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Three reasons to never actually do anything

By Kyle Chowning 2 Comments

A couple of months ago, the HR department at the company I work for launched a walking program to motivate and inspire people to become more active. The program came chockfull of incentives for those who were interested in participating. You could accumulate additional vacation time, win individual and departmental awards, discount on your insurance premium and more. They promised that they would make it interesting and challenging by offering “big” incentives for people who walked a certain number of steps every month including up to nine chances to win a free vacation.

To be honest, I didn’t plan on participating. At the time of the announcement, my wife and I had just had our third child and with two other kids (age 3 and 2), I didn’t need one more thing to add to my plate. I was out. I had made my decision.

One week later, I was sitting in a meeting with our executive team. We were discussing a number of issues and then someone said, “You’re participating in the walking program, right?” Before I could utter a response, I began to feel something I haven’t felt since high school: intense peer pressure. Would I reveal that I wasn’t planning on participating or should I act as if I had all along?

I caved.

“Of course I’m participating!” Days later I received my “tracker,” and I was off. However, I quickly ran into a problem.

If you wanted to be eligible for any of the incentives, you had to walk 195,000 steps a month, 4-5 miles/6500 steps a day, for tier one participation and 240,000 steps, 5-6 miles/8000 steps a day, to get a raffle ticket for the free vacation. I was only walking 2000-3000 steps a day. So rather than stepping up my game, I complained.

I sent an email to HR and asked them to reconsider the number of steps needed to hit the goal. I told them that I thought it was unrealistic for a large majority of participants. They politely replied that I was the only one complaining. Ouch.

I had a decision to make. Step it up, or shut up.

I had plenty of reasons to participate. In fact, I’ve been wanting to shed about 20lbs for…I don’t know…about five years. So what was my real excuse?

Let’s be honest. When it comes to advancing, and I don’t mean progress, I mean making remarkable advancements at work, career, future, financial, weight loss, etc, we are prone to focus on why we can’t do the work…and we’ll use just about every excuse we can.

I still had a decision.

Today, I’ve walked 603,516 steps (approximately 429 miles) since March 10, 2011. I’ve hit tier one for two months and tier two (free vacation) once and am on pace for both this month. The best part, I’ve lost over 14lbs.

Yesterday, I ran into the HR ladies while leaving work. They asked me how my steps were coming. I enthusiastically gave them a report and they snickered at me while repeating the contents of my email: “But I can’t do it.” Ouch, but in a good way…they were right to make fun.

So, back to the subject at hand: “Three reasons to never actually do anything.” Here they are:

  1. I’ll do it later - Actually, you won’t. Do something today. One thing. Then you can say you started.
  2. I don’t have time – Are you sure? You make time for what you value.
  3. I just don’t want to – This is likely true.

My good friend, Rob Sperti, once said, “Until your values change, you won’t change.”

What are you waiting to change about your life?

 

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Filed Under: Leadership, Productivity Tagged With: , , ,

Persistence. Like Angry Birds.

By Kyle Chowning 7 Comments

Everything changes when you’re keeping score. Take Angry Birds for instance.

Some people look at the above and celebrate their victory. Others, it turns out, only see opportunity to better their score.

What I find fascinating is the time, effort and persistence that people put into this game. It’s not that it returns anything tangible to your life. In fact, it’s not that it’s even a point of pride. Right? Unless, of course, you introduce yourself like this…

“Hi. My name is Kyle Chowning and I’ve achieved three stars on every level of Angry Birds. What’s your name and Angry Bird status?”

Not likely.

But, it begs the question: If keeping score helps you find time, effort and persistence to achieve full potential, how could this play out for the projects or tasks that you’ve been putting off for days, weeks, months or even years?

If you’re one of those people who reads this and decides to give up on Angry Birds because it now represents failure in other areas of your life, you’re missing the point. What it reveals is that given the right set of circumstances, you have what it takes and you will prevail.

