Here’s a comprehensive list on how to monitor your brand online by italian blogger, Luca De Fino. Don’t worry, it’s been properly translated into english by SRF Global Translations. (I like SRF’s tagline: Multilanguage Translations by Literate Humans.)

The blog title is fluido (fluid). The author’s intent is about researching hot items in the sectors of communication, marketing, and design.

Uh, a little technical difficulty at the midnight hour over here. I accidentally posted the same post (”Planning Time vs. Doing Time article posted“) 3x. My apologies to those who get automatic posting updates.

I remember when a triple was a good thing back in my softball days…

The article, “Planning Time vs. Doing Time” was posted earlier today.

You may have caught it in The Weekly Simplifier, issue #5. If not, I’d recommend checking it out because distinguishing between these two activities, and making time for both, is incredibly powerful.

by Shawn Tuttle

[This article was originally featured in The Weekly Simplifier Issue #5.]

Even professional organizers have challenges managing their time and efforts on occasion. These are actually opportunities to figure out what isn’t working, and to create solutions. Then, if we’re really on the ball, we’ll write an article about it, so others can share in our discovery.

Such was the case with two situations I went through recently. The result? A firmer belief in making sensible distinctions between Planning Time and Doing Time.

Scenario #1:
Working with a client last week I was faced with a dilemma: keep on track implementing our office reorganization plan, or take a little “side trip” to deal with an unexpected mess (an extensive photo collection).

If we deviate, we won’t be on track with our agreed upon plan. Expected progress for the day won’t be achieved and we’ll have to tack on extra time at the end of our projected completion date. From experience, I know these consequences can be frustrating for the client.

Scenario #2:
I sat down mid-afternoon at my cleaned-off desk to work on a marketing project for the advancement of my business. It’s an important and challenging project. 3 hours later, very little progress has been made, I have another 5 unrelated files open on my desktop, 3 more projects in process, and it’s time to run off to an appointment.

The result of this work session? This part of my project is pushed off until the next day and I miss out on a satisfying sense of accomplishment—in fact, I have that frustrated feeling that comes from getting caught up in details and ignoring my goals.

A good system of Planning Time and Doing Time can help out in both of these situations.

Peak Brain Time = Planning Time

We have 24 hours in the day, 16-17 waking hours, and we typically dedicate 6-10 hours of brain cell use to our business. Realistically, how many of those are peak brain cell hours? This variable often depends on how rested you are, your level of stress, and the time of day.

Planning, problem-solving, and idea development deserve your peak brain cell time. Not only are these the activities that grow your business, they are the higher-brain activities that encourage and require your creativity. I’ll call this Planning Time.

Doing Time Is For Easier Actions

If you’ve done a thorough job, the plans that are created in Planning Time often have a number of small, manageable items that work into your schedule. The notable point here is that they don’t get your peak brain cell time. They get the time between appointments, or maybe you do as many as possible in a scheduled one hour Take Action session.

Let’s apply the Planning Time vs. Doing Time distinction to my earlier examples:

Scenario # 1: The client and I were implementing our existing plan, i.e. Doing Time. I opened up my binder to the “Systems to Create” page, wrote down, “photo collection,” and got back to our plan. This page will be revisited with the client once our original project is complete.

Scenario # 2: First, I block out Planning Time in my schedule in the morning (my peak brain cell time) to do this phase of my marketing project. Then, during that time, I’ll have my ToDo list nearby. When I feel the urge to get sidetracked on a task, I’ll simply write it down and save it for Doing Time.

The difference made by delineating these times is outstanding–like the difference between night and day. We use different parts of the brain for Planning and Doing. Separating the two thought processes is the difference between simply enjoying my work and frantically circling without relief.

We have a limited amount of time each day to work with. Adhering to Planning Time and Doing Time helps calm the mind while increasing productivity. Give it a shot and see how much easier it makes your day!

—–

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

The seventh issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Weekly Simplifier is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

Here is a brief summary of the contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
After a bit of drift, The Weekly Simplifier settles on Wednesday
2. Quote of the Week
by Tom Peters
3. Article: Grow Your Business Like a Tree
by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle
4. This Week’s Simplification Tip
How To Deal with Magazines
5. In the News & On the Web
In The News: Freeing your mind from the stresses of the workday, and a professional organizer says FOCUS; On The Web: 101 Performance Boosters
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
Our Free Downloads: Travel Logs
7. Keep Smiling
Happiness Boosters

Read the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Weekly Simplifier here.

[posted by Lance]

I just got back from Toastmasters. Writing speeches is getting easier–I’m starting to imagine how the delivery will sound while I’m writing. The spoken presentation is so different than the written!

My current goal for delivering speeches at Toastmasters is one a month. Today’s went well (and I won for best speaker of the day, yay!) I was a bit concerned last night seeing as I was on the phone with Linksys tech support until 11:30pm and our meeting begins at 6:30am.

The speech was entitled, “Tell Your Story!” The premise being that through hearing other people’s stories(modern day heroes, really) we are inspired and encouraged to accomplish our own dreams.

The speech was told in a storytelling format in which I related three stories I had heard over the course of last Tuesday.

• Megan Smith (daughter of a fellow Toastmaster) who made it all the way to Machu Picchu, despite being wheelchair bound.
• Tania Carlone who taught future educators in Russia’s far east through the Peace Corps.
• Reinette Senum (entry #90 on The Independent Eye has an audio track) who skied and canoed across Alaska.

Rock on, girls!

For quite some time, I had Monday morning blocked off for planning the upcoming week. Made sense… I’d know what priorities were on my plate, what appointments were on the schedule, and I’d reserve my Planning Time for this activity.

Trouble was that, too often, things kept coming up to side-track the planning process and I’d jump into the day without the overall schedule complete with goals in place. Before I knew it, a frantic-feeling week has begun and Monday isn’t even over yet.

This weekend saw change in tactic. Sunday afternoon provided a relaxed, pressure-free environment during which Weekly Planning spontaneously happened! Here we are, Monday morning starting out smoothly & calmly. I know what my goals are for the week and know when in my schedule I’ll work on them.

This isn’t the first time that Weekly Planning happened on Sunday, and it’s looking like it just might replace Monday for good.