Daily Motivation, Inspiration, and Information! HERE
Importance arises from your vision and values. Urgency is merely circumstantial.
Choose. Not everything has to be done, much less done NOW!
Today's TQ Challenge: Remain Focused on Preplanned Priorities.
Urgencies are a fact of life. There will always be emergencies that demand your attention. The key is to handle them without getting pulled off course from your preplanned priorities. You are never the most productive when you are continuously enmeshed in low value, time consuming urgencies. Time spent improving your systems -- and planning ahead to prevent low-grade urgencies -- is a wiser investment than time spent administering emergency relief.
"Time = Life. Therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life." ~ Alan Lakein
Read Today's TQ, and find out how to improve this aspect of your Prioritize Color.
Before you dial, establish a routine to write notes on what you want to say; and take notes while you're talking.
If the next call is important enough to take yours and someone else's time, it's important enough to write down. Honor everyone's time with this routine.
Today's TQ Challenge: Create Efficient Routines -- Stick To Them.
A routine is a series of actions that are performed the same way every time -- usually at the same time. Routines ensure that every important action or step in a process will always be completed without fail. Make it a habit to do the right thing the right way -- every time, and you'll become vastly more productive.
"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts." ~ Booker T. Washington
Read Today's TQ, and find out how to improve this aspect of your Organize Color.
What you intend to accomplish by the end of the week can only be done one day at a time. When you take care of every day, Friday takes care of itself.
Schedule some kind of progress on every project every day this week.
Today's TQ Challenge: Don't Wait -- Schedule It Now!
The steps in your plan never schedule themselves. They don't automatically show up as the next thing to do. If you want to move your plans ahead, write each action step as an appointment in your calendar -- and dedicate an appropriate amount of time to get it done. If you don't reserve time for step-by-step planning in advance, everything else in your life will fill up the available time slots -- and your plans will never get completed.
"It's enough for you to do it once for a few men to remember you. But if you do it year after year, then many people remember you and they tell it to their children, and their children and grandchildren remember and, if it concerns books, they can read them. And if it's good enough, it will last as long as there are human beings." ~ Ernest Hemingway
Read Today's TQ, and find out how to improve this aspect of your Make Plans Color.
One of the best tools for keeping things in perspective is humor. Learn to laugh at the situation and at yourself. Humor leads to improved productivity.
Use humor when a sticky situation needs a lube. Humor greases all wheels.
Today's TQ Challenge: Look for the Best in Every Situation -- the Opportunity in Every Problem.
There are facts, and then there's your interpretation of these facts. The actions you take -- and the results you produce -- are completely dependent on how you see the facts. You can focus on the best in every situation or you can focus on the worst. There's a problem in every opportunity and an opportunity in every problem. Interpret the facts negatively and you're left with little power and fewer opportunities. Change your point of view and you're empowered to create the best results possible -- no matter the circumstance.
"If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness." ~ Les Brown
Read Today's TQ, and find out how to improve this aspect of your Attitude Color.
If you're not happy, you're not going to be productive. Increase your energy level, and you'll be happier and more productive.
Hitch your productivity to your positivity for the next hour.
Today's TQ Challenge: Promote Energy Gainers -- Eliminate Energy Drainers.
Some things boost your energy level, while others drain it. You need to know which is which. What drains your energy? Worry, medical or dental concerns, work piled on your desk, not enough sleep, diet, unfinished tasks, negative people, angry coworkers... anything else? Once identified, take action to eliminate these drainers and replace them with energy gainers: Exercise, high energy foods, more sleep, medical attention, friendly faces -- anything that makes you feel better, perform better and increases your energy rather than depletes it.
"The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary." ~ Thomas A. Edison
Read Today's TQ, and find out how to improve this aspect of your Energy Color.
Eliminate your current backlog of incomplete work to make room for important tasks.
Finish it or forget it -- then move on.
Today's TQ Challenge: Persist Until Actual Results Meet or Exceed Expectations.
If a project was worth starting, it deserves to be completed. Don't lose your momentum. Make some progress on every plan started. You've already put out some of the effort; now complete it so you can reap the rewards. Success builds success. Find all those half-finished projects lying around and finish them one-by-one.
"Sometimes only a change of viewpoint is needed to convert a tiresome duty into an interesting opportunity." ~ Alberta Flanders
Read Today's TQ, and find out how to improve this aspect of your Act Now Color.
I made it a habit years ago to ruthlessly limit my exposure to junk, fake and useless news to just 30 minutes a day.
That is more than enough time to get a global perspective on what's going on, process what is being said, and form an opinion.
Think about this.
There are only 1,440 minutes in a day (24 hours x 60 minutes).
Read this article at ThinkTQ.com.
For the past two weeks, we have been discussing the peace of mind that comes from knowing you have done your very best.
If you do the best you can, given the circumstances in which you find yourself, what more is there?
Better.
To achieve your dreams... to maintain balance in the heat of the battle... to know that you have done the best you could given the circumstances you faced... requires you to focus on the important, and not be consumed by the urgent.
This is a major driver of success, both personally and professionally. It is not hard to focus, if you know what's important to you, and what's not.
For the next two weeks, we will be discussing the "flip side" of Will Power: Peace of Mind.
As those of you who have read The Power of TQ know, my definition of success is simply this: "The peace of mind that comes from knowing you have done your very best."
As General Patton says, if you do your best, what more is there?
This week, in light of the upcoming Thanksgiving Weekend, we will be discussing how showing thanks and appreciation, in everyday terms, enhances your ability to live what you value most.
If you are not GETTING what you want out of life, maybe you're not GIVING enough to it.
