Koi in the Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

The days of talking about resolutions may be behind us for a while, but there is never a bad time to make some small changes that will yield big results. Past February posts from the New Leaf blog suggest a few changes you may want to try now, so you can do more of what matters, and do it more easily.

A quote from Pearl Bailey reminds us of what’s really important in the world – see if you don’t agree.

Don’t feel that you must fill every bit of space or every second of time in the name of being “efficient.” Learn to incorporate and enjoy a bit of white space in your calendar and in your office.

What three words signal trouble ahead, leading to procrastination and piles? It’s probably not what you’re thinking.

Enjoy the rest of the month!

shutterstock (c) Sergey Peterman

kisses are a better fate

than wisdom.

~ e.e. cummings

istockphoto.com © anna karwowska

There are three ways to change your behavior.

• You can have an epiphany. If you know the story of Byron Katie’s remarkable turn-around, you have an example of an epiphany. These are hard to engineer, so looking for one to show up can be a long and frustrating wait.
• You can change your context. When I went to a spa for a week last summer, I awoke every morning and went for a five-mile hike. There is nothing to prevent me from doing that every morning at home; I just don’t. But as long as I stayed in that spa context, the new behavior was easy.
• You can make “micro-changes,” adjustments so small your brain doesn’t bother to rebel.

Having spent most of two decades studying how humans change behavior (and how they don’t), Stanford University researcher B. J. Fogg has devised a plan to help us finally make some of the changes we’ve wanted. He invites the world into his methods through his website TinyHabits.com

The secret to changing habits, it appears, is to make them so small that they seem trivial. The classic example of how this works involves flossing. I’m going to guess that everyone has been told by their dentist and hygienist that they should floss their teeth for “good oral hygiene.” And I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that most people have a collection of little floss samples stacked up in their medicine cabinet because MOST PEOPLE DON’T FLOSS (except the day before their next dentist appointment.) We know it’s good for us. We know that realistically, it takes all of one minute, about the same as brushing. So why don’t most of us take that second minute once a day and floss? It’s a mystery.

And here is what Fogg’s tiny habits method prescribes: floss one tooth. don’t try to cajole yourself into action by saying that you’re going to do one tooth then do them all. Just floss one. Do it every day. And watch what happens. I can tell you what happened to me – one day, about three weeks in, I had an itch for completion. I wanted, needed to floss them all. I wasn’t even particularly aware of the change, which seemed natural and unconscious. And now I can’t not floss. Mission accomplished.

Fogg doesn’t address this question directly, but I believe that adding a habit is simpler than breaking a habit – it’s easier to add flossing than it would be to quit something. However, I am using Fogg’s method of making a micro-change in order to edge out coffee with lots of milk in favor of healthier choices. The strongest habit in my day is to get up, go to the kitchen, and make instant coffee. (A personal note: my friends, who know how much I enjoy good food and how much work I’m willing to go to in order to prepare it, think it’s hilarious that I drink instant coffee most days. They make Cremora jokes. My son, a coffee-lover since the age of two, when coffee yogurt emerged as his favorite flavor, finds it unspeakable. But instant coffee – organic Mount Hagen brand – works for me.)

I began the experiment by linking my new, desired behavior to one that is already entrenched. (My friend and organizing colleague Janine Adams has written about her adventures with taking a job that loomed large and unpleasant and making it happen automatically. You can read more on her Peace of Mind Organizing blog. She also teaches a class on the subject of changing habits. Read more about it at simplify101.) Rather than making a sweeping change, declaring that there would be “no more coffee from now on!”, I went through my accustomed motions, putting water in the kettle, getting out two cups and a spoon, turning on the stove. But in addition I added “getting out a glass and putting a tea bag in it.”

For many days I enjoyed my coffee, then later in the afternoon came back to the cup and tea bag that were waiting and enjoyed my tea then. But after about four weeks of this, suddenly, rather than pouring the water into the coffee cup, I poured it into the tea cup. No drama. No big all-or-nothing resolutions. Just a little micro-shift. This habit is still new, but for now I seem to have successfully replaced my coffee with tea, often herbal tea.
One key to these micro-changes is that they must be specific: “floss one tooth” rather than “do more grooming.” And they must be almost laughably trivial, the sort of task that can be done in 30 seconds or less with virtually no effort, such as “put a tea bag in a glass.”

As I mentioned earlier, one key is to connect these new behaviors to another habit that is already entrenched. It is easier to add flossing one tooth after brushing (an entrenched habit) than it is to add something without another habit to act as the anchor. I find that I have few durable habits for later in the day, so I set out to create one.

