Two of my favourite topics, good coffee – and information!

Coffee first… I much prefer the taste of percolated and shop bought coffee.

When I set up the coffee percolator the other day I missed adding one of the parts that is absolutely critical to make good coffee – the filter.  Impatiently I waited, wondering why the coffee was taking so very long.  Yes really, it was so slow… I wasn’t just being an impatient coffee drinker.

I turned off the coffee maker and pondered on it for a moment as I swished the very dark and grainy coffee around in the bottom of the pot.  It looked very much like a swamp would look when it’s got a lot of algae… except that it was brown.

My first thought, “Oh no, my coffee machine is broken!”  I very quickly decided that nah; that absolutely could not, would not be the case and blindly went in search for the problem.

Oh dear… you have probably guessed it by now…

I had forgotten to add the plastic filter insert to the coffee percolator. That explained it.  That would definitely, 100% be the cause of dark brown coffee with chunks in it.

Rather than wasting it, I offered it around to all my family (lol, no way!!!).  Nah, I ended up disposing of the whole 10 cups (and what a waste of coffee that was).

Mmm, now to start again… add the filter… watch the coffee as it streams through to make sure it’s doing what I want for it to do this time.  Looks good… and tastes perfect!

Your probably wondering what any of this has to do with filtering information?

Think about the masses of information on the web – and offline as well actually.

Every single day we are provided many opportunities to stumble upon more and more information.  Some is really good information… some is useless… and some really just shouldn’t be out there.

Imagine if you were to take all this information in as the absolute truth.

When I ponder on this I think that I’d be a pretty mess up person if I took in all information as the absolute truth.

• I would have likely freaked out from information overload by now.
• I probably would have felt very down in the dumps having taken on everybody elses worries and their fears.
• I would probably be a hermit.
• Most likely I would be extremely paranoid about issues that people ‘hype up’.
• I wouldn’t have enough time in the day to fix everything that was wrong.

It can be simple for any of these things to take over in your life… particularly when it comes to information overload, because there is so much ‘information’ out there.

Remember that yes, there is a lot of good information on the net – but at the same time remember to:

Filter, filter, filter!

Like coffee, the critical part when you stumble upon new information is to filter this information.  Decide whether it is important to you… to your growth… your understanding… your journey.  If it is not important to your journey, then you will not be needing it – so you are free to discard this information if you choose to.

Many people’s brains automatically filter some of the useless information anyway (the info that it believes we no longer have a use for), to make room for more information.  If your brain is filtering the wrong stuff, then you might want to think about retraining it to filter the right stuff.

So the question again…

• How much of the information that you have found today will help you tomorrow?  Absorb it!
• How much can you discard?  Discard it!

Anyway, must be time for another coffee.

You might know the saying ‘Stop, Revive and Survive’. It’s a well known motto in Australia that reminds us not to drive when we are tired. It reminds us to periodically stop, have a break, stretch and maybe even stop for a coffee so that we can last out the journey.

This motto made me think of work. In particular it made me wonder how many people sit there for 12 hours a day or longer, in front of the computer without barely a break. It also made me wonder how many people work seven days, burning the candle at both ends so to speak. We can sustain for a time, but where does this leave us long term?

It is important for our health in so many ways to take a periodical break.  It could be to break for morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea.  It might be to go for a walk to the post office to post or maybe collect the mail, or to drop by the corner store to stock up on our milk supply… after all plenty of exercise and fresh air is great for an active brain!!

You are probably thinking here, but wouldn’t this mean that I would be procrastinating?

Actually it’s not procrastinating at all to stop and take a bit of a break from work.  It’s actually a really positive thing done in the right way and for the right reasons.  Using the following excerpt from Wikipedia to help support my argument:

“Procrastination refers to the deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting and/or completing any task or decision. ^[1] There are three criteria: for a behavior to be classified as procrastination, it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying.^[2]”

1. Anxiety is not associated with this conscious choice.
2. It is not counterproductive, actually is should increase your productivity in the times that you are working.
3. It is not needless, it is important to take a break.
4. Although you could argue that taking a break is delaying, I would argue that it is not if you do it in the right way.  I offer my argument in more detail in the next couple of paragraphs, below.

It is interesting that the word ‘delaying’ is used to describe procrastination… it is true to a certain extent, but if we let it, this one word could make our lives all consumed with actions and activities, day in, day out.  I see it as being extremely important to both our mind and bodies to take a scheduled or sometimes even an unscheduled break.

If you have established a flexible routine, then you have made the conscious decision to take  a periodical break… to ‘Stop, Revive and Survive’.  We all need to eat, drink, exercise and breath some H2O to stay healthy do we not?  The trick is to not make this break all consuming of your day – in other words plan in a time that you are to clock in again.  When that time comes around on the clock, don’t procrastinate, make the conscious choice to get back to it.

I have some of my best ideas when my brain is taking a break from it all.

Now, I would like to wind the clock back a bit to first thing in the morning, as we first get up.  Plenty of people I know have made it a point not to rush into the day.  This is circumstantial for some.  If we have deadlines, or have to be someone at a certain time, then it might not work so well.  If you do have the opportunity to do this, then you might want to consider trying it. 

For me, in the morning, the most important thing is that I get up at a regular time each day – my body clock thanks me for this. 

You might decide to start the day by reading the paper, reading a good book or something else that interests you while you eat your breakfast and have your morning cuppa.  Others go for a jog or a bike ride before they even think about having breakfast, this gets their metabolism working really well.

