them take action. But here’s the thing – they’re not broken and neither are you. And the more you push against resistance the stronger and more powerful it becomes.

Procrastination is a symptom of something. It’s not evidence that you’re broken. It’s evidence that your unconscious is staging a rebellion. And in order to bring your unconscious back into alignment with your conscious mind – you have to understand what is causing the rebellion.

Why shaming doesn’t work

Imagine if you went to a doctor and told him you have a sore throat. And instead of the doctor examining you and running tests and prescribing treatment, instead, he told you that you were bad and wrong for having a sore throat.

Would that fix your sore throat?

Wouldn’t you just feel bad about yourself and still have a sore throat? And yet, that’s exactly what you’re doing every time you beat up on yourself for procrastinating. It doesn’t work. Cut it out!

Procrastination is a symptom

Procrastination is the key to finding out what your unconscious is trying to tell you. So instead of shaming yourself – start investigating. Become Dr. House and investigate what is causing your procrastination. Get curious.

What is the root cause of your procrastination?

What Causes Procrastination?

There are many different reasons for procrastination. And if you tend to procrastinate on a lot of different things – you may have different reasons for each thing. Here is a list of common causes and some suggestions to counter them:

Your goals are unclear – you’re not sure why you should be doing this thing

Get clear on your goals – what specific goal does this action serve?

There is a learning curve for this action and you don’t know how to do it

Find someone who can show you how. Take a class to learn how. Google it! Take the action and be willing to do it badly while you’re learning.

The action is too big, too vague or too general (overwhelming)

Break it down and get specific.

You have a lot of different actions you need to take and they all seem of equal priority or importance

Make a list and knock them out one at a time – if they are truly of equal priority, just pick ANY one. Learn how to manage conflicting priorities.

No matter what you do, it’s never enough. And you’re not allowed to play until you finish your homework!

Celebrate each accomplishment, each baby step. Make sure you take breaks to play, exercise, just breathe. Not allowing yourself to celebrate is a recipe for burnout. This is critical!

The action feels like a big risk and you’re afraid to take that risk

First ask yourself, “Is this true?” In other words, is it really the risk you think it is? You may find that your fear of the risk is making it seem bigger. Get support or coaching around overcoming your fear.

When you imagine taking the action, you anticipate that it will be difficult or frustrating or even just boring

Just do it for 15 minutes – you can stop after 15 minutes. Put on some really great music. Reward yourself for having done it by doing something really fun next.

When this action is complete, the next obvious action is either invisible (if I do this, then what?) or really scary (if I do this, then I’ll have to do THAT!)

Very often the next step will become clear when this step is done. And you don’t have to do it alone. Work with a coach to help you through the scary stuff and figure out what’s next. And remember – just focus on the action in front of you – the next action will be dealt with when it’s time to deal with it!

Diagnosing Your Procrastination

Do some of the above suggestions ring true for you? Here are a few more questions that might help you uncover the underlying cause of your hesitation and/or resistance. First, don’t ask “why”! “Why” just gives you reasons to procrastinate more!

When I think about taking this action, I feel ______________ (fill in the emotion word – anxious, sad, angry, etc.). What am I thinking/believing that has me feeling ______________?
When I imagine taking this action, I think it is going to be _______________ (easy, hard, frustrating, boring, overwhelming, etc.)
How long will this action take me?
What are the specific steps to accomplishing this action?
What fear, concern or consideration is stopping me from taking this action?
What will taking this action do for me? What outcome do I desire from taking this step?
What outcome am I afraid of, if I take this action? What’s the worse case scenario? What if I do nothing? Is that worse?
If I break this action down into its smallest component steps and just contemplate the first of those steps – how does that feel? Can I take that baby step now?
Am I celebrating each baby step or am I only allowed to celebrate when I have the big goal and I’ve done it perfectly?

Sometimes simply asking some of these questions can actually clear you enough to get into action.

Procrastination can fundamentally undermine all of your time management systems. So figuring out what is causing you to procrastinate is a critical first step in managing your time well.

What are you procrastinating? Share what you discover about your own procrastination in the comments, or ask for help figuring it out!

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Is Action Your Missing Piece?

Debra Russell — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 14:00:09 +0000

In my fifteen years as a business coach for the professionally creative and creative entrepreneurs, I’ve seen a lot of incredibly smart, very talented people struggle to bring their dreams to fruition.

When I first started – I believed that this was largely due to a lack of knowledge in business fundamentals and business skills. Which is why I created the Artists Marketing & Business Academy – to help you close that knowledge gap.

