organize

Timeboxing Organize to Win

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

Timeboxing is a time management technique that involves breaking down your workday into specific, manageable chunks (usually between 30 minutes to 2 hours) during which you focus on completing one task or a group of related jobs. Here are some steps to implement timeboxing into your daily routine:

  1. Brain dump: Start your day by writing down all the tasks you need to accomplish. This will help you organize your thoughts and prioritize your work.
  2. Categorize and Prioritize the tasks based on their urgency and importance. Assign a priority level to each job, ranging from high to low.
  3. Estimate Time: Estimate the time required for each task. Be realistic and try to overestimate if you need more clarification.
  4. Set Timeboxes: Assign a timebox to each task based on your priority list and time estimates. Ensure that you allocate sufficient time for each job, keeping in mind your work pace.
  5. Focus on the Task: During each timebox, focus solely on the task. Avoid distractions and stay focused until the time is up.
  6. Take Breaks: Take a short break between each timebox to recharge your energy levels.
  7. Review: Once you have completed a timebox, take a few minutes to review your progress. Reflect on what worked well and what didn’t.
  8. Adapt: Adjust your schedule as needed. For example, if you find specific tasks taking longer than expected, reassign them to a later timebox or allocate more time.

Implementing timeboxing into your daily routine requires discipline and practice. However, it can help you become more productive and efficient over time. Start small, with just a few timeboxes daily, and gradually increase the number as you become comfortable with the process.

apple business cellphone communication
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Increase Your Value

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

Activity and productivity are often interchangeable, but they are two different things. Understanding the difference between the two can help you be more effective and efficient in your personal and professional life.

Activity refers to the things you do or the tasks you complete. It can be anything from responding to emails, attending meetings, exercising, or even taking breaks. Essentially, activity is any action you take.

Productivity, however, refers to the results you achieve from your activities. It measures how effectively you use your time and resources to accomplish your goals.

photo of two person using their gadgets
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

So, while activity is essential, it is only meaningful if it leads to productivity. So, for example, if you spend hours responding to emails but don’t get any meaningful work done, then you are engaging in activity but not necessarily being productive.

Increasing productivity, it is essential to focus on the most critical tasks that will impact your goals the most. As a result, you may have to say no to specific activities or delegate tasks to others. It also involves being mindful of how you use your time and being efficient in your approach to assignments.

One way to improve productivity is to use time management techniques such as prioritizing tasks, setting deadlines, and breaking larger tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. It is also helpful to eliminate distractions and minimize multitasking, as this can help you stay focused and avoid wasting time on unnecessary activities.

In summary, while activity is any action you take, productivity measures the results you achieve from those actions. So you can increase productivity, it is essential to focus on the most important tasks and eliminate distractions while also being mindful of how you use your time. By understanding the difference between activity and productivity, you can be more effective and efficient in your personal and professional life.

Give Up or Win!

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

You can give up or you can breakthrough! Choose wisely.

The difference between winning, change, or a continuation of the same. Don’t give up! Faith in all that you do will see you through the tough times when you want to give up. Giving up comes in the form of emotional pain.

I call it kicking your own ass! 

We are conditioned from a very young age to avoid pain. Our brain will have us run from pain. Here is an example of overcoming emotional torture.

Prayer, God, Spiritual

Marathon runners hit what they call the wall. This happens late in the race when your body is so fatigued your brain begins to say you need to stop NOW. Runners say they feel as though they are hurting their bodies beyond measure.

Yet studies have found this is all in mind. That if you can break through this process, on the other side, you complete the Marathon. Bodies are not injured, it’s simply fatigued that your brain registers as pain.

Humans can see themselves through tremendous emotional pain. You genuinely do not know what you can take until you try. More often than not, giving up too soon, when achievement is just one more step away. Success can take one action further than most are willing to do.

Yes, you will have to work through emotional pain to achieve real success in anything you set out to make. Moreover, this is worth your investment, time, and energy. Stop losing and learn to win. Achieve more than you dreamt of!

How you say?

Learning to recondition yourself, your auto-response to emotional pain. This takes time and your fullest attention. 

  1. Look at the state of your home or office. Is it cluttered? Is it clean? Clean is good, cluttered is bad will talk about that. The state of your mind runs congruent with the state of your account. East start, get your home and office in order! 
  2. Organize your life to win. In my book, we talk about activity vs. productivity. When you fully understand the difference, this is the secret sauce. For example, the action is social media, gabbing, etc. Productivity: net a result. Work on a project to completion in a set time. 
  3. Take care of Body, Mind & Soul. Eat healthy, walk, get in the sunshine. Take time to unplug from social media (most significant waste of your time) phones, get outside and leave the phone at home or in the car. Unplug! 
  4. Meditate and pray. During your meditation, see yourself as you would love to live. It’s not about fancy cars, mansions, it’s about being present in a moment. Success will come if you can actually be present in a moment. Giving full attention to the tasks at hand. See yourself and pray to God for wisdom. Not possessions. 
  5. Learn. Simple enough. Make time every day to broaden your mind. Watch videos, take a master class, attend night school. Do something that brings a better you to this world. 

Five quick things to get started.

None of this will make any difference if you don’t follow-through. This means set out reminders for 1 Year. Exercise, make time for an entire year to exercise. One hour per day for 365 days = 365 hours of training, education, family. It’s time to organize to win in life.

For the “I don’t have time, crowd.” Let me piss you off here and say YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TIME, AND I CAN PROVE IT. I can also HELP!

Give me ONE day of honest assessment:

  • Track your day literally every 30 minutes make a note of what you have done in this space of time. Journal your day as close to the times as you can. 
  • Be HONEST (Goofed off, social media, personal stuff, bathroom breaks) Chronicle it all HONESTLY. 

