Ways to Keep Productivity Soaring Throughout the Summer Season

With the hours of daylight super long this time of year, it's the perfect time to take steps toward boosting productivity as you enjoy this sensational season...

List out your goals. It's only by knowing what you want to accomplish that you can best integrate all elements of your life for your greatest fulfillment and summer productivity. Therefore, take a few moments to jot down all your must-do activities, projects and tasks for this season. Think of it like a bucket list but take into account your goals for work, home, society as well as your self-care via mind, body and spirit. Once everything is culled into one place, it'll be so much easier to assign time for each and work through your checklist.

Calendar the craziness! Line up calendars for the months of July, August and September on your wall so you can see everything at a glance. These might be wall-hanging paper or dry-erase calendars; the key is to have all three months visible at once. Then, add vacation details for you and your team members, holiday celebrations, impending deadlines and personal or family commitments, including swim meets and camp registrations alike. Include all elements of your life, considering a different color for each bucket. When you know what is coming, you can more proactively invest your time in achieving all of your desired results for each area of life and address "all the things" that matter most for the life you want to craft to achieve your highest priorities.

Establish your non-negotiables from the get-go. As summer schedules tend to become a little more erratic than normal, you and your team need to know which items have less flexibility than others. For me, I absolutely must maintain my weekly strategy session and daily wrap-up, but the good habits that keep each individual on track productively will vary from person to person. Do you expect your team members to have certain hours during which they always work in the office rather than operate remotely? Is there an expectation for how team members should request vacation time or notify the rest of the team about a hiccup related to impending deadlines, which can be especially vital with varying schedules for summer vacations? This would be a good time to communicate leadership's expectations to everyone. Be as clear, concise and transparent as you can. Then, when looking at your personal commitments, which can't be shifted as they help you energize, stay centered and maintain some semblance of sanity? Make sure those are highlighted on the calendars you've hung on your wall and communicate their importance to those who can help you keep them scheduled. Is it getting outside daily or going to the pool? Maybe it's a daily yoga session or movement? Whatever you need, be sure to ask for and commit to those fuel sources.

Focus your efforts on individual activities or tasks, not projects. It's not possible to check a project off your to-do list in one sitting. "Plan a party" is not a single action item; instead, there are many actions that make up that project. As you are mapping out the next three months, take time to break larger goals into smaller, bite-sized action items that can be completed as individual tasks. Make sure these are actions that move you forward with regards to goals in the areas of your life that matter most, avoiding the "shoulds" so you focus on your priorities. Start each task with a verb so as to fuel action, break each task down to as simple of a function as possible, estimate how long each action item will take to complete so you readily know those tasks taking 10 or 30 minutes, and assign a deadline for each task's completion. It is only in the instances that we assign a "when" for each "what" to be accomplished that we get more done so move your "someday" tasks to a specific date and time. Your future self will thank you for this emphasis on crafting the life you want to live.

Invest some time to reflect inward. With erratic schedules during summer, many companies have fewer meetings that would otherwise be held at normal intervals; this can be the ideal time to review and reset some of your organization's key elements. When was the last time your team updated its mission, vision, values, goals, processes and workspace organization? If it has been awhile, block out time during the dog days of summer to look them over, adjust as needed and, thereby, boost productivity for what really matters most. Maybe you'll want to freshen up clients' experiences, update what messages you are conveying across all mediums and put yourself in the client's shoes. Further, this can be an ideal time for a personal audit, where you assess what you have learned and achieved thus far this year, what priorities need attention in the coming months and what "someday" actions need to be scheduled so they move from to-do to done. Do your goals for work, home, community or self-care need to be adjusted, and how can you realign your actions to focus on achieving each?

Make time for fun and frivolity. If you block out time to truly enjoy the season, you'll be less distracted by what you are missing when you are focusing intently on getting things done. Brainstorm what cool things you can do to dive into summer enjoyment; then, once you've blocked off time for those activities, your mind will be less likely to drift from working towards wondering when you'll actually be able to celebrate summer fun. Plus, when you are taking time to enjoy all this season offers, you can truly take a break from everything else since you've planned for when those other goals will be addressed, boosting productivity overall.

