I have three, high-end Day-Timer binders on my shelf at home. I own three PDA’s, two Palms and a BlackBerry. I have printed templates from D*I*Y Planner, Hipster PDA Edition, and many others. I can’t begin to count the number of time-management/PIM software titles I own. I even have a patient wife who gently reminds me, and yet, I still procrastinate.

Procrastination is not a problem of time management or of planning. Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others. “Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up.” —Psychology Today

I think, in some ways, time-management tools and systems create problems for procrastinators. Tools and systems are classic distractions. (I’ll look at distractions in a later post.) You can spend hours building, filling and tweaking your system without ever getting anything done.

This month it’s GTD. I run a mind sweep. I dump it into my in-box. I clean out my Lotus Notes and set up contexts. I sync it with my PDA. Then the phone rings with a crisis and I forget all about it. Next month it’s Franklin Covey and six weeks after that it’s Day-Timers. The system is not the answer.

That being said, procrastinators need systems more than anyone else. Time-management systems are to a procrastinator what AA is to an alcoholic. You fall off the wagon, back into old habits. One day you realize that you’ve let things get out of control. The program —system— is there to help you get things back on track.

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If your self-confidence is low, can you do things to change that? Do you control your own self-confidence?

I believe you can take steps to increase your confidence. You weren’t born with low self-confidence and you don’t have to rely on others to increase your self-confidence. If you feel you are not competent, smart, attractive or whatever it may be… that can be changed.

Here are four steps to help build your confidence:

Accept yourself

Imagine what your life would be like if you could just be yourself, without thinking twice about other people’s perceptions of you. The first step is to accept yourself. Nobody is perfect, so why spend time worrying about the things you can’t do?

You’re probably familiar with the voice in your head saying you’re never good enough. Instead of listening to that voice; focus on your successes. Use them as an example to drive you forward.

Do something you enjoy

Decide what work brings you joy. This may seem obvious, but how much time do you spend thinking about the work you enjoy doing? It’s easy to get caught up in checking things off that to-do list or rushing off to yet another meeting. Take a few minutes this week, and make a list of all the work that jazzes you.

Don’t forget those non-work things that give you pleasure:

• time for family and friends
• look after your health
• pursue hobbies and interests
• stretch your mind

Find your peers

Building and maintaining self-confidence is not a solo effort. You need the support of like-minded people. It is easier when you are among people who are share the same interests mind-set as you. They will understand you and vice versa. This creates conditions for healthy conversations. You will feel more secure in your ideas when others want to hear and appreciate what you have to say.

Set Goals

Setting goals is not complicated. It can be challenging, but the process of goal setting can be of value to you in building excitement and commitment, which are important factors in achieving success.

The idea is to begin with a small single step that can then further developed into giant strides. Learn to do the work at hand rather than to overwhelm oneself by looking at the whole of a large task.

Break a big task into a list of small tasks. Check off each step you complete. A completed task, no matter how small, gives a sense of achievement that boosts self-confidence and gives more drive to try a bigger task.

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You will find it difficult to accomplish your required taks if you’re always dragging around tired. Most people need between six to eight hours of sleep. Determine how many hours of sleep you need, and get that sleep each night.

Here are four R’s to a better night’s sleep:

Regular

Have regular sleep habits. Go to bed at the same time every night. Sleep for the same number of hours, getting up at the same time each morning. Avoid napping, unless you do it regularly. Find the right amount of sleep for you and stick to it.

Ritual

Keep your sleeping environment consistent: quiet, cool, dark and relaxing. Wind-down at the end of your day.

Relax

Find ways to control stress and reduce tension. Practice relaxation techniques.

Resist

Eliminate behaviours that interfere with sleep. Avoid alcohol, tobaco and caffeine. Don’t exercise within three hours of bedtime. Avoid heavy meals prior to bed.

There are studies that claim sleep is the single most important factor in predicting longevity; more so than diet, exercise or hereditary. If nothing else, healthy sleep is critical to effective productivity.

Are you getting enough?

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• A good chance
• Almost certain
• Better than even
• Definite
• Highly probable
• Highly unlikely
• Impossible
• Improbable
• Likely
• Possible
• Probable
• Quite likely
• Rare
• Seldom
• Unlikely
• Very

Do they mean the same thing to the people listen you use them or read what your write?

What you say is only as effective as what is heard and understood by the listener. Too often, our messages are obscured by the the words we use. We compound the problem when we are unaware of the gap between what is intended and the message received.

I am guilty of using all of these phrases when speaking and writing. I shouldn’t expect other people to adopt what I think the phrases mean; I should work on using the clearest language possible.

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It’s not trivial, although as a culture we don’t take it seriously as a problem. It represents a profound problem of self-regulation. And there may be more of it in the U.S. than in other countries because we are so nice; we don’t call people on their excuses (“my grandmother died last week”) even when we don’t believe them.

Years ago, not long out of school, I was laid off from a job. At first, this seemed like an opportunity for a short vacation. However, the late nights out and sleeping in until noon became comfortable. Looking for a new job got put off, as I was sure it would only take an interview or two and I’d be working again.

