I have been re-reading The 12 Week Year recently, and it has been reshaping how I think about planning, focus, and execution in business.

The central idea of the 12 Week Year is simple. A year is a long time. When goals sit twelve months away, urgency fades and accountability softens. Plans exist, but execution drifts.

Instead of planning in twelve month blocks, the 12 Week Year treats twelve weeks as a full planning cycle. Goals are shorter, clearer, and far harder to ignore. The result is better focus and more consistent execution.

This way of thinking has real relevance for marketing.

Why Long-Term Marketing Plans Often Struggle

At the start of the year, many businesses set broad marketing goals.

Improve the brand.
Be more visible.
Get more consistent.

They are well intentioned, but they are also distant. When the finish line is far away, it is easy to stay busy without being deliberate.

Marketing becomes a collection of activity rather than a focused effort. Things start, stall, and restart later.

This is rarely a motivation issue. It is a planning issue.

Why December Feels Too Far Away

December is so far off it almost feels abstract.

There is plenty of time to refine the plan later. Plenty of room to delay decisions. Plenty of chances to reset when things calm down.

That distance quietly removes urgency. Marketing slips down the priority list, not because it is unimportant, but because it does not feel immediate.

The 12 Week Year removes that distance.

How the 12 Week Year Changes Marketing Planning

By compressing the planning horizon to twelve weeks, priorities become sharper.

Instead of asking where marketing should be by the end of the year, the question becomes simpler and more practical.

What should marketing achieve in the next twelve weeks.

This shift creates:

• Clear focus
• Stronger decision-making
• A direct link between planning and action

Marketing stops being a background task and becomes an intentional business function.

What a 12 Week Marketing Reset Looks Like

A marketing reset does not need to cover everything.

Trying to fix brand, website, content, social, and campaigns all at once usually leads to overwhelm.

A twelve week focus encourages restraint.

It asks:

• What needs to be clarified first
• What will make the biggest difference right now
• What progress is realistic in the next twelve weeks

   

This creates momentum without burnout.

Why This Builds Marketing Confidence

Shorter cycles create faster feedback.

When marketing is reviewed over twelve weeks rather than twelve months, businesses can see what is working and what is not.

Adjustments happen earlier. Confidence grows through action, not speculation.

Marketing becomes something that is guided and understood, rather than something that feels vague or out of control.

A Better Question to Ask Right Now

Instead of asking what marketing should look like by the end of the year, ask this.

What does success look like for marketing in the next twelve weeks.

That single question brings clarity, focus, and intention into the present.

Final Thought

December is a long way away.

Waiting for the perfect annual plan often delays the clarity that would actually move things forward.

The 12 Week Year offers a simpler alternative. Focus on the next twelve weeks. Plan with intention. Execute with purpose.

That is how meaningful marketing progress is made.

Get the book 12 Week Year here

White space… is there anything worse when you are doing creative planning. Staring at The Dreaded Blank Whiteboard with just a heading to ‘get you started’ can be a daunting task.

“How to improve our systems”
“Increase sales for the next quarter”
“Get more online reviews”

If this is your only starting point, you’re in for a tough few hours in the meeting room. Brainstorming, either by yourself or with a team can be tricky. However, if done correctly it can have a huge impact on your business.

The Natural Planning Model

Having a simple and structured approach to brainstorming sessions is essential to overcoming The Dreaded Blank Whiteboard. David Allen, the author of the super-successful time-management book Getting Things Done, developed The Natural Planning Model specifically for this purpose.

The Natural Planning Model is an informal approach to planning that enables a large amount of value from a seemingly minimal amount of effort – and it works. Let’s take a look at the five simple steps involved in supercharging your brainstorming for business success so you can avoid The Dreaded Blank Whiteboard.

Step 1: Start with Why
Like many goals, projects or problems it’s important to start with why. Why you need to do it, why it’s important to you and also the business. What deep-seated benefits will it bring?

Example: Workplace health and safety is important to us. Proper attention on this enables us to feel safe and return home to our families after work.

Step 2: The End In Mind
What does the ideal outcome look like? How do you define success? Make this part measurable – this will enable you to not only have a clear direction, but also allow you to measure the results at the end of the specified period.

