Productivity

We tend to be distracted by social media news feeds. We are bombarded by attention-seekers, noises and advertisement anywhere and everywhere we go…except in our sleep. We are drowned by incoming tasks from the office, school or even home. The revolution of technology has made it easy for us humans to multitask but the irony is, we get so much yet do so little.

Does technology actually increases or hinders our daily productivity? Not if we know how to manage it effectively.

I was having breakfast with a close friend of mine ChesterKester and we started talking about our own productivity. Our finding was, we may not be as productive as we seemed to be. We realized that we aren’t utilizing enough every single hour of our life to increase our life potential.

So we brainstormed, innovate and came out with a productivity model called A.C.T.I.O.N

 

Here’s the 6-part of being productive without loosing track of what you set at the beginning of your day. So my advice would be: wake up earlier everyday, sit down for 15 minutes to organize your day based on this model. You’ll find an example at the end of this article.

A.C.T.I.O.N explained: we believe that there are 6 areas you should take notice in order to create a productive and life-defining to-do-list.

1. A- attention-focused
Sometimes, there is a need for us to disconnect (from technology) to connect. Pay attention to your surroundings, people around you, evoke your senses. Be in the moment. Live in the moment. Studies have shown that mindfulness can stimulate our brain for clearer thoughts. So when you network, make sure you network and think nothing else. When you mediate, make sure you meditate and think nothing else.

2. C- challenge yourself
Find something challenging, get out of your comfort zone, then do it. Life is supposed to be exciting. Pump in a little bit of adrenaline into your life experience. Do things that scare the shit out of you. That’s when you learn and grow.

3. T- take timeout
Sometimes, we can’t do stuff because simply we feel that we can’t. In many cases, this situation comes because of fatigue of our brain. Do you find yourself in a situation when you try to read something but your brain doesn’t process what you read? Then It’s time for you to take timeout. The experts suggest that our bodies may regularly tell us to take a break every 90 minutes. So you could rest for 10 minutes or more depending on your daily agenda before getting back into your work. Do something you like and simultaneously that could rest your mind. It will not only boosts your productivity, but also your creativity.

4. I – improve daily
There are 2 ways to improve yourself daily. First is to learn something new to gain fresh perspectives and second, it is to practice certain skill sets constantly and consistently. In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field! Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good. Improving oneself may be tedious and it’s not an overnight process. It is continuous. So my advice would be: make it small and easy enough for you to achieve then practice it daily as you increase the level of difficulty gradually each day. You’ll see results that way and it motivates you to keep moving.

6. O – offices everywhere
Offices are everywhere nowadays. We have entrepreneurs, freelancers, employees, housewives and sales person who work from any corners of the world like coffee place, home or even by the beach. When i’m talking about work, it could be anything. It could be your office work, your creative work or your part-time work. For example writing this blog (for me), compose a music, update your manager about the latest progress of a project etc. So keep a to-do-list for your work to progress and stay on the right track.

7. N – noteworthy tasks
Sometimes we are bogged down by some little but noteworthy tasks like paying bills, ironing shirts, cleaning desk. We just want to get it done as soon as possible and we do not want to put it until tomorrow.

 

Here I will show you how it is done.  This is how my A.C.T.I.O.N plan would look like based on my daily activities.

 

 

Now my challenge is to complete all the tasks written in this A.C.T.I.O.N paper not only for today but for days to come. Please note that your A.C.T.I.O.N plan may vary everyday. That’s why it is so important for us to constantly look at it, check and update.

Feel free to use this productivity tool. Do drop me a comment here if you think it is useful. 🙂

For your productivity success,
Shaun Chan

FEAR

“How do I get rid of the fear?”

This is the wrong question.

The only way to get rid of the fear is to,
(1) stop doing things that might not work
(2) stop putting yourself out there
(3) stop doing work that matters

No, the right question is, “How do I dance with the fear?”

Fear is not the enemy. Paralysis is the enemy.

Bullet Points

In a presentation slides,

• Bullets do not save time.
  Presentations aren’t about the most concise exposition of facts, they are about changing minds and stimulating actions.

• Bullets do not make it easier to remember what’s being said.
  Stories and analogies does.

• Bullets create tension about what the next bullet is going to say, instead of actually communicating your idea.
  When we see a bullet, we check it off and stop paying attention (if the presenter failed to catch the attention of the crowd), until the next one appears, we do not remember the previous bullets.

• Bullets are almost always misused. If you have a finite number of points, each of which supports the other, one can imagine that they help us fit the puzzle together. But that’s not how they’re used, are they?
  Most people use them the way I’m using them now, as a disorderly random list.

• You’ve already forgotten the second bullet, haven’t you?
  That’s because bullets don’t naturally map to the way we process and remember ideas.

• If bullets are the official style of your presentation, using them is a form of being invisible.Without a doubt, bullets make it far easier to READ your presentation to people in the room. For those with no time to practice or unable to say what’s in their heart, bullets are perfect.

The Power of Selling

Many people I encounter today still have a negative attitude about sales people. Apparently…I used to look down at sales people! I used to perceive sales jobs are only for graduates with bad grades. And I have never been so wrong…

Sales is the driving force behind every start-ups, business and even non-profit organization. We need to sell and we sell everyday. How you dress, the brands you carry, the way you talk, the way you choose your books or movies are ways of selling your personal image.

Here’s a simple (true) story to illustrate why selling skills /sales are so important – it shifted my entire paradigm towards sales:

In a time when the majority of the world was still lit by candle, an electrical system known as the “alternating current”  was invented and to this day..is what powers every home on the planet. So who do we need to thank for such brilliant invention that catapulted the industrial revolution into a whole new level? It was Nikola Tesla – The Father of Electricity.

