Productivity

Five simple reading strategies for busy women

As a working mom (or, really, all busy women), reading time is precious. I love to read, so it’s something I prioritize. It’s rare for any of us to have built-in lengthy blocks of time to read, but with some creativity, it’s possible to use “found time” to read every day.

Here are 5 sneaky yet simple ways to find time to read regularly:

1. Read while waiting in line.

How do we spend so much time waiting in lines? There’s the grocery store checkout line, the carpool line, the cafeteria line, waiting the pediatrician’s office, endless at the airport, and so many more.

Waiting in line is a brilliant time to get a page or two in. You’ll be surprised at how quickly those pages add up!

2. Read while walking

You know this people who walk around looking like total nerds with their nose in a book? That was totally me as a kid. This habit faded some as a young adult when I realized just how odd it looked (and started caring!). The rise of the smartphone and reading apps means that it’s now ridiculously easy to read while walking.

Since everyone is staring at their phone, it’s not weird. Nerds everywhere, rejoice! Granted, most of them may be watching YouTube videos and trolling Instagram instead of reading books. For better or worse, it’s now fully culturally acceptable to walk around with your eyes on your smartphone.

If you’re not into the nose-in-a-phone look, this is also a great time to read audiobooks.

Bonus! You get in steps and can feel good about ‘exercising’ while you read. I’ve taken more than one stroll around the neighborhood to exercise with a primary goal of getting some reading time in.

3. Read while your kids do their homework, play or nap.

While I love the Kindle app for out-and-about reading, nothing beats my kids seeing me reading a physical book. Back to that note about everyone having their eyes on a smartphone – like the rest of the world, my kids have no idea if I’m reading the finest literature or the worst fake news their is. I would rather model the importance of reading than the not-so-importance of staring at a phone.

Yes, family reading time often means endless Dr. Seuss read-alouds, but I can get in a few pages here and there while they are drawing, coloring, playing with legos or building forts (or, more likely, running around like wild men).

4. Read while driving.

But keep your eyes on the road! 🙂 Audiobooks are a wonder for general driving and commute-time reading. I prefer to listen to nonfiction, so this is a great way to get in books that I might not otherwise prioritize.

5. Read instead of watching TV.

This one should be a bit of a no-brainer. If you’re looking for more reading time, and spending any time watching TV, simply swap out TV time for reading time. My husband will often watch a show he’s interested in while I read a book. We can still spend time together, but each get to prioritize the entertainment more important to us.

At this point, you may be thinking, “Sarah, this is great and all, but I’m on a budget. Where do I find all these amazing books and audiobooks for cheap or free?”

Great question. Here’s how I do it:

How to affordably acquire ebooks and audiobooks

At the rate I read, the cost of books can add up quickly. Several years ago, after complaining commenting about how much my husband’s video games cost, I was quite shocked to discover that on a per-hour usage basis, buying books was more expensive than buying video games. In an effort at frugality, I read a whole bunch of terrible free ebooks before I wised up to the fact that there are much easier free and relatively cheap ways to acquire electronic reading material.

My current favorite ways to acquire ebooks and audiobooks are the public library, Scribd and Audible.

Not sure what Scribd or Audible are? Keep reading!

I use a combination of all three of these methods to read quality books on a regular basis. Here’s how:

Your local public library

It’s free! In a addition to physical books, most local libraries have fully embraced the ebook trend. I am able to go online and check out ebooks and audiobooks from a fairly large catalog of books. It’s rare that the library doesn’t own an electronic copy of something that I read.

I love using the library’s online reservation feature even for physical books. Since library trips are usually outings with my kids, it’s fantastic to be able to grab my own books from the hold shelf. Then we can quickly head to the kids section and avoid the inevitable running, shouting and “Mom, I’m bored” while I leisurely browse.

The one downside to library usage is that newer titles often have holds and the wait time can be fairly lengthy. I don’t often need to read any particular book immediately, but sometimes I’m impatient and don’t want to wait. In that case, I use one of the next options.

