For
more information please visit our site: www.the5choices.com
This blog is designed to keep our readers up-to-date on events in North Texas and Oklahoma, to provide them information on our solutions and to be a place to find articles and information related to our solutions.
Showing posts with label Time Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Time Management. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Time Management for Outlook
FranklinCovey’s best-selling LiveClicks webinar of all time, Time Management
for Outlook has just recently been refreshed as it is now powered by our new
program, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity.
If you are like most people and have over 100 emails in your inbox, then this webinar is perfect for you. This program is designed specifically for those using Outlook as their productivity tool. If you use Lotus Notes, Google, or another platform, let’s chat.! We have a variety of other Productivity Solutions available for implementation in your organization.
If you are like most people and have over 100 emails in your inbox, then this webinar is perfect for you. This program is designed specifically for those using Outlook as their productivity tool. If you use Lotus Notes, Google, or another platform, let’s chat.! We have a variety of other Productivity Solutions available for implementation in your organization.
For more information about this new program, please review our slipsheet below. To register for a public workshop, inquire about licensed
certification or to bring this program to your organization please call 214-387-9960.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
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:
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!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Choice 2: Go for Extraordinary, Don’t Settle for Ordinary
Last week we
kicked off a 5 week blog series to give you an overview to FranklinCovey’s
Newest Solutions, The 5 Choices of Extraordinary Productivity. This week, we will focus on Choice 2: Go for
Extraordinary, Don’t Settle for Ordinary.
CLICKHERE to read CHOICE 1.
Last week
Mark Murphy took us through Choice 1 where we learned the power of acting on
the important. He took us through the
time matrix and explained the importance of living in a Q2 culture.
Once you
understand what Q2 really means, it’s time to identify your Q2 Roles. This is where we define who we are, but we
take the time to define what it means to be extraordinary in each of those roles. Do you want to be like an average ant
carrying crumbs, or do you want to be the one who earns the fruit (like the
strawberry shown above) of living an extraordinary life?
Your Q2
roles should…
·
Represent your key responsibilities
·
Should be limited to approximately 5 or so
·
Should express your deepest values and
aspirations
·
Create a balanced perspective of your life
·
Change over time
I attended
this program back before we released it to the public. I have also been through FOCUS, 7 Habits and
a number of other programs at FranklinCovey.
It wasn’t until I defined my extraordinary roles that I started to
achieve extraordinary results.
Once you
define your extraordinary roles, you have to craft your Q2 roles
statements. This process has a formula
that you repeat for each role:
As
______________ I will ________________________ through ___________________
(Role /Title) (Extraordinary
Outcomes)
(Activities)
The final
step is to actually draft goals for each of these roles. You want to give yourself a deadline and
define the contribution you will make through achieving this goal. Otherwise, without setting the deadline, your
goal becomes a dream, something aspirational.
All goals should follow this formula:
From X to Y by When
Below are a
few examples…
·
I will go from 200lbs. to 180lbs. by Dec 31,2012
·
I will go from reading 1 book a month to 2 books
a month by 3 months from today (insert date here)
·
I will post 1 blog per week for 12 weeks
straight by August 31, 2012
Next week we’ll
dive into Choice 3: Schedule the Big Rocks: Don’t Sort Gravel.
Until next
week,
John VakidisFriday, June 1, 2012
Choice 1: Act on the Important, Don’t React to the Urgent
The five
weeks during the month of June will be dedicated to content from FranklinCovey’s
newest program, The 5 Choices of Extraordinary Productivity. Please enjoy today’s post, written by my
friend and colleague, Mark Murphy.
___________________________________________________________
Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, MD of the Hallowell Center
for Cognitive and Emotional Health says that
“the key symptoms of ADD; distractibility,
impulsivity, restlessness, disorganization, trouble planning, procrastination,
have come to be key attributes of most people working and living in today’s
world”. “The symptoms of overloaded
circuits are very similar to the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder”.
___________________________________________________________
Choice 1: Act
on the Important, Don’t React to the Urgent
How many of
you get e-mails in the middle of the night?
How many of
you sleep with your phone?
How many of
you feel buried by a mountain of gravel and keep thinking if you just work
harder or faster you can get it all done?
The Paradox:
It’s both easier and harder than ever to achieve extraordinary
productivity. In most organizations,
there are fewer people doing more things with fewer resources in exactly the
same amount of time. And technology,
with all its benefits, creates an expectation of immediacy to most everything.
An ongoing
survey of more than 350,000 people since 2005 shows that people, by their own
admission, spend about 70 percent of
their time on whatever is urgent and only about 30 percent on relevant and
important priorities. Think about
that! What if your cell phone only
worked three of every eight hours? What
if your car only worked a couple of random days a week? Also think of the possibilities if you could
do no more than just reverse those numbers?
