How do you talk to yourself as a writer?  How do you talk to others about yourself as a writer?  Are you clear on your boundaries – or is it a little fuzzy, both to yourself and to others?  Take a look at these five ‘talking points’ and use what fits with your style and need.   

1. “That’s my scheduled writing time – let’s find another time (or not).”  While there are times to be flexible, you don’t always have to be the person who flexes and thus flushes out your writing time. You may offer alternatives to the other person and he or she can flex – or not. It depends on what the priorities are for either of you. If someone really doesn’t ‘get it,’ and says, “Oh, pooh. You can write anytime,” ask that person if that’s what he/she has found to be true.

2. “Right now, while my ideas are flowing, I want to capture them, so…” You just let this drift off – or you can end your sentence with a specific request such as, “…I want to capture them, so, I can’t really talk now” or “so, I need to get back to what I was working on,” or “so, I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to put my headphones back on to block out the plane noise,” or any other appropriate ending. You can also say everything you need to say but the expression on your face when you say, “so….”

3. “I’ve got some of my pieces to edit today.” This helps you know that today is not a composing day; it’s an editing day. Since there is a definite difference between composing and editing, clarifying for yourself that today is an editing day helps to get you in the frame of mind necessary.

4. “What are you writing these days?” Just as it’s normal to ask other professionals what they are working on, no matter what their job might be, it is normal to ask other writers what they are writing. Find other writers to talk with about the very normal endeavor of writing.

5. “I learned something today while I was writing that I never knew I knew.” Say it to yourself to reinforce how magical writing is in terms of letting us know what we know – or helping us know something we didn’t know we knew. And, say it to others to validate the power of writing.

Whatever you say about yourself as a writer…reinforces that idea for you.  Take a look at when you can use one or more of the ideas from this article in the next few days.  Then come up with some of your own that give YOU and others the message that you ARE a writer. 

There are thousands of people who will be reading this post. I know we have people reading who have one drawer (and only one drawer) that is a little over-stuffed and that clutter stresses them out. It may not be necessary for them to repeat this process.

However!  For everyone else, you can identify with some version of the following:

• you have a whole desk that needs decluttering – or  

• maybe you have an entire office that has gotten out of hand – or  

• maybe your garage is a stressor on your relationships because no one can park a car in there and no one can find anything that is ‘stored’ in the garage – or  

• maybe the department where you work has a ‘storage room’ that has become a junk room and with the budget cuts, you need to make sure every spare pen, ream of paper, box of rubber bands is used before ordering any more and you have a sneaking suspicion there are actually supplies ‘stored’ in the storage room so you need to get in there and get it squared away.

Very few of us have only one tiny area that needs decluttering (and that we need to de-stress over). That’s why you have to ’rinse and repeat’ whatever practices you put into play when you are getting rid of clutter. You will need to toss, clean, resist getting ‘new’ junk, over and over until you have removed all the detritus, all the unused, all the unloved and unneeded items from your space. It may take a few days to do this or it may take months. Either way, it’s worth the effort.

Remember, your goal is peaceful, predictable productivity and by decreasing your clutter you can decrease your stress and move closer to your positive place of being energized by your work and home instead of dragged down by the stress.  Expect a journey to that goal.  I’ve been on that journey for over 20 years now…and I wouldn’t have persisted if I didn’t know it made a difference. 

And you are invited to learn more from the full-color Get a Plan! Guide(R) to Ridding Your Workspace of Clutter to REALLY get going on decluttering.  This special Get a Plan! Guide(R) will give you (and others with whom you work) suggestions and motivation to start de-cluttering your workspace (and even your home).

Can you change some of the events that are currently stressing you out?  Are there others over which you really have no control or even any influence?   Hmmm…it might be time to consider what belongs in the various categories for you.

To help you visualize the idea we’re talking about in this article, just draw a series of 4 interlocking circles that go from right to left across a piece of paper you have turned sideways, i.e., landscape. Label each circle thusly:

Total Control -> Significant Impact -> Some Influence -> Zero Control

Take a look at the third circle and label it as ‘Some Influence’ on your Venn diagram.  What belongs here are those people, situations, activities, thoughts, etc. over which you have…yes, ‘some influence,’ but not any control.  Make a list now for each of the following – i.e, a list of those where you may have some influence (vs. control):

• People

• Situations

• Activities

• Thoughts

• Responsibilities

• Other

I hope you stopped yourself before you wrote down some of your first ideas in these categories.  For example, if you thought, ‘Well, the situation with the stock market is really upsetting me,’ but then you realized that you have essentially no control over that – and essentially no influence.  So, there’s no sense to continue worrying about it, right?  I know this is easier said than done.    