Example: We want a 15% decrease in workplace accidents by the end of the year.

Step 3: Brainstorm Your Ideas
Now you have a purpose and direction written down, get your ideas flowing. We are going for quantity not quality in this instance. Don’t dismiss an idea and fail to write it down – it may lead to another idea or could be used in another project down the line. There are no wrong answers for this task. This approach is particularly useful with group brainstorming sessions.

Example: Improve safety signage; Conduct a Safety-themed week around the company; Offer rewards for good safety practices

Step 4: Organise It
By now, you should have a whiteboard full of new ideas and concepts. It’s time to organise them, assign them, prioritise and file. More on this in a moment…

Step 5. Next Action
This part is super important to get traction on your project towards the end goal. Allocate the resources needed to move the project forward and decide the Next Actions for each member. This way, they have a starting point to move ahead.

Tools for Organising, Planning and Tracking

You can do this all on a blank sheet of paper with a cup of coffee and some quiet time. But ideally, you want a decent sized whiteboard for the initial planning session and some online tools to help organise and track the results.

After we’ve finished in our planning room, we move all the content into Trello, a project management tool. You could also use Asana, Monday or To Doist. Keeping a regular check on the actions, goals and priorities with scheduled check ins for accountability, will ensure your brainstorming of ideas comes to fruition, hopefully smashing that end goal in the process.

 

 

Need a whiteboard to supercharge your next planning session? Get in in touch with us today.

Want to learn more on David Allen and his methods? You can check him out here.

 

When our world was turned upside down from Covid-19 back in early 2020 businesses, families and homes were forced to adapt. New technologies were built, as were new ways of doing business.

In other cases, already invented items with once a periodic and limited use have become the hot, go-to items of the day. Oh how I wish I was in the hand-sanitation business!

Another instance of this is the use of QR codes. Once an under-used novelty, QR code use has become the norm for us all.

And with this comes opportunity – how can businesses harness this new-found familiarity for everyday use in business marketing, systems and more?

Before we go on – what is a QR code?

Invented in Japan in 1994, QR is short for “quick response”. They are computer-generated barcodes that contain information that can be scanned on your smartphone.

Let’s take a look at some great ideas for using QR codes in your business right now:

 

How to make a QR code?

There are lots of great online QR code generators and Google Chrome even does this now from selected sites. Simply ask us to incorporate this into your design and we can do this for you too.

Got any other great suggestions for how to use QR codes? We would love to hear from you! 

 

Warning… I swear a little bit in the following post (sorry Mum)

I’m just going to come right out and say it… Brand Hero fucked up lots in 2020. Perhaps our fun and fresh socials sometimes do not tell the full story, but last year wasn’t always rainbows and unicorns.

We’ve grown a lot in the last two years, especially in 2020. With such a sharp rise in customer orders come some challenges. Things get missed, balls are dropped, tensions rise.

When mistakes in the workplace do inevitably occur, it’s obviously best to catch them early, before they reach the customer. This gives you a chance to fix it and keeps the big show on the road. Non-the-less, mistakes usually cost time, money and aren’t good for team morale.

 

Let’s get mad

Perhaps it was Covid or something else, but I was extra snappy when said mistakes started to creep in at BH. Years ago, wiser people had taught me “blame the system, not the person”. Yet here I was, reducing more than one staff member to tears over a re-print or missed sales opportunity. What had happened to me?

After some deep reflection and soul searching, I decided a change in attitude was required – I owned up and apologised. I had lost sight of what made our team so good – mistakes are okay and it’s okay to make them. They are lessons – and nine times out of ten they aren’t about people, they are about systems. What is broken in the system of how we do things and what can we do to fix it so it doesn’t happen again?  It is so much more beneficial for the company to have a team member admit to the mistake rather than hide it from the angry boss. By shifting to this mindset we can now embrace the mistakes, fact-find to improve and make our stronger. 

 

When the cat is out of the bag

Mistakes happen to us all. In an ideal world, catching an error and fixing it before the customer finds it is obviously the best scenario. Alas, we are human and this doesn’t always happen! So what is damage control time, also needs to be PR time. Mistakes (and how you handle them) are the best opportunity to show how great your business is.

