Category: Productivity
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How do you know when to say no?
As life gets busier, there’s no shortage of things that can take up your time, energy, and resources. There’s also no shortage of people telling you to say no, from how to say no effectively to dozens of different ways of saying no. Few, however, address how to answer this fundamental question: How do you…
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Knights in shining armor to the rescue
If you’re looking for the next big thing, the next niche, the next area where tons of money is just waiting for you to come over and scoop it up, you’re about to read about it. Ready? To the rescue. That’s it. To the rescue. What do I mean? Simple. Look around you. Look at…
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The easiest and hardest productivity tip of all
Sales master trainer Tom Hopkins has a mantra that he encourages all salespeople to recite many times a day. It’s a mantra that, if you obey it to the letter, all but guarantees your success. I must do the most productive thing possible at all times. Back when I was doing sales, we lived by…
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When should you be innovating?
When should you be innovating? When should you be optimizing, taking advantage of what you’ve already got? Innovation and optimization are companions. They’re complementary. You innovate something new, something untested, and then you see how it works. In the beginning, you test. You put in a lot of effort and the results you get are…
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Three questions to answer daily for 2011 success
The temptation to leap in with guns blazing is never higher than right after the new year. You’re pumped, you’re excited, you’re ready to go. You’re like the little kid staring at the lawn full of fresh snow just after the morning radio announced a snow day for school. You can’t run fast enough towards…
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Three words for 2011
Every year, Chris Brogan has introduced a theme summed up in three words. I enjoy playing along with the theme as it usually does a good job of crystallizing what the year will be about. They’re not goals so much as lenses, ways to focus and make decisions about whether something is worth doing or…
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Phoning it in
Phoning it in has become a popular pejorative among the blogging and social crowd. It’s considered the epitome of laziness, the pinnacle of apathy, and it’s something that you want to avoid as much as possible, right? Except… we’re human. Some days we simply don’t have enough A-game in the tank. Some days we simply…
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Who’s working this week?
Both Chris Brogan and I have exhorted you recently to make the most of this quietest week of the year when everyone else has checked out. Here’s the corollary to those bold statements. If you’re looking at starting something new or adding to your team for 2011, if you’re looking to hire, grow, or otherwise…
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Racing ahead: the final week of the year
The period between December 25 and January 1 is generally considered to be a giant black hole of productivity. Everyone’s off. Everyone’s away. No calls are being returned, no emails answered. Business to business folks have basically given up, and consumers are out scouring for after-Christmas shopping deals, not answering your summons to commerce unless you’re…
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Multitasking is still a lie
Multitasking is still a lie. I’m going to be bold with the following statement: If you are multitasking, you are either doing work that is trivial or you’re doing a poor job. Watching tonight’s martial arts class, there is no multitasking. There is never any multitasking. You can’t afford to. You’ll get a fist in…