Now when I open my computer in the morning (a daily habit) I set an alarm for 4 pm. With this new 4 pm alarm habit in place, I can add end-of-the-day habits: when the 4 pm alarm goes off, I will pick up one paper from my stack of filing. Not file it, just pick it up: remember, the micro-change should be laughably trivial. Guess what has happened to my stack of filing over the past two months? For the first weeks, not much, but then some shift took hold in my brain, and now end-of-day filing is a growing habit.

Decisions are both tiring and time-consuming, so enlisting new habits can be a great benefit for productivity – we get more done with less effort when we choose to do certain things habitually. What little habits would you like to add to your life? What micro-changes will you make? Leave a message here.

photo from istockphoto.com 2012 © akiyoko

I have seen:

• a design-conscious client who felt that all her files MUST fit into a small rattan box under her table, like she’d seen in magazines.
• a home-based business that tried to get by with a decrepit metal file cabinet that was hard to open, harder to squeeze in another sheet of paper.
• a multi-million dollar company that, in building its own headquarters, neglected to make enough space for the files needed to hold the paper that is the life-blood of its paper-intensive business.

It ‘s a fine thing to minimize the paper in our lives to the greatest extent possible. It is not so good to attempt to defy the laws of physics by storing 10 pounds of sugar in a five-pound bag.

Sure, the papers that pile up can be annoying, but let’s be serious: we need some information on paper to run those businesses that support us. When a legal or tax challenge arises, only your papers can help you. Are you dissing your documents? Time to show your papers the respect they deserve.

•  Make sure you have enough file space for the volume of paper your business needs. Measure how many feet of file space your papers require, then add 20 percent or more for growth.
• Don’t put up with daily irritations: your file drawers should open easily, and there should always be enough room to add or search for papers easily. If you’re working with a cantankerous old file cabinet, well, don’t! Replace it now.
• Set up a file system that includes homes for all the types of papers you regularly need.
• Make your papers easier to put away than they are to find. (It’s the toy box principle – you will search for three minutes to find what you want, but it should take less than a minute to put it away. Otherwise, the job won’t get done.)
• When you’ve set up a file system, make a file index and keep it up to date with any changes. This helps you to remember what you’ve done and makes it easier for assistants and colleagues to maintain the system.

When you need information in a pinch, your paper can be your friend. Just be sure to show it the respect it deserves.

Uncertain about what to keep and for how long? Look at my free record retention guide. (Scroll down to “How long should I keep this paper?”)

photo © Zeffss1

Delegation is one of the most difficult skills for many entrepreneurs to pick up. There are  a lot of reasons for this – the skills and traits required for long-term delegation make the subject of other posts.

But what if we just need a little low-stress help on a temporary basis? We don’t need to write a complete job description and hire an assistant, but we would really like someone to knock a couple of things off our to-do list. Enter taskrabbit.com

Taskrabbit.com matches people who need a job done with people who have time to do it. The concept is simple. Look at your task list and find the things you need to delegate. Last fall, I (living in California) needed someone to deliver cupcakes from my son’s favorite bakery in New York to his apartment, also in New York, to celebrate his birthday. Clearly, I couldn’t do the job.

I went to taskrabbit.com and requested someone for the job. The assignment was quickly snapped up by a delightful task rabbit named Jessica. I called the bakery to place the order. On the big day, Jessica went to the bakery and found a little hitch with the order. She phoned me, we sorted it out, and she delivered the goods to my son’s apartment in time for him to enjoy a fine celebration. He was beyond pleased at my gesture, made with the aid of a task rabbit.

A client of mine with no time or energy to pick up food let a task rabbit get her order from a local grocery and deliver it for an affordable price. Others use task rabbits to wrap holiday gifts and decorate, keep platters filled at parties, assemble Ikea furniture, pick up laundry, and a thousand other odd jobs.

According to taskrabbit.com, the typical “rabbit” is most often retired, a stay-at-home mom with a little extra time, or a college student. Anyone with flexible time and a desire to help those in need may apply to become a task rabbit.

As a business owner, remember that Frank Sinatra didn’t move his own piano, and Babe Ruth didn’t sew his own uniform. Work in your genius, and let other work in theirs. Taskrabbit.com can help you let go of tasks that shouldn’t be yours in the first place.

Delegation exists when you are clear on the task (especially its outcome and deadline), you have given that information to another person, and they have agreed to take it on and be responsible for it. Without those elements, delegation hasn’t taken place.

What jobs could you delegate? Leave a comment here.

I often work with people who have tried GTD and after a while quit using it. Some drifted away, others deliberately dropped it because it wasn’t working for them. Where does the use of GTD fall short? Let me just share three common problems that I’ve observed.

