For many years in my global career I faced multiple complexities which would get in the way of a regular work day. From regular periods of no electricity, to political and natural disasters which pulled work off course. I learned early in my career the value of two things which continue to help me flourish today –

#1 – Focus – Focus when you can, even if it is for a short while. Productivity is not always about the long haul, it can also be about the short burst of focused effort. This is especially true in my world where I am regularly juggling roles, hats, responsibilities and clients. As much as I would love to have huge swaths of time to undertake my work, it’s unlikely. Therefore, focused burst of work, coupled with #2, help me (and the business) keep moving!

#2 – Be clear on the top 3 – 5 goals for the day, week and month. My world was the world of contingency planning on steroids, so being clear on what top 3 or 4 to-dos were for the day, or the week, or the month, created a powerful anchor to planning, and also feeling satisfied when EVERYTHING on the list did not get done (which was almost every day).
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What are your top 3-5 goals TODAY? This week? This quarter? Do you review these regularly throughout the week/month/quarter and adjust accordingly?

Best,
​Jennifer

​What do you do each month to capture your learning and what you’ve achieved? One of the favorite things I have enjoyed doing since launching the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner last summer was holding virtual month end planning sessions. These are a short paid program, which takes you through a series of reflective prompts and opportunities for capturing your learning over the last few months, and what you are planning for the month ahead.
 
While one hour might seem hard to find in your schedule, the benefit of having a focus for the next month is invaluable. Connect this with capturing learning (what worked well and what didn’t) from earlier months, makes it a very powerful process. 
 
Month end planning sessions are usually held on the last working day of each month from 6-7 am ET. Yes, it’s early, AND have you read the literature on what successful people do before breakfast? I’ve moved into my 2nd year of starting work at 5 am ET. I am not sure how much of the creative projects which fuel me, I would be able to achieve without this time.

If you are not an early bird, the good news is that this month's Month End Planning session will be held on Friday March 29th from 3 - 4 pm Eastern/New York on zoom. Those joining me for this paid one-hour one-off program will benefit from getting a chance to do a Quarterly Review as well. More info and registration at the top of this page.

We are going to be exploring questions related to your achievements, learning and plans for the next month and quarter.

If this is a topic of interest to you, be sure to check out the Facebook Live I did earlier today which is now posted at the PlanDoTrack Facebook Page, as well as this article "Create a Pause for Clients via Quarterly Reviews or Retreats, I wrote for the Coaching Tools. You can read that article here at their site.

Hope that you will join me for the month end planning session later this month! You can sign up here.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

“Journal what you love, what you hate, what's in your head, what's important. Journaling organizes your thoughts; allows you to see things in a concrete way that otherwise you might not see. Focus on what you think you need to…” – Kay Walkingstick

Did you know that for the last few months I have been sharing weekly journaling prompts over at the Teams365 blog? 
 
Dedicating short amounts of time each week to pause and focus on what’s important to you can become an important practice in terms of reflection and learning.
 
For many years I kept a regular journal, documenting my life and experiences while I lived and worked overseas. It was an important vehicle to capture experiences and memories, identify learning and work through insights.
 
For many of us (myself included) life may seem pretty standard, it can be valuable to building reflective pauses on a regular basis. It can also be useful in business to create regular pause points to note what is working, and what is not.            `
 
Here’s a selection of 9 of my favorite weekly journal prompts –









Grab a pen and your journal and I hope that you'll enjoy capturing some thoughts as we usher in spring later today!
​Best,
Jennifer

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“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.” – Francis Bacon
 
Making things more visible is key to productivity for some in today’s digitally distracted world. Our brains can only hold a certain amount of information   - usually said to be 5 + or – 2.
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Think about how well you remember what you thought about doing yesterday at lunch.

Research is also pointing to the fact that we also remember things differently when we grab a pen and paper and write things down, rather than put it in our device.
 
How much energy have you spent this week trying to keep ideas in your head?
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Dedicating a small notebook to ideas, plans, and resources can be a great memory jogger, and creates a great capsule to reflect back on periods of your life on. I just came across a very small notebook (think smaller than the size of an index card) that accompanied me over 3 months of travel and work in Central America when I was 21. Just seeing it, unlocked a series of memories I had not thought of for years!

What is the practice you want to get into in terms of writing things down?
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For those that like high level bullet-form ideas, be sure to check out the Monthly Daily Planner – One Line a Day in the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Planners. It only takes one minute to jot some ideas down!

