First, put in the large big rocks
Second, the smaller rocks and pebbles
Then the sand
And finally, fill up the rest of the bucket with water.

Take the really big important items and set aside time for those things first.
Then fill your time with other key tasks
The sand and water are the inevitable small everyday things that end up using up your day.

I have been trying to apply this to my time (since I often feel very busy–I rarely have time for lunch) to make sure that I am setting aside the time for the truly important things in my life (such as following my dreams, taking care of myself, and enjoying time with my friends and family), but also accomplishing the important tasks (especially some strategic work at my job); and not getting distracted with the hundreds of everyday things that come up (like running errands, handling urgent issues, paper work, phone calls, etc).

To do this I developed my own little system.  Each month or every couple of months (monthly works well for me right now since my life seems fairly unpredictable a year or two from now) I lay out the important things I really want to do–such as take a weekend trip, schedule a family dinner, read a certain book, or perhaps attend a special event and assign deadlines to each one.  And depending on the “task” I will even block off time or schedule them in advance.  This is how I place my big rocks in the bucket.  I track my rocks with an excel spreadsheet on my computer.

Then each week I lay out the key goals/tasks I want to accomplish this week.  Typically I include a couple of “stretch” tasks and sometimes I do manage to complete all of them.  These may be things like specific projects at work or at home, important meetings, or even things like workouts.  I then try to assign deadlines and set aside time to get these done.  These are my pebbles.  I track these with a to do list on my phone.

And the sand and water?  Well that is everything else that happens each day.  I tend to write little tasks or reminders on post-its (particularly at the office) and sometimes at home too.  Since these things tend to come up each day I don’t really have a long term track of these and for the most part these things don’t give me a big sense of accomplishment–but they sure do feel my bucket!

How do you stay organized and manage your time?  My system seems to work alright for me and it does help me feel more productive overall, but I would say that I don’t have a good track record or mechanism for tracking these things further out.  I think there is definitely room for improvement, what do you think?

In the past I have always been a bit of a night owl (I hate waking up and can hardly be described as a morning person) but I have discovered that working out and getting into the office early allows me to organize my time better, gain of sense of accomplishment first thing in the morning, and start the day off in a better mood.

My typical morning goes like this: the alarm goes off, hit the snooze button.  The alarm goes off again, hit the snooze button and curl up under the blankets (sometimes this can repeat 5 times).  The alarm goes off, finally get up and floss and brush, realize what time it is, scramble to shower, do my hair and makeup, throw on some clothes (going with gut instinct tends to work best for me when picking out outfits) and then rush out the door grabbing a few things for the fridge to eat for the day.  I am scrambling and stressed and sometimes grouchy….not the best way to start the day certainly!

This has brought about Project Wake Up Earlier.  The plan isn’t just to get up earlier, but also to work out, have a enough time to get ready, and roll into the office relaxed, organized and ready for a great day.  To do this I have determined I really need to get up by 5am (I figure this is okay because if I ever got into finance and stocks I would have to wake up this early anyway unless I relocated to another timezone).

To achieve this I am doing the following things:

• Get up when my alarm goes off. I started setting my alarm and committing that no matter how tired I was that I would get up when it went off. This way I can train my body to wake up at the same time each day.  Also, hitting the snooze button isn’t really useful in anyway–you don’t get much additional rest and you lose time–so no more snoozing!
• Work out in the morning. I hate taking more than one shower per day.  My hair takes forever to blow dry and I have dry skin and multiple showers make me itchy.  And since I can’t seem to go one night without rolling my hair into knots–necessitating a morning shower and blow out.  I also seem to sweat like a pig when I work out, so skipping a shower wouldn’t be smart.  Making sure I get my workout in reducing the amount of time per day I spend cleansing and primping, plus it gives me a sense of accomplishment, AND I am much more likely to actually work out without being interrupted.
• Go to bed early. This is likely to be the most difficult for me.  I like staying up and when I get home I always feel like there are so many things to do.  So I am going to work on making good lists and trying to organize and manage my time better after work.
• Lay out workout clothes, and work clothes the night before. The workout clothes are the easiest, since I don’t have a lot and I care a lot less about how I look (after all when your face is red, your hair is sweaty and your a panting like a dog in heat, your top and shorts don’t make a big difference in your overall look).  For work clothes this will be harder, as I always change my mind in the morning and generally like to try on 2-3 ensembles as you just never know what you feel like that day, but I am going to try to at least select one pivot piece the night before.
• Pack my lunches the night before. This may also help with the whole diet thing and will certainly save me time in the morning….Oh and I should buy something cute to take my lunch in.  I used to use an ice chest but it was too big, now I use one of those “green” bags you are supposed to take groceries in–not exactly stylish…..I digress…

