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Change Your Character in 13 Weeks |
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How to Change Your Character in 13 Weeks or Less One of the best determinants of your future success are the positive habits that you've developed. These habits are what make up your character. Thus, to change your character, you must change your habits. One of the most effective tools that I've found to improve my habits is the 13 Virtues Tracking Sheet in the Bubble Planner. This sheet is found in the RENEW section. 
To use this form, take a moment at the end of each day to measure your progress. If you successfully adhered to a virtue, circle the day. If you were unsuccessful, cross it out. I also like to highlight the days in an affirming color for the successful virtues. This creates an excellent external constraint to modify your behavior. How Ben Franklin Tracked His Virtue Attainment Ben Franklin developed a behavior modification system for his conduct at the young age of 20, when he was returning from London on an 80-day ocean voyage. It is partially based on Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” His plan included 13 virtues, which in his own words, “I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the virtues successively... Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year.” - TEMPERANCE: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
- SILENCE: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
- ORDER: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
- RESOLUTION: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
- FRUGALITY: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
- INDUSTRY: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
 - SINCERITY: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
- JUSTICE: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
- MODERATION: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
- CLEANLINESS: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.
- TRANQUILLITY: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
- CHASTITY: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
- HUMILITY: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Give his Faithful Plan a try and watch your character change for the better. |
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How Much Time Do You Waste? |
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Where are you spending your time?
"Time is money." -Benjamin Franklin, Advice to a Young Tradesman
This is an update from a post that I did a couple of months ago. Since there are many new readers, I feel that it is important to share this valuable tool this week. Time is probably the most precious resource that a successful person has. The President of a company that I worked for many years ago told me that the secret to resolving a customer service issue was to work your way up to a person in the company with more money than time.
Be sure to read this article until the end because I have a never before revealed secret formula for how much productive time you should have each day.
If you don’t know where you are spending your time, you are wasting money. One of the most profitable skills that I learned in my first job after college was tracking my time in 15 minute increments. I was working as a staff accountant for a CPA firm and had to account for all of my time. If I didn’t track my time, then the firm didn't get paid and neither did I.
In addition to tracking my time, the majority of my time had to be billable. This exercise taught me to be aware of where I was spending my time and to focus on activities that generated profit for the firm. In subsequent industry jobs, I realized that this skill gave me a significant competitive advantage. While others were engaging in “water cooler” conversations, I was getting recognized and promoted.
ROSE-COLORED MEMORY One of the main reasons that we should write things down is because memory is a poor model of reality. This is true for a variety of reasons. First, we all have a bias. Our memories must go through the prism of our experience before they are stored in our brains. Second, many of us have a tendency to remember things in a positive light, especially our contribution to something. Psychologists call this an ego-centric bias. We believe that we are far more focused and productive than we really are. Finally, our memories fade over time. In some cases, they change entirely as our new experiences and changing beliefs attach different meanings to them.
THE CURRENCY OF TIME
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -Carl Sandburg
Time is the great equalizer. I had a wonderfully wise teacher in high school who would rebuke anyone coming to class late with this saying, “time, and time alone, waits for no man, and dang few women.” It’s a sobering thought when you consider that everyone has the same amount of time in each day, week, and year. Michael Korda, former Editor-in-Chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City once said, "Success has always been easy to measure. It is the distance between one's origins and one's final achievement."
The idea that we all have the same amount of time can be very humbling. This fact made an indelible impact on me in college while watching Andre Agassi at Wimbledon. Although he was only about a year older than me, he had already achieved unbelievable success. He had achieved wealth, fame, and numerous tennis titles. I would say that he spent his time wisely during his youth. How are you going to spend your time? Isn’t this an interesting phrase, “spend your time”?
What accomplishments are you exchanging for your time? Are you wasting your time or investing your time? Unlike virtually every other resource on the planet, time is irreplaceable. For example, if an employee leaves your company, you can hire another employee to replace them. By the same token, if you lose a customer, you can find another one. On the other hand, if you waste an hour watching television or mindlessly surfing the web, that time is gone. You can never recover wasted time. One of the best ways to determine what your time is worth is to divide your annual salary by 2,080, which is 52 weeks at 40 hours / week. This will give you an idea of how much money you are investing or wasting each hour.
THE VALUE OF AN ACTIVITY LOG Activity logs help you to analyze somewhat objectively where you spend your time. If you are like me, what you discover will surprise you. Since we too easily forget things like reading junk mail, personal phone calls, internet, daydreaming, etc., the activity log will bring these issues to the surface so you can deal with them. So, what do you do? Buy the Bubble Planner and use it. It has a great tool that allows you to quickly track your time.
It’s already set up so all you have to do is write down the category, i.e. Sales Proposal, Web Surfing, Customer Calls, then, bubble in the portion of the bubble that you spend on the particular category. Here is a picture of the Activity Log page. You can also do this in excel or on a piece of notebook paper. By analyzing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-wasters or low-contribution tasks. So, here's the secret formula that I mentioned earlier. How much time should you spend on non-productive activities each day or week? I would say that God knows a little about time being the Ancient of Days. As such, I use his formula of 1 day of rest for every 7 days, which translates to 15% of rest each day. I call this the original 85/15 rule. This is similar to Deming's 85/15 Rule but about a the value of processes.
By keeping an Activity Log for several days, you will understand how you spend your time. Once you have logged your time for a few days, analyze the log. You may be alarmed to see the length of time you spend doing low value or unproductive tasks! “I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.” -Og Mandino
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The Law of Forced Efficiency |
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Do you need a vacation? According to Brian Tracy, the law of forced efficiency says that, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing." Have you ever noticed that right before a vacation, you tend to be super-productive? Items that you've been rolling over on your Today page for months suddenly get resolved. You address any burning issues in the most expedient manner possible. Not to mention, you are not at all shy about asking others to pick up a project that must be done while you are away. This time right before a vacation is a prime example of the Law of Forced Efficiency in action. At some point, you have to be honest with yourself about what is realistic and what isn't. Generally, this occurs right before you have a hard deadline. Why not move the decision point up to when you either accept or reject a project? In today's business environment, everyone is running at 120-130% of their full capacity. When this happens, people experience more stress and make more mistakes than if they were operating at a more comfortable pace. This hectic work schedule brings the 1-10-100 rule into play. 1-10-100 RULE = If you do something right the first time, that's all the time necessary. If you do it wrong the first time, it will take 10 times as long to correct the errors. If you get the correction wrong, it will take 100 times as long to correct the errors. So, part of the over-capacity that people are experiencing is caused by the time pressure to get things done quickly. If you will make a conscious decision to say "no" up front, you will start to see the law of forced efficiency working for you rather than against you. By the way, we have added a preview of our Big Bubble Planner on Lulu so you can see the great new forms. Also, you can get the book either coil-bound or in a download at a lower price than the disc bound or 3-ring binder. (click here) |
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Using Bubble Maps to Gain Control |
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Would You Like Step by Step Instructions for Our Products? As an aside, many of you may be receiving our newsletter for the first time in a long time. We were having issues with our newsletter program but have finally resolved them. One thing that we've heard consistently from our customers is a request for detailed instructions. Although we like to allow freedom for people to be creative, we also see a need to show everyone how our tools were designed. So, we'll start with Bubble Maps for Gaining Control, which is the core engine to many of our time management tools. Bubble Maps are a simplified version of a mind map. They are designed to extract ideas from your mind more easily as they allow the free flow of information from your brain to paper. Additionally, since bubble maps are laid out like your desktop instead of a filing cabinet, the captured information is more readily available for action. The spatial layout has another purpose, which is to engage your short-term memory. Your mind is designed to know "where" things are. This affinity for location is one of the reasons that many people are able to effectively use bubble maps when lists have been ineffective. Finally, Bubble Maps enable you to process your thoughts by placing similar ideas in proximity to each other. Here are the basic steps. The referenced forms are from the Bubble Planner. However, the steps are helpful for anyone who wants to get control of their schedule. Step 1: Capture Your Thoughts If anything is on your mind, you must write it down. I usually use a CHOP Page to download anything that is consuming mental energy. In this step, don't filter. If it comes to mind, write it