Scribd

Scribd is essentially a “Netflix for books and audiobooks.” Users pay a monthly subscription fee (currently $8.99) for unlimited access to the entire Scribd catalog of both ebooks and audiobooks. Scribd has a fairly large catalog of new and popular titles, as well as older titles.

When I first signed up for a free trial month of Scribd (Scribd offers a free 30 day trial to new subscribers *), I wasn’t sure if I’d read enough for the cost to be worth it or not. I’ve found that it’s proven well worth it and am currently a paying subscriber.

In the three months I’ve had Scribd, I’ve read 4 fiction books, 2 nonfiction books, listened to 2 nonfiction audiobooks, 7 kids audiobooks and the numbers are still going up. Of the ones I’ve checked, over half of those are books that the library either didn’t have or had a waitlist for.

One potential downside, depending on your reading habits, is that many titles are only stocked in either ebook or audiobook form. There are a number of non-fiction books that I was hoping to read in ebook form that Scribd only has as audiobooks. This is good for my commute time reading, but not good for when I want to see words on a page screen.

Audible

My husband signed up for an Audible membership last year and has exponentially increased the number of books he read. He’s read more non-fiction in the last year than I have, which is saying something! Audible has all the titles we’ve ever wanted to purchase, and often has deals for additional ‘credits’ at below market price.

Audible is more expensive than the library or Scribd, but by paying attention to credit price and taking advantage of deals and sales, it’s possible to be strategic and save money on a per-title basis compared to buying at full price. Additionally, the benefit of owning titles ‘forever’ vs a subscription-based model is a big appeal for some people (i.e. my husband).

Amazon

If all else fails, you can pay “full price” and buy your ebooks on Amazon. Some ebooks are cheaper than others, and Amazon has many daily Kindle deals. With patience, it’s possible to get what you’re looking for at a cheap price.

With these five reading strategies and four ways to find and get great books, what will you read next?

5 simple ideas to improve your problem-solving skills

By Sarah Leave a Comment

Problem-solving skills. They’re critical. And yet, how often do we think through how we can improve our skills? Not often? Well, let’s change that.

Let’s examine 5 simple ideas to improve your problem-solving skills at work and in life, courtesy of a recent pediatrician visit.

I have a child with off and on constipation issues. I know, I know. I talk about poop too often. I promise there is a point. Also, I have boys. They are 4 and 6. Poop is a common topic of conversation. (Fellow parents, are you with me?!)

Recently, the issue was severe enough that we checked in with the pediatrician to see what else we could do to solve the problem.

The visit included the usual advice:

Pay attention to diet.
Use something drastic to get the pipes moving again.
And…set a schedule for consistency. It doesn’t matter if the act is successful or not, reward the consistent effort.

We also learned that with chronic issues, it can take several months for things to get fully back to normal.

It struck me how well these same tips apply to most of the common challenges we face in life and in our work.

We can use these ideas for broad solutions across most areas of life, not solely bodily functions.

Keep reading for five simple ideas to improve your problem-solving skills at work and at home.

How to improve problem-solving skills

1. Pay attention to input.

Are the inputs helping or hurting the problem? Do you need to include additional people in a conversation or decision-making process? Are there too many people involved? Do you have the right information? Are you asking the right questions?

Having the right inputs can make a project infinitely easier. The wrong inputs can make a project impossible to complete.

2. Take extreme measures to reset when you’ve got an acute problem.

For many challenges, baby steps make enough of a difference. But sometimes we need to use extreme measures to hit reset. This is one reason crash diets are so popular.

In your work, do you need to stop doing something (or multiple somethings) completely to give focus to a priority? Or completely change the team working on a problem?

Maybe the solution is a completely new process, system or tool.

Extreme measures can feel risky, but have potential for big payoff.

3. Be consistent. Build a habit.

Whether the solution is a drastic change or baby steps, be consistent in your implementation of the new approach. If it’s something time bound, set a timer or calendar reminder.

You can also consider finding a trigger action. For example, one trigger could be that after every meeting, you send out meeting notes immediately.

4. When the outcome is out of your control, reward the effort. (When needed, bribe.)

There are times that no matter how much effort we put in, the outcome is our of our control. In those instances, consistent effort and habit creation is worth rewarding.