GTD relies on the use of “contexts” to use time more efficiently. The idea is that it is better to make phone calls all in a batch, then handle email in a batch, and so on, rather than switching from one “context” to another. For someone with more than a hundred items on their daily task list, this may be true. For example, imagine an interior designer working on multiple client projects at once. It may be helpful to keep track of what needs finding by store and by client. Or imagine an executive in charge of two regional offices, spending some time each week working in each – they need a way to sort for what can be done now, in the place they are. But most people have, not hundreds but maybe a dozen or a few dozen items on their daily list. The time it takes to track the contexts – entering them into the system with each and every task – actually doesn’t pay any dividend. And having to look at multiple contexts rather than just one list creates pockets where tasks can be overlooked. My suggestion: use contexts only if your work warrants it.

GTD calls for a weekly review of outstanding items to let go of tasks that may have seemed useful once but no longer have a good claim on our time. This is good hygiene: it keeps the list “clean.” It’s sometimes not enough for the many people who struggle with letting go of tasks and admitting that those items won’t ever get any attention. GTD is not helpful for people who have a hard time dismissing tasks whose “use by” date has passed. If this is a particular problem for you, I suggest looking at Mark Forster’s SuperFocus system. It is the most effective way I have seen yet to train a brain to sift, sort, and let go of old tasks that may be hanging on, crowding out new and more interesting possibilities.

GTD calls for one or more “collection buckets,” tools into which you put tasks to get them out of your head. Many people find it too hard to maintain their GTD system because they have too many such buckets, and they don’t empty them often enough. Suppose I have my master list in the calendar program on my computer. As I’m out walking I think of another task not on my list, so I get it out of my head by putting it into another collection bucket, in this case by calling my office phone and leaving myself a message. That will work just fine provided that I check that secondary “bucket” (my voicemail) and empty it into my master list. If I collect notes on the back of business cards, voicemails, emails, and scribbles on index cards, I must have a reliable way to dump those into my main collection bucket. The only solution for this is a bit of discipline in order to make the system work. To my knowledge there is no task management or productivity system that can get around the need for one main collection point and the willingness to use it.

Have you tried GTD? What did you observe? If you’ve stopped using a system, why? What does your productivity system need that it doesn’t haven now? Leave a comment here.

I’m dipping into the archives to offer you, my readers, a few yummy posts from those past Januarys. You know, since I can’t serve you cake digitally.

In case you thought that clutter and excess stuff was a new problem, enjoy this excerpt from a book describing what was in someone’s “garage” 3,000 years ago. Are there things in your life that are “unfit for service?”

If you aren’t making the progress you’d like, ask yourself if you need someone on your team to supply what you can’t – a tax planner, an assistant, a coach, an organizing trainer, a graphic artist, or better, an information designer. Two years ago I hired a virtual assistant, and shared with you all the questions I asked to help me choose the right person. When interviewing, remember – money is the last question you need to ask. If the person can solve your problems, a million dollars may not be enough. If they aren’t a good match for you, two cents may be too much. Is there someone you need to add to your team? (Quick update: my very skillful assistant resigned last year to accept a full-time position. Sometimes we business owners rearrange because we’re ready to, sometimes because we’re forced to. I have rearranged my business to function without an assistant for the time being. But I really appreciate all that Christine brought to my business in the 20 months we worked together.)

Finally, are you using your office real estate to the max? Consider whether you’re keeping the right occupants in your space.

Wishing that your short January days are long on productivity and ease!

I’m talking about a time-management method called the Pomodoro Technique. First taught in the early 1990s, the technique was developed by an Italian named Francesco Cirillo. Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato, and it refers to the kitchen timer shaped like a red, round tomato.

How can a kitchen timer help us to deal with interruptions and get more done? Here’s a quick introduction to how the Pomodoro Technique works.

The idea is to choose a single task, then work on your chosen activity for just 25 minutes. Set your ticking pomodoro timer, then sit down to write that report, pay those bills, file those papers, or whatever. After each 25-minute session, take a 5-minute break. After every 4 sessions, take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes. Use your breaks to move away from your desk, stretch, get some water or a snack, or take a bio-break. (Move your body; reading email does not count as a break.)

One of the reasons we suffer so much from interruption is that in addition to those calls for help that come from family or co-workers, we are our own worst interrupters. Our minds are constantly checking in to see what we might be missing, what else is happening besides what we’re doing, and to check on the passage of minutes. These internal interruptions make it very hard to concentrate on one task even for a short time, much less to reach that easy, immersive flow state.

