In March, Marty and I celebrated 15 years of marriage – how incredibly lucky and honored I am to have him as my life partner.  In the spring, Blair and Matt got engaged, and will be married this fall – something we look forward to with immense excitement.

In June, Marty and I, Leah, Blair and Matt spent 4 days in Vermont to celebrate Marty’s 60th birthday.  Also to celebrate that milestone, we surprised him with one of the all time greatest parties to not only honor him, but to raise $ for AVLF, the Foundation that is near and dear to his heart.  The legal community as well as family and friends all came together as a true testament to who he is and how much he shares of himself.

The summer not only brought a visit from 3 boys from Beijing, but also graced us with the newest, (and cutest) member of our family, Ruby!  She has been such a joy to raise and love and continues to teach me about unconditional love. 

In August, I am sorry to share that we lost one of our all time best friends, Joel Rachelson, to liver cancer.  The only blessing out of that experience was that he didn’t suffer – he just sort of slipped away quietly – which was who he was right to the end.  He is missed and remembered every day and is a constant reminder of how fragile life is and to live it to the fullest.

For Thanksgiving, Marty and I spent a fabulous 10 days in San Francisco unwinding with best friends and exploring parts of California that were new to us.  Then upon returning, I got to celebrate my 55th birthday by honoring the women in my life who are, and have always been the strength from which I have pulled from my entire life.  What a true joy it was to be in a room filled with such love and friendship – I am still so full with the memories.

And then just when you think there are no celebrations left…in December, our nephew Aaron Kaufman graduated from the Univ. of MD with not only the highest GPA in the School of American Studies, but was also bestowed the Community Service Award.  How proud we all are of his accomplishments.  

Through all that this year has brought me, what continues to delight and reward me more than anything are the new people I have been able to  help by changing the way they live to experience more joy and less stress in their lives.   Every day I am more convinced that I am doing in this world what I am truly meant to do, and what I am most passionate about.

So for 2012, I wish for everyone the happiest, healthiest and most productive year ever – here’s to doing what you love and loving what you do – with passion, enthusiasm and a sense of peace of mind.

With gratitude and thanks,

Holes in Productivity

I work with a lot of busy professionals across many different industries, and one of the key issues that constantly come up is gaping holes in productivity.

Most times the owner or executive team misses it, because of the challenging and super-hectic workload that’s burdening them on a daily basis. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to STOP the world, and uncover where there are leaks and gaps in efficiency and productivity in your operation.

So, what about you?  Are you working in an environment that could function so much better if your colleagues were invited to share their ideas about how the office could be better organized?

Culture of Productivity

It is rarely the case that the culture of your business makes it easy for employees, customers, vendors and others to offer ideas and suggestions for ways to increase productivity.  Especially when it comes to getting organized, which by the way ultimately brings the job satisfaction level up several notches!

Here’s a good opportunity to be honest with yourself and determine if this is a starting point to really increase the work-flow and efficiency of your staff and your entire organization!

You may want to start by doing a diagnosis of the operation of your business. That self-assessment must invite honest input from your staff about how their work promotes the mission of the business: give your employees a safe way to share feedback about the business process. Take steps to make sure the staff feels included in your diagnosis, and then honored for sharing their opinion about how to make the office a more productive, more efficient, more profitable and/or more enjoyable place for the clients and for the staff.  Invite your clients to share honest feedback about the level of care they are receiving from you, and be open to hearing criticism and to making changes when appropriate and necessary.

And don’t be shy about asking for help. Your expertise involves the delivery of a detailed and specific service- so does mine. When I am beyond my comfort or expertise, I call on you: when you are uncertain about the best way to turn your practice into a productive and effective business, please consider calling me!

When I’m consulting with a new client, I’ll sit with the staff individually and ask: “In your eyes, please tell me what’s working and what’s not working in this organization. Please share your thoughts about how to improve on the areas where there are problems.”  That exchange yields two important benefits: 1) great information is conveyed from the people on whom you must depend to do things as well as possible, and 2) the staff feels invited to be part of the solution, and their sense of pride in the organization increases with their sense of ownership of the result.

Usually you are left with 3 or 4 common threads from the staff regarding things that could work better and this creates a starting point for making positive changes that can yield those happy, productive employees.

As a business owner or company executive – you don’t have a company or a practice if your team of employees isn’t happy and invested in doing their jobs well.

Take Action

Make today the day. Create a safe place and start to build a culture of open communication about ways to increase productivity. Capture the data and the ideas to fill the gaping productivity holes.   Implement an organized system that works for the employees, and creates a better environment for your customers.