Did we get every job right last year? Hell no… we aren’t robots. But life is about give and take and whilst you cannot make everyone happy, most customers understand this and genuine efforts to make amends go a long way. In fact, how we handle our mistakes makes a much deeper impression than the mistake itself.

 

Lessons learned

Before we said goodbye to 2020 and closed for the Christmas break, Team BH got together and took a cold hard look at ourselves. We wrote down every single error we made in the previous three months and how we could have avoided it. We didn’t blame anyone – each error we focused on, we related back to a system and how it could be improved. It was the most beneficial few hours we spent in a long time.

We came out of it with lessons and an action plan for a 2021 free of these mistakes. No doubt, we will make some of them again, no doubt new ones will crop up. But that is life and we are human, it’s how we bounce back from them that really counts.

I have two brains… sometimes it makes me do weird stuff. I often stop whatever I am doing to take down a note or more commonly, shout a command into my phone.

“Cat food”
“Call the school”
“Tender due next week”

I am sure this makes me look at tad on the strange side. However, this is me sending stuff to my ‘second brain’.

A few years go, I read a book called Getting Things Done (GTD) by productivity guru David Allen. The go-to system for a host of celebrities (Oprah Winfrey for one), CEOs and entrepreneurs, GTD was said to be the key to their success. I was on a quest for self-improvement, so I jumped right in.

The basic concept of GTD is that your brain is a little like a computer. It can only have so much RAM and hold so much information before it starts to slow down (and sometimes… crash). To prevent this, you need to get all the little things (called open loops) out of your head and into an external system.

And when I say all the little things, I mean ALL of them, no matter how small or trivial it seems. Or no matter how much your brain tells you “It’s okay, I will remember that”. You might do, that’s not the point. The game here isn’t helping you remember, its help you free your mind of all that stuff so you can have more creative and profound thoughts! In freeing up your mind from these open loops, you feel calmer, more in control and have space for new ideas.

 

The science behind GTD

This isn’t some voodoo nonsense, it’s grounded in solid science. Our brains are very good at having ideas. What they aren’t good at is holding them in there. In fact, when your brain is holding all the ‘stuff’ that life requires of us, a battle of space ensues and no-one wins. The simple act of writing things down and clearing them out of our mind frees our minds up for more creativity and expression

You may have experienced this in some way in the past. Before going on holiday, we usually write a LONG list of all the items we need to take. Or even before going food shopping, we often write a list so we don’t forget. Imagine trying to walk around remembering fifty items at Coles without a list? Balls would be dropped, items missed. “Oh shit, I forgot the milk”.

GTD goes a long way to preventing this. And, it works. If you run a business, or are in a creative role such as a designer or marketer, an external capturing system such as GTD is a godsend. Got kids? The effectiveness of GTD in your daily juggling sky rockets.

It helps you manage all the things that come at you each day so you can focus on the bigger-picture things and have more creative ideas. That logo concept can take shape, that new idea can come to life. You won’t forget the milk.

Given the year we’ve had, I cannot imagine doing it without my second brain. My poor old first brain would have left the building long ago (some still argue it did).

 

Quick Rundown:

In essence, GTD involves taking your open loops (i.e. stuff – emails, ideas, tasks, requests, etc) and getting them out of your mind and into an external system. This system can be paper, digital or like me, a combination of the two. The ‘stuff’ is placed directly into an inbox, and the items are sorted (Do Now, Do Later, Delegate, Trash, File). On a weekly basis (called a Weekly Review), any outstanding items are updated and cleaned out.

The GTD system is pretty simple once you get the hang of it and are able to make some of the key actions into habits. It does take discipline and it’s important not to abandon it when things get hectic or you get super busy – this is when you need it most.

 

Make it a habit:

The brain is an inconsiderate so and so. It doesn’t care if you are busy, sleeping or driving. If it has a thought (sometimes important) it will show up whenever it wants. Getting ‘the stuff’ out of your head when it randomly arrives (even at 2am) is key to making all this work. Luckily, modern technology has your back once again. Smartphone apps such as Braintoss enable you to speak, type or photograph your open loop and send it direct to your email inbox in one click. Back to sleep for me, I will deal with that in the morning.

