Category: professional development

He Said “I Think This Is A Change I Can Make”

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I recently attended the Joint Annual Conference for the Illinois Associations of School Boards, School Business Officials and School Administrators. This was my 8th time attending, for my 8th year as an elected Board of Education Member and more recently Board President. And I always learn so much. I could write for days and days about all the things that I’ve learned. All of the learning applies to Education, obviously. And much of it applies to the rest of life, too.

At one of the keynote sessions, we heard from David Horsager. He’s an author, public speaker, researcher, and all around amazing person. He was phenomenal. I had the opportunity to work through his Trust Edge workshop a few years ago at the same conference, and this time we learned from him live!

And yes, I now have an autographed copy of his newest book, “Trust Matters More Than Ever”. But I digress.

I am NOT going to distill all that he talked about in his 70 minute presentation in today’s article or podcast. I will read the book, though, and share out more specifically soon.

He shared an anecdote when he was talking about Consistency in Leadership, though, and it really resonated with me in terms of habits and routines.

He mentioned that this time last year his doctor told him that if he wanted to be around to see his children grow up, he needed to make some changes. He shared that information at one of his presentations at the time, and after the presentation while he was chatting with 2 attendees, they mentioned that they chose to not drink their calories. That was a simple strategy this couple used to eat and drink healthier. And David shared that as he reflected on that idea, he said to himself “I think this is a change I can make.”

“I think this is a change I can make.“

“I think this is a change I can make.”

This is not an article or episode about calories. It’s an article or episode about making positive change.

Let me make a few assertions, as we get started:

  • There are areas where you and I could use some improvement.
  • Change needs to happen.
  • Change CAN happen.
  • You and I are capable of making positive change.

David shared that he realized he didn’t have to take big actions to make change, that he could do it in small pieces instead. And, so can we.

“I think this is a change I can make.”

Exploring and finding those changes we can make to make positive improvement seems more doable, manageable, applicable.

So, what does that look like for you and me?

  • We reflect on our life and situation.
  • We identify areas for improvement.
  • We set our goals.
  • And we determine the steps we need to take, to move us from where we are today to where we want to be.
  • And then we take those steps.

“I think this is a change I can make.”

David shared this example: As an international professional speaker, he takes hundreds of flights a year. His simple change to make was to switch from full sugar soda on the flights to diet sodas. He didn’t give up every beverage every day, he changed his choices just on airplanes. That felt like a simple switch, a change he could make. He identified the situation where he could employ this, and he started making small changes, which he reported, yielded big results over time.

Asking again, what does that look like for us?

It looks like a “Do This” instead of “Do That.”

Not changing the habit in general, just tweaking it. If you and I need to make a change, an example could be “No red meat” (and actually that is a change I have been advised to make). I’m not going to stop eating, or stop eating out, or stop cooking, I will just not choose red meat.

Or, we could walk instead of driving a few blocks to a destination.

Or, I can go to bed at the same time, but add in 10 minutes of meditation and reading a good book instead of doom scrolling so I fall asleep sooner and get better rest.

“I think this is a change I can make.”

If you’re reading this instead of listening, it sounds like “Hmm, I could do that. That’s something I could do.” As in, it doesn’t have to be hard. Doable, specific. We have looked at SMART Goals, right? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Specific.

“I think this is a change I can make.”

Doesn’t that feel positive and hopeful and reasonable and empowering? It keeps coming back to me in my mind. We can identify something small we can do to make progress, and then we do it.

My priest was talking about this in Mass, too. That the Kingdom of God is many things. And it is also in the small and consistent actions every day. Yes, it may be big and sweeping actions, but it’s also showing small kindnesses every day, or making time for prayer every day. Making positive change looks like doing little things consistently.

And here is my last point,

When I started writing this article, it seemed like a New Year’s or January article and message. I was very passionate about it so I wanted to write it all down, but I almost didn’t share it this week. However, the message also needs to be – We don’t have to wait. When we figure out that we need to make a change, and then also figure out what that change is that we can make, we don’t have to wait. And, I decided I didn’t want to wait to share this because any day, any moment is a good time to make a positive change.

We don’t have to wait. You don’t have to wait for January, or when you get home from that trip, or for the perfect situation to arrive, or until the planets align. We can choose small, simple changes and start right now, making positive change. I wanted to share this with you and start thinking about it for myself, because I’m never going to ask you guys to do something that I haven’t also thought of or tried, because that is the way this works.

We reflect, identify areas of improvement, determine where we want to go and how to get there, and then we make the changes we can make that move us toward that goal.

I think that is a change I can make.

Recipes For Life, Not For Stew or Cookies!

If you have followed me for any time at all, you know I love to cook. I don’t cook as often as I used to because there aren’t as many people in my house these days. But I love to cook. And though some of my articles and episodes and social media content are about cooking (those are some of my most popular videos, it’s funny), this week’s topic, despite the name, is not one of those.

This is not a cooking topic, even though it’s about recipes.

But let’s use a food recipe as a launching point for the topic. When I cook, sometimes I make something that I have made so many times, the recipe is in my head and I don’t need to read an an actual recipe anymore.

Chocolate chip cookies or pretty much, you know, your basic cookie base, right? Two sticks of softened butter, three quarters of a cup each of white and brown sugars. Far too much vanilla. Oh, wait, maybe that’s just me. Whip that until it looks right, add two eggs, and then add whatever else that you want to add. For most types of cookies we make, next we add two and a quarter cups flour with a teaspoon each of soda and salt. For oatmeal cookies, it’s more oats and less flour. For peanut butter cookies, it’s more flour. I just wrote that in one sitting. I could have done it my sleep, and perhaps somewhere along the way I have.

How about beef stew? Cut your stew beef into small cubes, then sear them in your pot with some flour, salt and pepper. Dice your carrots, celery, onions and potatoes also into small cubes – we like a little bit of everything in each bite. Then add water, bullion, A1 Steak Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce. Mmm, delish. And that one is in my head, too. I don’t need to write it down and I wouldn’t need to look at it.

These two examples are of foods that are almost a routine, but not quite. Through starting with a recipe long ago and then through repetition of the recipe, I can make these items without referencing a physical recipe. But it’s in my head.

I talk a lot about routines because I really do believe that they are the building blocks for, oh, I don’t know everything, but there are some things we do that are not routine tasks.

Routine tasks, in my mind, are things that we do multiple times a day, or every day, or maybe a couple times a week, or once a week. And the repetition over time cements the process or task in our heads. Repetition and practice, we’ve talked about those, too. Repetition cements the practice.

The practice. I think that’s the other part, too, is the sequencing that comes in a recipe. So it’s not just the list of ingredients in a recipe, it’s also the, “what do you do with them”? If it’s a cooking recipe, ingredients are listed in the order that you use them. So if there’s something in the recipe that needs to be “chilled for 2 hours”, for example, that block of ingredients is probably going to be listed first.

Now, Let’s look at this in terms of time management.

Because some tasks and projects need to be done the same way every time. You do those steps first, and then 2 hours later, you do the other steps. That is how a recipe works, at least in terms of food.

We can use recipes in our day to day life as well, even if they don’t have food attached to them.

In my time management and productivity presentations, I talk about recipes, also known as shortcuts or checklists, because they help us. We determine the right ingredients for a task or project, and then the best sequence to complete the task or project efficiently and effectively and consistently. Like a recipe. Then we make note of the recipe and refer back to it every time we need to complete that task or project or similar, at least until we have the process or practice remembered or cemented.

And we do this to get the expected and preferred outcome. We figure out what we need and how to fit it together to get what we want from the process, and we document the ingredients and steps to an refer to them again and again.

