Category: Blogs

1. Decide, before you start, that you’re going to change three things about what you do all day at work. Then, as you’re reading, find the three things and do it. The goal of the reading, then, isn’t to persuade you to change, it’s to help you choose what to change.
2. If you’re going to invest a valuable asset (like time), go ahead and make it productive. Use a postit or two, or some index cards or a highlighter. Not to write down stuff so you can forget it later, but to create marching orders. It’s simple: if three weeks go by and you haven’t taken action on what you’ve written down, you wasted your time.

Next, take 15 minutes to read a short, free ebook on getting the most out of non-fiction reading, check outHow to Read a Book by Paul N. Edwards.

That’s it – don’t waste another minute on your books. Use these tips to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment.

Have some tips of your own? Post them in the comments – I’ll pick the best ones and personally buy you a business book.

Here’s the thing people, successful people create their own opportunities and direct the flow of their own lives. Instead of reacting to events and waiting for opportunities, you go out and create your own.

Brian Tracy puts it best:

Those who don’t set goals for themselves are forever doomed to work to achieve the goals of others.

Make the decision to start consciously directing your own life instead of being pushed along by external things. **

Be Proactive. Not reactive.

A recent conversation with my friend Ramit got me thinking about the differences between the two types of people.

• Proactive people:
  • Take conscious control over their own life, set goals and work to achieve them.
  • Are aware of their core values and consciously make decisions based on them. Even when things are pretty good, they’re still making conscious choices.
  • Often start new projects or activities “out of the blue” when it seems like there’s no externally motivated reason to do so.
  • Pay attention to external events, but focus on getting themselves to their desired destination regardless of those events. This is the most important thing!
• Reactive people:
  • Tend to stay at the same job year after year as long as it’s semi-satisfying. Unless opportunities get dropped in their lap, they won’t do much else
  • Their lives are largely out of their direct conscious control; they tend to only exert their efforts when they absolutely must, like when they get laid off unexpectedly (and even then it’s often to a minimal degree).
  • When things are pretty good, life is mostly on autopilot. When things are bad, these people are the first to start complaining.

**Tip: **“Be Proactive” is habit #1 from Steve Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. You should read it.

Focus on getting becoming proactive today – starting right now. If you need some extra help getting started, email me – I’ll brainstorm some ideas with you.

Know yourself. A successful personal brand is authentic, so you need to be honest about who you are. If you’re timid, shy and easily distracted, you’re not likely to succeed by pretending to be outgoing, loud and focused. In the words of Baltasar Gracián:

Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.

Know your competitors. You can’t stand above the crowd without first taking a look around. It’s important to determine who the current players are and understand their particular strengths (and weaknesses).

Know your target. To be successful, you must not only have a personal brand, but also communicate it to the right people. Marketing yourself to the entire world is very expensive. The key to successful personal branding is to focus on your niche and then become the expert.

Your goal is to be different. Personal Branding is about discovering relevant differences and creating positive perceptions. It used to be about, “Can you do the job?” Today many people can do what you do.

Find out what makes you special and actively try to improve it even further. Real success won’t be far behind.

*If you’re unsure about how to apply these tips to yourself, email me – I’d be happy to help brainstorm ideas. Also, don’t forget to signup for my newsletter where I’ll provide more insider’s tips on getting ahead.
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The food sample is one of the oldest and most commonly employed tactics of the grocery business. Give shoppers a taste of a new brand of cookie and it’s a safe bet those customers will end up buying at least a box or two before they leave.

It just makes sense: **Let somebody try something tasty, and they’ll come back for more. **

Here’s what my friend Ramit has to say about this:

More people should be doing work for free to open up doors to the big rewards. By removing the money barrier for a set amount of time (”I’ll work for free for 3 months, but after that we need to negotiate a fair rate”), you open yourself up to huge rewards. The $20/hour or $50/hour you could get now is chump change compared to what you could with a great network and a proven track record.

Focus on making yourself valuable first, the money will come.

*What can you do to start adding value today? If you’re unsure, email me – I’d be happy to help brainstorm ideas.

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

It’s that simple — and that hard. And that inescapable.

You already have a personal brand today. It’s a combination of everything you’ve done in your life to this point – it’s all of your accomplishments, your failures, your skills, your experiences and the stories you tell to tie it all together. If you haven’t already, it’s time to think about what your personal brand represents today and determine what you want it to be tomorrow. Starting today, I’m going to help you.

Here are five tips you can use to get started:

1. See the big picture.
2. Build community, but tend to business.
3. Widen your lens, but narrow your focus.
4. Organize for ideas.
5. Be persistent.

Your personal brand is one of your greatest business assets – you’re either building or diminishing it on a daily basis. With that in mind, I’m going to be elaborating on my five tips over the next few weeks – stay tuned.

Better yet, signup for my newsletter and be the first to hear about some things I’ve been working on, including some stuff you’ll never see on this site and more.

I noticed that most of the responses failed to answer the 34039857 questions I buried deep within. I learned that I was much more likely to get the answers I needed by keeping my emails short and posing one simple question.

Here’s my point: It’s intimidating to figure out what to put on a wall size whiteboard. It’s much easier to approach a postcard. Focus on getting just one message across.

On a side note, I’m on Twitter. Follow me at http://twitter.com/paulsingh.

Here’s how I got my productivity back and you will too:

1. Turn off all email alert sounds on your email client, instant messenger and cell phone. Don’t skip this step, it’s easily the most important thing you can do to take back control of your time.
2. Schedule no more than three times per day to check (and reply to) email. What’s the worst that could happen if you don’t reply to email instantly? Besides, if they really need something, they’ll call or IM you anyways.
3. When replying to emails, go offline. Respond to all email from a local program such as Outlook or Mail to avoid having the outgoing flow interrupted by immediate responses. Ever notice how effective it is to respond to your email while on an airplane?

Please, spare me the “but Paul, my boss will kill me if I check email twice a day!” comments. If you do have to check email every hour then just do it, the point is that you have to take control of your distractions, otherwise they’ll take control of you.

If you don’t, there is an inevitable task-switching cost – U.S. office workers spend 28% of their time switching between tasks due to interruption, and 40% of the time, an interrupted task is not resumed within 24 hours.

Start today: Use Rescue Time and start measuring what you really spend your time on – you’ll be amazed.