Onsite: G’day mate! Kicking off the 37th National Director’s and CEO Convention with Neen James

How many times have you ever thought any of the following:

“I have so much to do that I don’t even know where to start!”
“I don’t understand why we are having this meeting.”
“I don’t have enough hours in the day.”

If so, then I encourage you to look up Neen James who kicked off the National Director’s and CEO Convention this morning and watch her productivity presentation. It’s life changing and liberating.

The take away is 2 key points. If it’s not immediately a “yes” then it’s a “no”. So many times we get sucked into doing things that don’t really matter and don’t deserve our very valuable time because we didn’t want to be that person who said no. Well, it’s time to realize that it’s impossible to do everything and do it well, so we have to prioritize and do what matters. Neen’s suggestion was to take a post-it note and write down 3 non-negotiable things that you HAVE to get done and make those the priority and work from there. She used a great road trip analogy, what items are the large luggage that has to go in the car first? Once you have that then you can fit in the small luggage around that – I know genius right!? The second point, and my personal favorite, is that you only need 15 minutes to conquer the day! This ties in so beautifully because you can’t devote (I mean really devote) 15 minutes to anything if you are spread too thin. Take your daily post-it note and decide how to best use your 15 minutes to make the maximum impact. If you are having a meeting – make an agenda, this way everyone is prepared and no time is wasted. Assign roles in the meeting so that people stay engaged, have a standing meeting (literally standing…), I bet that would help many people focus on the point, and lastly ALWAYS have summary of how people will be accountable. If there’s no accountability then what was the purpose of the meeting in the first place? We are all so consumed with accomplishing tasks that we’ve forgotten busy is not the same as productive.

The most liberating part of the 15 minute rule, is that it’s actually attainable. Think about the last time you had a long meeting, or even a really long conversation with your mother. How many times did you zone out, stop paying attention or –gasp – pick up your phone? When you give a time limit and stick to it, you more likely to be engaged, focus and retain information you learned in that conversation.

I encourage you all to realize the value of your time, to be present and stay in the conversations you have with not just your employees or members, but anyone who matters in your life; as Neen James said best, we have to start “listening with our eyes”, only then can we be productive and successful.