 

Keep up the weekly reviews:

The cornerstone of GTD, the weekly review is a set time that you allocate each week to go over your system to make sure everything is captured and on cruise control. A good weekly review enables you to clear you mind of any little thing that have slipped through the cracks and is an opportunity to review your system and clean it out. Guilty of missing the odd weekly review here or there, I ALWAYS feel better for doing it. Try to keep around half an hour free at a set time each week to keep your second brain healthy and up to date.

If you are working a creative role or run a business, GTD is a great tool for managing all that comes your way. That said, the system works for anyone from teachers, to accountants to stay-at-home parents. It is ideal for anyone seeking clarity and calm in their busy lives. It makes you feel in control and opens you up to new ideas and more creativity.

The system is not rigid, it enables you to create it how you want it. Everyone’s mind is different and GTD lets you design your external second brain in a way that works for you. In today’s modern world where our attention is constantly being pulled in different directions, GTD really is like finding the secret of the universe.

Interested in learning more about Getting Things Done? You can buy David Allen’s excellent book here, listen to this great introductory podcast here, or get in touch with me for some tips and advice on where to start.

As a small business owner, we get hit from all sides, and on a daily basis. From emails to customer enquiries, from staffing issues to family matters. The long list of firefighting activities goes on!

Managing all this can be a juggle (and a struggle). Balls get dropped from time to time. Leveraging a variety of apps can really help keep these balls in play and keep your sanity intact.

What is an app? 

An app is simply a piece of software that plugs into your computer or smartphone to improve its functionality. There is almost an app for everything and if there isn’t, there is big business around finding the next one. Some apps are free, some are paid. Some are great, others not so much. It can be a little bit of trial and error to find what works for you and your team.

Let’s look at some of our favourites:

Wunderlist (free & paid versions)

Wunderlist is a task management app. After trialing a couple of different task managers, we went with Wunderlist. We found it easy to organise tasks into folders and set calendar reminders. Tasks can have notes and files added to them, as well as be delegated to other team members. As an avid follower of GTD methodology, getting things off your mind and into a system fast is essential. Crucially, the smartphone app allows for a quick and easy transfer of notes and tasks to your inbox for processing. Check it out here.

Calendly (free & paid versions)

Calendly is a great little tool for appointment & meeting bookings. With an easy 10min set up, this app links directly with Google calendar and allows clients to book into predetermined slots in your calendar. It is also super easy for clients to book appointments, so this one is a win-win all around. Check it out here.

Loom (free & paid versions)

We have only discovered the joys of Loom in the last 6 months and we absolutely love it! Loom allows you to record your computer screen and share it to your clients as video content, complete with audio. We have found it super useful in explaining various aspects of graphic design and in particular, web design. It’s great for customer support videos, staff training videos and even as a sales tool. Check it out here.

Agile CRM (paid only versions)

This one is quite new to us, but it is showing great promise. Having a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) is super important for a business both large and small. There are lots of options out there… Capsule, Salesforce, Zoho to name a few. We are currently playing around with Agile CRM and can see good potential in this app. Existing customers are your greatest asset, and Agile allows you to automate your marketing to them with email templates, contact forms, triggers and newsletter campaigns. In addition to this, there is a support module to take your customer relationships to the next level. Check it out here.

Grammarly (free & paid versions)

As we see more and more of our communications go online, there has been a steady drop in standards of spelling and grammar on both a personal and professional level. Poorly written emails, marketing campaigns and social media posts are commonplace across all platforms. This is where Grammarly comes in. Once installed onto your computer, Grammarly acts as a spelling and grammar check for your online correspondence. It is small and just runs in the background of your day to day communications. An unsung hero, Grammarly saves us from spelling errors, both large and small on a daily basis! Check it out here.

Quotient (paid only versions)

Anyone who has done work with us in the past has no doubt come across this one. Quotient is our quoting software and we love it. Fully integrated with Xero, it enables our quotes to stand out from our competitors. On receiving a quote, our clients can pick and choose between options, edit their quantity and even ask questions, all directly on the quote page. Once accepted, the quote automatically appears in Xero as a draft invoice for processing. Check it out here.

These apps (and many others) help us on a daily basis to run our business, juggle balls and ensure the needs and expectations of our customers are met. Do you know of any other apps that you use and love? Get in touch and let us know!

