Month: March 2013

I am guilty of kept myself quiet when things are not OK. I avoid conflict, therefore more times that what I should, I keep quiet.
The problem with this is that you are saying that you are OK even if you are NOT.
First there is no way for the other person to know that something is not OK with you if you don’t speak, they can’t guess. It is your responsibility to speak. Not only that, if you keep quiet, the others are not responsible of the fact that you where OK.
You can come next year and tell me that you where not OK. (OK, you can, but you lose already your window of opportunity) If you don’t agree and are not OK with something, you need to speak, otherwise you need to remember that: Silence means you are OK, and you decided to be silent.

Are you aware of the roles and responsibilities you play in your direct family? How about your extended family? How about your in-laws?
This is an area that many people neglect, simply because seems obvious all the roles and responsibilities that you have regarding your family.
The interesting thing is that in family crisis is when you tend to discover some roles and some responsibilities that you didn’t know you had, not because you just got them, simply because you never stop and think for a little bit about it.
Spend a little bit and list all your family (yes, pets included) your parents, siblings, uncles and aunts. Do the same exercise with out in-laws.
After you have the list make sure there are not responsibilities that you have with each of people on this list. Make sure your role is clear.
Save the result of this, and revisit when need it. (or twice a year)

It is that time of the year in which you need to spring your time or it will fall back. But also it is a great time to check and update some stuff around your house and your life.
Use this time and follow this checklist:
– Change the Clock.
– Change Battery on the Smoke Alarm
– Change the Battery of the Carbon Monoxide
– Change Passwords on Main Sites
– Check/replace expired items in your First Aid Kit
– Check items on your car: Lights, Windshield wiper blades
– Backup Computers (Update software since you are there)
– Purge Kids Toys
After you do that, you can forget about this until the fall (or spring if applicable)

Steve Jobs was famous for taking long walks. I had been famous for avoid them.
I need to remind me to walk, to leave iPhone behind, music behind and just walk for a little bit. Every time I do it, its magical, you can re-focus, concentrate, get ideas, see things that in the middle of the mess you are living you are not seeing.
When was the last time you disconnect and just walk for a little bit. I have a recurring item on my system that remind me of this. My agreement is to do it once a week, at least ten minutes.

I know, this is crazy. If you can create the most important rule, why are you reading so many books, blogs and even any more tips on this site?
The reality is that more than ten years ago when I begin using tricks to be more productive, the most important and significant where all those tricks that I create and put in place.
Doesn’t matter how you do it, what you do, when you do. Doesn’t even matter if that productivity rule is not that productive. The important is that works for you and make you more productive.
i.e. I think it was around 2004 when I decided that I wasn’t going to skip lunch anymore. If you need to meet with me at lunch time, you need to invite me for lunch. The first time I told my boss that I do not have meetings at my lunch time unless he paid for lunch, he look at me like I was insane. The first time was hard, as where the ones after that. I don’t have that problem anymore, if you want to meet with me at my lunch time, you need to provide me with lunch, otherwise, begin the meeting before (and make sure is done by lunch time, otherwise, I will leave the meeting) or after lunch. This is one of those really important rules, that I create and without a doubt had make me more productive.

Each kid should get weekly time in which you will stop and focus your attention to play with them. It’s fine if you also do all kids play time, but you should have some time that it is play one on one with each of your kids.
As you may enjoy or not play with My Little Pony or Lego (Love the second one, not so much the first one) it is that little time what later on will transform in significant time to discuss more important things.
That half an hour or an hour a week will transform your life, get to know your kid in a way that seems impossible, but more importantly will reinforce in your kid that they are important and that you have always quality time to spend with them, even when you are busy and the time is limited.
During the adolescence years, you will be grateful.
i.e. You can even let them pick the activity, it can be a movie, it can be go outside, it can be ride the bike. Simply make sure it is focus time and it is about your kid.

My new book: 4:00 A.M A Productivity Argument is out on the market today.
You can download a free Kindle version from March 6 to March 10. (if you don’t have a Kindle check at the bottom of this post)

About the book:
As you will discover in these pages that I begin testing the idea of waking up at 4:00 A.M. out of desperation and frustration, I never expect to find two full hours of focus and concentration.
In my experience (guess what I used to do too) this is what people do:
Wake up Running, Run to Work, Run at Work, Run to Home, Deal with Family Routines, Hope Family goes to bed, Work on your most important stuff.” 
We have done it for generations, and it is wrong. We should:
“Work on your most important stuff so we don’t need to run to work, at work, to home and instead of dealing with family, enjoying family” 
When you think about it makes sense to do your most important stuff first, but for some reason we do it last. To accomplish that, you need to switch your pattern, I did it, and the experience was fantastic.
Think about the following: When was the last time you got two hours of Focus Work?
(My answer is this morning, at 4:00 A.M.)
*If you don’t have a Kindle, Amazon had a free Kindle Application for almost any platform. Follow the link

I had mention this so much, that I sometimes think I am annoying about it. I have wrote posts about this, I mentioned on my book 25 Tips for Productivity. I had mention this in podcasts and interviews and to anyone that had been around me long enough.
Studies said that we type more than 50,000 words on a year. (I am not talking writers, I am talking people that simply email and chat and do Facebook), that means that if you are an average person that type 20 words per minute (go and test yourself, there are plenty of free places to get tested and to learn how to type) you spend almost 42 hours typing a year. Imagine for a moment that you work hard and learn to type 60 words per minute. (Trust me, it is not that fast and not hard at all) Now you will be doing that same typing in less than fourteen hours. Guess what you just gain 28 hours for the next year (2.33 hours a month. What cool activity are you going to do there)
i.e. I get ask why I mention this so much, and the reason is simple. When I went from 20 to 40 words per minute was incredible. From 40 to 80 words per minute was something magical. Now that I write over 100 words per minute, I can write in the little amount of free time that I get much more than what I dreamed possible when I was simply typing with two fingers.