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:
Wishing you the 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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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:
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 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) As I went to write Effective Virtual Conversations back in 2016-2017, I was curious about how much time people were spending in meetings. If anything, the pace of meetings has not decreased in recent years but increased. From face to face meetings, to ones where some are in a room and others are virtual, meetings can take up the majority of people’s time if we let them. What are you doing to ensure you are maximizing your meeting time? Next week I’ll be bringing in 8 Essential Meeting Questions you want to be asking at any meeting (so stay tuned). In this weeks’ post I thought it would be useful to curate a list of ideas for you to consider as you go to strengthen your meeting processes: #1 – Is a meeting what’s really necessary? – We often think we need to meet for meetings sake. Is a meeting really necessary or can it be covered off in another way? # 2 – What is the purpose of the meeting? - Is it to provide information? Invite discussion? Make a decision? Brainstorm? Coordinate across the team? Support learning? These are all very different reasons to hold meetings. Consider what is the purpose of the meeting, and then WHAT the best platform is, and WHO should be at the table? Does it even need to be a face to face meeting or can it be completed some other way? (i.e. a learning event may be offsite or on WebEx/Zoom or other) #3 – What is the outcome we are looking for? Without a clear direction, meetings can derail quickly. Has the outcome been circulated before hand so people can prepare with whatever is needed? As well, are they able to build in time based on the outcome? #4 -What involvement are we asking for? Helping frame expectations is another key part of the process. What is the involvement we are asking for? Enjoy! 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) Delegation is one of the areas that is an opportunity for improvement for many professionals today. In a context which is ever changing, and priorities can pull us in many directions, the art of delegation can be very important as you about getting things done, especially if you have a team around you. Delegation is truly an art form. It’s not just about “getting something off your plate” but rather ensuring that it’s passed off to someone who can get it done and grow. Check out this LinkedIn post I wrote a while ago on delegation –“Effective Delegation: Your Keys to Success”. In the spirit of keeping things simple I often share the 5 Ws and an H when I am speaking with leaders and virtual team members about delegation. Here’s what I wrote about delegation using this approach over at the Teams365 blog a while ago: “We can apply the 5 Ws to Delegation: What - What do you want to delegate? What are the specifics? What resources do they need to complete this? Who - Who will you delegate to? Do they have the skills required? What support do they need along the way? When - What are the major milestones along the way? How will you check in, and when? Why - Why is this task important? Have you communicated the big picture? Where - Where does the work need to take place? How - What are the steps/actions required? How will it be measured? How will you all know it has been successful?” Source: https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams-365-90-delegation-tips Questions to consider : What are the 5 Ws for you right now around delegation? What do you want to make sure you delegate? 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) Welcome back to the 30th weekly planning hack. This week’s WPH is about engaging in ongoing learning. Today we have many options to engage in ongoing learning – from books, and podcasts to MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) to industry recommended programs. What is the ongoing learning that’s going to help you get where you want to go? Consider these questions:
I hope that you will spend a few minutes this week exploring options which exist for you to learn more about these areas. Enjoy your learning! 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) 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) Scattered throughout some of the 28 different planning tools of PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business builder is the question “what will wild success look like?”. I love asking this question to people I am coaching as it gets us to think about WHAT IS POSSIBLE, often without a lot of censure. There are several ways to reword this question:
The benefit of these questions is that it:
As you go about your planning for the next month or quarter, what can wild success look like for you around your most important goals? 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) 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) 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:
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 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) The mantra for today is for many “Bigger is better” but when it comes to goals in fact it may be that “Less is more”. With workplaces ripe with ever-changing priorities it can lead to a lack of engagement and clarity on the part of employees. When we are pulled into meetings last minute and not able to focus on some of the core tasks we had planned, it can feel disruptive and disempowering. While we may never be able to focus on all the tasks we have planned, being able to focus, and take action on, our top 3-5 goals in a day or a week, can help employees feel as if they have some control. As you will note with the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, many of the planning templates have space for you to note your Top 3 – 5 goals each week or month. These can serve as anchors in what sometimes feels like a sea of change! Do you already ask yourself every day or regularly, “What are my top 3-5 goals?”? If not, now many be the time to experiment with this practice. See what you notice. Let us know how you are using the different planning resources in PlanDoTrack or Coaching Business Builder in the comments here, or jump into the discussion over at the Conversation Sparker Zone. Enjoy the conversation! Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each week here. Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) |
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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