My first car was a bright red Ford Laser. Like any teenage boy, getting a decent stereo system installed was high on my priority list. Surround Sound, Sub Woofer & a Removable Face were all very important! With my CD wallet packed with my favourites, that car took me everywhere, great tunes along the way.

Fast forward 20 years… Marriage, 2 kids, a small business, iPhones, Blue Tooth and a marginally better car. Life has changed. I used to be able to pick the Top 10 of the JJJ Hottest 100 every year. Those days are long gone… somewhere along the line I got old!

My sounds of choice for my daily drive these days? Podcasts.

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, Podcasts are like radio shows (without the music) recorded and downloaded onto your Smartphone. With topics related to sports, comedy, business, personal development and more, there are podcast shows out there for almost everyone.

Whether you are iPhone or Android, both come with Podcast apps so you can search and play your favourites.

Let’s take a look at a few of ours, click on the link of the show to find out how to listen:

Abel Business Radio

Hosted by Zachary Sexton, this US-based show is great for small business. A small business owner himself, Zach’s format involves interviews with other small businesses where he delves into what makes them successful. With a focus on business automation, marketing and productivity, Abel Business Radio is a great resource and a nice, easy listen.

Great for: Marketing, Technology, Habits, Systems, Productivity, Small Business 

The Productivity Show by Asian Efficiency

These guys are great and have a loyal following for all things productivity. Covering a range of business-related topics, this podcast is full of actionable tips, life and business hacks, as well as useful apps and book suggestions.

Great for: Technology, Habits, Systems, Productivity, Small Business

Small Business, Big Marketing

Aussie local Tim Reid presents this podcast and as the name suggests, it has a strong marketing focus. With examples and interviews with successful local entrepreneurs, this show is a must for those in need of marketing inspiration and strategy.

Great For: Marketing, Small Business

The Profit First Podcast

A current favourite, this is not like any other Podcast. Mike Michalowiz’s Profit First Podcast is great – Highly entertaining & unconventional are not some of the words usually used to describe a finance-focused podcast. Somehow, Mike delivers this in spades with great guest speakers and actionable tips for small business.

Great For: Finance, Small Business

The 5am Miracle

Need of some good old inspiration to set you up the day and to get your stuff done? Look no further. Jeff Sanders’ podcast is full of easy to implement strategies for making the most out of those precious early hours.

Great For: Habits, Productivity

Optimal Living Daily

With a slightly different format, Justin Malik finds business and lifestyle blogs online and reads them on air. If you have no time (or desire) to go through that mountain of newsletter emails you get each week, this is ideal. With the average episode clocking in at around 10mins, its great for those little trips in and around town.

Great For: Habits, Productivity

Getting Things Done

If you have read the book and love GTD like me, this podcast is great. If you haven’t, do yourself a favour! With many interviews from author David Allen himself, this podcast is full of easy to implement tips and strategies to get your GTD game up to the next level.

Great For: Habits, Productivity, Small Business

Know a good podcast that isn’t listed? Get in touch and let us know, we are always interested in new ones to add to the list.

It’s January & gyms around the country are full. Full of promise, hope and intention. Like many, I ate so much ham and so much cheese over the Christmas period, I could almost toast myself. Come early January, I dragged myself back to the gym with all the other toasted sandwiches.

I have been a gym regular now for about 2 years, I know the drill. I need to just get through January. In January, the gyms are busy. I need to wait for equipment and queue for the treadmill. But I just need to be patient and wait it out. Once we hit the end of February, the numbers tend to thin out (no pun intended). The motivation and promise of the new year’s resolution have worn off. Losing a few kilos in 2018 can wait. After all, we still have 10 months to do that!

Why does it always happen this way? Quit smoking, start a new business, lose some weight. Why do so many goals set in early January go unfulfilled by late December?

Let’s look at some ways to beat the odds and make it happen.

Creating the right goals

 

Commonly attributed to Peter Drucker is the acronym SMART goals. This is a great way to frame your goals to make them achievable for the coming year. According to Drucker, your goals should be:

S – Specific: What is it that you want to achieve?

M – Measurable: By how much? Or by how many?

A – Achievable: Is this goal a realistic objective given my time and resources?

