Lose more weight, get in shape, quit smoking, and quit (or cut down on) drinking alcohol are common ones.

Those same ‘most people’ soon forget about these resolutions until the following year when they ‘try again.’ Year [...]]]> What do most people do around this time of the year? Why, make resolutions, of course!

Lose more weight, get in shape, quit smoking, and quit (or cut down on) drinking alcohol are common ones.

Those same ‘most people’ soon forget about these resolutions until the following year when they ‘try again.’ Year after year their ‘resolutions’ rarely stick long-term.

Why is this?

Part of the problem is that ‘most people’ only take time to reflect on the past and plan for their future once a year: around new years. This is a costly mistake.

If you want to be more productive, successful, and happy, you need to schedule time to do this throughout the year.

Some call this the ‘weekly review.’ It’s what most people do typically at this time of the year: reflect on the period of time since you last did the review and make adjustments to your strategies to be more effective in the future.

If you can’t seem to find even one hour per week, try once a month or at least once a quarter.

You have to schedule time at regular intervals to reflect on your goals in relation to the past and future. Doing it once a year won’t cut it, especially at first.

In my style of karate (Wado-Ryu), when you’re a white belt (anybody who has never taken karate is a white belt), provided Sensei says you’re ready, you get tested at regular intervals thusly:

• after 3 months, gold belt
• 3 more months, orange belt
• 4 more months, blue belt
• 4 more months, purple belt
• 5 more months, green belt
• 5 more months, brown belt (level 1)
• 6 more months, brown belt (level 2)
• 6 more months, brown belt (level 3)
• 12 more months, black belt (1st degree)
• 30 more months, black belt (2nd degree)
• 36 more months, black belt (3rd degree)

Notice over time you get tested less and less often. That’s because it is assumed that your proficiency improves over time and you know how to practice and you will practice on your own.

Over time your proficiency and success with your regular reviews will improve and you may be able to extend the time between reviews, but probably not as much as the karate illustration above.

It’s easy when you have a Sensei (teacher) because he does the thinking for you. He will tell you when you’re ready.

When you don’t have a Sensei or coach, you have to do it all yourself. The only way to guarantee that you will consistently stop to do your own thinking about where you are in relation to your goals, projects, and intentions, is to schedule it on your calendar and treat it like it’s just as important as an appointment with any other very important person.

If Sunday afternoon works best for you, schedule a recurring 2-hour block of time then with a reminder. For some people, Friday afternoon is best.

I understand if you’re working 3 jobs just to survive. But even if you are, you should be able to find one 2-hour block of time per month or quarter at least.

Find what works best for you and schedule it. If you don’t, you’ll end up like ‘most people’ and procrastinate yet another year before you try in vain one more time.

If information is doubling every 7 years, then you have to at least double your information every 7 years just to stay even!

Do you love reading? I’d rather download the information and experiential [...]]]> Depending on your chosen field (industry, occupation), information is doubling every 18 months to 7 years or so.

If information is doubling every 7 years, then you have to at least double your information every 7 years just to stay even!

Do you love reading? I’d rather download the information and experiential knowledge directly into my nervous system similar to how they did it in the movie The Matrix.

But until that technology exists, we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way: read, listen to audio recordings, watch videos, attend seminars, workshops, and conventions, and/or hire coaches.

I don’t love reading, per se. I love having read. I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge. I love learning the wisdom of the ages from those who have gone before me. I’m like a dry sponge when it comes to increasing my knowledge. I can’t get enough. Why?

“Knowledge gives you leverage—when you apply it in your life.”

I love it when I discover new distinctions that change everything, especially psychological distinctions. I love anything and everything that helps me better master my thoughts, emotions, and actions so I can more elegantly live a happy and successful life.

There are two ways we can learn: from our experience and from other’s experience.

Reading gives you leverage. We only have so many hours in a day. We can’t do everything. Why reinvent the wheel? Learn from other’s experience.

The average person reads less than one book a year. If you want to be average, do that.

If you want to be exceptional or outstanding, read at least one hour a day in the area of your chosen field. According to Brian Tracy, “This alone will make you an expert in 3-5 years. It will make you a national authority in 5 years. It will make you an international authority in 7 years.”

If you read just one hour a day and you’re an average reader you will read about a book a week. That’s about 50 books in a year and 500 books in 10 years.

