Archive for February, 2006
I’m starting my second week of taking power naps during the day. For the last two days I’ve been napping without using any music or the Pzizz software I had been using last week. I want to have a control to see if I find a certain method works better for me.
I have noticed that when I “go it alone” I have been having a much more difficult time getting settled down and actually relaxing. My office is on a busy hallway and there is a lot of foot traffic and noise outside my door all day long - it’s very noticeable even when the door is closed (apparently because my door is made of balsa wood!). Couple that with the general noise of our warehouse (it’s on the other side of my back wall) and you end up with a pretty noisy environment in which to be resting and relaxing.
But I’ve been doing my best and while I find it’s taken me long to get relaxed without headphones and Pzizz playing, I can do it. I’ve also noticed that once I do get relaxed I feel like it’s at a deeper level. By the end of my nap I’m almost completely asleep and after stretching and “waking up” I find that I have more energy.
I think it’s possible because there isn’t anything other than normal office noise that my brain is concentrating on (and it’s learned to tune that out for the most part). When I used Pzizz last week I felt like I was able to get settled down much more quickly, but when I don’t use anything I feel like my naps have been deeper and more restful.
My plan is to finish out this week with no music or Pzizz while I nap. Next week I’ll use some soothing and relaxing music from a CD I own which doesn’t promise any specific restful results. My quest is to find out the best and most restful way to power nap. After doing it for the last week, I’m confident as I start on my second week of power napping that it’s a very valuable tool. I feel much more relaxed and energetic during the day, and I feel like my stress level is lower too. I highly recommend you give it a try if you’ve been reading these articles, but haven’t yet tried it for yourself.
February 15th, 2006
Following up on my Micro Life Organizer (MiLO), I am pleased to announce my Financial Life Organizer (FiLO) for your consideration.
Over the last few months I’ve been reading numerous books on building wealth, and one of the core themes running throughout all of these books has been; if you don’t track your spending, you’ll spend to much. If you spend to much, and have a “high consumption” lifestyle, you’ll never be wealthy.
Since I’m not counting on winning the PowerBall lottery anytime soon, and no one in my family will be leaving anything behind when they shuffle off their mortal coil, I decided I needed a better way to track my spending.
Keeping track of checks and credit card expenses isn’t completely difficult in this day of on-line banking and instant account checking. But I find that I don’t check these tools on a daily basis. At best I check them weekly, and I can spend a surprisingly large amount of money in a week if I’m not careful! And forget about tracking cash - if I have $20 in my pocket there is no way on God’s green Earth that I’ll remember what the heck I spend it on 24 hours after it’s gone.
Given my lack of a fortune coming at the hands of the lottery or a distance, but insanely rich great-great-aunt, and my lack of discipline to capture my monetary transactions in all their various places on a daily basis; I knew I needed a better solution. So I sat down and created FiLO.
The essence of a FiLO is a cash, check and credit card register that folds neatly into a 2.75″ x 4.25″ booklet that you can stick in your pocket or carry in your wallet. The goal is to make sure I never have an excuse to not record a financial transaction.
And I figured if I find FiLO useful, other people might too…people like you!
Of course, you want to see what FiLO looks like; in terms of form if looks exactly like MiLO.
When FiLO is folded, it’s only a bit bigger than a credit card and gives you seven pages to track your financial transactions. The back page is a “Get Excited & Motivated” page and shows you how even saving a tiny bit of money, but doing it on a regular basis, can make you wealthy in your lifetime!
FiLO is free for you to use and pass around to anyone you think would get benefit from it. Here’s where to download it:
PLEASE NOTE: If you’re printing this PDF with Windows, make sure to select “Page Scaling = None” on the print options when you print out a FiLO or Acrobat Reader will shrink the FiLO down by a few percent and it will not fold properly. This is one of the biggest frustrations people using Windows will have printing out a FiLO for themselves.
I hope you enjoy using your FiLO, and I hope it can help you keep closer tabs on your spending. Good luck and good wealth!
February 14th, 2006
Day 1: 2/7/06
I took my first power nap from 2:28pm - 2:48pm - the time seemed to slip by very quickly. At first I thought taking 20 minutes out of my day would feel like forever, but that wasn’t the case. The “nap” was over before it felt like any real time had slipped by.