I was at a conference, reviewing some notes between sessions, and a table of techie people near me were talking about recipes. And I quickly realized they were not discussing food. They were talking about recipes for non routine tasks. Like CODE! Yes, they were talking about coding. They were talking about leaving themselves notes about steps and sequences to ensure a positive outcome next time. And we all can benefit from that idea, right?

Let’s think about how we can incorporate the idea of recipes, of notes about steps and sequences, in our own lives.

Recently, I was reminded about the importance of recipes for non-routine tasks by a phone call from a family member asking about how to do something on their phone. Reasonable question.

I’m not familiar with their phone, but I’m familiar with some phones, and have a good idea of how things work. I asked if they had done before what they wanted to do now (send photos in a text to a friend), and they said yes, but it has been a while and they didn’t remember how. Fair enough, we all have moments like that, I know I do.

But, they were out of practice and we needed to re-determine the steps and sequence. We needed to determine the recipe, and also remember to refer back to it next time.

Truth is, I have recipes for different processes myself. I recently documented a recipe for my weekly content process and I have found it very helpful. Let me explain:

I have a topic per week for my newsletter and podcast episode and social media content. I set those up on my editorial content calendar 2 and 3 and sometimes wonderfully, like 4 weeks in advance. I get the idea from something I have learned or current events or from a reader question, and I realize discussing the topic would be beneficial for all of you. I start to think about what it is I want to talk about. For the topic every week,

  • I determine the topic;
  • I verbally record me talking about the topic on a voice memo;
  • I name the voice memo, email it to myself and upload it to a transcription website;
  • I copy the transcribed text into my blog platform and start writing the article;
  • I record the podcast episode about the topic based on the article;
  • I finish and edit the article, add photos and links;
  • I publish the blog article;
  • I write the newsletter for this week’s topic with the link to this week’s article;
  • hopefully, I also record a short video to be shared on my social media channels and you-tube; and
  • the podcast episode and newsletter come out on a Tuesday together.

Now that I have determined the ingredients and sequence to this process, I have written it down. And it almost a routine task, but here is another complication that necessitated the writing of the recipe. I do this every week. And the process is longer than week.

What complicates the process is that I initially recorded, for example, this article content about recipes about four weeks ago. My content calendar is complex but I like it. I have these recipes per topic all loaded into my master to-do list, and each week’s content is in varying stages of completion.

As I write this article on a Monday for next week, also today I am publishing this week’s completed article and sending the newsletter out tomorrow regarding this week’s topic. This Recipes article I am writing and content is scheduled for next week, and I have articles started for other upcoming topics, as well.

Each week and topic have a nice clear publication day, but I am also mid-process at any given moment on two or three other topics.

Yeesh.

Do you see why I need recipes and check lists?! I needed to schedule the ingredients and sequencing for each week’s topic. I wanted to simplify, to automate, to give my brain a break. There is just too much to track with all of those processes running, and I needed my brain capacity to also be used for a million other things in my life so it was time to document and then repeat regularly the recipe.

Now it’s all documented, and when I complete a step, I delete the step because I can. For example, on my master to-do list and the recipe for the Recipes article and podcast,: Recording, check!

It is the ingredients, sure, but also the sequencing. Sequencing is super important to understand. For example, there’s no way I can publish my article if I didn’t have it written yet! Seems so obvious. I know, but sometimes we need obvious.

Where in your day, your week, your month, your year would recipes help you?

In a recent article and podcast episode about quarterly planning, I mentioned activating my October 1 holiday planning list. Yes, I have one of those. Because we do these things over and over. Why not figure out the right way to do it, the best way to do it, the quickest way to do it, the easiest way to do it, the right ingredients and proper sequencing of steps? And once we have done it and we’re paying attention and we’ve figured out that wow, that idea really saved me time and stress, and everybody was really happy about it, Oh – let me write that down! So that awareness of what we’re doing and documenting that process, super helpful.

Leave yourself some love notes for later in the form of recipes. Through your experiences and triumphs, you have gained the knowledge and earned the wisdom. So let Wise You leave Future You some notes from later, the recipe, the ingredients and proper sequencing, and make your life so much easier going forward.

Yes, I helped my family member with the tech question. And later, when I sit sit down to work on my content calendar, I am going to appreciate the recipe that I wrote for myself and future me as I edit one article and publish another and do the things I need to do with ease, without having to scratch my head and wonder what my next steps or worry if I have forgotten something! I hope you found this helpful!

Getting Specific With Quarterly Planning

A client asked recently:

“I’ve been thinking about your recommendation to do quarterly planning. I’m consolidating my to-do lists and thinking about how to restructure my categories. And I like the concept of quarterly planning. If you haven’t written a blog yet about your process, I’d really like to learn the specifics of how YOU go about planning quarterly.”

I just love this. Thank you, dear client, for asking the question. You know who you are.

I wrote about quarterly planning back in January, check out the article here. I have other articles on planning, as well, if you’d like to know more, head over to PeaceofMindpo.com, click on the Blog tab and add Planning in the search bar.

I don’t always get too specific about me in my articles and podcast episodes, but this is one topic that probably should be specific! And a reminder, as in all things, I am sharing what I do as AN example, of one way of doing something. It is not a requirement or demand – EVER. Just an example, and perhaps a suggestion!

I like setting quarterly goals because, for me, setting a yearly goal sometimes seems too big or too long, and anything less than a month seems too short. Let me rephrase – I do set annual goals, but I like to break those broad goals down into more manageable pieces, and an every three month planning cycle with 6 week to three month goals works for me.

Conveniently, this client asked this question as I plan my fourth quarter of 2024, my Q4. For me personally, at least, planning in Q4 is a great illustration of the importance of quarterly planning.

Q4 starts with October and ends in December. I am in shorts and a t-shirt as I write this. My window is open, the breeze is blowing in. My birthday is at the beginning of Q4, and the next holiday on my horizon is Halloween. (note to self, put up Autumn decorations)

But, as a certified professional organizer, board of education member, planner of family functions and Catholic liturgical musician and human being, I know that the calendar for the next three months is going to fill up FAST, and the to-do list will as well! Soon and very soon (a song reference!), the focus will shift to Autumn, to Thanksgiving, to Advent and to Christmas. Just this morning at Mass, my music director mentioned that she would like to put together an Advent Concert the first week of December. And I, of course, said “Sure!”

All things seem possible when you start planning them months in advance!

Back to the original question: How do I actually quarterly plan? Let’s do this.

Grab your calendar, digital or paper.

  • Me personally, I am sitting here at my laptop as I use Google calendar, and I have my bullet journal, my phone, my to-do list and a cold beverage.

Check out what is already on your calendar for the next three months, personally and professionally.

  • For Q4, I already have many recurring events on my calendar in my many Focus areas, and I bet you do, too.
  • I have regular client appointments, meetings and coaching calls.
  • My choir has our rehearsal and Mass schedule set.
  • The Board of Education has monthly meetings and committee work on the calendar.
  • I also have non-recurring events in my calendar already like presentations, concerts, doctor appointments, etc.

Reflect on your Focus Areas:

I talked recently about Focus Areas, and we need to have them in mind as we do our quarterly planning, or any planning, for that matter. As reported, mine are my business and my different income streams, my family, my home and wellness, Board of Education work and church ministry.

What are yours? Make sure you keep them in mind as you plan!

The next step is to weave in the set plans.

And this step is why I said Q4 is a great illustration of quarterly planning.

Because, as an example, every year in Q4, we have many set plans around our holidays with our families.

I have a planning list that I pull out and activate on October 1 regarding the holidays. According to the list, in the next week, I will check in with my side of the family regarding when we want to celebrate our Christmas together. I will check in, too, with my sister-in-law for dates for my young niece and nephew’s Christmas concert for school. (Typically a Thursday evening in early December). I will check in with my college student around when he wants to come home for Thanksgiving and what day in December he will likely be done with finals and need a ride home from college. All of those tasks are already on my to-do list as I fill in those big flexible events and make sure they are on the calendar.

