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1 It’s All in Your Head: End the Overwhelm by Adjusting Your Mind-Set

The fear of clients not returning for more business, the worry of running out of time for anything and everything, the urgency to burn the midnight oil in order to finish the next task on your never-ending to-do list…these things don’t work. That’s why you’re reading this.

As businesspeople who want to succeed, we can so easily get sucked into the mentality of “I must do this task or project for my job or business, or else I’ll lose out!” What if we turned the tables around and thought that way about our personal priorities? “I should spend time supporting my health or family or marriage, or else I’ll lose out!” Will saying yes to that “one more thing” for work support your priorities in life?

If you read nothing else in this book, but you understand this strategy, this concept — “I should spend time supporting my health or family or marriage, or else I’ll lose out!” — and live by it, know this:

You will be productive and have a life outside of your business or your job.

Time management.

Productivity.

Happiness.

Success.

Peace.

It’s all about mind-set and mind management.

It truly is…all in your head.

A MONSTER LESSON

Have you seen the movie Aliens lately? It’s the second movie in the franchise. Sigourney Weaver stars as Ellen Ripley and kicks some serious space-monster booty! Ripley wakes up after hurtling through space back toward her home planet, spending 57 years in a deep sleep after escaping from a nasty, slimy alien beast on a colony planet. After her recovery, the powers that be ask her to return to the planet with a crew of Marines because the current settlers on the planet have stopped responding. Hmmm…I wonder what happened to them.

Fast-forward to aliens with razor-sharp teeth, covered in slime, chomping down on one Marine at a time, until they’re down to just six people in command central. Bill Paxton’s character, Private Hudson, has been whining the entire time about everything that’s going wrong. “We’re gonna die!” “What are we gonna do?” “There’s no way out!”

Ripley takes a deep breath, looks around at everyone, and calmly says to Hudson, “Now I want you to get on a terminal and call up some kind of floor-plan file. Do you understand? Construction blueprints. Anything that shows the layout of this place. Are you listening? I need to see air ducts. I need to see electrical access tunnels. Sub-basements. Every possible way into this complex. We don’t have much time. Hudson, just relax.”

In the midst of meltdowns by other crew members who were overwhelmed by the mayhem surrounding them, Ellen Ripley was able to remain calm and keep things in perspective.

The situation was critical, but she knew: You have to take your time to save time.

She understood how to Create Clarity.

YOUR SECRET WEAPON IS…

I meet folks from all professions and walks of life when I speak as The Inefficiency Assassin. I also have wonderful phone coaching clients all over the world. The number one question I get asked is, “What is the best _____ to use?” You can fill in the blank with such words as calendar, file folder, file cabinet, task app, cord manager — you name it. I’m always asked about a product. Or if a company wants to hire me to present at their conference or training, they want me to include a “Top 10 Tools” list as one of my deliverables. Everyone wants to know the secret quick fix.

Depending on how much time I have at that moment, I try to briefly explain that tools are just tools and won’t work unless something else, something bigger — an extreme strategy — is learned.

Since you and I have the time right now, let’s talk about what that mind-bending concept is.

What is the key to organization and productivity?

I can tell you that there are no shopping lists involved. There’s not an inventory of tools or supplies to purchase. No containers. No apps.

Do you want the answer to the question they always ask? Do you want to know what your Time Management Revolution needs in order to work?

Here’s a hint: you already possess the most critical tool a person needs in order to be successful with time management.

It’s your brain!

That’s right, my comrades-in-arms. Your brain is your secret weapon! There’s nothing special to buy! Managing your time comes down to how you train your brain to think.

Now, don’t get me wrong; calendars and apps are tools you can utilize. But the key tool is your brain — because it’s your brain that decides what goes on those calendars and what tasks get added to those apps or lists, whichever you choose to use to track what you need to do.

Your brain is what will make you, and it is also what can break you.

Every decision you make, from the time you roll out of bed in the morning until the time your head hits the pillow in the evening, will affect your personal life and work life.

Your brain makes your decisions.

Therefore, that gob of gray matter that resides in your skull is your key to failure…or success.

Your brain is in total control of everything you do. It decides how much time you waste and how much time you utilize. It decides whether you’ll procrastinate or jump in and get things done. Your brain determines your reaction and response to every person who communicates with you and every situation in which you’re placed. And if you’ve got too much spinning around up there, you can end up with brain constipation.

It’s important to understand that you can’t be on autopilot. You must be conscious, aware, intentional, present, cognizant — whichever term you prefer to use — regarding your decisions about how you use your time. Your brain will help you to implement your Time Management Revolution.

CREATING AND CARING FOR YOUR SECRET WEAPON

In this first part of the book, we’ll be discussing the C in CIA — Create Clarity. You’ll learn how you can care for and utilize your secret weapon — your brain.

In order to Create Clarity, we must do the following:

• Capture our priorities

• Identify our targets

• Administer self-care

• Reflect with power

• Be open to change

When you achieve this part of the mission, completing the rest of the productivity operation — parts 2 and 3 — is that much easier.

Ready? It’s time to do some capturing!