“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

“Bottom line is, if you do not use it or need it, it’s clutter, and it needs to go.”
– Charisse Ward via United Mayflower

​This week’s Weekly Planning Hack gets you to take a few minutes to archive materials that no longer are relevant. Whether it’s digital or hard-copy, being able to archive and/or delete information can be key to focus, prioritization and clarity.

As I wrote in Teams365 Check It Off Tip:
“While it might seem like adding time that you don't have, clearing things off and out, like your desk, or inbox, on a regular basis can create the space for new energy and clarity. What needs to get cleared in your office right now? Is it your inbox, old files? Take 15 minutes today to clear something and notice what new is created as a result of this.”

Even businesses will have different sets of legislation outlining how long materials need to be kept for. Spend some time checking with your local level government how long you need to keep materials for. Sometimes this may be for a period of five or seven years. Check it out.

Things that you might consider archiving include:

• Emails
• Financial records
• Manuscripts or other creative works
• Client/customer files
• Newsletters

What else could be archived? What could be converted from analog to digital?

Again, be sure to check perhaps with your local small business center in relation to what your local level requirements are for keeping materials and files.

Enjoy the conversation!
​Jennifer

Clean it out to create some space! This week’s Weekly Planning Hack gets you to think about what needs a clean out to create more space, focus and/or speed.

Sometimes taking 15 minutes to clean something out can be of great value. For example, if your technology is starting to slow down, maybe it’s time to ensure a back-up can clear some of the video files that are piling up. Or perhaps, emails need to be archived.

Cleaning things out may also help to find things that have been “lost” or simply buried.

What are the things that could benefit from getting a clean out? Consider all these areas:

• Email files
• Filing cabinet that hasn’t been touched
• Desk drawer
• The closet in your office which doesn’t get touched
• The file drawer
• The fridge (yes, you might be surprized with what you find)
• The pile of papers on your desk (or buried away)
• Your briefcase or bag
• Your electronic files --- even a quick scan may unearth some documents you don’t remember having

Be aware of how long things need to be kept. For example, in some jurisdictions business records may need to be kept for seven years or longer.
What are the things that can benefit from a clean out? What have you let pile up and really could benefit from a few minutes spent organizing? Look around with clean eyes.

Take 15 minutes today, or over the course of the next several days to clean something out. Let us know what you chose and what you found!

Have fun cleaning!
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 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!

“One of the best pieces of advice I heard from a mentor was to consider the MUST do’s versus the NICE to do’s when prioritizing. It’s made a huge difference.” – Jennifer Britton

With a gazillion things on your task list, what’s a “MUST do” versus a “NICE to do”? Discernment is a key topic of recent Weekly Planning Hacks here. Questions to ask yourself as you consider what is important:

1. Which activities, if not completed, will have significant long term (or medium term) impact?
2. What tasks are dependent on one another?
3. What needs to be completed before something else?
4. What runs the risk of expiring if it does not get done?
5. What might create a gap if it’s not completed?
6. What would have a negative implication if not done?
7. Who needs/is waiting for the product to the completed?
8. What is contingent on it?

Activity:
Take time to note all of your tasks. What are the MUST TO DO’s vs the NICE TO DO’s?
With those items on the NICE to do list, do these get DEFERRED? DUMPED? DELEGATED? Decide what you are going to do with them, and if they are to be delegated, make sure you check out this post on delegation, one of the tasks that many professionals find challenging.

For more on delegation, check out these past two PlanDoTrack blog posts:

• Week 43 of the 52 Weeks of PlanDoTrack – Delegation
• Weekly Planning Hack 31 – Delegation 

If you are on LinkedIn, let’s connect and check out this older article I wrote on delegation.

​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 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!

Just like a cup of coffee or a stew, creative ideas often benefit from some percolation time. Perhaps you are working on a big project, or a creative task. Taking time to step away can be of benefit to let our brains still work on it. In fact, our brains still work on projects, even when we step away from it.

A great strategy for tasks which might not be flowing yet, is to start it and then let it percolate. Perhaps go for a walk or a swim or have a discussion with some one.

This marination, percolation time can be necessary.

Check out these articles:

• Minda Zetlin’s article at Inc on: Your Brain Has Two Ways of Solving Problems, Which One Is Better
• Redbooth.com’s blog post from Diana Ecker on “Letting Ideas Percolate and How to Do It” 

​Enjoy your reflections!
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 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!

Tasks expand to the amount of time we give them, according to Parkinson’s Rule. What are the time windows you are placing around the tasks and projects you are working on? As we know, time spent does note equal results and/or productivity. In fact, corralling your time and putting a boundary around key tasks may help you.
What type of tasks might benefit from a boundary?

If you are an entrepreneur or solopreneur, consider:

• Time spent on social media
• Time creating new content
• Time doing research

If you are a remote worker, this might include:

• Time spent in meetings
• Time organizing your office or emails
• Time trying to find a certain piece of information

Many of these become big black holes where there may be a point of “diminishing returns”, or in other words, value in spending time on the activity only up to a certain point. With social media for example, what can I get done in 20 minutes that 45 minutes might not accomplish? Is the 45 minutes I spent doubly impactful, or just a little bit more?

