In today’s uber-busy world, having huge blocks of time are often not feasible without a lot of pre-planning. Part of the philosophy of the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners is that it is about taking CONSISTENT Action and DAILY steps to create momentum. Over time, we may also start to notice how valuable it is to have blocked off time so we can focus in on tasks that require more than a short amount of our attention. Some writers and researchers point to the need for 90-minute windows for “Deep Work” (as Cal Newport would say). What are the blocks of time you have available? Some possibilities include:
Best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
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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 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 Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Week 30 Focus – Marketing Review Focus Question: What’s working and what’s not? Description In this week’s focus, we’re taking stock of different marketing approaches – what is working and what is not. We’ve spent several weeks exploring different promotional strategies, including LinkedIn and Instagram. Building a regular practice of doing a review of what’s working, and what’s not, around marketing in your business, can save a lot of time in the long run. Some of the things you will want to consider as you go to do a marketing review are:
Activity Note the data you are tracking. From a high-level overview what does it indicate? Looking to each of the marketing items you track, which one is progressing as you would like it to? If you have multiple posts, which ones are working best? Which ones are not getting traction as you would like? Are you tracking the things that you want? Where is your energy and enjoyment with this process? Connection to the Coaching Business Builder/PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner Review the metrics you have which may be part of:
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 Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram Welcome back to another Wednesday Weekly Planning Hack. This is #24 in the series. This week’s WPH is about a great prioritization tool using post its. It builds onto last week’s focus of using post its in planning, and in ensuring all voices in a team are represented. In this week’s blog post let us explore another very visual way to prioritize – this time using post its. Here’s what I wrote about the Planning Matrix in PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder: “The prioritization matrix is a quick visual tool where all you will need is some post-it notes or a white board. First, identify all of the priorities you have, writing each one down on a separate post-it. Then rate them according to their impact and likelihood of getting them done (or other criterion). Place them along the matrix of impact and likelihood. This activity is very visual, and stimulates dialogue amongst the team members themselves. An important part of the prioritization process for teams is about sharing information, and also busting assumptions that might be held. This seems to have the potential to be a great structure for facilitating that conversation.” (Source: Coaching Business Builder, Jennifer Britton, 2018) What ways can you incorporate post its, teamwork and planning? Best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) This week’s Weekly Planning Hack focuses on the Power of a Post It. From being an important visual reminder, to helping teams focus on what’s important, the power of a post-it can become a colorful way to prioritize and focus. Here are a couple of ways you might consider using post its to help you with your productivity:
Here’s what I wrote in a 2008 blog posts on post its called A Facilitator’s Ally: Post Its and Index Cards: I love post it notes and index cards! Many of you will know that it made my top 10 list of most useful tips and tools for 2007. Today's post, builds on a much older post of mine from last year, about how post it notes and index cards can be a really valuable tool in your toolbox. Here are some ideas on how you can use post-its and/or index cards: 1. For program development. Using a new post it or index card, brain storm all the ideas you have about upcoming programs. Lay them out on a table or floor to start sorting/grouping. 2. To get quick feedback from all participants during a program. As an evaluation tool, have participants write out their responses to your evaluation questions (1 question/answer per card), and have them post them on the wall. 3. For business planning or strategic planning sessions. The photo above is from a recent team planning session I facilitated late last year. There is nothing like getting people up and moving to boost engagement, excitement and ownership of their work! 4. As a quick poll of the group regarding what questions are popping for the group. 5. To ensure that all voices of the group are being heard. It is quite common for groups to be dominated by certain members. As a facilitator it's important to ensure that all voices are heard. Having participants write out their questions or responses, and then post them, or share them, can provide participants who introverts are, shyer or those who require more time to process questions, the opportunity to participate and "be heard". 6. As a "vote" regarding where to go. Have participants show their support for a discussion item by putting up a post it note. (Different colours can represent different categories.) 7. As a brainstorming tool. You can bring post-its/index cards into exercises where participants want to/need to brainstorm. For example,
Here’s a link to that original post. Enjoy your use of post its! Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Many professionals today operate in an environment of distraction and rapidly changing sands. While this may be our context, having concrete action steps to keep focusing on can mean the difference between satisfaction in getting the important things done, and feeling like we have “whiplash” when buffeted by ongoing change. One of the sections you’ll see in some of the 28 different planning tools included in the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder are an invite to share your Top 3 to 5 goals. In offering different learning options and presentations I will also ask “what are your three action steps?”