The Post I Didn’t Want To Write For You . . .

I just deleted a post I was writing for you.It was about something important (not waiting for conditions to be perfect before giving your all), but then I realized that this was more important.

Here we go:

I’m exhausted.I just worked 16 hours on my feet all day after 2 days just like it.I have a sore throat, my sinus is packed, and my head is throbbing.My body aches, it’s hard to focus my vision, and I definitely can’t breathe through my nose

But I’m writing this for you.

I committed!I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself or ignore your body (I plan on sleeping all day tomorrow).I’m saying that I know how long it usually takes to write a post: as long as I want it to take.And if it truly takes as long as you want it to take, you can make it happen, even when you have great, valid excuses.You are often in control of what “done” means!

2 Minute Action

Whats something you haven’t consistently done but would like to consistently do?What would happen if you committed?What would happen if you HAD to figure it out?You might make the task/scope smaller.You might shorten the deadline.You might increase or decrease the budget.You would hack it together, make sacrifices, and make it happen—because you HAD to!

It’s all up to you.

Take 2 minutes and write down a quick list of excuses about why my you haven’t gotten there.Sort them into valid and invalid ones.Now go through your list and ask yourself, if this excuse never changed, how might you work around it?

Here’s the punchline:

You decide what “done” means.You have more power over yourself than you’re u might think.

You'd Be Surprised At How Many People Make This Productivity Mistake

You walk in and instead of confidently starting on your prioritized "to-do" list, you start responding to emails, fielding help-desk tickets from customers, taking phone calls, and diving into whatever is pressing on your attention at that moment.You'll never be in control of your project if you always feel like a slave to the urgency of a crisis.This is known as a "Fire-of-the-Day" management style.Whatever seems to be burning down today is where your attention goes.Here's the tell-tale symptom:If you're exhausted at the end of every workday, but you can't really describe what you did, you're experiencing this one.There’s nothing worse than feeling like you have no control over your own project.One way to get a grip on the reins and get buy-in from your team is to create Critical Productivity Indicators (CPIs) that are measurable, actionable, and don't mean they'll "get the axe" if they mess up.When your team is clear about what “success” means, you’re going to see a lot more collaboration and confidence on "progress report day."What are CPIs? Below are some I've developed for organizations.  All together, they form a Productivity Index, a composite score used to gauge how healthy a team is.Steal this and run with it.

2 Minute Action:

Look at the list below. What's the most important, pressing issue for your team? Only pick one.Take 1 minute and define the question.Take the next minute and create a few answers.You don't have to solve this right now, but having a good question in your head will let you see your work differently today.It's up to you to carve out the time to develop solutions.

• Activity - How much work is being done?
• Prioritization - What kind of work is being done?
• Efficiency - How much work is redundant or wasted?
• Productivity - How much useful output is generated by your team?
• Potential - How much productive work you could be doing?
• Visibility - How clear your team is on their responsibilities?
• Reinforcers - What is motivating consistent, high-quality work behavior?
• Standards - What goals, targets, or benchmarks are in place?
• Capacity - Does your team have all the skills necessary?
• Alignment - Is everyone clear on the mission and priorities?
• Proximal Zone - Where does your team fall in Vygotsky’s Proximal Zones, and the anxiety-boredom spectrum?
• Sentiment - Does your team believe in the mission and are they invested in success?