Notice how you prefer to work and what’s useful.

The same can be applied around the time spent on personal activities:

• Cleaning the house
• Getting laundry done
• Trying to find one thing

What are the boundaries you want to create around your work? 

Kind 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 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!

“When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few, if any of us, can write one thought and think another at a time. Thus, a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.” – Michael LeBoeuf

How much are you keeping in your head? What is the cost of keeping too many ideas only up in the head and not captured somewhere? Many of us walk around all day trying to keep things in our head. What are the things you want to be capturing on paper or in an app?

Capture it before it flies away. How many times did you think of something great but didn’t capture it, and couldn’t remember it hour later?

We have limited capacity in terms of what we can carry in our brains, especially in short term memory. Have you heard of the 7 + or – 2 rule? That’s about how much our brains can remember at any given time, hence one of the reasons why phone numbers are only 7 digits in length.

It can be valuable to make our thoughts visible so you can keep it in focus and be reminded of it. In coaching, I usually encourage my clients to decide how they want to keep it visible. This might include a note on a whiteboard, a To Do list on their phone, a note in a journal or a file that on their computer.

Why write it down?
There are many reasons to write things down including the fact that:

• Once we have things written down, especially when it’s all in one place, we may be able to see new patterns and connections, sparking new ideas. 
• Get the little things out of your mind. Like cobwebs, this can start to muddle things up.
• Articulating issues, whether writing or speaking, helps us gain clarity and work through issues.
• Writing it out can help you see connections or clearly put language around something.

What are you going to capture on paper, or computer, today? How are you going to do that?

Enjoy your writing!
​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 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!

The third productivity key which PlanDoTrack is grounded in is that of momentum. Creating momentum where things seemingly take on a life of their own, where strengths and/or velocity is leveraged, is key for business results. Momentum can involve consistent action as well as experimental action. It often will involve more risk than normal so that frequency of action is faster. Momentum may also involve incorporating strategic thinking so that you are looking further down the horizon to estimate where your actions will take you. Thinking about what happens when you ski or boat – we are usually looking across to the horizon for a point at which we are aiming for, to set the course over the medium or longer term, rather than immediately looking to the short course.
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So, what can we do to create momentum? Here are some of the ideas I shared over at the Teams365 blog (my daily blog around leadership and teamwork issues).
 
“Some ideas to keep in mind with creating momentum around anything - whether it's getting more exercise, having more one on one time with your staff or eating better - are:

• Clear the clutter so what's important has space - What clutter could you remove to help this stand out more? I'm always amazed at how clearing clutter really can bring in some new energy.
• Schedule it - As Peter Drunker used to say, "What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done."
• Create an accountability partner - Who can you partner with to do the task, cheer you on or hold your feet to the fire?
• Remember the "why" behind why this is important
• Get started! Getting started is half the battle with most things. Whether it's getting into a routine of writing or clearing in box, get started. It can help to set a time for 15 minutes and see how far you get. You may find that that creates all the start you need, or it may be that it just the start.”

What are the things that are going to help you move forward as a business or team?
Check out this additional article which may be of interest by Glen Llopis. 

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 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!

What are you noticing about the things that are helping you keep moving? Having led thousands of conversations around productivity with leaders, business owners, groups and teams over the last fifteen years, I felt it was important to distill these down to more generic keys for productivity in my 2019 publication - PlanDoTrack.

Five of the core themes which PlanDoTrack is built upon are the mantras of:

• Focus
• Experimentation
• Momentum
• Reflective Pauses
• Celebration

Let’s take a look at each of these in turn. We’ll be taking a deeper dive into each of these in the coming weeks here at the PlanDoTrack Blog. For more on these, also be sure to check out the associated questions embedded in Section 4 of PlanDoTrack.

Today’s post explores the topic of FOCUS.

In today’s VUCA context, being able to focus while also keeping an eye to the horizon of possible opportunities and threats, is key.

Focus is paramount as a remote professional on multiple levels including:

• Project work: Focusing in on the right projects at the right time. Consider that what might be important for you, might not be important for others on the team. What are the “right projects” for “right now”?
• Focus and workflow: A challenge for many remote workers today is being able to focus on core tasks without getting disturbed. If your work requires critical thinking, when is that happening? If your work involves creating new ideas for projects, products or services, when are you finding time to do that?
• Managing interruptions – With the average worker getting interrupted multiple times an hour, especially through the “digital interruptions” of pings, emails and instant messages, what are you noticing about the interruptions you are facing on a regular basis? What are you doing to manage these? Note that it’s not just the interruption itself, but also getting back on task. Dr. Gloria Marks has noted it can take upwards of 22 minutes to get back on task post-interruption.

 
Activity:

• Note what focus means for you right now – which of these areas needs attention?
• What are the things you want to do more of to amplify your focus?
• What do you need to change or say NO to?
• Who do you want to be accountable to around focus?

For more on this topic, check out an earlier 2020 blog post here.

Wishing you the best, 
​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 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!