Black Belt Productivity

One of the key pieces of wisdom that any leader from the middle can know is when to push buttons, and when to let things go.

In many cases, it may be a case of pushing the right buttons, but the timing is not good. That is just like pushing the wrong button.

John C. Maxwell addresses this in his book The 360° Leader. He gives us several tips to assist us with our judgment.

When Should I Push?

1. Do I know something my boss doesn’t but needs to?
2. Is time running out?

Melissa Macbeth over at the Task and Time Management in Outlook blog did a nice writeup on how to setup GTD in Outlook 2007. There are a number of new features that look very promising and she hits on a lot of them. Since I have moved back to my paper planner and 3×5s, Outlook has left my life. I find it hard to justify using Outlook when I do not have it checking any mail. That may all change when I roll out Microsoft Exchange at my work next year and I can connect to it over RPC through the Internet.

Hello to all,

It has been awhile since I have posted here. There have been some extenuating circumstances in my life that have been working against me lately. The main weight came from a mysterious virus that hit my 3 year old boy that sent us to the emergency room twice with a stay in the hospital last weekend. It manifested as a roaming rash over about 50% of his body at any one time. You could look at his hands and they would be clear then 1 hour later they would be red with the rash then 2 hours later they would be clear again. But I digress!

This week in John C. Maxwell’s book The 360 Degree Leader, I read about preparation for time with your leader.

Your leader’s time is very valuable. It is very important to make sure that you are properly prepared each time you take a leader’s time.

1. Invest 10X. Maxwell recommends that you prepare 10 minutes for each minute that you spend with your leader. I think this could vary based on your office’s culture. But if you were seeing Bill Gates, I would definitely say prep 10X.

One key factor in using GTD^® to its true potential is managing lists of various types. GTDers tend to have lists for anything from grocery shopping to packing for travel. I use lists a lot myself. The geek in me cannot use sticky notes or little 3X5 cards. I have to have some high tech gadget to manage my lists. This is where the PDA and ListPro come in.

ListPro syncs well with your computer. So I can access my lists on both my notebook and my PDA. ListPro gives me several advantages.

Well, my system overhaul is underway.

As I have mentioned in other posts, for me, the geek factor is huge. So I tend to use more gadgets than the average bear. So my notebook and my PDA will weigh heavily in the equation for me.

First I am trying, on a trial basis, MasterList Professional. My initial take in my first few days is that it is certainly a more sophisticated piece of software than I expected. It may just be that I am trying to learn to use it, and will take to it like a duck to water as I learn it better.

As you have probably figured out by now, I am currently reading The 360 Degree Leader by John C. Maxwell. I have been approaching this book a chapter a week. Why? First because in my life, reading time is rather restricted (the by-product of having two young children). Second, I feel that it is appropriate to work on the principles in this book by implementing them over a week. So I work on changing a habit over a weeks time, then read the next chapter.

The upgrade went just fine…I think!

Please send me a line or leave a comment here if you notice anything wrong.

- Michael

I will upgrading the WordPress installation tonight sometime. It will probably be after 9:00pm CST.

If you cannot get to the site tomorrow, then something went horribly wrong. And it may not get fixed until the 5th of July.

Happy 4th of July from Black Belt Productivity!

- Michael