Home Articles posted by kidologist (Page 159)

Operation Order!

OK! I finally have a completely free day without meetings or anything toooo urgent, so I’m at the library to try and get a grip on my life and the swirling tasks, projects and never ending to-dos! In one sense, I’m in a good place. I’m doing a lot better at putting family first, but now work is starting to slip into the chaos of the tyranny of the urgent. That’s better than when I never got around to some home duties, now I’ve kinda flipped the other way where every day at work is driven more by my e-mail inbox than intentional strategic tasks. Well, that ends TODAY with Operation Order. (Operation Chaos is concluding) I’m blogging this for my own accountability and to outline my plan, which may overflow into two days: Step 1: IDENTIFY A stack of 3×5 cards awaits the names of products or areas or people clammiring for my time, attention, thought and action. Step 2: DEFINE A new blank notebook will donate a page to each area identified in Step 1 to define it’s purpose, priority and place in my life. Step 3: DETAIL Next I will detail the tasks and action steps required…

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Sean on Time Management

Here are some Time Management Tips from the designer of this blog, Sean Copley from Timbuktoons. (Don’t miss my Podcast interview with Timbuktoon founder Todd Hampson) Sean is a great guy and I know from personal experience, well organized. In their recent newsletter Sean gave away some of this secrets… CREATIVE PROCRASTINATION There are not enough hours in each day so you know you will always have to procrastinate on something. The trick is to force yourself to choose to procrastinate on the small things in order to get things done. Keys: Don’t clear up the small things first! Resist the temptation- we often underestimate how the small things add up and seemingly never end (especially e-mail)! Choose to do the most valuable and important first. Place value on the items you need to accomplish each day. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of what you do is the least valuable, while 20% is the most valuable. Do it tomorrow! Work on the e-mails and phone messages that came in yesterday and file today’s away for tomorrow. The benefit is that when your mailboxes are empty, you are done for the day regardless of what comes in! For example, I…

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Remembering Tony Snow

I know I am late, but I wanted to post this testimony from Tony Snow for my own keep-sake. Tony was a powerfully articulate speaker (my favorite Rush Limbaugh substitute) who was appreciated and admired by friends and foes alike. I learned so much from him about how our country works. He made me proud to be an American and understood the issues of today better than most and supported his positions with facts and logic instead of just angry emotion like so many of his opponents. And he was always upbeat and positive and respectful. Below is his testimony as he was dying of cancer. (FYI: the same cancer that took my mom at the same age: 53. Way too soon for both of them.) Tony Snow’s last televised briefing. Photo by Getty Images This is an outstanding testimony from Tony Snow, President Bush’s former Press Secretary, and his fight with cancer. Commentator and broadcaster, Tony Snow, announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush Administration in April, 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23, 2007, Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced the cancer had recurred, with…

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The 6 1/2 Biggest Myths about Creativity

I’m sitting in the auditorium at Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit live in Barrington, IL, and just met a fellow MacBook Air user in the atrium blogging, so we swapped blog addresses and I returned to get a good seat. (enjoying free WiFi!) Anyway, I LOVED a post on his blog, and wanted to share it with you here. (From Patrick Mayfield. I originally linked to his post, but he keeps moving it, so I have posted the rest here so I don’t have to keep updated it.) 1. Only a few people are creative “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are probably right.” I’m not sure who said that, but it sums up what I have come to realise about each of us in the matter of being creative. Ultimately this myth is perpetuated by a negative and self-fulfilling perception of oneself. Our self-perception as ‘uncreative’ people is probably due to an unchallenged internal script from our critical faculties. When we have attempted something creative in the past, the script may have run something like this: “You see? That’s pathetic! I can’t be creative…” Many say, “I can’t draw”; then coaches such as Betty Edwards come…

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A Little Advice (for myself)

As I was reflecting today (a combination of praying, panicking and planning) God gave me a message that I just needed to post, mostly for myself – though if it encourages you, then so be it. I’ve just completed Day #2 of “Operation Mr. Mom” – nine days solo with my boy. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind ONE BIT, in fact today was a perfect day filled with church, a special meal out, lots of love and cuddles and playful fun and even a a boat ride for dinner courtesy of a friend who loaned me their pontoon boat for the evening. I’m not complaining, but I am thinking about how I’m going to do this week. I’ll do less work, for sure, by design as well as necessity, and I refuse to farm the boy out (though I’ve had many offers!) but it’s tough enough on the boy having mom gone so long, I want to be around as much as possible; after all, he’s used to having mom when I’m out of town. Anyway, I was thinking through everything on my plate, current projects, the usual constant communication load, and then not only keeping up…

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