When I went to write PlanDoTrack two years ago, I would have had no idea just how many people would be moving to work in the remote space right now. What I have loved seeing is how people have made the transition over to remote work smoothly and are now the in mid-term of their remote work experience. With that in mind, the principles and practices which underpin PlanDoTrack become even more important for sustainability. In this week’s blog post I wanted to zoom into five areas you might explore in terms of MAINTAINING productivity in the remote space. You’ll find more on each of these areas in sections 1 and 2 of the PlanDoTrack workbook and planner.
 
#1 - Create or Revisit the Vision
In recent months I’ve been spending a lot of time with groups in presentations talking about the importance of creating or revisiting your vision.
Our vision creates a horizon for us to aim towards. In times of disruption, this is even more important.

What are the elements which are important for YOU to focus on?

What are the elements which are important to keep an eye on?

#2 - Be Crystal Clear on Outcomes
 Leadership and teamwork in the remote space is all about outcomes. It’s about being very clear about:

• What will success look like?
• What is the outcome? What is NOT the outcome.
• What are you doing to stimulate conversations around outcomes?

#3 - Top 3 – 5 Goals
With vision and outcome in mind, what are the core essentials to be focusing on? It’s easy to get pulled into the eddies of other people’s priorities.

Questions:

• What are the top 3- 5 things you need to be sure you get done – today? This week? This month?
• What are you doing to keep your Top 3 – 5 visible and tracked?

Note that in many of the PlanDoTrack planning pages, there is space for you to track your Top 3-5.
 
#4 - Be Intentional (and ruthless) With Boundaries
As many have seen in recent mots, creating boundaries and routines that work well for each of our individual experiences are critical. Whether we are navigating work-life issues or working in a team that runs 24/7, being intentional and focused on our boundaries is critical for high performance. We need cycles to renew as much as cycles to run.

Questions to consider:

• What are the boundaries you need to employ?
• What are the renewal cycles you need to build in?

 
What’s important to note? Join us for more conversation around this at the Virtual and Remote Visionaries Hub on Facebook .

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 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 last several months have been a challenge for most in business. With a pandemic surrounding us, keeping things focused on the opportunities, rather than the threats swirling, has not always been easy.

There is a part of our brain known as the Reticular Articulating System, which works to focus on what we filter and let through to our brain and what we ignore.

There’s a well used phrase “What we focus on, expands”.  It’s sometimes also known as the shiny red object syndrome. You start noticing a new type of car, and then everywhere you look, there it is. In part, this can be because of what you are focusing on.

Think about your mindset at the moment. Where are you focusing? What do you notice?

Are you taking time to focus on the opportunities that exist? These might entail:

• Ways to do things differently?
• A different process?
• A new partnership?
• Joint ventures to expand into a new market?

What else would help to expand opportunities?

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!

“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
​
This week’s focus is part of the main equation of my body of work, with PlanDoTrack which is Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum.
​
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.
​
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!