Down time… those numerous times throughout the day when you are not doing anything productive. These might be time spent in line, in waiting rooms, in your car etc… Usually it involves waiting of some sort. In your car you are waiting to get to your destination, in a restaurant you might be waiting for a friend, at the bank you might be waiting in line etc…

Sometimes down time occurs because you finish a product early. Perhaps you finish a project and there are only 10 minutes until your next meeting. In essence, by finishing early you are now waiting for that meeting. It might not make sense to start a new project in those ten minutes, so what do you do?

If you are like most people you’ll find your day is scattered with these sort of down times. It may be only for a minute here and a minute there, but in the end they add up to a significant part of your day. If you can capitalize on these times you can substantially increase your productivity. In fact, you’ll soon start to consider down times as bonus times!

This article will discuss three categories of bonus time:

1. Bonus Time While Driving

2. Bonus Time While Waiting in Line

3. Bonus Time in Your Office

Bonus Time While Driving

For many, the biggest daily down time is while they are driving. In  our congested cities we often spend an hour a day or more commuting. Even people who work fully from their home often have to run errands a couple of times a week and can still get stuck in traffic. If not used productively driving can be one of the biggest time wasters.

There are a number of ways to be more productive while you drive. The most obvious one is to listen to compact disks or podcasts. These can be podcasts, audio books, business training, or even sermons. Audio recordings can also help you become an expert in a subject of your choice. For example if you wanted to become an expert on team building you could get a number of different training programs and audio books and on the subject. You can also choose to learn a language or even take some college level distance learning courses while you drive.

Secondly you can listen to motivational and inspirational music. Having the radio on all the time is not productive, but there are times when you need to fire up some energetic music to get yourself pumped up. A third productive thing to do while driving is to return phone calls. The cell phone is an invention that if used properly can save you a lot of time. By batching return phone calls you can return a lot of calls while you are driving (just be sure to use a hands-free system).

Bonus Time While Waiting in Line

Another primary type of down time occurs when you are waiting for someone or in some line. You are usually standing in a line of people or sitting in a waiting room. This time can also be turned into a highly productive event.

One option for using this time is to read. Keep a paperback book in your jacket pocket or in your purse and pull it out whenever you have two or three minutes. If putting a whole book in your pocket is too big, then rip out 5-10 pages each day and take them with you. By the time you get home from your day you will likely be finished the pages you brought with you. You can often read a book every couple of weeks just in the time you are waiting in line.

Secondly you can network! Talk to the people around you. Ask questions and get to know them. The funny thing about people, even complete strangers, is that when you ask them questions they answer them. Most people are so starved for people to listen to them that they will talk your ear of. Perhaps the person you are talking with will become a valuable business contact.

Bonus Time in Your Office

A final type of down time can occur in your office when you finish a project early. You may not have time to start in on a new project, but you should do something during this time. Certainly, one good option for this kind of bonus time is to read. If you have a book, magazine or journal ready you can use this time to read. Perhaps this is also a good time for you to read your favorite blog, or go through some of your RSS feeds.

Another option is to use this time to check a few emails. If you are batching your emails then you will not have checked any emails while you have been working on your project. Using bonus time to check emails can be a good use of time. Even if you have a scheduled time later in the day to check emails, you can get started during your bonus time. This will make your job later a little easier.

Clearly there are a lot of options for how you fill your down times bonus times. Whatever you choose to do with these times, just make sure you use them for something of value. There is no reason to leave the time in unproductive waste. Remember you only have 1440 minutes in a day so use each one to their full benefit.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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Sunday’s will be designed for sharing some of my favorite links about success in personal or business life. The links will generally be posts I found during the past week.

1.  Alex Shalman gives us 7 Questions That Will Change Your Life.

2.  Pick the Brain shares Why No Response Does Not Mean Not Interested.

3.  Get Rich Slowly shares a wonderful video and story about The Best Salesman in the World!

4.  WiseBread offers tips on Effective Networking in a One Horse Town.

5.  A friend of mine launched a new business to help students balance their homework to achieve better grades with less stress.

And finally, my articles also appeared in a blog-carnival about all things manly.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

The Joy

Think back to the start of the year. Remember the excitement and energy that you felt as you looked at the potential of what was to come. You had taken time to set your goals for the upcoming year, and there was nothing going to stop you from achieving them. Perhaps you had some New Year’s resolutions to make as well. You might have wanted to lose weight, to read more books, to grow your business, or bet a better spouse. Whatever your goals or resolutions you likely entered the new year filled with hope and excitement.

There is a similar thing happening this week on our campus. Students are arriving back excited about the year ahead. Freshman students are embarking on something very new and exciting. They are not fully sure what to expect, but they are here and ready to go. Returning students have a lot more of an idea about what to expect. They know the tough times ahead and the commitment they need to put in, and yet they too are excited (mostly). The new school year, just like the New Year in January, provides people with a clean slate. It is an opportunity to start over, no matter what has happened in the past. Students can set new goals in academics as well as in their personal and social lives. The new school year is waiting.

The Problem

Of course something happens as the days and weeks and months go by after a new beginning. After New Year’s Day you likely started well as you worked to achieve the goals and resolutions you had set. But over time those goals slowly started to take a back seat to other things in life. Your goal to eat better may have started well, but since then you have no doubt had a bad day or two. For many people those bad days start being the norm, not the exception. Your goals for business and your work may also have started well but likely some point along the way even those have been left behind as other stresses in life continue. For most students it will be no different. Many will start the year well and then slip back into their old habits, their old routines, and do the things they have always done.

