Sunday Night Success

It’s 2pm.   Only 2pm.  When I checked the clock a few minutes ago I expected it be closer to 5 or 6pm, because I’ve been buried in productivity today.  I love this feeling, where i’ve accomplished what my SNS group, The Fun Girls, calls “hard things”.  Several of them, I lost track of time, and I feel great.

These actions are what Jeremie calls “Energy Giving” tasks.  To  practice this requires some mindfulness, to connect emotions and motivation with the items on your action list.

Jeremie has taught me that generally there are two types of actions, or tasks:   Energy giving and Energy taking.

Energy giving tasks are those tasks that give you a real sense of accomplishment. Tasks which feel good…no, feel GREAT to complete and mark of the list.  When I complete an energy giving task, I feel a bit like a super hero – chest puffed out et all.

This morning I completed a long-standing job application (the position is in Edmonton, hence my procrastination). It required me to dig deep to begin the application.  I created a way to actually have fun with it, thereby creating a energy where it was once drained.
Examples from my fellow fun girls include Crystal breaking down her goal of selling some yarn into little, manageable tasks.  Caro has a mirror to hang, and Debbie has recently completed the God Father of all Procrastinated tasks:  She disposed of an old, broken oven that was too big to remove without breaking apart.  (GO DEBBIE!)

Planning energizing actions into my day is a tool I’ve used to manage procrastination and get things done.
the delicious sense of  productivity created by knocking those hard things off the list maximizes energy that can be channeled into completing more tasks.
Another example is a few months ago I had a long list of cold calls to make.  I know I’ll receive some empathy when I say I was not wanting to do them.

These cold calls are a textbook example of an energy taking task.  I was tired just thinking about making them – they’re the mental equivalent of shoveling snow.

Don’t want to do it but it needs to get done.

I sat down to work, made a list of all the calls to make that day.  Surfed the internet, answered some email, and took a nap.   The calls did not get done.

The next day, I sat down at my desk again, intending to start those calls.  I looked at the list and took a moment to mindfully recognize why I didn’t want to make them.  There was really no sense of accomplishment from looking at that list.  Instead, I spent the morning doing some much procrastinated housework.  I cleaned the floors, dusted bookshelves, de-cat haired every last inch of my space.

I felt great when it was completed and used that sense of accomplishment to sit down and make calls.  I worked for six hours that day, and when I finished the list I created a new one.

I hope you get a sense of how using your to-do list can create energy that will help you achieve your goals and get in touch of your inner Super hero of accomplishment.  Everybody has procrastinated items on their to-do list – those long forgotten about items that seem insurmountable.  What’s on your list and how can you use it to create more energy for your self??

I like golf.

I like the anticipation of the game.  I like setting it up with my friends.  I like getting my gear ready.  I like driving into the parking lot.  I like carrying my gear to the first tee.  I even like paying for the privilege of playing.

There is something about the game that has an allure to me.

Turning my cell phone off and having some “me” time.  Joking around with my friends at the tees.  Watching my friends succeed on the green.  Walking through lovingly manicured courses.  The anticipation that the shot that I am about to take may go where I want it to go.

My problem lies in the fact that I am not good at hitting the ball.  As a lefty golfer I have developed a habit of hitting every drive that I make left instead of straight.  Left into the rough.  Left into the water.  Left into the sand.  And not just a little left – I am shooting left by 45 degrees or more.  :S

What happens after I shoot left?  The first 5 or 6 shots I can usually suppress my frustration but eventually it bubbles to the surface and my day is ruined.  Friends cannot console me.  The joy is gone but I play on like a man walking through a rain storm who is soaked to the bone.

So for a long time I did what any man would do.  I would try harder.  I would try to force my body to HIT THE BALL STRAIGHT!!  I would practice harder and more often.  I would contort my body in ways to make the ball do what I want it to do.  I would turn my body so when I hit it left then at least it would be straight (this made it worse). All to no avail.

I just figured out my problem.

My problem is that I care where the ball goes more than I care about the process for getting the ball there.

Now I have a new plan – focus on the joy of the movement within the shot and stop caring about where the ball goes.  My shot may not improve at all but by changing what I consider success to be I will find peace on the course.  And this is my real success – peace.

