[Gary] Peeples Helping People, LLC

5 Things You Can Do Right Now To Be More Productive

Re-write your to-do list with easier steps. If your project is to launch a website [for example], don’t write “launch website”. It’s vague and it won’t be meaningful to you later. And the “bigness” of an item like that will deter you from taking the first step. Instead, write the literal first step as the to-do. I.e. “write outline” or “make a list of 5 sites to benchmark”.

Stop responding immediately. Give it 5 minutes or more if you can. You need to give yourself time to digest the information and think it through from multiple angles. Not always is your first thought the best reaction. Give it time—this investment of time into your response will save time later.

Keep emails to 5 sentences or less. If you have more then 5 sentences to say, it probably needs to be a phone call—which will save you hours of time vs. sending and receiving emails over time. Either that, or the information should be put in a document and attached. This will allow you to be as detailed as you need to be, without trying to self-edit it into an email that you know they aren’t going to read anyway.

Close your email after you check it.  Don’t work in your inbox all day—It’s not your job. Nowhere in your job description does it say send and receive email. If it does please send it to me, that’s hilarious. I’m not saying don’t check it, I’m saying check it, close it, and do work. Then come back to it. It’s okay to tell someone, “I haven’t read it yet. I’ve been focused on xyz.” You sound productive.

Take a break every 90 minutes. It’s generally agreed upon that we begin to lose attention and ability to perform beyond 90 minutes. Google it. I wouldn’t say schedule 15-minute breaks every 90 minutes; no one needs to be that rigid. But I would say: each time you find yourself head-down in work that could take hours, try to grab a break every 90 minutes. Clear your head and come back to it.

I’m always interested to learn new ways of thinking about productivity. If you have any thoughts, please share them in the comments!

The Principles Of Silicone Valley Put Simply

The principles of Silicone Valley:

Take intelligent and bold risks to accomplish something great.

Build a network of alliances to help you with intelligence, resources, and collective action.

Pivot to breakout opportunity.

You too can think like a start-up—like an entrepreneur—whoever you are and whatever you do.

From: The Start-up Of You, Reid Hoffman [cofounder and chairman of Linkedin] and Ben Casnocha

I will not say I failed 1,000 times, I will say this:

Fear less

What Pythagoras, Archimedes, Lincoln, Moses, and The Lord can teach us about delivering a speech

Pythagorean theorem: 24 words
The Lord's Prayer: 66 words
Archimedes' Principle: 67 words
The Ten Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 286 words

What this says to me:

 Saying it simply, in the least amount of words, delivers the biggest impact.

What do you think?

Consequences

Source: eatright-staybright.tumblr.com via Leandro on Pinterest

The Gambler

For the gambler, there often isn't "wins and losses" to reflect upon and possibly use to make decisions on future bets; there is something else.

It's because of our inherent tendency to see things the way we want to see them, rather then for what they are, that the gambler actually is likely to see "wins and near-wins". 

"Near-wins" are outcomes that otherwise would have been a win if it weren't for some fluke that requires a mere strategical tweak. 

"He dropped the ball, it was a horrible call, I should've doubled down".

The gambler ends up seemingly one strategical tweak away from a win; and therefore continues.

Maybe this is fine, but know this: wins can be near-losses just as easily.

How good are you at scrutinizing your preconceptions?

I Tried To Crash The Super Bowl. Don't Act Like You're Not Impressed.

So, with the Ravens now out *sigh* I can focus on one of my favorite parts of the Super Bowl: Commercials. KNOWWHATIMSAYING?!!?!?

We all know enough about the culture of SB commercials, so I won't bore you with post about that.

I will however, bore you with a post about my attempt at "Crashing The Super Bowl" with a commercial about 5 years ago. 

Myself and two friends got together and created the following entry into that Doritos contest; they still do the contest today, in case you've been living under a rock. Or not caring.

Although we did quite well in the fan-fav department [top 20 on votes] we did not win. But we had a blast making them. Especially hanging in the bar. 

Credits to: Me, Ryan Schemmel, and Matt McDermott

Enjoy.

 

 

The one goal that is shared by every business ever

There is at least one goal that is shared by every business ever created, and every business that will ever be created in the future:

create customers.

The secret to winning an argument

You are faced with arguments all day long. 

Your alarm clock argues that it's time to get up, persuading you to take action to shut it off.

The dog argues that you should take him out, persuading you to do so.

Your stomach argues that you should eat.

Stop lights argue you should stop.

In each case, you are faced with a choice: agree and support or disagree and deal with the outcome.

In the examples above — more likely then not — you agree because the alternative is too emotionally charging: listen to an alarm [annoying], be nagged by a dog [also annoying], starve [uncomfortable], get a ticket or have an accident [frightening]. 

Sometimes, to win an argument, you can increase your odds simply by playing into the emotion of the outcome. Your way = positive emotion; not your way = negative emotion.

And the greater the importance of the emotion, the greater the odds.

It may seem a little tricky, but that's irrelevant. If both parties leave the argument feeling good about it, and having faith in the conclusion, it's win-win. And that's the best possible outcome of any argument. 

Ps. the word argument, can be swapped out for: business presentation, debate, sales call, or any other situation where you need to win someone to your way of thinking.