Why does it help to work with a timer? Setting a kitchen timer allows us to relax into a task. We know that we won’t lose track of time. The timer has got that job covered and will ring out when our time is up. And we are less likely to feel anxious about the size of a task when we know that we’re just going to take it in one 25-minute chunk at a time.

Why does it help to work with a ticking timer?

For years I worked with a silent digital timer. My kitchen timer was maddeningly loud. I found it hard to concentrate. But with no reassuring sound, it could also be hard to believe that the timer was really doing its job. I was sometimes tempted to “check up on the timer” to see how long I had left to work.

If the Pomodoro Technique sounds intriguing to you, you can download the originator’s e-book for free. Details are in the resource box, below.

And if you’d like to take the Pomodoro Technique with you wherever you go, there are smart phone and notebook apps galore. My favorite is one by Navel Labs, which includes a space to note what you’re working on – an essential tool for those with attention deficits but helpful for those of us who are garden-variety distracted.

A softly ticking timer can provide a kind of white noise that helps to filter out distractions. People with attention deficits often find it easier to work with a bit of background noise and activity, which the timer can provide.

And there’s more – much more – to this simple technique. Applying all the features outlined in the e-book provides a way to improve our ability to estimate how long a task will take, overcome procrastination, and soothe anxiety about working on certain tasks. But you don’t have to use the whole program to receive the benefits.

If the only part you use is to work in timed 25-minute increments followed by a short break, you will establish a habit of working at a sustainable pace, without interruption.

One final reminder: choose your task before you start the timer. Focus is essential to the process.

Have you tried the Pomodoro Technique? What was your experience? Leave a comment here.

Then I calculated what faster reading would mean for me. Between newspapers, magazines, and books, I spend 30 minutes to an hour reading every day. If I could just double my reading speed, it would save me hours every week, and weeks every year. Who wouldn’t want that? I sure do.

I tested several methods of increasing reading speed, which I’ll tell you about in a minute. First, I’d like to share one simple technique you can use that can significantly improve both your reading speed and your comprehension – that is, how much you understand and recall of what you’ve read.

Many people are slowed down in their reading because their active minds are wandering as they read. This was one of my problems. Every idea, every sentence sent me off in some other direction, at least for a few seconds. Another habit that can slow our reading is the practice of re-reading a section.

To help address these issues, keep a plain index card or blank paper with your reading material. Place the card ABOVE the sentence you’re reading and push it down the page as you read. Set a pace that’s just a little ahead of your habitual, comfortable reading speed.

Using a card to help push your eyes along does two things. First, it prevents re-reading by covering up previous paragraphs. And it urges us, like runners in training, to pick up the pace a bit. When our minds are fully engaged in keeping up with the advancing card, there is no time for woolgathering. And when we are more focused on our reading, our comprehension improves as well.

This was one of the happiest surprises that I found. When I read faster, I also got more out of what I had read.

This technique alone increased my reading speed by 100 percent, and I’m not unusual in this result. Doubling your reading speed is in easy reach for most people.

If you’d like more help to read faster, there are lots of resources available.

To get dramatic results with a minimal investment, you might try Bobbi DePorter’s book Quantum Reading, the Power to Read Your Best. At just 55 pages, this little book contains just a handful of quick strategies along with a brief explanation of how and why they work. But if you put those strategies into practice, you’ll get a great payoff in faster reading speed and more free time.

Another book is 10 Days to Faster Reading by the most famous name in speed-reading, Abby Marks Beale. Co-authored with The Princeton Language Institute, this book is both comprehensive and simple. If you learn well from a book, this is a great one.

If you’d rather take an online class, Abby Marks Beale offers Rev It Up Reading. This online course consists of nine modules of half an hour each. It includes automatic timers so you can track your improvement, and there is email support available at all times. The course currently costs $199, which buys you access for a limited time, after which the course goes away. You can find all the details at RevItUpReading.com.

If you’d rather own your course permanently, another option is the Photo Reading CD course by Learning Strategies Corporation. Photo Reading contains all the basic principles of other speed-reading programs, with the addition of CDs aimed at improving memory and related skills. Some of the language and imagery is somewhat esoteric, to go with the company’s other offerings, which include dousing, feng shui and subliminal learning. And there are suggestions that a reading speed of 45,000 words per minute, while not typical, is possible. Whatever you think about those aspects, the course does work to double and triple your current reading speed. The course is currently listed on the Learning Strategies.com website at $530.

As with learning any new skill, practice is key. But the investment of time in improving your reading speed will be repaid in hours and weeks.

And I believe that the best plans are as simple as possible.

So here’s my resolution for me and my wish for you for 2012.