The "Productivity Riffs" Chronicles

Never Tolerate Excuses

Jun 14, 2006
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I’ve set my home page to show me a sign that has five words in tall bold black letters: NEVER TOLERATE EXCUSES FROM YOURSELF. I load it up and look at it several times a day (at least.) It’s an angry looking sign, and it should be – because once you allow yourself to get in the habit of tolerating excuses, it’s all over.

I’m not talking about the excuses other people give us. You can’t control their behavior, so don’t even worry about it. I’m talking about you and me, and the excuses we give ourselves for why we aren’t taking the actions we know we should be. We even have a special name for these excuses, so we’ll feel better about making them: we call them “reasons.”

Let me give you a few examples of common “reasons” we use when faced with challenging situations:
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Multiple Streams of Productivity

Jun 8, 2006
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I briefly mentioned “multiple streams of productivity” in an earlier post, and I’ve received a few emails from people asking to know more about it, so that’s what today’s post is all about.

What is productivity anyway?
You can define productivity in a lot of ways, most of which boil down to “getting things done.” But the “things” you’re getting done could be anything – and activity is not the same thing as accomplishment.

For the purposes of simplicity in explaining Multiple Streams of Productivity, we’ll define productivity as “making rapid progress on your goals.” I say rapid because it’s just the basic mindset of productivity – you want to get to where you’re going in a relatively fast (if not the fastest) manner.

You can make rapid progress on your goals in four ways. Let’s take a look at each of them and some examples of each.
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How Big Is Your Question?

Jun 6, 2006
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In life, it’s not about what you deserve, what you desire, or even what you hope for. When it comes to the results you generate, and the goals you accomplish, it’s all about what you expect.

Expectation is Everything
I’ve talked about the importance of expectation in a lot of posts so far, and it’s for a good reason – I want to drill it into you as much as possible, because it’s that important. Whatever your level of expectation is, that’s what will fuel your motivation, and in turn drive your action.

If you attack your goals with the expectation that you will eventually win out, you will. It’s that simple, because that level of expectation pushes you to keep working until you find the right combination to unlock your goal.
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How to Stay Focused

May 15, 2006
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Focus is a skill that can be learned by anybody. It’s like learning to tie your shoe or to drive a car. As long as you’re diligent at working on building the skill – even when it’s more challenging than you’d like it to be – you’ll inch ever closer …
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How (and Why) to Build a Quick Project Plan

May 13, 2006
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If you’re running an online business for profit (and not just as a hobby), then one of the most important things you have to do is focus on following through on as many revenue-generating activities as possible. However, as many online businesses are “unstructured and unaccountable” – meaning that …
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How to Set and Keep Business Hours

May 9, 2006
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It’s easy to tell yourself that you want to build a business that will make you a generous full-time income for the rest of your life. But it’s a much more challenging thing to actually do it. No matter how easy some people try and make it sound, there’s a …
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How to Get Past The Mid-Day Slump

May 8, 2006
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If you’ve ever heard the term “circadian rhythm,” you may already be familiar with the internal clock your body uses to regulate your energy levels during the day. It begins rising from the time you wake up and greet the sun until the time you get ready for bed … …
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How to Avoid The “Perfection Penalty”

Apr 26, 2006
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As I work with people in the Rapid Results Coaching aspect of my business, I see a recurring theme among a number of my clients – namely, the feeling that they (or an aspect of their business) needs to be perfect before it can be successful.

I’ve also seen this outside …
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How To Escape To-Do List Hell

Apr 3, 2006
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Welcome to the 10th circle of Hell … to-do lists. They look all cute and cuddly at first, but then … they get mean … and they get ugly … and there’s a million of them. (10 points to anyone who gets that movie quote).

To-do lists – done wrong – …
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The Power of Heroes (Part 2)

Mar 16, 2006
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In the first part of this article, we talked about leveraging the success of others to put you in a more resourceful state literally “on demand.” By vividly imagining your role model stepping into your shoes, you discovered that you could overcome …
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