Monthly Archives: February 2017

Do you suffer from present bias?

I went on a trip last week.  I knew trip was in front of me months ago.  Months ago I could have started exercising and dieting so I would feel better about being in shorts and swimsuits.  I didn’t.

“Sue” has a major project due the end of this month.  For a several months we’ve been slotting time in her day planner to work on the project.  She hasn’t.

“Kathy” is working on losing weight.  Even the looming threat of a class reunion wasn’t enough motivation to get it done.

“Bob” continually struggles to save money even though he has a goal of long-term financial security.

What’s going on here?

Rather than exercise, I elected to take an extra 30 minutes with my morning coffee.  Even saying repeatedly to myself as I was drinking my coffee “I really should go jump on the treadmill.”

“Sue” made the decision to spend the time she allocated to working on her project on helping other people with their projects.

For “Kathy”, the opportunity to watch TV with her family was more important than going for an exercising walk.

And, “Bob” decided a new set of golf clubs “wouldn’t make that big of a difference in the long run and besides lots of my friends bought new clubs. I didn’t want to be odd man out.”

Everyone represented in these stories made a conscience decision NOT to do something that would have helped achieve their long-term goals.

What makes us do that?  Present bias (a close cousin to procrastination).

“The present bias refers to the tendency of people to give stronger weight to payoffs that are closer to the present time when considering trade-offs between two future moments.” (O’Donoghue, &, Rabin, 1999)

How do we break ourselves of present bias?

For me, I could have said “I will not have my coffee until I’ve been on the treadmill.”  Months ago, the end of February was too far way, but my cup of coffee was right there.  Instant gratification without any effort.

For “Sue,” when presented with an opportunity to help someone else or work on her project, she elected to work on the other project.  Because of that, she received immediate gratification, in the form of appreciation from her co-worker.  I suggested “Sue” tell her co-worker “I’m working on something right now, but I can help you in a couple hours.”

“Kathy” was in a similar situation to me.   TV time with the family was immediate gratification.  The impending class reunion was just too far away to be important. She needed to implement weekly goals (more immediate gratification), not focus on the distant class reunion.

For “Bob,” he needed to work with his financial planner on yearly goals, not retirement goals.  Seeing how a $1,000 set of golf clubs impacted his goal to save $5,000 this year completely changed the focus.

What present bias is standing in your way of long-term success?

 

The Value of Kindness

You may have heard a bit more chatter about random acts of kindness over the last few days.  That’s because Random Acts of Kindness.org designated February 12-18 as Random Acts of Kindness Week.

I decided to pay more attention to what was going on around me this week.  What random acts of kindness did I see?

Someone . . .

. . . paid for the next person’s coffee.

. . . waved someone into the parking spot they were waiting for.

. . . let a harried mother shopping with three children in front of them in the grocery line.

. . . committed to giving five compliments every day this week.

. . . committed to saying “thank you” at least five times every day this week (amazing how a simple “thank you” changes the mood of the recipient).

. . . made a surprise visit to a shut-in neighbor.

. . . complimented a mother on well-behaved children.

I did not ask the people I observed if this is how they operate every day of their lives or if it was something special they did because they were more aware of random acts of kindness this week.  My guess is that it’s just part of their DNA.  It’s how they live their lives. Performing random acts of kindness brings them joy.

What I do know is it brought me great joy to be more aware of kindness this week.  Witnessing the kind things people did for each other made me want to do more for others.

Question:   What kindness do you see when you really start to look for it?

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

Coaching Certifications (Coach Approach for Organizers):
Coaching Essentials; Strengths-Based Coaching; Brain-Based Coaching; Life and ADHD Coaching; Organizer Coach Integration; Body-Based Coaching; ADHD Coaching Competencies

Proud member of:

Member Color - Web

National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), Seattle Area Chapter President

ICD_LogoTag_Horz_72 website

Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD)

Level I Foundation Certification in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding

Level II Specialist Certification in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

 

 

Time Management: What. When. How.