Ultimately, consistent execution of the right actions will produce results.

5. Recognize that lasting change takes time.

While consistent application of be right action produces results, there’s no guarantee those results will come quickly. It’s important to recognize that lasting change takes time.

By rewarding consistent action, you ensure that you stick with it long enough to produce results.

Applying these simple ideas as a framework to improve problem-solving skills can immediately improve your success rate.

What challenge are you facing today? Which idea will you implement? Try one (or more!) of these ideas out. Then email me and let me know how it went!

5 reasons I think you’ll love Asana as much as I do

By Sarah 4 Comments

How do you currently manage your workflow and projects? Is your current setup working for you, or would you like to step up your game?

My #1 recommended tool for any size team is a fantastic web-based project management tool called Asana. In late 2017, PC Magazine named Asana one of the best collaboration and productivity apps for teams.

There are five core reasons why I love Asana and think you will too.

Why I love Asana:

1. Asana is easy to use.

You can get setup and started in Asana in about five minutes. In an hour or so, you can have a working tool managing your work. (I know! I can’t wait for you to finish reading this and get started also!)

Asana is structures work into Teams, Projects and Tasks and provides multiple options for viewing the same core information like list view, a kanban board view and a calendar view. You have the ability to add tags, @mentions people, projects or tasks and do some cool search-based reporting.

The core functionality is pretty straightforward and can be quickly learned by anyone who can use a web browser.

2. Asana is flexible.

If I had to rank order my absolute favorite reason to love Asana it’s the flexibility and versatility that it provides.

Asana comes out of the box as a fairly blank slate that can be customized to meet just about any team’s needs. And trust me, I’ve tried to break it working with some complex teams.

There are a handful of core ways to enter, sort and categorize information, but the possible combinations within that are endless.

Asana is a tool can work with you at whatever state you’re in. If you already have a dialed workflow and process, you can easily configure Asana to execute your existing process the best way possible.

If you kind of know what you’re doing, but are still figuring out what works best, Asana can help you figure it out. Put what you do know into Asana, and adjust as you go – it’s that flexible!

One of the more common reasons people don’t set up technology and tools to support their systems is that they don’t want to put a lot of effort into something that will be wasted when the process or the work changes. With Asana, that won’t happen. Decide that it makes more sense to work a slightly different way? Asana’s flexibility and bulk editing options work with you, not against you.

3. Asana is continually improving.

I first used Asana for a side project in early 2013, and it was very barebones. In fact, the only reason we chose to use Asana over a more robust tool was because it was free and we had zero budget for tools. In the last five years, the Asana team has continually rolled out new and improved features, along with a robust API that connects Asana with other applications for added features.

Two notable project management features not currently natively in Asana are a Gantt chart view and time tracking. Integration with Instagantt covers off on a Gantt chart view, and Asana has their own version currently in beta. If needed, you can implement time tracking and resource management with add-ons like Harvest and Float.

Based on everything I’ve seen, I’m confident the Asana team is in it for the long-haul and I’m on board.

4. Asana is FREE (or cheap).

Asana comes in two versions: Free and premium. Premium starts at $6.25 per month, per user, although there is currently a minimum of five users.

The free version is pretty impressive and can meet the needs of many users. The premium version will blow your mind. If Asana offered a premium version for fewer than 5 users, I would recommend that everyone go for the premium version. They don’t currently, so if you have fewer than 5 people in your organization, the per-user cost is higher and you’ll need to decide if it’s worth it.

5. Asana is fun!

There are unicorns! And narwals! In my experience, even the most tool-averse, skeptical teams want to use Asana, in part because it takes some of the seriousness out of managing projects and is fun to use.

Get started today!

Combine fun, flexibility, ease of use and robust features, and what more could you want or need? Well, in talking to people who have used or attempted to use Asana, my beloved flexibility can actually be the hardest part.

There can be some trial and error involved in figuring out how to make Asana work best for YOU and your work. If that’s you, I’d like to help. Email me and let me know what questions you have, and how I can help you get set up for success in Asana.