What steps can you take today to get the ball rolling? With whom can you partner to hold each other accountable in creating your plan and, then, following through on that plan, even as things might need to be tweaked and your flexibility might get tested?

Make Summer More Productive

Summer officially kicks off today, and you might be feeling a little more sluggish, laid back or easy going than during other seasons. When someone mentions summer, many folks' minds drift to being on vacation, hanging out by the pool or lounging on the beach with toes in the sand. Alternatively, you might reflect immediately on the rising temperatures and how difficult it is to concentrate in the heat. Yet, there are steps we all can take to make summer more productive. Here are a few ways to boost productivity this summer:

1. Calendar the craziness. Line up calendars for the next three months along your wall so you can see everything coming up at a glance. These might be wall-hanging paper calendars or dry-erase calendars; the key is to have the next three months visible at once. Then, add vacations for you and your team members, holiday celebrations, impending deadlines and family commitments, including swim meets and camp registrations alike. Include all elements of your life (work, home, community and self), considering different colors for each of those buckets. When you know what is coming, you can more proactively invest your time in achieving all of your desired results for each area of life.

2. Establish your non-negotiables from the get-go. As summer schedules tend to become a little more erratic than normal, you and your team need to know which items have less flexibility than others. For me, I absolutely must maintain my weekly strategy session and daily wrap-up, but the good habits that keep each individual on track productively will vary from person to person. Do you expect your team members to have certain hours during which they always work in the office rather than operate remotely? Is there an expectation for how team members should request vacation time or notify the rest of the team about a hiccup related to impending deadlines, which can be especially vital with varying schedules for summer vacations? This would be a good time to communicate leadership's expectations to everyone. Be as clear, concise and transparent as you can.

3. Focus your efforts on tasks, not projects. It's not possible to check a project off your to-do list in one sitting. "Plan a party" is not a single action item; instead, there are many actions that make up that project. As you are mapping out the next three months, take time to break larger goals into smaller, bite-sized action items that can be completed as individual tasks. Start each task with a verb so as to fuel action, break each task down to as simple of a function as possible, estimate how long each action item will take to complete so you readily know those tasks taking 10 or 30 minutes, and and assign a deadline for each task's completion.

4. Invest some time to reflect inward. With erratic schedules during the summer, many companies have fewer meetings that would otherwise be held at normal intervals; this can be the ideal time to review and reset some of your organization's key elements. When was the last time your team updated its mission, vision, core values, annual goals, processes and workspace organization? If it has been awhile, block out time during the dog days of summer to look them over and adjust as needed. Maybe you'll want to freshen up your customers' experiences, update what messages you are conveying across all mediums and put yourself in the client's shoes. Further, this can be an ideal time for a personal audit, where you assess what you have learned and achieved thus far this year, what priorities need attention in the coming months and what "someday" actions need to be scheduled so they move from to-do to done. Do your goals for work, home, community or self need to be adjusted, and how can you realign your actions to focus on achieving each?

5. Make time for fun and frivolity. If you block out time to truly enjoy the season, you'll be less distracted by what you are missing when you are focusing intently on getting things done. The "Fun Summer Activities Checklist" from Real Simple and "31 Totally Free Things to Do This Summer" from PureWow are excellent places to brainstorm what cool things you can do to dive into summer enjoyment; then, once you've blocked off time for those activities, your mind will be less likely to drift from working towards wondering when you'll actually be able to celebrate summer fun. Plus, when you are taking time to enjoy all this season offers, you can truly take a break from everything else since you've planned for when those other goals will be addressed.

What steps do you take to make summer more productive? Will you be implementing or attempting any of these here?

Top Ten Tools to Be Healthier

Organize for Success® Turns 10 

In honor of 10 years of business for Organize for Success®, I will be posting a "top 10" list to this blog each day through Wednesday, May 31st. Each Sunday, my team will randomly select from those who commented on the prior week's "top 10" blog posts for a gift card giveaway and free download of one eBook via OrganizeForSuccess.biz/shop The grand prize for celebrating Organize for Success, LLC's 10 years will be awarded on Thursday, June 1st, randomly selecting from all those who commented on any of the month's "top 10" blog posts as well as those who have subscribed to my eNewsletter for a winner to receive downloads of all 5 eBooks, a pass for my Stress and Time Management online video course as well as a 60-minute video productivity consultation.