We’re trained to take on challenges in certain ways: tradition, culture and preferences tend to guide these paths. What if you approached it like Angry Birds?

  1. Detail the individual tasks within the challenge(s)
  2. Start at step one
  3. Rank your performance based on each tasks potential
  4. Keep score
  5. Try again
  6. Don’t stop until you achieve the best score, i.e., fullest potential

Can you imagine what you would accomplish?

If you need a jumpstart to helping you define the projects and tasks in your life, I highly recommend the book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (affiliate link) by David Allen. This book has changed how I approach most of my personal and work related projects and tasks.

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It’s okay. I know it’s not perfect.

By Kyle Chowning 9 Comments

Monday’s are great aren’t they. It’s the beginning of a new week where we get a fresh start to embrace the new and betters that we set out for ourselves. Maybe it’s the goal to blog every day…to workout…eat better…watch less TV…the list could go on, and on. But let’s be real, rarely do we stick to the guns, right? I mean come on, this topic is so close to our own stories that I’m willing to bet that this post doesn’t get but one or two comments. Oh, and I’m going to start commenting more on other people’s blogs too.

Over the weekend I was catching up on some reading and I stumbled upon a recent post by Seth Godin called “Modern Procrastination.” It’s a great read and worth the 3 minutes it’ll take you to do so. However one sentence stood out that’s worth mentioning…

“Busy does not equal important. Measured doesn’t mean mattered.”

My buddy Jim Cowart had also written a post on a very similar topic called, “Try not to think about it” where he dives into the concept of what we put our minds to, gets our focus and energy; that can be success, accomplishments, education, procrastination, frustration, disappointment, failure…you name it.

What I realized is that those of us who are often hindered by what we can’t do and almost always overlook what strengths we do bring to the table. If we would set our sights on those things, then we would not only be able to imagine a different world, we would actually live in it.

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Three Quick Steps to Eliminating To-do List Anxiety

By Kyle Chowning 7 Comments

Nothing can drain your enthusiasm faster than to start your workday overwhelmed by the mountain of to-do’s that you have mentally logged. Because the majority of today’s work is done in our minds, we often have a hard time knowing when things are done and what the next step is to completing the project. Sound familiar?

If you’re currently procrastinating and are looking for a way out of your to-do list anxiety, here are three quick steps to becoming more productive, today.

Step #1: Do a mind dump

Your mind is like a computer. The more processes you have going at one time, the slower your ability to process new information is. Every time you make a mental note of something you need to do, a call that needs to be made or a bill that needs to be paid, all of these mental notes add up to anxiety. The problem isn’t that you’ll forget, it comes in not knowing what to do next or where to start. The solution? A mind dump. Here’s how:

First, this process could take up to an hour or two. Make sure you have enough time to mentally engage in this process. Otherwise, this will just become another to-do that will add to your anxiety.

  1. Take out your trusted notebook (paper, electronic, it does not matter, as long as you trust it as the source for information)
  2. Turn off everything that’s currently distracting you (Twitter, Facebook, email, phone, TV…you name it)
  3. Now start thinking. For every project or to-do that comes up, write it down. Don’t worry about order or logic, just write it down. If you run out of things to think about, here are some words and phrases that will jog your to-do memory:
    • commitments to others, boss, family, customers, phone calls, emails, letters, memos, blog, finances, Christmas presents, event planning, meetings, travel, bank, sales, inbox, things to learn, housework, chores, research, education, and shopping

Step #2: Identify as Task or Project

The next step is to organize your to-do list in a simple and logical way. A key to this is understanding the difference between a project and a task. A project is anything that requires more than one to-do to complete; like Christmas shopping. A task is something that can be completed in one step; like a returned phone call.

  1. Identify items as a Project or Task

With projects, the best thing to do is start a new page, write the project name down (Buy Christmas Presents), then create your task list (Buy Kyle a Kindle, Buy sister a Starbucks card, Buy mom a new car, etc).