You may not personally be thinking December thoughts right now, but a whole lot of people are! For example, here in Chicago, in late September I received the email from a local news agency that reservations are now open for The Walnut Room, a holiday tradition for many! Yes, it is time to plan!

Work in some flexibility and grace.

I am getting better at weaving in prep time ahead of and re-entry after the big events. For example, my husband’s company throws quite the holiday event every year. And, every year, I seem to scramble to get ready and downtown in a timely manner. This year, I blocked the afternoon before the event from client appointments so I don’t have to rush. Similarly, I have my annual Illinois Association of School Boards conference mid November. It is already on my calendar for November 21-24. AND, there are a lot of other things that go into that conference, before and after. So I just blocked time the day before and the day after for some flexibility and rest.

Now, let’s talk Goal Setting. Any incomplete goals to roll forward from last quarter? Now is the time!

Check in around your Goals from the last quarter, how did they work out? If you need to roll something forward, now is the time! A reminder, way back in January when I talked about quarterly planning, I recommended that you dole out your achievements over the whole year. So you may have goals for 2024 that you haven’t completed yet, and that is ok. We can still get a lot done while also respecting the fun and festivities of the holidays – we just need to plan ahead and that is why we set quarterly goals!

Planning and Goal Setting go no further if we don’t attach the necessary actions.

As you work on your plan for your fourth quarter, plan the actions and steps associated to your quarterly goals.

I will use Thanksgiving as an example. We know Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 28. (action) My family and I will figure out the menu and who is bringing what dishes via text over the next few weeks. And then, as other examples of actions, I will start adding shelf-stable grocery items to my weekly shopping list for the foods I am assigned to bring, I will start a bag of things to take with me and I will block some time on the calendar that week for shopping / packing / prep.

What if, in addition to work and life, you are also a crafty person and want to make holiday gifts this year by hand? Commendable, and I love it. AND you have to put all of those tasks and time and actions on the calendar and to-do list NOW so you aren’t caught unprepared in a few months.

Make sure to leave time and energy for the actions attached to your Q4 plan! And put them on the calendar and to-do list now!

Honor your own season and cycles.

Be reasonable, and adjust your expectations.

Yes, Q4 is here. Fall, holidays, travel, school events, yes – I get it. AND, that means different things to different people. In transparency, my birthday is in early October. So this time of year, in addition to Q4 planning, I am always thinking big strategic planning ideas for MY next year, MY next 12 months towards my next birthday. I think in cycles like that and I find it helpful.

I love Fall. Perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you struggle with less and less daylight this time of year, and you need to factor in more rest or adjust your to-do list expectations down a bit. Honor your own season.

A final note – you may be listening to this in October of 2024, or maybe you’re listening some other time in the future. You are not late to the party. ANY day is a good day to plan. And then ACT, of course, but first plan. Let this day be whatever you need it to be, but be intentional and do your day on your terms!

Learn New Things Then Make Them Your Own

I am a member of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, and I attended their annual conference last weekend. It was amazing, and I will share more soon.

In an activity with a fellow participant, we worked through a new time management tool that I CANNOT wait to introduce to all of you! But I digress.

The tool walks us through a project, helps us identify potential roadblocks and how to deal with them, and lets us imagine our reasons for and how we will feel when we achieve our goal and / or complete the project. For the activity to learn to use the tool, we chose a goal or project to focus on, and mine was “how to ensure I worked through my conference notes this week” And my answer to my table partner was, “Because otherwise, WHY DID I BOTHER TO GO?!”

Going to the conference was not simple. The conference was in Minnesota, a beautiful state from the little bit that I got to explore when not in sessions. It was a 7 hour drive to get Bloomington, MN right next to Minneapolis-St.Paul, and the same to get back, though that was in the dark and in the rain. (My husband is a rockstar). It required money and planning and research and packing and a million other little tasks. It required that I take time off from paying clients to instead pay money. It required that I attend a conference I have never attended, that I step into rooms where I knew no-one. It required many leaps of faith, to just jump into a situation and do my best. And it was absolutely worth it.

I visited new places and saw new things. I learned so much. So much that will help me in my business, in my work with my clients and also me personally. I hugged in-person people who I had only met in virtual programs before now, I met amazing new people and made new friends.

Similarly, I presented at a conference the week before. And, I would hope for all of those attendees that they took some time to review and internalize and revel and relish what they learned at their conference and then started to put that new knowledge into practice, too.

As part of my working through the content this week from the conference, I want to write about it and then I will do it! It’s time to process what I learned, follow up with many people and incorporate what I learned into my real life. Because, again, otherwise, WHY DID I BOTHER TO GO?!

If you, too, have the opportunity to learn new things, here are some things to think about!

Be open to learning because there are always things to learn.

First, can we just appreciate how awesome it is to have the opportunity to learn new things? There is always more to learn, either expanding on things we already know or learning new topics and ideas entirely.

When we get back from learning, Unpack, and I mean physically unpack.

I have worked with dozens of clients who have bags still packed with logos on them from conferences or workshops they attended 1 and 5 and 20 years ago. In addition to the knowledge learned going no further than that bag on a shelf or under the desk, logistically speaking – what about the half-eaten granola bar or dirty tissues – ew!

Please, unpack your bag and delete or recycle the easy and the obvious. When it comes to storage, bags are almost never our friends. Liberate the stuff and the learning, bring it back to the daylight!

As an aside, when you attend a conference with other professional organizers, some of us admit to emptying the swag bag immediately, getting rid of what we don’t want and sharing it the next day with fellow participants, and clearing out the excess before we even pack to go home!

Also as an aside, at a conference for professional organizers, programs start on time and sometimes even early!

Next, and very importantly: Act on the new knowledge while it is still fresh!

One of my accountability partners asked a great question the last time we spoke. She asked if I had a plan, or what was my plan, to work through all of my notes and follow-up from conference.

I want to review my notes this week because I can easily recall exactly what I was feeling and thinking when I heard the content. I can remember what time of day it was, I can remember who was sitting at my table with me. Reviewing the content just a few days out means that as I reflect on the content, I can fill in my note with even more ideas, I can recall thoughts I had then that I might not have had time to capture at that moment, I can start to move the knowledge from short term memory into long term memory, and I can make plans for changing my behaviors around what I learned.

If I waited weeks or months or years, that reflection piece would take me nowhere fast. And I would miss the opportunity to make the knowledge my own and incorporate it into my own best practices.

Relatedly, as I review my notes, if I want to reach out to someone I spoke with, they will also be more likely to remember me now than in a few weeks or months from now.

In addition to knowledge becoming un-refreshable to us, remember that Knowledge Expires. If you have a backlog of content or binders or books from long ago professional development, please consider that Knowledge Expires. Yes, knowledge expires.

Here’s an example: Years ago, a friend said how proud they were of the medical journals on the shelf above their desk. They liked to see the journals, the journals felt like visual proof of how good a doctor this friend is. And this friend is a good doctor. AND, I reminded them that I would not want to see a 20 year old medical journal above my doctor’s desk, I would rather see recent certificates and updates and achievements. Because, in some industries, like the medical profession, some knowledge expires.

I would not want to see reference books for outdated software on my IT department’s shelf. I do not want to see educational theory books from the 1950’s on a teacher’s shelf.

Looking ahead, Make A Plan for Yourself to Learn New Things

As I reflected on presenting at a conference and then, a week later, attending a conference, I am reminded that, as I stated earlier, there is always more to learn. My suggestion to you and to myself is to come up with our own education plans.