Rising temperatures often encourage healthier habits. As this is Memorial Day, I thought you'd want some tech tools to make it easier to adopt healthier habits. Here are my top 10 such tools:

10. App to Suggest Healthy Recipes - The ShopWell app is a great place to start as it helps you better understand the nutrition in what foods you are already eating or evaluate a product you are interested in eating while at the grocery store. Fooducate offers healthy alternatives to foods you love and empowers you to achieve your goals with recipes to eat better. With Foodfully, track what food you have in the fridge and craft your meals around what is closest to spoiling. By using a Real Plans subscription, you can choose from recipes suggested for your family's size, schedule and preferences or import your own recipes. Through a gatheredtable subscription, you can create customized weekly meal plans from the healthy recipes provided to meet every taste or diet requirement; then, create your grocery list from the indicated ingredients and choose if you'd like to schedule delivery of the necessary groceries. Or be inspired with recipes on Allrecipes, BigOven, Epicurious, Food Network, Real Simple and Yummly.

9. App to Save on Supplies for Recipes - Flipp lets you easily browse flyers for the brands you prefer, clip whatever you want directly to your shopping list and highlight deals that will save you even more; based on advertised prices and coupons, you will know how much your total will be before even entering the store. Every time you shop, Wallaby tells you which of your credit cards will maximize rewards, minimize interest and take advantage of special bonuses; plus, this tool tracks your spending data, alerting you to suspicious activity or increased spending. Both Ibotta and Shopkick will reward you for shopping with cash or gift cards, and Slice Drops will securely access your e-receipts to automatically request a refund whenever the price drops for something you bought.

8. Grocery Delivery Service - Sometimes, a hurdle to eating healthier is getting out to buy fresh fruits, veggies and lean proteins. If you shop at Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lowes Foods, Publix or Safeway, your local grocery store might already offer the option of home delivery. Yet, the options don't end there. If you are in a market that has launched with Shipt or Instacart, there are additional options; plus, many metro areas have added Amazon Prime Now service, where your groceries can be delivered for free within about 2 ours of placing your order if you are a Prime subscriber. Alternatively, consider a concierge service; here in Raleigh, choose from Errand Girl, Metro's Other Woman or Sweeps.

7. Hand & Stone Mobile - Whether to alleviate certain areas of discomfort or rejuvenate from everyday stresses, expert massage therapists offer a service that is of huge benefit when aiming to live a healthier life. With Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa's mobile app, you can find a spa, book an appointment or simply learn more about massage services, which include Swedish, Deep Tissue, Sports, Hot Stone, Trigger Point and Pre-Natal options.

6. Sleep Cycle or Pzizz - The Sleep Cycle alarm clock tracks your sleep patterns and wakes you up during your light sleep, which leads to awaking more naturally rested instead of waking during REM cycles. On the other hand, Pzizz allows you to fall asleep quickly, stay asleep more easily and wake up feeling refreshed.

5. App to Suggest Workouts - I'm a big fan of music so I like how Fit Radio pairs your workout to the perfect playlist for pace, goals and workout specifics. The Nike+ Training Club App lets you challenge yourself with 100+ workouts from Nike Trainers and athletes, including 15-minute options, so you can create the plan that works best for your needs. The Yoga Wake Up app delivers yoga audio sequences you can do from bed for an easier transition from sleep to be awake and alert. If you want to get started running, follow the Couch to 5K running plan to be ready for a 5K race within 2 months. If you already like to run or walk, Runkeeper provides a community with whom to set goals, track your workouts and stay motivated to see ongoing progress. Zova communicates with you as your personal trainer, combining all your workouts to five you a single score for staying on track to success. Additionally, there are plenty of subscription options you can access from anywhere via your mobile device. Tone It Up provides free, daily workouts and fitness tips. Aaptiv combines the motivating instruction of a personal trainer with playlists that match your preferences to keep you going. Pear Sports uses Performance Enhancing Audio Research to put a trusted voice in your ear that goes beyond tracking your workout data so you can make sense of your results, adjusting as needed for your goals. YogaGlo offers yoga and meditation classes online for all experience levels, styles, length of class, teacher preferences and interest.