And in the end, when you turn the light out at night, your head will turn “off” because the worry and stress of what didn’t get done, what you have to do tomorrow, who you may have forgotten to call back – that will all be gone and you will peacefully ease into a restful, well-deserved slumber.  Exactly as it should be.

What is clearer than ever in both training Ruby how to behave as she matures from a puppy into an adult dog and teaching humans how to change their existing behavior – being consistent on a regular basis and creating routines, whether old or new, is the key to long term success.  For Ruby, it’s making sure that she goes in and out the same door every day to “relieve” herself.  It means using the same words over and over again for each command to ensure she gets it and associates with it.  “Leave it” and “drop it” are two very different things to her which I didn’t get in the beginning and was using both of those intermittently for the same action.  I learned quickly enough that when you want her to not touch something, it’s “leave it” and when you want her to let go of something that she already has, it’s “drop it.”  What did I know…there is a reason why I do what I do and Cesar Milan does what he does!  And… boy is he good! 

So here are some quick tips we can all learn from no matter how many legs we have…

• Try to create routines, stick to them every day and when they are eventually linked with “feeling right,” you have developed a new, positive habit.
• Be intentional and consistent in the actions that you take to maintain any new system you set up for yourself to change your existing behavior.
• Don’t punish yourself if you don’t get it right every single time – after all, change takes time, and the easier you can be on yourself, the more likely you are to keep going.  Don’t let discouragement turn you back in the direction you just came from.      

And finally, the most important gift that Ruby, Routines and Reinforcing good habits all have in common is… THE REWARD!  I know that what is not only rewarding for us but also for Ruby is… we are all one little happy, well-adjusted, disciplined, “chill” family right out of the gate! We are putting the time in now to have the next 15 years with a well-behaved dog who only wants to please and love us unconditionally. 

Now just think about how much better your life will be once you have ditched those old habits for new, simple, productive ones – that is truly a reward in itself.  And if you are really up for a more challenging one… go get yourself a puppy!

As managers, you’re always told to communicate. But for many of us the problem isn’t not enough information, it’s too much. Handling all the email, messages, memos and stuff coming at us is like trying to drink from a fire hose. Here are some tips for getting a grip.

In his new book “Overload-How Too Much Information is Hazardous to Your Organization”, author Jonathan Spira says it’s not just personal productivity that suffers. Too much information to handle effectively costs the US economy $900 Billion a year in bad decisions, delays and wasted time.

The biggest challenges to productivity are also the easiest to abuse: Email and interruptions. Here are 10 tips he offers in the book for gaining some measure of control in your worklife.

1. Don’t email someone, then immediately follow up with an Instant Message, a phone call and a tweet. it wastes your time and interrupts them, maybe while they’re trying to get you an answer.
2. Don’t combine multiple themes or requests in a single email. It’s too hard to pick out exactly what you want and if they store the information somewhere they may not find it again.
3. Make sure the subject of your email actually says what your request or information is about.
   
4. Read your email over for tone and clarity before sending it out. One badly written email starts a whole thread of explanation. Get it right the first time.
5. Don’t overburden people with unnecessary replies like “Great!” and “Thanks”. And for heavens sake don’t reply to everyone unless everyone needs to know.
6. Don’t get impatient if people don’t respond right away. They may be, you know, busy.
7. Keep your status up to date on IM and email. If you’re out of the office and won’t be around, tell people so they don’t try to hunt you down.
8. Recognize that the intended recipient of your email or message isn’t a mind reader. Take the time to give them necessary information about who you are, what you want and what they need to know. This will prevent multiple inquiries.
9. Recognize that typed words can be misleading in both tone and intent. Strive for simplicity and clarity in your communication. This means we can even forgive an emoticon or two if it helps set the right tone
10. Understand that as overwhelming as information overload is for you, it’s no easier for anyone else. Do your part to make your team’s life easier.

Marty received a letter about 6 weeks ago inviting us to host exchange students coming to the USA from Beijing.  A total of 24 kids were on this Adventures Abroad trip – half in middle school and half in high school.  We thought even though we don’t have any children living in our home to “exchange”, what a great experience it would be to have some boys (we raised 2 girls) stay with us.  We requested 2, got 3 and it wound up being the perfect number.  So last Wednesday, Yunkun (Robert), Chong (Terry) and Yuyang (Mike) settled in for what was an educational, humorous and delightful experience.