For your Tasks, you can organize them one or two ways:

  1. By context: work, home, calls, computer, boss, wife, etc
  2. By responsibilities: Motiveight, Halogen, Help-Portrait, church, etc.

The key to feeling on top of your task list is knowing what you need to do, not guessing.

Step #3: Sort, delegate and go

Using the same sorting method I talk about in “Three Quick Steps to a Zero Inbox,” next, we’re going to tag your tasks and projects. Remember, if you can do it in two minutes or less, DO IT. If you can delegate it to someone else, delegate it. If you’re the only one who can do it, then mark it as follows:

  1. @Action – Anything that needs to be done by a certain time or date
  2. @Someday – Things that need to be done, but don’t require a timely response
  3. @Follow Up – Things you’ve delegated that need followed up

By this point, you should have a much clearer view of what you need to do. No doubt that it won’t take long for you to realize why you are so overwhelmed. That’s a lot of stuff in your head. Your next step is to figure how to organize this information in a way that’s useful for you. Some people use software, others write each task/project on an individual sheet of paper. Others keep it all in a notebook. You decide what’s best for you. My only advice is to commit to your method and don’t change midstream. If you do, it will undermine your trust in the process and you’ll start to log everything mentally again.

Going Deeper

If you want to take your task management to another level, I highly recommend the book, Getting Things Done (Amazon link). I also recommend that you utilize task management software to organize, prioritize and contextualize your to-do’s. My current favorite is Things. You can read about a couple of other software programs I reviewed here.

What’s your favorite method of organizing your to-do’s?

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Three Quick Steps to a Zero Inbox

By Kyle Chowning 26 Comments

Tired of wondering if you’re missing something in your email inbox? Believe it or not, that feeling weighs on your subconscious more than you know. Rather than live with anxiety, let’s process those emails and get you to a zero inbox. Yes, that’s right, a zero inbox. Not one email will remain. Is it possible? Yes! In fact, it’s possible to keep a zero inbox which means guilt, worry and stress-free email maintenance. Ready?

Here are three quick steps to implementing a zero inbox:

1) Create a four new folders:

  • @Action – Used to put emails that require a timely response
  • @Someday – Used to put emails that require your attention, but timing is not an issue
  • @Follow Up – You put emails here that you’ve replied to, but it requires that you follow up with someone about the status of the email
  • Archive – This is where all of your processed email will reside. When it’s here, you’re done.

2) Survey your inbox and look for emails that you know require a response. Don’t forget to separate them into what kind of response is required. Drag those into your @Action, @Someday or @Follow-up folders so you can process them later.

3) All emails that remain, select all and move them to your Archive folder.

Now, if you have a lot of emails in your inbox, this is sure to bring a certain level of anxiety—of which will probably make you second guess if you can really do this. You can. If you need to recall a particular email, that’s what your email programs search function is for. Get to know it because it will be your friend.

If you’re one of those people who has a 100 different folders—one for each client, project, person, idea, thought, receipt, etc., I highly recommend that you rid of them all and focus your efforts on using the Archive folder. Why? What makes this system work is your ability to trust your own system. If you can’t remember what folder it’s in, then how will you find it? Sure, you can use your email search function, but then why have the extra folders to comb through? Throw all processed email into your Archive folder and be done with it. Trust me on this one. It’s theraputic.

Now that you have cleaned out your inbox, take a moment to enjoy the mental relief. Go on. Sit back. Take a screenshot and TwitPic it to your friends, family even your mom would love to see what you accomplished.

The beauty of this system is that you know exactly where the emails are that require your response and when so your worry of missing an email are gone. You will be amazed at how much mental energy will be freed up because of zero-inbox.

