Choice 5: Fuel Your Fire - Don’t Burn Out

Today I am writing part 5 of a 5-week blog series about The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity.  If today is your first day to the blog, make sure to go back and read Choice1, Choice2, Choice3 and Choice4. 

The 5 Choices is about Decision Management (Choices 1 & 2), Attention Management (Choices 3 & 4) and Energy Management (Choice 5). 

One thing that sets this program apart from the last 20 years of “time management” training released from FranklinCovey is that we partnered with about 20 brain scientists that also study productivity.  These Doctors and PhD’s have dedicated their life’s work to very specific aspects of brain health and productivity.  After about 2 years of collaboration, we boiled down 5 Energy Drivers that affect one’s energy level and productivity:

Well, without trying to re-write our content, I’m going to let you take it from here.  In my last post, I promised  a surprise.  I know most people like FREE STUFF, so follow this link below to download your FREE PDF mini-book of The 5 Choices toExtraordinary Productivity.  Here you can go into more depth about Choices 1-4 AND get all the details about the Choice 5 and the 5 Energy Drivers!

If you found this 5 week blog series helpful, do me a favor.  Send me an email to let me know what was most helpful to you.  Make sure to check back next week for our next series!

Enabling greatness in people and organizations everywhere,

John Vakidis

PS - if you enjoyed this series, please re-post the links on a social media site that you use regularly.  We are nearing a milestone of 10,000 page views and your help is greatly appreciated!

Choice 4: Rule Your Technology - Don’t Let it Rule You

Today I am writing part 4 of a 5-week blog series providing an overview to the principles covered in The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity.  Have you been so swamped in emails you missed the first 3 posts?  If so, today’s post should be helpful, but before you begin, make sure follow these links to read Choice1, Choice2 and Choice3.

When participants attend our 5 Choices Program, they get exposed to a video in the beginning of their training on Choice 4.  Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.  (author of Crazy Busy and Shine), points out that many of us have an addition… to technology.  He states it might not be a full blown addiction, but it is certainly a habituation. 

When your phone rings, your texts whistle at you or your computers ding, do you jump to see what it is?  When you see messages in your inbox that you haven’t read, does it stress you out?  It reminds me of a game I played when I was a teen.  We used to go up to our male friends and act like we were going to punch them in the arm.  When they flinched, we yelled, “Two for flinching!” and then we punched them in the arm twice.  If your technology could punch you for flinching, would you be sore?

We want the paradigm that “We Rule our Technology”, not the other way around.  The principle is of ALIGNMENT.  Our program teaches participants to Design a System that works best for them, to make the 3 Master Moves and how to use Productivity Accelerators.

This is by far one of the most popular parts of the program.  Participants find sanity in the process of setting up rules and alerts and learning new ways to look at information.  For example, almost every email you have can provide you information with one of the following: Appointment, Task, Contact or Notes/Document.  We teach participants to “turn it in to what it is.”  It’s one of the 3 Master Moves.

When you apply this content, you will have an effective system for appointment, task, contact or notes and you will no longer have to “live in your inbox.”  Your email will be organized so you can act on your most important work quickly.  This is a key step to achieving productivity!

Well, next week we’ll dive into Choice 5: Fuel Your Fire; Don’t Burn Out.  Be sure to check back.  I have a surprise for you!

Until next week,

John Vakidis

Choice 3: Schedule the Big Rocks, Don’t Sort Gravel

Today I am writing part 3 of a 5-week blog series providing an overview to the principles covered in The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity.  Did you miss the first 2 posts?  If so, follow these links to read Choice1 and Choice2.

One of the most common concepts taught by FranklinCovey over the last 25 years is the concept of Big Rocks.  The concept is simple.  In life, we have activities that require planning and others are more reactionary.  We also have some that are more important than others.  Once you have determined what tasks you need to accomplish, you need to schedule those into your calendar.  When urgent 9non-important) things come at you, stay focused on your most important goals.  When you do this over time, you will feel like you are accomplishing more in life and will become more fulfilled.

In order to achieve this, you will need to take 3 steps:

1.       Create a Master Task List

2.       Do Weekly Q2 Planning

3.       Do Daily Q2 Planning

Your master Task List captures all of your goals in one place.  It clears your mind of gravel.  It is used as a reference during Q2 planning.  It also helps categorize incoming tasks in natural chunks.

Your Weekly Planning should connect with your roles and goals.  You should take approximately 30 minutes to schedule your big rocks into your calendar and then organize the rest.

In order to achieve Extraordinary Productivity, we must live in Q2, as much as possible.  Here we find our most proactive work.  We create high-impact goals, do our creative thinking, we build our relationships and take time out for learning & renewal.

When working on your daily planning, build in some recurring Q2 time zones if possible.  Maybe you have a permanent block of time each day for planning, working out, reading, etc.

As a good rule of thumb, you will need to plan out 30 minutes a week and 5-10 minutes per day for planning.  Taking these 60-90 minutes per week to plan will allow you to live in Q2 and react less to unimportant activities.  Some things will simply not get done, but at least that isn’t what is most important!

Next week we’ll dive into Choice 4: Rule Your Technology, Don’t Let it Rule You!

Until next week,

John Vakidis

Buried Alive

Is your life filled with constant distraction?  Does gravel fill every moment preventing you from getting the truly important accomplished?  Don't get buried alive!

Want to learn more about how to become Extraordinarily Productive?  Take a look at The 5 Choices now. 

Need more information?  Contact me today.

Increasing personal productivity, one person at a time,

John Vakidis
Associate Client Partner | FranklinCovey
214.387.9960 | john.vakidis@franklincovey.com

Fuel Your Fire

With Spring Break around the corner, I wanted to spend a little time talking about the power of renewal.  Some of you will be taking vacations filled with fun activities.  Some people will be diving into a new book (like Smart Trust or The 3^rd Alternative) and others will simply be finding time to simply relax.

In FranklinCovey’s newest offering, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity, we learn that renewal has a major effect on worker productivity.  In Choice 5: Fuel Your Fire; Don’t Burn Out we spend time educating participants (based on the latest brain science) about the 5 key energy drivers:

In the program video titled, Energy Crisis, Leigh Stevens, Program Architect, explains the following, “Our quality of life is influenced dramatically by the amount of energy we have.  Energy influences not only what we can accomplish, but how much we enjoy what we do.  Yet, so many of us are worn down and worn out by the urgencies of life that we end up suffering from a personal energy crisis.”

Leigh further explains, “We have two basic sources of energy. The first is our sense of purpose. When we’re doing things that are important and meaningful to us, we’re filled with energy. We give our best and enjoy making the effort. …  The second source of energy is our physical and mental capacity. Even if we’re excited about the purposes in our lives, we might lack the energy in our bodies and our brains to enjoy them or even give them our best effort.”

While vacations are a great part of renewal, they are often few and far between,  Continual renewal is really what helps drive our daily productivity.  If you feel like your life is on autopilot, you probably aren’t really contributing your best self, day in and day out at work or event in your close relationships.

If you want to learn more about increasing productivity in your life, consider joining us for one of our special 5 Choices preview events in your area: Dallas on 4/17/12 or Oklahoma City on 5/09/12. 

For more information about transforming the productivity in your organization, contact me to set up an appointment with your Client Partner and a Consultant from our Global Productivity Practice.  You can request a meeting simply by filling out a request using our Online Appointment Book on this page (top right) or by sending me an email directly.

Wishing you a great week of renewal!

- John Vakidis

Increasing Your Team's Productivity in 2012

Over the last 20 years, FranklinCovey has educated over 25 million people in the area of human productivity.  In today’s fast paced, technology-driven world, we are asserting that extraordinary productivity is no longer defined by time management alone, but also by decision management, attention management and energy management.

With 2011 coming to a close and 2012 on the near horizon, many leaders will be thinking about increasing their team’s productivity in the coming year.  We recently launched a new program, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity that answers the 21^st century productivity problems that are plaguing many organizations.  This week we will explore this content by interviewing 3 of my colleagues that are Client Partners for Texas and Oklahoma: Matt Jarmon, Will Smith and Kellie Edmundson.

Click here to download the PDF interview.

Are you intrigued?  Consider watching our new 5 Choices introductory video on You Tube now. 

Wishing you an extraordinary New Year!

John Vakidis
Associate Client Partner | FranklinCovey
214.387.9960 | john.vakidis@franklincovey.com