I took this power nap while seated at my desk chair. On thing that struck me after it was over was how much tension I had been carrying in my shoulders and back. I felt like a lot of it had melted away and I felt much “looser” and less “knotted up.”
I was shocked at how deeply it felt I had gone. I almost felt as if I had actually been asleep for the 20 minutes, but to my knowledge I didn’t actually fall asleep at any time during the power nap.
I did the Pzizz “Energizer nap” with the voice guiding throughout the entire course of the session. While I did notice the voice while relaxing, now that I’ve been “awake” for 4 minutes (2:52pm) I am a bit fuzzy on what was said. It was there, but not in a distracting way. It was very soothing, warm and relaxing.
Update: It’s been an hour since my power nap and I notice that I feel a lot more invigorated this afternoon than usual. It is a placebo effect or a benefit of the power nap? Time will tell.
Day 2: 2/8/06
I took my power nap about an hour earlier than yesterday - I slept poorly last night and had been feeling groggy and a little “off” all morning. After my 20 minutes I felt better, and much more relaxed; it had been a stressful morning.
I came close to actually dozing off this time - I caught myself doing the head-bob that has plagued us all at one point in our life in a deathly boring meeting or class. But the nice thing was that I was able to let myself go and really settle down.
Near the end of my power nap the program brings you back out of your relaxed state and at this time - when the pattern of sounds changed - I felt a wash of energy and “buzzing” flow over me. It was a fairly abrupt switch, I was very near asleep, but I came right up and became alert almost instantly.
Afterwards I felt that “warm-all-over” feeling you get after a really good nap - you’re not 100% back in the real world yet, and you’re still perceiving things through a fuzz of rest and relaxation.
At this point I’m not ready to admit that all of this has been achieved by the Pzizz software program. It’s certainly relaxing and the music program is well scored and pleasant to listen to. Before my trial is over I will perform some control naps without using a Pzizz audio program to see if I achieve the same effect on my own.
I’m still surprised at how quickly the 20 minutes seemed to go by. Normally it feels like I can’t get 20 free minutes at work without some distraction, but during my nap the time just flew by and the building didn’t burn down without me being “in the mix” for 20 minutes.
Day 3: 2/9/06
I was a little later with my power nap today and it wasn’t as easy for me to get into. My mind didn’t want to settle down and I had several projects that I thought would interrupt my relaxation.
I think because of this today’s session was as relaxing as previous sessions. I felt more like I was forcing myself to do it than I wanted to do it. I do feel more refreshed and relaxed now - after my power nap - but it wasn’t as good as the past few days.
I did notice that today my mind wandered significantly more. Maybe it’s because I didn’t feel like I was a “deep” in my relaxation, but I had some extremely non-sequitor ideas ebb and flow throughout my power nap. The odd thing is that at the time they were vividly clear and I can recall thinking, “What an odd idea…” but just moments after my session I can’t clearly recall any of the ideas.
I’m wondering if this is a rare glimpse of my subconscious by my semi-conscious mind? If so, then I think the prudent thing to do is actively work on planting positive suggestions and see if that will lead to more easily (or effortlessly) setting positive habits.
Update: I feel more “fuzzy” this afternoon that I have the last few days. I don’t know if it’s because today’s power nap wasn’t as good - but I definitely notice a difference this afternoon.
Day 4: 2/10/06
I can say that taking 20 minutes out of my day to rest and relax does indeed make a difference in the way I feel. I’ve been so busy today that I didn’t make time to take my nap.
I could have forced the time out of the afternoon, but I let other issues take center stage. This is why making new habits is so difficult for so many people; when the pressure is on the potential to abandon new behaviors for old habits is strong.
In fact, as I sit here and write this I realize I need to go ahead and take my nap - I’m a little cranky and my eyes are stinging a bit. If I don’t make this habit stick, I’ll be upset with myself. I’ll be back in 20 minutes!
Update: Taking a break was just what the doctor ordered. I feel immensely more relaxed and refreshed. I can tell that my breathing is more even and my eyes aren’t stinging at all now.