down. Sometimes during this stage, I will write an idea in a central bubble, then write connecting ideas in the adjacent bubbles connecting them with lines. This helps me pull out the information and store it properly. Use as many CHOP pages as necessary until you can think of nothing else that needs to be resolved. Step 2: Filter Your Thoughts From the items that you captured in Step 1, you will run them through a couple of filters. TO DO or NOT TO DO. First, does this item even need to be done? If not, mark it out and stop thinking about it. Second, if it needs to be done but not by you, start a CHOP for the person who does need to do it. (You may also place this on a FOLLOW UP form, which is in the Review section of the Bubble Planner). ACTION or REFERENCE. The second filter is whether the item is even actionable. If not, it most likely needs to be put in one of those file cabinets, which are great for storing things for later reference. Be sure to put it where you can find it using some sort of index system. WHAT LEVEL? Since you've determined that it is actionable, now you must decide whether it's a Goal, a Project, or a Task. If it's a Goal, place it in the appropriate Goal category in your Radar section. If it's a Project (a project is defined as any multiple action objective), then place it in the Roadmap section of your Bubble Planner. Finally, if it's a task, go to the next filter. WHAT TYPE OF ACTION? Now that you've whittled your thoughts down to tasks, it's time to put them into context. Take four CHOP pages and use one for each type of action: Computer Actions, Home Actions, Office Actions, and Phone Calls. Now, take all of the remaining actions and place them on the appropriate page. Be sure to use verbs as these should be the physical action required to complete the task. For example, google salary comparison would be a valid action if you are thinking about asking for a raise. This would belong on the Computer Action CHOP page. Substep: Some people like to create a daily CHOP page. This is a great way to set boundaries for yourself and give you a sense of accomplishment as your complete items. Simply transfer the most important items to a single page. When you transfer an item from a CHOP page, it's a good idea to highlight it in a different color such as green, mark it out, or put a reference like a circled T so you know that it has been moved to Today. Step 3: Execute Now, that you've written down everything, all that's left to do is execute. You have pre-thought your actions, so, you know that you will be tackling the most important actions in the right order. When you have completed a task, highlight it, for positive reinforcement and readability. Step 4: Defragment Stephen Covey might call this step sharpening the saw, David Allen may call it the Weekly Review. However, you want to call it. You need to go through the different sections in your Bubble Planner periodically (at least weekly) to determine that you are not missing anything. This is often a great time to rewrite your Bubble Maps so they stay fresh and the connections you have created continue to work for you. This may be quite a bit to take in one sitting, but I had to start somewhere. Next newsletter, we'll dig into an individual form in a little more detail. |
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Stop Learning and Start Doing |
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This may sound strange coming from me, but I must say that quitting has aided my success more than any other strategy. I actually had to go on a self-improvement fast. For a period of time, I would not allow myself to read, listen to, or watch anything new about time management until I implemented knowledge that I had already acquired.
This was incredibly hard for me. Think about it, I've been a student of self-improvement, life management, time management, accelerated learning, and virtually any other type of self-discovery that you can imagine for my entire adult life. (When my adult life started is a point of contention for some, but let's just say that it's been more than a decade.) This was as challenging as giving up coffee would be (or so I'm guessing).
I went through a week of withdrawals, but started the second week with a renewed intensity. This death of learning birthed new revelation. I discovered that the techniques I had been using were insufficient to get me to the next level. They were effective, efficient, and essential in achieving the level of success that I had acquired, but they were also holding me back. By eliminating the distraction of learning new time management techniques (if I'm honest, I wasn't learning anything new just hearing the same message from different messengers).
By looking inward, I found the problem. I wasn't looking for the right knowledge. I wasn't asking the right questions. The questions I had been asking were, "how can I do this faster?" and "how can I get more done?" The real question for me is a simple one, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Taking a page out of Covey, I started at the end of my life and imagined what I wanted to accomplish and who would be there to share it with me. You know To Live, To Love, To Learn, and To Leave a Legacy.
So, give it a try, stop reading, listening to, and watching all time management techniques for a week, and discover the question that you haven't answered. |
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