“After a storm comes a calm.” — Matthew Henry

Your Outcome: Quiet the buzz in your mind.  Achieve a “peaceful calm” state of mind that is relaxed, responsive, and ready.

Welcome to day 15 of 30 Days of Getting Results, a series of posts where I share with you a simple system for meaningful results from my book,Getting Results the Agile Way.  In day 14, we learned a key way to master time management by carving out time for what’s important.  Today, we learn how to quiet our mind and achieve a “peaceful calm”.  From this vantage point, you’ll see things with more clarity, you’ll feel “centered,” and you’ll think your best thoughts.  You’ll also find it easier to quiet your mental chatter, and just be in the moment.  You’ll direct your attention with skill.

A “Peaceful Calm” State of MindIf you aren’t sure what it’s like to feel a peaceful calm, the best way I can describe it is it’s like looking out over the Grand Canyon for the first time.  Your mind just takes it all in.  There are no worries about the past, the present, or the future.  Your mind is fully absorbed in the moment.

For that brief moment, your mind is captivated by the experience.  Your mind is empty, but fully alert, fully aware, and not distracted by any mental chatter or any of your head movies.  Instead of replaying scenes in your mind, you are the movie.

Relaxed, Ready, and ResourcefulWhile the world might be a jungle, fight-or-flight mode can limit our best thinking.  To think our best thoughts or create our best ideas, or solve our problems in the most resourceful way, we need to operate from a place that’s “centered” and serene.

When I think of “peaceful calm”, words that come to mind are: tranquil, centered, serene, and peaceful.  I also think of a series of “R” words including restful, resourceful, relaxed, responsive, and ready.

An empty mind is a powerful one.  It’s ready for action.  It’s relaxed, ready, and responsive.

When your mind is relaxed, you can take in information with less distortion.  You’re connected to your emotions, but rather than being overwhelmed or randomized, it’s more like using your emotions as input.  When your mind is ready, you are responsive.  You are able to easily see the situation and respond with skill instead of react out of fear or anxiety.  When your mind is resourceful, you are able to easily think the thoughts that serve you.  Your creative mind is ready to solve problems with you instead of work against you.

3 Ways to Achieve a Peaceful CalmHere are three actionable things you can do to achieve a peaceful calm state of mind:

1. Dump your brain.   Put it all down on paper.  Just dump it all out.  When it’s on paper, you can better decide what’s worth worrying about and what’s not.  Otherwise, you’ll stew in your own juices.  
2. Have a time and a place for things.   Schedule a time for things that you really need to make time for.  Simply by having a time for things or a place for things, you can free up your mind.  If you know that your carved out an hour for worrying about your problem, than whenever it pops up, remind yourself that, “Now, is not the time” and more importantly, you have a specific time and a specific place for it.  It’s when you don’t make time for things, that they will keep harassing you.   You can also create a block of time to consolidate things and deal with them in a batch.  One example is to schedule a worry break, where you can worry all you want, but only for a limited time.  This way, whenever something to worry about comes up, instead of just saying you’ll worry about it later, you actually have an appointment!
3. Change your focus. Direct your attention with skill.  Don’t just tell yourself to think about something else.  It doesn’t work.  Instead, ask yourself a different question.  You can change your focus by changing the question.  For example, if your immediate response in a situation is to start figuring out everything that’s wrong with the situation, you might ask yourself, “What’s right with this situation?”  If you find you get stuck in your head, ask yourself, “What did it feel like the first time I saw the Grand Canyon?”  To experience a “peaceful calm” state of mind, you want to focus more on feeling, sensing, and experiencing, than on your mental chatter or analysis.  It’s a balance and a blend of your senses and your mind, where your mind is empty of racing thoughts, mental chit chat, and worries about the past, present, or the future.  It’s relaxed, ready, and responsive.  Play around with the questions you ask yourself to find what works for you.  One thing that works very easily for me is simply to remind myself to, “remember the feeling.”  That’s a trigger for me to recall when my mind is in its best state.