Before I go, here are some keys to remember:

  • Your inbox is a place to process and sort email. It’s not where you store it.
  • When an email comes in, if you can reply in under two minutes, do it immediately. If not, sort it.
  • Empty your inbox every day. Yes, that means that when you shut down for the day, your inbox is empty.
  • Set aside one day a week to go through your @Someday and @Follow Up folders to make sure out-dated items aren’t piling up. In doing this, you’ll be surprised at how on top of things you’ll feel.
  • DON’T GIVE UP! Even if you get behind, spend an hour and process your inbox accordingly.

Bonus: If you keep email open all day long, that’s what you’ll do all day long. In my experience, when you process offline, you stop the leak of new emails which gives you the time to focus on the emails sitting in your @Action and @Someday folders.

So, do you think you can do it? If you already live zero-inbox, what tips can you offer?

If you like this, you’ll love “Three Quick Steps to Eliminating To-do List Anxiety“

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How to do it all

By Kyle Chowning 2 Comments

My earlier post, Survey: How do you do it all? has stirred quite a bit of conversation around the topic of getting it all done while living in excellence. It was my hope that people would offer their advice about what works for them.

Initially, I catered it to the 40+ crowd, but then I realized that success is subjective and it shouldn’t be about any one demographic. With 29 comments to-date—a record for my blog—it’s obviously a conversation that is of interest to you too, and one that I hope to continue.

By the way, if you haven’t contributed to the conversation, I invite you to jump in. You don’t have to be perfect nor have some letters after your name. I’m simply interested in knowing what’s worked for you.

Here’s a snapshot of some of my favorite replies so far…

“If we had it to do again, we’d spend less money on ‘stuff’, save more, and travel more to experience our country and our world.” —Liz Jenkins

“I never really leveraged my time to become all that I wanted to be. I leveraged my time so that my husband and children could become all that THEY wanted to be. And – to that end – I have been outrageously successful.” —CeCe Dubois

“The answer for me is “I can do it all—just not at the same time.” —Maria Keckler

“Rhythms of life are vital. If you work to maintain rhythm, somehow everything seems more doable. … Intimacy with God and others. I’ve found a dearth of this practice in my own life and others, especially Christian leaders. This intimacy is the key to a satisfying life. I’ve made my work, my hobbies, my ego, my food, alcohol, sex and many more things my lover. But, there is only one who can truly bring you fulfillment and meet your deepest needs. God wants to be your lover. He wants to seduce you to intimacy with him. Have you ever had a time with God as good as your most wildest sexual moment? if not, you are not alone. Search for this type intimacy with God with all your body and soul. I have found that a true love affair with God spreads to all others in my life.” —Randy Elrod

“The other thing I’ve wrestled with – and finally given into – is an early-to-bed, early-to-rise schedule. You know me – I’m a night owl to the core. Even with 2 young kids it’s still so hard for me to go to bed early, even harder for me to wake up at 5 AM. But, wow, what a difference it has made. As I’ve studied history and found my heroes, I’ve realized that none of them were undisciplined.” —Jim Cowart

Finally, Mark Maxwell, a entertainment lawyer, friend and elder at New Song Christian Fellowship, wrote a very insightful and compelling reply on his Facebook page. There are 16, yes 16 points, to his reply and I compel you to read every one of them. It is chock-full of wisdom and very timely. In case you don’t make it over, here are a few of my favorites…

I have chosen to keep my work time at a very controlled level. I strongly defend the boundaries between my work life and home time. I don’t believe I have ever lost or disappointed a client due to this firm commitment.

The foundation for serving well is my commitment to pray for my clients on a weekly basis. (This is my version of a Monday morning staff meeting). This by far is my very best time investment concerning my business.In my view, “networking” as it is traditionally thought of, is a four letter word. I am convinced that humility, love, genuine concern, and interest in others is the best business marketing plan for my law practice. “Networking” is generally concerned with what I may gain or receive from others, whereas God’s kingdom principles are based upon sowing, serving and giving to others. I have intentionally rejected the notion of “potential” client “networking” lunches. When it comes to lunch meetings, my goal has been to simply hear from the Lord — who might need some time with me — who might need some encouragement this month — or, who might I share some mutual dreams and kingdom visions with over a meal. Typically, this leads to a great lunch experience with an old or new friend. The person with whom I have connected usually does not become a client. But, like clockwork, 4 to 6 months later, I will get a marvelous new client referral from that very lunch partner. This happens again and again for me.