Productivity
is not just about “getting it all done”.
It’s about getting the right things done. It’s the product of our decisions, where we
focus our attention, and our energy levels.
The Promise:
There are 5 Choices that, when consistently made, ensure that you will
achieve extraordinary productivity in your work and life.
Choice 1: Act on the Important, Don’t React to the
Urgent
The
prefrontal cortex part of the brain is the action center of the brain. It’s where we do higher-level tasks like
planning and making careful choices. And
it’s overwhelmed.
Meanwhile,
the reactive, primitive/emotional part of the brain has more and more stimuli
to react to, given the constant flood of interruptions we live with.
It’s
interesting to consider that we are physiologically programmed to respond to
urgencies. That response mechanism has
been passed down to us from our ancestors whose response to urgency was often
truly a life-or-death decision. When faced
with a threat, our ancestors got a shot of adrenaline that raised the heart
rate, widened the blood vessels, and sped up breathing. It made them quick, strong reactors.
But what was
once a rare occurrence now happens all the time. We confront urgent demands all day long. And that same circuitry that can make us
reactive can also make us addicted.
An excellent
model to illustrate this is the Time Matrix.
We often
spend our time in the urgencies of Quadrants 1 and 3 all day long. We become so exhausted that our natural
tendency at the end of the day is to go straight to Quadrant 4. And the next day we start the whole process
over again. We, in essence, create a
Bermuda Triangle for ourselves that literally sucks us in. And the only Quadrant being neglected ends up
being Quadrant 2 which is where real productivity most often occurs.
There are
very good reasons for this. In many
organizations Quadrants 1 and 3 are high visibility and are often the most
recognized and rewarded activities.
Quadrant 2 activities are often “under the radar” and less noticed at
the time.
Also, if
urgent things are neglected there is a very quick negative impact to not doing
them. So we often focus on them to the
exclusion of Quadrant 2 (important) items, which if neglected, often have a
deferred, but much larger negative impact.
In short, we become addicted to the urgent.
It becomes
critical to create a Quadrant 2 culture, which may not be as hard as we might
expect. It often begins with the courage
to start some conversations around topics like:
- Identifying the top two or three Q2 activities
that could make a significant impact on the team or organizational goals.
- Determining the value of those Q2 activities
(impact on the bottom line, customer loyalty, problem prevention, key
relationships, etc.)
- Identifying two or three Q3 activities that hinder these Q2 activities and discuss how to eliminate them.
Based on the Time Matrix we can
create a culture that is focused on the important and not just the urgent. It allows us the ability to have
conversations within our circle of influence that are focused on Q2 and reduce
the time spent in Q3. “The very best
leaders are focused on the language of importance instead of the language of
urgency”. We can ask questions like, why
should this be done now? Or how does
this help us achieve our goals? If
everyone understands the Time Matrix we can create a shorthand language with
questions like, is that really a Q2? Or, are you sure that’s a Q1 because it
feels an awful lot like a Q3? In
short…so we can create a Q2 culture that allows us to spend time on what is
most important and will generate the best results.
Without a shared language of
importance it is really easy to get distracted from the things that really
impact the results.
-
Mark Murphy, FranklinCovey Consultant
Copyright © 2012 - Mark Murphy
___________________________________________________________
Enabling Greatness, One
Organization at Time,
John Vakidis
Friday, March 9, 2012
Fuel Your Fire
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
Friday, December 16, 2011
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 21st 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.
Are you intrigued? Consider watching our new 5 Choices introductory video on You Tube now.
Wishing you an extraordinary New Year!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Roles
Last week I wrote a blog titled, What is low productivity costing you? My goal of writing that blog was to get leaders thinking about their workforce and to determine if they are really getting the most out of their teams. When individuals don’t perform at their highest levels, it actually costs the organization.
This week, I want to write this post for individuals and get them thinking about how they can contribute more in 2012, but not just for work, but in all the other areas of their lives. So let’s take a moment to think about how we can do that.
So let me ask you a question, “Who are you?” How did you answer that question? My guess is that you responded from the context of a role. You might have said, I am a spouse, a parent, an employee, etc. In our newest program, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity, Dean Collinwood, Ph.D., explains…. Even when people give a list of personality traits in response to that question, such as “I am shy,” or, “I am a fun-loving person,” those traits are always acted out in the context of roles.
Defining your roles with meaning is what makes all of the difference!
For example, I can call myself …
A. a parent - one that begets or brings forth offspring.
B. a father - a man who raises a child.
C. Asher’s Role Model - I will show Asher how to THINK to make good choices. I will guide him to BE a leader and how to DO relationship. I will show patience with him through love and guidance.