One thing that I will point out is that if I don’t eat well and sleep well, that takes away from my “peaceful calm.”  I’ve also noticed that if I have too much caffeine that takes away from my “peaceful calm” too.  What happens is that my  mind has to keep analyzing and making sense of that feeling from the caffeine in my body — is it the caffeine or is there something to be worried about.  It’s a distracting loop.

Additional Ways to Center Yourself and Achieve a Peaceful CalmHere are some additional ways to help you achieve a peaceful state of calm:

1. Take away the threat.   If there’s one thing that can keep eating at you, it’s the threats in your life.   If you take away the threats, you solidify your foundation.  You either have to decide what to do about it, or let it go, or decide it’s not how you’re going to live.    One of the best ways to deal with a threat is to reframe it as a challenge and take the bull by the horns.  Another way is to assume the worst case scenario and deal with it.  For example, lets say your threat is losing your job.  Then assume you’ll lose it, and make the preparations – get staffing companies on your side, build your network, and create a winning resume.
2. Make a map of what’s important.  This simple step will add clarity for your mind and a place to focus your thoughts, when they might seem random or all over the board.  Map out your priorities and outcomes.  See Hot Spots – Map Out What’s Important.
3. Find your why.  By finding your why, you simplify your life down to a driving purpose.  It gives you a simple way to prioritize and evaluate what you will spend your time or your energy on.  See Discover Your Why.
4. Learn to pause.  By taking a brief pause, you can respond over react.  It will help you stay centered in more situations and respond more effectively.   See The Power of the Pause.
5. Reset your mental model.  Ask yourself, “Who do you want to be?” and “What experiences do you want to create?”  Do you want to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off or do you want to show some self-control, confidence, clarity, and deliberate action?  Simply by doing a reset, when you find yourself off-kilter, can help you center yourself with skill.
6. Focus on your breathing.  You’d think we do this well, given how much we breathe all the time.  Well, usually we don’t.    It’s easy to get stressed and then breathe high and shallow instead of deep and full.  If you want to center yourself, then focus on your breathing.  Key tip – don’t treat it weird or act like it’s a magic ritual.  Simply feel the flow of your breath in, down, and around, then back out.  Pause when it’s fully in, and simply notice what a full, deep breath feels like.  Simply enjoy your breath.  Then have another, it’s on the house.
7. Visualize with skill.   This is particularly effective if you tend to be very visual.  You can simply recall some of your favorite scenery or scenes from your life, where you felt a “peaceful calm.”  This will help you remember the feeling, and it will give your mind a quick way to focus on something that it already knows.
8. Remind yourself that things can always be worse.  They really can.  If you need examples, you can find them easily.  Somebody is always worse off.  If you adjust your frame of reference, this can help you keep things in your own life in better perspective.  One thing that sticks out for me here is a line from Navy Seals try outs that goes like this, “The only easy day was yesterday.”  And of course, yesterday, was an absolute nightmare … but by comparison, it’s a walk in the park.

Today’s Assignment

1. Get a good mental picture that you can use to get to your “peaceful calm”.  Remember a time when your mind was at it’s most relaxed, ready, and resourceful state.  Really get a good picture in your mind of this experience.  Notice what it feels like.  Walk your five senses one-by-one (site, hearing, touch, smell, taste):  What do you see? … What do you hear?  …What do you feel? … What do you smell? … What do you taste?”  For example, if your image is on the beach, you might sea the waves lap against the shore, you might hear the seagulls, you might feel the sand between your toes and the warm sun on your shoulders, you might smell the boardwalk, and you might taste the salt in the air.  Simply walking your senses will dramatically improve your ability to fully remember the feeling.  The more you practice the better you get.
2. Write down everything that’s buzzing around in your brain.  Whether it’s things that are bugging you or ideas that keep floating around.  Just empty it and keep emptying it until you’ve got it all down.  Breathe a sigh of relief.  You’re looking at your mind on paper.
3. Make a time and a place for things.   For the things that you really have to deal with, create an appointment with yourself, add it to your schedule, and whenever the issue comes up, reminder yourself that you have an appointment to “deal with it.

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“Things which matter most, should never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” – Goethe

Your Outcome: Make time for what’s important.  Spend more time in what really matters in YOUR life, and spend less time in what does not.  As one of my friend’s puts it, “time is all we have.”

