The 6 Apps that keep my business (& life) running

"What programs & apps do YOU use to stay on top of it all?"

I get this question all the time.

For me to really adopt a new technology as a favorite and trusted part of my routine, it has to do three things:

• It has to increase my sense of Peace about my work, by helping me reduce worry or stress.
• It has to help me stay Productive by encouraging me to focus on the most important stuff.
• It has to help me Perform at my best -- it can't be so complex it slows me down.

Here are the 6 programs and apps I use daily to keep things running:

• Trello (Task and Project Management).  Trello is an elegant and visual platform for task, project and list management.  I like it because at its simplest, it is like an electronic version of a white board, or of stickies on a wall. But it has much, much more to offer -- sharing, tagging, checklists, attachments... it is remarkably robust.

• Self Control (Distraction Blocker).  Self Control is software for Mac that allows you to assign certain websites to a personal blacklist and then block your own access to them for a particular period of time. I use it for blocking Facebook and Twitter when I need to concentrate - whether for 20 minutes or 8 hours.

• Coffitivity (Focus Enhancer).  If you, like me, find you are incredibly productive in the noisy din of a coffee shop, Coffitivity may revolutionize your experience of work at your desk.  Visit the website or start up the app and you will be treated to the familiar background noise of a coffee shop -- soft conversations, clatter of dishes, espresso machine, laughter.  I've been known to use it in coffee shops when nearby patrons are too loud for my liking.

• Evernote (Digital Capture & Organization Tool).  Evernote has a million and one uses, but I use it as a digital filing cabinet.  Into Evernote I throw articles, recipes, business brainstorms, books I want to read, vacation ideas, and a million other things.  When I need to find something, the easy tagging system and the powerful search make it a piece of cake.

• Streak (Gmail enhancer).  Streak's main selling point is that it provides CRM (customer relationship management) within Gmail. But I use it for two of its additional features:  1) I can write an email now and schedule it to send later and 2) I can save "snippets" of canned text to insert into emails rather than retyping the same info over and over (for example, I've created a snippet containing my conference call number, so I don't have to go searching for that every time I want to include it in a message to someone).

• TripIt (Travel Organizer).  I'm increasingly on the road and travel documents can be hard to keep at hand.  TripIt organizes all of my reservation info (flights, hotel, car rental) and anything else I want on my itinerary in one place.  To add something, I simply forward the reservation email to plans@tripit.com and it shows up in my itinerary.  I can also easily share itineraries with loved ones.

What are your favorite programs & apps for maintaining your productivity, performance and peace of mind?

How Work Flexibility Can Help You Maximize Your Leadership

 

I recently guest-blogged for 1 Million for Work Flexibility about how flexible work can serve as part of a leader's toolkit. Here's what I wrote:

In my role as a leadership coach to nonprofit professionals, there is one challenge I hear from my clients over and over, and it goes something like this: “I am so busy putting out fires that I don’t have time to focus on the really important stuff—planning, big picture thinking and developing new ideas.” For leaders, having the time and space to connect the dots and think big is not just a luxury—it’s crucial to personal and organizational success.

So how can leaders create this much-needed spaciousness?  

[Read the rest at WorkFlexibility.org]

photo credit: thinkstockphotos.com

3 Minutes to More Effective Leadership

If you could improve your leadership in just three minutes a day, would you make the time to do it? What if this magic 3 minutes consisted of doing... pretty much nothing at all? Sound too good to be true? In leadership, our ability to connect with people and align them towards common goals is a function, in large part, of our leadership presence.

Presence is how we show up. It's the quality of our be-ing (as opposed to the content of our "do-ing"). In any given moment, our presence may be grounded and focused -- or checked-out and scattered.

When the quality of our presence is high, we are more inspiring to others, more connected to ourselves and more effective in our leadership.

But back to those 3 minutes. It is impossible to cultivate presence if we never pause -- if we're always rushing from meeting to meeting, tied to our smart phones, and feeling forever behind.

The simple act of sitting in silence with our breath, when practiced over time, can radically shift our presence -- even if we do it for only 3 minutes a day. The act of sitting is simple (but not always easy):

• Find a seat on the floor or in a chair where you can sit comfortably but remain upright and alert.
• Close your eyes and start to notice your body, in particular the places where it connects with the floor and/or the chair.
• Tune into your breath, following each inhale and exhale.
• Whenever your mind wanders, gently direct your attention back to your breath. (This will happen many times. Returning your attention to your breath is what you are practicing here, over and over.)
• Continue this for 3 minutes or more (you may want to set a timer before you start).
• When time is up, slowly open your eyes, start to move your body, and return to your surroundings.

Immediately after sitting you may find that you feel calmer, more grounded, and less frazzled. Over time, your attention, patience, and ability to empathize may significantly shift for the better. (I know I've seen these effects, and science agrees.)

If you could make time to sit like this daily, how would it impact your leadership presence? Give it a try, and let me know.

Five Questions for New Year's Reflection

5 Questions for New Year's Reflection

Want to do some New Year's reflection but not sure where to start?  Here are 5 sets of powerful questions to get you going.  You can sit with these in silence, write or draw about them in your journal, mull them over on a long walk, or share answers in conversation with a partner or friend.

ONE

Looking back over the past year, when were you at your best? Think about moments when you felt most alive and engaged, perhaps joyful or particularly purposeful.  What threads of similarity connect these moments?

TWO

What has changed within you this past year?  What is just beginning to change within in you now?

THREE

As you end this year, what's weighing you down?  How can you shift your experience or perception of that which is weighing you down?

FOUR

Imagine that it is twelve months from now, and you've had a fantastic, fulfilling year.  What does that look like?  What did you do -- and how did you have to be -- to get to this result?

FIVE

In the coming year, what are the critical areas for your learning and growth?  What are your first steps for attending to these areas?

Are there other questions that help you to reflect at this time of year?  Share them in the comments below.

Wishing you peace and joy in the new year!

4 Shovels to Dig Out from an Avalanche of Work

 

You've go deadlines looming, events approaching, and new opportunities popping up at every corner.  Can a crisis or two be far behind?

When you're buried in work it can be hard to see a way out.  Here are 4 shovels you can use to dig yourself out of overload:

DELEGATE

What can you get off your plate by delegating it to someone else?  Think not only about the big projects that are taking up most of your time, but of the smaller routine maintenance tasks that eat away around the edges of your day.

DEFER

What can you put off by a week, a month, or a quarter?  Here is where you need to test some assumptions.  Just because you've been proceeding on the notion that you need to launch the rebranding effort in 2013 doesn't mean it has to be so.  Could it be launched in early 2014?  Can this week's brainstorming session be put off until next month, when 8 out of 10 deadlines have passed?

DELAY

Delay is the less-proactive version of defer.  When you delay, you say (to yourself) -- I will get to this, but I will do it on my timeframe because I've got more pressing matters to deal with.  You say (to others) -- I am happy to help with this, and I will get back to you next week. Delaying is an effective tactic for dealing with demanding external partners who want things from you that aren't central to your primary work.  You don't have to be a jerk about it -- but you also don't have to stop what you're doing to attend to other people's requests.

ELIMINATE

What can you get rid of all together?  Look: you only have so many hours in the day, so many team members on your staff, so much funding and so much work you can do before your personal relationships, sleep and morale begin to suffer. What is off-mission, a time suck, not worth the time it takes do? Who would you need to engage in conversation to be able to let go of one or more projects on your plate?

Your 4 shovels:

• DELEGATE
• DEFER
• DELAY
• ELIMINATE

And don't forget to breathe.

What are your tried-and-true methods for negotiating a heavy volume of work?  How do you dig out?