In coaching, we often ask clients to think about the structure, of their accountabilities and what they have committed to doing going forward.

If someone is working on becoming more efficient by doing things once rather than returning back to it time and time again to perfect it, a structure might be “better done than perfect”.
 
If someone is wanting to become better at minimizing the paper on their desk or emails in their inbox, it might be a note on their desktop saying “Touch it once” or “Get to zero”.

For someone else, productivity might mean becoming more efficient with their time windows, and having an alarm or a timer to note when it’s time to sign off. By creating more urgency, it can help us move through moments of procrastination or increase our pacing.
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Finally, for someone who wants to get better at getting into the routine of working out, the structure might be having the gym bag in the trunk, or a pair or running shoes in the car, to fit in the later in the day workout, after shopping or work (if you are out and about). If you are home, it might mean setting a timer and having your gym things ready for when you are ready to head out.
 
Structures can be visible – a post it, a note on your computer. Structures can be auditory – a song, or an alarm, or even a verbal note.
What are the structures which are going to support you in achieving your goals this quarter?
 
Enjoy!

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 these Instagram accounts @coachingbizbuilder & @remotepathways!
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

Are you a remote professional? Listen into the Remote Pathways Podcast on your favorite podcast player!

This week’s Weekly Planning hack is about CONDENSING. To condense something is to make it more dense, thicker, or collapse it. When we condense things down, we return them to their elements.

In planning, productivity and business it’s important that we condense things down to their core elements so that things are more clear.

When you think about condensing things in work or business it might include:

• Prioritizing all the different Quarterly project options you are working on – What’s going to give the greatest impact? What’s really important?
• Simplifying some of the marketing text you are going to use in a campaign
• Simplifying processes in order to streamline
• Taking some projects off the list

​What else could be condensed?

Best,
​Jennifer

“What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done.”

When I went to name the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner a few years ago, it was first called Get ___ Done. The more I did work with professionals of all kinds (remote workers, leaders, entrepreneurs, the more apparent it was that metrics were an important part of productivity. We can get things done, but is it the RIGHT things, in the RIGHT ways?

“Metrics that Matter” gets us thinking about the things you want to track. What’s important to you? What’s important to your work or business? How often are you pausing to see where things are at? What are the metrics that matter?

As I shared in a September 2019 community call for Coaching Business Builder, metrics matter for several reasons including – they help to:

• Anchor

While we may be a Jack or Jill of all trades, it can be important to bring “Experts” on board as well

• Provide Data

Offering a variety of engagement types – products and services, which can allow you to expand your reach and geographic impact

• Scaling

Scaling your business beyond a one-on-one hourly revenue approach.

• Know Where We are Going

Keeping your work fresh, so that you are working around similar issues but in different formats

• Resource Allocation

Inspiration and Expansion of ideas
 
What’s important to note about metrics in your work and world right now?

What are you doing to track them? This week? This month? This quarter?

If you haven’t taken a look at your metrics from the last quarter, take a look back at them now. What do you notice?

Best,
Jennifer

“If you concentrate on small, manageable steps you can cross unimaginable distances.”
- Shaun Hick
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This week’s focus is part of the main equation of my body of work, with PlanDoTrack which is Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum.
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What are the daily steps you want, and need, to be undertaking around major projects? What are the things you want to be doing to generate some momentum and energy of its own?

This links back to Week 43 and the Weekly Planning Hack of Consistent Action in 15 minutes a day. You can read that here.

While I was doing a search through some of my older Teams365 blog posts, a daily blog I started around leadership and teamwork issues back in 2014, I came across this post from 2014 about the importance of working in 15 minute blocks:
It's often said that when you experience writers block to just sit down and aim to write for 15 minutes. Many writers swear that this gets them going and out of the block.

Today's check it off tip is an encouragement to chunk things down to 15-minute blocks, so they are more manageable. Perhaps your office is already buried in files and paperwork, or your to do list of small things is already several pages long.

This week experiment with chunking things in 15 minute blocks and seeing what you are able to check off the list!
Source: https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-276-check-it-off-9-15-minute-blocks

Adopting the mindset of consistent action through daily steps helps us to chunk down tasks. When things are busy and perhaps ever changing, starting to move projects forward in a way where we are focusing on daily steps in smaller chunks helps keeps things moving. If larger projects are put on hold until there are larger periods of time they may not get done.

To experiment with this, think about the things that can be done more quickly or in an adjusted way?

Enjoy!
Jennifer

“No matter how trivial the recollections seem, note them down, and try searching for a pattern in them.”
- Dr Prem Jagyasi

In periods of disruption, it can be valuable to take a step back, out of the fray and notice the patterning around you. The ability to find patterns in disruption is a skill set which can be cultivated, and also has been indicated to be a valuable skill in leading in disruption.
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Questions to consider:

• What are the key themes and activities happening? (Consider in your context, in your workflows, or in your team.)
• If you were to zoom out to the 30,000 foot view of this (imagine you were in an airplane looking down), what would you notice?
• If you were to zoom in to the granular sand detail level, what do you see?
• What are the patterns you are noticing?

 
For more on this topic, check out Teams365 #2137 – Navigating VUCA As a Team. You can find it here.

Enjoy the focus!
​Jennifer