Finally, discontentment can impact everything you do. I truly only enjoy about 50% about the tasks that are laid before me in any given week. But, I have learned that if I truly focus on my clients and not my own needs and concerns, then the daily routines of my law practice that are unpleasant or stressful or tedious become miraculously invisible.

I am discovering that there are scores of people, just like me, who struggle to live life well. I believe that if those, who have gone before us, will share what they know, it could help me and my generation(s) to avoid the mistakes that have already cost you so much. Sure, some things are better learned in real-time, but guidance and support along the way can give us the assurance and strength we need when encountering the unknown.

For those of you who have already joined the conversation, thank you. For those of you who are about to jump in, please do, and thank you.

Here’s to learning!

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Survey: How do you do it all?

By Kyle Chowning 30 Comments

Riddle me this…

I’m a husband, new dad, small business owner, a christian who earnestly desires to live a fully devoted life, and thanks to my new Wii and Wii Fit I got for Father’s day, apparently I have about 25lbs to lose to get back in the “normal” BMI range. Nice.

Bills. Small business time. Quiet time. Quality time. Kid time. Wife time. Romance time. Household chore time. Hobby time. Blog time. Workout time. Friend time. New idea time. Client prospect time. Client maintenance time. Staff time. Innovation time. New idea time. Sleep time. Sabbath time. Prayer time. Me time? Oh my! And what else am I forgetting?

We, my generation, are no stranger to the concept of mentors, but the reality is, they are few and far between.

So today, I stand for all those in my generation whose life applies to one or more of the above identities and responsibilities. Together, we ask the generation before us…

How do you do it all?

What success have you had in leveraging your time to become all that you want to be?

If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?

What is your key to quality relationships?

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Filed Under: Productivity

How to Sync your Treo with Google & iCal

By Kyle Chowning Leave a Comment

One of the best parts about having a “smart phone” like a Palm Treo Centro is that they offer the ability to take your contacts and calendar on the go. Like most gadgets, the power of these tools are in the functions that aren’t obvious when you take them out of the box. So if you have one of those sexy new Treo’s and your still trying to figure out how to magically get your calendar updated without having to plug in a cord, then this post is for you.

Here is what you need to get started on wirelessly and automatically syncing your Treo device with iCal—the default calendar application on a Mac:

Obviously, syncing your Treo with iCal requires an investment of time and money in order to make this work. This alone will help you determine how important keeping your phone and computer in sync is.

The below steps will assume that you have already downloaded and installed each software.

iCal Setup

  1. Export your default iCal Calendar to your desktop; name it “google.ics” for later reference

Google Calendar Setup

  1. In Google Calendar, add a new calendar
  2. Importing the “google.ics” calendar from your desktop
  3. Import the contents into your default Google Calendar; for example, I’ll call it “Kyle”

BusySync Setup

  1. Open BusySync in your System Preferences
  2. Click on “Google” (ignoring General, Publish and Subscribe)
  3. Click on “Settings” and add your Google user name and password. Leave the remaining settings as default.
  4. Select the Google Calendar (on the right pane) that you want to subscribe to; this will cause the calendar “Kyle” to display in iCal. This is now your default iCal calendar.
  5. Delete your previous iCal calendar; remember you already made a backup
  6. Select the iCal calendars (on the left pane) that you want to publish to Google Calendars; this is not necessary to sync your phone unless you want to sync more than one calendar, ie: personal and business
  7. Press the “Sync Now” button on the bottom right

You are now publishing your iCals to Google automatically. Any changes made on iCal or Google Calendars will automatically sync to reflect in both locations.