So that is my current action plan.  What are your tips for getting up early? Anyone tried it and didn’t think it helped much?

Well anyway, I recently identified some areas where I need to improve, and since they are interesting and this blog is my little “journey” I wanted to share them with you.

1. Abstraction. I struggle sometimes taking all this stuff that I know and then distilling it into a few key abstractions.  One of the things to help with this is to start with the end in mind.  By thinking about the question you are trying to answer, the criteria for success, or what you are hoping to accomplish you can help figure out what is the path or questions to you need to answer to get to that conclusion.

2. Think before speaking.  Yes, I know — “open mouth insert foot”.  I am not one to hold back what I think.  Normally this isn’t such a big deal, but I think at times it has caused some real problems.  I am trying to get better at this, but not saying anything unless I have carefully thought through my words (event if that means an uncomfortable silence).

3.  Communicate through multiple mediums.  Not everyone can learn things verbally, and not everyone has time to read what you write.  Having things in email (or some other written format), and discussing them (such as in a meeting) provides the best framework for getting a message across to the parties involved.  Sometimes I only do one of these and as a result not everything I am trying to communicate comes though.

Those are some new areas of focus for me.  Luckily I get to practice most of these every week, so these combined with better self discipline are where I am going to channel my improvement efforts over the next few months. Make sure you are taking the time to improve yourself and pick areas where you can get better.

While I was on vacation in Mexico I ate and drank constantly.  I think I honestly ate as much each day as I normally eat in two days.  The indulgence wasn’t a purposeful thing, it just more or less happened because we were with group(s) of people and someone always seemed to be hungry.  If something concrete wasn’t planned we would eat, and if something was planned we would eat then too.  And while I normally abstain from alcohol I liberally drank all sorts of fun drinks–margaritas, pina coladas, hard alcohol cocktails, and I even had my first daiquiri (which tasted like an alcoholic strawberry milkshake, although I had expected something more sugary and blue like daiquiri ice flavored ice cream at Baskin Robbins–one of my favorites).  So needless to say I returned from my trip slightly heavier than when I left (you would honestly think that donning a swimsuit everyday might have swayed the gluttonous eating, but it did not).  So I am back on my diet.  And having spent a bunch of money in Mexico I am also ruthlessly on a budget.

That whole paragraph is basically my long winded way of saying I am focused on saving money and losing weight so my new year’s resolution to cook at home has become important.  So on Tuesday after I was back I went grocery shopping and purchased 6 bags of healthy diet friendly food.  Our local grocery store (Safeway) was having this 10 for $10 special on all these things–cucumbers, red peppers, salad bags and carrots–so I stocked up (I mean it seems like a pretty good deal, right?).  I have made my lunch the last two days (but stocked up on lean cuisines just in case–they are seriously like adult lunchables) and “cooked” dinner the last two days.  My cooking mostly consisted of dissecting a rotisserie chicken, but I did make salads both nights.  I am hoping to collect a bunch of *simple* recipes that I can use to whip up a healthy, wholesome meal very quickly.  So far that hasn’t happened, but it is in the works.

The other thing that I am make progress on with respect to resolutions and self improvement is my whole “getting organized” kick.  I have been making lists and checking things off.  I basically have all these little projects and I am trying to get more out of my day.  I still have a *ways* to go here, but at least I feel like I have made some progress over the last month about using my time efficiently.

