The CELEBRATION news"E"letter
Number 16, September 2000
by Laura M. Stack, MBA, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional)
Published by Celebration Presentations
…your Personal and Professional Development Resource
The CELEBRATION news”E”letter is a monthly electronic newsletter distributed to our clients, human resource personnel, and colleagues. Celebration Presentations works with organizations that want more productive people and individuals who want to lead more fulfilling lives. Our programs provide the personal productivity, communication, and professional development skills needed to improve performance on the job and create organizational growth.
____________________________________________________________
NEWS: September and October are the busiest months in a speaker’s calendar year. Let’s see how good I am about practicing what I preach on work/family balance. I recently resigned from two boards in an effort to claim more family time! Hooray!
____________________________________________________________
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Article: “Reducing Your
* Time Tips and Traps
* Words of Wisdom
* Featured Program: “Keep Your Job, Your Family, and Your Sanity”
____________________________________________________________
ARTICLE “Reducing Your
How many magazines, journals, articles, and books do you have piled up? Do you have an almost obsessive-compulsive urge to read everything from aardvarks to zygotes? Do you ever feel guilty because you feel you’re missing important information? Information does not equal power. Information equals potential power. If you have the information but don’t do anything with it, you have no power. How do you get through all that material?
So, how do you tackle your reading chore reasonably and productively? Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Publications often accumulate in a pile because they are physically located at an inconvenient place. Ask yourself where you really like to read. Locate your reading pile where you want it versus where you think it should go. Then watch that pile disappear! For example, I had a friend that used to spread out her magazines nicely on her coffee table in her living room. She didn’t enjoy reading there because it was a major traffic area and the television was always on. She relocated her stack to the back of her couch in her study. Although it looked pretty in the living room, it was not functional because she never read anything.
2. How about considering a revolutionary step to shrink your reading pile—throw out most or all of the pile and start fresh. It feels so good! And your career is not going to stall because you missed an article.
3. Every time you get a new edition of Newsweek or Time or other another weekly magazine, the contents of the old one is OLD NEWS. If you haven’t read it yet, throw out the previous week when the newer version comes in.
4. Indecision actually causes clutter. If you can’t throw out old magazines, catalogues you never order from, journals you won’t read, and so on, your reading pile will quickly get out of hand. This is a time to get real with yourself and think of what you WILL do, not what you SHOULD do. Or, at the very minimum, if you must save that catalogue you never order from, throw out the old one when the newer version comes in.
5. Don’t read magazines cover to cover. The task is simply too overwhelming. Besides, most advertising never changes. Go through the table of contents, allow yourself a maximum of three articles per issue, rip them out, throw the rest of the magazine away, and put the articles in a folder marked “To be read” (I keep mine in an old briefcase). A stack of articles will make the actual reading task seem much less formidable than a stack of magazines. Then the key is to take your reading with you everywhere. Any time you’re waiting for a client, stuck in traffic, at the doctor’s office, picking up a child from an event, waiting for a meeting to begin, or eating a meal alone, you never waste the time because you have your reading pile with you. Whenever an opportunity presents itself, you have reading material available.
6. Skim a book when it comes across your desk and mark the sections you want to read later with a sticky note and a key word. Don’t read any books or magazines with a low return on investment. There is simply too much to read.
7. Spend a weekend catching up on the important reading once and for all. Get creative! Try the timer technique. Set an egg timer for fifteen minutes for each periodical. When the timer goes off, the paper goes in the trash.
8. Another tip comes from Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, speaking in People magazine, “Reading daily newspapers is one of the least cost-efficient things you can do. . . read the World Almanac once a year. What’s happening you’ll hear by lunch anyway.”
9. Try subscribing to a clipping service, listening to books on tape, canceling subscriptions and downloading articles from the internet, taking a speed-reading course, or going on a newspaper diet by shifting to liquid Dan Rather.
10. Another technique I recently witnessed was team reading. Team members traded off reading important articles and writing a synopsis of important ideas for the group. They also read books cooperatively by splitting up chapters.
To completely conquer a reading obsession, you have to believe (despite your conditioning), that little of what you insist on saving is of real importance! 80% of what we file, we never look for again, anyway. BE RUTHLESS and REALISTIC!
________________________________________________________
TIME TIPS AND TRAPS
· My speaking colleague Alan Weiss is of the opinion, “The bromide is that we should read slowly for business and professional purposes and speed read for recreation. I don’t think so. Most professional stuff I can race through, but I love to savor a well-written book I’m reading for pleasure. We’ve got that one all reversed.”
· Always have a “Plan B.” Despite your best-laid plans, you’re bound to get socked with an unexpected obstacle from time to time: your baby runs a fever, your car breaks down, your dog runs away, or a blizzard closes your daughter’s school down. Have an arrangement with a neighbor, friend, or relative to step in when there’s an emergency.
· Always keep a petty-cash stash of $5 and $1 bills for lunches, field trips, bus fare, coffee, and the like. Replenish it when it gets down to about $20.
________________________________________________________
WORDS OF WISDOM
“It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.” --- E. C. McKenzie
“An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long
run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the
short run determines the long run.” ---
“In the end, it is attention to detail that makes all the difference. It’s the center fielder’s extra two steps to the left, the salesman’s memory for names, the lover’s phone call, the soldier’s clean weapon. It is the thing that separates the winners from the losers, the men from the boys and very often, the living from the dead.” --- David Noonan
____________________________________________________________
FEATURED PROGRAM
“Keep Your Job, Your Family, and Your Sanity”
Program Description
Successful people don’t trade personal satisfaction for professional achievement. They know high performance depends on both. To avoid the peaks and valleys of productivity created by balancing the urgent demands of work and personal life, professionals must be able to balance both without sacrificing either. This program teaches behavioral strategies and lifestyle tactics to help you to work at a realistic level. Rediscover vision, vitality, and meaning in your life!
Program Objectives
· Establish Your Governing Purpose and Values
· Describe a Personal Vision for Work and Life
· Design Your “Ideal” Life
· Distinguish Between “Negotiable” and “Non-Negotiable” Activities
· Prioritize and Organize Your Activities
· Evaluate and Modify Your Responsibilities
· Eliminate Ridiculous Standards
· Learn to Set Boundaries
· Get Rid of the Negative
· Cherish and Care for Yourself
· Develop Strategies to Manage and Create Discretionary Time
· Improve Time-Management and Stress-Management Skills
“For more information about “Keep Your Job, Your Family, and Your Sanity,” please call 303-471-7401. Mention this newsletter and receive a 20% discount on this program when brought on-site to your organization.
____________________________________________________________
CONTACT US
Visit Celebration Presentations on-line!
http://www.LauraStack.com
On-line information includes: Program Descriptions, Articles, Laura's Schedule, Live Video Demonstration, Client Testimonials, and Pricing
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to interested associates. If they would like to continue to receive it, ask them to send us their email address. Thank You!
Contact info:
Mailing address:
Phone: 303-471-7401
Fax: 303-471-7402
Email: Laura@LauraStack.com
Website: www.LauraStack.com