It all started with a tweet in December.   The night before SNS v. 1.0 had discussed 2010 plans for the action team and I thought: “Wouldn’t it be fun, if I created a new group with fun girls? Maybesomeday”

The very next day one of my favourite knitters and flickr contacts replied to a tweet, telling me she admired the SNS group and would be keen to start a new group.

SNS v. Fun Girls was born!

Named fun girls, because that is who we are.  More specifically,  we are:

Caro.  I’ve been following her blog and using her amazing box bags for some time. I was very flattered she wanted to join the group and I’m very excited to get to know her better.  Caro is working on world domination for her business, Splityarn. her first book!book!book! is going to be released by a really impressive publisher later this year!

Danielle, is a bona-fide fun girl and she is clearly the highest energy of our new group.  Marathon training? check.   Coaching synchronized swimming? Check.  Demanding job at a high profile institution? check.   For Danielle, balance is my crazy busy day and she jumped into SNS with the enthusiasm & energy, I imagine, she uses to tackle any project.

StitchyMcYarnpants (aka Deb) is Caro’s partner in world domination (and book publishing).  She’s using SNS to manage her busy life, the process of book publishing, creating a podcast and (we hope) moving an old, broken, stove out of her kitchen.  See her work as the curator of kitschy stitches on her blog, here:

http://stitchymcyarnpants.com/moks06/

Last,  Crystal is hard-working, focused single mom going who just finished an MBA.  She’s embarked on a fairly major job search and is working hard to manage all her priorities while going to bed early (it’s on the list) and find her dream job.

We’ve meet twice and it’s quickly become one of the highlights of my week.  These girls are FUN!!  I’v found it interesting,  with my extraordinary (snort) six months experience as a SNS alumni to see these fun girls experience how the action setting techniques can help achieve goals.   I asked for their first impressions about Sunday Night Success, and they include:

• How helpful the process of writing down action items every week is.  It’s a little meditative, to sit down, relax, think about the upcoming days in  terms of planning & prioritizing.
• There are no items too small for the list.  Breaking down activities to be low, low energy items that can be knocked off the list in the blink of an eye is an easy strategy to Get Stuff Done.
• Accountability rocks!

One of eleven:
1. Make pencast of SNS changes – Incomplete.
2. Write “Homepage” – Incomplete.
3. Write “Is this you” page Incomplete.
4. Write “How it works” page – Incomplete.
5. Write “Last Ditch” page – Incomplete.
6. Write “About” page – Incomplete.
7. Write “Sign up” page – Incomplete.
8. Write “Contact” page – Incomplete.
9. Write “Archives” page – Incomplete.
10. Write Power Tool – Complete.
11. Edit Power Tool – Incomplete.

Working my list to zero – learning experience

I don’t believe that we fail in anything we do as long as we learn something. So, although working my list to zero has not worked, I do not consider the experiment a failure. I have learned a great deal about myself and about the action setting process during this experiment.

Success equals energy and motivation

By leaving the same, more difficult, actions on my list each week and not adding new actions I put myself in an energy-draining environment.

Normally, I would add new actions each week. Some of these actions would be simple to complete, and once I completed these actions I would have a sense of accomplishment. This sense of accomplishment gives me energy, and it is this energy that I then apply to the more challenging actions on my list and get them done.

By working my list to zero I didn’t have any of these easier to accomplish, energy providing actions on my list. I only had the big, heavy, challenging actions on my list, and when I didn’t manage to complete any of them they started to drain my energy. The longer I went without accomplishing any of them, the more energy I lost, and the more difficult it became to even start on any of them.

Regrouping for 2010

I still have a few actions to complete in 2009 in order to reach the goals I set for myself this past year, and now, I need to figure out how I am going to finish everything, or if it is even necessary for me to finish everything. Goal setting is a fluid process, nothing is set in stone, and it is important to review your goals throughout the year to make sure your goals are still supporting you in getting to where you want to go.

With three weeks left in 2009 it is time for me to review my goals and come up with a plan that will best prepare me for the start of 2010.

I think it would be great to share this end of the year goal review and goal reworking process with you. Let me know what goals you have accomplished, have left behind, or are working hard to reach before the arrival of 2010. Perhaps we can support each other in having a great finish to 2009.