But hey..wait, I thought Thomas Edison was the father of the electricity? Nope. It was Tesla!

When most people think of Edison, they think of the men who invented light bulb. Nope, Edison did not invented the light bulb either. He improved upon the ideas from the other men who pioneered the light bulb before him.

Edison simply figured out how to SELL the light bulb.

He believed such invention will gauged by how much money his company made. He was no scientist. He believed he could just hire people to do that for him.

Edison was not a geek, Tesla was. 
Edison is just a CEO who died rich.

The Storyteller

Why is storytelling so important in any presentations? A good story captivates an audience. Think about your favorite book, TV show or movie — the plot and way it is told hooks you in. But there is ONE thing I learnt about story telling or story crafting is this:

Do not focus too much on the place and people

As a storyteller, we should always let the audience do the work—let them create their own pictures in their head.

So remember, DO NOT spend a large portion of your story describing the place and people. Instead focus on the drama i.e. what happened and how did it get resolved?

Here’s the example,

a. What happened??
An 11 years-old boy made RM100 in a month to buy himself a video game

b. Who was involved?
The boy and other kids

c. How can people connect or relate to this story?
All of us can make money no matter how young or old we are.

d. What are the findings?
Every other kids already owned the video game as a reward from their good examination grades. Unfortunately, the boy will not get the toy no matter how good his grades are because his parents are poor. So he has to find a way. He made his first RM100 by selling “cheat codes” for that video game. It became a hit among his classmates, then schoolmates…and eventually kids from other school.

e. What is the message?
Entrepreneurship can be taught since young. Making money is easy if we managed to find a way and follow our passion. 

As a presenter, our job is to entertain and educate. Your audience needs to walk away learning something. Not only will your story offer immediate connection, it also provides an anchor to your message. People usually remember stories better than anything else.

Dealing With People

What do you want? Not many things, but a few things you wished you’d want…with cravings and insistence. Profound American philosopher, John Dewey says that some of the things most people want include:

(1) Health and the preservation of life
(2) Food
(3) Sleep
(4) Money and the things money will buy
(5) Life in the hereafter
(6) Sexual gratification
(7) The well being of our children
(8) A feeling of importance

The desire for a feeling of importance is one of the chief distinguishing differences between mankind and the animals. Mankind has emotion and they want to be socially recognized as someone significant. So how do we deal with mankind? To get them to listen to you and to control the outcome that you want? It is to compliment them….sincerely. Please do not confuse ourselves between a sincere compliment and flattery. Flattery is like telling a person that he has nice hair whereas he is actually bald! Or in the Malaysian language we called it membodek. The differences between appreciation and flattery? Easy, one is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out while the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish and the other selfish. One is universally admired and the other universally condemned. 

So the next time you enjoyed a dinner cooked by someone, tell him /her that it was excellently prepared, or when a salesperson shows you unusual courtesy, please mention it. Compliment most of the little things. This is to warm yourself up to feel good and it shall become a habit.

Let people buy you first…and not your products.

The Fear Factor

Speaking in public: two errors that lead to fear

When I first presenting and talking in front of the public, my mind mind has only 2 things:

1. I believe that I am being actively judged.

2. I believe that the subject of the talk is me.

When you stand up to give a speech, there’s a temptation to believe that the audience is actually interested in you.

This just isn’t true. (Or if it is, it doesn’t benefit you to think that it is).

You are not being judged. The topic of the talk isn’t you, the topic of the talk is the audience, and specifically, how they can use your experience and knowledge to achieve their objectives.

Now go…and impress your audience with what you know.

The Human Nature

ATTITUDE IS A STATE OF MIND

Experience teaches us that people’s defensive attitude are normal, natural and even necessary. People are hesitant to make decisions because they are afraid to make mistakes. For example, millions of individuals who are not happy in their work will not change jobs because they are afraid they might do worse. Hence, people usually don’t buy before they are being convinced enough and sales professionals rarely close cases during the first meeting with the prospects.

Once you received objections, start examining your prospects’ concerns. You don’t immediately say, “Oh well, they are not interested…..not friendly….don’t like me…”

You start listening for other messages, such as “Maybe I should, but…I want to wait…I want to think it over…I have no budget…”

On reflection, what sales professionals hear is “You better convince me.”

The Change

Every presentation worth doing has just one purpose

To make a change happen.



A presentation that doesn’t seek to make change is a waste of time and energy.

Before you start working on your presentation, the two-part question to answer is, “who will be changed by this work, and what is THE CHANGE I seek?

”

If all you’re hoping for is to survive the ordeal, or to amuse and delight the crowd, then you’re not making a presentation, you’re merely an entertainer, or worse, wasting people’s time.

Change, of course, opens doors, it creates possibilities. Every element of your presentation (the room, the attendees, the length, the tone) exists for just one reason: to make it more likely that you will achieve the change you seek. If it doesn’t do that, replace it with something that does.

Change matters.

The Metaphor

How do you help your audience to understand a subject easily? To remember it? Or to anchor it deep down in their mind? Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well.”

The rule is: help them to visualize. How: Use METAPHOR. 

Here’s the example:

Instead of,
The correlation between bonds yields and and equity prices is mostly positive. The last time bond yields rose above 3% – as the chart shows – the correlation went positive. Stocks were rising while bonds were selling off, sending yields higher.

Why not,
The relation between bonds and equity is like an umbrella seller and an ice-cream truck. If it rains (economic downturn), the bonds /umbrella seller gets the business (more yields and performs better). If it is a sunny day (bullish market), the ice cream truck gets all the thirsty customers to swarm the area (equity prevails).

Human beings remember better when they are able to visualize an explanation. Same goes to the preference of watching a movie than reading a novel. Both are important, but a different experience.