Then with all the time, you’ve wasted doing junk. Add that number up and times it by your work weekdays.

I would challenge you to fill 1 hour with complete focus. NO phone, no email, nothing but real production. As you can begin to focus like this on daily tasks, complete one move on (oh, by the way, multi-taskers the 90’s called they want you to come home).

Laser-sharp focuses on the task at hand. Start and complete. It’s much harder than you might think to fill an entire hour with PRODUCTION.

Now you must begin to realize the enemy; your head will not want to let go of your goof-off time smoothly. You will start “this doesn’t work” “its too hard” will fill your head with crap. How bad do you want to win? Bad enough to not kick your own ass???

This is why we set out a year for changes in our life. You want lasting change? Do something that produces a result religiously for one hour per day for an entire year. This time next year, you will not know yourself as you do today. You will have achieved much, my dear friends.

Two of my books are great starts:

Organize your Life to Win

 

Christian book, Life Change, Organize

 

Tying it All Together

book, eBook, paperback book

Investment in Your Own Success vs. Sacrifice

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

The buzzwords “what sacrifice are you willing to pay?” Is your life of happiness, joy, abundance really a sacrifice? 

Throw the word sacrifice out the window and replace it with; Investment in my own success!

After thinking about this a lot. What I have come to learn is I am not making any sacrifice in my life. To some degree in my life, I have since you hear over-and-over again. Sacrifice, what you are prepared to do? What I am sure of is I am ready to make an investment in my own success.

joy, happiness, success

Some of you will be saying the sacrifice I have to make is time. I am going to have to work night & day to complete my dreams. Work weekends, never having a life. Horse Manure!

Making an investment in your own success also includes time. For those of you that say I don’t have time, I suppose you don’t understand how to manage time properly. Don’t scream! Here me out.

Activity vs. Productivity
You can be busy as hell all day long. What did you accomplish? Learn to fill your day with productivity. Organize is the key! 

When you can learn the difference between these to words, time will begin to heal itself. Here are some examples that will help you get started:

  1. Plan your day down to the hour. Have set activities from hour-to-hour that net a result. Tasks.
  2. Learn to limit social media to downtimes NOT during activity hours. Seeing what your sister is making her kids for dinner can wait. Social media is the biggest killer of productive time.
  3. During productive hours shut off the world for a bit to focus. Setting boundaries for idle chitchat is okay. Let friends and family know you will be off the air from this time to that. Emergencies are obviously the exception to the rule. “Mom, can I have $20 to go to the mall can wait for an hour.”

Fill your day with productive time, not wasted time. The three items above give you the idea.

If you feel like you have to give up something to be successful, you need to rethink your plan. For many, it’s time with family. Dedicate times for date nights, time with children, school functions, and kids firsts. Organize your time. Calendar in your day!

calendar, organize, details

Typically, when you organize your day. Take out distractions best you can. Finding twenty hours a week in wasted time is an average.

When you work this out, you can have time for family, social, and activities outside your career. Making an investment in your life includes family. Make times to be present for spouse and children.

You will be more productive when you organize your life out to include growth. Which leads me to something many are doing, and I just began.

Begin your day at 4:00 A.M. 

Before you scream, hear me out! 

Most folks get up between 6 am, and 7 am to get ready for work. So let’s assume for a minute you get up and six. You have the same 24 hours that we all get. Break this down:

24 hrs. – 8 hr work day = 16 hr left – 2 hr commute = 14 hr left – 6 hr to sleep = 8 hr. 

You have Eight odd hours to fit in time for family, and investments in your own success. This can fluctuate a bit from day-to-day, but overall, this is how hours in a day can break down.

You cannot become successful without organizing each day. Activity is just that activity which produces nothing typically. Productivity produces purpose and results.

When faced with the dilemma that you’re sacrificing things in life, that’s really no life at all. I am not suggesting that sometime you may have to make a tough choice. What I am saying for sure that that will always be the exception NOT the rule.

Organize down so the contingency has a contingency. Have the discipline to follow your daily tasks to the letter. Try to never leave a task for tomorrow. If you have to make sure to knock it out first thing, before starting your routine when possible.

Change does take time and you will have setbacks. Just keep grinding forward. Even when you see NO way, believe me, a way will be made if you stay in faith.

What investment in your own success will you make today?

Comments or questions:

 

Today, Today, Today, NOT Yesterday or Tomorrow, TODAY!

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

“Today is the only day. Yesterday is gone.”–John Wooden

Learning to live in the moment is a bit easier said than done. However, truth be told we don’t have yesterday and tomorrow is not known. Oh, sure we have to plan ahead of time.

Being present in the moment is in my mind is entirely focused on the tasks before me. Not worrying about what happened yesterday but total attention to the task-at-hand. Each day should be lined out with specific tasks that produce a result. Busy work is just that busy work.

prayer, God, Happiness

To make a real change in our lives, we must produce a result from our daily routine. If you organize the day so that you have actionable tasks that deliver a measurable effect. Amazing things will begin to happen. For example, I enjoy writing more in the morning than at any other time. So as a task, I set aside specific times of the morning to write. Not stopping until I am finished.

Moving onto the next task only when completing the current. If possible, don’t leave off one job before you finish the flow. Situations change but stay on task as much as possible. It takes to discipline yourself. That change comes with the right practice.

What happens to most of us is we get caught up in things that take away from what you can do right now. Worried about what is coming or concerned about what has happened. If we’re going to fix anything the work has to come first. Sitting and worrying gets nothing done.

Don’t perpetuate problems solve them. Solving them is being present at the moment focused on what can be done NOT what has been done!

Comments or Questions:

smile, happy, joy