The QLog

Create a Legacy List

This is new exercise I developed for someone who was having a hard time thinking of long term goals. I am releasing it on the Log as a raw exercise as it is has not been field tested; yet, I think it is worthwhile. Take a few minutes and consider these questions:

1) You are 100 years old and on your deathbed. You have lived a full life and are satisfied with your personal and professional accomplishment. What legacy would you be leaving behind to your family, friends, community, and the world on the day you died? Be specific.

2) Now imagine it is 100 years after the day you died. What specific impact would you like to have on the world of your grand children's grandchildren?

Reflect on the Nobel Prize, one of the world's best Legacy project. It was inspired by the erroneous publication of Alfred Nobel's obituary (his brother had died, but French newspaper had the facts mixed-up) and the contents horrified him. Why? It began Le marchand de la mort est mort which means "The Merchant of Death is dead" and then condemned him for becoming a rich man by finding ways to kill more people efficiently than anyone before in history. He did not want the remembered by historians as the "Merchant of Death" so a few years later, he donated the vast majority of his estate when he died to establish the Nobel Prize fund. Today, most remember his name for rewarding the great minds of the world instead of as the inventor of dynamite.

Also, let me know your thoughts on the creation of a legacy list.

Stop List for 2008

Take a moment to think about habits, activities, and past times that are extremely low value. Are you watching too much TV? Would you like to stop eating fast food? Perhaps you take coffee breaks at work that are longer and more frequent than they should be, and thereby impacting your overall productivity?

I suggest you set aside 30 minutes tomorrow to consider all of the bad behaviors that waste your time or which are undesirable. Write them down and then create a Stop List. This is a 'NOT to do' list. Review the list and rank each item (no ties). Then pick the top three entries as these are the most pressing time waster which you would like to eliminate from your life.

For the next 28 days, focus on removing the first item on your list and ONLY the first item on your list. If you relapse into the activity, start over. Experts agree that the learning process to remove a habit takes at minimum 21 days. I suggest a full four weeks as that will insure you are ready.

Once you have eliminated the first item from your life, it is time to move to the second item on the list. After a full 28 days of successfully removing that second habit, you can move on the third item on the list.

After all three have been vanquished, you may begin at step one to re-create a new Stop List.

Fear vs. F.E.A.R.

Fear is a legitimate emotion and it seems to be part of the human condition as a survival mechanism. Most importantly, it help protect children as it constrains many behaviors that could prove hazardous or fatal at a young age.

Nevertheless, many fears are really F.E.A.R or False Evidence Appearing Real. F.E.A.R holds people from achieving their absolute best. Often, it helps maintain 'the good' instead of promoting 'the great'. F.E.A.R. keeps many people doing average things in a mediocre way for years without growing beyond their status quo.

Five common examples are:

• Fear of failing
• Fear of looking foolish
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of success
• Fear of loss

Instead, embrace the mantra of the late productivity expert Dr. W. Edwards Deming: Drive Out Fear!

How? Below is a simple 7-step techniques to focus on the real problem and determine the best next action instead of being controlled by fear.

1. State the problem, situation, or opportunity as clearly as possible. Clarity is key. Write it down and include who, where, when, why, what, and how.

2. Review the data as you presented them for possible biases. Be as objective as possible. Determine which facts are really assumptions and personal interruptions.

3. Play Devil's Advocate. Is everyone in agreement on the above facts? What would an opponent claim? What is the opposite hypothesis and how might this point of view be correct? Be honest with this exercise.

4. Restate the REAL problem, situation, or opportunity as a question.

5. Create a list of potential solutions with a mindstorm, including both outrageous answers and conventional methods. Be creative and open to new ideas. Do not stop until you have at least 20 items on your list.

6. Review the list critically, considering variables such as cost, time, effort, and complexity. Pick the best two option on the list. One will be your primary course of action. The other will be your plan B.

7. Act today. Begin working on the solution to your fear now. 

T.A.R.G.E.T. Goals Part 1

Here is another useful acronym that I've developed for focused and rapid goal setting: T.A.R.G.E.T. 

Goal setting is the process that allows one to hit a bull's eye. Without an specified objective, how can one aim much less hit a specific target?

I'll explain this model in-depth tomorrow. however, here is a very brief outline. For every goal, you identify these major six attributes:

T - Tangible

A - Achievable

R - Reviewable

G - Grand

E - Explicit

T - Time-Bound

Task List Magic Number

How many items should a good task list have? I really believe that 7 (plus or minus 2) is the best number. A 'to-do' list with 40 items will never get fully completed and one feels defeated when seeing 50% of the tasks as incomplete or not-yet-started at the bedtime. Besides, a big list encourages people to pick the low-hanging fruit and ignore the important things.

Of course, one likely has more than 7 items that need to be completed within a single day; however, you should always focus on the 5 to 9 major things and not move to second-level tasks until those are fully completed. The most difficult or disliked task should be the first one you tackle.

The 80-20 rule is on your side with this methodology. By getting the most important tasks and projects completed, you'll achieve more in the long run.

Make a Fun List

Life is busy and it is too easy to get overwhelmed with the many events, activities, and commitments everyone has. Many hard working individuals forget to take time to do the things they REALLY enjoy. So, create a Fun List. Include all the things you currently love to do as well as those items you have always wanted to try.

If you are like most people, when you are done, you'll realize that you are not doing the things you truly enjoy and that marginally fun activities, like TV, have been gobbling up your precious life.

Make a Fun List tonight.

Productivity 101 (Day 87): Roles List

When you meet someone for the first time, one of the very common questions is simply “what do you do?” This query really means the following: what do you do to earn your income?

The expected reply would be to explain you are a primarily a butcher, baker, or candlestick-maker, etc. Yet, this response is not a good summary of who you really are as it only covers one aspect of life. Everyone wears multiple hats in life called roles. Some do try to define themselves solely with their profession title (e.g. Executive Vice President of Odds and Ends); however, this is a less-than-satisfying approach, especially if that career ends or retirement looms in the near future. Do not allow your life to become lopsided!

One of the major complaints about modern life is that there is a definite lack of balance. Certain spheres of existence get more of the lion’s share of are attention. This is why you really need a well-defined Roles List. A role is defined by certain duties and behaviors. We would expect a parent to behave differently than a child.

To achieve a real life balance, you must answer these two questions:

1) What are all your current roles?
2) Which roles are most important to you?

Take 30 minutes to think of all the roles in your life and write them down. This can be a free writing exercise and the initial order is not important. Afterwards, review this list and rank each role with the number 1 signifying your most important role.

• How often are you focusing on your top 3 most important roles? Daily?
• If it is not every day, why not?
• If you are consistently fulfilling these roles on a daily basis, then figure out much time per day on each. Is that enough time? Too Little? Too Much?

Bottom Line: Refer to your roles list once a week and make adjustments as necessary to your schedule so your life stays balanced.

Productivity 101 (Day 82): Problem with To-Do Lists

Here is the main problem with To-Do Lists: they are a potpourri of goals, projects, and tasks. They can be psychologically counterproductive as many items remain on the list at the end of the day. For example, here is an example of some items on a to-do list:

1. Lunch with Dave
2. Call Susan
3. Review the new contract
4. 10-Day Vacation
5. Learn Chinese

The first three items are tasks; however, the last two items, are a project (10-Day Vacation) and a goal (Learn Chinese). An excellent 10-day Vacation requires planning and prep work. Learning Chinese is a goal that requires daily actions (speaking, listening, and writing) in order to know the language well enough to speak and write fluently. Instead, these larger should be broken down into smaller tasks.

The 10-Day Vacation initial tasks might include deciding where to go, researching hotels, or purchasing plane tickets. The 2006 goal to learn Chinese would include registering for a course, locating a native speakers for weekly causual conversation, and planning a way to incorporate a daily practive into one's life. As the saying goes, you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

This is why I suggest using the following three lists in your planning: a goals list, a project list, and a daily task list. They represent different timescales. The top tasks for each day should be driven by both you annual goals and your active projects; however, be ready for the arrival of maintenance, miscellaneous, and surprise tasks which will suddenly appear on the daily list too. Just make sure that the ‘tyranny of the urgent’ does not overwhelm those important tasks that will help you achieved.

Bottom Line: STOP writing out to-do lists. Instead, create daily tasks list.

Productivity 101 (Day 79): Questions List

What are the big questions in your life? In many ways, the level of success you will achieve is directly related to the number and the size of the questions you ask yourself and then choose to answer.

I do recommend you setup a living Questions List to track these questions. Some examples:

• How can I double my current income in the next 24 months?
• What are 10 ways I can be a better parent?
• Why am I here, on Earth, at this point in history?
• What are the main causes of global warming?

The next step is to review this list once every seven days. As new question arise, add them to the list. When you have a satisfactory answer, you may cross this query off the list if you like. Some questions require some major action on your part for a real solution to manifest. If this it the case, consider re-phrasing the question so it becomes a project or goal to pursue.

By systematically recording and tracking your major questions, you will discover that you find solutions much faster than if you only thought about these issues as they came-up in your life or just popped into your head.

Productivity 101 (Day 78): Simple Filing Systems

Everyone should have their own file system to track paper information that they may need to reference at another time. In fact, most people should probably have two.

If you work within an office, it is wise to setup a simple system for your own work-related information; however, I do not advise co-mingling this with your personal information (doctor, bills, kid’s information). Instead, setup a similar system at home.

Likewise, if you own your own small business, I do recommend keeping two different systems: one for your personal affair and a separate system for business related information (contacts, accounts, contracts, invoices, etc.).

I have seen a lot of variations (color coded, priority ranked, etc.) with added complexity that is really unnecessary. I truly recommend keeping these simple as possible. An alphabetical filing system works best as it does not require an elaborate index to discover where something is filed. In addition, if someone else needs to find something, such as an assistant or significant other, a simple alphabetical filing system is intuitive for anyone to use without any special training.

Simple filing systems help avoid messy desks and data loss. After something has been processed, it should either be filed to the simple reference filing system or it should be thrown away (assuming it is no longer needed).