Welcome to day 14 of 30 Days of Getting Results, a series of posts where I share with you the art and science of getting more effective results from my book, Getting Results the Agile Way .  In day 13, we learned how to triage our action items with skill to chop our backlogs or overflowing plates down to size.   Today, we learn a vital key to successful and effective time management.  We learn how to make time for what really matters in our life, a day at a time and a moment at a time.

A Lesson in Life for the Best of Your LifeOne of the most crucial lessons in life that many people learn the hard way is this:

You don’t have time, you make time.  If you don’t make time for what’s important, it doesn’t happen.

You’ll never get off the treadmill or stop treading water, unless you decide to.  And that’s what this series of posts is all about … helping you get results, enjoy the journey, and make the most of what you’ve got … with skill (versus just hoping for the best  or trying harder or wishful thinking.)

Put in the Big Rocks First
This is a story I first heard from Stephen Covey a long time back that really stuck out for me.  As the story goes, a teacher fills a jar with rocks until no more would fit.  He then asks the class, “Is the jar is full?”  The class says, “Yes.”  The teacher reaches under the table, pulls out some gravel, and adds the gravel to the jar.  The gravel fills the spaces between the rocks.  The teacher asks again, “Is the jar full?” Some nod their head.  The teacher then adds sand to the jar filling up the remaining spaces.  The teacher asks, “Is the jar full?”

The class is on to him now and says, “No.” “Good,” the teacher replies, and he proceeds to pour water into the jar until it’s filled to the brim. The teacher asks, “What’s the point of this illustration?”  One of the students replies that no matter how full your schedule is, you can always fit more things in.  ”No,” the teacher responds.  The point is this:

If you don’t make room for the big rocks, you’ll never fit them in.

Make Room for Your Big Rocks Today, Each DayThis is where The Rule of 3 helps.  Are you spending the right amount of time today on those three results or stories that you want to accomplish?  The default pattern is to try and fit them in with all your existing routines.  A more powerful approach is to make time for your three results today and optimize around that.

This might mean disrupting other habits and routines you have, but this is a good thing.  The more you get in the habit of making time for what’s important, the more you’ll get the results you want.   If you’re not getting the results you want you can start asking better questions.  For example, are you investing enough time?  Are you investing the right energy?  Maybe the approach is off.

Just maybe, a different thing happens.  Maybe you start accomplishing the results you *thought* you wanted, but you don’t like what you get.  The grass is NOT always greener.  Now you can step back and ask whether you’re choosing the right outcomes or stories for what YOU really want or really need in your life right now.

What are You Rushing Through For?Covey teaches us, be efficient with things, but effective with people.  Whenever I see somebody rushing through something or it feels like it’s a drive by dump or exchange, I have to ask:

““What are you rushing through for?”  …

Sometimes it’s because people are late.  Sometimes it’s because they are more focused on the goal, than the journey.  A lot of times, it’s because they simply didn’t  allow themselves to be here now, where this moment is the one that really counts.

It doesn’t mean being slow, unless slow makes sense for the situation.  In fact, I can’t help but to think of John Wooden’s saying, “Be quick – but don’t hurry!”  For me, it reminds me to be deliberate and mindful on how I pace myself.   I can be quick without haste or rushing through things, as if something else is always more important, somewhere else.

3 Ways to Carve Out Time for What’s ImportantTake the time to step back and reflect on where you spend your time on a regular basis.  Here are three ways to make time for what’s important:

1. Reset your day.   You can do a reset for your day by stepping back and asking yourself, “What three results do I want for today?”  For example, one of my outcomes today is, “Enjoy the nice day outside.”  I’m not going to let something else get in the way of missing our fleeting sunny Summer days.
2. Reset your schedule.     You can do a reset for the week by stepping back and asking yourself, “What three results do I want for this week?” … or “What three stories do I want to light up in my life or make happen for the week?”  You can then fit everything else around that.  You can also simply check whether you’ve made enough time in your schedule on a weekly basis for the things that really count, for you, in your life right now.  It’s not all-or-nothing, and there’s always a way to spend a little more time here, and a little less there, but you might have to get creative.  If you get stuck here, pair up with somebody and ask for their help … you might be surprised how this simple act gives you clarity on your calendar, and how another pair of eyes can really shine the light on ways to get more of what you want.
3. Invest in your Hot Spots.   However you define your Hot Spots (mind, body, emotions, career, financial, relationships, and fun), you can very deliberately map out what’s important in your life, and you can deliberately invest in your Hot Spots.  I found the single most important factor here is to make time on my weekly schedule for my Hot Spots.  If I’m not getting enough time in a bucket, then I schedule more time.  If I’m putting too much time into one bucket, and not another, then I adjust it.  Once I have enough time in the right buckets, then I make sure I’m investing my best energy and best mindset.  I never want to be in a scenario where I’m always rushing through, because I didn’t make time for it.

And, of course, you can always simply ask yourself, “What are you rushing through for?” and do a reset, at any moment, at any time.

Today’s Assignment

1. Make time TODAY for something you really want to spend more time in, that’s important for you.  Maybe it’s as simple as feeding the ducks.  Maybe it’s spending time with an old friend.  Maybe it’s spending more time learning about Getting Results the Agile Way      Who’s to judge?  You’re the judge.  Just remember, you’re the one that lives with the consequences of how you choose to spend your time … each moment, each day, every day.  Be the author of your life, and write your story forward.  No regrets, just choosing your own adventure from here forward.
2. Step back and ask the tough question, “What are you rushing through for?  If the answer is nothing, then just kick back and enjoy doing whatever you’re doing right here, right now.

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“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt

Your Outcome: Learn how to deal with a barrage of incoming action items and demands on your time.

Welcome to day 13 of 30 Days of Getting Results. In day 12, we learned how to use Productivity Personas to analyze and improve our results in any situation. Today, we learn how to “triage” an overflowing plate of action items and tasks.
Triage is a Healthy Process of Sorting, Sifting, and Selecting

“Triage” is a process of sorting, sifting and selecting what to work on. You might have heard about doctors “triaging” their incoming patients in emergency settings. When I first joined Microsoft, “Triage” was a common practice our team used to deal with our incoming issues. It helped us sort our backlogs and queues of issues into more meaningful buckets. We couldn’t just do everything at once and we couldn’t keep up with our flow of incoming requests. Triaging helped us more effectively make the most of our time, energy, and resources we had on hand at the moment against our incoming actions.

Triage in Practice
I’ve used triage successfully to deal with everything from dealing with email, to dealing with a flood of incoming tasks, to dealing with aging backlogs of action items, both at the personal, and the team level. When I lead a distributed team, I use email triage as an ad hoc and lightweight way to get the team’s eyeballs quickly focused on an issue. I’ve also used triage to clear my email inbox and to keep my email at zero inbox for years, and I’ve shown many others, including teams around Microsoft, to do the same (and we have a lot of email at Microsoft.) I affectionately call this approach, The Zen of Zero Mail.

For things that you need to act on, prioritize, or get off your plate, “triage” is a healthy process of sorting and selecting in a mindful way.

Do It, Queue It, Schedule It, or Delegate It
You can triage an incoming action item to either do it, queue it, schedule it, or delegate it:

Do It – Do it if now is the time: it’s the next best thing for you to do; now is the most opportunistic time; or it will cost you more pain, time or effort to do it later.
Queue It – Queue it, by adding it to your queue if it’s something you need to get done, but now is not the right time. A queue is simply a list of action items.
Schedule It – Schedule it by adding it to your calendar if you need a block of time to get the work done. Only add things to your calendar if you truly need a reminder or if you really need to block off a chunk of time to work on it. Remember that if you schedule it, it will happen, but if you don’t, it won’t. If it’s really important, then make time for it. If it’s just something to do “later,” and it won’t really happen, then just let it go with skill.
Delegate It – Delegate it if it’s something that should be done by somebody else and it makes sense to do so, and you have that option. When you delegate, try to match it to another person’s learning opportunity or passion. (There’s a difference between delegating and dumping.)
3 Steps to Triaging Your Action Items
Here are three steps for triaging your stack of action items:

Consolidate your action items. Dealing with them in a batch really shows the benefit of this approach, because you can quickly whack your stack down to size.
Triage each item. For each item, determine what the best plan of attack is: Do It, Queue It, Schedule It, or Delegate It.
Repeat the process. Repeat the process until you have a manageable set of actions and you feel that things are appropriately in the right places, either in your list of actions, your queue, or your schedule, or off your plate. If you end up spending too much time triaging, and not enough time doing, then establish a timebox or time limit to pace yourself and to know when to stop.
Really what you’re doing is setting the stage for your success. By having a time for things, and having them on your calendar or in your queue, you can focus on what you have in front of you with more confidence, clarity, and conviction, knowing that you’re making the most of what you’ve got. You can also more effectively prioritize with MUST, SHOULD, and COULD.

Questions to Help Guide You
Here are some questions I find useful as a checkpoint:

What do you want to accomplish?
Does it matter?
How important is it?
What’s the impact?
What’s the next best thing to do?
You can always check your actions against the bigger picture and what you want to accomplish: This is just a starting point and you’ll want to create and test your own questions to see what works for you.

Putting It All Together
Let’s take a quick step back and do a rundown of what you’ve learned so far during 30 Days of Getting Results and how this fits in:

You can use The Rule of 3 to avoid getting overwhelmed.
You’re the author of your life and you can write your story forward, one moment or one day at a time
You can use three stories to drive your day and and light up your day by connecting to your values (Daily Outcomes).
On Mondays, you can use three stories to drive your week (Monday Vision).
On Fridays, you can use Friday Reflection to celebrate your wins and find your personal success patterns.
You can map out what’s important in your life using Hot Spots to create a meaningful map.
You can let things slough off with skill … no more straws breaking the camel’s back .
You can create space in your life to renew and recharge by setting up boundaries and buffers.
You can dump your brain to free up your mind.
You can prioritize more effectively by using MUST, SHOULD, and COULD.
You can feel strong all week long by spending more time in your strengths and less time in your weaknesses.
You can establish glide-paths to simplify your day and make your routines friction free.
You can analyze and be more productive in any scenario using productivity personas.
By adding triaging to your belt, you now have a simple mental model for dealing with incoming action items more effectively.

Agile Results is a simple system for meaningful results that you can use to support you for the rest of your life, no matter what you do. The beauty is not just that it’s simple or that it’s proven … it’s that each day you get a new chance at bat – a fresh start. Each day you wake up is another chance to ask the question, “What are three things you want for today?” … and so you write your story forward, one day at a time.

Today’s Assignment

When an incoming action item comes your way, triage it and decide whether to Do It, Queue It, Schedule It, or Delegate It.
Triage one of your stacks of things to do to whack it down to size.


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“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Your Outcome: Become a “productive artist.” Find whether you are a “starter” or a “finisher” and improve your success in everything you do.

Some people are natural “starters.”  They live for the creative beginning of projects, but not the day-to-day execution or the detailed follow up and follow through.  Some people are natural “finishers.”  They like the day-to-day work and the routine execution. When “starters” and “finishers” pair up, everybody wins.

Welcome to day 12 of 30 Days of Getting Results.  In day 11, we learned how to reduce friction and create glide paths for your day.  Today, we learn how to figure out our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to productivity using Productivity personas.  The beauty is that you can Productivity personas to get a better lens on yourself, your situation, or people you work with.  With this lens, you can be more effective and get better results in any situation, whether it’s a one-man band or part of a team.

Starters and Finishers
One of my friends is great at starting things.  Just don’t expect him to finish.  He would light a lot of fires in a lot of places and then he’d be on to his next big idea.  Trust me, unless you want to just fade away, you want fire starters around.  They light things up and create value and possibilities out of thin air.  He’s a natural “starter.”

Another one of my friends is great at finishing things.  He is a master at knowing the details and being complete.  Words that come to mind are “thorough,” “attention to detail,” “responsible,” “sees things through,” … you get the idea.  What he lacks in getting things started, he makes up for in bringing things to close and going the last mile.   He is a “finisher” at heart.