Day 5: 2/11/06
I’ve been reading some resources on self-hypnosis and autosuggestion.
I’ve decided that I want to enhance my goal-seeking habits through autosuggestion. I have no problem setting goals - I like the energy that’s involved in creating an idea. I tend to stumble in the details of achieving all my goals. I have to constantly remind myself to review my goals.
I’ve found some “scripts” online that detail with autosuggestion for goals, and I’ve modified it for myself. Here is the script I’m going to try out:
I am self-confident and I consistently accomplish my goals. I am surrounded by potential opportunities, and I can accomplish any to which I set my mind.
My only limitation is my imagination and I now let my imagination go free. I am crystal-clear about what I want out of life.
I easily and effortlessly review my goals on a daily basis, and adjust my life as needed to achieve my goals. I stick with my goals until I have achieved them.
I allow only positive and winning thoughts to flow through my mind. I am filled with optimism and enthusiasm and I strive to be an inspiration to others in my life.
I’ve tried to keep my script fairly short so I can spend time reflecting on it without having to much to cram into my mind or memorize.
Update: Keeping my script held in my mind proved more difficult than I thought it would. I felt like I didn’t really keep it focused, but part of the power of autosuggestion and self-hypnosis is that you are programming your subconscious mind - time will tell if this does indeed work.
Since today is a Saturday, it was already going at a more relaxed pace than a normal weekday would for me. So after my nap I felt extremely refreshed. I could have used an extra 20 minutes!
So far I’ve been happy with the results I’ve had over the last five days - forcing myself to take time out of my day exclusively for myself to rest and relax has made me feel much more productive and stress-free during the day.
I’ve been using the Pzizz software program during my power naps - and so far I’ve been happy with the results. But I’m not ready to admit that it’s a must-have piece to getting a refreshing and relaxing power nap experience. I’m going to have to try some control experiments and see if the experience is the same.
Next week I will continue to take power naps during the day, but I will use no audio program and I will use a CD I have of relaxing nature sounds. I’m curious to see if I get the same level of relaxation and refreshment.
February 13th, 2006
After posting the article titled, “The weight of an idea.” I had several people inquire about the index cards I print out for myself.
I used Adobe Pagemaker to lay the card out and I keep a stack of them near me pretty much everywhere I go. A pack of 100 index cards costs about $0.99 and I figure my printer (an HP LaserJet 1000) costs me about $0.02 per card to print. So my total cost to print my own cards is around $0.03 each, or $3.00 per hundred - cheap!
I’ve tried printing these cards with an ink jet printer, but I found that the ink is sucked into the card stock and ends up looking blurry and a bit gray for my tastes. The laser printer gives very crisp lines and text and is dead-on black. It looks very professional when you jot a note on one and hand it to a colleague - they’ll think you had cards custom printed - snazzy!
I’ve created two PDFs of this card if you want to print them at home for your own use.
My printer will feed a 3×5 index card (many printers will), but only in the dead center of the paper tray. The guides close down equally from each side.
If your printer is like this, then you want to download the 3×5 Index Card for a full size page. (
) It’s centered on a 8.5″ x 11″ sheet and will print right onto a 3×5 card fed down the center of a paper tray.
If your printer adjusts to feed index cards down one edge, then you will probably want to download the 3×5 Index Card sized for a 3″ x 5″ page ().
Here’s is what the card looks like (click the image to enlarge).
It has the text “Next Action / ‘To Do’” at the top with room for a date or other small note at the top (maybe an @Context for you GTD fans?).
Below that are three category check-boxes (A, B, & C) and five priority check-boxes (1, 2, 3, 4, & 5). This allows you to classify a task or action with up to 15 different priority codes.
Plenty of blank space follows next, here’s where you’re genius comes in.
At the bottom is a place to note the current date, a due date if follow up is needed and if you’re delegating the task to someone else, you can write their name here.
Put a check in the little check-box with the arrow to indicate more is continued on the back of the card.
I carry a fresh load of these cards in a leather index card case from Gifts For Professionals. It’s cheap ($15.95) and is barely noticeable tucked away in a back pocket. It holds about 8 fresh cards and 4 “noted” cards. You could probably jam more cards in, but I’ve never run out with 8 cards on me. I refill it at night as needed.