One of twelve:
1. Make pencast of SNS changes – Incomplete.
2. Write “Homepage” – Incomplete.
3. Write “Is this you” page Incomplete.
4. Write “How it works” page – Incomplete.
5. Write “Last Ditch” page – Incomplete.
6. Write “About” page – Incomplete.
7. Write “Sign up” page – Incomplete.
8. Write “Contact” page – Incomplete.
9. Write “Archives” page – Incomplete.
10. Write Power Tool – Incomplete.
11. Edit Coaching Model – Complete.
12. Edit Power Tool – Incomplete.

Feeling tired and blocked

This past week was by far my worst week ever for getting my action list completed.

Why?

I think completing 50000 words in November emptied my brain of words. I just don’t think I had any writing left in me this week. I made notes on what I needed to write, I planned some of the writing tasks; but, I just couldn’t put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) and get the words out.

I was 100% blocked this week.

Working the list to zero not working?

I am not ready to say the experiment of working my list to zero is a failure yet, I haven’t been at it long enough. I will continue to work with this list until I get everything off.

I think what I needed to do was listen to myself when I talked to my SNS partners on the phone two weeks ago. I mentioned during that call that I was feeling the need for a break coming up: that I needed to take a week off. During that call I had decided that I would take the week after NaNoWriMo ended off from working on my different projects.

I forgot about that promise to myself, but I think my mind decided to honour it subconsciously as I definitely took the week off. However, I am not going to beat myself up over it. I had a week off, this week it is time to get back at it.

Wish me luck!

Each week Jeremie asks his clients to rate their productivity on a scale of 1 – 10. Ten is the most productive, the rock-star days, where you do all you can do plus more. The first week we met on a Wednesday and I had a really, really productive day that day. I declared “Today was an 8.5 in terms of actions completed, but it REALLY felt good! Like a nine!”.

Well, the following Wednesday was a firm 2 out of 10. I had a bad case of the “I don’t wannas”. I’m not to proud to admit that it was one-of-those days where all I wanted to do was what I wanted to do. I did not want to work. I felt frustrated & I spent most of the day pouting, cranky at myself, doing-exactly what I wanted and not doing anything related to my business and feeling like I had failed myself. I didn’t even take a Daily Desk picture … because I didn’t wanna!

(Instead I made penance with this project and took this picture the next day)

Today (I’m writing this post on Monday night) was a 10, in terms of productivity. I feel really good right now. I accomplished more than enough today… and then I kept going!

The difference between today and last Wednesday, is the plan.

First thing Thursday morning I sat down and wrote a plan. I didn’t accomplish much else that day, but it was a HUGE leap forward from the day before. Since that day, each day has felt like an 8.5 or a 9 because I worked from the plan.

So far here’s what I’ve learned about having a plan:

• It’s incredibly liberating to commit to your plan. Only regard what’s on the list, add to and take away as is necessary.
• Having a plan has helped me ignore distractions and it reminds me to stay focused on what I need to do. For example, on my Daily Desk last Friday I took a picture of this pretty quilt I’m making. Ignore distractions & work from the plan.
• Working from the plan has helped quiet those lingering voices of self doubt that were hanging over my head last week.
• Checking off items items with an orange sharpie is the most satisfying feeling ever.

I belong to a book club. About once a month, we choose a book, read it, then get together to discuss it. The idea is to expand our horizons, and read books we might not normally choose. I joined of my own volition.

I constantly get razzed by my success partners because, quite regularly, actions related to my book club end up on my list: getting the book, reading a certain number of chapters or pages, etc. And it frequently ends up coming down to the wire whether I actually complete the book by the deadline. The others give me grief, wondering why I joined a group such as this if I find it so difficult to keep on track and get my reading done.

I can see the irony, but I defend it by saying that even things we enjoy doing sometimes are challenging to get done. And often, things we would like to do for ourselves fall by the wayside in favor of other things that seem to be more important. Sometimes it is important to make ourselves do things that are just for us. Otherwise they may not happen at all. I put reading on my actions list not just because its good for me to read new books and expand my horizons, but because if I didn’t schedule that time for me, I know that I would probably not make time for it. It would fall to the bottom of the pile of a list of other actions that seem to be more important than something that is just for me.

