Blog
Capacity vs. Throughput: Why Getting Things Done Has Stalled for You
The capacity of your throughput is equal to the capacity of your bottlenecks. Your personal productivity has two aspects: capacity and throughput. You need them both, but they aren’t identical. And when it comes to effective productivity, one is more important than the other. Your capacity Think of capacity and throughput like this: Capacity is how much stuff WILL FIT. Throughput is how much stuff WILL FLOW. For example, a bucket [...]
Is your life feeling out of balance? Your roles are the problem.
When’s the last time you balanced your roles? Has your life ever felt out of balance? We each live our lives in terms of roles—authentic roles or parts we’ve chosen to fill. Roles represent responsibilities, relationships, and areas of contribution. Much of the pain in life comes from the sense that we’re succeeding in one role at the expense of other, possibly even more important roles. A clear set of roles provides a [...]
5 steps to determine your roles
1: Start with writing down your roles. To help guide our long-term goals and even our daily choices, we need to put down in ink what roles are most important to us. Writing down our roles keeps them in our awareness and helps us pay attention to all the important dimensions of our life. As you do your weekly planning, you’ll find that you don’t necessarily have to set a goal in every [...]
See how easy and effective it is to identify your roles and goals in PlanPlus Online
In your PlanPlus Online account, Roles and Goals takes center stage on the Vision Board. If you haven’t already, click here to start your free 14-day trial of PlanPlus Online. This is the Vision Board in your PlanPlus Online account. (Click to enlarge image.) This is where you’ll plan out your Roles and Goals on your Vision Board. (Click to enlarge image.) The first role [...]
Why SMART goals separate high achievers from the rest of us
If you’re not using a SMART goals foundation when you set a goal, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Guaranteed. There’s a world of difference between setting a goal and achieving a goal. This year, 92 percent of us won’t achieve our goals. If you're serious about goal setting, here's what the high achievers know that you may not. It happens year in and year out. 92 percent of us won’t achieve our [...]
How to set and achieve SMART goals
Welcome to SMART goals mini bootcamp! Clarity is vital for the achievement of SMART goals. Your dream or goal must be specific and clear and should not be vague. As you build this SMART goal foundation, remember the following: Clarity is paramount. Vague is the enemy of productivity. Ambiguous is the enemy of achievement. Lack of clarity is the enemy of success. Your brain is capable of finding solutions if the objective is [...]
This is the real reason your life is moving in circles: You have no goals
Setting good goals creates a force that pulls you to success Did you know that when you set a goal, it’s like placing a landmark on the horizon ahead of you? With your eye on that landmark, you can navigate your whole life straight toward it. It’s true! Without that landmark (real or figurative)—your life will travel in circles. Why? Because, well… human nature—as proven by science. Here are the facts… About a hundred [...]
Break down your tasks to blaze through your to-do list
Breaking tasks down into subtasks will help you to see large tasks as more approachable and doable, and reduces your propensity to procrastinate or defer tasks—because you simply don’t know where to begin. Here's what you need to do... Some tasks are simple A simple task is an uncomplicated activity, a single unit of work. It’s usually completed in just one or two steps. For example, on your to-do list is: Turn on the [...]
Use this secret formula to achieve your goals
How you set your goal is vital to determining if you’ll achieve your goal or not. So, what’s the best way to achieve a goal? You need to start the right way! Here’s how… A quick online search for “how to set goals” gives you more than a billion results! That’s impressive! However, when searching for “how to achieve goals”, the results are far less. Why is that? Which would you rather do: Set [...]
How to untangle your mind and improve your productivity
Your Unscheduled Task list is your mind’s secret weapon! Your mind can be a messy place when you’re trying to find better productivity. So many things to do! Just keeping track of everything is like a tornado swirling in your head. The winds are whipping… cows flying by… you can’t get a good grip on anything! Trying to capture and then act on your thoughts without a tool is like trying to catch smoke with [...]