“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

“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!

​Do you suffer from post-it note syndrome – have put lots of ideas down but can’t locate it as they are all scattered?

Today’s post gets you thinking about how you organize your ideas all in one place so you can quickly find them.

This may involve a change in systems or habits for many, including:

• Moving from a physical system to one where things go straight onto the computer/phone in a To Do List or a Trello board.
• Getting in the habit of putting everything in one location – i.e. a book
• Getting in the habit of doing it and deleting it
• Making a list of all the tasks, plus information on annual To Do's and quarterly To Do's

While the development of a new habit can take time, it may also involve starting to focus on getting into the practice of the new habit. What are you doing to become more streamlined with your goals and tasks?

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!

Do you have a running task list? Perhaps? On multiple post-its or lists or walls or boards?

What would it be like to have them consolidated in one place?

Having all your tasks under one umbrella can help you as you go to ensure that all the tasks were followed.

Figure out the level of the plan (annual, monthly, weekly, daily, other).

Planning takes place on multiple levels – annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily and sometimes on a project basis. What levels are you planning at? How are you keeping the tasks in focus so that they can move forward?

In the PlanDoTrack planner, you will find that every month has its own Monthly To Dos page. You will find that you will want to shift the To Dos forward into your weekly planners and daily planners. I find this is an invaluable way to keep tasks in mind. Without it, I may forget some of the smaller tasks that need to get done – i.e. reporting.

Many use the running task list idea on a weekly basis. For other ideas on how to use a running task list, check out these articles:

• The Petite Planners – How to Do a Running Task List in Your Bullet Journal
• Take a look at this Weekly Running Task List 

What’s important for you in terms of carrying things forward?
 
What are the levels you are planning at?
Annually – Budgets, vision, meta-goals
Quarterly – Achievements, trends, major projects
Monthly – Breaking down projects, to tasks and activities.
Weekly – activities and tasks required to focus on this.

All the best,
​Jennifer

​Week 47 Focus — Paper & Office Organizing
Focus Question: As you look around your office what do you notice about paper? The office space itself?

Description
Coaching Business Builder’s subtitle is “Putting the pieces together”. Part of an exceptional business is clearing the clutter in order to focus on what’s important. While not a central focus of the book, paper and office organizing is a key part of keeping things moving and growing
 
What are the elements you want to get organized with?
 
Research/Story
Sometimes we can feel like we are sinking in our paperwork.
Here’s a post from the Teams365 blog I wrote back in 2014 about a great organizing tip called RAFTS:
“Today's Check It Off tip is geared to help you clear off your desk, or your drawer! Even in today's digital age, paper clutter, and e-clutter bogs us down as leaders.
Years ago, I ran a program with former HGTV NEAT host, Hellen Buttigieg of WeOrganizeU to support professionals to get more organized. Hellen always shared this acronym of the RAFTS in terms of dealing with paper clutter.
As you look at your paper touch it only once and decide if you are going to:
R- Read it
A- Act on it
F- File it
T- Toss it
OR
S- Shred it
When you go to sort your big piles of paper, you may want to set up five separate baskets/in-trays so you can move it to the respective pile right away and keep moving it along.

I first heard about this tip from Hellen and I know others have written on it. Before you head out this week, block of 15 minutes and tackle that pile of papers!
(Originally published as https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-234-check-it-off-tip-3-rafts)

Activity
Set your timer for 15 minutes and grab a set of papers. Apply the RAFT formula. You might even want to do this again every day for a week!
 Connection to the Workbook and Planner
If clearing up and decluttering is an area you want to focus on, track your 15-minute blocks using one of the Monthly Trackers.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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 46 Focus — Email Management
Focus Question: What is the state of your inbox?