Once we are out of the academic environment, it would be easy to stop learning. But in the first line of my content for my recent presentation, I stated that “If we aren’t growing, we’re either standing still or we’re wilting and withering”. Those are our options.

We can choose to grow, we can stand still or we can wilt and wither. Of course there are some days I am not striving and growing and reading and pursuing. But those days of rest are part of the plan, too. An educational plan guides our steps.

I don’t know what that educational plan looks like for you. I don’t know what lights you up or what you’re interested in. But maybe you know.

There’s so much information available to us these days. There has never, never in the history of the world, been so much information and so readily at our fingertips. Never before. Of course, we need to make sure we are critical thinkers and are consuming actual knowledge from trusted sources.

But there’s so much out there to learn and know about. So much. And it’s all available to us.

For me, personally, I am going to work through my notes from my conference. I am also going to review my non-fiction “reading pile”. I put that in quotations because while I call it my reading pile, it is not a pile. It is a part of a shelf full of books I own but have not read yet, and also a back log on my kindle app on my Ipad. There were books and authors mentioned at conference and I know I own some of those books but I have not read them yet. Establishing a more consistent non-fiction reading habit sounds like a positive step in that Education Plan!

At writing time, I completed some easy first steps yesterday afternoon.

  • I unpacked my conference bag, recycled any papers I won’t need again, put things away in my office that have a home.
  • I entered into my phone contacts all of the business card information from fellow attendees who shared with me.
  • I submitted for and received certificates for all the Continuing Education Unit that I earned by participating this weekend.
  • I processed my bullet journal notes from the last 4 days. I still need to prioritize the notes and action steps, but they are in Evernote so that now, when I have a few moments, I can start assigning the ideas and tasks to the appropriate list – ideas like blog topics, client follow up, etc., or schedule time to complete tasks like the errands I will run tomorrow.

On my agenda for this afternoon and tomorrow morning are to review the handouts from each of the presentations. I will reach out via email and thank the speakers for their presentations. I will subscribe to newsletter and follow on Facebook or Instagram.

I will read the articles that were recommended for further reading, I will email follow up to my fellow participants. For example, a fellow participant asked a question during one session regarding working with a client in a hoarding situation who is struggling emotionally, and I offered to share information regarding Mental Health First Aid Training.

I will continue to share out the new knowledge gained in the coming months, as I internalize it and make it my own!

More about Learning new things:

In October, I will begin hosting webinars on topics such as quarterly planning, menu planning, clearing clutter (that was a specific ask, Sandy I heard you!). Some will be free, and some will have a small fee attached. I look forward to you and I learning more together!

Focus Areas: How Do You Spend Your Resources?

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I presented this past weekend at The Traveluxe Ignite 2024 Conference. Their tag line for the conference was “Aspire to Inspire”, I love that!

It was so fun to be in a big room full of fantastic human beings, and I am truly grateful they welcomed me into their circle.

I spoke to them about Goal Setting, using the tools of SMART Goals and PACT Goals, both topics that I have presented dozens of times and spoken about in past articles and podcast episodes. 

Leading into the Goal Setting segment, though, for these folks, I first brought up the idea of Focus Areas.

Our Focus Areas are where, in our life, we use our resources of time, money, energy, passion, focus, etc.  Our Focus Areas are what is important to us. And while I mention “Find Your Focus Areas and stick with them” in my Stress Management presentation, and I have published an article and podcast episode about them (if you want to know more, go check out December, 2022), I needed to expand my teaching content for this presentation and I wrote that content in the last couple of weeks.

The Questions I ask are:

  • “What are your Focus Areas, right now?”
  • Knowing that, “What do you want your Focus Areas to be?” and then
  • “What do you NOT want to focus on?”

Today, we are going to look at that first step, that first question, “What are your Focus Areas, right now?

Productivity Coaching is all about awareness first. We start with awareness. 

We ask, what are we doing? What are our focus areas right now?  Where are we spending our resources? 

Because, here’s the thing, we may think we know what our Focus Areas are, but we also may require a more realistic report of what is actually happening. Sometimes were are not full aware of what we’re spending our resources on. I can believe in my heart that I am focusing on what I want to focus on, but how I spend my resources may tell a different story.

Once we identify our current Focus Areas, then we can ask what we DO and Don’t want them to be, but first we have to identify what they are right now. And, to determine what our focus areas are right now, I suggested a few questions for my participants to reflect on.

I asked, What are our resources? Broadly, our resources are time, money, energy, emotion, passion, space. Right? All of those things are our resources. And all of those things are finite. So we want to make sure that we are spending our resources on the right things.

We’re checking in on what is. And how do we do that?

I recommended strategies in my presentation to find our focus areas. I recommended that, to identify what you are focusing on, look at your bank and credit card statements for how you are spending your money.  Review receipts if you pay for items in cash. Start gaining awareness on where you spend the resource of money.

And that caused a little stir in my audience.  Apparently, something similar had been part of a conversation some other time in the conference, so, reading the room, it caused a stir, though not in a bad way, per se.

I know it’s hard, but that’s why we’re going through this process, right? We want to make sure that we’re doing the right things in the right areas. We want to determine what that is for ourselves. We want to make progress. Yay.

Productivity coaching. That’s what we do.

But we need to know where our resources are going.  And once we know, once we are aware of where our resources are being spent, we can then ask – is this where I WANT them to go?

I’m reminded of a conversation I have had with a family member a couple of times now about travel, as in “When are you going to travel internationally?” And my answer is, and has been, “I have well educated children.” To remind them that our resources have been dedicated to areas other than international travel for the last 10 years or more.

So, as we identify Focus Areas, wee look at where we are spending our money. And we can review other resources, as well.

Where are we spending our time?

If you’re curious about, or seeking awareness around how you spend your time, look at your calendar. This week, of course, but also the last few months or years, and what you have on the calendar looking ahead.

I would like to say that I am dedicated to my own wellness, that it is a Focus area, but a review of my calendar shows that while I am up to date on my medical stuff, I have gotten out of the exercise habit and now it is not on my calendar.  With that awareness, I can either recommit (which I hope to), or I need to be more realistic in the story I tell myself about my Focus Areas.

“How do I spend my scheduled time?” is a good question, and we can also look at our past to-do lists and our current to-do list.  Many of the women I spoke to at the conference mentioned they love paper planners, so another great place to look to identify your Focus Areas is past journals and planners.  In one of my next articles and episodes about Bullet Journals, I will likely talk about how I was never much of a journaler / diary keeper until I started using a Bullet Journal and now I am glad I can go back and review past journals to help me guide my actions today.

Next, was can ask, How do I spend the resource of energy, focus, passion?  An indicator of this is to look at your incoming and outgoing communications, like your phone calls, emails and texting history.

(That suggestion caused a stir, too).

But it is true.  Texting is very personal for most of us, and it is an indicator of our Focus areas. A quick review of my last week of phone calls showed checking in w family, and lots of new client calls. My texting shows the themes of Family / My Parent’s wellness, my kids and husband, ministry at my Parish, Board of Education work, and personal and home management.  Yep, sounds about right.

I have walked through this process myself, of late, when creating this content.  And I feel like another upcoming article and episode will be how to clean up our spending, as I have begun that adventure for myself now that I have gained more awareness.  But that is for another day.

As I wrap up today, let’s recap:

  • Thinking about Focus Areas is important to setting goals and getting things done.
  • It is important to identify what our current Focus Areas are to then ensure that we are doing what we want and need to be doing, and making adjustments if necessary.
  • And
  • To identify what our focus areas are, we can review where we spend our resources, those personal and precious and finite resources we have, like our money, time, energy, focus, emotion, passion. With that awareness, we can then decide for ourselves how we want to move ahead.

I hope you found this helpful, and please let me know how this helped!

Bullet Journal: Ever Present and Indexing

Okay, next up on the list, let’s talk about Bullet Journal. Bullet Journaling. My bullet journal.

Now, this is a big deal for a lot of reasons, and I’m going to tell you why.

It’s September, and September is National Preparedness Month. I have shared a lot of information over the years about National Preparedness Month. We all benefit from that reminder that we need to have our ducks in a row, or at least know what and where are our ducks are. We need to be ready for life. And I will talk about National Preparedness Month in a couple of weeks, but that is not today’s topic.

One of the ways that I stay in a state of Ready, how I manage all the things that I manage – and there are a lot of those things – is using something called a Bullet Journal. I am going to reference now Ryder Carroll who created Bullet Journal, and also bulletjournal.com if you would like to know more.

And to give credit where credit is due, I need to give a nod to my dear friend Mark who introduced me to the idea many years ago. Mark has since passed, unfortunately, but I think of him kindly when I am working in my Bullet Journal.

I just started a new journal last week. Starting fresh is such a good feeling. A Bullet Journal is a tool. That’s all. It’s a very personalizeable tool. Mark and I taught Bullet Journaling classes over the years and it was good for us to teach it together because Bullet Journaling is so personal and individualized, it’s good to have two different people’s input.

There are many facets of a Bullet Journal that I love. Honestly, it’s a notebook. That’s it. It’s a notebook. How you use that notebook makes it a Bullet Journal. If you’d like to go to the Bullet Journal website and spend a lot of money on a very snazzy notebook – they are very pretty – Go for it. But before I get ahead of myself, let me tell you why I love my Bullet Journal.

A Bullet Journal is a tool, and the concept comes with rules and suggestions, a technique, with ways of doing things, and you can choose to use it or not, and you can choose to abide by the rules and suggestions or not. I find it very helpful, and there are two facets of Bullet Journaling that I will talk about today that can be applied to any other notebook or note taking device, as well.

One aspect I love about my Bullet Journal is that it is ever present, ever ready. As I am writing this article, it is physically at my right hand on my desk. And when I get ready to go in a few minutes, I will slip it into my backpack which is twelve inches away from it at present, and it will go with me and be ever present as I go about my day as well.

I love technology, I am a tech girl. I use my phone and iPad and laptop ALL DAY. But there are also times in my day that I that I need to write something down as opposed to entering it into my phone or laptop somehow. Maybe I need to scratch a 2 word reminder to run an errand while I sit at a stoplight, right? So I do. Because my Bullet Journal is ever present. And I don’t necessarily want to pick up my phone because well, it’s illegal and ill advised.

Whenever a thought strikes me, I can quickly jot it down, and I recognize there are many opportunities in my day where those thoughts to strike!

And this is why I am sharing. I know many people, clients and colleagues, who write down notes on whatever is handy. The back of mail envelopes, shopping bags, the margins of a book, on a newspaper, on their hands. (Yes, their hands, 25 years ago – I worked for the Internal Medicine Residency Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago and yes, our residents would sometimes jot down lab results on their hands because that’s what was available when they took a call from the lab about a patient.)

If I am already on a call, sometimes it’s just easier to write the customer service reference number or my family member’s hospital room number. And sometimes, I don’t want to get distracted by my screen so I will make a note to “look up jar salad recipes”, or write a really cool quote that I read in a devotion this morning.

One client in particular asks as we discover notes on note paper, receipts, envelopes, whatever – “What is wrong with me!?” Nothing’s wrong with her. But her notes and therefore her thoughts end up a hodgepodge, which makes it difficult to retain or review that information or get to what is really important. Whenever we’re working on her papers, we find notes all over the place but without context, they are difficult to process.

Which leads me to the second thing that I love most about my Bullet Journal and that is the Index. Which is just what it sounds like. Read any published material and it likely has an index. So you can find what you need when you need it.

On my Bullet Journal next to me, I have today’s date listed, and some notes below. Later today, I have a doctor’s appointment and I’m going to have some notes from that in my Bullet Journal. Later still, I will run a rehearsal for my choir and I will surely add more thoughts and tasks to the page.

In a couple of weeks, if I want to refer back to what we talked about today with my doctor, I’m going to be able to check the index and flip to the page from today.

My index pages, the first 4 pages of a Bullet Journal, will have three columns for page number, dates and then topics per page. So I can readily find information again if I need it.

And – you can do this with any notebook you already have, too! (I rocked a client’s world a few weeks ago with this concept – she was so excited to add an index to existing note books to make them make sense!!)

Yes, you can take an existing notebook, number the pages and if it is too late to add an index to the front, add it to the last 4 pages instead. Three columns for page number, date and topic. Sometimes my topic is “Life”, and sometimes it is “Dr. Appt, School Board Meeting regarding Finances, blog article ideas, etc.” Let’s say, on pages 13 and 14 are notes from the special board meeting regarding finances and in a month or two, I want to go back and look at that, I can flip to the index, see pages 13 and 14, and can flip to those pages with consistency, confidence.

I usually fill up a Bullet Journal in 4-5 months, but the notes and index still exist, so I can always go back and look for things if I need to.

A real life example, I had a client who was moving cross country. She called about apartments on the west coast and she had a notebook full of notes. But when it came time to actually travel, she was worried about being able to find the specific places and people that she had talked to, to reference while she sat in the office with the people. She had a notebook full of information, but it wasn’t as useful as it could be. I suggested she go back, and number the pages of the notebook, determine what date (approximately) she spoke with people at each apartment complex, and add that info to an index at the back of the notebook. She spoke to so and so on this date regarding these apartments, and this is how much a 1 bedroom costs, or a 2 bedroom, square footage, amenities, if there is a garage, how long is the waiting list, etc. And then, when she sat in the office on the west coast in-person, she could easily flip to that page easily and say, when we spoke on this day, you mentioned x, y and z” that conversation would be that much more fruitful. It really helped with the home search to be able to find that information again.

Another real world example, inspired by a conversation with my college student son. My son is taking a philosophy class this semester and his professor does not allow electronic note taking. I wish I had known about indexing when I was still a student, because, um, it’s so helpful. So, you know, on the back page of his notebook, on the first page, if he’s thinking of it, but definitely on the last couple pages, he could absolutely, you know, again, number the bottom of the notebook pages, and then pages one and two, or pages, you know, page one was first day of class. Page three, two, three and four were second day. And we talked broadly about this and this, right. And, uh, pages five through eight, we’re studying for the first quiz, um, on such and such a date regarding, um, such and such a topic, right. So you can index anything, and it’s so helpful.

Bullet Journaling for goal setting, time management and productivity!

This is definitely an article about my love for Bullet Journaling but I suggest that you consider how you could apply the idea of one ever present notebook and the idea of indexing to your current methods of note taking, if you have them. These ideas are specific to Bullet Journals, sure, but the two ideas that I’ve mentioned today can be used independently of bullet journaling as well. Give these ideas a try, and let me know what you think!

Peace-mck

“Activation of Prior Knowledge” (Sounds Cool, Right?)

In education, at least in this country because of summer vacation, there is the phenomenon of the “summer slide”. The summer slide refers to students forgetting stuff over summer vacation.

Students are in school for 9-ish months and they learn A LOT! And then, they take 2.5 months off for summer vacation, which is great, but they forget things in those 2.5 months.

Instead of receiving daily or weekly reminders and opportunities to use learned skills, they lose those reminders and opportunities so the skills get a little rusty. Without constantly accessing that information, it can feel like they are losing the information or skills.