GooSync Setup

Here’s a quick visual overview how GooSync works:

  1. Open www.goosync.com and go to your “Home” tab
  2. Click to “Add Device”
  3. Download the Palm OS Client Software and install; directions are provided on download page
  4. Click on “Connections” and Authenticate your Google settings with your username and password
  5. Click “Home” and under “Google Calendar” select “Customise”
  6. Now displaying your Google calendars, make sure that the “Kyle” calendar has read/write capabilities as indicated by the icon and that the check boxes for “Sync” and are selected
  7. For advance users, check out the tags/categories function. This is how you sync multiple calendars
  8. If you’re interested in syncing more than the default past/future appointments, you can change the default settings under “Sync Window.”

You are now ready to setup your Palm Treo for bi-directional syncing.

Palm Treo Setup

  1. Locate the GooSync application under your Treo’s “All” screen
  2. To alter the settings of this profile tap the Menu icon on your PDA and then select “Options Settings…” from the menu that appears (see screen shot below)
    .Palm Client Menu
  3. The “User” and “Password” settings must be set to the same log-in details that you use for your GooSync.com account (these may not be the same as your Google Calendar account).Palm Client Settings
  4. Click on “Calendar sync options” and setup the software to sync on a regular interval. This will ensure that changes made on your Treo and computer are syncing regularly.

Any calendar changes made on your Treo will now be published on Google Calendar and thus iCal, vice versa.

If you’ve followed the above steps, you should now be syncing beautifully between your Treo > Google > iCal. Have fun!

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How to read dozens of websites in less than 15 minutes a day

By Kyle Chowning 1 Comment

Believe it or not, I keep up-to-date with over 65 websites every single day and I do it in less than 15 minutes. How? I’m glad you asked.

The facts are, a lot of your friends, family or even coworkers have created their own website(s) and they are posting information on this site that you would be interested in reading. However, the tedious task of visiting these sites on a regular basis, one by one, to see if anything has been posted can be time consuming and often disappointing; in effect, you lose interest and stop checking because it’s wasting your time.

Enter RSS feeds and readers.

A few years ago, web developers started realizing that this was an issue and came up with a solution. They call it an “RSS feed.” RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” The whole point of inventing an RSS feed was to make “it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.” (Wikipedia) Sounds like a relief huh!

So how does it work?

It’s actually very easy. Every time you go to a site and you see the acronym “RSS” and/or this icon RSS Feed Icon, it means that this site has made it possible for you to automate their content through an RSS feed. You’ll need a RSS reader software to take advantage of this technology. You can find out more about them here, or you can do as I do and use Google Reader. I like the Google Reader program because it’s web based so no matter where I am or what computer I’m using, I have access to my account and can get caught up virtually anywhere. All you need is a Google account and you’re good-to-go.

Once you have your RSS Reader software setup, your next step is to begin “subscribing” to the RSS feeds on the websites you visit regularly. Here’s how to do this using Firefox and Google Reader (assuming you now have a Google Reader account). Keep in mind, I am on a Mac.

1. Open your preferences in Firefox (Preferences > Applications > Highlight “Web Feed” and select “Google” from the drop down menu)
2. Go to www.kyleandkristy.com/kyle and click on the orange icon in the address bar
3. When the Google Reader pages comes up, you’ll have two buttons to choose from: “Add to Google Homepage” or “Add to Google Reader” > Select “Add to Google Reader”

You’ve now added your first feed to Google Reader! From this point on, all you need to do is log into Google Reader and it’ll tell you if I’ve updated my blog. In fact, if I’ve updated it several times since you last visited, there will be a number inside a parentheses indicating the number of posts you have to read to catch up. So simple and a very productive way to keep up-to-date with all those websites you’re interested in.

Have questions? Leave a comment and I’ll respond to you. If you’d like further instruction, just post your request in the comment section and I’ll do my best to post on this subject again.

I hope this was helpful for you.
Kyle

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