Archive - Sep 2007

We've all been there: Overwhelmed with the day-to-day aspects of life - incoming stuff that's relatively easy to handle - we focus on it, excluding the "big things." After a while it feels like the trivial many have sunk the vital few (from the Pareto principle - see Koch's book The 80/20 Principle for an in-depth discussion).

Or: Ways a broken thumb changes your perspective

OK, my doctor told me Mountain biking is dangerous (told to me while he and I were riding, incidentally) but until this weekend I'd been lucky - cuts and bruises, but nothing very serious. But Friday I had a nasty spill crossing a creek, and (with apologies to Mr. Rogers - who we loved) Can you say Avulsion fracture [1]?

The good news is a) xrays are all stored digitally now, so my Flickr account should be updated soon, b) it doesn't appear that surgery will be necessary, and c) I've learned a few things:

• Mountain biking is dangerous. I'll remember that next time I ride (sometime in November, sadly).

As you know, I'm working on being a top personal productivity consultant. In addition to absorbing every related book I can lay my hands on [1], I've been developing my networking skills [2], building my LinkedIn network, and asking smart, successful people how they got to where they are (and where I want to be).

To accelerate this, I'll be running a blog series interviewing the world's top productivity consultants, and I'd like your help. My goals? Learn from the experts (productivity methods and business tips), form connections, and get inspired.

From you I'd love to know:

• Who would you like to hear about?
• What questions would you ask?
• How do you suggest I make contact with them?
• Have you or a colleague worked with one of them?
• How do I convince them to participate?

As I continue to work with organizations at the individual "key talent" level, I've had some opportunities to expand the impact of the work to the next level up - the team. As I've said earlier [1], I'm very committed to getting the work I teach to stick at - a real challenge - and I'm motivated to learn new ways to do this.

In that spirit, here are a dozen or so ideas I shared recently with an executive and her team to continue adopting, sustaining, and deepening their practice. I hope you find them helpful.

Company policy opportunities/possibilities

At the company level, consider these opportunities:

• Support members' scheduling daily blocks (1-2 hours) for processing & organizing.
• Do the same for weekly reviews (pick a time that's works for most people).