​Starting in December 2018 I turned attention to sharing 19 productivity tips for 2019. Each one is relatively short in nature, but applied, has the potential to make a significant impact on your work. We wrapped up with the series last week, and in today’s post I wanted to include a link to all 19 so you can get the bird’s eye view of the tips. Take note of which ones could support you the most in terms of your work and priorities at this time.

Here are links to all 19 of the posts in this series: 

1. Have a clear vision. Without a clear vision it is hard to know where to go.

2. Know where you are getting results

3. Know where you are getting your results – 80/20

4. Know Where Your Time Goes. Be ruthless with your time.

5. Systems

6. Chunk it!

7. Make it Visual

8. Tame the inbox!

9. 8 Essential Meeting Questions
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10. Support Action & Clarity with 3 Bullet Points

11. Circadian Rhythm – when are you at your best

12. Build in regular time for review

13. Get the important stuff out of the way

14. Content Creation: Repurpose, Reuse, Recycle

15. Avoid analysis/paralysis – Get into action

16. Build relationships

17. Set a Start and an End - Parkinson’s Rule

18. What doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done – Build it in advance

19. Track it!

Which ones would be useful to revisit?
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Which one could you apply more fully?

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

PS - If you have enjoyed these tips, do be sure to check out the new on-demand, video based course I have created around these. The program can be taken at your own pace, You can stretch the tips out daily, weekly or monthly. Join me this year for bi-weekly calls as part of your registration. Cost: $129 US. Learn more and register here. 

This week we’re taking a look back at the Teams365 January 2018 posts where I kicked off the year with the 2018 kickstart. Over the first month I included tips around creating momentum and boosting your productivity through 18 posts. January posts last year covered 8 days of focus on your goals.
Today we are going to take a look back at Teams 365 1469.

Here’s what I wrote:

“In today’s busy world, it’s very common to get on the treadmill of doing, without taking time to stop, and reflect on what’s working and what’s not. While we might not have a full day to dedicate to planning regularly “micro-bursts” of 5-15 minutes regularly can make a difference.

Peter Drucker wrote “Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”  Peter Drucker

Over the last 8 days we have explored:
Take stock of your achievements and successes from the year that was – Day 1. Read it here.
Create a clear and compelling vision of your year – Day 2. Read it here
Be specific with your goals – Day 3. Read it here.
Identify and focus on priorities first – Day 4. Read it here.
Create habits and practices that will support you in what you want to achieve – Day 5. Read it here.
Be ruthless with your time and scheduling – Day 6
Develop a community of support around you – Day 7
In the same vein, building in time to celebrate is Day 8

Consider these questions for today’s prompts:
1. As you think back to the last 8 days, what have you achieved?
2. What needs a change from the original goals you mapped out last week?
3. What momentum have you created for yourself? 
4. What are you most surprised about?
5. What have you learned about yourself, your vision and your goals?
6. What have you noticed about your pace of action and reflection (i.e. when do you do this best – early morning? Late at night? In chunks?) 
7. What time do you want to build in to make planning, and “quiet reflection” a regular part of your world?
8. What will you do to celebrate your movement forward?
9. Complete this sentence, by the end of January I will have…..
10. By the end of the year I will have….

We will be continuing our journey through the 19 for 2019 Productivity tips.. Check out # 1 – 7 here.
 
Enjoy your first weekend of 2019,
Jennifer

Welcome back to the first Teams365 Team Building Tip for 2019. A reminder that every Thursday I include a question to bring into your weekly team or project meetings, to spark conversation. You can review the past 200 here. 

The first question of this year gets you to think about, and be in dialogue around, the question “By the end of this year, we will…”. Take a few minutes in this first meeting of the year to discuss and dream. Capture your ideas, and perhaps take a photo of it which you can circulate and share with the entire team. As I have written in past blog posts, it is important to keep your vision visible throughout the year.

I’ve also made available in a digital license format a series of 56 Teams365 Team Sparkers.  This brings together a majority of the first year’s weekly questions in a card format. You can purchase a hard copy set here, or order the digital set. The digital step includes a couple of bonus resources to make up 56 jpegs you can copy and paste into your presentations and meetings. Check out Volume 1 here which is bundled with the Conversation Sparker cards.
 
Enjoy the conversation!
Jennifer

​As we wind down 2018, what a better way to start looking to the future than to ask ourselves to reflect on the question, “The Grand Adventure is….”
I invite you today to take some time to get creative with this prompt.
Do some dreaming.
Stretch.
Savor.
Continue enjoying this quieter time of year, and the time we have available to take stock, and spend doing the things we love with our loved ones.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Today’s Flashback Friday takes us back to December 2015 and my post entitled  “2016 Resolutions and Support To Make Them Happen”– you can read it here.