Enjoy your writing!
​Jennifer

“Accountability is a statement of personal promise, both to yourself and to the people around you, to deliver specific defined results.” Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader

As you consider your current projects and goals – what does accountability mean? Who is going to do what? When? And How?
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Accountability can take many forms in today’s work space but still comes back to the basics – who is going to do what, when, and  where.

There are many different accountability frameworks and structures. From automatic tracers which give you reminders and prizes for achieving what you have set out for, to peer groups (see last week’s Mastermind post) which hold you accountable for what you said you would do.
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As virtual teams, accountability is important and may include portals and dashboards where people can keep each other updated and “in the loop”.

Accountability is part of a high-performance landscape – organizations and teams which are great at getting results usually have a clear sense of what kind of accountability is going to work best.

Take a look at this article for more on accountability  - 12 Keys to a More Effective Accountability Strategy.

Wishing you the best,
Jennifer

“The coordination of knowledge and effort between two or more people who work towards a definite purpose in a spirit of harmony…no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.” – Napoleon Hill

Masterminds are a popular collaborative peer conversation space, where peers are encouraged to bring current business opportunities or challenges which can be explored. The role of those listening may be to ask questions, provide insights or share tips around what they have done in the past.

Masterminds have been part of the business landscape for many decades (think the last century). They are commonly attributed to Napoleon Hill author of Think and Grow Rich.

Mastermind meetings are popular given their practical peer focus and practical advice. This may be why they are still similar to their roots decades ago.

Masterminds can focus on shared themes – i.e. how to build your consulting business OR how to expand social media. The synergy of the group and their commitment to the process is key.

Here are some great resources you might want to check out if you are considering getting masterminds started:

• https://www.score.org/resource/guide-mastermind-groups - a resource guide from Score
• Here’s another article on how to select group members and other considerations when establishing a mastermind group: https://www.score.org/blog/5-essential-rules-building-mastermind-group-gets-results
• And Cleverism’s Complete Guide to Mastermind Groups https://www.cleverism.com/complete-guide-mastermind-groups/

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​Enjoy your conversations!
Jennifer

This week’s planning hack gets you to consider how you can use color coding to support organization and focus. One of the challenges in today’s work is an overload of data. It is said that “color is one of the first things we take in when looking at an image.”
Using color to help sort through the myriad of emails, files and to-dos can create a quick sort. This may help us do things faster and also not feel the “cognitive load” of tasks as much.
Consider how you might use color to:

• Segment focus
• Identify tasks of a certain priority
• Flag emails around a certain topic or project
• Flag emails from a certain person

Here are some quick examples of how I use color coding:
To denote different tasks in my monthly daily tracker, the colors say much more than numbers would.

Different colored folders for different tasks and projects – Client files are purple, Writing files are usually blue, Speaking files are yellow, Financial files are red.

What could you do with color to help you with your organizing and planning?

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 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

Welcome to the first of a series of weekly Wednesday planning hacks. In the spirit of all things planning, doing and tracking, I’m pleased to offer this new weekly series here at the PlanDoTrack blog. Similar to other weekly series I host at my sister blog, Teams365 blog (found at Potentials Realized.com), my hope is that these weekly posts will not only serve as a quick focus area for you, and over time will add up to be a valuable resource. I'll also be doing a live video on each of the tips every week, sharing it over at the PlanDoTrack Facebook page.

Let’s get started with the Pomodoro Technique, the focus of weekly planning hack #1.

Have you heard about the Pomodoro Technique (often associated with the icon of the Tomato)?

As I wrote last January 2018 at the Teams365 blog, the Pomodoro Technique is an invaluable tool in creating focus in today’s digitally distracted world. Here’s what I wrote in Teams365 #1470 on Minimizing Distractions – 

“Creating "focused work" periods. Whether it's 30 or 60 minutes a day, focused times, which have no immediate distraction allow us to get things done. Many studies find that our immediate productivity can be boosted by giving projects time windows and time frames. The Pomodoro technique is one example of accelerating productivity. It posits that focused activity for 25 minutes can be followed by a 5-minute break. Read more about the Pomodoro Technique from its' creator here.”
 
How might more focused bursts of attention support you and your projects right now?
What would it be like to experiment with more focused bursts of time where the rings and bings of everyday digital life are silenced?"
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Let us know if you get the chance to experiment with this!
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