Description/research
The Front Blog indicates that “The average worker spends 28 percent of their work week on email, more than 11 hours a week! With the average person sending and receiving 124 work emails every day, or 620 emails every week, we're spending an average of 1.1 minutes on each email.” https://frontapp.com/blog/2018/07/20/how-much-time-are-you-spending-on-email/
 
“The average professional spends 28% of the workday reading and answering email, according to a McKinsey analysis. For the average full-time worker in America, that amounts to a staggering 2.6 hours spent, and 120 messages received per day.”
– How to Spend Way Less Time on Email Every Day – Harvard Business Review by Matt Plummer 2019
https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day
 
According to Matt Plummer - The team at Zarvana realized professionals could save more than one hour and 21 minutes per day by addressing these five time suckers. Here’s what Matt Plummer shares in his Harvard Business Review Article (https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day):
 
According to Zarvana our time is spent in five main areas, taking up the following time:
 
“1. Over checking email wastes 21 min/day.
2. Full inboxes waste 27 min/day.
3. Using folder to organize and find emails wastes 14 min/day.
4. Archiving emails into many folders with mouse wastes 11 min/day.
5. Reading and processing irrelevant emails wastes 8 min/day.
(Source Matt Plummer and Zarvana – in HBR article). The article he has written provides a lot of detail around just how much time is spent and what you can do about it. I strongly encourage you to check it out! You will find it at: https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day
 
Activity
This week spend time applying one or two of these “fast fixes” to your inbox, or to the way you process email. While setting up a quick step or rule may take time in the short-term, it can save time in the long-term.

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Consider tracking the amount of time you are spending on email over one or two weeks. Notice how you are replying and what changes could be made.
 
Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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
​

​This week’s planning hack gets you to touch things ONLY once. This hack originally derived from the realm of paper management, where many organizers encourage sorters to make decisions as they go. For example, if you were to sort through a pile of papers you would make a decision around where each of the items would go, actioning it right away.

For example, professional organizer, Helen Buttigieg, recommends that papers are sorted via RAFT – Things that need to be READ (R), Actioned (A), Filed (F), Tossed (T). Rather than reading something and putting it back in the main pile, it would be read and then filed or recycled. 
​
This week you will want to consider applying this tip by tackling a pile (or box) of paper which has been sitting there. Apply the RAFT and/or sort it for once and all! I have a pile of file papers which have been accumulating for many months now that are going to get this 15-minute treatment. I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes and see how far I get. Rather than thinking I need “oodles” of time, 15 minutes is doable TODAY.

Enjoy this week’s prompt.

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 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

​In today’s Digitally Disrupted world, the skill set of discernment and focus are taking precedence. The ability to find “micro-pauses” where you can stop, assess and make decisions plays a critical role in productivity, teams and leadership.
​
Here’s what I wrote bout the skill of discernment earlier this year here at the PlanDoTrack Blog in February:

​“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 out 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 quite control of 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 be asking (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 consider asking as you decide one priority to another?”

How can discernment help you in your work and focus right now?

Let us know!
​Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack invites you to think about decluttering your digital landscape (or even starting afresh).
​
Recently, decluttering has been a popular topic in everyday lifestyle arenas. From Marie Kondo’s philosophy of “Does it bring you joy?”, to Gretchen Rubin’s focus on “Outer Order, Inner Calm” (the same name as her newest book), we may also want to take a look at our digital landscape, where many of us spend a bulk of our time.
​
Take a look at your digital landscape (which may include phones and computers, and tablets, and hard drives). Ask yourself:

• What is working well?
• What aren’t you using?
• What can be removed?
• What needs to be backed up? After that back up – what do you want to keep? Archive? Spotlight?
• What needs to be deleted?
• What do you need to unsubscribe from?
• What is your vision of a truly satisfying digital landscape on the different devices you own?
• What would minimizing look like for you in terms of devices and content?

Earlier this year I spent some time exploring this topic with a group of business owners. The topic of digital clutter was causing significant angst for several group members, impeding their ability to get work done.

On a scale of 1-10, how important is this topic for you right now?
​
What is the time window you are going to allocate to focus on it?

When will you get it done?

Best of luck!
​Jennifer