We are now at week 51 of the Weekly Planning Hacks which brings us to modelling it. Part of productivity success today is about getting things into action, not just planning. There’s an old saying “Fake it ‘til you make it”. While we don’t want to pretend, getting into action helps us develop the habits needed for success. Until things are installed as a habit, it’s unlikely that they will feel good or natural. Think about the habit of waking early to focus on an important project OR going walking every evening after dinner rain or shine.

Modelling things for yourself and others helps to move the needle. Earlier in this series, I wrote about creating 15-minute timed blocks for tasks you were putting off. Whether it’s writing, cleaning or getting paperwork done, simply setting the timer, and getting it into practice helps. Often “what we are thinking about” is greater than getting it done.

My hope is that in the last year of these posts, you have tried them on and are able to now start modeling it for others.

What do you notice? What can you model and set the bar around with others?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Let's keep the momentum going of the new year! As the tagline for PlanDoTrack goes - Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum. What are you keeping a FOcus on this year?

I've just sent out the January PlanDoTrack newsletter which included a number of key goodies you will likely be interested in. You can read it here.

If you are looking to set some focus and get momentum going I hope you'll Save the date - Monday January 6th from 11 - 11:30 am Eastern -  and oin me in zoom room 270-302-0415 for the 1st PlanDoTrack Community call of the year. The topic is Kicking off 2020 - Focus, Productivity and Creating Your Annual Plan. It will be part tips and part working session so bring your planner and a pen!

If you are a business owner, check out the 1BizStepADay series of daily prompts for January 2020 which I posted over at the Coaching Business Builder blog earlier this week. Be sure to download these daily prompts which are geared to support you into 15 minutes of focused action.
Looking for more support than that and you are a coach? Consider joining me for the 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator. Registration is open to January 15th. We'll be taking daily action on our business to March 15th. The program includes on-demand content, two weekly group calls, and 9 individual 15 minute calls with me each week for the program. It's geared to get you into action!

The PlanDoTrack 52 Weeks series wrapped up last week - be sure to get your downloads before they disappear. 

I'll be back next week with a new 52 weeks series for remote workers over at the Remote Pathways blog. Hope you'll join us there for this new series.

As a final reminder, Winter 2020 programming begins next week. Programs include:
Coaching Biz Growth Lab - An annual group for coaches wanting support around their coaching business development. Meeting Friday January 10th from 3- 4 pm ET. Our first of 24 bi-weekly calls this year.

Group Coaching Essentials - 8.75 CCEs for coaches wanting to develop and lead their own group coaching programs. Starts Friday JAn 10th at 1015 am ET (3 spots open)

Virtual Facilitation Essentials - for professionals wanting to jazz up their virtual calls and meetings. Join us for learning and practice in the virtual space! Monday January 13th from 1:30 -245 pm ET for  5 weeks. 8.5 CCEs

Mentor Coaching Groups - for coaches working towards their ACC or PCC, or renewing for ACC. 3 months from January 10 - April 18 (calls usually 2nd and 4th Friday from 9 - 10 am ET)

That's it for today - Enjoy your first weekend of 2020!

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
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Years ago, I taught business studies part time. Teaching Business Fundamentals was one of my courses. I loved introducing new business students and entrepreneurs to the world of different business models and approaches.

JIT - stands for Just in Time. Historically, companies like Canadian Tire were well known for having a merchandising strategy where everything they did was right at the “right moment”, just when things were needed.

Computerization has really helped with JIT approaches to all kinds of businesses, large and small. When stock is low, an order can go in, rather than keeping a lot of money tied up with excess merchandise or having to pay for more space to house it.

What are the things that you could be creating or making available in your world?

Best,
Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack gets you to think about swapping the word AND for BUT. Relationships are critical in today’s business context, particularly the remote space where we need to get things done via others who we may never have met. Language use becomes very important in terms of building connection and trust.

A lot of us use the word BUT when we are presenting information. You did a great job, BUT next time, can you do x.

When we use the word BUT it tends to totally negate whatever was said in front of it. So, in this example, all the person hears is “can you do x”. The praise or acknowledgement provided at the start of the sentence was not heard or captured.
With this in mind, think about what you can do to remove BUT from your wording this week. What do you notice?