R – Relevant: Does this goal align with my core values?

T – Timely: By what time do I want to achieve this goal?

Using this formula, a common goal of “losing weight” becomes… Lose 10kg by March 31. Or “make more money” becomes… Earn $10k per month by June 30.

These goals are now specific, measurable and have a deadline for you to achieve them. This is giving you two vital ingredients – focus and direction.

Making goals work

 

No action, no chance

I went to a networking event last year. The speaker at the event suggested that in order to achieve goals, I should simply write them on a piece of paper and pop them on the fridge. Visualising them each morning as I grab for the milk.

Whilst writing down your goals is excellent advice, the speaker in question didn’t emphasise the need for action to make your goals happen. Without specific, indented action, my piece of paper was essentially worthless.

Once you identify your goals, you need to identify the key steps and actions required to achieve them. Keeping with the Lose 10kg by March 31^st goal, what are the key steps needed to make this happen? How many times do I need to do those steps? Your goal needs an action plan, processes in place to make it happen. So now it looks like this…

Goal: Lose 10kg by March 31
Process: Go to the gym in the morning 3 times per week for 45 minutes

Your calendar, your friend

Now you have your steps required, you need to make some dates with yourself. You need to book off time in your calendar and stick to it. No excuses. Don’t let other people’s goals and schedules get in the way of yours. Be selfish!

Make it a habit

Now you have your action steps, try to form habits around them. If one of your action steps is going to the gym in the morning, set an alarm. Put your gear out the night before. Eliminate the friction required to jump in when your motivation is low. After around 30 days, it will be a habit and you’ll never look back.

Reflect & review

Calendar block this too, it’s equally as important. How did you go with your appointments this week? Did you keep to your action steps? If not, what can you do to change this? Taking just 15 minutes at the end of the week to review this will skyrocket your chances of success.

Aim short

With 52 weeks in the year, its easy to see why most goals and resolutions fall through the cracks. After all, you have so much time to catch up! Many goals fail because the deadline is just too far away. You can’t see the finish line. By making smaller goals with a shorter timeframe, your chances of success are much higher.

Begin with the end in mind

What’s the point going on a journey with no destination? If you can’t see the finish line, you will just go off course. Having the desired outcome helps with your motivation and to keep you going when times are tough, or you just can’t be bothered. If you think about the end result when you frame your goal, it will help push you forward. So it now looks like…

Goal: Lose 10kg by March 31
Process:  Go to the gym in the morning 3 times per week for 45 minutes
Result:  I will have more energy throughout the day and will look great.

 

Taking these steps and forming your goals correctly will greatly help you achieve what you want in the coming year. Small wins here and there, will lead to bigger wins in the future. Good luck with your 2018 goals and make sure you frame them properly to ensure their success.

I didn’t expect 2017 to go this way. None of the other years preceding it had. I certainly wouldn’t be writing a blog post of this nature at the end of 2016.

In early 2017, I stumbled upon The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. The stress of a busy work and home life was catching up with me and I was looking for some divine intervention. Over the years, I have not exactly been prolific when it comes to reading. I limited my reading intake to musical biographies and The Da Vinci Code. Reading the 7 Habits put me on a path to personal and professional growth I didn’t see coming at the start of 2017.

 

Here are the top 10 productivity tips I learned in 2017 that I didn’t know were even ‘a thing’ in 2016.

 

1. Focus on the important, but not urgent tasks.

I am now able to categorise all my daily tasks and ensure I have time during my day to focus on the important, but not urgent matters. My health, relationships, future planning and improving myself. These matters don’t have a deadline but need to take the front seat to phone calls, emails and other people’s agendas. “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

Check out: https://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/10/23/eisenhower-decision-matrix/

 

2. Get things out of your head and written down.

David Allen’s Getting Things Done book and its methodology has become my bible. When I read and implemented this system, I felt like I had discovered the secret of the universe. Put simply, its all about getting things out of your head and into a trusted system. In effect, I have built an external brain (in this case, Wunderlist) that I add to constantly, and review on a weekly basis. Doing so has wonderful benefits as it clears space in my head of all the little things for more creative and critical thinking.