And while I still believe that’s part of the problem, I’ve come to the conclusion that you could have all the knowledge and skill training and still struggle.

Because there’s a piece missing – and that’s ACTION!

What is Action?

Much to my surprise – it turns out action is a pretty complex word with many different meanings. But here are the ones I think are most useful for this conversation:

action

1a: thing done, a deed
b: the accomplishment of a thing usually over a period of time, in stages, or with the possibility of repetition
c: behavior, conduct
d: initiative, enterprise

2: an act of will

Merriam-Webster.com

LIVE ENCORE PRESENTATION – MAY 4TH

So, its what you do, right? Not what you say, not what you think, not what you wish, but what you actually DO.

You may remember a movie that came out several years ago — The Secret — which showed this guy sitting on his couch dreaming about a car – and then magically that car appears. I’ve always found that to be a misleading and possibly destructive portrayal of the Law of Attraction. Which led me to begin tweeting this:

The Law of Attraction without action is just the Law of Attr! Put the Action BACK!

It seems so simple – then why do we struggle so much with getting into action, staying in action, and choosing which actions to focus on?

What Blocks Action?

And why is it that some people seem to be completely stuck and stopped by these obstacles and others appear (at least from the outside) to be unstoppable?

You might think, “Well it’s just a difference in personality.”

Or, “It’s just easier for them than it is for me – they don’t have this problem with resistance or procrastination.”

Perhaps you even think, “I’m just … broken.”

Poppycock! I say! Utter HOGWASH!

Okay – you might notice that this is a pet peeve of mine – you’re not broken. They’re not better than you. And it’s not some character flaw that you have no choice in!

What stops us is a bit different in each person.

It may look like procrastination.
It may look like analysis paralysis.
It may look like perfectionism.
It might feel like resistance, fear or overwhelm.

And it’s a useful exercise to examine what that dynamic is for you.

How do you know its time to stop? How do you know its the right time for some procrastination? (Wonder who’s tagged me on Facebook…) Understanding what your triggers are that begin this spiral into inertia or active resistance can help you disrupt that pattern. But understanding the pattern isn’t enough – you have to then have the tools to shift out of the pattern into something more productive.

What Allows or Even Motivates Action?

I believe that the primary difference between the folks that get stopped and the ones that seem to be unstoppable in their action is in their response to that stimulus. It’s not that they don’t get overwhelmed or experience fear. It’s not that they never question their choices or play the “Yeah, but…” game.

It’s that their response to that happening is to move forward into action.

You can think of it as simply rocking backwards and putting your weight in your heels. Or rocking forward and putting your weight on your toes. Try it – stand up and rock your weight backward just enough to sink into your heels. Then rock your weight forward to just slightly come up on your toes. Can you feel the difference? Can you feel the need, the desire, the irresistible urge to step forward when you rock forward?

So, when something seems to knock you off balance. When you feel stuck or stopped or resistant. When you are overwhelmed or stuck in perfectionism. Stand up and lean in.

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The Magic of Action – Free Webinar!

Debra Russell — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 18:15:12 +0000

Do you struggle with procrastination?
Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to do – so much you are frozen by it?
Or are you really busy – but lack confidence that you’re doing the right things to create success?

Action is required to bring any goal to fruition.

Without action, inspiration and ambition are merely cool ideas.

Without action, your creativity stagnates, opportunities evaporate and despair gains fertile ground to root in.

FREE WEBINAR

The Magic of Action – How to Implement the Right Things at the Right Time!

LIVE ENCORE May 4th, 2017
7:00 PM EST

REGISTER TODAY!

It seems so simple, right? Just start moving, start doing, right? But very often, because of the power of inertia, starting can seem overwhelmingly difficult. So, we just do the things that seem easiest, but we can call them action – like going through email or doing the dishes.

And while something is certainly better than nothing – without results, we lose momentum and fall back into inertia. Because we’re not doing the RIGHT things.

If you are serious about your goals, about your career/business, about the impact you intend to make in the world – you must take action. And not just any action – but the right actions that will invigorate your desire and manifest your dreams.

You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.
–Mahatma Gandhi

In this free webinar, Debra Russell, certified business coach, speaker, and master practitioner in NLP and Hypnosis, will give you three pillars of successful action. With this guidance you can create sustainable and impactful action that will move you to your goals.

This webinar is completely free – and if you can’t make the live date – a replay will be made available to all those who register. Take action!

REGISTER TODAY!