My First Book: GET IT DONE

Guys, I thought I would share my latest publication, which is my first book! Read below for a description and links. Happy new year, everyone!

Does it feel like you’re always working but never actually get anything accomplished? Do you wish you had more time to focus on the things that really matter to you? In my own research and experience, I have found that most people struggle to focus on what matters most to them. The reality is that we have endless opportunities for how to spend our time, and many things get in the way of doing what we care most about.

4 Simple Strategies

Over the past 17 years, I have studied what it takes to focus on and achieve what is most important to you. I have read hundreds of books and thousands of articles on how people learn and grown and achieve their goals. Based on this research, I have found that there are essentially 4 Simple Strategies for getting the most important things done: Take Action, Choose Your Focus, Hack Your Environment, and Optimize Yourself.

New Book: Get It Done

In my new book Get It Done, I write about each of these strategies and give specific action strategies for achieving what is most critical. which is written to help you find focus and devote time to what’s most important and meaningful to you. This book offers four simple strategies for getting the right things done, and a variety of specific action plans that you can apply to your everyday life.

Inside, you’ll find plenty of tips and tricks to get you on the right track, including:

• How to avoid the eight productivity killers

• Six ways to kickstart a balanced routine

• How to avoid negative people

• And many other simple ways to do more of what you want

Read Get It Done and have an outstanding 2018!

The Critical Question: What Should I Do Right Now?

I just had an interesting and slightly stressful experience. Within about a 5 minute time period, I had the following take place:

1. My brother contacted me about a design-related issue he wanted to talk through.
2. My coworker popped into my office and asked me if I wanted to take a quick walk to a nearby cafeteria.
3. I was trying to read through an article on instructional design leadership.
4. My boss sent me an instant message asking if I could meet with him briefly about something he was concerned about.
5. My wife called and asked me if I could meet with her the kids for an impromptu lunch.
6. All of this happened with several other design, reporting, and management tasks calling for my attention from the back of my head.

Which would you do?

I imagine this is a common situation for many people these days. The options are endless, and the right decision is not immediately obvious. But we have to decide and move forward with confidence, adjusting our actions based on how things seem to be going. And hopefully we have guiding principles that provide us with guidance on how to move toward what is most important..

A few reflective questions:

• How do you focus on what is important to you? 
• What should you do right now? 
• What will help you achieve your goals? 
• What will uphold and support the values that are most important to you?
• What is absolutely essential?

The 2 Essential Steps of Time Management

I have read hundreds of books on the topic and have recently been studying time management. There are all kinds of systems out there for managing time, and many of them are good. But really what it all comes down to is two essential steps:

• Step 1: Identify the most important thing to work on.
• Step 2: Work on it until you have finished it.

Effective time managers do these steps and repeat them regularly. All other time management literature is useful if it helps you you accomplish these steps. So, what is the most important thing for you to be working on, right now?

Notes from New Chair Alliance Workshop

As I noted in a previous post, this week I am attending the 30th Annual Academic Chairpersons Conference. Today I attended a full-day pre-conference workshop for new academic chairs called the New Chair Alliance. It is a workshop designed to provide new academic chairs with ideas and strategies for completing their work as academic administrators.

In this post, I will share some of my notes from this workshop. It will really be just a list of some of my thoughts, notes and observations as I worked through the workshop.

New Chair Alliance Workshop

On Managing a Difficult Workload
One of the themes that continued to come up during the workshop was the issue of an overwhelming workload. I have noticed that my work has increased exponentially as the program chair, and I feel like I am constantly working just to keep up with what is going on. Here are some ideas on how to manage this workload effectively.

• Categorize your tasks into the following categories: important/not important, and urgent/not urgent. This will help you focus on what is important.
• If you can delegate a task to someone else, then do it.
• If you can, automate some tasks by having someone else or technology do it.
• Check emails only periodically (2-3 times a day) so that you can focus your time on the projects at hand.
• Minimize interruptions. Block out time on your calendar to keep time for yourself. Screen people from interrupting you (close your door, have a secretary screen you, etc.)
• Use the 4D principles to handle tasks - do, delegate, defer, delete.
• Do the most important tasks and let the less-important fall to the wayside.

On Finding Balance
Another theme that came up was finding balance in your life. This includes professional balance as well as personal and family balance. I find it difficult to balance my teaching, course design, and interactions with students and faculty so that I can spend time on my research and writing agenda. I also have a hard time making sure I can spend time with my beautiful girls at home.

Personal health is the most important thing a chair can prioritize. Without health, the ability to succeed as chair is ruined, so taking care of physical, mental, and spiritual health is vital. I've found that I have to go to the gym in the morning before work if I want to have a healthy day, so I make that daily workout a priority.

Strategic Planning
The workshop facilitators also discussed the importance of creating a strategic plan for each department or program. I have dome some of this for the IDPT program but feel like a more robust strategic plan for the program, including participation from all major stakeholders, could be a powerful way to move the program forward. I plan to begin this initiative sometime in early summer.

Random Quotes In the Workshop (some are rather humorous)

• "If someone can do it 80% as well as you can, have them do it."
• "If you see a turtle sitting on a fence-post, you can be pretty sure it didn't get there by itself."
• "If you're not comfortable with multi-tasking, don't become an administrator."
• "All I do is shoot the closest wolf."
• "don't let other peoples' problems become your problems."
• "If you can't live with the conclusions someone has come to, seek a second opinion."
• "I don't want to shuffle the deck chairs of the Titanic if I know it is going to sink."
• "The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives." (Sioux Proverb)

There was certainly a great deal more discussed, but I think these were the highlights for me. I have generated a lot of notes on how I can begin to use what I have learned and I am excited to see how I can keep things moving forward for the IDPT program.