Resources
For more on this topic check out:

• This Entrepreneur article
• Saying "Yes, and - A principle for improve, business, & life by Mary Elisabeth
• The book, The Achievement Habit by Bernard Roth, also explores this topic.
• Another great resource is Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses "No, But" Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration--Lessons from The Second City, by Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton.

​Best wishes,
​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
​

​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

​Week 40 Focus – Team Development – Building Your Team 
Focus Question: What is going to help your team excel? What does building your team look like? When are you dedicating time to this process?

Description
Team development is a process. It is not something that happens overnight. It’s not a one-off. Teams are like elephants – big and bold. They take time to move and shift.
Teams need several elements to perform at their peak. I commonly call these the Six Factors of high performing teams. From different research (Katzenbach and Smith, Hackman and Wageman, Carr and Peters) we know that teams require:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)
2. Shared behavioral norms (How you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team?)
3. Shared commitment (What are team members committed to?)
4. Shared performance goals (How are people measured? How do your goals align? Overlap?)
5. Shared team practices (Teams that work together effectively share common practices such as a Monday morning huddle, a Thursday night out or some other regular event)
6. Clear roles (How our roles overlap, align and connect)

https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-307-revisiting-the-six-factors-of-high-performing-teams
 
Activity
As a team, consider where you are on a scale of 1-10 (1 being low and 10 being high) around each of the Six Factors? What needs attention?
Be sure to schedule in time for your team development activities. (Note the S in activities. Team development is not just a one-off! It’s a process.)

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Share resources with you team from the workbook plan. Could they benefit from having a copy themselves?
 
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

​As I often write “we live in an era of digital distraction”. From bings and pings, quirks and quarks, digital distractions are everywhere.

Digital distractions can include:

• The pings and bings of email. Dr. Gloria Mark’s research found that it can take us upwards of 22 minutes to focus again after a disruption
• Social Media
• Instant Messaging
• Other messaging such like Messenger, What’s App and others that may not get turned off when others do
• The impact of too many emails coming in all at one time

Questions to consider:

• What is the cost of digital distractions for you?
• What do you have control over?
• What can you turn off at certain points of the day? (Note we can disconnect from the internet, turn off phones, and select what email we get. This may be a discussion point for the team, particularly as people may not be able to work as efficiently with all the distractions. What is possible in your work and the work you undertake?)
• What are the things you can do to focus more?

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer

​Last week’s posts explored four general meeting tips. Once you realize that meetings are the best way to go, here are 8 Essential questions to be asking at every meeting:

1. What’s the purpose?
2. What takeaways do we want?
3. Who needs to be on the call?
4. What preparation is needed for us to be most effective in the meeting?
5. What pace to do we want in order to keep it engaging?
6. What will help keep the focus?
7. What’s absolutely essential? (versus what will be nice to cover or where can people go for more information around topics?)
8. What follow up might be required?

(Excerpt: Effective Virtual Conversations, Britton, 2017)

​You can also take a look at these questions in this short video (link to 8 Essential Meeting Questions)

For those that want to read more on this, check out:
Chapter 9 – Effective Virtual Conversations
OR
Check out this LinkedIn post – 8 Questions to Ask Before Any Virtual Meeting.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​Week 34 Focus – Systems in The Business
Focus Question: What’s working and what’s not as it relates to your systems?

Story
Systems help us to replicate things on a consistent basis. They also help us to:

• Scale business
• Be more efficient rather than having to reinvent the wheel multiple times
• Organize – so things take less time

Think about your work, whether you are an entrepreneur, leader or team member. My guess is that you already have a variety of systems in place to help you do things, and that there’s room for growth. Throughout the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack I cover a variety of systems.
 
Consider these systems for your business:

Activity
Note what’s worked and what hasn’t around the different systems in your work or business.
Do an audit on your systems. Consider:

• Systems to be created
• Systems which are working
• Systems being used in other organizations/parts of the organization which could be adopted
• Best practices around systems in your business

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to part 3 of the book and what is noted around systems. Part of doing a review is noting metrics and trends. Take a look back at your notes. What do you notice?

​You may want to:
Review the Annual Planners and Quarterly Tools
Review the Monthly Daily Planners – what do you notice?
Use brainstorm lists to capture these ideas around systems.

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