Do you think if you read 500 books in your chosen field you will be more effective and productive? Do you think it would affect or change your income? Your career? Your life?

Absotively!

Ten years will pass whether you decide to read an hour a day or not. The question to ask yourself is, “Where do I want to be in 10 years from now: having read 500 books in my chosen field or not?”

And remember, knowledge is not power. Only practical knowledge that can be applied toward getting desired results is power. So choose what you read wisely.

I first heard the term ‘batch processing’ when I was teaching Adobe Photoshop seminars years ago.

For example, if you wanted to adjust the color and/or brightness of 100 digital [...]]]> Have a lot of things to do? Cards to send? Clothes to fold? Gifts to make or buy and send? E-mail to process?

I first heard the term ‘batch processing’ when I was teaching Adobe Photoshop seminars years ago.

For example, if you wanted to adjust the color and/or brightness of 100 digital picture files, lower the resolution, and save them as medium quality JPEG files for E-mailing, you could use something called ‘Actions’ that would do all of this for you automatically.

This ‘batch processing’ works great for technical applications. Unfortunately, for the nontechnical/mundane tasks that we have to do that we choose not to delegate, we may not be able to fully automate the process. But in such cases, we can use something called batch production to batch tasks related a project to greatly improve our productivity.

Cards to send
Don’t do them one-at-a-time. By that I mean don’t sign the card and then address the envelope and then stamp the envelope and then seal the envelope one-at-a-time.

Instead, complete the project in ‘batches’ to get the job done faster:

• Address all of the cards at the same time.
• Put a postage stamp on all of the cards at the same time.
• Stuff the cards into the envelopes all at the same time (sign and/or write a personal note as you go).
• Seal the envelopes all at the same time. (I actually fan about 5-10 of them out so the glue part is exposed on all of them face up. Then I use a damp sponge to get them all wet at the same time and then quickly close them/seal them one-at-a-time.)

Clothes to fold
Sort them by type first (socks, T-shirts, towels, etc.). Then fold them in batches for maximum efficiency.

Gifts to make or buy or send
Making gifts can be time consuming, but if you enjoy the process, allow yourself the pleasure! Not everything has to be highly efficient, especially if it brings you joy. You can always batch the less enjoyable parts to the gift making process if you want.

If you’re buying and sending gifts, here’s a time and money saving tip if you’re an Amazon user: become an Amazon Prime member.

For $79, you get free 2-day shipping and $3.99 1-day shipping for everything you buy from Amazon for an entire year. If you buy a lot of books or other things from Amazon like I do, over the course of a year, shipping charges add up quickly.

Since time is money, anytime you can save money, ethically of course, do it because you’re ultimately saving time.

E-mail to process
Schedule when you’re going to check E-mail and batch process them during these times. The less, the better. Maybe twice a day at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM.

Or if this doesn’t work for your particular situation or business model, try checking E-mail and batch processing them on the hour throughout the day. This will give you more blocks of uninterrupted time to work on getting high-priority tasks, projects, and goals done.

Where else/what else can you batch to save time? Keep your eyes peeled. When an opportunity presents itself, remember to batch tasks to greatly improve your productivity.

When I teach the psychology of happiness in my Happiness Workshops, I teach about the nine choices extremely happy people make.

One choice all extremely happy people make is a feeling of appreciation and gratitude throughout each day, [...]]]> Last week I wrote about how happy people are more productive and happy companies are more profitable.

When I teach the psychology of happiness in my Happiness Workshops, I teach about the nine choices extremely happy people make.

One choice all extremely happy people make is a feeling of appreciation and gratitude throughout each day, not just on one special day a year.

Thanksgiving is the time we have agreed in the United States and Canada to formally express our gratitude for family, friends, and things.

But is it really about being thankful or merely getting together and eating huge amounts of food?

When you get together at Thanksgiving do you formally talk about what you’re grateful for? I mean actually set aside a few minutes for each person to go around the room and express their gratitude? If not, why not? Try it and see what happens.

Gratitude is the shortcut to happiness. It is a feeling of thankfulness in your heart for what you have.

If you want to be happy, thank about (not a typo) what you have to be grateful for throughout each day and feel the feelings of gratitude in your heart. I do this first thing every morning for a few minutes during my meditation and highly recommend you do the same. It’s a great way to start your day.

