“The coordination of knowledge and effort between two or more people who work towards a definite purpose in a spirit of harmony…no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.” – Napoleon Hill

Masterminds are a popular collaborative peer conversation space, where peers are encouraged to bring current business opportunities or challenges which can be explored. The role of those listening may be to ask questions, provide insights or share tips around what they have done in the past.

Masterminds have been part of the business landscape for many decades (think the last century). They are commonly attributed to Napoleon Hill author of Think and Grow Rich.

Mastermind meetings are popular given their practical peer focus and practical advice. This may be why they are still similar to their roots decades ago.

Masterminds can focus on shared themes – i.e. how to build your consulting business OR how to expand social media. The synergy of the group and their commitment to the process is key.

Here are some great resources you might want to check out if you are considering getting masterminds started:

• https://www.score.org/resource/guide-mastermind-groups - a resource guide from Score
• Here’s another article on how to select group members and other considerations when establishing a mastermind group: https://www.score.org/blog/5-essential-rules-building-mastermind-group-gets-results
• And Cleverism’s Complete Guide to Mastermind Groups https://www.cleverism.com/complete-guide-mastermind-groups/

​
​Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

One of the favorite things I enjoy about the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners are the Trackers. I’ve included 12 sets of Monthly Daily Trackers in each publication, so that you can track the most important elements in your work (and life) over the course of a year.
Making things visible, and intentionally tracking items, can provide valuable information and data. This can help us with our decision making, and prioritizing.

Remote Workers might be tracking:

• Time spent on projects or tasks
• Meeting time
• Feedback provided
• Hours of work
  

Virtual Businesses might track:

• Revenue
• Sales
• Expenses
• Presentations or Pitches Given
• Client Meetings
• Services Delivered
  

What are the elements you are tracking?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Week 8 Focus – Enabler: Mindsets and Beliefs 
Focus Question: As you move towards your vision, what are the mindsets and beliefs that will help you?


​Description
Adopting a Growth Mindset
In both workbooks I write a little bit about the Growth Mindset, a term that was brought to life by Carol Dweck. Mindset is below the waterline and shapes our perspectives, behaviors and motivation. What mindsets do you have as you approach your work? What are the things that are going to help you grow, persevere and succeed?
Growth mindset is characterized by:

• Trying
• Ongoing Learning
• Something that is not perfect
• Coming to terms with that it might not be ready – yet!
• Trial and Error

The opposite of growth mindset is fixed mindset. When we approach tasks with a fixed mindset it needs to be:

• Perfect
• Complete
• From an expert perspective

What are the tasks you embrace regularly from a growth mindset perspective? Which do you embrace from a fixed mindset perspective?

Activity
What are the mindsets you are bringing to your work every day? Be specific in thinking about the last week or month. Note where you have been – in fixed, or growth mindset. What’s needed?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Mindset in Iceberg – pages 25 and 26 (CBB and PDT)
Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking here.
Best wishes,
Jennifer
Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking

​Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Author of several books including: PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized  - Specializing in support to virtual and remote teams, leaders and entrepreneurs
Award-winning Coaching Skills Training
Join us for one of our 2019 Annual Coaching Groups - Teams365 Leadership Lab for Virtual Leaders and Team Members or
Coaching Biz Growth Lab - for coaches and other virtual entrepreneurs
(416)996-8326

Stay Connected

This week’s planning hack gets you to consider how you can use color coding to support organization and focus. One of the challenges in today’s work is an overload of data. It is said that “color is one of the first things we take in when looking at an image.”
Using color to help sort through the myriad of emails, files and to-dos can create a quick sort. This may help us do things faster and also not feel the “cognitive load” of tasks as much.
Consider how you might use color to:

• Segment focus
• Identify tasks of a certain priority
• Flag emails around a certain topic or project
• Flag emails from a certain person

Here are some quick examples of how I use color coding:
To denote different tasks in my monthly daily tracker, the colors say much more than numbers would.

Different colored folders for different tasks and projects – Client files are purple, Writing files are usually blue, Speaking files are yellow, Financial files are red.

What could you do with color to help you with your organizing and planning?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Leveraging our time is as much about getting organized, as it is getting clear on what’s important. Against the backdrop of complexity, ongoing change and disruption, getting ruthless with our time management can be so important to many.
As a business owner, or remote worker, this is especially true. We can’t get our time back. So, when we go down a rabbit hole (whether it’s doing too much research online, following a shiny red object or thinking we just need to learn “one more thing”), the costs can be tremendous. Not just in NOT getting things done, but in terms of our focus, our motivation and also our profit line!