Here’s what I wrote:

"As you have been thinking about your 2016 plans, I'm sure a few new resolutions have cropped up. Some common ones I've heard from team leaders in recent years have included:

* Spending more one-on-one time with team members
* Making meetings more efficient
* Getting a handle on email management and/or other office organizing issues
* Creating more defined boundaries with time on and time off of work
* Creating more defined boundaries around technology
* Becoming more efficient with time
* Getting more exercise (especially at lunch time to create a break and thinking time!)

What are your new year's resolutions? Take a look at the statistics around new years resolutions which StatisticsBrain.com have shared here.

They note that 45% of American adults create new years resolutions with 8% being successful. That's a pretty low percentage. I've recently had dialogue with a number of team leaders I coach and support around things they may want to do to raise that amount and be more successful.

Here are four things you might want to consider in making your resolutions stick into 2016:

1. Be clear in articulating them. The StatisticsBrain.com article  notes that those who are explicit in making new years resolutions are 10x more successful in achieving their goal.

2. Write them down and make them visible. Many of us, myself included, set resolutions but don't make them visible. Post its, or a reminder on your phone can help to
What will help keep your goals visible?

3. Share them and create some accountability partners around them. Share your goals with others and create some accountability partners who can cheer you on, or hold your feet to the fire (whatever is needed by you in that moment!). We know from lots of studies how important having an accountability partner really is.
Who do you want to share your resolutions with? Who can be a support or accountability partner to you?

4. Be selective in the number of resolutions you choose. It's very easy to create a long laundry list of things you want to do AND the more we add to the list, the harder it may be to remember, or the more diffuse our efforts become. You may have one or two major goals in different areas of your life, OR a small handful across areas (such as finances, relationships, career/business, family, health etc).
Ultimately, what are the resolutions you want to focus on?"


As we step into the new year of 2019, I hope that you’ll be able to incorporate some of these tips. What are your resolutions for the new year? What will help them stick?

Have a great day,
Jennifer

​216: A year from now, at the start of 2020, we will have ________________
As the final Team Building Tip of 2018, prompt #216 is “ A year from now, at the start of 2020, we will have ______”
For those that are working this week, my hope is that it’s a quieter week to get things in order and wind down projects for the year.
Here at the Teams365 blog we are wrapping up 5 years of daily blog posts. I’ve enjoyed bringing you Thursday Team Building Tips. 
 
Thanks for joining us for this journey.
Many of you have been enjoying the Team Sparker Cards so much that I am now offering the first 52 as a digital license. You can bring these into your team meetings, incorporate them into your next meeting slides, or use them at town halls. Click here to order a copy. You’ll receive the download link to the digital files which are housed in Dropbox.

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Coming December 14, 2018 – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner . Pre-order a copy today
Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat!

​#5 – Know Where your Time Goes

Productivity Tip #4 was Ruthless Time Management, and an invitation to do some data generation around where you are really spending your time. If you have not yet completed this activity, do it now. You’ll need it for this week’s tip, which is to do some assessment on where your time is going.

In today’s busy world, it is very easy to get side-tracked with the “shiny red objects”. These often look very alluring – perhaps promising a quick return or getting things done more quickly. Many times however they become a “rabbit hole” taking you off-course and away from the most important things.

In most of the planning frameworks I have created for the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Planners, I usually include a small box to be filled in with your Top 5 Goals for the month (or quarter). This is a prompt to consider what is most important for you at any given moment.

Where we spend our time should be aligned with our priorities, as well as our values and what’s important for us.

This week, take stock of how your time is being spent in service to your:
Immediate priorities – what is your top 5 for the month/quarter?
Values – What are the elements that are essential to you and your work? Is it excellence, quality, customer service? Note how much time you are spending in values-based activities.
Vision – What % of activities are being spent towards your big picture goals? Towards what is really important for you?

In the Teams365 series of Time Management workshops I share a Time Tracker resource. I’ll be offering this in 2019 as both an on-demand and live program for professionals of all levels. If you are interested in staying connected around all things planning and time management, do sign up for the PlanDoTrack newsletter list.

As you review your data, what are the adjustments you want to make in service to your priorities, values and vision?

Touchpoint with PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner.
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If you have not yet completed your Quarter 1 Goals, refer to the Quarterly  Planning Tools. There you will be encouraged to note your high-level goals and your Top 5. Next, lay them out across the first 3 months of the year. After doing this, you may then want to flip into the monthly pages, and start noting the key activities in the monthly calendars. Start breaking down each activity with smaller steps, adding them to the Monthly To-Dos or the Month in  Focus sheet.

Enjoy,
​Jennifer

I’m really pleased to announce my latest publication, geared specifically for virtual and remote team members. On December 14th the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Remote and Virtual Professionals will be available for sale on Amazon.

Part workbook, part planner, it’s geared for virtual and remote team members, leaders and virtual businesses. Based on the success of the release of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner in July, I’ve adjusted the workbook for the virtual and remote team space.

It’s an analog, desk sized calendar, to reflect the importance of having one “Go to” resource to place your “To Dos”, project ideas, content plans and monthly reflections.

