Peake Productivity

According to some very bright people out there, naming your "stuff" is a powerful exercise, with benefits to your productivity and psychologically. In this article, I'll introduce you to the benefits of naming your reference files, both digital or paper, more effectively.

The Backstory

I'm constantly working to refine my working process because deep down I believe work and play should be fun and low-stress. Or perhaps that statement is a bit out of chronological order. I originally got hooked on refining my working process through David Allen's GTD methodology. As soon as I experienced the immediate rewards of having a trusted system outside of my head, I slowly opened to and adopted the idea that work can be a relaxed process. Now I'll be the first to declare: no matter how overwhelmed, over-committed, or busy you think you are in this moment, you have the option to relax and enjoy your work. It requires getting real about all your agreements, organizing them into a trusted system, and putting in the time and energy to maintain a system that works naturally for you.

The Anecdote

Several months ago during my routine weekly review, I decided to spend some maintenance time with my email. A colleague gasped and brought to my attention that I had over 120 email folders in Lotus Notes, my software of choice at that time. That number did not include actionable folders or "Waiting For" items, only the simple A-Z list of emails I like to keep around as reference. I spent about 20 minutes cleaning up stale items on that list. Some I could consolidate, others I deleted altogether, and I created new folders I had no idea I needed. The big epiphany came when I gave myself the freedom to create a new folder, simply named after a key individual at work. That one folder became an essential reference area for emails I would not otherwise have been able to find. It was outside the norm for me to name a folder after a person because usually there are more logical ways of sorting (for me). But stretching beyond the usual made a big difference and opened my eyes. Flexibility is magic. If you want to be productive, be flexible.

Your Next Action: What small adjustment to your reference system would make a radical difference for you?

Two Secrets:

1. I'm a keeper. My natural impulse is to "keep" rather than delete information. I'd say David taught me well to discern the difference between keeping for no reason, and keeping key info in a systematic way. The system is so simple that many will mock it: a single list of folders organized from A-Z, ranging from client names to projects, to personal interests.

2. I'm not shy about creating new folders. It may sound unwieldy, but for me it's not. I've become very efficient at filing. I picked up a Lotus Notes trick, which can easily be translated into Outlook or Entourage. When I click "Send and File" I type the first few letters of the folder to automatically highlight and select the folder I want. In addition to having filing skills, you may also feel resistance to creating or deleting many folders. This is because you don't yet trust yourself to maintain the system over time. How many times have you set up a new methodology or committed to a plan and then abandoned it? The cure to this is slowly and steadily building trust in a single simple system.

Further reading from David Allen:
General Reference Filing - free article
The Freedom In Naming Your Stuff - article for members only

More information on productivity coaching with Lisa Peake

I enjoyed these brief and meaningful reflections on the concept of starting small from Kelly Forrister at The David Allen Company.

Start small. Undercommit and overdeliver...Then expand out from there.

David has said it can take 2 years to become "Black Belt" with GTD [Getting Things Done]. Might as well enjoy the road along the way!

How many times in our lives do we avoid projects because they "feel" big, and "seem" overwhelming?

What is overwhelm anyway? The most common definition of the word, originating from 1300's Middle English - to overcome completely in mind or feeling - tells me that we sense there is something bigger than us "out there".

We're right. But is that really something to be afraid of? I am reminded from my experiences in Insight, that taking risks and stepping into a bigger more authentic reality is a key to success.

In the next few days I'll be ramping up to a 28-day professional seminar, which I intend to use to transform myself and the way I facilitate learning for others. It's a major project and I can certainly appreciate overwhelm when I look at the number of time-sensitive projects and actions to complete before and around that. Thankfully I also have the reference point of having just completed perhaps an even more significant project, the final examination for a two years Master's in Psychology.

The completion of this culminating project, which took me over 30 hours, has automatically bumped me up to a higher perspective about my work/play/life. Life is a process; no matter how hard we struggle towards an ultimate goal, there is always more to do and more to learn (until of course there isn't).

Maybe there is no way to "overcome" overwhelm. If there is something bigger than us out/up/in there (at least several billion people on the planet believe so), then it's high time we stop trying to overpower life and instead strive to become bigger to match that which was inside of us all along.

Sometimes it's not easy to call ourselves out, to expect more from ourselves today than we did yesterday. That's why we need leaders to tell us things like, "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." - Emerson

We need inspiration, connection, and motivation to move beyond resistance and into expansion. Sometimes it's a politician on TV, and other times it's your mother. I sit here tonight in total gratitude for the many individuals who have stepped forward to support me through all of my life's adventures. (This is for you.)

Next Action:

Take two minutes to write a note of appreciation to someone who has supported you. You won't regret it.

More to come on:

• Why completion gives you altitude
  
• Natural Review Times vs. The Weekly Review
  
• Gratitude and attitude

"Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity."
- Albert Einstein

In my recent conversation with a highly successful client, I found myself encouraging her to embrace the power of the chaos. Her primary block to enjoying her work was a judgment against her sometimes disorganized work style. She knew she was very capable of being in control and highly focused, but this chaotic trait that showed up from time to time was worrisome. So we went about exploring how she perceived this aspect of herself, and how that contrasted with the self image she found more acceptable.

It's always interesting how different aspects of the human psyche show up, particularly if there's a chance of integrating them more fully into a dynamic sense of self. Studies on sex and gender issues have revealed that women may have their self-esteem buffered by the many hats we are called upon to wear (employee, friend, mother, wife, etc. and so forth). I like to generalize this finding and consider that the more we experience ourselves as successful and capable in any area of life, the more we will see and actively seek out opportunities to be satisfied with our work. Self judgment is often the main block to a fulfilling experience of producing work in the world.

In this coaching, we reinvented this challenge as an opportunity. The reframing of chaos as a strength presented this delightful lesson:

There is freedom in chaos. There is newness, originality, and creativity available to us when we surrender to our chaotic nature and use it as a tool. The human ability to make associations and connections, the inclination to give our ideas the latency they need, the time to set, brew, simmer and sprout, all of this is a natural gift. There is an important difference between embracing the chaos and letting the chaos run you. When the chaos runs you, you'll know it. It looks like overwhelm, lack of efficiency, or confusion. But when you embrace the chaos and play, dance, flirt with the wild and free nature of the human mind, be prepared for greatness.

"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything." - George Lois

For attractive lips , speak words of kindness...

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone...

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older,you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

I recently enjoyed this post from Lynn's Process Notes: When Psychotherapy becomes Executive Coaching. She writes:

Ordinarily (but not always) my patients' Axis II (bonafide mental disorders) dissolve with treatment. Then I become an executive coach. Patients don't want to leave "therapy" even when I tell them there is nothing wrong with them. They like the coach arrangement, the career building or relationship support that I provide for them.

I have often wrestled with the following ethical issue: Should a therapist outline clear therapeutic goals with a client and sever the relationship when they are accomplished? Or should the patient and therapist instead come to a renegotiating point and decide on a new set of goals? I suppose it partly depends on the patient's pocket book. Seems to me the primary distinction between a psychotherapist and a coach is wound up with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, with mental health being more fundamental than the support of a coach (however invaluable that might be).

She continues:

I ask myself: What right do I have to see people who no longer have anything wrong with them?" Plenty is my response to myself. If someone wants to pay out of pocket for the coaching they receive from me, I would feel wrong to dismiss them. Instead, we discuss the situation with clear heads. There is no "EST" [empirically supported psychotherapy] designed for this phase of "psychotherapy" that I engage in, or at least not one I know about.

It is my secret (and now not-so-secret) wish to gather empirical data supporting the treatments used in spiritual psychology so they can make their way into mainstream psychology. I have anecdotal evidence coming out of my ears that these skills and practices change the lives of already healthy people. The scientist in me is hungry for research. Call it a sick affinity for academic papers, if you will, but I attempting to honor my roots and integrate them with the applied studies I am now passionate about. This is one of 48 items on my "someday / maybe" list.

So what do your therapist and your barber have in common?

I often think that currently, the therapist is taking on the role of the small town minister, or the wise old person in a community, a tribe. Maybe the therapist is taking on a role and function that the hair dresser used to fill. In my mother's generation, people went to the hair dresser every week for a shampoo. In their time in the chair, they talk about their families and all of their problems.

Before I started my first full-time job in customer service, a wise person said to me, "People just want to feel heard." Those guiding words, along with my training at USM, have made a permanent improvement in the way I listen to people. One thing I know. Whether it's a hairdresser, executive coach, or licensed psychologist, somewhere in Maslow's triangle, not sure if it's filed under love, belonging, esteem, or self-actualization really, but somewhere in there, people need listeners.

I dedicate this post to all the listeners in my life, with gratitude.

For the last five days, I've been in an all-day meeting with myself, reflecting on the purpose and principles that will guide my expanding business. It's rare that I take time to lift up to this level of altitude, so I'm savoring every minute of it. Yesterday instead of my usual weekly review I did a bi-annual review. The questions that are appropriate for a higher level review are completely different from the questions I rely on for a quick weekly scan and cleanup. It's similar to how you wouldn't think of using paper towels to power wash your entire house. Different tools for different depths of work, and different frequencies of evaluation. The power of coming up to higher altitude at appropriate times is the opportunity to discover deeper and more interesting awarenesses.

In recent months, the word integrity has been churning around in my mind. As I prepare to immerse myself in a 28-day professional seminar, I am reminded of the crucial lessons I learned about integrity and agreements when I first took Insight I. A decade ago, it was fundamentally life changing for me to understand the power of honoring my word with my actions. It felt like a radical shift to know experientially that being in alignment with what I said, even on a microscopic level, had a positive impact on all of my relationships.

As I'm coming close to the completion of my studies at USM, I'm also doing some self-consulting to integrate what I have learned from this tremendous program. The benefit that I expect will be the most lasting and rewarding is my strong and solid intrapersonal relationship, my relationship with myself. I've always been a communicator, a friend, a giver, a daughter, a sister. But to know myself and trust my own guidance, without wavering, is a gift worth the price of admission on its own. Fundamental to establishing this solid sense of myself has been keeping my agreements, and honoring my integrity.

I came across this tidbit on integrity and thought it was worth passing on:

"Sometimes we forget how powerful our words are, and we use them haphazardly or unconsciously, creating expectations that are never fulfilled, leaving disappointment and distrust in our wake.

On an even deeper level, there are promises we may have made to ourselves that we don’t remember because they have slipped into our unconscious..."

Continue reading from DailyOm

I particularly found that last sentence insightful. It's not that we intentionally break our agreements with ourselves out of spite. More likely disregard seeps in when we're not looking. So the key is to keep your eyes open. Be aware and awake enough to know what your agreements are. That's the value I have found in reviewing my action lists, in review my projects, in staying on top of the communications flowing in and out of my inbox and voicemail. All of that meticulous care is in service to knowing what my agreements are so that I can keep them, as pristinely as possible. It's much easier to renegotiate the commitment if you know what it is, objectively and clearly. I've been pleasantly surprised to find how easy it is to maintain my strong sense of self-trust just by being willing to renegotiate, instead of outright breaking an agreement. It takes a simple conversation with oneself to add another brick to the foundation.

Take heart in knowing that your word is powerful, and take care in using the power tool.