One-hour presentation on productivity, including finding time leaks, techniques for prioritizing, and getting into the right mindset.

1. Productivity: The Secret Sauce
Catherine Morgan
Career Transition and Entrepreneur Coach
Point A to Point B Transitions Inc.
May 20, 2013

2. Time is scarce
• Time is your most valuable commodity
• No matter how much time we have,
it never seems like enough
– Family
– Career
– Fitness
– Volunteering
– Hobbies
– Other?

3. Who gets more done?
• Someone with a lot of spare time?
• Someone with a lot of commitments?

4. Add in constraints for productivity
• Work will expand to the amount of
time you give it
• Set deadlines - even if they are fake
• Bracket your time with other things
that can’t move
• Keep some kind of a schedule (and
keep your sanity)

5. The inner game of productivity
• Need to create good mental space
• Invalidate negative self-talk

6. Taming the “monkey mind”
• How do you calm the “chatter”
– Exercise like walking, running, swimming
– Meditation
– Yoga
– Other?

7. Know when your peak times are
• When are you usually at your best?
– Are you a morning person?
– Do you prefer late night for thinking?

8. How to find more time
• Find out where your “leaks” are
– Keep track of what you do for a week
– Usual time-sucks include:
• Watching TV
• Internet surfing
• Interacting on social media
• Playing video games
• Writing long e-mails
• Meetings

9. What causes overwhelm?
“Overwhelm is caused by
NOT knowing WHAT to do,
not by having too much to do.”
~ Michael Port

10. How to get past overwhelm
• Get things out of your head
– Trying to remember too many things can
cause immediate overwhelm

11. Out of the brain and on to…
• Everybody is different
– No tech: Lists and sticky notes
• Sticky note fun:
– Write each task on a sticky note
– Put all notes on your left
– When a task is done, move
note to the right side for a
visual sense of completion

12. How to capture tasks
• Overwhelm will subside when you
get into action
• Capture everything you need to do
in some way (paper, software, phone app)
• THEN create logical groups
– Business, personal, administrative, project, etc.

13. Try some software apps
• Low tech
– Workflowy
– Evernote
– iDoneThis
• Higher tech
– Project management software
– CRM

14. “Eat a live frog first thing in the
morning and nothing worse will
happen to you the rest of the day.”
~ Mark Twain
The big, bad, ugly task first

15. Other ways to prioritize
• Do the easy things first – build momentum
• Gauge your enthusiasm – which task gets
you excited?
– Do that first to get a little energy that can carry
over to the ones that are not so fun
• Do the task that is the most important
– The fast path to the cash

16. Notice avoidance behaviors
• Notice when you start doing something –
anything – to avoid the dreaded task
– Laundry
– Organizing your office
– Cleaning

17. Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS)
• This happens frequently when what we
need to be doing is scary or tedious
– Culprits include: Social media, WordPress,
phone apps, software, blog posts…

18. Your friend the calendar
• Be hands-on: Use your calendar!
– Go through your commitments and
other projects
– Define specific tasks and block out times
– Also schedule in breaks and fun
• Do SOS things during your breaks
– But get back to work after 

19. My best advice: Forget crazy-busy
• We are all busy, forget crazy-busy
– Step back when you feel like you are on the
hamster wheel (or overwhelmed) and ask:
• Is this the best use of my time?
• Does this lead to revenue in the near term
• Will this activity (or learning) lead to revenue
in the medium term?
• What SHOULD I be doing right now

20. Questions?
Catherine Morgan
Career Transition and Entrepreneur Coach
Point A to Point B Transitions Inc.
877.672.5333
Catherine@PointAtoPointBTransitions.com
Twitter @PointA_PointB