HOW I define my role will determine the actions I take towards that relationship. Our society can label us: male or female, black or white, rich or poor, etc., but when we become intentional about WHO we want to be, we can achieve extraordinary things.
So, I am going to leave you with a challenge. Before the new year arrives, take 30 minutes of time to reflect in a quiet environment. I want you to come up with 4-6 roles you have in your life. First, I want you to give them standard titles. For example, I am a father, a husband, a servant leader, an employee, a family member and a friend. Secondly, I want you to re-define those roles. For father, I replaced it with Asher’s Role Model. Once you have done that for each title, take some time to define them from the context of what it would be like to be extraordinary in that role.
If you do this exercise, and establish weekly goals for each of your roles, you can live an amazing life and have enduring relationships. To wrap it all up, a wise man once told me that life is about choices and relationships. So, be intentional and live a rich and full life!
To your victory in 2012!
Friday, December 2, 2011
What is low productivity costing you?
At FranklinCovey, we’ve been studying individual productivity for over 25 years. To date, we have sold over $1B in productivity training, so I guess you could say we are an authority on the subject. We have had over 350,000 people respond to our “Time Matrix” survey. As of 2011, we have found that the average employee spends about 70% of their time on urgencies and irrelevancies. That means it’s possible for your employees to only be spending 30% of their time on important priorities. Take a moment to do the math on what that is actually costing your organization. With layoffs, cutbacks and a major focus on organizational spending, these statistics should get you thinking.
Let’s take a look at an example of ABC Organization. They have 500 employees earning an average of $20/hour. If everyone gets 2 weeks of vacation a year, that leaves 50 weeks at 40 hours per week, so 2,000 hours of actual work per employee, per year.
In the example above, this means the company is spending $14,000,000 to pay employees to work on urgencies and irrelevancies. Now you don’t have to be a CFO to understand that this is a problem. What if you could improve productivity by 10, 20 or 30% or more? This would have a dramatic effect on your organization's effectiveness and your bottom line!
Giving your employees the right “mindset, skillset and toolset” to become more productive is a worthy investment. Not only will you see an immediate ROI in your first year of application, but over time, you Create a Culture of Productivity throughout your workforce where everyone is spending more time on important, meaningful work. This allows for improved sales activities, better time spent on customer service, more time for collaboration between departments, time for creative thinking, planning and more.
To learn more about FranklinCovey’s NEW Productivity Solution, give me a call to set up a meeting with your client partner. We’ll be happy to help you achieve your top strategic goals in 2012 and beyond!
To your success in the coming year!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Living an Extraordinary Life
Last week, I posted a blog introducing our newest solution, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity. I had the pleasure attending this program as a participant yesterday and today, all I can say is WOW! We were taught by our very own Leigh Stevens, who helped develop this program over the last 2 years. This program has so much new thinking around productivity in the workplace and has a process to help individuals make better choices to leverage their key opportunities in work and the workplace.
One thing I learned to change in my work habits was to delegate more when possible. This week, as the editor of this blog, I am leveraging the strengths of one of my colleagues, Kellie Edmundson.
I hope you enjoy Kellie’s post below! - John Vakidis
Are you living an Extraordinary life?
How long does it take you to do the things you need to do? How many times have you said, “If I can just get through this week, I’ll be able to …..?” Are you a list-maker? Most of us are and how often do we really get through that list by the end of the week OR if we do get through it, do we really do the things that matter most to move our income or our organization forward?
Research shows that most people only spend 60% of their work day on the productive tasks and 40% of the day is spent on “catching up with emails”, dealing with interruptions, or trying to handle the whirlwind of this thing we call, “life”. By the time most people get to the things that take creative thinking, it is done in a panic/urgent and often haphazard mode.
In today’s world, there is greater opportunity for both organizations and individuals to accomplish extraordinary goals. I mean, think about it, anything you’d ever want to find out is most likely at the click or two of a button. However, all too often, the demands of our jobs coupled with the vast amount of information coming at us from so many directions is overwhelming and exhausting and can flat out paralyze us to a point that we cannot focus at all. For most people, it keeps us from being able to accomplish the things that matter most in our professional and personal lives.
We do know that behavioral change takes time but think about how different our lives would be if we could deliberately pay attention to the most important things amidst all the distractions. Why does it matter if we “get it all done” if we don’t get the “right things” done? The difference between sinking into the sea of unending stress and urgency and soaring to new heights is in one’s ability to make wise and disciplined decisions. At what point do you say, enough is enough, I’m ready for a change?