February is National Time Management Month
“Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.”     — Thomas Edison

Time.  We all have the same amount of it, right?  How is it that some people are just better using it than others?  Well, David Allan, the guru (at least in my book) of time management  has a great strategy for getting things done.

Here’s a snippet of his philosophy:

  1. Capture:  Use an in-box, a to-do list, a white board, an electronic task manager, or any other capture device that works for you.
  2. Clarify: Be very clear about what the next step is.  Ignore it?  File it?  Delegate it? Work on it later?  Work on it now?
  3. Organize:  Where does it go (filing cabinet, car, assistant’s desk)?  When does it need to get done (organize by priority)?  Where can I do it (office, car, doctor’s office)?  Organize all phone calls in one place.  Make a list, geographically if possible, of all the errands that need to be run.
  4. Reflect:  Frequently review your lists.  Lists may need to be reviewed daily, weekly, monthly or yearly depending on priority.  If something has been on a list for a while, can it be deleted?
  5. Engage: Simply start the process.  Sometimes starting is the hardest part.

If you are looking for some great resource materials on time management, I can heartily suggest the following books as a start:

Product Details

Getting Things Done:  The art of stress free productivity

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Eat that Frog!

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Cindy Jobs

www.organizetosimplify.com

Coaching Certifications (Coach Approach for Organizers):
Coaching Essentials; Strengths-Based Coaching; Brain-Based Coaching; Life and ADHD Coaching; Organizer Coach Integration; Body-Based Coaching; ADHD Coaching Competencies

Proud member of:

Member Color - Web

National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), Seattle Area Chapter President

ICD_LogoTag_Horz_72 website

Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD)

Level I Foundation Certification in Chronic Disorganization; ADD; Client Administration; Time Management; Mental Health; and Hoarding

Level II Specialist Certification in Chronic Disorganization and ADHD

 

 

The Power of Flexibility

We’ve had a home in the mountains for quite some time.  We get a lot of snow.  We are prepared for a lot of snow.  We knew the risks of snow inconvenience when we built our home.  We accepted and embraced the risk.  As a general rule, the snow has not affected us.

Well, the last few days have proven an exception to the rule.  Over 30″ of snow in the last couple of days.  Yikes!  A major highway was closed for an extended period of time.  This resulted in my not being able to maintain commitments I’d made to family, clients, and colleagues.

I had a decision to make:  How was I going to let this affect me?

  1. Release the stress associated with the change in schedule.  It’s easy to get twisted up about having to adjust your schedule.  If you couldn’t control it, acknowledge that fact and let the stress associated with the unexpected inconvenience go.
  2.  Analyze the “why” behind the schedule shift.  Could you change it?  If not, let it go.  If you could have changed the path that resulted in the schedule shift, what could you have done differently?  Learn from the event.
  3. What’s the next step?
    1. Communicate as quickly as possible to let people know you will not be able to honor your commitment.
    2. If necessary and possible, reschedule commitments.
    3. Make the most of the newly-found home/office time:
      • Get some work done (clean up your e-mail, de-clutter your office/junk drawer, update your contacts list, etc.)
      • Enjoy the unexpected time with friends and family.
      • Do the reading you’ve not previously made time for.
      • Give a family member or friend an unexpected call.
      • Write a blog post about flexibility around unexpected events.  🙂
  4. Lastly, figure out what is to be learned from this experience.  I learned that I need to update my electronic contacts lists so I could contact my clients and colleagues more easily from any location.  A small, but powerful, learning experience.

I’ve learned a lot about myself and my processes over the last couple of days.  What can you learn when the world throws you a curve ball?

Cindy Jobs

 

 

www.organizetosimplify.com

Proud member of:

Member Color - WebNational Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), Seattle Area Chapter President

ICD_LogoTag_Horz_72 websiteInstitute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD)