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6 things that you can do today that will change your tomorrow

  • Get your inbox down to zero

    This is one of those great tips I learned from the GTD guys, and I always feel much better about life when I manage to do it. The idea is to get all of the email out of your inbox, so you have zero emails in there. That’s right, zero! You take each email and do something with it (try the Do, Defer (add to your task list or calendar), Delegate (add to your delegated task list), Delete idea). I’ve tried all kinds of task managers over the years, and Things is the one I use the most – and can recommend it, although Asana has it our top spot in recent weeks as it allows for great team collaboration.

  • Turn your email off

    One of the best things you can do is have it so you don’t have email automatically sent (or pushed) to your devices, it will free you from the evil email overlord. Manually check your email 1 to 2 times per day. If you are not used to this, you will get the shakes as you withdraw from your email addiction, but you will have so much more time. If you use Outlook and other programmes where email is automatically checked, shut it down and only open it twice a day.Go on, I dare you to see if you can do it.

  • Change the sheets on your bed

    I love getting into a bed with fresh sheets and covers, there are few things in life that feel as good as this. If it were practical, I would do this every day! According to a survey done by Sheila’s Wheels (yes, the Car Insurance company), half-a-million Brits was their sheets only 3 times a year! That’s just wrong. Change them and have a great night’s sleep tonight – you will feel better tomorrow, especially if you have a shower before you get in to bed.

  • Plan a memory making moment

    OK, it is hard for me to admit this, but the wife and I watched Hitch the other night, a perfectly acceptable cheesy flick that took no emotional energy watch – something that we both needed. In the movie, Hitch quotes:

    Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

    So plan one of those moments, and take your camera with you. If you are with people you care about, try leaving your phone at home too.

  • Be generous and give something away

    Make sure that what you give is good stuff too, whether it is money, time or even a compliment to someone. Write the note, make the bank transfer, book the train tickets, pick up the phone or just have fun with a random act of kindness. According to the book 59 Seconds to Happiness, Dr Richard Wiseman tells us that retail therapy is much better for our happiness, if we buy something for someone else:

    Time and again studies show that those who spend a higher percentage of their income on others were far happier than those whose spent it on themselves.

  • Quit counting calories

    Studies have shown that simply reducing the amount of calories you eat will do nothing more than shut down your metabolism as well as make you feel pants. Not all calories are equal, so what’s important is what type of calories you eat. Fat is not necessarily fattening either. Nuts, for example, contain a lot of fat – but the fat is good fat and will help you loose weight. Low fat, high carb “healthy”" snacks actually have the opposite effect. So stop counting calories, and change what calories you eat to feel healthy and loose weight. Want to know more, check out Dr John Briffa’s book: Escape the Diet Trap or even see my video interview with with Dr John Briffa

 

Opportunities multiply as they are seized

Sun Tzu

To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.

Bruce Lee

One Way Sign

The company priorities

In a recent post - we looked at The Huddle, a quick 20 minute company wide meeting that works wonders in keeping everyone up-to-date and involved with the company. In this Huddle, you review the numbers of one or two KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) that are specific to your company’s well being as well as the numbers from the priorities that you have set.

The Priorities that we set are for the period of 3 months, and we have no more than 5. We also rank them, so the first priority is always the key priority for us that quarter.

Each Priority is broken down into a series of projects, and each project is assigned to a member of staff – that project then becomes their responsibility. Each week, they update their progress of that project on to a spreadsheet (this is done in the simple form of percentage complete). The spreadsheet then calculates the total achievement of that project and the corresponding priority.

So, at each meeting we can see how complete a project is, and how complete the priorities are. Each team member is then accountable to everyone else for what he/she has achieved that week.

How to set the priorities

You look at what things are really important for your business over the next three months. It could be sales, developing a new Facebook page, moving office, getting a new computer system – there could be a million-and-one things on your list, but you are only interested in the top 5.

I have done it where this list comes direct from the senior leadership (i.e., me or the board of directors) based on our knowledge and assumptions. In this scenario, we tell the team what the priorities are, and therefore what their specific projects are. The downside to this method of deciding and delegating is that you don’t get as much buy-in from the team as you would hope to get.