All these mentioned can be really healthy things to do, the trick is to find something that relaxes you but also gives you a kick start ready to face the big day.  And the other important thing is to make sure there is some sort of start and a finish to this activity… not to rush you, but more to ensure that you don’t stay at that point, doing that activity for the whole entire day (imagine that, lol).

It is also very important to our health that we allocate at least one ‘Stop, Revive and Survive’ day in a week where we barely (if at all) turn on the computer. If we schedule in a break for ourselves then it actually increases focus on those days we are working, which invariably means that our output will be better and we achieve more and better results on the days that we  do work.

Being the beginning of a new year, now, is the perfect time to reevaluate what we do and how we do things.  This includes how we care for ourselves.

My question to you.  Does your current routine allow a rest period for your body and your mind, your two most important assets?  Does it allow for you to enjoy and sustain the next 10, 20, 50 years (whatever it is for you) both in business and also in life?!

Cheers now to longevity, good health and to a really good solid foundation in the years to come.

I found the definition of Time Management on Wiki to be quite interesting.  I also found it to be a bit long-winded and partially confusing when I was reading through it.  Is it really that complex?  I think it probably is!

The time management methods that one person might use aren’t necessarily right for the next person.  Also, those methods used seem to be forever changing, because it is continually evolving as people learn and implement their new ideas.  Books about both how to grow our business and life balance seem to emphasize time management as being a key skill that needs to be learned and mastered.  When the book or coach does not speak directly about time management; for example they might speak about leadership, or marketing, or lead generation…, but the mechanism that makes these models either successful or non-successful I would have to say is the overarching administration or management of each of these methods.

So what am I saying?  That if we are looking at developing a model of leadership, or client fulfillment, or a marketing method, we should also look at our time management skills, and we would need to develop a good administrative system in view to maximize the opportunity for  these models to work effectively.

Throughout the years I have been involved with many different businesses.  Through these experiences I have noticed the importance of the administrative side of the business being managed well.  It is particularly true that if the administration of the business is failing then the business 1) might not see growth that they would if they had good procedures in place, or 2) those things that might have initially been built up quickly, start to gradually fall down at the feet, sometimes without management even noticing.  So what I am saying is that the business might become unsustainable in the longer term.

I would consider an Association/Committee to be a good example to illustrate the importance of time management and admin.  A committee for this purpose is a group of people who come together to oversee the administrative management, or to do some strategic planning for the business/organization.  So many things that are involved with being on such a committee relate back to good time management skills as follows:

• A good Chair will keep the meeting moving along, but will also allow a good opportunity for members to discuss the agenda for the meeting, put forward new ideas, and question what is already there.  For the committee meeting to finish in good time it involves good time management skills and initiative on the Chair’s part.
• The secretarial role is extremely important to the effective running of a committee also, in fact it is imperative.  The agenda, the minutes and other paperwork that is dispersed to committee members or tabled at the meeting might allow for the meeting to roll along smoothly.  If it is not done well, it might cause for the committee members to waste time on unnecessary discussions.
• If actions aren’t completed in a timely fashion by committee members, these actions might continue to remain on the action list for sometime – meaning that each time that the committee meets these action items are discussed again and again, and again.  It is also quite probable that the non-completion of these actions might eventually serve to hold up progress in other areas.
• If the hard copy and electronic copy paperwork isn’t filed properly then, then  it becomes more difficult to follow through with matters, including to resolve a query from a third party.

And I am sure that there would be more to add to this list if I continued to think it through.

My point is that if the people who maintain a position that might allow for them to get the meeting rolling along smoothly, but they haven’t established good process, then the meeting is going to be twice as long and half as effective as it would be if all of these administrative time management needs had been met.

1.  Record how you currently spend your time to give you an idea of how you can utilise your time more effectively.

2.  Use the time log to help identify what time of the day is your “prime time” so that you can plan those more important tasks around this time.

3.  Plan Your Work.  Work Your Plan!

4.  Set a bit of time aside each evening to plan for the next day, you might;

• Check you diary to see what is coming up.
• Get your things together for that meeting you will be attending, or the presentation you will be giving the next day.
• Plan what you would like to achieve for the day and allocate times to achieve those items.

Think of it this way; that small amount of time you spend this evening will go a long way towards you feeling more in control for tomorrow.

5.  A question to ask yourself when you start something is “Why am I doing this right now”.  This will help for you to not waste your time, or another persons time.  If you are procrastinating then it will help get you back on track.

6.  Minimise the amount of times you handle each piece of paper as much as possible.  Try to handle a piece of paper once only.

7.  Don’t be afraid to delegate.  Delegate wisely and whenever possible.  Refocus that time on more important tasks such as planning, brainstorming, goal setting etc.  If it is for your own business take into consideration how much extra profit you could be making for your business for every hour you are not dealing with these tasks.

8.  Identify your high-payoff items.  By ‘high-payoff items’ I don’t just mean profitable in dollar amounts, I am also referring to growing your relationships and fulfilling your spiritual needs. These are just as important to you, if not more so, as they will ultimately assist you in feeling more fulfilled and happier in life – isn’t this what we are all working towards?

9.  Set goals and sub-goals.  Make sure you reward yourself for your big achievements.  This reward can be through purchasing something you have been saving up to buy, or a vacation, or maybe an extra day off to do something you love.  No matter how much you enjoy running your business everyone needs a much deserved RNR (Rest and Relaxation) day every now and again.

10.  Work from a prioritised action list.  This can be either an electronic one, or a handwritten priority list.  There are plenty of electronic priority lists online and you can usually download a trial version to test whether it works for you.

By the way, if you sign up for my free newsletter, you will receive a To Do List template for free.