7 ways to calm in chaos

By Sarah Leave a Comment

I cringed when I saw the message pop up. “Do you have the presentation done yet?”

I had fully intended to. Actually, I had fully intended to have it done last week. I certainly had spent a lot of time thinking about it. I had fully mapped out in my head was exactly how it would go.

There wasn’t a set deadline, other than “soon.” The project was certainly important, but I was buried in the tyranny of the urgent.

Every time I sat down to do the work, something came up. A phone call, a text message and a person dropping by my desk. An email, that left ignored, was likely to quickly snowball into 10 emails that would take far longer to deal with than if I just took 60 seconds to respond now. Five minutes later, a meeting started. Then another one was scheduled on my calendar after that.

The result?

I failed to meet the expectation. I felt worthless. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and not come out. Or better yet, to wake up and find that it was a dream and that the work actually had gotten done.

Does this sound familiar?

Whether people admit to it or not, everyone gets bogged down at some point.

It’s normal to have busy seasons where there is fire drill after fire drill, and everyone triages work until things settle back down.

The problem comes when a chaos level of busy and crunch time mentality becomes the new normal.

A study conducted by Workfront revealed that 80% of marketing professionals feel overloaded and understaffed. The number two specific problem identified was “Juggling all your work to get it done in a 40-hr week.”

While this study was released two years ago, feeling overworked and overwhelmed isn’t limited to marketing professionals and hasn’t slowed down.

I’m not alone in having these moments. Neither are you.

But there’s hope.

20% don’t feel overloaded and understaffed. With the right tools in your arsenal, you can be one of them.

7 ways to calm in chaos

1. Set clear priorities for yourself.

Set priorities at both a macro level, and on a daily basis.
Recognize the priorities of those higher up than me.
Set priorities with peers and those below me.
Start each day with the Daily 6.

2. Set clear priorities with others.

In this situation, I have not only a boss with expectations, but many co-workers who rely on my work and have expectations of what I deliver. To set myself up for success, I need to clearly communicate with all of them.

3. Recognize that you can’t always meet everyone’s expectations.

Sometimes the reality is that there’s simply more work than there are hours in the day, and that something has to give. Deciding who you will disappoint in these moments is critical. Who are you willing to disappoint and who are you not willing to disappoint?

4. Use time blocking to avoid interruptions.

A research study by Gloria Mark from the University of Irvine has shown that it takes an average of 25 minutes to get back on track after being interrupted. While we can’t always eliminate interruptions, we can focus our time into blocks, and turn off as many distractions as we can. It’s okay to turn off email and messages for a period of time. For critical work, it may make sense to physically move somewhere you are less likely to be interrupted.

5. Make a don’t do list.

A don’t do list is simply what it sounds like. A list of things you are not going to do. This can be items that you’ll never do, or items that you won’t do right now or in a specified period of time.

6. Ignore shiny object syndrome.

Similar to making a don’t do list, make a conscious effort to avoid shiny object syndrome. Distractions will occur, and many of those distractions have potential to be worthwhile tasks and projects. But if they aren’t what’s most important right now, they should be intentionally set aside – either for later or for never.

7. Know your personality and personal weaknesses.

My failures are almost always boil down to overcomplicating something. This is usually because of fear or perfectionism, and typically results in procrastination. Because I know this, I can plan ahead, recognize when it’s occurring and set

Back to Calm

On my presentation, I simply responded to the message with, “It’s in progress, and I have this afternoon blocked off to finish it.”

I did have some time that afternoon blocked to work on the presentation, and I quickly re-prioritized my afternoon and blocked off a whole lot more time. The question posed to me prompted me to reassess my priorities for the afternoon, set expectations about when I would have the presentation completed, block my time and ignore everything else that came up.

The reality is that I had accomplished more than I was giving myself credit for. While I could have been more proactive in learning and setting expectations on this particular project, many of the urgent tasks I was on were important. I took the opportunity I was given to reset expectations, reset my focus and get the work done.

Having the framework above to reference allows us to quickly bring a sense of calm back to the chaos – both when there is literal chaos around us and chaos in our brains.

