This provided us with a few valuable lessons:

1.) It’s hard to write something snappy daily.
This was perhaps partly a discipline problem. We’ll get to that in a minute.

2.) Ian is a bit of a windbag.
We won’t get to that in a minute. It should be evident if you peruse his articles here on the site.

3.) It’s important to adapt to new situations quickly.
It can often give quite the wrong impression if you don’t.

4.) Ian and Nick are not avid Twitterers
Is that a bad thing? Probably not. By the way, did you know that sending a single tweet uses a whopping 2MB of code?

So I’m willing to entertain the notion that if we had been more disciplined, writing a “Daily Fix” would have been easy-peasy. But the fact is that we launched this idea right around the time we were completing our recent book, and doing a soft release during the holiday season. At the same time, we’ve been working out the details of a contest involving YouTube submissions, prepping for promotional appearances, launching a publishing company, and starting a new book. Sounds a little like excuses, doesn’t it. Maybe so.

The Secret About Discipline

So I at least re-learned a little secret about discipline. You know what it is? The only secret to discipline is simply DOING a thing, persistently. There is nothing else. Except choosing not to do a thing. Which is what we’re doing in this case.

Writing Something Snappy Daily

I recommend trying this some time if you haven’t. I personally write a minimum of 500 words a day for my work. But “something snappy”? That’s an entirely different animal. I’m going to give this a shot in a different context soon just to challenge myself.

Adapation

We violated one of our own unspoken rules here. It’s common knowledge that in today’s world, it’s crucial to adapt quickly to new situations. I would submit that it was our own intrinsic commitment to follow through and discipline that actually left our “Daily Fix” column in a not-very-daily state. We will now be posting in this section when we feel like it. It’s entirely possible that we lost visitors who were interested in our daily content; we’ll never know. But by simply changing the name of the column, multiple burdens are lifted!

And that’s The Score.

See? I told you Ian is a windbag. He is in fact hoping that this long winded, self-referential diatribe will inspire Nick to write something snappy soon to bump it off the main page.

One of the first things we learn in Self Employment 101 or our Small Business Independent Studies class is that we have to have something that makes us unique. This is variously referred to using terms like “USP” – if you’re attending a small business course in 1965 – or a “market differentiator” – if you like lots of syllables and corporate speak. Not that those two terms are actually interchangeable, but the thrust of both is that in order for your business to succeed, you’ll need to understand its place and the market, and find ways to cash in on its uniqueness.

So does your business have some unique quality that sets it apart from all others? Sit down and breathe calmly before you read the next two words. Probably not. If you look at government statistics like these, you will quickly realize that until you get into the  realm of companies that have over a hundred employees, there are half a million or more other small businesses out there. Of course, they’re not all in your niche, but unless you have some unique skill like blacksmithing or horse-whispering, you can rest assured that there are plenty of other people doing what you’re doing. Especially if you’re in a service-based business, which makes up about 40% of all small businesses in the US, followed by retail at 20% and construction at about 10%.

So with over 20 million small businesses active in the US, the odds that yours has something remarkably unique about it are pretty slim. So are you feeling a little less special now? Don’t. While it’s largely true that your business is probably not terribly unique, maybe you’re lucky enough to be in a specialized niche that IS unique. But more importantly, as a small business owner, maybe you need to ponder the fact that your greatest differentiator really is YOU. There are a lot of examples of how the personality of the owner leaves its mark on the customer appeal and overall success of even the hugest of corporations. There’s probably an example where you live of this type of company on the medium-sized enterprise level. In my area, the supermarket Busch’s is an example of a growing chain that has a hands-on CEO/owner, and the world-renowned Zingerman’s would be another another example of a booming corporation where the owners have infused the entire organization with their unique commitment to an elevated level of quality and service. And this can scale up too; try to imagine Apple without Steve Jobs, or Amazon without Jeff Bezos.

My associate Nick has been torturing me with this idea for a while now, first by turning me on to the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. This book was a head-turner for me, and got me started on a tough question that has been helping me re-shape almost everything I’m doing. That first question for me was: Of all the things I do, could I be best in the world at any of them? I’m still not sure I know the answer yet, but the question helped me examine a few projects that I was enthused about, but to which I hadn’t applied any rigorous and purposeful assessment in terms of their long-term meaning to me, or likelihood of exceptional success. Being a self-directed free thinker, often the simple fact that I want to do something is good enough for me. But also being a persistent “I can do everything!” kind of person, I end up mired in endless work, by working on too many projects that may in fact never reach that special level of success I’m seeking. More recently, Nick shared a question from a worksheet he’d been asked to complete at a seminar, which was “what makes your business remarkable”. I joked that it must be a nice gig going around asking people uncomfortable questions like that, but the question is powerful in itself.

So if – like me – you’re spinning your wheels on too many projects and looking for a way to narrow your scope and sharpen your focus, try asking those two questions:

What thing do I do that I could be the BEST IN THE WORLD at?

What makes me or my business idea REMARKABLE?

These questions don’t necessarily have pat answers, and the answer may have more to do with you than your business, which is merely an expression of you. But I hope the process of trying to answer the question is as helpful to you as it was to me. I’ll share the actual results of my exploration of these questions soon; for now I think I have some pruning to do.

The Episcopal priest Joseph Fletcher developed a theory called “situational ethics.” Basically, he taught that to serve the ultimate law, that of “love thy neighbor,” some flexibility in one’s ethics was acceptable. It’s probably true that, within certain limits, we should forgive ourselves our minor trespasses as long as we are striving for a worthy goal.

Where this kind of ethics goes wrong is when it becomes a driving principle rather than a way to recognize the inherently imperfect nature of human existence. “Hey,” you say, “I’m not going to try very hard to do the right thing because, after all, I’m basically a good person.” The problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to a progressively more slipshod and uninspired view of life.

I think that if a personal credo is going to allow for errors, it should be very focused on what is actually right and good, and avoid building in excuses for behavior that lacks integrity. If you strive for great success, strive also for great compassion. If you desire riches, accept great responsibility. If you wish for happiness, learn how to bring happiness to others. Start with integrity, and build from there.

So it was really nice to get a lesson in gratitude from someone who might appear to be a lot less fortunate than I. My work has put me in contact with the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living lately, and being around people with disabilities who are happy, productive, and working hard to make their lives better has been really inspiring. However, just by chance I found myself sitting next to a guy who is completely paralyzed from the waist down, and overheard him say this to the woman sitting next to him, also in a wheelchair (he talked for about 20 minutes, so I’m doing my best to share the spirit of what he said in a few words):

“The number of blessings each of us has is virtually unlimited. You can breathe, right?” The woman nodded. “When you’re relaxed, you breathe gently, right? When you exert yourself, you breathe more deeply? When you reach your physical limits, your lungs burn with the exertion, and it makes you feel excited to be alive, doesn’t it?” She agreed, looking him right in the eyes. “You’re looking right at me, and you can see who I am, can’t you? You can see color, light, texture, distance, shapes, the smiles of happy people, the fresh skin of children and the skin of the old, etched by time. Your hands can grasp, shake hands, hug, caress, use silverware, and handle a paintbrush. Your mind can plan, imagine, decide, analyze, understand, and wonder. And your heart can feel all the emotions, from anger and sadness to joy, exhilaration, and love.”

She was dabbing at her eyes by the time he stopped talking, and I was so moved by his words that I approached them and introduced myself. It turns out that she was new to the world of disability, and he, being much more experienced in it, was helping to guide her. I think the lesson is one that we all can be taught!

I get all itchy and scratchy when white men and men in general are the subject of denigration, unless the denigration is very funny and devoid of any attempt to try right a social wrong, however well intended. The self-conscious sniveling humor that paints white men as predatory businessmen and white husbands as oafish beer drinkers leaves me unamused. Racially and gender-based humor should be unapologetic and, most importantly, fresh – the cliches about Blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics, Men and Women have been done to death.

Two wrongs don’t make a right

Outside of rare, really good comedy, I think a culture has been created by those who believe they’re pro-minority and pro-women, and imbedded in that culture is the wrong-headed notion that because wrongs were done to the group they support, the situation can be balanced by doing a subtle or overt wrong to the group they view as inappropriately privileged. Hence the predatory white male businessman and the oafish white husband stereotypes I mentioned in the last paragraph.

Weak men aren’t a benefit to anybody

This culture creates an atmosphere in which a feminized man and a masculine-ized woman are the ideal. An aspirational white male role model is at once criticized for (and often prevented from) expressing its masculinity and ridiculed for failing to do so. Men who are too passionate about their life’s mission are viewed with suspicion, yet men who fail to be powerful enough in their relationships are disdained by women.

Nabobs of negativity

But what really bugs me about this mindset is that it’s based on an attitude of criticism and denigration. The undercurrent of negativity in social interactions limits our ability to appreciate one another’s power and beauty. After a while, we see only the weakness and ugliness in other people and social groups. This destructive view seeps into the self-consciousness of all but the most independent thinkers, and the culture at large, instead of nurturing great talent and passion, suppresses it.

Love, support, and success

It’s not a zero-sum game. Eva Gabor said that “Love is game two can play and both can win.” We could do a lot better by celebrating the accomplishments of all our people, whatever their gender and whatever the color of their skin. Unless a person is predatory or destructive, let’s learn to identify their strengths and unique viewpoints, and give them the social support to absolutely excel.

It’s almost as if we, as a society, are afraid of success. I suppose, like virtually all negativity, it comes from fear and insecurity, and if we’re afraid of others doing better than us, we’re going to react by denigrating them.

How much greater the world, if each of us is greater?

How much more could we all accomplish if, right from the outset, we all agreed that the success of others creates an atmosphere in which we, too, can succeed wildly? If that passionate, ambitious, productive man, who may happen to be white, wants to build a great company, let’s celebrate his vision, and celebrate all the great things that we are capable of ourselves!

How do you know??

I mean, who is it that’s paying attention to notice when you’re having a feeling or experiencing a certain mood? Isn’t that the real you?

I first learned about this technique when I was trying to stop myself from arguing so much with my girlfriend (who’s now my wife, so I guess I can say it worked!). I can’t remember where first I heard about it, but the essence of it was: pay attention when you get angry and ask yourself, “who’s angry?” If the answer is, “me!” then ask, “but who asked the question?” It takes about one-tenth of a second to realize that it’s not you that’s angry, but some part of you that you don’t necessarily have to validate at that moment.

Turns out the same technique works great in the martial arts world. When you’re in the middle of sparring and find yourself getting frustrated or tense, ask yourself, “what do I want more, to experience this feeling or to get better?” For me, the answer is always, “to get better,” and as soon as I ask the question, I’m able to revert to sparring using the eyes of my “true” self – which is much less competitive but a lot more capable than the  ego-driven part of my personality.

I think this technique can work in just about any area of life. Have you ever experienced anything like this?

The cool thing is, doesn’t that sound a lot like play? When kids love something, they just dive in and start doing it. And they learn like crazy! I watch my kid playing with the other kids on the playground and they all just jump in into any new activity with both feet. They’re in it completely, and they’re having fun. When they stop having fun, they switch to something else. But sometimes they come away from a new activity with a completely new ability, even though they were simply focused on doing it, and having a great time.

Most of us adults think we have to work with a purpose in mind, but maybe we just have to remember what it was like to play. Have faith that new insights will occur, and immerse yourself fully in your chosen life’s mission.

Mr. Hoerr’s main point is that, instead of working all week so that you can live it up on only on the weekends, it makes sense to try to find your life’s purpose, and make that your work. I couldn’t agree more. Starting in 2005, after a two-year process of personal assessment, I began re-aligning my life with my mission. I stopped practicing law in a corporate setting, opened a dojo (martial arts school), and starting obsessively studying personal development and business. Although I had to endure an enormous drop in income, and although my normal work week now is between 72 – 90 hours, I’ve never been happier.

I encourage you to think deeply about why you were put on this earth. One way to help find out is to read Thank God it’s Monday! and do all the exercises Mr. Hoerr provides. I think you’ll be very glad you did!

What I mean is that we should all find out what approach works best for us, and for most of us, including myself, contrast is at least as important as consistency. Use whatever approach works best for the personality of the task at hand. If you always work with no expectations, you indeed just might get what you expect! But if you work with low expectations when the challenge is great, it may help you get through the tough work of doing one incremental task at a time without stressing about achieving the greater goal right away.

When the goal is in sight and it takes a big dose of motivation to push through to the end, that might be a great time to have high expectations. And when you absolutely at all costs have to get though the stack of to-do notes on your desk, even though they don’t significantly help you get closer to that lofty set of lifetime goals you set for yourself during that visualization session with the Tarot reader, that might be a good time to dig in with a ginormous pot of Paul Newman’s French Roast Coffee, get to work, and have no expectations at all!

Thanks to the wonderful and talented Jean Stranquist for providing the inspiration for this post!

I’ve been a bit overwhelmed lately. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I own all or part of roughly seven businesses, and it’s easy to find my to-do list getting a little out of control. So, more than ever, I’ve been trying to find not only a good system for organizing my tasks, but also an over-arching theme or set of themes to help me keep focused on the big picture. The theme is still a work in progress, but I think I’m narrowing down the sorts of task management systems that work for me, and I thought I would share a few in case you find any of them helpful.

What used to work was just to dig in, start working, and do whatever came to mind. When I was running a single business, that actually worked pretty well, as long as I had enough caffeine in my system! But as I get busier, I find that I not only forget about a lot of tasks that, while they may not be five-alarm fires, are still important for the successful running of the businesses, and also that I also run of out time to do the things I actually remember.

When I ran just two businesses, it was enough to keep a simple to-do list. I used the list iCal and combined that with making sure to get all my appointments on the calendar. I’d review the list each day and prioritize each task, and usually that was enough to keep me on track. Even if I skipped a task or overlooked it, I would find it the next day and definitely get it done.

Then, up until recently, I was using a really primitive system that worked well. I’d just write each primary task on a sheet of paper, and make a note of what I got done that day on the sheet. After a task, the sheet would go on the bottom of the stack, and I’d do the task that appeared on the next sheet. What worked well about this was that I could instantly see what I’d done previously, and that helped inspire whatever had to be done next. However, there were two things about this system that didn’t work very well. One was that I didn’t find it very helpful for organizing and prioritizing tasks. And the other was, it just didn’t inspire me to want to dig into the business of getting work done … which I happen to think is a very important part of any task management system.

I’m experimenting with two systems now without having decided which one is going to be best in the long run. The first is a system designed by Ian, and since I don’t want to take away an opportunity for him to discuss his own creation, I’ll just say that it contains a general list of tasks and ideas along with several other lists of higher priority and long term projects. I’ll try to convince him to describe it in a future post unless he tells me it’s a secret that can make him a ton of money!

The other system is simple, but it’s working well. I use it both as a Word document on the computer and also print it out to give me a change of perspective. On the first page I list my businesses along with a check-off box on the left of each one. On page two, I list the primary aspects of the first business in a graphical box, along with a check-off box on the left of each larger box. I limit myself to no more than ten primary aspects, because (1) everything can be categorized within one of those ten aspects, at least in my businesses; and (2) that’s all I can fit on one page and still read! In each box where an aspect of the business is listed, I add bullets with a short description of tasks for that aspect. If an aspect is complex enough, I create another page of subject boxes with check-off boxes next to them, and fill those in with the individual items that make up each subject, again limiting myself to ten subjects.

So I first look at page one and find a business that hasn’t been checked off. I then locate the pages for that business, go to the first aspect that hasn’t been checked off, and do the work. If I complete the work, I check off that box. If not, I add notes in the subject box to clue me in next time I visit that subject.

I then make a judgment about whether it makes more sense to check off that business on page one and go to another business, or do another aspect of the same business. It all depends on the urgency of the tasks, how much stuff is coming at me in the form of meetings, phone calls or “real” work (like teaching martial arts or mastery lessons), and how much my head is spinning from trying to juggle so many different kinds of work.

When the head gets to spinning, there are a few really good ways to get it back where it needs to be. A 20-minute nap works wonders, as does 45 minutes at the driving range or an hour of intense sparring with another high level black belt.

Are there any task management systems that work particularly well for you? Did you find them somewhere, or make them up yourself? What works great for you, and why do you think it works?