Educators, and other people that are much smarter than me who know these things, would argue that the information isn’t lost. Students might forget they know it. It’s not lost. But they, and as we apply this idea to us, we, may need to remember how to retrieve it.

When we learn, we receive new information in our short term memory and then, through repetition and brain processes, our brain converts it to long term memory. I have talked about learning and repetition before, for example, in my “I Am Statements” article and episode.

We put in the reps, we put in the time, we build skills and work with the information, then the information gets cemented. It becomes part of us. But like when kids are out of school for a few months, they and we might get out of the retrieval habit.

Let’s face it, we all can get out of the habit of retrieving and using the information that we have learned.

When a student is starting let’s say 5th grade, the teacher can assume a few things. They can assume that because the student is starting fifth grade, the student has successfully completed learning all the things that you needed to learn to finish 4th grade, and all the grades before. We believe that we can make that assumption. There have been building blocks, some foundations laid.

It’s not as if your new fifth grader is going to review every moment of pre k, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade. It doesn’t work that way. However, in the first couple of weeks in a school year, in many classes and subjects, what needs to happen is something called activation of prior knowledge.

Activation

Of

Prior

Knowledge.

Your student needs to be reminded that their brain knows stuff. They have used math, of course, all summer (because we really do use it every day), but they might not have needed all the facts since June, and now they need them again. They might not remember that they know the details of that particular science concept or that particular social studies concept or how to write a book report, etc.

Therefore, in the first few weeks of school, in addition to introducing new information, there is an activation of prior knowledge.

What does that mean to us as adults? Because guess what? Not just 10 year olds need to have their prior knowledge activated. We do, too. Very often when we decide we need to make a change, we think that we must start over, recreate the wheel, make big sweeping change. And we don’t have to.

We know stuff, even if we don’t remember that we know stuff. And sometimes we need to activate prior knowledge. Activation of prior knowledge for us might be returning to healthy practices that got ignored or abandoned over the summer, for example.

Yes, that is a possibility!

I might not have to start over from scratch on habits, but I might have to remind myself that “yes, even though it has been a while, I know how to do this”. I know how to eat healthy, get exercise, whatever those routines are that we want to re-boot.

For example, I’ve been on this sabbatical while recovering from a procedure. Because of it, and this is weird, I was not allowed to work out in the three week after my surgery. No over-exertion, no lifting of anything more than 8-10 pounds, etc. Yep, that’s a thing.

And, at the end of the three weeks, I will activate prior knowledge and say – “you know what, I had a good routine around those things, and then it fell away. I just need to get back to it”. Thinking back, I was using my maxi climber machine five minutes a day, I would take a walk 4 of 7 mornings in a week, and when I didn’t walk, I would at least stretch and do a short meditation. How about instead of re-creating my routine, because we never truly need to start over, I just re-commit to what has worked before that I just couldn’t do for a few weeks? I am much more likely to succeed if I start there!

I know how to do this and it’s time to activate prior knowledge. is. So let’s get back to it, right? I’ve done this before so I know it is do-able.

Another example, I had a great habit and rhythm for meal planning. At the beginning of the year, I would cook two or three meals on a Sunday, and then I wouldn’t have to cook for the rest of the week because our weeks get really busy. This strategy was helpful, and it made life easier. But as soon as we started traveling this summer on the weekends, that all went away. And that’s okay, because we’ve had great travels, and I’ve been exactly where I needed to be to help family members. And now as the seasons change again, I want to return to that habit. I want to activate that prior knowledge. I know how to do that, I liked it and it was so worth it. Let’s remember how to do that.

For many of us, our brain seeks novelty. So it would be really tempting for me to say, ooh, I need to completely change and do something radically different to enable my brain to get the dopamine hit it needs. And I will buy new accessories to do that new activity, and spend hours and hours learning how to do it and there will be a steep learning curve… etc.

But, I can also remind myself I will succeed more quickly if I make what I know already new again, right? That could be the activation of prior knowledge. I don’t have to keep going for new, new, new. I don’t need to take up yet another habit, I don’t have to solve the problem in a different way. I don’t have to do that. I can activate prior knowledge and redo what I already know works, but it’s recommitting to it, so it’s new again, which is actually pretty cool, especially if my brain is seeking dopamine.

To recap,

We know things. Like a grade schooler moving from 4th to 5th grade, we need to get back in the habit of learning and we need to remember what we already know, as a foundation for learning even more things. We can learn. We have the capability. It lives in us. Hello, coaching.

Prior knowledge lives in each of us. We know this stuff. We just need to remember that we know it and we need to activate it. We need to reapply it, we need to recommit to it.

We might have fallen away. And maybe we do want to change things up a little, make things look a little different.

As students go back to school and spend time the first couple weeks activating prior knowledge, we can also spend some time this week and this month activating prior knowledge.

Let’s remind ourselves what we know, what our best practices can be, have been, can be again. My challenge to you and to myself this week is to consider all the different places this idea can apply. It might not be math or social studies or science or in the classroom. There’s other knowledge, other prior knowledge we can activate. But let’s think about that. We don’t have to relearn, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We already know stuff because we’re smart. Let’s remember what we know and activate that prior knowledge, get ourselves back on track, or even on a new track, and make things happen.

(Sounds Cool, Right?)

Change Your Perspective From “Have To” To “Get To”

I haven’t shared this yet, but when this article and podcast episode drops, I will be recovering from another Mohs Procedure to remove a basal cell carcinoma from my ear.  Did you know that all the ins and outs and ridges on your ears have names?!  Specifically, I will have a carcinoma on my right tragus removed. Basal cell carcinomas are annoying but not as worrisome as other diagnoses, so I promise, I am fine. But, just like back in February when I had a similar bump removed from my nose, I am limited in my activities for three weeks as I recover.

If you know me, you realize I don’t do “limited activity” well. 

But I am working on it.

Back in February, I was overly optimistic (delusional?) about how I would be impacted by my procedure. I read the instructions, listened to my care team and studied up on-line. And I was still convinced that even though the instructions said I would need three weeks to mend, surely I would be fine in a few days, maybe a week, tops.

Ha. “Man plans, God laughs.”

The February procedure was far more extensive than anyone expected, I was at the office for 12 hours instead of three and I came home with major swelling, a much longer incision than expected, two black eyes, etc. I needed every day of those three weeks to get better.

I have every belief that this week’s procedure will be straightforward, uncomplicated, etc., but I am also realistic in my expectations. And I now understand that three weeks means three weeks.

Relatedly, this recovery time with the required slowing down / no heavy lifting / no overexertion means I can’t do in-person work, and so I get to do some things I don’t have time to do in my busy typical day-to-day life.

Which brings me to today’s topic.

My husband and I had a conversation with one of his co-workers, and the co-worker said he was looking forward to sneaking in a run after work.

Looking forward to. Making time for. Even after a full day at work.

I really appreciated his perspective. He doesn’t feel he HAS to go for a run, he considers it a privilege, a perk, a GET TO go for a run. GET TO, not HAVE TO.

This week, I want to ask – What on your to-do list could benefit from this shift in perspective? I have been asking myself that question lately. What tasks have I been neglecting? That I really want to get done, but I just haven’t had the opportunity? What are some tasks and projects that I GET TO work on now, instead of waiting for the more emergent HAVE TO, or maybe not doing them at all?

I had the idea for and started writing this article a month or two ago. The idea started around the phrase “It’s All Good”. I use this phrase often. Because truly, it really is all good. Even when there are loved ones that I am worried about and work that I need to do and highs and lows in my community and our world, at the heart of it, at the heart of me, I’m doing ok. God will provide. It’s All Good.

The “Good” is not the question here. It’s the “All” that trips me up some days! Meaning there’s just too darn much sometimes! And I was reminded of the process when I talked it through with a client, let’s call her Jane, last week when she was talking about “all the Post-it notes, all the tasks, all the everything!” that she feels like she needs to catch up on. (I can relate, how about you?!)