- Kellie Edmundson, Client Partner (Austin/San Antonio)
PS - If you are interested in seeing if the 5 Choices is right for your organization, consider joining us at one of our introductory showcases in your area, late September. Click here for more details.
Friday, September 9, 2011
The 5 Choices
On Sept 26th, FranklinCovey is launching its newest solution, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity. We have probably trained more people on this planet in time management and productivity than any other training organization in the world! With our principle-based training, individuals across the globe have been able to increase their overall effectiveness (personally and professionally) for well over 20 years!
Well, times have changed! With more pressure to do more with less and with technology making us ever so connected, the choices we make are more crucial now than ever before … if we want to be successful. Consider being one of the FIRST attendees for our 2-day public sessions in your area:
This program is regularly $1,295. Because we are launching this new offering, we are providing all participants a discounted registration opportunity. Save $300 and register for only $995 + tax for one of our November sessions mentioned above. Contact me directly to assure this rate and your seat!
Certify to Teach within Your Organization
Become a licensed facilitator and teach The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity to employees in your organization. Benefits include special pricing, the ability to customize the class to your organization, ongoing FranklinCovey support, and more. Purchase 30 Participant Manuals upfront and we will waive the certification costs, which include a facilitator kit, program DVD, 15 participant workbooks (and Organizational License Fee if applicable). This offer can save your organization up to $4500! This offer expires 11/25/11.
Become a licensed facilitator and teach The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity to employees in your organization. Benefits include special pricing, the ability to customize the class to your organization, ongoing FranklinCovey support, and more. Purchase 30 Participant Manuals upfront and we will waive the certification costs, which include a facilitator kit, program DVD, 15 participant workbooks (and Organizational License Fee if applicable). This offer can save your organization up to $4500! This offer expires 11/25/11.
Bring FranklinCovey Onsite
Have a FranklinCovey Consultant come to your organization. If you bring this program onsite before 11/25/11, we will offer you 30% off our consultant fees for our Onsite Launch Promotion. Contact me now for more details and to learn more about customizing this solution for your team!
Learn more about the 5 Choices below…Have a FranklinCovey Consultant come to your organization. If you bring this program onsite before 11/25/11, we will offer you 30% off our consultant fees for our Onsite Launch Promotion. Contact me now for more details and to learn more about customizing this solution for your team!
The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity process measurably increases productivity of individuals, teams, and organizations. Participants make more selective, high-impact choices about where to invest their valuable time, attention and energy.
 | In today's world, people are drowning in email, overwhelmed with demands, and trying to do more with less. 5 Choices participants filter the vitally important priorities from distractions so they can focus on making a real contribution. |
 | Everyone wants to make a difference, but competing priorities often prevent them from achieving extraordinary results. 5Choices participants redefine their roles in terms of extraordinary results to execute on high-priority goals. |
 | The crushing increase in workday pressures can make people feel helpless and out of control. 5 Choices participants regain control of their work and lives through a cadence of planning and execution that produces extraordinary outcomes. |
 | An electronic avalanche of email, texts, and social-media alerts seriously threaten productivity as never before. 5 Choices participants leverage their technology and fend off distractions by optimizing platforms like Microsoft® Outlook® to boost productivity. |
 | Today's exhausting, high-pressure work environment burns people out at an alarming rate. Applying the 5 Energy DriversTM, participants benefit from the latest in brain science to consistently recharge their mental and physical energy. |
Increasing personal productivity, one person at a time,
John Vakidis
________________________________________________________________
The 5 Choices of Extraordinary Productivity was launched barely over a week ago. FranklinCovey is hosting a 175-City Tour to introduce this solution to leaders, trainers and HR professionals across the globe.
Over the last few weeks, nearly 2,000 people have seen our 2.5 hour showcase for our initial launch? Were you one of the lucky attendees? If the answer is no, that’s alright.
On Nov 2nd, from 2 PM-4:30 PM (Central) and Nov 3rd, from 8 AM-10:30 AM (Central), we will be offering these showcases VIRTUALLY. These webinars will allow participants to evaluate FranklinCovey’s brand-new approach to measurably improving productivity.
We will address the following three items:
- Why organizations and teams often struggle with productivity and the key challenges that prevent people from optimizing their performance
- A preview of the content, including an overview of each of The 5 Choices which lead to improved productivity in a measurable and results-oriented way
- How FranklinCovey implements The 5 Choices within teams and organizations
Register now for FranklinCovey's The 5 Choices Webinar Overview.
We also have special promotions for on-site training and certifications for clients who implement this solution in house by November 25th. Contact me (214-387-9960) for details on how you can save 30% off our consulting fees for this program or get a FREE certification with the purchase of 30 manuals.
Creating extraordinary teams one individual at a time,
John Vakidis
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