Ungratefulness is the shortcut to UN-happiness. If you want to be unhappy, think about and focus on what you don’t have. To intensify this feeling, think about other people who have what you want and feel jealous or envious.

The choice is yours: happiness is a choice!

At a time when it would be easy to focus how bad things are, I’m choosing to focus on what I have and feel grateful:

I have the love of my family.
I have the love of my friends.
I have a roof over my head.
I have food on the table.
I have sound physical health.
I have faith in God.
I have a labor of love.
I have the ability to see.
I have the ability to hear.
I have the ability to feel.
I have the ability to smell.
I have the ability to taste.
I have my limbs.
I have this life.
I have the ability to choose my attitude in every situation.

What are you grateful for? Why not turn ‘Thanksgiving’ into a daily ritual (without the huge meal!), rather than a fleeting once a year event? I know you’ll be much happier and productive as a result.

When a person is showing signs of being unhappy, how do they look? Are their shoulders back, head up, smiling? Not hardly.

More likely their shoulders are slouched, head looking down, and they’re not smiling.

I’m not talking about chronic depression, which [...]]]> Are happy people more productive than unhappy people? Let’s examine this a bit.

When a person is showing signs of being unhappy, how do they look? Are their shoulders back, head up, smiling? Not hardly.

More likely their shoulders are slouched, head looking down, and they’re not smiling.

I’m not talking about chronic depression, which is a serious disease and should be treated by a professional.

I’m just inviting you to notice the differences between the physiologies of seemingly happy and unhappy people and consider the consequences of each.

For example, if in your particular line of work you were required to work with a partner, would you rather work with a happy person or an unhappy person? Why?

Most people would prefer to work with a happy person. Here are some reasons why.

This is why I teach the psychology of happiness and how to increase happiness in the workplace to companies who ‘get it.’ Get what?

Think about it. Would you rather work for a happy company or an unhappy company? Most people who work in an unhappy work environment have one foot out the door. This costs unhappy companies millions of dollars each year in hiring, training, and lost productivity.

Not only that, people who work in unhappy workplaces take more sick days off, which disrupts productivity, and they have higher health care costs.

So, the future of business IS happy. Unhappy companies are going the way of the dinosaur.

Companies who ‘get it’ and implement strategies for supporting happiness in the workplace will dominate their respective industries because they will have the most productive and creative employees, extraordinarily high retention rates, exceptional customer service, and the lowest health care costs. Google and Southwest Airlines comes to mind.

If you want my happiness eBook I co-authored with Deepak Chopra, Jack Canfield, and Denis Waitley for FREE (ONLY for subscribers like YOU), you can download it here.

Happiness is a choice and when you have the tools and training to make that choice on an ongoing, more consistent basis, you will be happier, more productive, and more successful.

You never procrastinate: you only choose to do activities that are not going to contribute to you achieving your most important goals, projects, or tasks as quickly as possible.

You are always doing something; you are never doing nothing.

Let’s say [...]]]> No one procrastinates. Even though I teach how to overcome procrastination, it’s really a misnomer.

You never procrastinate: you only choose to do activities that are not going to contribute to you achieving your most important goals, projects, or tasks as quickly as possible.

You are always doing something; you are never doing nothing.

Let’s say you’re sitting back on the couch, watching television and eating potato chips. You may be delaying doing something else, but you’re not procrastinating watching television. You are actively engaged in the activity of watching television.

So you are not procrastinating. You are simply not making great choices about how to spend your time. Or you are making great choices, depending on your goals.

If you’re goal is to be out of shape and unhealthy, I suppose choosing to excessively be a ‘couch potato’ is a good choice. If you’re goal is to be physically fit and healthy, then choosing to consistently exercise and eat healthy food are good choices.

Even when you’re sleeping you’re not procrastinating. You are choosing to participate in the act of sleeping.

When you’re sleeping, your mind and body are actively engaged in the concerted act of cleansing your body by expelling toxins through your sweat glands and breath. That’s why you have bad breath in the morning.

Choosing to consistently get adequate sleep promotes good health and is a good choice if one of your goals is to be in physically fit and healthy.

