Five Things Blog #2

This is the five things blog where I briefly touch on 5 things I am thinking about this week...

Number of the week

2 - this is the second time I have blogged on this topic of doing a weekly 5 things blog. This is significant for me as in this something I said I was going to do and here we are. I am doing it!

A Person I am Learning About:

Donna Dubinsky is someone I have been thinking about a lot lately. She is a former Apple executive turned CEO of Palm, among other companies. I learned about her while reading Adam Grant's Originals book. Grant mentions that she stood up to Jobs about shipping and distribution changes and ultimately decided to leave the company. It is her dedication to

A chart:

Recessions are painful but the expansion times. This chart reminds me that bad times are cyclical and they almost always produce times of more and abundance. So remember to keep moving forward good times are just around the corner.

Productivity tip

This week's tip is something I call mindful blocking. This is a practice where you list everything you need to get done, every obligation, appointment, meeting, task, to do, follow up and commitments that are important to your goals. Then you sit down and plan those out in 15-minute increments. I started doing this using my calendars and moleskin. Pen and paper feel more intentional.

There are 672 15 minute blocks in a 7 day week.

If you sleep 6.5 hours a night = 27 blocks x 7 days = 189 blocks for sleep. If you sleep 7.5 hours add 7 blocks to 189, you get the idea. This leaves 483 blocks to get everything else done. I need to work out 6 days a week for 90 minutes that is 36 blocks. If I want to plan a date night with my wife that might be 3 hours or 12 blocks. If I need to coach the kids' baseball this week this is going to be a 2-hour commitment or 8 blocks. I do this for everything I wrote down on the moleskin on Sunday night. So when those email notifications begin coming in on a Wednesday afternoon I can ignore them until I have an open block to review and respond.

This process, while I just started it keeps me focused on what is most important to me and my goals. You need to think of things in 15-minute blocks of productivity then pre-schedule those blocks at the start of the week. This ensures you are planning to get the most important things done on your terms and then using the open blocks to deal with everything that comes at you during the week.

Quote

"If you’re going to tell the emperor they have no clothes then you better be a good tailor" - Ray Dalio, Principles

I really like this quote because it is a variation on the glass house quote. What he is trying to capture here is it is not enough to just point out someone's shortcomings or flaws but also help them through the process of correcting it. This is something I try to employ in my daily work.