. What are the action steps you want to take this week? What are you going to do to keep that visible to yourself? (Note last week’s different suggestions in Weekly Planning Hack 21 on Making It Visual.) What are the three action steps you want to take this week? Best wishes, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) One of the areas many solopreneurs, individual contributors, leaders and teams find themselves involved with is project management. If this is an area of interest for you, be sure to check out the March 2019 call on Project Management foundations. One of the tools I quickly touched on was the Traffic Light. As a former project manager, this was an essential tool for keeping many of the projects I managed rolling. The spotlight is often a visual signal for project status reports, or project status meetings, giving us the thumbs up as to how things are going. Here’s what I’ve written about the Stoplight as it relates to time management in Teams365 #553. Project status meetings are critical in project management, providing an opportunity to check in on where the project and all its components are at, as well as seeing what needs attention. The red light, yellow light and green light status updates gives us a snapshot of what's not online, what needs attention and what's going well. Project Status meetings are also an opportunity to invest in some team development including a focus on: 1. What roles are we playing? 2. What are the different perspectives around the project from each one of our locations? What's similar with these perspectives? What's different? 3. Who needs different type of support than they are getting? 4. Who else, or what else, do we need on the team in order to be successful? 5. What do we need to celebrate in terms of our achievements so far? What other questions would you want to include at your next project status meeting? Whether it’s tweaking your project status meetings to make them more of a regular occurrence, or adopting the spotlight approach, what are the things you want to focus on? Enjoy the conversations! Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) This week's Weekly Planning Hack is about Time Tracking. Where does your time really go? On a Personal and Professional level, time tracking can be a significant issue. One study noted in the Harvard Business Review found that "not filling out time sheets properly costs the U.S. economy $7.4 billion a day in productivity". One of the first Weekly Planning Hacks here was around the Pomdoro Technique, a time management function where you use alarms and focus in on 25-50 minute bursts of work. Last week we explored different apps for time management. Note what you have available to you through your phone and dedicated apps to track your time through bursts of focus. This week, consider focusing in on tracking your time. In the 19 Productivity Tips course I share a time tracking template so you can note on a 15-30 minute basis throughout the day where your time is actually being spent. This can be very instructive over the course of a week or month to note where your time is actually going. Create your own time tracker using a blank page of paper, segmenting it into 15 minute blocks, or refer to the lecture in the 19 Productivity Course I released earlier this year. Best wishes, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! 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) Taking time to stop and pause is critical for success. "Big thinking precedes great achievement."— Wilferd Peterson As I wrote in the 19 for 2019, review is critical for success. Part of productivity is about building in pause points to reflect and think about what’s working and what’s not. Building in time for regular review helps to:
What are the blocks of time you want to set aside for review? Best wishes, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Week 18 Focus – Projects – Partnerships (RACSI) Focus Question: We usually don’t operate in isolation. Who do you want to/need to liaise with to ensure successful projects and activities? Description Partnerships are essential for coaches, virtual professionals and others. For most of us, we interface regularly with external partners and stakeholders, who are often located in some distance away from us. As virtual and service-based businesses, we may create a wide variety of partnerships in our work. We don’t always do it alone. As soon as we expand our work to others, it can be useful to think about what partnerships look like. From co-coaching, to Joint Ventures, bringing on sub-contractors to co-designing programs. What can partnerships look like for you? Given that we are interfacing with different stakeholders around projects at any given time, it can be useful to think about how different stakeholders need to be updated and “kept in the loop”. Research/Story/Six Questions Who are the partners you want to keep in the loop? What are the key tasks and responsibilities? One of the more common frameworks for stakeholder engagement is the RACSI. RACSI stands for: R – Responsible A – Accountable C – Consulted S - Support I – Informed. Let’s look at each one in turn. Responsible = person or role responsible for actually doing or completing the item. Who needs to do the work? This might be the team leader who has to gather the expense information in the new format and submit it. Accountable = The person who is accountable is usually the person responsible for undertaking the task. Who has ownership of this? Typically, the "responsible one" is accountable to this person. The accountable person might be the General Manager, the Team Leader's boss. Consult = the person or role whose subject matter expertise is required in order to complete the item. Consulted - Who needs to be involved and asked for input? Those consulted may involve other team leaders who have gone through the change, and team members. Support = Who needs to support the work? What type of support is required? Inform = the person or role that needs to be kept informed of the status of item completion Who needs to be told about the change or informed along the way? Individuals who are not part of teams may need to be informed so they know what changes are happening. The value of reflecting on a RACSI for each project is that it helps you consider who you want to involve and keep in the loop. Projects sometimes are not successful when they have not engaged different players or stakeholders appropriately. Activity Consider one of your upcoming initiatives/ programs/projects. Who are the key stakeholders? Who is responsible? Who needs to support? Who needs to be consulted? Who needs to be informed? Connection to the Workbook and Planner Any time we bring shareholders on or work closely with a community, or membership site, it can be important to be focusing on the RACSI, as we consider how to communicate our messages. Great partnerships are usually co-designed with intentionality. To help guide you through these conversations, I share a variety of questions to consider at different times of the partnership journey – pre-design, during design, during implementation and after the project. Be sure to also download the Co-Facilitation Chapter. This link is found on page 93 of PlanDoTrack and page 89 of the Coaching Business Builder. Leverage the tools including the Partnership Questions on Pages 93 and 94 of the PlanDoTrack or pages 89 and 90 of the Coaching Business Builder. 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 |
AuthorJennifer Britton is the blogger behind the popular Teams365 blog, a daily,blog for team leaders and members since 2014. Her latest publication is the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. Pick up a copy at Amazon. Pick Up a CopyUpcoming Programs
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