I know I have a bunch of other areas I am working on, but that is what I have so far

And here is a new one to add to the list:  I want to get better at my makeup.  I got my makeup done in Mexico and those women sure do know how to wear a lot of makeup and have it look natural.  I want to learn, since it looked phenomenal on me and I wish I could replicate it every single day.

Let’s go over what I accomplished this year (always a good way to start):

• My Blog — I started my blog and for the most part have gone a pretty good job of updating regularly
• My Job Performance — I am proud of how hard I worked this year.  Not just the sheer amount of things I accomplished but all the things I learned.  I am amazed at how many things I didn’t even know that I needed to learn! I still have lots of other things to improve on, but I definitely think that this was one of my big triumphs of the year.
• My Diet – I have one of the worst sweet tooths (or should that be sweet teeth?), I seriously only eat candy some days.  This isn’t healthy or good for your waistline.  I have managed to get my weight down to around 125-127 consistently.  My goal is 115, so while I still have a ways to go I am happy with my progress so far.  A large part of this has been because I have been more careful about what I eat and eating more fruits and vegetables.
• My Workouts — I have been consistent with my 3-5 times per week of cardio and this has made me feel more energetic and healthy.

Here are my big goals for next year:

• My Diet — see above
• Get Organized — This is a big one for me.  I am always a little scattered.  I have made small improvements over the years, but 2009 is going to be my big year of organization.  I plan to improve my space (my desk at the office and my house), my computer (yes, my files are everywhere and it is often hard to find things–I have virtual clutter!), my paper work (I plan to devise a system and stick to it), and my time (I want to be as efficient as humanly possible).
• Cook at home more often –  I used to cook all the time.  I would watch the food channel so much that I would actually know what Rachel Ray episodes were reruns (and when I had a tivo, I would record cooking shows!).  I miss cooking.  I think the last year has been snacking for dinner, and eating out.  I want to spend more time cooking and planning meals; I also think this may be a good way to be more economical and save money.
• Be more finacially savvy — I think that all of us can continue to improve our money habits.  With the economy being where it is these days I think we need to make an effort to be more thrifty (spending less and spending smart). I also want to invest my money wisely and make smart financial decisions.  I definitely did a lot of this in 2008, but I think I can continue to improve and get a lot better in 2009.  I also want to start saving up to make a big real estate purchase before the market totally rebounds.
• Socialize more — Whether it being actually attendint networking events or throwing pot luck get togethers I am going to make an effort to see my friends more frequently.  In 2008 I was so consumed with work I had little time to collect my thoughts, but I really want to use more of my time to see the people that are important to me.  So this year I am going to try and make more plans and perfect my entertaining strategy.

That’s it so far, but I may come up with a few more before the end of the year!  I also need to work on making these more tangible and specific, and figure out how to translate my goals into habits.  I will put some thought into that over the next few days and see what percolates

I have only read the first chapter so far, but I feel like I am really getting a lot out of the book.  The first chapter is all about performance management and managing the team.  It breaks up teams into high, medium, and low performers and explains the differences with each.  It gives little anecdotes and guidance on how to talk to these individuals, coach them, and top grade your team (although it doesn’t use that term). None of it is *new* information per se, but I like the methods and ideas–and there are lots of little good tidbits.  For example, one thing that struck me was how it described low performers as people who get results but occasionally have a bad attitude or don’t act as expected.  I started thinking about this particular line item in regards to myself and my team.  And the most shocking thing occured to me–as of late I think I fall into this bucket.

You see, I have been pretty discouraged lately with work (I think part of it is that I want to start my own company and I think another part of it is a long hours for the last 18+ months) and it has been reflected in my general attitude and demeanor in the office.  This is really bad, because it has the tendency to impact those around me in a negative way.  So needless to say I am now totally focused on improving my attitude towards work.

