Pat Pearson's Blog

Here is another time management strategy – de-junk your life.  Chaos in your environment creates confusion, so all of you outgoing, other-directed people will have to deal with chaos in your paperwork. The issue for all of us is that we need to follow the golden rule of paperwork – handle it once.

With every piece of paper either:

1. File it in a hold file;
2. File it in a respond file;
3. Place it in the specific file it relates to; or
4. Throw it out

Handle your paperwork once. If you clean your desk, your house and your closet, you’ll enjoy a feeling of clarity – it’s like you lost weight and it’s an amazingly wonderful feeling.  We feel the paper is so important, but usually it isn’t.  Let me give you an example:

A secretary took home some extra paperwork – three weeks’ worth of correspondence that she needed to catch up on.  She put it in a brown paper bag and put it on her counter when she got home.  This was the day her husband was taking out the garbage and he threw it out with all of the other garbage.  Three weeks of paperwork and correspondence, she was mortified.  She thought she’d be fired or her boss would scream at her.

After several weeks she found only two letters came inquiring why she hadn’t responded, and one request for a new check.  She was amazed at how little a difference it really meant.  All that paper wasn’t necessary.  She learned the 80/20 rule, 80% of value comes from 20% of the work.  Of the ten things you and I need to do, 80% of the value only comes from only doing two of them.

Here is another story of de-junking your life:

I was giving a seminar and I wanted to test who had the junkiest thing in their purse or briefcase, so I asked people to go in and pull out the junkiest thing that you don’t need.  One woman pulled out a Pampers.  All of us know if you have young children that this is probably a really good thing to have.  She explained to us that her youngest son was seventeen years old!  So this was a very old piece of junk in her purse! We can let go of the junk in our lives.

Time is like money – you can spend it, save it, throw it away, or plan for its use and make it work for you.  First, let’s talk about a definition of time.  Time is the occurrence of events.  Time-management is the way we manage those events, or let them manage us.

The biggest thief of time is procrastination.  Procrastination is the “Scarlett O’Hara syndrome.”  You remember Scarlett; she kept saying “I’ll think about it tomorrow at Tara.”  She put off ‘til tomorrow what she could do today.  That is the definition of procrastination.

We all suffer from some tendencies to procrastinate.  Here are some psychological reasons why we do it:

Number one, the job is too big. “I have to clean the whole house in an hour” or “I have to recruit five people today.”  We exhaust ourselves just thinking about it, so we don’t do it.

Number two, we don’t want to do it, but we can’t say no. Think of a ten-year old cleaning their room – they drag their feet.  It takes hours to do one single thing.  Many of us can’t say no, so we say yes to requests we don’t want to do and then procrastinate about doing them.

Number three, a fear of failure. We are afraid we won’t complete it, so we don’t start.  We don’t want to start because we don’t want to feel criticized.  How many times have we all started a project, a diet, tennis lessons, picking up the phone to call our customer and then stopped?  When we didn’t finish, we criticized ourselves and called ourselves a bad name.

Here’s my story about procrastination.

When I was writing my first book, You Deserve the Best, I had three hours every Friday to write my book.  That was the time I set aside.  I had a full clinical practice, I had a family, and I had all the demands of life so I only had those three hours.  I would start at nine and end at twelve.

Nine o’clock came and I was getting ready to work.  I would go to my office and as I walked to my office I would notice that my shoes were out of alignment in my closet.  It only takes a minute to put your shoes back in line and then the phone would ring and I’d answer the phone.  And then I would notice the dog had to go out, so I’d let him out.  And then I’d get a little hungry, you gotta have brain food to think, so I’d go to the kitchen and make myself another snack and get a  little coffee.  The phone would ring again.  Then I would notice I hadn’t done the dishes from last night, so it’s just taking a minute and do those.

It’s now ten-fifteen.  I haven’t been eating bon-bons.  I haven’t been watching TV, I’ve been “working,” but I haven’t written a single word – that is procrastination.  Everything I did was more preferred then doing the task I needed to do.

One antidote for procrastination is created by a psychologist named Premack.  Premack studied all of us who procrastinate and he found out what we do is gorge on a more preferred task, thus avoiding the lesser preferred task, which is what we should be doing.  All the tasks that I was doing, the coffee, the dishes, the shoes, were more preferred then sitting down and writing.  So once I understood Premack’s theory, I created another reality.

I started at nine o’clock on a Friday and for 30 minutes I wrote on my book. I sat there and wrote line after line and got it down on paper.  And in 30 minutes I’d reward myself with one of those tasks that I felt so compelled to do. I found out a very interesting thing, cleaning my closet or doing the dishes was not what I wanted to do when I was rewarding myself.  Those are ways of avoiding what I knew I needed to do, which was to write.

Once I started using Premack, my book was finished in about a year.  Up until that time, it had taken me four and half years of struggle and suffering not to get it done.

Use Premack 20 minutes on a task, ten minutes of reward. 20 minutes doing the most important thing you need to do and then reward yourself with that cup of coffee or call to a friend for only ten minutes.  What you will find is that you will get through your procrastination issues.

Stay tuned for part two of “I Don’t Have Any Time!” series!

Weight Loss Self Sabotage Survey

1) Do you give yourself excuses for not eating healthy and/or exercising today?

2) Do you avoid getting on scales?

3) Are you good all day and then gorge at night?

4) Do you believe losing weight is hopeless; no one can really be successful at it?

5) Do you use food as a present; “I worked so hard today … I deserve an extra piece of cake?”

6) Do you use food to fix any negative feelings?

7) Do you eat unconsciously in front of the television?

If you answered, “Yes” to any one of these questions, then you are sabotaging your weight loss and health goals to some degree!