Levenger also makes a pocket briefcase to hold index cards; it’s $38.00 but looks like it might be a little more sturdy that the case I bought.
I hope you find this card useful. If you keep it on you all the time - you’ll never let your next million dollar idea slip away.
February 12th, 2006
It occurs to me - after posting about a specific product related to power napping - that you have no earthly way of knowing if I’m a shill for any service or product providers.
It’s a problem that the entire Internet is struggling with; who is legitimately posting about their experience with a product or service, and who is paid to post about products and services?
Other than the articles I write here at this web site, you don’t know me from Adam. Hopefully you’ve received good value from these articles, that’s my hope anyway.
About the only thing I can offer is this pledge to you, my reader: I will always disclose any relationship with any company about whose products or services appear on this web site. If I’m reviewing a “freebie” product I will disclose that fact beforehand (yes, I’ve been given “freebies” to review for my opinion on this web site; no, those articles have not been written yet).
I believe that you should be able to read an un-biased (or biased if I love the product) review and know that I’m writing it because I found the product or service really useful.
February 11th, 2006
How much weight does an idea have? How solid is an idea? It’s sometimes difficult to think about ideas as a tangible “thing” since they seem so ethereal and untouchable.
I think that ideas have a lot more “weight” than people believe. Consider this; every thing around you that is man-made started out as an idea. Nothing sprang forth into existence without first being someones dream and idea.
This web site started as a dream and then an idea. I didn’t just wake up one morning and - poof - I had a web site. It took planning and preparation and work, but it all started with an idea.
The company I work for didn’t just start in the state it’s in today. It started as an idea of one of the co-founders. His idea eventually turned into a booming business, but before there was inventory and offices, there was an idea.
I’ve read that every day, every person has at lease one “million dollar idea” - but most of us aren’t aware enough of the power of our ideas to realize it and capitalize on it. Bill Gates had an idea that he capitalized on - a computer on every desk. This idea, carried out, had made him worth almost $30 billion dollars today.
How often are you struck by an idea that sounds like a winner, but you’re not in a place where you can capture the idea? I’ve been hit with some great ideas driving in the car; I get excited because I think the idea really has merit, but by the time I’m home I’ve let myself get focused on a jerk who cut me off or I let myself get distracted by a song on the radio. Inevitably by the time I get home and am ambushed at the door by my dog and talk to my wife about her day, I’ve forgotten my great idea.
Or I’ll get a good idea for an article for this web site and I’ll think to myself, “No need to write it down, it’s such a good idea I won’t possibly forget it…” and ten minutes later I’m scratching my head, wondering what I was so excited to write about.
The trick is to not let these ideas slip out of your grasp so easily. Ideas can slip out of your head as easily as sand slips out from between your fingers. So to give yourself an advantage, you need to arm yourself with tools that you can actually integrate into your daily routine that will enhance your odds of being able to immediately capture ideas as they come to you.
1) Keep paper on you at all times
It sounds simple, but how often have you scrambled for some scrap paper to make a note, or ended up tearing up a napkin while jotting down a phone number? If you make it easy to keep paper on you at all times, you’ll never have to worry about what to write you idea on.
I like using 3″ x 5″ index cards because they’re big enough to put a lot on but still fit in your pocket easily, you can get them anywhere, and they’re cheap. To make it easy to hold them, I bought a leather index card case from Gifts For Professionals. Levenger also makes a pocket briefcase to hold index cards, but it’s $38.00 and the case from Gifts for Professionals is only $15.95.
I take blank, unlined 3″ x 5″ index cards and print them myself. I threw together a layout that works for me and includes a few nice “features” and I print them up on my laser printer by the hundred.
2) Keep a pen on you at all times
It goes without saying that if you always carry paper, you should always carry a pen, but which pen? A lot of HPDA users swear by the Fischer Space Pen - and as far as a company goes you won’t find one that does customer service better. I have one of their Bullet Pens myself. It’s a great pen, but I have to remember to put it in my pocket every day.