They were all incredibly respectful, considerate, interesting…and yet typical teenage boys!  Goofy, playful, not all that interested in girls quite yet and totally open to exploring the American life.  Their day-time itinerary with their group included Centennial Olympic Park, The Georgia Aquarium, CNN, Coca-Cola Museum, Six Flags/White Water, Martin Luther King Center and Stone Mountain.  So we filled in the week with  the Carter Center rose garden, The International Farmers Market, Lenox Mall, The Sundial Restaurant at the top of the Peachtree Plaza, our community pool, the movie “Transformers” at Atlantic Station, badminton in our backyard, and a stroll into the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood we live in including the Wednesday night Food Trucks for dinner.  (I told Marty…”All these host families are most likely taking their guests home for a lovely home-cooked meal and we take our boys to eat out of trucks in a parking lot”!)  Great way to break them in!  During their stay, they had Thai Food, Mexican, Italian, Burgers & Fries, lots of Coke and Fanta and even cooked us some traditional Chinese dishes.  Apparently sugar is not quite as popular in China as it is in the US – Marty tried desperately to turn them onto a different style of ice cream every night and NO GO!  TOO SWEET!  He had hoped to have a partner in crime with his favorite indulgence but no such luck.

The boys did an amazing job with their English – and our communication sort of reminded me of the TV show Family Fued.  We would ask a question, they would get in a huddle to try to figure out what we said, then come back with an answer or a comment either expressing they understood, or had no clue.  We are so glad they had each other – or it would have been way harder to get through a conversation.

The week flew by and before we knew it, we said our goodbyes, thanked them for their generosity in sharing some of their culture with us and they were off to Boston, then NYC and back to Beijing.

Just one of the many adventures we are having this summer.  Stay tuned for another one right around the corner…our puppy Ruby moves in on Sunday!  Never a dull moment in our household… talk about MOMENTUM!

I get bored pretty easily, especially with cars. Last week I entered my new Infiniti EX35 into the Ellin Automotive Hall of Fame! Yes that’s right, I am now on my 14th car in my lifetime and folks, I’m really not that old!

I just get bored easily with cars and so I trade them in every 3 years or so for something new and different. I started leasing cars back when I was in sales because I put so much mileage on them – my car was truly considered my “second home”.

I needed something different after years of “living” in that car. However, I’ve now been out of that career for 10 years and still continue to lease due to the change factor involved – I love the newness of the ride, the interior features, and the challenge of re-training my brain to find the new one in a parking lot!

So here are the cars I have driven over the years… and here’s to Pearl, my new Infiniti EX35 which I just love zipping around in – because when you gotta sit in Atlanta traffic, you may as well be happy with what you are sitting in!

1968 Pontiac Lemans (First Car)
Toyota Corolla Hatchback
VW Jetta
Honda Civic
BMW 325i
Jeep Cherokee Laredo – White
Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo – Black
Jaguar XJ6
Lexus 300 SUV
Nissan Murano
Toyota 4 Runner
BMW X3
Volvo XC70
Infiniti EX53

Please feel free to share your automobile history with me if you are as crazy as I am about vehicle change!

Procrastination. Your teachers and parents told you it wasn’t good to put things off, your bosses set deadlines to keep you from doing it (but that probably caused you to procrastinate even more). So, where do you go for REAL help? Perhaps you found books on the topic, or maybe even went to hyped up seminars that gave you no real system or solution to help with your situation.

Yet here you are. You know too well the dreaded feeling in the pit of your stomach, the sinking sensation as you see a deadline approaching. You’re a master at all the little delay tactics -  washing the dishes when you’re supposed to be writing a proposal, staring blankly into space when you’re supposed to be returning a phone call… darn it, if there was any profit in procrastinating, you’d have a VERY full bank account!

Below, I’ve compiled 8 very common ways people tend to procrastinate, and how much that procrastination has COST them (and what that money could have been used for instead)!!!

1. Not keeping tabs on your checking account and suffering overdraft fees 3 times: $90.00

You could buy: a new swimsuit, sunglasses and beach towel in preparation for summer!

2. Forgetting to send in your paperwork for dental insurance: $200.00 per cavity

You could buy: 15 packages of floss, 10 tubes of toothpaste, 7 bottles of mouthwash and 2 packages of Crest “White Strips”

3. Not packing your lunch and having to buy food every day for a month: $140.00

You could buy: groceries for 2 weeks

4. Waiting 6 months to pay off $2,000 in debt on your credit card: $175.00 in interest

You could buy: Two new pairs of boots or slacks and two dress shirts

5. Insufficient packing before a move, causing movers to charge you extra: $100.00

You could buy: Three gallons of paint and supplies to spruce up your new home

6. Running out of time to repaint and make repairs on your apartment and getting charged by the landlord: $1,000.00

You could buy: A couch and coffee table for your new home or apartment

7. Neglecting to renew your car’s license plate and registration on time: 200.00 per ticket

You could buy: An iPod Touch to keep you rocking on the highway

8. Not checking your credit card statement regularly to safeguard against identity theft: $370.00 per incident

You could buy: A day spa visit for you and your spouse

Procrastination isn’t just a “bad habit”, it’s also a “bank account drain” – and you probably know exactly what I’m talking about here. Before I go on, let me make one very important point…

Don’t disregard the information here because you’ve heard it before, or you “know” this stuff.

