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Keren Threlfall

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Reading 2014: Say Goodbye to Survival Mode

April 9, 2014

I had mixed emotions when I heard that Crystal Paine’s newest book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode: 9 Simple Strategies to Stress Less, Sleep More, and Restore Your Passion for Life, was coming out. I was excited to get my hands on a copy early on, but when I skimmed through the book and table of contents I realized it had much of the same focus as an eBook project a friend and I were working on writing…right down to part of the title and some of the chapter headings. (We’ve since shelved the project for the present!) But that also excited me, because I knew Crystal and I have read a lot of the same authors on time management, productivity, and creating margin, and I was excited to see how she applied many of those principles, along with her own, to her life.

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Reading 2013: EntreLeadership

April 5, 2013

There are a lot of books on leadership, small business, and entrepreneurship these days. There are even a good number of books by Dave Ramsey. EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches attempts to combine all these elements in one tightly packaged book. In typical Dave Ramsey tone, the book is straightforward; Dave Ramsey drives home his points, leaving dissenters in the dust. Yet, there is also a warm tone of happy reflection wedded to Dave’s strident passion for strong leadership, debt-free living, and out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to business. The book contains many personal stories from Dave’s failed, foreclosed real estate ventures all the way to his current multi-million, multi-faceted company, The Lampo Group, LLC.  Financial advice, leadership counsel, and productivity make up core themes of the book. Entrepreneur is a broad term, and this book narrows in on a certain type of entrepreneur: small business entrepreneurs whose businesses will include multiple employees and, specifically, addressing those businesses which will be run in a brick-and-mortar location. Of course, there’s also the big fundamental for Ramsey: such businesses won’t plan to go into debt for their start-up. Those who fall outside these parameters will still benefit from a good portion of the book, though, and many of the lessons are applicable beyond business. For those who have read or listened to Dave Ramsey before, this book will sound similar to much of Dave Ramsey’s speaking and writing, yet it has a special perspective looking at things from the business owner side of Dave’s desk. Although Dave’s strident tone sometimes comes across to me as brash, overall I generally appreciate and benefit from his writing and speaking (even if I don’t like the way his message comes across). This book left me with a similar feeling. I have read a good number of entrepreneur-focused business books in the past few years, and although it’s not my top pick in the genre (not to mention the books I enjoy most on business have the focus of more out-of-the-box business ideas), it’s probably a good read for anyone who will be leading a team as they build their business. Table of Contents:   

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Daily Rhythms with Anchor Points and Pressure Valves

April 2, 2013

Anchor Points Make Days Predictable and Flexible These days, I don’t write out a minute by minute schedule to plan each day. Forget minutes–I don’t write out hourly schedules, either. Our days are fairly predictable with expected routines, but they also have a lot unstructured kid free time spaced throughout the day. We like to call the routines that hold down our day our anchor points. Anchor points are the non-negotiables that tie our days together. We have a few checklist items (e.g., make/eat breakfast, work on article, read book together, take walk, etc…), and then I arrange them within the general time categories when I need to accomplish them (e.g., morning, early afternoon, evening while kids are sleeping, etc…). Wedding this idea with the concept of margin has provided me with more flexibility and opportunities to get things done. Keep It Simple Schedule One way to become quickly overwhelmed with small children is to pencil in every minute of the day. When a diaper or potty accident occurs, a shoe is lost while heading out the door, or a child really needs a little more of your attention, the minute-by-minute schedule is thrown off for the rest of the day. Instead, and particularly in this season of motherhood, it may help to focus on times as chunks, and days with routines instead of strict schedules. In his productivity book Zen to Done, Leo Babuata encourages his readers to eliminate many of the unnecessary items off of their checklists, and just focus on three main tasks for each day. By eliminating others, they are more compelled to actually accomplish the most important tasks. While such extreme simplification in motherhood (especially the SAHM version) may seem unrealistic, it may help to eliminate the minutia that ends up creating more stress and distracting from accomplishing what is truly important. Life Tastes Better in Bite-Sized Chunks Viewing your day as centered around anchor points will also help to break the day into chunks, and allow each section to seem more manageable. Bite-size is easier to do throughout the day than trying to eat a whole elephant at the end of the day. Mealtimes are great anchor points. Using these as your non-negotiable times, you may choose to break up your day into a breakfast checklist, a lunchtime checklist, an afternoon checklist, and an after supper checklist. Additionally, each day may have its own space for a particular outing…

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Reading 2013: Zen to Done

March 29, 2013

Leo Babuata of Zen Habits fame has written a brief book on productivity, in which he claims his system to be the ultimate of simple productivity system. Zen to Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System builds on several productivity systems, particularly those described in Getting Things Done and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (my review here). Personally, although I am at least 10 times more productive now than I was six or seven years ago, I still have a long way to go before I feel like I have a streamlined system. (Ironically, I’ve grown more productive as I’ve been more reproductive–an marked increase with the addition of each child! ;)) I have learned a lot simply from being married to a man who already had healthy, well-established habits of  productivity, efficiency, and organization; but I have also learned a lot from reading various books. While I appreciated Getting Things Done, I did find the system to be a little overwhelming, especially at the point  in life when I read it (when I was already overwhelmed with a hectic schedule and marginless living). As time has progressed since we first tried to integrate Getting Things Done into our lives, we’ve also come to realize that at it’s core, organization (for us) is about simplification. And that’s what I really appreciated about Zen to Done: simplicity and productivity are wed together, rather than one obscuring the other. Babuata refers to Getting Things Done so frequently that he simply uses the acronym GTD when referring to it (this is common among many who’ve read the book, though, and not unique to Babuata) and he uses ZTD to refer to his own system. He brings up the fact that sometimes the GTD method focuses on the minutia while losing sight of the big picture. With a more simplistic view, ZTD focuses on making sure we are being most productive where and when it really counts. Going Back to a Simple Notebook One recommendation that Babuata makes for his system over GTD is to eliminate all the extra systems, organizers, and binders and simply use one pocket notebook (he prefers a moleskine). Likewise, he recommends paper over technology, but does concede that if such a system works best for some, then go ahead. I think this was the impetus I needed, and feeling like I should just keep notes online/on my phone was actually a barrier to my productivity. I’ve been going through this year…

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January in Review: Reading and Goals

February 22, 2013

A little late, but I’m still going to recap some of my January goals, annual goals, and blogging. Obviously, a public blog is not the place to share all my goals, but just a select few in areas which I’ve found motivational and inspiring for me to read about other people’s goals.

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