The bit of money I had in savings disappeared quickly. Now I was unemployed and broke.

You know what kind of motivation that gave me to get out and find a job? None! I started borrowing and mooching off friends and family. I pawned odds and ends to get more money and still didn’t look for work.

This went on for some time until I had to store my belongings with friends and impose on the hospitality of others. In the end I got a job, not because I had gone looking, but because someone who was hiring knew I needed work and offered me a job.

The cost of this behaviour was huge. I lost the respect of friends and family. In a couple of cases, I lost friends altogether. I was in debt and my credit rating was shot to pieces.

People tend –or pretend– to see procrastination as some humourous personal quirk (see my kid brother’s comment on the intro post) or merely as a time-management shortcoming that can be fixed in 6 easy steps. For most people, procrastination is merely putting off the odd onerous task: eat the frog and the rest comes easy.

For the chronic procrastinator, it’s not necessarily the size or complexity of the job that is the problem. It’s the emotional and psychological issues that drive procrastination. In my story, the real reasons behind my reluctance to find a job had to do with being afraid of the rejection in the job hunt and well as avoiding the changes that would come with a new job.

More to come.

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This self-management checklist can be applied to any area of your life where you need to gain some control.

1. Set specific goals. You can’t measure achievement if you don’t know where you’re going. Set specific goals such as: I’ll walk for 30 minutes per day; or I’ll write a 1,000 words each day; or I’ll lose 20 pounds.
2. Set specific times. You need to determine when you are going to accomplish your goals. Work with specific times; whether it’s a deadline for a one-off project or regular times for on-going behaviour.
3. Track your progress. Write it down. You can use a journal, a calendar, a graph or any other form that works for you. Make sure you track both your successes and failures so you can refine your systems.
4. Set rewards or penalties. You’ll need some motivation to help you move forward. Set small rewards to mark the completion of small steps. Set larger rewards to mark major accomplishments. You might even set penalties for not reaching goals. You could, for example, make a donation to a food bank every time your weight went up instead of down.
5. Take small steps. If you’ve been sitting in front of the TV for ten years, don’t try and run a marathon tomorrow. Changing a habit takes time and you need to start slowly.
6. Break it down into pieces. Regardless of your readiness, if the task seems overwhelming, you may never get started. Break down large tasks in to small, logical and manageable pieces.
7. Monitor time increments. Use a timer to help you stay on track. Set it to the best interval to help you measure your progress.
8. Share your goals. Telling someone what you hope to accomplish can add another level of motivation. It’s easier to fool ourselves than to fool others. Tell someone what your goals and your deadlines are; get them to check on you to see if you met the goal.
9. Have a work buddy. It’s not just enough to share your goals with someone, you need to have a buddy that can meet with regularly. Keep your goals on someone else’s agenda. This should give you an added sense of responsibility and motivation to reach your goals.
10. Review with your buddy. Have your buddy do more than review accomplishment. Review the written track of your regular progress. They might spot patterns you don’t see and give you some help for getting back or keeping on track.
11. Eliminate distractions. Reading through e-mail may seem productive, but it’s not going to help you read three chapters of a book. If need be, turn off the phone, shut down the computer and throw the television in the garbage.
12. Review and rework your system. Your self-management plan may not work the first time you try it. There will be times when your self-management process falls apart. These steps are not static, but need to change and grow with you. Make time to review your process and see what changes can be made.

Some people look at self-management techniques as cumbersome, getting in the way of productivity. The truth is, if you look at successful and productive people, you’ll find some type of system guiding them. Give it a try.

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Records management doesn’t have to be a time or cost-intensive activity. I does need to be a regular part of business operations. If you don’t have a structured records-management policy or plan in place, there will be some cost is getting one established. Eventually, you will see a payoff from eliminating unnecessary files.

Your records management program will be unique to your business. Every organization has different records-management need. However, there are some common elements to every document-management process. Here are eight steps to create an effective records management program:

1. Determine what records you need to have. Every organization needs certain records to function. However, according to Advanced Information Technologies, the volume of paper records doubles every 3.3 years. You need to determine what records you have to keep and what records can be tossed.
2. Take inventory to see what records you are keeping. An effective records-management program begins with an audit of every piece of paper and electronic file in your organization. You should know what records you currently maintain before developing your records-management policy.
3. Create a document retention schedule based on legal requirements and business needs. The foundation of a records-management program is the retention schedule. You need to list every type of document you generate along with its life span. This process should be completed with appropriate legal, financial and business consultation.
4. Figure out the best way to store each type of record. In this day and age of technological options, there are a variety of ways of permanently storing records: paper, computer disks, ROM, microfilm, tape, etc. Choose your storage solutions based on these considerations: space, cost, flexibility, safety and integrity.
5. Create a location for records storage. Just as there are various media for records storage, there are many locations for storing records: in work areas, a records department, a centralized internal location, or in an external location. Choosing a storage location will depend on how often and how quickly you need to access the records.
6. Develop appropriate security to protect records from damage, loss or unauthorized access. There is no getting away from the security and integrity in records management. This is another area often regulated by law.
7. Develop a procedure for archiving inactive records. Records management should be a routine part of your business operations. Records should be regularly evaluated for transfer to archive and long-term storage solutions. The transfer process should include a system to track the location of stored records.
8. Create a policy and procedure for destroying expired records. Few records need to be or should be kept permanently. They can be destroyed after a predefined period.

A sound records-management process should be a priority in any organization. Any old approach will not do. It’s time to get your records under control and experience the benefit of good records management.

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The first point in the article by Hara Estroff Marano gives this statistic:

Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. For them procrastination is a lifestyle, albeit a maladaptive one. And it cuts across all domains of their life. They don’t pay bills on time. They miss opportunities for buying tickets to concerts. They don’t cash gift certificates or checks. They file income tax returns late. They leave their Christmas shopping until Christmas eve.

The article does not define a chronic procrastinator, but I would have assumed that the percentage of people who procrastinate, would be in the 80 plus range. Practically everyone I know procrastinates at some time over some unpleasant task. That doesn’t mean all of them are chronic.

I also wonder, if twenty percent identify themselves as chronic procrastinators, is there another twenty or greater percentage lying to themselves or others?

The Wikibook, Overcoming Procrastination, says this about chronic procrastination:

When procrastination grows so prevalent that it becomes a personality trait, its severity is said to be chronic. In this form of procrastination, the problem has become a generalized habitual self-destructive pattern. Putting things off has become a core habit. The chronic procrastinator cannot get anything accomplished on time, resulting in serious career struggles, persistent financial problems, and a diminished quality of life.

Procrastinators Anonymous —yes, they have meetings— list ten signs of compulsive procrastination.

1. Disappointment is a way of life. We constantly disappoint other people and ourselves by not keeping our promises.
2. We have enormous difficulty getting started on new projects, or transitioning from one project to another.
3. We have a very poor sense of time, chronically underestimating or overestimating how long a task will take us to complete.
4. We have difficulty organizing projects by breaking them down into steps; we don’t know where to start, even when we’re willing to start.
5. We are surrounded by clutter and disorganization in our homes and work spaces.
6. We are regularly late for appointments.
7. We are acutely aware of what we should be doing, or think we should be doing, and oddly out of touch with what we actually want and need.
8. We feel uncomfortable saying “no” to requests from others, and instead express our resentment through the passive resistance of procrastination.
9. We suffer from Demand Resistance, causing us to do anything and everything except the one thing we most need to do.
10. We are short-term thinkers, focusing on short-term pleasure while ignoring long-term well-being.

You may not have all these signs, but if you exhibit a number of these behaviours, you could have a problem with procrastination. As I review the list, most of those behaviours have been mine at one time or another. That’s why I consider myself to be a serious or chronic procrastinator.

Next post: I’ll take a look at common perceptions.

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While books, seminars, websites, etc. offer to teach you how to be a leader, sometimes looking at the “how not to” is helpful. Back in 2005, Tony Morgan posted the article10 Easy Ways to Know You’re Not a Leader.

He said.

When you get looking for leaders, you’ll notice there are several types of people. Some are genuine leaders. Some are in leadership positions, but they aren’t really leaders. Some aren’t in a leadership position but think they should be. So what are the signs that indicate you’re not really a leader?

1. You’re waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.
2. You think you need to be in charge to have influence.
3. You’re content.
4. You tend to foster division instead of generating a helpful dialogue.
5. You think you need to say something to be heard.
6. You find it easier to blame others for your circumstances than to take responsibility for solutions.
7. It’s been some time since you said, “I messed up.”
8. You’re driven by the task instead of the relationships and the vision.
9. Your dreams are so small, people think they can be achieved.
10. No one is following you.

I would add a corollary to number 2: You think because you have been placed in charge, you automatically are a leader.

If any of these items describe your concept of leadership, you need to re-think.

Do you have any to add to the list? Put your suggestions in the comments.

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The Problem

E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous in box overflow for those who receive a lot of it.

The Solution

Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

five.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less. It’s that simple.

I use this “solution” for my e-mail almost all the time. The only exceptions are: when I’m sending an instruction or explanation sheet; and personal correspondence with family and friends. (Sometimes, even they get the five-sentence rule. )

There are three keys I use to optimize the “five-sentence” business email:

1. A clear and complete subject line – Make sure the subject line has enough information to get the reader’s attention. Replace subject lines like “Status report” with “Data I need from you to complete this month’s status report.”
2. Don’t waste sentences on pleasantries – Please, thank you and other politeness is important. However, you don’t have to ask about the ball game, talk about the weather, or engage in any other social chit-chat. Stick to the subject at hand.
3. Customize your signature – Whatever email client or service you use, set up a automated signature. Give readers the fullest range of options to contact you. Also, include corporate data: company name, job title, etc. That way, e-mail recipients outside your circle will be able to make some basic judgements about the sender.

Sentenc.es – A Disciplined Way To Deal With Email

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