In the past I wrote an entry on the power of positive thinking.  Being positive applies to lots of things, but when it comes to interacting (and leading) others being positive and upbeat can have a major effect on others.  Just spend a few moments thinking of all the people you like to be around.  For me almost all of those people are a lot of fun.  They make me smile and make me laugh and of course they are people I can learn from.  I aspire to be one of those people.  My negative attitude makes me a little caustic rain cloud and I know I need to flip over a new leaf.  So today, when I was getting dressed this morning I smiled, and I made a commit to myself to be positive.

Sending many smiles your way

On Saturday I went and indulged in my retail therapy with lots of shopping.  We went to the new Southcenter mall.  May favorite part of the trip was when we went to Red Mango.  We were able to eat their frozen yogurt (I had mine with coconut)–a small is only 80 calories.  It is a lot like Pinkberry in Los Angeles.  Then I had a fun night with my girlfriends dancing and club hopping in Belltown (I hadn’t gone out like that in 6 months so it was a nice change of pace).

And today we made some great scrambled eggs, then we went car shopping.  We aren’t sure what (if anything) we want to get, but it is always fun to go and test drive new cars.  Then we had dinner with some new friends at Tamarind Tree in Seattle’s international district.  Then it was family time and a great end to the night with an episode of Entourage.

So on Saturday I had to return some things to Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack.  While at the Rack I found a great pair of boots.  They are soft brown leather and come all the way up to the knee (like the ones in the picture but they are brown leather instead of black suede).  They are quite comfortable and made by a company called Bolo.  I had never heard of them before but they were marked down from $506 to $189 so I thought they were cute and a pretty good deal.

All in all it was a good weekend.  I tried not to work too much, but hopefully this week will turn out to be very productive.

In order to take the bus though, I have to start getting up early to make it to the bus stop.  As I have been trying to workout in the morning I have been doing an alright job getting up around 6:30-7am, doing a 45 minutes workout and then showering and getting ready (which takes about 45 minutes or so).  Needless to say I want to get more efficient with my time. So I have some options–skip working out in the morning (not my preference), take less time getting ready (need to figure out how to do this), and get up earlier.

I figure I need to get up promptly at 5:45 or so, go workout and then be in the shower by 6:45am.  Here are the things I am doing now to get ready:

• Setting my alarm at the appointed time
• Resolving to actually get up when the alarm goes off (I love the snooze button–it is like a little magnet for my finger)
• Paring down my morning routine (you always read about double duty products so maybe it gives me an excuse to try some of those)
• Blow drying and styling less–chignons and french twists more (my long hair seriously takes forever to coif)
• Picking out my clothes the night before (sometimes I can get lost in my closet trying on outfit after outfit–Lucky Magazine’s (October issue) letter to the editor suggested just wearing the first thing you put on, so they may also be another time saving technique)
• Streamlining my handbag, laptop bag, pile of stuff I carry to work. (This deserves a whole post in itself–how to organize your bags so like a girl scout you are prepared (to me this means carrying things like dental floss, advil, lotion, perfume, etc) but everything is neat and pulled together)
• Investigating bus schedules and bus coupons
• Locating a mani/pedi place close to the bus stop (since I used to go after work I have a place I drive to downtown, now I need a new place closer to where I will park my car)

Any other ideas?  Suggestions?

Once a situation has happened there are two things to think about:

1. What to do to handle the immediate situation.
2. What actions or changes need to happen to ensure the situation does not repeat itself

This is a lot like taking responsibility for your mistakes, but it is equally important to do when something goes awry. Ever mistake or problem can be handled in this manner. Handle the immediate issue at hand, then analyze and understand the problem to figure out a way to prevent it in the future.

Most people, and my friend in particular, can have the tendency to fall into a downward spiral (in fact, I think I sometimes fall into that category too!). It is easier to dwell on the problem than actually think through it, focus on the positive, and tread forward. Yet, it is amazing how having a positive outlook can make a huge difference.

