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​I was listening to a podcast recently, and the guest, a personal trainer, made a statement that really struck me. He said so many people he works with approach exercise with a mindset of self-loathing and punishment because they feel inadequate or unattractive. While the subject was exercise, I realized it's true on a much broader scale.

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How often do you hang your head in frustration because 24 hours a day just isn't enough?
 
Time is one of the most valuable resources you have. You can never get it back once it's gone, so using time wisely is critical. If you feel you're constantly rushing from one task to another and never have a moment to breathe, it's time to explore opportunities to reclaim your time.
 

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Have you ever built up the difficulty of a task in your mind to the point you continually put off doing it? Human nature can lead you to overestimate the challenges of an unfamiliar or perceived unpleasant task. It's a bias that can also cause you to underestimate your capabilities.

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Spring has sprung in my small dot on the world. What does the onset of Spring evoke for you? Some are ready to shake off abandoned new year resolutions and tackle new challenges. Others find a refreshed sense of purpose around the goals they're currently striving to achieve.
 
No matter what spring signals for you, it is a perfect opportunity to plan your next steps. I love all the seasons we experience in the Midwest. Summer is intense with nature's various shades of green against a gorgeous blue sky. Fall feels cozy with the added attraction of the trees' brilliant color change. After leaves drift to the ground, Winter reveals the beauty of nature's underlying architecture, and the gently falling snow feels magical.

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What happens when your productivity increases? You're probably thinking, seriously? What a silly question; you'll get more done.
 
While it is accurate that you will get more done, there is so much more to it. Like most people, you probably feel overwhelmed. Your to-do list won't stop growing. Your email inboxes keep filling up, not to mention your packed calendar and general information overload.

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How often do you think about systematically removing information from your physical and digital files?
 
Several years ago, I worked with a local manufacturing company after a new HR Director came in. She hired me to conduct an Office Renewal Event. During this event, a team has the time, permission, and resources to eliminate anything from the workspace that can be tossed, recycled, shredded, or deleted.

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Getting organized is consistently among the top five most common new year resolutions. So, it's no accident that January is Get Organized month.

But I want you to look beyond being 'organized.' January is the big exhale for many businesses after a (hopefully) busy holiday season. You should invest this time, or whenever it's off-peak for your business, to focus on improvements that will pay dividends long into the future. One of those improvements is systems.

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My holiday season officially starts only after watching the Walt Disney Pictures TV short, Prep and Landing, with my husband.
 
It tells the delightful story of an elite team of elves, known as Prep and Landing, that helps Santa get in and out of millions of homes worldwide in one night. By preparing each site and guiding Santa and his reindeer in for landing, the team saves the Big Guy an incredible amount of time, allowing him to accomplish this monumental task.

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As we hurtle down the runway toward the most hectic time of year for many of us, both personally and professionally, let's take a moment to keep things in perspective.

Recently, as I attempted to set my priorities for the day, I became acutely aware of my sense of overwhelm regarding what the next 8 - 10 weeks would bring. That's right. I felt profoundly overwhelmed even with my fancy-schmancy task management system and my weekly review.

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How often do you say to yourself (or others), "there aren’t enough hours in the day?"
 
Time management is a popular term. It conjures visions of stopping clocks and herculean feats of efficiency, squeezing in one more task or commitment. In reality, it's less about managing time and more about managing ourselves and our decisions. We know that ineffective time management results in stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, burnout, low self-esteem, and low confidence. Arguably, nothing we want.

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​What does this quote say to you? It tells me in our quest for growth, the best time to act is now. So, what holds us back as we try to improve ourselves? Usually, fear and mistaken beliefs.

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I know this about myself and suspect many can relate - sometimes, I have an all-or-nothing mindset. If I can't complete something from start to finish in one shot, I procrastinate starting at all.
 

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I had a Zoom video meeting scheduled on my calendar. These days, who doesn't, right? Shortly before start time, the person messaged me saying their computer had gone into an unexpected update, they couldn't access the Zoom link, and they would have to reschedule.

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What do you think and feel when you hear the word "routine"? For some, it brings thoughts of rigidity and mind-numbing boredom. For others, it evokes calm and a sense of accomplishment. 
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No matter your reaction to the word, I promise you - you have routines. You may not have intentionally crafted them, but you have them. When we allow detrimental habits to play out on auto-pilot, these routines can work against us. When we use our routines for good, they create consistency and intention around positive behaviors.

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Many of us are facing a new clutter trap.

In the not-so-distant past, working in the office typically provided us access to a printer, making it quick and easy to print notes, meeting agendas, contracts, and more. Many of these documents landed permanently on our desks.

After being thrust into work-from-home, another clutter trap emerged. The cluttered computer desktop replaced our cluttered physical desktop.

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Leadership First recently posted a quote on LinkedIn, attributed to Tim McClure: "When passionate employees become quiet, it usually sends a signal that the work environment has become very dysfunctional."

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Before you even get started, do you hang your head in defeat when you look at your to-do list? I've been there, and no doubt many can relate to that feeling. 
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To-do lists are fantastic for capturing random tasks you think you'll remember, but let's be honest, if you don't write them down, you forget them 10 seconds later. To-do lists help map out the individual steps and the necessary order of those steps for projects. They're a great tool, whether paper or digital, but they can get overwhelming.

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No doubt, you've heard the statistic that humans have a shorter attention span than goldfish. Human attention wanes between 6 and 8.25 seconds depending on whose statistics you read, while the goldfish hangs in there for 9 seconds. The commonly held belief is that technology has eroded our ability to concentrate with continuous notifications and never-ending scrolling.

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Have you ever been so lost in the weeds you lost sight of the bigger picture? At some point, I think we all have. And while attention to detail is important, too narrow a focus often comes at the expense of the greater goal.

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When you hear the word clutter, what comes to mind? If you're like most people, you envision stacks of unfiled paper, old take-out menus, and closets full of clothes that no longer fit.
 
But clutter goes beyond the physical. It can also accumulate in the form of digital and emotional clutter.

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In a post almost two years ago, I confessed avoidance and fear of my weekly review. At the time, I celebrated the completion of an unprecedented streak of two consecutive reviews. Two weeks doesn't sound like an accomplishment, but it certainly was for me.

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Have you ever felt frustrated that things weren't going your way? I talked with my business coach recently, spouting multiple frustrations and reasons I felt overwhelmed.

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Times of transition can be upsetting, frustrating, and overwhelming. Even if the change is positive, we feel we've lost our footing and cannot regain our balance. A variety of situations can make us feel this way: a job change, a residential move, a corporate acquisition, just to name a few.

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If you've caught the news recently, you likely heard the term "The Great Resignation" of 2021. (For the benefit of those who haven't heard of it, The Great Resignation is a term coined to identify the staggering number of employees worldwide resigning from their jobs in 2021.)

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Every year, on the last weekend of August, one of the largest art festivals in the US comes to my city. After the surrounding streets are blocked, I love watching the artists set up their booths.