When a starter and finisher pair up … look out.  Great things happen. The fastest way to suck your life force out of anyone is to always play the “finisher” role when you’re a starter, or always play a starter role when you’re a finisher.

Why Productivity PersonasYour personal success at getting results is clearly a place where a little knowledge goes a long way.  By adding the lens of Productivity Personas to your tool belt, you will be better equipped to deal with any productivity issue, whether it’s for yourself, helping a friend, or leading a team.

If you’re feeling drained or like you’re spinning your wheels or simply not making the impact you know you can make, this might just be your ticket to faster, simpler, and better results.

3 Ways to Use Productivity PersonasHere are three ways you can use the Productivity Personas to your advantage:

1. Know Yourself. Use the Productivity Personas to know yourself. If you’re aware of the personas, you can use them to your advantage. For example, don’t let your inner Critic or Perfectionist get in the way of your Doer. Ask yourself, “When am I at my best? Am I more of a Starter or a Finisher? Am I more of a Maximizer or a Simplifier? Am I more of a Thinker or a Doer?”
2. Team Up. Use the Productivity Personas to pair up with other people and improve your own effectiveness. You can also use the Productivity Personas to create more effective teams or to optimize teamwork. Ask yourself, “Who can I team up with to get results? How can I build more effective teams? Who should be paired up on the team for best results?”
3. Improve the Situation. You can imagine how some behaviors work better with others and how some can create conflict. Swap out for more effective personas based on the scenario. For example, if you really need a Starter for the situation, but you can’t break out of Finisher mode, then see if you can find somebody who can play the role. Ask yourself, “What are the best behaviors for the situation?”

Remember to use the Productivity Personas as a lens. The labels are for behaviors, not for limiting or boxing in personalities. Anybody can demonstrate any of the behaviors at any time.

Productivity Personas at a Glance“Starter” and “finisher” are just one lens.  Here are some additional Productivity Personas to give you some more lenses:

Persona	Notes
Starter	Starts things but doesn’t always finish. Their energy comes from thinking up new ideas and kicking things off. Love prototyping an idea, but once they’ve figured it out, they’re ready to move on to something else.
Finisher	Brings things to closure. Effective finishers, complete things and move on. Is a fit and finish type of person. It’s finished when they say it’s finished.
Thinker	Is an “ideas” person. Thinking is what they do best. Analysis is their game, but doing is somebody else’s game. They don’t have to act on their thoughts to enjoy them.
Doer	Does their job. They tend to get their job done. They may not come up with new ideas, but they have a preference for taking action.
Simplifier	Finds the simplest path. Strips things down to the minimum. Good enough for now is OK in their book.
Maximizer	Finds the maximum impact.
Critic	Finds the faults. They’ll find ways why you can’t or why it’s wrong. They’ll critique themselves, their work, or their ideas. Anything is fair game.
Can Do	Finds a way. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and they’ll find it. It may not be the optimal solution, but they’ll find a workaround.
Opportunist	Finds the opportunity in any situation.
Perfectionist	Treats everything like a work of art. Quality is their name, finishing isn’t their game. They’ll be done when it’s done. It will be done just as soon as it’s perfect. Whenever that is.
Details	Loves the details and will want to see things through. Dots the i’s and crosses the t’s. They’re passionate about spreadsheets.
Big Picture	Sees the forest from the trees. Likes the big ideas and doesn’t want to get lost in the minutia.
Facts and Figures	Is a numbers person. They want quantifiable measurements. Like Details, they too like spreadsheets.
Controller	Likes to control things. This could be the Doers, the project, or their world.
Tinkerer	Likes to tinker. The world is their sandbox. Dabbles here, dabbles there.
Marketer	Communicates the value. Knows how to sell ideas.
Achiever	Likes to accomplish things.
Randomizer	Turns their latest priority into other people’s problems.
Daydreamer	Likes to dream up better ways for better days. They’d rather dream than do. They don’t have to act on their dreams to enjoy them.
Procrastinator	Finds way to put off to tomorrow, what they really should do today. They only send belated birthday cards since they know they’ll never send them out on time.

