Be Your Best

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I really don’t make ‘New Year’s’ resolutions per se. For whatever reason, I tend to make many of my resolutions (aka ‘Goals’) throughout the year as I identify them as something that I need to accomplish.  Most of us do make New Year’s resolutions, though, in late December and early January, and really, regardless of when I make mine — they are basically the same as New Year’s resolutions/goals scattered throughout the year.  Well, it’s April, and how are those New Year’s resolutions going for you?  For most, they are a long past distant memory or abandoned, getting lost somewhere between late February and mid-March.

If this is you, you are not alone!  Goals are tough things to stay on top of, particularly the challenging ones.  I thought I would list some ideas this month that seem to work well for me to stay on top of my goals or resolutions.  Not perfect, but they help immensely.

Setting Goals without Passion
There are times when I will set a goal for something, but it is because of someone else or some other circumstance beyond my personal passion for doing so.  This is a recipe for goal abandonment.  Without personal passion behind the resolution or goal, there will be no built-in persistence.  Pick goals that you are at least mildly obsessed with.  If you have to take on goals that others are selecting for you (like at work), then find something within those goals that you are passionate about, and that really motivates you.  Put that next to the goal or translate the stated goal into your motivating element.

Allocating Time and Energy
Many goals are set or resolutions are made without any thought to allocating proper time and energy towards accomplishing the resolution.  It sounds pretty basic, but time needs to be carved out and schedules/routines need to be changed to address the new goal.  Writing down that clear change in your schedule helps a lot.  When I was training for my triathlon last year, I had to stop doing certain things in my normal routine to make time for that training schedule.  Which leads me to my next point…

Your Goals Should Drive Your Schedule…
not the other way around.  But on many days, the reality is that our ‘schedule’ drives what we do.  It is easy to complete a day that was nearly entirely driven by what other people wanted vs. what you wanted to accomplish.  I have those days myself and they are sometimes unavoidable.  But I generally recognize it when they happen and I work hard to get back to focusing on ‘my list’ of goals to drive what my schedule looks like.

Measuring Progress
As I talked about in a recent article about the ‘pedometer’, it is really important that you know where you are at in relationship to the achievement of your goal, and to keep that progress status constantly in front of you.  A pedometer hooked to your belt makes it really easy to know at any point in time how many steps you have taken that day.  Other goals are tougher to measure progress, but you have to put a system of constant measurement in place to keep yourself accountable to the goal.  How can you make your progress easier to see daily?  Goal or resolution abandonment happens a lot simply because ‘out of sight, out of mind’.  Unless you have created a habit around the goal, you need that constant reminder and accountability.

It’s never too late
Regardless of whether you have let a goal or resolution slip away, today is never too late to get back on that resolution.  You made the decision one day in the past that a particular goal was important to you and that day or the next day you were pursuing it.  There is no reason, even if you have abandoned that goal, you can’t decide to go after it again…starting today.  Maybe this time you change certain aspects of how you approached that resolution originally and create a new strategy.  New is exciting and fun.  Same goal, new approach.

Investing in Success
Along the same line of refreshing a goal in a new way that was abandoned for some reason — think about ‘investing’ additional resources to aid your efforts towards achieving the resolution.  This could be getting more education about the topic, getting a helper or coach, investing in a tool or aid, or whatever.  Notice that I use the word ‘invest’ vs. spend, because whatever this added resource may be to help you achieve the goal, look at it as an investment in your success, not as an expense.

I hope some of these ideas will bring some dead New Year’s resolutions back to life for you!

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

Every one wants to get more done, whether it is at work, at home, with their kids and family, with their team, club, or hobby, etc…

The problem that most people experience is the feeling of ‘more to do and less time to do it in’.  The reality is that the amount of time we have is an absolute constant: 1,440 minutes per day, 10,080 minutes/week, etc…  The only thing that changes is our choices of what to do during our time, and (and this one is overlooked biggy) how effective we use our time on the things we choose to use it for.  This ‘effectiveness’ of time concept just does not get much attention for whatever reason, but really is the key to unlock the vault to getting more done.  Research has shown over and over that a smaller amount of high quality focus time on a given task or project is far superior in terms of output and results than a greater amount of lower quality or poor focus time.

How to Burst

If you buy into the smaller amount of effective time is better than a larger amount of less effective time concept, then the real trick is how to make your time spent more effective vs. simply trying to reduce the number of tasks or projects you are tackling.  In theory, if you make your time more effective, you get more done in less time.  If you get more done in less time, then you can accomplish much more in the time you have.

Bursting is a simple concept to help make your time spent more effective.  Essentially, bursting is a technique where you break down your awake time into pieces or chunks.  You then take those chunks of time and you make them as productive and effective as you possibly can.  With that said, you acknowledge that you are not trying to chunk down and burst your entire day.  You are shooting for maybe 2-3 hours per day of bursting time where you are at peak productivity and 100% focus and concentration.  Research has shown that, on average, most business managers achieve less than 1 hour of truly productive time during a day, and closer to 45 minutes.  This research includes even the most successful managers and executives.  If you can create 2-3 hours of peak productivity time each day, you are creating a massive advantage for yourself.  Obviously, if you are successful at creating 2-3 hours of burst time, there is nothing that says you cannot go for 4+ hours.

Bursting Tools

The first tool to use for bursting is a simple kitchen timer.  I have talked about using kitchen timers before to help with focus.  When you go into burst mode, you are setting the timer to start and go ‘up’.  Essentially, you are going to measure and hold yourself accountable to achieve max concentration and a distraction-free burst zone for as long as you can up to 60-90 minutes.  At 60-90 minutes of full concentration, your brain requires some rest to remain near peak performance.  The only reason for the timer is to be able to show yourself how much time you are really achieving at max productivity.  The first couple times you try this, you may not get past 10 minutes without becoming distracted off the task.  Another tool is anything that blocks out chatter/noise that is a distraction to 100% concentration.  Could be a fan that drowns out chatter, or could be playing some classical music at a low volume.  Another “tool” is knowing when your most productive time periods are during the day.  Could be early morning, could be late in the day.  As much as you can, you want to match your burst zones with those to leverage your body’s natural clock.  The overall goal would be to get 2-3 solid burst zones in each day.  More is a bonus.  If you truly measure and are honest with yourself, accomplishing the 2-3 solid burst zones every day is challenging.

“Reverse Bursting”

Another technique that I personally use a lot, but did not have a name for it until I heard about bursting is ‘Reverse Bursting’.  Essentially, reverse bursting is where you set your timer for X number of minutes that you are going to allocate to a task or project.  You start the clock ticking down, ensure you have a distraction free environment, and when the clock hits 0, you are done working on it.  I have found that when you place this artificial ‘deadline’ in the amount of time on the clock, you can move through tasks faster.  You figure out ways to get the task done or largely done with the set amount of time.  The most effective way this works is if you really stick to the ‘deadline’ you set with the timer.  When the clock hits 0, you move on to another task or project.  This is also, by the way, a great method to use for meetings to keep them short and productive.

It is amazing what you can accomplish in a well-executed burst period, and it is easy to see why just achieving 2-3 solid burst periods in a day can create major results.  Try it.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I just finished a pretty interesting book called “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcom Gladwell.  Recommended reading by the way, or listen to the audio version read by the author.  It reads a little bit like a novel of short stories, so not totally a business book per se.  Anyway, I reference this book because he talks about something throughout the book that I have read and heard from other key figures and experts as well.  It is: how many hours of focus does it take attain ‘mastery’ of something significant.  The consensus I always see referenced is 10,000 hours.  Obviously this is a nice round number, but successful people from many different perspectives all seem to agree that it takes about 10,000 hours of focus at a particular thing to achieve a mastery level competency.  I have seen this referenced with respect to martial arts (which I am not involved in — I just read books that talk about or reference successful martial arts people), mastering playing musical instruments like the piano or whatever, or attaining a professional level in a sport.  In fact, in the Outliers book as well as from other sources, they imply that investing 10,000 hours of focus nearly guarantees you will achieve mastery level of the thing you are focused on.  One big point Malcom Gladwell makes in the Outliers book is that it is pretty much all about ‘practice’ time (as well as some luck in terms of having exposure to the ‘thing’ you will ultimately master), and not about ‘natural ability’.  He makes a very strong case with specific well-known examples.

I started to think about my own situation, and ask myself: have I invested 10,000 hours (or anywhere close to that) in my lifetime to any one discipline/sport/hobby in order to master it?  At first, I was coming up with ‘no way’.  I did the math….10,000 hours = 4 hours per day, every day, for 6 years 10 months, OR 2 hours per day, every day, for 13 years 8 months, OR 1 hour per day for 27 years 5 months.  These are obviously averages, but they give you a good idea of what 10,000 hours really means.   To be fair, ‘Mastery’ by no stretch means ‘perfect’ — in fact, the masters at various sports, musical instruments, or other disciplines consistently say they are working harder than ever to get even better at what they are already considered a master at.

After I looked at this for a while, I did start to find some things that I have invested nearly 10,000 hours in, or getting in the range of or above 10,000.  I have been married almost 24 years now.  Have I put in 10,000+ hours — yes.  Have I achieved mastery at our marriage?  Depends on who you ask!  Hockey.  My favorite sport.  I have been playing organized hockey consistently since I was 6 years old.  Certainly don’t play every day, but in adding up the total hours invested in practice and games, I think I have somewhere in the 5,000 hour range.  I have not achieved what I consider mastery level or obviously not the professional level…yet!  But then again, I have not put in 10,000 hours yet.  How about fatherhood — definitely have 10,000+ hours invested.  I absolutely have achieved mastery in this area…according to me.  From a business perspective, I have put well over 10,000 hours into essentially the same career role multiple times over.  Mastery achieved?  Again, probably depends on who you ask!  Always trying to improve.

Why should I care about this 10,000 hour concept?  I guess it may come down to how much you want to achieve ‘mastery’ level at various aspects in life.  After reflecting on my own situation, I have ended up, for whatever reason, being about average at many things and not quite mastering a couple of others vs. reaching true mastery level at any one specific thing.  However, I have to say that the areas where I have invested and focused thousands of hours of practice and time on, I get tremendous reward from — whether I have achieved the ultimate ‘mastery’ level or not.  Putting in thousands of hours into anything you choose basically guarantees huge personal reward and satisfaction.  And, just the mental perspective of  committing that you are going to invest thousands of hours delivers the same long term reward.  Essentially, you are on the way towards mastery, and you know it.  You can feel it the whole way.

This is something I am paying more attention to with respect to how I spend my time and energy, as well as how I coach my kids.  Knowing that mastery is attainable by anyone, in any given endeavor (given enough passion), is an important principle to remember.  And, knowing that committing to thousands of hours of ‘practice’ is the most important determination of reaching mastery level at any given venture is a simple, but largely overlooked, concept.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford