You Will Never Be Lazy Again | Jim Kwik

What's Your System

What's Your System?

Entering Grade 7 has been a big transition for my son this fall. From learning how to navigate a rotary schedule to keeping track of homework assignments and tests or not - yikes! - it's been a learning curve and an exciting new chapter. The best part is that there are so many life lessons being learned - how to schedule, pay attention when you're bored, preserve if you don't get a great grade, etc.

What's interesting though, is the organizational lessons are similar to those we as adults are also working on. What is the best way is to keep track of things, how we decide what goes on our calendar, etc. Having an empowered calendar system is especially important for entrepreneurs who are in-charge of their own schedules, in order to stay on track and create the results they are wanting:-) Scheduling is the only way to ensure things will actually happen AND it's close cousin is to create systems within the schedule, like batching together like tasks. Read on to learn some of my favourite tips and tricks that will hopefully help you too, or inspire you to create your own spin.

Here are a few calendaring & system tips to make your life and business run more smoothly:-)

1. Batch together all like tasks - i.e. if you're getting dressed-up for a meeting, look at what other tasks you need to be dressed-up for and do them the same day, i.e. filming a video, hosting a webinar, etc.

2. Block out time chunks to work on your business and then focus on two to three strategies within that time frame until they're seen to fruition i.e. a talk, workshop, Instagram lives, referrals, speaking, reach outs etc. You can keep an ongoing list of other ideas so that you don't lose sight of them. This will take care of bright-red-shiny-object syndrome:-)

3. You can create other blocks of time for your business as well - look at the top 5 tasks you do, i.e. sales conversations, email, social media, follow-up, team meetings, etc.

4. Look at your top values, i.e. freedom, fun, financial security, family, etc. and make sure there is time for all of it on your calendar. This will help you to prioritize what is important to you, and say no to what isn't guilt-free.

5. Schedule in time for self-care, success practices and anything that is important to you. It's the only way it will happen. You can still stay flexible within that time frame and tune into what you're heart is drawn too, but at least create the time and space in your calendar for it:-)

6. Create systems wherever you can in your business and life. For example, doing laundry on certain nights only unless there's an emergency of course, having an email system in place to make checking email more efficient, and creating a follow-up system that ensures you stay on top of leads.

7. Make all of these time blocks recur monthly, i.e. every Tuesday from 9-11 am is business-building time, and mornings from 6-7 am are self-care time. Then schedule in time weekly to review and adjust your calendar. It's important to stay flexible and shift things around depending on the week and what you have scheduled, i.e. you may have a new meeting or talk and need to shuffle some other things around to ensure they still get done.

8. You may also want to put in specific reminders right on your calendar for the date you need to f/u with someone to ensure you don't miss it. This is where an empowered follow-up system is also important:-)

9. Above all else, choose a calendaring system that works for you. Some people love to keep it old school and use a handwritten calendar. I love using multiple Google calendars with fun colours for all areas of life - work (shared with my assistant), personal, kids, marketing, etc. We also just got a huge paper calendar for our family so that we can all actually SEE where everyone is or what we have going on at any given time. Colour coded to make it fun of course;-)

Have fun getting organized and systematized!!

Author: Chris Atley
Article Source: https://ezinearticles.com/?Whats-Your-System?&id=10025516

The Secret To Organisation - The 5S model of Lean Six Sigma

Do you get frustrated by not being able to find something? Do you spend more time in trying to remember where that note was or trying to get back to the thoughts on a specific topic?

The 5S model of lean six sigma could be the solution  to your problems.

It is an organisation method to  ensure efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing items used and thinking about standardization  to increase productivity.

The 5S model is great for the workplace and fantastic for getting your personal world in order.

It comes from Japan and was one of the  techniques that enabled just in Time manufacturing.

So what does the 5S model say? Well there are 5 stages.:




1.Sort (Seiri)
2.Set in  order (Seiton)
3.Shine (Seiso)
4.Standardise (Seiketsu)
5.Sustain (Shitsuke)

The names are shown above (with the original Japanese names in  brackets).

So lets dive in to the detail. This is how I see the 5S model.

1.Sort

Everything in your environment needs to be considered. The items that are not necessary (or haven't been used in a while)  need to be thrown/given away. If you really can't throw it away put it in a storage for a couple of weeks and if it hasn't been used throw it away.
Also make work easier by removing obstacles to work.
Remove anything that is unnecessary.
Clear your workspace and desktop and this should make your world a bit clearer, less stressful and more relaxed.

2.Set in order

When anything comes in, into your world , you should think of the following questions:

   i) How will I use this?
  ii) When will I use this?
  iii) What else will I need when I am using this?
  iv) Who else will be using this/ Who else will be involved when I am using it?
  v) Where will I be using  this?
  v) What parts of this will I need/ do I not need

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can allocate in the correct place (e.g on your workspace or in your folders , etc.)
Make sure that all necessary items are correctly placed/stored so they can be easily selected for use.
For reports/work think how will users want to  see this and prepare the work in the format that will answer their predicted questions, efficiently and effectively.
Make it easy to select often used items/ files (Tools such as Workflowy.com or Microsoft OneNote or GoogleDrive are good to keep everything organised and easily accessible (on your computer or mobile)).
Place/file/store items based on their use and frequency of use, with the most often used items, placed in  the easiest to access areas.

