Imagine if you could wake up one morning, snap your fingers, and make life simpler, have more energy, and feel as if you’re getting more accomplished with less stress. I have five simple suggestions to get you started.

First, a little background information. A while back I went on one of my “get organized kicks” and decided to write a “to do” list. I listed everything that I felt responsible for, that I should be finishing, handling, helping with, accomplishing, fixing etc. I ended up with a gigantic list of “stuff” without a motivating purpose. I didn’t even know where to begin, and so far did not feel less stressed or more productive.

After a few days, I set aside the list and began another one. This one was a list of my goals, both personal and professional. My first stab at this wasn’t all that successful. I put things like “Improve financial security” and “have more fun” and “get physically stronger.” This worked for a few days because now every time I was working on something I could tie it to a major goal. Yet something was missing. My goals were all very subjective and I’d never feel as if I had achieved them sufficiently to cross them off my list. My goals had more to do with what I valued, which would never change, rather than specific measurable goals to be achieved within a defined timeframe.

I knew I wouldn’t stick to a complicated time management program, requiring lists upon lists and constant notes put into my calendar. The system I did finally come up with is working well and I believe is a good first step to make life feel
simpler, have more energy, and feel as if you’re getting more accomplished with less stress. Here are my five suggestions.

1. Consider what you value and want to get out of life. It might help to think of the major categories most people care about; family, career, friends, health, faith, charity, education, etc. Once you are content with your list, make an attempt to define at least one goal for each of the values you’ve defined. Make them specific and measurable so you’ll know when they’ve been accomplished.
2. Now consider your “to do” list. These are action items that include everything on your mind that feels unfinished or undone, that you feel should be doing, fixing, or working on. Do the action items match up with your goals? If not, do they at least match up with your values? As you’re going through your busy day, it helps if you are always aware of how your current actions match up with your values and are helping you achieve one of your goals. You’ll find that your “to do” list becomes much more specific and your
   daily activities feel more productive.
3. Do you have a goal without a clear “action item” planned? Example, perhaps you have a goal to lose 20 pounds, or finish your college degree, yet none of your current “to do” items correlate with that goal. If
   so, it’s probably a source of stress for you. There is something that’s important to you that is being ignored. Decide on at least one action item. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just come up with ONE action, the very next step you should take to achieve that goal. Then schedule time to do it.
4. Evaluate your accomplishments regularly. If there is a goal that is getting short-changed, make a point to focus on it soon. I find that tracking my daily accomplishments towards any goal is both motivating and
   keeps me on track. One or two days of accomplishing nothing towards my goals gives me the determination I need to focus, say “no” to others, and get back on track.
5. Be careful about going off course to please other people. You will undoubtedly have people around you who think their goals are more important than yours. You’ll also be faced with the pressure to
   compromise. You may also be the type who just likes helping others. These are all normal aspects of life. But you can end up compromising yourself so much, that yourself is hardly there anymore. Everyone around you will be achieving their goals while you watch.

Stress is often the result of feeling out of control, having unresolved issues nagging in your brain, and feeling like you’re going nowhere. Stress can use up your brainpower and suck your energy dry. You aren’t powerless, you do have choices, and you absolutely can make life simpler, have more energy, and feel as if you’re getting more accomplished with
less stress. Begin with these five goal-oriented suggestions. If you try this system, email info@workforceechoes.com
and let me know how it’s working. I’ll be glad to share my progress as well.

I did some research on the topic of “creative teaching methods” and after about 30 minutes of going through book reviews and articles, I realized that I was already beginning to read the some ideas over and over.  I think the word “creative” is being so overused these days that it’s just no longer creative.  “Regular” seems really close to “creative” in my opinion.   My four children are being taught in strikingly similar ways that I was taught so many years ago.

As a consultant who strives to change organizations, I know that the bigger an organization is, and the more established it is, the harder it will be to implement major change.  I think that’s the challenge with education.  It’s a huge system and even attempting to be innovative with something like the history curriculum will have huge repercussions from parents, the media, legislators, etc.  Change is just so complicated, and so many people’s opinions are involved, that we settle for small incremental change instead.  The problem, in my opinion, is that the world used to change in small incremental ways, so incremental change worked.  Things are different now.  The world is changing at exponential rates and incremental just doesn’t work anymore.

 If we could get rid of all state and federal mandates on education, clear our brains from how things have always been done, and focus only on the talents and skills students will need to be successful in tomorrow’s world, I wonder what we’d come up with!  I don’t think I would have spent last night helping my  8^th grader memorize a list of 20 important historical dates and then realize that my sophomore in college was studying the same dates for his history exam tomorrow.  He studied them in elementary and middle school too.  I studied them too but would fail the test today, unless I could use Google.  If we could just rethink “creative” I believe we’d find a better way to prepare these kids for the future.  Also, if a new way of teaching could prevent me from having to learn about transient and intransient verbs tonight, I’d be really happy.  My 6^th grade son is struggling with that right now so I have my exciting evening planned.

We had a new server installed a few weeks ago. It was supposed to resolve all our computer problems. It hasn’t. It resolved some, and created others. Now a simple thing like junk mail seems to be a problem that cannot be resolved. I’ve complained about it several times, and still our technology consultant does not have it fixed. Each morning I wake up, take a shower, bring my kids to school, come home, open my computer, and delete about a dozen emails advertising giant blueberry plants, and about half a dozen emails trying to sell giant tomato plants. Then there are a few assorted other ones. No, I’m not making this up. It’s way too irritating to just make up. I have added each and every one of these giant blueberry and giant tomato plant emails to my junk mail list. Yet, the next day begins the same. Get up. Take a shower. Bring kids to school. Delete giant blueberry and tomato plant messages.

Yes this is related to business. I’m getting there. Many of us have a tendency to give up trying to fix little irritating problems. We might try a few solutions, but we eventually just feel like it isn’t worth the effort. The incredibly irritating thing starts to just become a normal part of your day. Can you relate? Think about those annoying problems at work. Bill never does his share of the work. Susan never shows up on time. Paul is always conveniently busy when a customer needs help. Ignoring the problems just starts to seem like the better choice. Then we’re surprised when our work environment is unfriendly, unproductive, and just plain irritating. When problems are ignored, they just grow and take over the environment. My suggestion is to pick one of those irritating problems, and figure out how to resolve it. Don’t give up. Use our performance problem checklist available at the link below. It might help!

http://www.workforceechoes.com/articles/performance-improvement-checklist.html

I’m going to call my computer consultant now. Good luck with YOUR problems.