4. Meditation App - The top-rated app for making mediation simpler is often Calm, which gives each day a keyword to fuel your meditations towards your goals for breathing, sleeping and boosting overall relaxation. The Headspace app teaches you to meditate in 10 minutes a day over a 10 day stretch. Then, designed by a team of Harvard psychologists and meditation experts, Simple Habit meditations are 5 minutes and personalized for all kinds of life situations, which more easily empowers continuing this new skill. Both the Buddhify and OMG I Can Meditate apps work cross-platform to provide meditation options for any location or experience, tracking your results each time your designated device is connected to the Internet. A subscription to the Gaia app lets you stream over 7,000 exclusive videos, all of which are designed to boost your consciousness. Finally, the suite of applications from Meditation Oasis offers various options designed to meet many different goals.

3. Workout App for Folks with Limited Time - Time is a very limited resource, and you might need to adjust your tools for getting moving based off the amount of time you have available. Seven offers short workouts that will dramatically improve your well-being using nothing more than a chair, a wall or your own body weight. Likewise, 7 Minute Workout Challenge app is another app designed with your busy life in mind, providing a different portfolio of workouts that provide results when you are short on time. Sworkit offers fitness options that match a wide variety of interests, including options that are as short as 7 minutes.

2. Sweat - The largest female fitness community offers resistance, cardio and recovery workouts to be done anytime and anywhere, like 28-minute workouts that fit into super-busy schedules. Plus, it offers meal plans with weekly shopping lists and provides healthier options for foods you like best. Choose from weekly, quarterly and package subscription options with a community to support you.

1. MyFitnessPal - This app offers a free calorie counter for tracking all that you eat. Coupled with a record of all your physical activity that shows how many calories are burned by each movement, it helps folks lose weight the good, old-fashioned, healthy way, burning more calories than consumed.

With which areas of your life do you struggle most to be healthy? What is your favorite tool to aid in your efforts at healthfulness? Are you going to try any of those listed here?

Making September a Month to Remember

Aaaah... September! Such a wonderful month! Contrary to what we've been hearing over the past few days, Labor Day is only the UNofficial end of summer with autumn arriving on September 22nd, and September is hands-down my favorite month of the summer season. Temperatures are still high with North Carolina continuing to regularly enter the 90ºs, many of my favorite fruits & vegetables are in season, like apples, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, peaches, squash and tomatoes (all of which I love, love, love!), and it's the perfect time to visit Atlantic Coast beaches without 4th of July crowds. Plus, as a huge sports fan, I'm thrilled to add watching football and soccer in with all my outdoor adventures for the month of September. I can get pretty competitive at NFL fantasy football while I cheer loudly for my Demon Deacons... And shall we not forget that September 20th is my birthday. Happiness!

However, it's really not all about me. There are several very important events happening during the month of September, about which I'd like to make sure you're aware. Sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with the Department of Homeland Security, September's National Preparedness Month encourages Americans to take steps in preparing for emergencies that may strike their homes, businesses, schools and communities. To assist in disseminating information that will help you prepare for and respond to emergencies which might impact your workspace, I will be providing the "When Disaster Strikes, Will Your Business & Your Team Be Ready?" workshop at Executive Office Suites in Lafayette Village on Thursday, September 26th. For details or to register, please visit this website. Alternatively, to learn more about National Preparedness Month in general and how to prepare BEFORE an emergency, please go to http://www.ready.gov. While the thought of something bad happening might be too difficult to consider, it's vital to take simple steps to protect yourself, your team and your overall business, and I look forward to seeing you at this workshop on the 26th.

Additionally, as someone who lost my grandfather to Alzheimer's disease, I want to make certain you know that the month of September is World Alzheimer's Awareness Month. The highlight of the month is Alzheimer's Action Day on September 21st, when everyone is encouraged to "Go Purple" to show your support to end Alzheimer's disease. Please mark your calendar now to wear purple on Saturday, September 21st, and visit http://www.alz.org to learn more Alzheimer's and dementia as well as how you can help.

Whether you celebrate the last few weeks of summer by enjoying what tasty treats are currently in season, by catching some great sporting events or by vacationing in our mountains or on our coast, please take a moment to see how you can better prepare for potential disasters or what you can do to help those suffering from the debilitating Alzheimer's disease. You really can make a difference!