Check out: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/04/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-getting-things-done-gtd-philosophy/

 

3. Power of focus.

My staff must be sick of hearing me talk focus. Keeping your eye on one specific task, especially a cognitively challenging one. In the world of social media, emails and smartphones, it is more important than ever. I have started blocking out specific scheduled times for ‘deep work’. My email is logged out, my phone is off, my door is closed. Zero distractions mean total focus at the task at hand. I work faster and have better outcomes.

 

4. Emails & phones… handle with care.

The enemy of focus, the nemesis of full engagement. I have discovered email and phone notifications make you work to other people’s agendas and not your own. Do I have something important to do? A report, a business plan? I shut them all down. The world won’t end if I don’t check my email before 10am. Be it a report, a business plan or playing with my kids.

Especially playing with my kids. On your deathbed, will you wish you had spent more time engaged with your loved ones, or more time on Facebook?

Check out: https://www.asianefficiency.com/email-management/email-addict/

 

5. Multitasking is a bad habit and it’s worth breaking.

I learned that I was being tricked. Tricked into thinking my multitasking was serving me well. Tricked into thinking that the fact I saw my staff doing this was a good thing. In fact, all we were doing was giving partial attention to each task and using most of our mental energy switching between the two (or 3, or 4!). I was doing a less than stellar job at both things, instead of a great job on one.

 

6. My willpower is a finite resource

I have learned that my willpower is a limited resource that I need to manage throughout the day. Each day, we make 1000s of decisions (some big, some small) each one withdraws a little from our willpower bank. Being aware of this, I pack the start of my day with those important matters whilst my willpower is at its peak.

 

7. Journaling keeps you on straight and narrow.

I am not Adrian Mole. This isn’t some kind of ‘Dear Diary’ teenage thing. I do not keep my diary locked under my bed. I use it to keep track of what is important, what I am making progress on and what I am thankful for. I also use it to point out areas that need improvement. Does something keep popping up? Is there a pattern? I now have the data to guide me to make that change.

Check out: https://zacharysexton.com/productive-journal/

 

8. Meditation (I can’t believe I am doing this and neither can anyone else).

I discovered this isn’t some kind of cosmic voodoo BS reserved for Gwyneth Paltrow. It relaxes the mind, enhances your ability to focus and have control when you need it. I even found a no-nonsense, ‘normal’ guy who does guided meditations on my iPhone for simple people like me.

Check out: https://www.headspace.com/

 

9. The early bird catches the worm.

Much to my wife’s dismay, my day now starts between 4:00 & 4:30am. I soon discovered that 4:01am, 5:01am, 6:01am all feel exactly the same. What do I do at that ungodly hour? I use it wisely! Meditation, journaling, reading and exercise all form part of a great morning routine which sets me up for the day ahead. After the first month, it just became a habit. I became addicted to it and now I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

10. Eating frogs isn’t as bad as it seems.

I asked our digital printer Steve to make me a laminated poster in my office that reads ‘Eat That Frog’. He thought it was for my 5-year-old. When I said it was for me, he thought I was crazy! There is a method to my madness I told him.

At the end of the day, I write my ‘frog’ for the following day onto the poster.

What is my frog? My frog is the one thing I should do that will make my life better and push me towards my goals. Or the one thing I really need to do but keep putting off.

The next day when I get into work, my frog is decided for me. No emails, no phone calls. DND time is switched on. I get to work on my frog before the inevitable interruptions, phone calls and requests that come my way during the day.

Check out: https://www.asianefficiency.com/productivity/back2basics-frog/

 

10.1. Sharpen the Saw (Okay I couldn’t keep it to 10)

Like I said, pre-2017 Jonathan wasn’t exactly an avid reader. This year I have read (or at least listened to) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Getting Things Done, The 12 Week Year, Power of Full Engagement, Eat that Frog, How to be F*king Awesome, Power of Habit, Deep Work & How to Win Friends and Influence People. By no means prolific. But considering I hadn’t read even 10 books in the previous 20 years, it’s a milestone!

All this ensures I am constantly learning and open to new things, new experiences and new perspectives. I can continue to learn to become the best version of myself for my family, friends, work colleagues and most of all, for me.

Self-Indulgent Rant Over.

Merry Christmas,
Jonathan