So, I have also tried it where the team, as a collective, choose the priorities. This way you get more buy-in, but I have found that the priorities can be a little easy to achieve and also that they aren’t always what’s important to the business at that time.

The best option then is both, where there is guidance from the leadership but with the input from the team. This way you have maximum impact, and maximum buy-in.

Priorities based on Values

One of the things that I am playing around with at the moment, which is a deviation from the norm, is setting priorities based on the company values. Each priority is based on a value and the projects all drive that particular value forward.

The obvious problem here is that it ignores what’s important now. You have to put aside what is in front of you (unless it relates to a value) and focus on values instead, so this changes from a short term focus to a much longer term strategy. You still plan priorities and projects that can be achieved in three months, but you are focusing on culture rather than potential problems or fires that are currently coming your way.

I haven’t got too much empirical evidence yet, but I have to say – on the whole, I much prefer setting priorities on the basis of the company’s values than I do the company’s needs. Maybe I’ll look at merging the two ideas in the future, but for now – I will stick with values.

Set Priorities around your values

If you have more than 5 values, you are a little stuck if you follow the “no-more-than-5-rule”. It is up to you how you deal with this of course. We just look at the values we need to promote that quarter.

I look at each value, and think about what we can do as a company to drive the value over the next three months – is there something pressing or an opportunity coming up that I can use? Talking to the team about this also produces great insight (as does talking to some of your customers).

This idea takes the values from just being a pretty piece of paper on the wall to becoming something that you are creating real action to try and achieve. You are steering your company culture and everyone is a part of achieving it. There is peer accountability for the culture of the company and shared success when the priorities are achieved. For me, this is a real winner and it is working well.

Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well lived.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Half Empty, Half Full. It's all about perspective

Perspective

Mistakes are just proof that you are trying

Mistakes are just proof that you are trying

My beautiful sister-in-law posted an image on Facebook with these words…had to post it for all you Venturers.

The clever guys at Soulpancake have created a video with the help of Kid President.

I think we all need a pep talk. The world needs you to stop being boring! Yeah – you. Boring is easy, everybody can be boring but you’re gooder than that.

It’s worth watching, trust me.

Guys in a huddle

The Huddle

For the last few years, I have been engaging in the Huddle: a quick 20 minute meeting with the team where we review, discuss and plan. We do this every coupe of weeks. It is a practice that started when I read the book The Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish. It is a great way to keep staff informed of what is happening in the company (so they feel a lot more involved) and great way to engage staff in how to move the company forward. All-in-all, I am a big fan of the huddle.

Here’s our typical agenda for it:

  • Update from Everyone.
    This is quick catch up from each person on how they are doing. They are invited to share 2 pieces of good news (which keeps it a lot more positive).
  • Review.
    This is where we look at the numbers: specifically one or two KPIs that are important to the company’s survival (these are different for each company) and up to 5 priorities for that quarter (again a top tip from the book). This review can be done by different members of staff, and whilst they review all numbers – they also spend a little time explaining what is going on with the numbers that they are specifically responsible for.
  • Where are you stuck?
    If anyone is stuck with a problem (including the MD/CEO), they bring it to this group and through it in for a quick brain storming session where all can contribute. This helps staff feel involved but more than that – you get some really interesting, left-field thinking too. The trick here is to make sure that you don’t spend hours on it – but introduce it, get some quick feedback and if more discussion is needed between a few folks, they get together outside of the meeting to discuss.
  • Customer Feedback.
    This is important as different people are told different things from the customers, so it helps that we all hear what people are hearing. If you are doing you job right, this should be mostly positive and moral lifting for everyone.
  • Goals for the week.
    This helps people be accountable to each other for what they are going to do this coming week before the next huddle. The goals should be centred around the priorities.

To make more than just a lot of noise in your business, you’ve got to have rhythm…And the faster you want to grow, the faster you have to pulse.

This format is a slight amendment from the book, but it works well for us that is for sure. We all stay standing (as people are more motivated to talk more to the point when they do), it lasts about 20 minutes and it should be informative, fun but (more importnanly) really beneficial for the company.

talking about short, punchy meetings with a structure, time limits, and a specific agenda. This type of meeting doesn’t leave you feeling bogged down. On the contrary! This type of meeting routine actually sets you free.

(Original Photo: Flickr)

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great

Zig Ziglar