Recognize that your influence may be felt in myriad ways.  For example, 

1. Let’s say the plight of women in underdeveloped countries weighs on your mind constantly. You read about it, worry about it, talk about it, and just feel a heaviness about it nearly constantly. You don’t have complete control over what happens and while you could make choices that would allow you to have significant impact on certain women, realistically, this is something you could classify in the ‘Some Influence’ category. You could write articles, write letters, post on blogs to bring the untenable situation these women are in. Think about what Nicholas Kristoff does in this area, for example, in his writing for the New York Times. Or, you could donate money that would make a difference. You could pray. You could engage in many different practices that would influence what is happening in this area

2. Another example of something that would be in the ‘Some Influence’ circle would be your distress over some of the actions and decisions of people in government. You can’t control that and in most cases, you can’t make a Significant Impact, but you can exert Some Influence. Whether it’s by voting, voicing your opinion, appearing on various shows, energizing your neighbors, writing, or many other options. Recognize that you will have some influence when you do this, but it’s not under your control.

As an adult, particularly as an adult who wants to maximize productivity and contribution to the world, figuring out where you can influence what is happening is crucial.  Do some thinking on this and recognize whether you might have been spending some time unproductively trying to ‘make’ something happen (or ‘make someone change’ – ha! We know how well that works).  Instead, exert your influence – and make a difference where you can. 

Do you radiate positive energy?  Does it have an impact on others?  Are you unsure about what qualities you may want to be radiating out to others?

Winston Churchill said:

“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.”

There are people you know (and I know) who radiate everything that is positive (vs. everything that is negative). For example, contrast the person who radiates

• Passion vs. Apathy

• Positivity vs. Negativity

• Kindness vs. Disdain

• Thankfulness vs. Ingratitude

• Light vs. Darkness

• Creativity vs. Destruction

• Optimism vs. Pessimism

• Brightness vs. Dullness

• Intensity vs. Colorlessness

You can probably think of additional contrasting pairs. We want to think about the positive radiance factor of the ones in the first part of each pair when we are assessing ourselves on the Radiance Scale.

First, let’s look at two definitions of radiance from www.MyFavoriteThesaurus.com:

• The quality of being bright and sending out rays of light

• An attractive combination of good health & happiness

Hmmm…sounds nice doesn’t it?

Let me explain the idea of the concept of a Radiance Scale.  Draw a series of embedded circles.  Put at least 5 circles with each one somewhat larger until you have filled up your page.

YOU are at the base or core of the Scale. You will want to consider how metaphorically ‘radiant’ you are (using our previous definition, i.e.,

• The quality of being bright and sending out rays of light

• An attractive combination of good health & happiness

Once you have thought about your particular radiance, you can begin to determine how far out you radiate through the various layers of other people.

There are ways of thinking of who else is in the various strata and how far out your impact goes through them. You could think of family as being near the center of the diagram, co-workers maybe being a little bit further out, acquaintances being in the next level, and those you don’t know being toward the outside.

There is not one way to think of this because each of our lives are structured differently and are intertwined with other people’s lives in a host of ways.

As you consider the idea of a Radiance Scale and make your own assessment, ask yourself these questions:

1. How radiant am I?

2. Do I display light, gratitude, optimism, hope, and delight – and at what intensity?

3. Do I want to increase my radiance so that I glow or shine even more? Or, would it be better if I turned it down a bit?

As an adult, you can exercise the executive functions you possess as a part of your cognitive system as an adult human being. You can use those executive functions to control and manage your other cognitive processes. So, determine your radiance and then strategically control and manage it so that YOU, first and foremost, are taken care of and then, and only then, can you strategically make an impact on others. 

Do you think any dust has accumulated under piles of clutter?  Is it possible that there is dirt somewhere in the midst of piles of stuff that need to given away.  Would you find any cobwebs around those places that haven’t been sorted lately?

Let’s just agree that the answer is ‘Yes.’

A simple way to keep the de-cluttering process moving and to keep yourself motivated while you are getting organized is to clean the spaces where you are working just as soon as you take the ‘stuff’ out. 

For example, let’s say that you decided to start with one bookshelf. The best way to proceed is to remove everything from that bookshelf including books, VHS tapes, notebooks, knick-knacks, plants, pictures, piles of papers, whatever is there.