10 useful things you can do in the next 5 minutes

By Sarah Leave a Comment

One of these days is none of these days. – Mark Twain

How often do you have small pockets of time that seem to disappear on you? What if you had a list of easy AND useful things you could do in 5 minutes per day (or less!)?

Lucky you, it’s right here! After all, it’s always easier to have an idea ahead of time what you will do that’s useful or productive in your pockets of time than to try to come up with ideas in the moment.

1. Write a status update of your written goals.

If you’re already reviewing your written goals every day, take once a week or once a month to write down a written progress report. This can be as simple as 1-2 sentences, and can be written anywhere easy. The purpose is two-fold: To have a record of your progression and to reinforce the value of your goals by physically writing down the current status of each goal.

2. Review your calendar for upcoming meetings, events or appointments.

How many times have you looked at your calendar only to realize that you have a meeting coming up that you forgot to prepare for, forgot to plan childcare for, or wanted to do a few things before it happened? Taking a quick glance at your calendar for the next day (or few days) can make a dramatic difference in how you prioritize your immediate time.

3. Read an article relevant to your professional or personal life.

I use Feedly and keep a list of news sites and blogs categorized by type of information (Business, Parenting, Food, Friends, etc). When I have a few minutes, I can quickly scan categories and/or headlines and read where I need the most encouragement.

4. Do a short workout.

There are a number of different apps with short workouts, or you could simply jog in place or walk up and down a few flights of stairs.

5. Drink a glass of water.

They say it’s good for your heath.

6. Take a series of deep, calming breaths.

I’m no expert, but taking a long, deep breath in and slow-exhale out really does relax and ground me, especially in the midst of busy or stressful times.

7. Text or email three friends.

So easy, and yet one so many of us (myself included!) don’t do if it’s not a conscious thought.

8. Clean out your handbag, desk drawer or any other single surface/drawer/cupboard.

This always takes less time than I think it will. Having clean, uncluttered surfaces is an instant mood lift.

9. Read a few pages in a book.

I keep physical books at my desk and bedside, as well as the Kindle app on my phone to that reading a page or two in pockets of spare time

10. Secure your passwords.

I started using LastPass several years ago, and it’s saved me more time than I can count not having to re-look up or reset passwords. Signing up for a LastPass account is quick (less than 5 minutes!), and you can add passwords as you go, a few minutes at a time – no need for a massive project.

Which useful idea will you take action on today?

Need more ideas? Read 10 more tips here.

Productivity

Here are 5 sneaky yet simple ways to find time to read regularly:

1. Read while waiting in line.

2. Read while walking

3. Read while your kids do their homework, play or nap.

4. Read while driving.

5. Read instead of watching TV.

How to affordably acquire ebooks and audiobooks

Your local public library

Scribd

Audible

Amazon

How to improve problem-solving skills

1. Pay attention to input.

2. Take extreme measures to reset when you’ve got an acute problem.

3. Be consistent. Build a habit.

4. When the outcome is out of your control, reward the effort. (When needed, bribe.)

5. Recognize that lasting change takes time.

Why I love Asana:

1. Asana is easy to use.

2. Asana is flexible.

3. Asana is continually improving.

4. Asana is FREE (or cheap).

5. Asana is fun!

Get started today!

7 ways to calm in chaos

1. Set clear priorities for yourself.

2. Set clear priorities with others.

3. Recognize that you can’t always meet everyone’s expectations.

4. Use time blocking to avoid interruptions.

5. Make a don’t do list.

6. Ignore shiny object syndrome.

7. Know your personality and personal weaknesses.

Back to Calm

1. Write a status update of your written goals.

2. Review your calendar for upcoming meetings, events or appointments.

3. Read an article relevant to your professional or personal life.

4. Do a short workout.

5. Drink a glass of water.

6. Take a series of deep, calming breaths.

7. Text or email three friends.

8. Clean out your handbag, desk drawer or any other single surface/drawer/cupboard.

9. Read a few pages in a book.

10. Secure your passwords.

STRATEGY SARAH NEWSLETTER

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