3)Shine

Clean your workspace daily
Keep your workspace/filing/storage/documents clean and tidy and pleasing to be/work in.
This means that when you finish anything you should put things away.
This also means that when you finish your work on your computer, you close anything and reboot next morning. This should clear resources and refresh systems.

4)Standardise

Once you have a process that works, establish procedures and schedules to ensure consistency. This should be replicated by other people in your team or in other things that you do.
Ensure that your personal/work routine supports these new practices.
Make these new practices part of your daily routine.

5)Sustain

Make sure that once you have an improved system, this is maintained.
Ensure you track how you are doing to ensure that you do not fall back into bad practices.
Review regularly.

Productivity Tips from Elon Musk to Supercharge Your Success

Elon Musk is a super high achiever. He has multiple companies.

Tesla - electric car company
SpaceX - Spaceflight company
Boring company- Tunneling company
SolarCity - Solar panel and rechargeable lithium ion battery company
Neuralink - Neuroscience company

A recently email from him to his 37, 000 Tesla employees shows his  productivity tips for success.


1. Get rid of all large meetings (unless they provide value to the whole audience, in which case, keep them very short) and  all frequent meetings.

2. Meetings should be infrequent unless a matter is urgent.

3.Drop off a call/meeting as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value.
It is not rude to leave. It is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.

4.Avoid acronyms or jargon.
Anything that requires explanation inhibits communication.

5. Don't let hierarchical structures make things less efficient - Cut out the middle-man.
Communication should follow the shortest path. Bypass the managers and go straight to the person doing the work.

6.Don't follow rules, follow logic.

How many of these do you do? How many of these can  you start to implement today?

How To Become Happy And An Optimist - Shawn Achor

Here is a great talk by psychologist Shawn Achor talking about the work of Emmerson & McCullough where they made people go from being pessimists to optimists and improved the performance of the company.


This is based on work that was done by Emerson and McCullough. They went to a company much like yours and they had everyone of their employees, as a first thing when they came into to work,  write down 3 new (i.e. in the last 24 hours) things they were grateful for in a word document.
3 new things for 21 consecutive days results in 63 things you are grateful for but that is not the important thing. It doesn't matter what you write down , what matters is that the brain is scanning the world for things that are positive. a  lot of times we train our brain to scan for the negative and we are incredibly good at doing that because our brain is a single processor  so we denote our finite resources to scan the world for the negative and continue to miss out on the positive things that are happening in our environment.

If you do this for 21 days you  can take pessimists, who have always been tested as pessimists, who we know have genes for pessimism and they become optimists.  They ended up  testing as low  to moderate level optimists.

One thing they did at the company, is they started their meetings by saying one thing they were personally grateful for , one thing they were grateful about their team, and one thing about one member of their team.

Then they talk about the fires they need to put out, but not treat them as threats but challenges. The entire performance of the team then started to rise.

2 minute a day, 21 day program for success - The happy secret to better work | Shawn Achor

We believe we should work hard in order to be happy, but could we be thinking about things backwards? In this fast-moving and very funny talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that, actually, happiness inspires us to be more productive.




He's worked with schools and companies in over 45 countries and found that happiness is not due to the external world but how our brain processes the world.

If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, he's found that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You're 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed.

If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully as we're able to work harder, faster and more intelligently. We need to be able to reverse this formulaso we can start to see what our brains are actually capable of.Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you're positive, has two functions. Not only does it make you happier, it turns on all of the learning centers in your brainallowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.




When your brain is positive it produces dopamine which makes you happier. It also opens learning centres in the brain, making you better able to adapt to the world.




So how can you get more positive and productive? How can you rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully?

Spend 2 mins a day for the next 21 days doing the following daily:




1. Write three new things you are grateful for (Emmons & McCullough 2003)

2. Journaling one positive thing that happened in the last 24 hours (Slatcher & Pennebaker 2006)

3. Exercise (Babyak et al 2000)

4. Mediation (Dweck 2007)

5. Random acts of kindness (Lyubomirsky, 2005)

1. Write down three new things you are greatful for.

Write down three new things that they're grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that, their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first

2.Journaling one positive experience you've had in the last 24 hours

Journaling about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it

3.Exercise

Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters

4.Meditation

We find that meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand

5.Random acts of kindness

random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness. We get people, when they open up their inbox, to write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in their support network.





So by doing these 5 things, you can train your brain, just like people train their bodies and create positivity, productiveness and success.

How To Gain Control Of Your Free Time

There are 168 hours in each week. How do we find time for what matters most? Time management expert Laura Vanderkam studies how busy people spend their lives, and she's discovered that many of us drastically overestimate our commitments each week, while underestimating the time we have to ourselves. She offers a few practical strategies to help find more time for what matters to us, so we can "build the lives we want in the time we've got."