Once you have taken everything off the shelf, take a wipe, a damp cloth, or some other cleaning rag and clean off or out the whole area. Really wipe it down (and all you have to do is take one look at the rag and you’ll know it’s a good thing you’re doing this). I’ve worked with people who were horrified when they started doing this because we needed rag after rag – and it’s why I always taken a giant container of wipes whenever I do a productivity day in someone’s office. I know we may need all 75 wipes!

The reason this is one of the easiest ways to decrease clutter and decrease stress is this:  Just seeing an empty and clean shelf, drawer, file, or wherever you are working, makes you more deliberate about what you choose to put back.  There’s something sacred about a place that is not just clutter-free but is also CLEAN. 

Give it a try and see what a difference it makes. Folks, I’m telling you it’s the little things sometimes that make a big difference!

And you are invited to learn more from the full-color Get a Plan! Guide(R) to Ridding Your Workspace of Clutter to REALLY get going on decluttering.  This special Get a Plan! Guide(R) will give you (and others with whom you work) suggestions and motivation to start de-cluttering your workspace (and even your home).

Delegating is an essential part of being productive both at home and at work. There are certainly tasks that I am sure you have done where you asked yourself “did I earn a master’s degree to qualify me to stuff these envelopes?” Other times, you wonder, “Hmmm….why am I doing this when a machine can do this just as well?” And still other times, you wish later (rather than sooner) that you had delegated.

Here are a few ideas to consider as you think about becoming a better delegator.

1. Know the definition of delegation. In general, delegating means asking for help with a task or larger project (and receiving a commitment to do what is asked). There are more involved definitions, but this is enough to get us started. Be very clear that delegating is NOT dumping and that if you are NOT an effective delegator, you cheat yourself, your company, and those with whom you work (plus your family if you still have one!)

2. Be clear on why you need to delegate. If you possess more time than you need AND all the knowledge in the world AND every skill that is imaginable AND interests and passions so diverse that it’s hard to fathom, you don’t need to consider delegation. For the rest of us…we do.

3. Write down the crises that have occurred because you did not delegate. This should not take long, but I’ll wait for you. Unfortunately, this is a case where recognizing what happens when we DO NOT delegate can encourage us to start being better delegators. It might be part of why you found this article.

4. Generate a list of people to whom you can delegate. Don’t forget teenage neighbors, anyone who needs to earn extra money, people who are “looking for something to do,” and family members. If you will just put on your thinking cap, I’m sure you will come up with quite a list. At this time in our economy, you can find incredibly talented people who will be thrilled to do some work for and with you.

5. Have a method for tracking delegated tasks. It’s easy to lose faith in delegation if it is causing you more stress than ever. That stress can be at least partially relieved if you have a way to track what it is you have delegated. You can:

• keep a list,

• write dates for checking back in your planner,

• set up a “help desk” system on your server,

• create a spread sheet…

 or a myriad of other possibilities. There are both simple and complex ways. Try something and if the method doesn’t work, try something else. And hey, you could even delegate the responsibility of finding a tracking method that will work for you.

Truly, productivity in business (and in our other endeavors) requires that we become effective and efficient delegators. See if you can implement are refine one of the ideas discussed in this article to enhance your overall productivity – by delegating. I believe you can!

Money clutter is something that not many people talk about. Business owners will admit to paper clutter, digital clutter, mental clutter, but they rarely talk about money clutter. It’s time that we did because it can at least as debilitating to your business as the other types of clutter (which you also need to deal with, by the way!).

Here are 7 steps to get you going on dealing with your money clutter, particularly in the area of credit cards.

1. Make a list of all of your credit cards. Put the information in an Excel spread sheet or a Word doc table or any other easy to organize software (or even use paper and pencil!) Just make a list.

2. Note the balance due on each card currently.

3. Note the closing date for each account (not the due date for paying each month’s bill. Note: You can delegate this to your bookkeeper or other assistant if you want, but there is some value in YOU making this list and these determination. It’s your business, right?

4. Put the date that each account closes into your calendar, planner, tickler system, or some other means that lets you know that your account is now ready to be paid. Note: If you have all of your accounts set up to pay automatically electronically and to pay the amount in full each month, then you have nothing to worry about here. This tip is for the person who cannot always pay the full amount each month and so waits to see what is due and how much is in the account before deciding what to pay. This is clutter, by the way.

5. Line up all your cards (on your chart) so that they are organized by the one with the smallest balance at the top and the largest balance at the bottom. These should be easy to do using the sort function in your table or spread sheet.