So I got myself a Cross ION pen. I like it because it clips onto my key chain, so if I have my keys with me I have a pen with me. It’s also a gel pen, which I find more comfortable to write with than a ballpoint pen.
3) Keep a voice recorder in the car
A couple of years ago I was given a small, digital voice recorder as a gift. I was never really sure what I should use it for, it only held 45 minutes and the quality wasn’t great. It wouldn’t be much use for recording seminars or classes and there was no way to easily download the contents to a computer, so I would only be able to fill it once before I had to convert everything to notes and delete the memory.
The one thing it had going for it was it was very small and it would keep track of individual entries, so you could scroll to the 15th recording and just play that one recording.
It quickly found a home in my car, clipped to the driver’s side sun visor. Now when an idea strikes me while driving, I just have to reach up and hit “record” to capture my idea. I then jot it on a note card when I arrive at my destination, before I leave the car. It also has the added benefit of being just good enough to record talk-radio, so if I get into an interesting story I want to relay, I can reach up and hit “record” and get up to 45 minutes of the program (music, however, is completely inaudible).
Keeping myself armed with tools to capture my ideas has - I feel - helped me tremendously. Once you understand how valuable ideas really are, you’ll know the importance of making it easy to capture them.
The next step is learning which ideas are the “million dollar” ideas, and learning how to capitalize on them. But that’s something I’m still working on myself!
February 10th, 2006
Just the other day one of my colleagues came into my office and asked me, “If I know my average demand for a product, do you know how to calculate how much I’ll need to have a 95% certainty it will be in stock?”
I opened my mouth and said, “Yes, I can help you…wait…I used to know how to do a calculation like that. Let me think about it for a minute.”
Back in high school I fell in love with probability and statistics and took all the courses my school taught. That was almost twelve years ago. Since graduating, I don’t know that I’ve really had occasion to do many statistical calculations. It’s a skill I was once pretty proficient in, and now I’m so rusty and out of practice it’s embarrassing.
I didn’t use it and I lost it.
The same was true for my colleague. He was a management and quality major who had studied EOQ models and statistical analysis of inventory while earning his degree. It was also about ten years ago for him that he did all of this work and he too was rusty and out of practice with statistical analysis of inventory. Between the two of us we managed to scrape up a formula that might be right - we’re still working on it.
When we learn skills, but tuck them away and don’t practice them we eventually forget enough of the “how-to” that after a long enough time has passed we’re essentially starting from scratch. We remember learning the skill, but we often don’t remember enough details to make the skill immediately useful. This includes obscure grammar rules, science, math, chemistry, you name it. It also includes personal development ideas too.
I think it’s even more likely that most “don’t use it and lose it” when it comes to learning personal development ideas. We find an article with some great tips or we hear a speaker with amazing passion about an idea and we get charged up and excited! We stock the idea away in the back of our mind and maybe even practice it for a few days.
For a lot of us - I know for me personally - many of the great ideas I read will make it into my brain to be filed away. And when this happens I will usually “lose it” to the dustbin of my memory.
How many times have you been super charged up and excited about an idea, but were at a place where immediate action was difficult to take? I’m willing to bet a shiny quarter that you very likely didn’t take any action and you probably let the feeling and the excitement and the passion die down a little.
After a little more time went by, I’m willing to wager you didn’t take any action at all. You had this great idea or you read this amazing article or you heard this amazing speaker, but you didn’t use what you learned and you eventually lost it.
I’m not pointing fingers at you, I do it all the time myself. It’s easy to let things like this slip out of grasp unless we followup and take immediate action.
Our minds are great at consuming huge amounts of information and sorting it around into patterns. But if we don’t follow up on that information and reinforce it to ourselves our mind figures it must not really be that important and it eventually discards it.
First it moves the information from ready-access to storage a little deeper - you can usually still recall what you want, but it takes a little longer.
After the information has been in second level of storage for a while, your brain decides it needs more space - new information is coming in all the time you know - and moves it into long-term storage. You can usually recall bits and pieces of the information, but there are substantial gaps.
Finally, like old receipts, you brain decides that that long-term storage could really stand to be cleaned out to make room for new items that are ready to go into long-term storage. So it saves the file folder that says “Probability and Statistics skills” and throws everything else away. About all I remember is that I had taken classes in probability and statistics, and that I enjoyed it, but little else.