So figuring out how to consistently make great choices is a smart goal. That’s one of the keys to ‘black belt’ productivity: consistently making great choices about how you spend your time.

So to recap: it’s impossible to procrastinate. You can’t not do something. You are always engaged in some action.

If you find yourself automatically taking actions that goes against what you want, almost as if some else is in control of your actions (obsessive), then you may want to seek a qualified cognitive therapist. Cognitive therapy can help you overcome mental blocks, obsessions, and/or negative emotions (guilt, shame, etc.) that may be preventing your from consistently making great choices and following through with them.

If you ask lousy questions you’ll get lousy results. For example, if you ask, “Why does my life suck?” You will get answers like, “Because you’re a [...]]]> Questions are how you focus your mind. The quality of the questions you ask yourself on a consistent basis determines the quality of your life.

If you ask lousy questions you’ll get lousy results. For example, if you ask, “Why does my life suck?” You will get answers like, “Because you’re a loser.” Or “Because you were born into the wrong family.” Or “Because you procrastinate too much.” Or “Because of the economy.” Or…you get the idea. Your mind comes up with all sorts of excuses, none of which support living a high quality life.

If you ask great questions you’ll get great results. For example, if you ask, “What’s great about my life?” Or “What do I have to be grateful for?” You’ll get answers that help you focus on what’s great in your life and the things you have to feel grateful for. This will focus your mind on the positive things in your life, which will help you be more happily productive.

One of the best questions to ask yourself on a consistent basis is this focusing question, “Is what I’m doing RIGHT NOW the best use of my time?” If it isn’t, change what you’re doing until you can answer that question in the affirmative. One more, “Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?”

Life doesn’t have to suck. I can’t make your life great. But YOU can! You can use the power of great questions to keep yourself focused on your most important goals, projects, and tasks every day. A successful life is made up of a string of successful days, weeks, months and years.

Two things you can do right now to help you stay focused: 1) print the above focusing questions out and hang them up where you’ll see them throughout your day; and 2) edit your computer’s screen saver to display the focusing question(s) and program it to display after 5 minutes of no activity.

It takes another 2 1/2 – 3 years to earn your Nidan (2nd degree black belt), and another 3 years to earn your Sandan (3rd degree black belt).

After 9 1/2 [...]]]> It takes a minimum of four years of consistent training to earn your Shodan (1st degree black belt) in my dojo (karate training hall/school).

It takes another 2 1/2 – 3 years to earn your Nidan (2nd degree black belt), and another 3 years to earn your Sandan (3rd degree black belt).

After 9 1/2 years, I officially became an internationally certified Sandan in Wado-Ryu karate on Saturday, October 16, 2010.

I’m no more ‘special’ than anyone else. I just kept coming to class.

“80% of success is showing up.”
—Woody Allen

My Sensei often says, “Just keep comin’ to class!”

Consistency. What does it have to do with productivity? Everything.

Without it, everything falls apart. You don’t have to be totally anal about everything. But you do need to consistently ‘show up’ and take care of business.

Letting things slide for a few days won’t kill you. We all do that on occasion. Life happens. But the longer you let things go, the uglier it gets. So it pays to be consistent.

For example, I know people who have over 1,000 emails in their email Inbox. Some have over 5,000! That would drive me insane now.

There was a time, though, before I learned how to be ‘black belt’ at productivity, when I would have around 3,000 emails in my Inbox! I finally got to ‘threshold’ and decided to learn a better way.

I think it’s interesting that we all seem to have a certain threshold or comfort zone or thermostat for how many emails we can stand to have at any one time in our Inbox. What’s your number? 100? 3,000? 5,000? More? Mine is zero. Finally.

I teach that the Inbox is a collection device, not a storage device.

Knowing is not enough, though. You have to have a good strategy and take consistent action if you want to reap the benefits.

Being ‘black belt’ at productivity means to:

• consistently review your goals (a few minutes each day to keep them top of mind)
• consistently take action in the direction of your goals
• consistently process your email Inbox to empty
• consistently process your paper inbox to empty
• consistently do your weekly review (to clear the decks and your mind for the upcoming week)
• consistently and immediately forgive yourself for not being perfect (helps keep you in the present moment)
• consistently be open to learning new and better strategies for doing things
• consistently read this blog

(Like how I snuck that last one in there?!)