Now Read This …

You know the feeling, everything’s tight and you want to lose those pesky 5, 10, 15 or more pounds.

In all goal setting with people in business coaching, losing weight is at the top of many people’s list. We want to look and feel our best. So why is it so hard to lose weight?

As you know if you’ve read my “Stop Self Sabotage” book, we can unconsciously sabotage our best intentions. I start my diet with high hopes for success and then end it three days later with a hot fudge sundae.

There are Three Sabotage Strategies that affect us with our weight loss

RESIGNATION SABOTAGE – - – I give up before I begin. I sign up for a program and immediately start my negative self-talk.  “I can’t stay on this program, I’ll be too hungry” or “Diets don’t work anyway” etc.  I resign myself to failing.

DENIAL SABOTAGE – - – I sign up for a program and then start the internal dialogue that says, “Oh, I can have a small bite of chocolate cake; that won’t hurt.” I deny the need to follow their guidelines.

THROWING IT AWAY SABOTAGE – - – I sign up for a weight loss program and I lose the weight! I take off 10 lbs.  Or 20 Ibs., then I get off the program fall back into old habits and put the weight back on again.  I achieve my goal and then throw it away.  That’s another form of sabotage.

I’ve personally committed all of these sabotages until I came up with a new way to lose weight.  It’s a three step psychological program.

1st  GET HONEST WITH MYSELF

I looked at myself and said, “I’ve had it!” I’m tired of my denials, excuses, and putting it off. “I can’t button my clothes, now is the time to do it.” “If I don’t take control of my weight now, what are the consequences (health issues, energy, self esteem…)?”

2ND A DECISION AND A COMMITMENT FOR POSITIVE SELF-TALK

I chose the date to start and started talking to myself very differently about my choice.  In the past all my self-talk was negative and rebellious.  “I can’t do this, I’ll starve to death,” or “I’ll just have a tiny bite” or “This won’t work, I’m depriving myself too much.” I cleaned up my WORDS about my goal, (which was to lose 10Ibs. of body fat) and I said, “I’m choosing to eat this (10Ibs. of lost weight) I said, “I’m choosing to eat this way,” “I’m enjoying my new weight and how my clothes feel,” and “I’m losing this weight quickly, easily and keeping it off.”

Talking to myself in a positive way made all the difference.

3RD I FOUND MY IDEAL WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM

All of us have different styles.  I’m a person that needs quick results, without feeling hungry or deprived, in order to stay motivated.  I also wanted a program that was proven to be safe, effective and sustainable.

Find your program and commit to it now!

Here is the next questions to help you identify your psychological sabotages and help you breakthrough your barriers and maximize your income.

Ask yourself this question and see if it applies to you…

Is your work space organized and clutter free?

“NO” to Question #4

If you answered “NO” to #4 you have a challenge in the consistent work plan area of your business habits.

This is the area that causes most home based business the greatest problems.  We lack the structure, time and organizational skills to smoothly run our businesses from home.  We have many false starts.  We get several calls made, the office organized and then the kids come home and everything falls apart.

Antidote

Learn the specific skills in time Management (such as the 4d’s, the 80/20 rule, ABC Goals and how to stop procrastinating) these skills have doubled and tripled the income of people working at home.  Get a simple plan to get organized and stay organized.  The resulting feeling will be one of lightness and relief.  Simple steps to de-stress your life will be so rewarding.

It’s that time of year.  Summer is ending and school is beginning.
 
I always feel a mixture of sadness and excitement at this time of year.  It seems sad that summer is gone and I didn’t get a tan again or make real homemade ice cream, but Fall is exciting…The new energy, the leaves and yes, the routine returns.
 
Summer is chaos especially with kids, and no one quite knows when or what to do.  Do we go swimming now or play computer games? My seven year old grandson said, “Nana, I’m tired of a new camp every week !”
 
Then school starts and everyone knows exactly what to do.  Routine is comforting and gives us boundaries so we can relax.  It’s also the time to truly re-new our business and focus on the time we have to sell and recruit before Christmas.
 
Set your mind and hearts on the intention of making this Fall a time of service, so truly give the gift of your business to everyone you meet.  If you do, your business will shine and grow in magical ways.

Here is the next question to help you identify your psychological sabotages and help you breakthrough your barriers and maximize your income.

Ask yourself this question and see if it applies to you…

Are you able to keep yourself motivated to be consistently productive?

“NO” to Question 3

If you answered “NO” to #3 you are suffering from an imbalance in your motivation.

You are de-motivated by either too much discomfort or too much hope.  The feelings you are having about your business are ambivalent.  If you stay in the business you will be successful eventually, but it will take a long time and much unnecessary suffering.  Your motivation issues can be focused in several areas, money reasons, family issues or internal issues.

Antidote

Learn how to get balance with your motivation.  Learn the inner messages you give yourself around money and the ways to motivate your family to be on your team.  Get back in balance between the push of discomfort and the pull of hope.

Stay tuned for Question #4 on work environment…

Why do we always put everything off until the last minute?  It is human nature, I know, but it makes us crazy people!

Here it is, the end of the month again.  Are you going to reach your goal?  The race is on…

The good news is that you can still do it!

I know some of you are saying, “What?  That would take a miracle!”  A miracle is just a change of perception.  I once worked with a person who needed to sell $100,000 worth of product in one week to make her goal.  She was convinced she couldn’t do it, that it would take a miracle.  We talked about it and what she had NOT done was to tell everyone if they were going to order, now was the time.  Her personal miracle was learning to ask (a change in perception from her belief that she shouldn’t ask for anything).  She went OVER her goal by $15,000!!

One person’s miracle may be permission to deserve more financially.  For another, it is calling back all those leads that are sitting on your desk.  For a third, just believing they are confident enough. 

So, what is your miracle going to be?