Good weeks lead to good years Here’s a time management & goal setting system I learned 20 years ago: Good Weeks.  Too often, we measure our progress yearly (annual resolutions and goals) or quarterly (the 90 day treadmill).  The result is often cram-fests at the end of the year or quarter to meet a goal that’s “all made up” in the first place.  Those time lines are usually too long to correct, once the finish line is in sight.  When I was working for Bob May (Pat Summerall Productions) in Dallas, he taught me a simple weekly success system that I use to this day.  His motto was: “Good weeks add up to good months – and good months add up to a great year.”

Read Tim’s full thoughts on this topic at Sanders Says – Good weeks lead to good years

Chris Brogan poses an interesting (and possibly uncomfortable) question today. Read and think about it at  Set a Course.

Photo credit Lisa Andres

1. Success Is All About the Little Things
2. Focus on the Process, Not the Outcome
3. There’s No Such Thing as an Overnight Success
4. Selfless Teamwork is Great Teamwork
5. There’s Power in Humility
6. Faith Matters
7. Your Legacy Matters

Read Jon’s thoughts on the above at Jon Gordon’s Blog

Celebrate Success | Jon Gordon’s Blog | Developing Positive Leaders, Organizations and Teams

Teams and organizations that focus on and celebrate success create more success. Success becomes ingrained in the culture and people naturally look for it, focus on it and expect it. That’s why certain football coaches and business leaders are always successful. They implement systems and principles that create a culture that celebrates and expects success and this drives behavior and habits that create successful outcomes.

Celebrate Success | Jon Gordon’s Blog | Developing Positive Leaders, Organizations and Teams

Tim Sanders offers the following “refreshment plan” for your summer:

1. Take at least one week off before Labor Day (if you have it available). Don’t sit around the house, go somewhere where nature will convince you forget about the world.

2. Don’t take your laptop with you on the trip. Carry your cell phone, but give strict instructs that you are only to be bothered with an emergency. Only check your email once every two days.

3. Take a full weekend day off for the rest of the year. Don’t check email or even think about work.

4. Devote one hour a day to exercise and self-education.

Read a compelling story on why you should do this at: Sanders Says: Take a break driver 8

Audiobooks: Download The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Audiobook for Free

   Lifehacker is reporting that the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is avaible
   for free download at Audible.com. This is worth checking out.

In his blog, Dennis Snow points to an article that is worth more than a couple of read-throughs, because if you are honest with yourself, you’ll probably come away convicted. As a leader at work, in the community or as a parent (now there I go, getting personal), what are you permitting and therefore promoting? And the even tougher follow-up question…. “Why?”.

What You Permit, You Promote « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success

Leadership is a choice | The Practice of Leadership

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

As people we are designed to choose. Like many other things in life, leadership too is a choice we make. . We do not become great leaders because of our title or position. Leadership is about making the decision and taking the responsibility to bring our future into the present. This first step to becoming an effective leader… it is the choice to be proactive.

The question is “have we make the choice to lead?” Although you may think of yourself as a leader, until you choose leadership you will find yourself drifting around aimlessly. Lacking passion, commitment, courage and direction.

Read the full article at The Practice of Leadership

It’s hard to force yourself to sit down and write down your goals. Doing this means you actually have to THINK about them and face the hard facts about your current efforts (or lack thereof) to reach them. It also means that you have to carve-out the time to do this in a schedule that seems way too busy for this type of exercise. But the only thing harder than writing down your goals is trying to achieve them without writing them down.

You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal.
-Zig Ziglar

The following post at Lifehacker discusses this, centering around the following points:

• Goals mean you’re trying to be better
• Writing things down makes them happen
• Written goals make time for big thinking upfront
• Written goals give you hyper-focus and clarity
• Written goals make it easy to cut the crap
• Written goals prepare you for the best and the worst

Read the details on the above points at Lifehacker.com

The real limiting factor for productivity is your energy levels and ability to pay attention.

Energy levels limit your productivity because when you’re tired, you can have ample time and still not get everything done. Your attention span is even more limited, because even if there are a million things that need to be done, you can only focus on one or two at a time.

You might not be able to insert another 4-5 hours into your schedule without making some sacrifices. But even extremely busy people can add an hour or two into their schedule without eliminating something. The reason it’s hard to “find time” isn’t a lack of time. It’s because you don’t have the attention span left to focus on something else that needs to fit into your day.

Read more on this topic at PickTheBrain: New Habits