The good news is that since our brain keeps the file folders around, picking up the skills a second time is usually much simpler. Our brain already has a place to stick those skills and information and it picks up on them much more quickly. But you still have to invest the time to re-learn (or re-remember as it were) the skill.
This is why it’s so important to form good habits - to get regular reinforcement of skills that are important - and to remember that not using it is just inviting your brain to lose it.
How do you “use it” on a regular basis when it comes to self-improvement and development information? I think this will vary a little for every person, because every person is unique.
There aren’t really that many truly new ideas in the world of personal development. If you read enough books and listen to enough audio programs you’ll eventually see the patterns of truth that are in every respected self-improvement teacher’s material. What is unique is how these core truths get repackaged by different teachers. For example, you may really “click” with my presentation of an idea when you didn’t “click” with the very same idea presented a different way by Napoleon Hill.
I think that the first step to really internalizing these core truths of success, achievement and development is developing a habit of reading. There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of books and web sites out there with articles and information on goal-setting, success, achievement, wealth creation, self-improvement and development. If you read enough of these resources, you’ll begin to learn what the core truths are, and it will give you a good framework on which to hang information.
The second step is to discipline yourself to keep positive, success-building and self-improving material in front of you on a regular basis. When you discipline yourself to do this, and actually do it on a regular basis it will transform into a habit. Once you are habitually taking in positive material (both new and re-read older material) you’ll have that constant reinforcement to keep the concepts and ideas fresh in your mind. By making a commitment with myself to start this web site, I’m forced to keep such material constantly in front of myself - your method will probably be different.
Finally, you need to take action on those ideas that strike a chord within yourself. When you find a really good idea, or a unique approach to an idea that really resonates with you - find a way to implement it or take other action on it. This will cement it in your mind and taking action on it will increases the chances of you eventually turning it into a habit. When you take action on it, you begin to practice it as a part of your routine.
When you’ve made it all the way through this cycle, it’s time to start over; this will keep you in a self-reinforcing feedback loop. If you stay diligent in doing this, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about when it comes to “losing it.”
February 8th, 2006
I’ve always been a fan of naps. They make you feel great (if you don’t sleep to long) and they’re easy to do almost anywhere you can get quiet for a short period of time (on your lunch break, etc.).
I’ve also been intrigued by self-hypnosis as a tool to enhance personal development. I dabbled in it years ago and was able to get to the point where I could - through relaxation and meditation - get myself into a light suggestive state. I never had any major break-through with self-hypnosis though, and because of that I let my interest in its possibilities wane.
I just discovered an interesting piece of software that promises to blend power-napping with subconscious suggestion and NLP to provide the refreshing power of a nap with the benefits of developing and improving yourself.
Is it a bunch of hooey? I don’t know…yet.
My plan is to use this system for a month and see if I notice any significant changes in my behavior, attitude, personal development, or just in how I feel.
The software is called Pzizz (download their free trial to check it out yourself). I don’t have any affiliation with this company, I found them while out surfing the Internet and their software piqued my interest.
I would be interested in hearing from any of you if you’ve used their software before and what experience you had with it. Please post a comment or use the contact form to get in touch with me.
Happy napping!
February 7th, 2006
What do you do that earns you money? If you’re a salesperson, the answer is probably pretty easy to come up with. But what if you’re not part of the revenue-chain in your position; how do you earn your keep?
Top performing salespeople are mindful of their pay-time and their no-pay-time and they work to keep the balance heavily in favor of pay-time. At my company, our top performing sales people don’t enter their own orders into our ordering system, they don’t send faxes with quotes for prospects, they don’t sit and polish their staplers…they get appointments and they get in front of prospects and customers.
That’s their pay-time. If they’re not booking an appointment or spending time in front of a prospect, they’re not actually providing value to the company.
But what if the value you provide isn’t so clearly defined? How do you know if you’re working in pay-time-mode or no-pay-time-mode, and how can you switch gears and spend more time in pay-time?
