new book for the New Year

A few days ago Amazon.com had a great book sale so I ordered a couple of books that I’ve been wanting to read for several months now.

One of them is Today Matters by John Maxwell. The subtitle is: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow’s Success. The premise or key point of the book is that all we have is today! We can’t go back and re-live yesterday and we can’t travel through time and determine tomorrow! So, Maxwell writes, “The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” (p. 14)

Maxwell argues that if we set the right priorities, make the right decisions, and follow through with discipline TODAY. . . tomorrow will take care of itself!

If you are looking for a great book to kick off the New Year. . . I highly recommend Today Matters! I’m only on page 83 (out of 302) and I’m already sold!

Happy New Year!

Five Ways to Improve Your Daily Personal Productivity

Here are five simple ways to increase your daily personal productivity:

1. Sleep More
When our lives are disorganized and over-planned we call it being busy. And when we are busy we think it’s okay that we don’t get enough sleep. However, studies show that lack of sleep leads to less productivity, less awareness and poor decision-making. Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

2. Eat Less, More
Don’t eat more! Eat more often! Larger meals require more energy to digest and decrease blood flow to the brain and other parts of the body. Eating small meals more often allows the body to easily digest the food and use the energy created more efficiently.

3. Develop A Daily Plan for Each Day
Each day of the week is different and should be planned for differently. Being proactive by developing a daily plan for each day increases your productivity and decreases stress.

4. Utilize Power Blocks
A Power Block is a 1 to 1.5 hour unit of time dedicated to accomplishing one specific task. Power Blocks are especially effective for tasks you do not like to do! Examples include making phone calls, writing thank you notes, cleaning the house, etc. The key to an effective Power Block is to focus on the one assigned task without any interruptions (turn off cell phone and computer).

5. Do It, Delegate It, Defer It, or Dump It
Every opportunity that comes your way falls into one of these three categories. The key is to make an immediate decision when an opportunity or task comes your way. Either do it immediately (if it can be done in 10 minutes or less), delegate it (if someone else should do it or can do it better than you), defer it (decide when to do it later) or dump it and decline the opportunity!