Most of my clients and the people I’ve spoken to from the stage “knew” this too, but were perpetually procrastinating – even if they didn’t consider themselves a procrastinator! The good news is anyone can break the cycle, and become better organized and create better systems to stop “putting off” and begin taking pro-active action!

The 8 ways I listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. Because of the work I’ve been privileged to do over the years, and seen the “the worst of the worst” – there are SO MANY more examples of how this nasty little habit called procrastination has cost people money as well as wasted time!

If you’re honest with yourself, what are some ways being late or delaying an important activity has cost you time and money? Our readers would be curious, and may even help prevent them from doing the same thing! Post your Comments in the area below, and let’s discuss some other ways procrastination has stolen money from your wallet or bank account!

Please contact me directly at wendy@wendyellin.com or 404.874.5179 to discuss ways my techniques can save you Time and Money for you or your office, or to talk about having this topic (or others) as a live or virtual event for your group, office or organization.

Maggie was interested in learning more about how I help people become more organized and successful, so she asked me the following questions and I have my answers provided below…

1.  What do you see as the biggest challenges to entrepreneurs and professionals about staying organized?

The key to staying organized:
*    Have an EASY SYSTEM to follow every day – it has to be or they won’t stick with it long enough to reap the benefits.
*    Just Like…
the key to staying clean is showering every day
the key to staying healthy is to eat properly and exercise regularly
the key to staying with anything is routine, repetition and having that linked with “feeling good”
That’s the incentive for keeping it going!

My Organized Workspace

2.  How have you seen getting organized make a difference in a business?

I see it make a difference on EVERY LEVEL!
*    Your days are productive, not just busy
*    You have total control over your workload – that never stops growing
*    You can find what you are looking for
*    You can navigate easily through your day
*    Less overall stress
*    More overall Peace of Mind
*    Ultimately more income – due to more money making less time wasting

3.  What are some of the biggest “aha!” moments your clients have when you help them really sort things out?

*    They actually get very quickly that this can work if they follow a simple system
*    They are amazed at how little they actually have to do every day to keep it up- but how big the reward is
*    Their self-esteem increases immediately
*    They want to tell the world about their new-found life
*    They can’t believe how long they lived their disorganized life – wonder how they got where they are!

4.  As a small business owner yourself, what are your most valuable secrets for staying organized?

*    Staying organized is just like any sport or hobby in that… the more you practice it, the better you get at it, and the better you get at it, the more you enjoy it!
*    First resign yourself to the fact that you never get it all done.
*    Be realistic about how much you can get done in a 24 hour period.
*    Have a system for your incoming workload.
*    Be gentle on yourself when you took on more than you can handle – tomorrow is another day.
*    Make sure every day you do that one thing that will bring you the most satisfaction from its completion.

5.  Can you tell a little bit about how you work with your clients and how they can get in touch with you if they want to know more?

Four ways in which I offer my services:

1. Group Trainings – Amount of attendees unlimited, 3-4 hour workshops for groups of employees within an organization.

2. One-on-One Implementation – Work individually with someone to “teach and show” them how to start living differently.

3. Speaking - Lunch & Learn, Breakout Session and Key Note Speaker for Conferences.

4. On-Site Office/Practice Visits - One week in-house set up of organizational systems.

I spent five days in a Podiatry practice in Maryland.  I awoke every morning at 5:30 am, started on my hour-long commute to the office at 6 am, was in the office with coffee in my hand by 7:05 and went straight through until 4:30 when we started our sometimes over an hour commute back home.  Which, by the way, required me to be asleep every night by 10 pm in order to rise that early and function properly.  Not an easy feat, but I did it – and it actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated.

This practice ROCKED!  YES, they had some issues, not uncommon to most organizations, such as scheduling, morale, training, limited space, etc.  But what they had at the core of their practice was the passion for getting the job done while enjoying every minute of the experience.  I’ve never had more fun learning about how a practice runs while helping them create new systems for increasing their productivity.  This staff works well together, laughs together, eats lunch together, supports one another and has a “we’re all in this together” attitude that you can feel the minute you walk in the door.

It was a delight to be a part of an office that considered me a part of their team all week.  I trust they will pair this sense of cohesiveness with their new, more productive process where quality care, communication and expedient patient visits are first and foremost in their practice.  I salute them for allowing me to delve into the challenges so that I could help change the dynamic and ultimately create a top-notch environment.

Sometimes a business needs nothing more than an outsider’s evaluation of what can be done differently to increase productivity across the board.  That is what I provided for these folks – a new, objective eye, someone who paid close attention to what “was not working” in the office and offered ideas about how to remedy those issues so that everyone benefits from the solutions.  Because in the end, it’s all about everyone achieving real job satisfaction by doing the best work they know how to reach the common goal – which in this case is to deliver quality care with minimum wait time for their patients.

Once again, it’s when work becomes your passion that you never mind doing it, even if it means a 5:30 am wake up call!

As more and more technological tools enter our lives, our attention becomes more and more divided – a phenomenon that Linda Stone, a former VP at Microsoft, termed “continuous partial attention.” We may be working on responding to e-mails, but we also have music playing in the background, have a Twitter feed streaming, have an instant message screen open and are monitoring the phone for text messages.

All of this continuous partial attention leaves us exhausted and at a place where we have accomplished a lot less than we expected. We are frustrated with never being able to shut off work and yet we feel like we never get anything “done”.

On the surface, multitasking looks like an intelligent choice. If you only have an hour free, being able to do as much as you possibly can seems to make sense. Until you find that out it does not!

Unitasking on the other hand, allows you the concentrated effect of focusing on – then fully completing – tasks one at a time. It gives you a non-distracted focus and clarity of task while performing and finishing each set of daily activities.

Here are 5 productivity misconceptions of multitasking:

1. “I will get more done.”
   
   This is by far the biggest misconception. When you continually shift attention (focus) from one activity to the next, to the next, only to circle back and complete the task – you actually get LESS done. It seems like you’re being more productive because you’re being more active by “keeping more plates spinning”. Having the singular focus of attention to complete activities before moving on to the next gives you MORE productivity, because each task is fully completed and checked off as you move to the next activity.
2. “I will be more effective.”
   
   With partial attention given to the tasks you’re performing, there will inevitably be mistakes. (You know what I’m talking about here!) For example, while talking on the phone and checking emails, you may forget to attach that document in the Reply, thus having to go back and resend another email. If you’re having to re-do tasks and activities, you’re actually being less effective – not to mention how “present” you are for the conversation you’re having!
   
3. “I will be more valuable to my company.”
   
   Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. In other words, in contrast to almost everything else in your life, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it. If you’re getting partial productivity from most of your efforts, you will be dramatically less valuable to your company
4. “I will be able to save time.”
   
   When you multitask instead of unitask, you switch task rapidly – shifting from one thing to another, interrupting yourself unproductively, and losing time in the process. How many of you have had to make another phone call to get details or clarification again, because you were not giving full attention when you spoke the first time? That’s a time-waster – and embarrassing as well!
5. “I will have less stress because I’m accomplishing so much.”
   
   All research shows that multitasking isn’t just inefficient, it’s stressful. And I find that to be true. In my experience, it is a relief to unitask by doing only one thing at a time. I feel liberated from the strain of keeping so many balls in the air at each moment. It feels reassuring to finish one thing before going to the next.  Just like that “volley ball game” of life I talk about – hitting the balls into someone else’s court – more commonly referred to as “getting it off your plate” or “crossing it off your list”!

With information coming at us through email, RSS, Twitter, smart phones and the like, the ability to perform multiple actions at once, quickly prioritizing tasks and making decisions, would seem to be an important contributor to leadership or executive success.  However, the more this vaunted “skill” comes under scrutiny, the more doubts there are about the correlation between multitasking and good leadership or effective management.

The most recent assault comes from a study published by Stanford University that discovered multitaskers are not better than unitaskers.  Writing about multitaskers in New York Times, Ruth Pennebaker recently stated:

“They don’t focus as well as non-multitaskers. They’re more distractible. They’re weaker at shifting from one task to another and at organizing information. They are, as a matter of fact, worse at multitasking than people who don’t ordinarily multitask.”

There are a number of things you can do to help your brain deal with the significant number of tasks that each of us have to accomplish, but let us start with a simple experiment. This experiment is inspired by Harvard Business Review blogger Peter Bregman’s challenge to himself: stop multitasking for one week. Concentrate on doing only one conscious mental task at a time. See what happens. You will likely gain a lot and lose nothing, despite what everyone has always told you.

Let me know how you do and what your results have been!