Discernment is about getting clear on what’s important and what’s not. It is about being clear of what’s going to provide impact now, later or never.

As a remote worker or virtual business owner, we are do often have greater control over our time. Our colleagues and/or superiors may be hundreds of miles away, or several time zones ahead. As remote workers, it’s not always about how we manage our time, but how we get our results. Those who feel the crunch in getting something over the finish line is usually only us (and those loved ones around us!).

With this in mind, what is the cost of not being discerning around where your time goes, or how clear your projects are, or what is a more important priority than another?

As we embark on new projects, or start a new week, it can be useful to ask ourselves, and our stakeholders:

• What’s most important today?
• What are the top 3-5 things I want to get completed?
• What are the MUST Dos?
• What will success look like with this project/task?
• As it relates to this project/task, what’s important?
• Have I considered the short-term, medium-term and long-term in making decisions?
• What would my colleague/boss/peer/customer say is most important to focus on today?
• What impact will this activity have? And that one?

 
What questions do you want to ask as you decide one priority to another?

Let us know using the comments below!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Week 7 Focus – Resourcing and Past Experience
Focus Question: What can you do to leverage what you already have done?

Research/Story
What helps coaches be successful with their work? As a professional it’s likely that you have already had many accomplishments. These can be leveraged for future successes.In this week’s focus you are invited to think about what pat successes you have enjoyed and created for yourself.
​
Activity
​Take a few minutes to list the top 10 things you are most proud of accomplishing.
As you identify the experiences, note:

• What were the skills you utilized to make them happen?
• What was the learning created through that experience?
• How can you apply that going forwards?

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking here.
Best wishes,
Jennifer 
Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking

Welcome to the first of a series of weekly Wednesday planning hacks. In the spirit of all things planning, doing and tracking, I’m pleased to offer this new weekly series here at the PlanDoTrack blog. Similar to other weekly series I host at my sister blog, Teams365 blog (found at Potentials Realized.com), my hope is that these weekly posts will not only serve as a quick focus area for you, and over time will add up to be a valuable resource. I'll also be doing a live video on each of the tips every week, sharing it over at the PlanDoTrack Facebook page.

Let’s get started with the Pomodoro Technique, the focus of weekly planning hack #1.

Have you heard about the Pomodoro Technique (often associated with the icon of the Tomato)?

As I wrote last January 2018 at the Teams365 blog, the Pomodoro Technique is an invaluable tool in creating focus in today’s digitally distracted world. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1470 on Minimizing Distractions – 

“Creating "focused work" periods. Whether it's 30 or 60 minutes a day, focused times, which have no immediate distraction allow us to get things done. Many studies find that our immediate productivity can be boosted by giving projects time windows and time frames. The Pomodoro technique is one example of accelerating productivity. It posits that focused activity for 25 minutes can be followed by a 5-minute break. Read more about the Pomodoro Technique from its' creator here.”
 
How might more focused bursts of attention support you and your projects right now?
What would it be like to experiment with more focused bursts of time where the rings and bings of everyday digital life are silenced?"
​
Let us know if you get the chance to experiment with this!
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

With another winter storm day here, many workplaces are giving people the option to work from home. In today's global space a snow day rarely means a day off - it just means we need to get things done from where we are.  In some ways this can be more stressful for some, than trying to get into the office.
If you do have an unplanned remote work day, take advantage of what may be an even more productive day for you, without the stress of a bad commute!
#1 - Make sure you have a dedicated workspace. The distractions when working remote may be different than that at the office. While you might not be getting pulled into meetings like you do, the distractions are real. From being surrounded by a household list of things that could get done, to maybe having kids home from school as well.
Find a space where you can work efficiently. Close to a power source, with good lighting and space for you to work. An added bonus is having a door you can close if there are
#2 - Set a timer and take breaks. While you may not have the usual interruptions. Itcan be important to take scheduled breaks like you would at the office. Set the timer so you can get into your work. Some productivity experts recommend working in 50 minute blocks, others assert 1.5 hour blocks are even better. You get to decide, but make sure you can get some focused work in, and take breaks regularly.
#3 - Stay in touch - As you would normally, stay in touch with colleagues as appropriate
#4  - Create agreements around what remote work expectations are. This may involve times for work, remote connection to the office, security around data and connection,and what expectations are in terms of staying in touch.
#5 - Use the time to get heavier tasks done. Consider what projects you have not been able to tackle due to interruptions and schedule these in. This might be the day when you finally can check things off your list!
#6 - Consider what will help you be even more efficient next time! Days like these can be a blessing, illustrating how much actually gets done in the remote space without as many (meeting) interruptions. What do you need to be even more productive next remote work day.
As we say here, winter's not over yet!