She and I discussed that her current amount of work is not her typical amount of work. Her strategies that she usually uses aren’t broken, there just happens to be a backlog. She has some catching up to do and also wants to make sure she is doing the right things, right?

And, she is overwhelmed and everything feels like a HAVE TO. Not a GET TO. She could just work and work and work and she just mired down in the HAVE TO’s and other daily minutiae? She feels there is no break, there is no fun or joy, and the drudgery keeps her from getting things done. And, she realized that needed to change!

So, we flipped the thinking on its head. What tasks could she look at differently? What GET TOs could she create, what could she recognize as positive, goal-supporting, Jane-supporting activities, and look forward to these activities with excitement instead of dread? Could she block out time at least a couple hours a week to focus on the GET TOs? 

So, what does that look like for you and me?

You have all heard me speak about time management and productivity. To review, I’ve talked about knowing our Focus Areas, setting goals, prioritizing our tasks, positive self talk, matching up our available time to the tasks we need to complete.

And all of these strategies come into play this week for me. I am identifying my GET TOs, the tasks that could use a shift in perspective to get them done, and also the long neglected tasks that need the shift in perspective to move them up the list in priority!

In these recovery weeks, I started with my Focus Areas. I looked at my 2024 goals, and also my goals for the third quarter. I looked at what else I still want to accomplish in 2024, and what of those accomplishments require a slower pace and more available work-from-home (no heavy lifting!) to actually make progress.

We don’t always have these opportunities to work on GET TOs provided for us, like my mandatory down time, so it is wise for us to identify our GET TOs now and squeeze them in whenever we can!

By the way, some of my GET TOs for the next few weeks include (yes, of course there is a list):

  • making progress on my non-fiction reading pile;
  • logging in to NAPO and inputting all of my continuing education units for recertification (not due yet, but it will be great to have them done!);
  • taking more CEUs in the form of recorded webinars;
  • order wedding photos from my son and daughter-in-laws wedding last Fall and my niece’s wedding this past May;
  • swapping out my closet for Fall and ordering a few items;
  • reviewing my business expenses for 2024 so far, eliminating recurring expenses I no longer need to make, and cleaning up Quicken.

I am pleased to say I shifted perspective on a HAVE TO project this past week to a GET TO, and I got it done yesterday. Woot woot! I put it in positive terms in my head, I thought about how great it was going to feel when the project was done, I thought about how having it done was going to help a lot of people around me, and I made it happen! GET TO, not HAVE TO.

Is there one or two activities you could work into your day that are already GET TO’s, instead of HAVE TO’s? Choosing a little less TV or streaming, a little less doom scrolling, a little less mindless anything to replace those activities instead with something that would raise you up? I stayed in bed and read a book for a little bit this morning, my husband and I completed the New York Times games together, I put away copious amounts of laundry that I did yesterday and then I took a walk on this sunny but cool morning. All by 7 am. Those are easy GET TOs for me. And I want more of those.

And, are there neglected tasks on your to-do list that could use a boost, a re-direct, a shift in perspective, to look at them as a GET TO, instead of a HAVE TO?

Let’s try a shift in perspective this week – consider it a GET TO, not a HAVE TO!

Multitasking Is A Myth, Here’s a Different Strategy

I don’t know if I’ve ever said this in a blog article, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t said it in a podcast episode, but here is a bold statement.

Are you ready?

Multitasking is a myth.

And I am saying this as a person who spends most of her days doing what looks like multitasking. The real irony is that I started writing this content while driving (I record it as a voice memo to transcribe later), and now I am editing it while hosting my Finish Line Friday productivity session. Looks like multitasking, but it isn’t.

And here is the thing: when we think we are multitasking, we are really switchtasking. This term was first introduced to me by Dave Crenshaw, just want to give credit where credit is due.

Unless we truly are just walking and talking, or watching TV and eating popcorn, or riding in a car and watching the scenery, our brain is actually switching back and forth between tasks.

So the point is, multitasking is a myth. Our brains truly are not capable of doing multiple things at a time well. We can’t do them well. At least, depending on the different tasks, right?

Perhaps I can drive and also take a call, but I’m not doing either task then as well as I could. And certainly not in a congested area where I also need to pay attention to the navigation a little bit more closely. So I absolutely end calls with people, or I just don’t answer my phone, because sometimes, yes, I recognize that my brain can’t necessarily do two high focus things at once.

It’s not that we can’t do multiple things at once, it really depends on the complexity or severity or the type of action.

I can chat with my husband while we take a walk. I can cook and listen to music. I can wash the dishes or clean the house and talk to somebody on the phone. We CAN do multiple things at once. However, with high level thinking and focus, we cannot multitask. What is occurring in your brain, again, is switch tasking. Switch tasking is what it sounds like, switching our focus. And every time we switch our focus, we have to refocus on the thing in front of us, and then when we switch back, we have to refocus again on this new thing that we’re focusing on now.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I know that there are some days that I can focus easily and switch easily, and there are some days that I cannot switch easily or refocus easily. And what that means to me is that my capacity to focus is a limited commodity and can be used up over the course of a day or week. Like energy and time and decision-making capacity. Those three things, too, are also needed to get things done and are also finite resources that can get used up, more quickly on some days than others.

My ability to switch and re-focus is finite, and may be affected on some days by external factors like my quantity and quality of sleep the night before, or how noisy my work space is, or how often my phone is chiming at me with notifications.

Switch tasking requires focus, energy, brain space or bandwidth, whatever you want to call it. And uses these up faster than just regular tasking, if that’s a word. There may come a point, some days earlier in the day than others, when we can’t switch-task successfully. We are not as productive as we want to be, or should be.

We can spend all of that focus and energy and time, and then it’s gone. We can deplete the well, we can empty the wallet, we can use all the water in the jug and it’s empty. We won’t have more until we take a break and replace it somehow. We can switch back and forth, but at what price? What’s the cost?

There is a better way. We can, at least some times, focus fully on what we’ve got going on in front of us and similar tasks so our brain doesn’t have to keep switching. Yes, lets work on that. So we can get more done and more importantly, we can get things done without completely depleting our brain!

Recently with a client, we were discussing Batch work. She has a lot of different tasks that she needs to take care of. Don’t we all? There are things that need to be done, and the sheer quantity of tasks is overwhelming to her, AND the variety of things is also overwhelming to her. And right now, she only sees them all together. She’s not seeing them prioritized, she’s not seeing them categorized, she’s not seeing them in any of those ways. And so that means it’s even more overwhelming.

And at this moment, for a couple of reasons, she is depleted of energy and bandwidth already, and she is finding it very difficult to get things done. We worked on papers together, and recognized, too, that her papers are a representation of the tasks that need to be completed. Papers are also time management, in this case, especially. She might have a medical bill that needs to be paid, but she also needs to call the doctor and ask a question. Each piece of paper represents a couple different things for her. She was seeking a way to categorize broad categories of the papers and actions because she know multitasking wasn’t working and categories made more sense, especially at this moment.

So we talked about batch work. We talked about grouping similar papers and therefore tasks together like putting all the bills to pay in one place and then putting a date on the calendar or an appointment on the calendar for a couple hours every week to get the bills paid. Or, how she has follow-up tasks for a legal challenge that she’s got going on. And so she needs to put an appointment on the calendar every week for making calls or following up until progress is made.

Batch work can occasionally offer synergies or economies of scale. Meaning, when we group the tasks together, they end up taking far less time than they would if we did each separately. For example, reviewing the legal papers and making one call to the attorney and asking multiple questions at once saves time and money.