Divided into four sections, the workbook covers:

• Virtual and Remote Business Foundations – for teams and also businesses. This includes a series of skill checks and some of the latest stats on virtual and remote work.
  
• The Primer – Success tips and focus areas which you can integrate into your business, or further refine for a great prime.
  
• Marketing Essentials – Whether we are sharing what our virtual team is doing, positioning our services, or going out to promote on social media, the marketing essentials.
  
• The Ecosystem – At the heart of a successful virtual team, business or leader is ourselves. The Ecosystem section focuses on who YOU are as a leader – your strengths, values and opportunities. This section has evolved out of the Inner Business leader Virtual Retreats I have hosted for years.
  

 
The planner section covers Annual, Quarterly and Monthly planning resources, along with a robust content planning section. Including more than 28 resources you’ll find :

• Monthly Trackers – to track different elements for your business
• Annual project planners
• Quarterly Reviews
• Monthly In Focus
• Monthly

The planner pages are undated so you will benefit from starting the resource at any time.

In addition to the workbook and planner, I also host regular virtual events around planning. Each month end I host a virtual reflection hour, and
The workbook is more than 285 pages and costs $29.95. You can pick up a copy on Amazon. 

If this is a topic you are interested in (and most people are at this time of year), do consider joining me for the 14 days of PlanDoTrack series, which includes a mix of live virtual calls (open to everyone), blog posts and some other special events. Check out the daily schedule here and download a copy.
​
Best wishes,
Jennifer

​As we round out 2018 and get set up for 2019, I’m dedicating Tuesday and Wednesday posts to a series I’m entitling 19 Productivity Hacks for 2019.

As some of you may know, support around performance improvement – on the individual, team and organizational level – has been a significant part of my work and our focus here at Potentials Realized since 2004. This takes us into a range of conversations from a focus on team effectiveness to discussion around work-life issues to support to project management.

In these 19 posts over the Tuesdays and Wednesdays in December 2018 and January 2019 I will be lasering into 19 discrete focus areas which can be looked at step-by-step or independently. Depending on how you work and what your style is, you may want to look at each one of these daily or on a weekly basis.

1. Have a clear vision.
The starting point for our 19 productivity hacks for 2019 starts with the big picture. What’s your vision? As Seneca wrote during the times of Ancient Greece,
“To the person who does not know where (S)he wants to go there is no favorable wind”

In other words, without a clear vision it’s hard to get where you want to go.
Creating a vision at this time of year is not just a nice-to-do activity, it is an essential productivity measure as it gets us clear on where we want to go.

Visioning work doesn’t have to take a long time, in fact, you might only dedicate 10 -15 minutes to the activity. Since 2014 I’ve offered up a short 10 minute vision audio for leaders, entrepreneurs and other professionals to listen to. Grab a pen and you can listen in here.

If you prefer to free-style it, set your timer to write and complete the statement
It’s December 31 2019 and……

Provide details about what you are doing this year, what you are focusing on, what’s working and what’s not.

You might also want to use these questions as a prompt.  Consider these questions

It is December 31, 2019 and you are reflecting back on the year that was.
Note:

• What your successes have been?
• Where your focus has been?
• What products or services have you been focusing on offering?
• Who have you have been working with?
• What’s been happening?
• What have you taken a stand for?
• What have you become known for?
• What have been the major milestones?
• What goals have you achieved?
• What’s your vision for the new year? If you haven’t had time to think about it, now’s the time?

I hope that you will find a few minutes in the coming days to reflect on what your vision is for 2019, WRITING it down and possibly posting elements of it around you. Some of my clients have been creating visual reminders on their phone, through vision boards and other elements.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Coming December 14, 2019 – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner 
Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat!
Pre-order a copy of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals on Amazon (Available December 14). Check it out here.

In our Effective Virtual Conversations tip this week we return to the focus area of High Performing Teams and the six factors that make them excel. Where team alignment often begins is with factor #1 – Share vision, mission or purpose. This is also the one that may take more time to achieve and get clear on through multiple series of dialogue.
As a virtual team, having a shared vision is critical for alignment, especially when people are widely geographically dispersed.
Some questions team members may want to ask themselves to gain clarity and alignment are:

• Where does the team see itself at the end of the year?
• Three years from now?
• Does everyone have the same vision?
• To get clearer on purpose and  mission you will also want to explore:
• Why do we exist? What’s important in our work?
• What is the one thing we always want to do?

As a reminder, and focus for everyone, how do you want to capture your vision? Is there a plaque or photo you can create to “enshrine” these items?

Enjoy the conversations,
​Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Effective Virtual Conversations |  Coaching Team Leaders  
Join Jennifer for a year-end virtual planning retreat in the PlanDoTrack Series!
Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
YouTube – Teams365 Leadership Channel
Email: info@potentialsrealized.com
(416)996-8326