6. If you have any credit card debt that you are unable to pay off each month, pay the minimum on all of your credit cards (or other loans) – but that’s not all I’m going to say, so keep reading.

7. Pay as much extra on whatever is the smallest card balance so that you can pay that one off. The idea is that if you have 5 or 10 (or more) credit cards, you want to begin paying them off one by one until you have only one or two main credit cards for work and you pay each one of them off completely, each month. Note: When you pay off one of the credit cards from early in your list, stop carrying it. Don’t cancel it, just stop having it available to continue adding to.

When you have reduced your credit card debt to a manageable monthly pay-off, you will have reduced your money clutter significantly.  Test these 7 steps and see what happens for you.

1. Sanctioned - Say to yourself, this is my sanctioned writing time. It’s very honoring.

2. Protected - Say to someone in your family, “This is my protected writing time. Let’s work around that.”

3. Scheduled - Say to a person who asks for time when you are scheduled to be writing, “This is my scheduled writing time, but what about _____ as an alternative?”

4. Sacrosanct - This just sounds like a good word for a writer to say about his/her writing time, doesn’t it?

5. Strategic - Use this word to describe your writing time to someone who thinks strategically and needs to understand that writers are also planful and deliberate, not just playing.

6. Required - If you are a writer (and I assume you are because you’re reading this), you are required to write or you aren’t a writer any more.

7. Non-negotiable - There are people who consider their Saturday afternoon nap time non-negotiable so I think you can describe your writing time as non-negotiable. If it is, that is…

8. Dedicated - You may need to say this one to yourself.

9. No-Matter-What - You might use this one out of desperation when you are up against a deadline. Saying it out of desperation is not very powerful, but if it works, then use it. If, however, you have used some of the ones earlier on the list, you are less likely to get into a desperate mode.

10. Unless there’s blood or bone in evidence, not to be disturbed… Generally, this is one that needs to be used by mothers, graduate advisors, and the like. It’s when the “children,” (be they actual children or adults who act like children) can’t seem to make any decisions when the “parent” is not there to referee. Use this if you need to.

If you need to practice, then please do. Imagine the scenario where you have 10 – noon on Thursday as your protected writing time. When someone asks if you can meet then, you say, “I can’t meet then because that is my required writing time. How about meeting at noon or anytime later that afternoon?”

Note: When I was sharing this list with people in one of my writing groups, one person said that the word she uses to talk about her dedicated writing time is, “MINE!” I like it!

1.  Define what a productive environment is like for you. There is not one and only one definition. It depends on your style, your work, your space, and more.

2.  Study the ergonomics of your work space. Especially think about getting a better keyboard – one with a built-in wrist pad.

3.  Take a look at your lighting. If you don’t have a window, consider light bulbs that simulate outdoor light.

4.  Consider sound. One of my assistants doesn’t even have the speakers plugged in on her computer. Music is entertainment for her, and is therefore a distraction.

5.  Assess the quality of furniture and other accoutrements. If your file drawer is always sticking, it has an impact on your productivity.

6.  Get the supplies you need, but don’t store anything that you don’t use EVERY DAY on the top of your desk.

7.  Use the ABCD concept for spaces around your desk. Think of your desk and associated areas as a target. You sit in the bull’s eye, or “A” area, and anything you can reach without moving your chair is also in the “A” area. I like to call this “prime real estate.” Ask yourself if you use the items in this space EVERY day. (Do you really use the phone book every day?) “B” space is for every other day, “C” is weekly, and “D” space is materials that you must maintain but that you do NOT deal with very often.

8.  Eliminate rather than add. You don’t need MORE stuff, you need less. You probably try to convince your colleagues of this fact, too.

9.  Take it all away and put it all back at least once/year. That means everything in every drawer and stuffed into any desk cubby – remove it and then mindfully replace it. You will only put about 50-60% of it back and realize the rest either belongs somewhere else or doesn’t belong anywhere and can go in the trash or recycling bin.

10.  Hire someone for a couple of hours or more (a professional organizer). For more information about professional organizers in your area, just check with The National Association of Professional Organizers.

Take the time and energy to make sure that your desk and workspace are places where you can work productively. It’s worth the effort

In today’s world, people think that the height of productivity is responding instantly (or as close to instantly as possible). In fact, in many cases, this lessens your productivity. In business, we can’t afford to be less productive. Here are tips for downshifting your ability to be responsive so you can upshift your productivity.