When I get to work, the first thing I do is check my email messages. I usually justify this to myself by noting that it’s possible someone will have contacted me with a major problem that needs resolving. In reality if any problem that major came up while I was out of the office my cell phone would be lit up like a Christmas tree.
For me, 90% of the time I spend dealing with my email is no-pay-time. Any sufficiently critical problem that arises that would put me into pay-time (i.e. earning my keep through crisis mitigation) will result in my phone ringing or someone appearing at my office door.
So I try to be mindful of this and limit the time I really spend in email. Sure, I still check it first thing in the morning, right after lunch and then in mid-afternoon (and there are some days with a few more checks thrown in) but I’m aware that the time I spend with my nose in Outlook is most definitely no-pay-time for me!
That’s the first trick; Be mindful of the tasks you’re working on.
When you’re mindful of what you’re working on, you can ask questions like, “Is this the best use of my time right now?” If the answer is “no” then it’s time to work on something else.
In my position - technology director - I don’t contribute directly to the bottom line. Usually information technology budgets are seen only as cost centers in companies; a necessary evil to business in the 21st century. Where my key contributions fall is keeping critical systems on-line and functioning smoothly and actively researching new ways to use technology to improve processes.
When our systems are running smoothly, our sales assistants can more easily enter the orders our sales people are generating, our receivables people can get customer statements easily printed, our accounts payable people can get our vendors and suppliers paid. In general, smooth running technology systems enable everyone else to do their job which does contribute to the bottom line.
Likewise, when I am working on improving business processes (with or without technology) those improvements are to enhance the business and save it money or allow people to get more done in less time. Business process enhancement does - for me - directly contribute to the bottom line.
This is the second trick; Know how you contribute to the bottom line.
When you know how you directly contribute to the bottom line, you’ll know what it is that you do that keeps you employed and brings the value of your paycheck to your company.
Being the technology director of a company means I’m flooded with requests as wide and varied as, “We need a proposal for a wireless warehouse implementation.” to “The printer is jammed and I don’t know how to fix it.” I am fortunate to have a great staff that can deflect a lot of the smaller issues so I can work on proposals for wireless warehouse implementations.
I’ve always been a “if-you-want-it-done-right-do-it-yourself” kind of guy. In this position I quickly found myself buried under a to-do list a mile long. Sure, I might know I’ll do it right, but if I never have time to get it done that’s usually worse! So I lean on my staff…a lot.
All of the small issues that I know are not what I do to bring value to the bottom line I try to delegate down to free me up to work on the projects that keep me in my pay-time.
This is the third trick; Delegate as many no-pay-time tasks as possible.
When you get unnecessary and low-value tasks off your to-do list you’ll feel much better because you won’t be worried about dropping a ball you have in the air by taking on too many tasks yourself.
Since I do have so many people come to me on a daily basis with requests for help, or requests for time on their pet project - whatever it may be - I have to pick and choose what I actually have the time to accomplish and what my staff has the time and resources to accomplish.
This means that some people have to hear the dreaded, “no.”
And this is tough for me - I’m not good at telling people no. It’s one area that I have to constantly remind myself I need to work and improve. I just don’t like to turn people down - maybe it’s a bit of my own “head trash” and inner fear of rejection. Whatever the case, something I have to constantly remind myself is, “It’s okay to say no!”
This is the fourth trick; When asked to take on more tasks that are no-pay-time tasks, just say “no.”
When I keep all four tricks in mind, I find that I spend consistently and considerably more of my time in the pay-time category; and this should be the goal of every high-achieving, goal-setting, self-improving person out there…I mean you!
Plus you can make a competition with yourself by charting your pay-time versus no-pay-time on a day-by-day basis. Your goal should be to improve the ratio a little every day.
In summary, keep these four tricks in mind to improve your pay-time vs. no-pay-time ratio:
1) Be mindful of the tasks you’re working on.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure; so start measuring!
2) Know how you contribute to the bottom line.
Be crystal clear on how your unique talent bring value to the bottom line. Know this whether you are on front-line sales or back-office support.
3) Delegate as many no-pay-time tasks as possible.
Your no-pay-time tasks are very likely someone else’s pay-time tasks.
4) When asked to take on more tasks that are no-pay-time tasks, just say “no.”
No one likes to hear “no”, but taking on too many tasks and getting nothing done is even worse! Plus many of these tasks are no-pay-time tasks.
Finally, keep in mind that if you start to weed out the no-pay-time tasks you’re regularly working on you may feel like you’re weeding out important tasks. Not every no-pay-time task is unimportant and not every pay-time task is important. The trick is knowing which are which, and minimizing your no-pay-time to (ideally) dealing only with the important no-pay-time tasks.
You’ll never get to the point where you spend 100% of your time in pay-time, but the closer you get the more productive and valuable you’ll be!
February 6th, 2006
Does the name Douglas McGregor ring a bell? If it doesn’t you’ve probably still experienced (internally or externally) his work.
In the 1960s he postulated his Theory X and Theory Y to describe attitude toward motivation (specifically in the workplace).
I think that these theories can be expanded to include not only workplace motivation, but motivation in general. These two theories can probably be best summed up as follows: Theory X = pessimistic view of people and motivation. Theory Y = optimistic view of people and motivation.
The basis of the two theories are:
Theory X - people are inherently lazy and will avoid work. They need close supervision and constant management to keep them on track. People prefer to be directed and dislike taking on responsibility and have a high need for security.
Theory Y - work is a natural part of life and people desire to excel and achieve. Job satisfaction is important and responsibility to implement and achieve a desired outcome are important and imagination and creativity are sought after and encouraged.
Of course, this is all just management theory - taught to aspiring BAs and MBAs. But if you look around, can’t you identify and categorize people into these categories pretty easily?
All around me are “X-people” and “Y-people”. The owner of the company I work for is most definitely a Y-person. He fully believes that people want to work hard, will work hard and are driven by responsibility and achievement. He will gladly handout more and more responsibility to anyone who asks for it. This is the filter through which he sees the world - to him everyone looks like a Y-person.
My father is more of an X-person. He believes that unless he’s directing a lot of little details about things happening around him, people will not do what’s necessary to accomplish the task at hand. This is the filter through which he sees the world - to him everyone looks like an X-person.
More than just a management theory, I believe that the “X” and “Y” perspective of viewing the world is something we apply to our own filters. If we believe people don’t want to work and need constant, micro-management we tend to apply this belief (unfairly) to everyone. Conversely, if we believe in personal responsibility, motivation and a sense of accomplishment and achievement by a job well done, we tend to apply that belief (unfairly) to everyone.
It can bite us in the backside both ways. I am a very strong Y-person and several years ago I was in a position where all of the management had an “X” orientation to motivation. Working in that atmosphere was unbearable. I was miserable and withing months of joining the team I was looking for a way out.
On the other side of the street; I had a person working for me a few years ago who would - if left to their own devices - do nothing to further their projects. They needed stronger guidance and supervision than I provided (being a strong Y-person) and subsequently they did not last long in the position either.
My job failed me because the management didn’t change their “X vs. Y” filters. I failed my employee because I didn’t change my “X vs. Y” filters.
The ideal solution is to evaluate people and put them into a situation that’s most comfortable and conducive for them, but most of the time we don’t stop to think about things like motivation factors. We often assume that people are motivated the same way we are, and that’s how we interact with them.
The first step to breaking out of our routine of seeing the whole world through a set filter is to know what the differences are (thank you Douglas McGregor!). The second step is to evaluate the relationships you’re in and the people in them to find out if it’s most appropriate to wear “X” glasses or “Y” glasses.
We have to learn to change our filters from permanent lenses to interchangeable lenses we can switch out when needed.
If you’re reading this article and this web site, I’m going to take the liberty and assume I’m communicating with another strongly oriented Y-person. I try to know my audience and write accordingly. This site is probably not well received by strongly oriented X-people.
Intellectually this makes a lot of sense, but actually doing it takes practice and work. The stronger your predilection towards “X” or “Y”, the harder you will have to work to view people through the other filter.
Sometimes the glass if half-full and sometimes the glass is half-empty, the trick is knowing which it is in the context of those that you interact with. My challenge to you is to work to try and view your “audience” through the appropriate X/Y glasses.
February 4th, 2006
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