Having these tasks, or similar tasks, is inevitable. How do we do them better? How do we do them with less stress? How do we do it so we’re not depleted at the end? How do we set ourselves up to succeed?

Because, let’s face it, it’s possible that we switch tasks so often in a work session that we never actually accomplish or complete anything! We feel like we’re working like crazy, but nothing ever actually gets done.

Done. Done! Yeah for Done! If we are working towards Done, or Accomplished or Completed, let’s think in batches. We can do things so they’re actually all the way to done.

Conversely, we can also do batches of work in an assigned time and say, that’s good enough. We can get as done as we can for today and then move on to a different type of task. For example, I don’t get to sit and do 12 hours of money and bill paying in a day. It doesn’t usually work that way.

What is more useful to me instead is doing a batch of home maintenance tasks in the morning, like starting laundry and the dishwasher, after a batch of personal hygiene tasks like taking a shower and brushing my teeth.

I may remember, while showering, that I need to pay a bill but I will not be writing checks while I’m in the shower. We can see that is silly, but we absolutely try to do those kinds of things at the same time. So let’s not do that. Let’s do one thing, or one type of batch of things until they are done right.

The personal hygiene tasks, then I am done and ready to move on.

Then house tasks and then I am done. Then a handful of kitchen tasks like make my coffee, take my vitamins and pack my lunch. Those are all batches, and they’re obvious, so lets look at the rest of our tasks in batches as well.

Instead of switch tasking and asking more of my brain than I need to, than you need to, we can put those different tasks that we need to accomplish together in batches and just think bill paying tasks or money tasks or house management tasks.

In my company, I have four different focus areas or income streams. I will batch all my speaking engagement tasks together – following up on upcoming presentations, printing copies of my handouts, sending invoices. Then, with my calendar on my screen, I’ll batch client scheduling tasks and emails. Then I might shift to writing and content creation tasks, whatever those look like. But instead of having to switch back and forth and manage my focus like that, I can do all of those different things in a batch. I don’t have to keep switching my focus and my energy. I can save that for other things later in the day, or I can just do them with more ease. That works both ways. And I’m more likely to actually get things done with a lot less stress. And isn’t that what we’re working towards? I know it’s what I’m working towards.

Let’s recap:

Multitasking is a myth. Sorry.

Switch tasking is real and doable and can be useful, but may also use up our focus and energy and other resources faster than regular work.

If you’re tired of switch tasking and / or want to give another strategy a try, experiment with Batch work to work with your brain and help you get more done with less hassle.

Give it a try!

Advice For Life’s Next Chapter

Did you know? I have the honor and responsibility of being an elected official as a member of our local Board of Education. Evergreen Park Elementary School District 124, to be specific.

I do consider it both an honor and a responsibility. It is a decision that we make, to pursue and support education, to serve our communities. And I love it. And some day, I don’t. Most days I do.

I love that I get to serve and support 1800+ students and 300+ staff members. I get to help make our community stronger. Yes, it’s cool. I occasionally get to do cool things. And, sometimes I have to do really hard things, and sometimes I have to do things that are not cool. And all of that is ok, because, again, it is a decision we make to serve and I don’t take that lightly.

Today, though, I want to talk about a cool thing. One of the perks.

Every year, the Board Of Education members, as we distribute diplomas, shake the hands of and look in the eyes and smile at our 8th grade Central Middle School graduates as they finish their time in Evergreen Park Elementary School District 124, and move on to high school and the next stages of their lives. And it’s awesome. And for the last few years, as President, I also get to give a speech.

I get to address the families and our staff that are there, and I get this one last opportunity to speak to our students. I spend a lot of time considering what message I want to deliver to the students.

I try to write words that I hope the students remember, and, well, if they don’t, it’s recorded so they can go back and listen to it again on YouTube if they want. But as any good speaker knows, the words I say are not about me as the speaker, they are about the audience, our students. What do I hope they take with them when they go?

And, as I wrote this intro for today’s content, I am thinking ahead because I have an opportunity to address our staff before the first day of school in a few weeks. I’m already considering what exactly do I want our staff members to take with them that day, too. What do they need to hear and know as they start the school year? I want them to know how much I appreciate them, how much the BOE appreciates them, how truly amazing they are in guiding our most precious commodity, our students. And that I really do believe we have just the best staff. So I will be telling them that in five minutes or less, in a few weeks.

As I wrote the words for our students, it made my heart happy that I had one last chance to speak to them all before we parted ways. And for us today, I thought it might be fitting as we all shift into August, and perhaps are sending students back to school or we might be adjusting our schedule and thinking our next big thoughts, maybe these words are for you, too.

Good evening.

It is my absolute honor and privilege to have a few moments to address the central middle school class of 2024 this evening.

I want to say “Thank You” to all of you here for coming.  And not just coming to this graduation ceremony.  

I know all that goes in to getting to this point. 

Thank you to our teachers and staff who have instructed and guided our kids along the way. 

These students have benefited immeasurably from these dedicated, passionate educators.  

I thank every one of you for your service.  

These educators arrive early, stay late, they’re in the classrooms and hallways, at extra events on evenings and weekends, they are always available via email.  Trust me, I know. 

And they truly have our student’s best interests in mind.  We are so fortunate, and I am so grateful.

Thank you, parents.  And grandparents and aunts and uncles and all those folks who also show up. 

Every day. 

I’m not even going to finish the equation, of number of mornings multiplied by number of school years so far!  Backpacks packed, homework, gym uniforms, sport uniforms, band instruments, car pools, field trips, forms completed.  Then there are the games and concerts and events that we are seriously SO happy to attend.  Thank you, parents and loved ones.

Students – yes, tonight is about you, but some time this evening, Please stop and look your parents and grandparents and significant adults in the eyes and thank them for helping you get to this occasion.  They love you so much, trust me.

Now, I would like to address our graduates.

  • Every person here this evening is here because of you.
  • We are reflecting on where you have been, celebrating with you for where you are, and dreaming big with you for where you are going.

Students, I have four things to ask of you this evening.  

First, Do the right thing, even when no one is watching.  

Don’t bother with easy, or just skating by, because you think no one will notice.  YOU will notice.  

And once you know you can count on yourself to do the right thing, your confidence and capacity for doing the right thing will grow.  

Perhaps you’ll find yourself in a situation and you’re not sure what the right thing to do is?  Go with kindness.  Justice.  Fairness.  Thinking and thoughtfulness.  Those are always going to be the right thing.  And The Right thing might not be what everyone else is doing, but that’s ok, they are just waiting for you to set an example.

Second, Find your people.  

Look around, and see the people that are doing what you want to do, what you aspire to do.

Surround yourself with good people who will lift you up, build you up.  

Who aren’t about drama, who are also the ones doing the right thing even when no one is looking.

Find and appreciate those people, and more importantly, strive to be that best person for others.    

Next, Embrace the small and powerful word – Yet.

Three small letters, y e t.

Yet.

We may think we need to have everything figured out.  And we will.  That day will come.  But it might not be here Yet.  And that’s ok. Open your mind and your heart, and be kind to yourself as you figure things out.

Finally, Start and end with gratitude.  

Be grateful for your natural born talents and your diligently honed skills.  

Be grateful for your family who loves you, for the education you are working for, for your friends and our community.  

Imagine, remembering just one thing you’re grateful for as you start and finish your day every day. 

Imagine how great that would feel, and how much that small habit would positively impact your life.  

To Recap:

Do the Right Thing.  

Find Your People.

Embrace Yet.

And Start and End with Gratitude

I’m going to take my own advice here, and end by saying thank you, Central Middle School class of 2024. I can’t wait to see what each of you will continue to achieve in big and small ways, in the years to come.  Congratulations and Well Done!