Simply familiarize yourself with some of the various Productivity Personas so they can help you when you need to make sense of a productivity challenge or scenario, as well as to learn more about yourself.  The key is to be aware of the preferences, for yourself and others, and to choose more effective behaviors as well as to optimize yourself and others in any situation.

Your Assignment

1. Identify your natural preferences in terms of a “starter” or “finisher.”
2. Identify the most common Productivity Personas or roles that you play in your day to day.
3. Find one simple thing you can do to complement your natural productivity pattern.

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“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Your Outcome: Simplify your day by getting rid of the hurdles and personal obstacle courses that are in your way throughout the day. Doing your daily chores or common tasks shouldn’t be a jungle gym.  It should be a glide path.

Make your day a whole lot easier by eliminating or reducing the friction in your day. Establish “friction-free” glide paths that support you throughout your entire day.  By reducing the friction and simplifying your daily routines and common tasks, you make it easier to glide through your results.

Welcome to day 11 of 30 Days of Getting Results.  In day 10, we learned how to feel strong all week long.  Today, we learn how to reduce the friction in our day, and make it easier to do the common things we do.  This way we spend less energy on little things getting in our way, so we have more energy and focus to tackle the big things.

Don’t die the death of a 1000 paper cuts throughout your day!

All the little friction in our day can wear us down.  Especially if it’s things within our control.  Don’t complain about the stuff in your way … do something about it.   Your glide paths will really help you on days when you’re run down, or you’re running late, and you really need it most.

3 Steps to Creating Friction-Free Glide Paths
Here are three steps to creating friction-free glide paths.

• Step 1.  Walk your paths.  Simply write down your common routines and common tasks you throughout your day.  If you don’t know where to start, write down breakfast, lunch, and dinner.    Chances are you have a lot of recurring activities each day that you can choose to tune.
• Step 2.  Identify the friction.  Identify the things that create friction throughout your day: What slows you down?  … What hoops do you have to jump through? …  What’s always in your way or what are you constantly moving out of your way to get to something else?
• Step 3.  Simplify your paths.  Declutter and reduce the friction for your common scenarios, routines, and tasks.  Most of the ways to do this will be obvious to you now that you’ve listed your common tasks and points of friction.  Brainstorm ideas for making these routines less complicated and less friction.

10 Examples of Friction-Free Glide PathsHere are some examples of friction-free glide paths:

1. Get rid of the clothes on the top of the hamper.  Tip – If you want clothes to go in the hamper, then don’t have clothes on top of it.  Nobody should have to lift the hamper lid with a bunch of clothes on top.   If the lid keeps turning into one more shelf, then remove the lid.
2. Clear your workspace.  Keep your workspace clear and ready to go.  You can clear it the night before or you can do a quick sweep right before you use it.
3. Put your sneakers by the bed.  If you workout in the morning, have your sneakers and gym clothes ready to go.  This is one less excuse for not working out on a day when you don’t feel like it.
4. Put garbage cans where you need them.
5. Create checklists for common routines.  You won’t have to try and remember what to do next and you can make it easier to follow your routine.
6. Put things where you look for them.  If you are always looking for something in the wrong place, then make the wrong place, the right place and put it there.
7. Make space on your bookshelf so you don’t have to stack or balance things or squeeze with all your might to get that very last book to fit just right.  Pulling books off your shelf shouldn’t be a chore, and neither should putting them back.
8. Put your calendar where you can see it at a glance.  Make it easy to quickly see what your schedule looks like.
9. Make it easy to look things up.  If you regularly look certain things up, consolidate them and put them in easy reach.
10. Remove anything that you have to step over or walk around.  Pave a simpler path and make it easy to go wherever you need to get to on a regular basis.

There are many, many ways to create glide paths in your day.  These are just some random ideas to get your started.  Get creative.  You probably already know what you need to do, you just have to decide to do it.  This is worth making time for since it pays you back throughout your day, and it pays you back everyday .. with interest.

Your Assignment

1. Identify your worst friction points in your day.
2. Create three glide paths to simplify your day.  Pick any routines or common tasks that you want to make easier for yourself.

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