Let us know what your favorite tips are for working remote, by sharing in the comments.

Enjoy
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Continuing in the theme of this month around time management and productivity, today our attention turns to Organizing Your Remote Workspace.
​As a virtual or remote worker, having an organized workspace can be challenging. Sometimes we may be working out of a space that serves many more people (think – the family or room mates), sometimes we may be on the move, and other times we may be needing to work off-hours.

Getting organized in your virtual space is key to productivity success. This may look different for each one of us. Three areas you will want to consider getting organized around includes:
·         Reducing Distractions
·         Files
·         Email
 
#1 – Reducing Distractions – Take note of the workspace you have and the distractions which are common. If you are working in a shared space, what can you do to minimize interruptions from others, or enhance privacy? Could this mean changing your working hours, or flow of work?
There can also be many visual distractions, from clutter to the pull of what’s around our periphery. Investing in regular time for clean up and decluttering can do a long way. This could also mean investing in a screen or other item that could serve as a barrier.
Consider other elements which will add to your workspace including lighting and a clear and comfortable space to work at. Power sources and chairs may round out the list.
 
#2  - Files
Files and materials take all different shapes and forms. From digital to paper based, what are the files you are needing to keep at hand?
How can you access them?
What can you do to ensure they are secure?
What organizing do you need to complete with them?
 
#3 – Email – Email can become an all-consuming entity. While some jobs require that you are on a significant part of the day, can you experiment with windows where you shut down email? Dr. Gloria Mark found that when distracted, it could take us upwards of 22 minutes to get back on task. When you need to focus on “deep work” (reports, analysis, creating, thinking) what windows have you created for yourself?
What else is going to help you focus and thrive in your remote work-space?
Share with us the one thing that has made all the difference in your working remote.

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Author of several books including: PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized  - Specializing in support to virtual and remote teams, leaders and entrepreneurs
Award-winning Coaching Skills Training
Book a call with Jennifer

Week 6 Focus – Enablers: Resourcing, Partnerships, Mindsets, Strengths
Focus Question: What are the things that are going to help you as a business owner/coach/virtual employee?
​
Description
​The term « enabling » is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as “making something possible or easier”. What, and who, is going to help make your vision and your key goals possible?Being able to lean into different areas is key for our business, especially when things get busy, or we are tasked with a big project, or one that stretches us.At these times it is important to lean into areas that will help us – or the enablers. That can include:

• Resourcing
• Partnerships
• Mindsets
• Strengths

It is important to identify what these key enablers are, so we can lean into them for support. Work around each of these areas is important, which is why we are going to explore each one of these areas more in-depth in the coming weeks.  For now, use the following graphic to note the different “enablers” you have in your business or work at the moment.

Activity
​Using the following worksheet - Identify the Resources, Partnerships, Mindsets and Strengths, and past experiences, that are going to move you forward with a current project.

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
​Many of the resources in the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack workbooks help readers identify and focus on these areas, in particular:

​Additional resources that will support you in this area include:

• Mindset – Carol Dweck, NeuroLeadership Institute
• Strengths Assessments – VIA Strengths, StrengthsFinder 2.0

We will explore the different areas (Resourcing, Past Experience, Partnerships, Mindsets, Strengths) over  the next 4 weeks.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking here.

Check out past weeks of the 52 Weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking here.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer
​Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Planning, Doing and Tracking

​Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPT
Author of several books including: PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Effective Group Coaching (2010)
Potentials Realized  - Specializing in support to virtual and remote teams, leaders and entrepreneurs
Award-winning Coaching Skills Training
Join us for one of our 2019 Annual Coaching Groups - Teams365 Leadership Lab for Virtual Leaders and Team Members or
Coaching Biz Growth Lab - for coaches and other virtual entrepreneurs
(416)996-8326

Stay Connected