Do you find that you tend to neglect yourself in favor of others, or actions that seem more important and less selfish? Do you also find it difficult to do something for yourself, to the point that if you didn’t put it on your action list it would not get done? I think a lot of us tend to put our own needs at the bottom of our priorities list. I would like to know if you agree, and how you deal with it.

I’ve posted here before about my experience as a member of Sunday Night Success and my reverse-but theory, and now I’ve graduated to Girl Tuesday blogger at Sunday Night Success with my Daily Desk project.

The Daily Desk project is my silly, sentimental method that will photo-document my way to a very ambitious goal: 100 days to 40 billable hours a week.

Why such an ambitious goal? Like Jeremy says: Plans don’t work with out actions. I finished my business plan and I need to make sure it works. My boss (ie. ME!) can be pretty generous with the time off. I need to be accountable and make sure I finish what I started here.

We work in ebbs and flows. My Daily goal project will help me, on any given day, be more accountable to the “ebb” rather than the flow. At least, it will allow me to maintain one eye on my goal.

How’s it going so far? Pretty good. Week one I finished a major piece of research I’d put off far too long; some tedious research I really needed to complete. When I finished it, I celebrated by taking an afternoon off to quilt (my favourite thing).

Week two was really busy. My time was taken up with many meetings, but I planned my week in a clever way that allowed me to continue feel like I moved forward.

Of course there are BAD days. They get documented too:

I have learned that when I’m not feeling “it” and I want to do anything but work, I shamelessly abuse rewards.

Note the knitting & farmville here. I believe that day my system was for every 5 company websites I researched, I allowed myself 5 minutes of farmville. Each time I researched ten companies, I was awarded twenty minutes of knitting. Not perfect, but I finished all the research I needed to complete that day. Conversely, the next day I was motivated to get a similar task finished in as short a time as possible!

Today is Day 16.

It’s a good day. I realized my main task for the week is going to take much longer than I budgeted, but that’s okay because on Day 100 I believe I’ll have billable clients to show off.

I’ll be posting again next week to tell you about my progress!

I have just moved into a new home, and it is taking up quite a bit of my time and most of my energy. In fact, most of my weekly actions for the past few weeks, and probably for several more weeks to come, have consisted almost entirely of “house” stuff and related actions.

We all know how draining moving can be, even when you are excited about it. I am finding that when I do have a few minutes to myself, all I want to do is sprawl on my couch and veg out in front of my TV for some mindless down time. I admit to having been less than enthusiastic about participating in the weekly success calls these past couple of weeks…. The motivation factor to get things done, and list more things to get done was pretty weak.

But, I am glad that I have followed through anyway, and persevered in getting through most of the things on my lists. Not only am I accomplishing things that could easily be put off or fall through the cracks, and not only am I helping myself to get through the transition of moving into a new place more quickly, but I always feel better after meeting with my success group on our calls. I come away feeling more energized, more optimistic about the actions I have set for the coming week, and generally better about myself and what I am accomplishing than I would if I had bailed out and just laid around on the couch. So even though I am not always “feeling it”, I push through anyway, and am always better off for it.

-Vicky

The thing about accountability is, if no one knows what it is we are putting off, no one is really harmed, beyond ourselves anyway. Its a “if a tree falls in the forest” kind of thing. I personally am always more likely, in fact driven, to get things done if I know that by not doing it I am putting someone else out, or making them fall behind, or what have you. If the only person harmed is me, however, I am much less worried if I don’t manage to get a task or action done.

I believe I actually said this very thing on a call with my success group not too long ago. I was asked why I had not put the same priority on an action that was “just for me” as opposed to an action that another person was relying on me to get done. I felt much more inclined toward completing the action that had someone else’s deadline attached than one that only had my own, even though that action was still important and would have contributed greatly to creating some much-needed balance in my life.

Why do I place greater importance, or at the very least urgency, on actions that are going to affect someone beyond myself? Why, when the only person I am answering to is me, do I feel that it is more acceptable to let myself down than someone else?

Is this the reason why our success group is so successful, for each of us as members? Would we constantly just be letting ourselves down if we did not have to own up each week to what we did or did not get done? Why is it that without having someone else to say “how come you didn’t get that action completed?” we would so readily put things off?

Let’s hear your thoughts!!