There are lots of books on the power of positive thinking (Think and Grow Rich! and The Secret are two that immediately come to mind) and while some of it can seem a bit like hocus pocus there is definitely value to this line of thinking.  I know that when something goes wrong and I focus on the positive it helps me power through the negative.  For example:

• It is easier to deal with something bad when you are thinking about things that are good and upbeat.  By refocusing your energy you are pushing your efforts in a more productive and positive area.
• No one likes being around someone negative.  When you are working with issues with other people, like your teammates, it makes it much easier to be collaborative with someone who is upbeat and assured.  Misery may love company, but no one wants miserable company.
• People like being around positive people.  Kind of obvious, but something I have learned time and time again about charismatic individuals.  By being someone upbeat and positive people will be naturally drawn to you and want to be around you.  Who wouldn’t want to be more liked?
• Every cloud has a silver lining.  Sometimes it is hard to see, but it is there.  By searching out the good outcomes or side effects of a negative situation helps me look at things in a different light. (Different perspectives can be hard to see so if you have trouble, ask someone else for their perspective)
• There is always a chance for personal growth.  I am huge believer in constantly growing and getting better at all things in my life.  Any time something goes wrong I see it as an opportunity for me to learn from the mistakes and incorporate those lessons to other areas of my life.

Of course there are lots of other reasons to be positive and think positive (just take a look at the aforementioned books if you don’t believe me as both are filled with anecdotal stories).  So next time you are in a situation that is not in your favor, try to reframe the situation and focus on the positive aspects.  I hope it works for you the way it does for me

I have begun to see that I have too little time to do and accomplish everything I want to do. I feel like there is so much I want to do in a day I stay up late and get up early and at the end of the week there is a still a big list of all the things I wanted to accomplish and didn’t achieve. This is true of my hobbies, home life, personal goals (hello, working out and eating right!), and work. So I have started a new habit to make sure I accomplish the most important things and truly prioritize my work accordingly (many times I have ended up crossing off lots of little things–usually busy work–from my to do lists without hitting the most important tasks). If you have big tasks that you feel are daunting and overwhelming (as these things often result in procrastination) you can read my blog here on breaking up your work into manageable chunks.

• Pick out the top 3-5 things you want to accomplish that day based on your priorities (I usually put my lists together the night before or that morning when I get into the office).
• Time box each item. For example if you want to search for new leads for 1 hour, then put that on the list.  By setting a time limit on each task (especially ambiguous ones that can take as much time as you are willing to put into it) you are effectively ensuring you make some progress.
• Put the time on your calendar.  If the time is scheduled like any other appointment or meeting you are more likely to set aside the time to do it (as I feel like it is much too easy to get sidetracked with things like email, websites, chit chat with coworkers, etc).  If you know you can’t concentrate on your desk then go to a place where you can concentrate (this is often the case for me with any sort of writing since our office feels more like a carnival a lot of the times than a place where people actually do work).
• Track your progress.  At the end of each day (or at the beginning of the next day) assess your achievements.  What interrupted you?  Were there any distractions or stumbling blocks?  Learn from your mistakes and try to get the very most out of your days.

As you can see you are setting aside work, and scheduling,it, which should ensure you make progress on the important things every single day.  In addition you have built a feedback loop into your process so you can continue to improve and maximize every minute you are in the office.

If you find that you are more reactive, and spend the majority of your day handling firedrills (unless of course you are a firefighter and then that is to be expected) then you need to spend some time on sorting out your priorities.  You should look at your position and break it into its pieces and make calls on how much time you should spend doing each thing.  For example, if you want to spend 30% on product vision, 20% on strategy, 50% on people management then you need to make sure that week over week that is how your time is allocated.  That means if you have 5 people on your team you should be spending 20 hours on people management.  This seems like a lot at first glance, but using this time in an effective way can actually save you time down the road.  This time allocation could translate into team lunches, reviews, one on ones, office hours, book clubs, etc.  If your team knows you set aside time for them every week it is unlikely you will have as many interruptions because your meetings will be regular and they will know what to expect.   This exercise of budgeting your time will also make sure that the important (but possibly not urgent) items end up on your to do list.