These kinds of trends are natural. When something is new it is easy to set goals that are exciting and that inspire you. It is equally as easy for those goals to slip away over time and for your energy and inspiration towards achieving them to be diminished.

The Good News

The good news is that you can take advantage of a fresh start whenever you want! It is possible at any time, on any given day, for you to gain all of the benefits of the New Year experience. You do this by DECIDING to start over. You can decide to start over and start acting as if it is the New Year; as if you have a new beginning. In order to act like it’s the New Year, simply do the things that you would do if it really was the New Year:

· Celebrate your recent successes

· Set new goals and deadlines

· Plan how you will achieve your goals

· Reconsider your life priorities

· Recommit to the important things in life

· Connect with what inspires you

All of the things on this list are things that you do at New Year’s and other significant new beginnings. Further, all of these will help to reinvigorate you and push you into action. Restarting your life can be powerful.

One Part at a Time

Another good thing about starting over whenever you want throughout the year is that you have the potential to restart one area of your life at a time. While you may have times when you need to start over with everything, it is just as likely that you will have some areas of your life that are progressing towards your goals and some areas that are stagnated.

When you choose to restart like this, you can restart one part of your life at a time. Perhaps your family life is great, but you are struggling at work: then go through the restart list with your work life in mind. If you are doing well professionally but are struggling to exercise and get your weight under control you can simply restart that area as if you have just started a new year with exciting new resolutions. Whatever area you are struggling to reach you goals in is the area you want to choose to restart.

Automatic Restarts

Life also affords us with a number of automatic restarts. In fact you may be taking advantage of automatic restarts without even realizing it. The start of the school year that I described earlier is an example of an automatic restart for many. Certainly it is a restart for students and teachers, but it’s often a natural point of restart for anyone with school aged children. The pace of life changes and life routines must change with it. What better time to restart your goals?!

The calendar also gives us automatic restart points. The most obvious one is the start of each month. You can use the start of the month to celebrate your successes from the previous month, to set new goals and deadlines, to plan how you’ll achieve your goals, to reconsider your priorities, to recommit to the important things in life and to reconnect to the things that inspire you!

To a lesser extent the start of each new week can serve the same function. When I go through my weekly planning process, I’m in essence following the steps of starting over. This enables me to enter each new week recommitted to my goals and excited about pursuing them.

When to Restart

There are many reasons why it might be a good idea to choose to create a new beginning and restart yourself towards your goals. You may want to restart when:

· you haven’t taken steps towards your goal in sometime

· you’ve been working towards your goals but haven’t seen any progress

· or you’ve just had a significant failure

If any of these situations apply to you, you should likely consider starting over. Pretend it is New Year’s Eve. As of tomorrow morning, the calendar is blank, and you have the potential to reach all of your goals.

Happy New Years!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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There is more to you than meets the eye. I know there is. Inside you are gifts in abilities that only you know about, and some that you don’t even know about. You have been created with a unique set of gifts and abilities that come in a combination that no one else has.

Paul Potts is a great example of this. Watch this clip from Britain’s Got Talent:

Paul Potts’ performance is indeed incredibly inspiring. It is wonderful to see a performance that you don’t expect from someone. The thing is each of us has that kind of a performance within them. No, maybe not as an opera singer, but in something; we all have some talent that will awe and inspire others.

But talent alone doesn’t make the difference. You have to do something with that talent. Look at what Paul Potts did:

• He took a big risk. — Paul could have easily kept his talent to himself, singing in the shower, or maybe before a small group of friends. He certainly did not need to take the risk of going in front of a large live audience, a much larger television audience, and of course judges like Simon Cowell! What an intimidating group. Paul’s big risk requires a significant amount of bravery. Sometimes making use of our talent will require this kind of risk. But you can do it! You can be that brave!

• He pretended to be confident. — Through the interviews we can certainly see that Paul Potts was anything but confident in himself. And yet, if you look at the video of him on stage he portrayed a large level of confidence. No, he wasn’t cocky or over-the-top, but he went out there with a clear purpose. When he was asked what he was there to do he replied very matter-of-factly that he was there “to sing opera”. Notice he didn’t say that he was there to “try to sing” or that he “hoped he would be able to sing” etc. He stated his intention with confidence. It is possible to pretend to be confident, even when inside you are very scared. No one else needs to know how scared you are.

• He knew what he was born to do. — Paul stated that he wanted to sing opera because that is what he felt that he was born to do. What were you born to do? Look at your skills and gifts. Learn about yourself and how you can shine. Likely the gifts and abilities you have are pointing at the type of thing that you were born to do. You will only be truly happy, and meeting your full potential when you are using your talent in that way.

• He shared his talent with others. — Knowing your talent is one thing, but success and fulfillment in life comes when you share that talent with others. That talent may come through your job, your business, or what you do on the side. Just be sure that you don’t hold it in. By sharing his talent with others Paul was able to entertain people, inspire people, and make their lives better. You can to. When you use your talents, you can make a difference in other people’s lives.

What are your gifts? You have been made with a unique set of talent that you can use to make a difference in this world. By using your talents each day you will feel more fulfilled and you will impact others in a positive way. Once you know your talents, take a risk, be confident and take the next step. The rewards will follow.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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The Olympic Flame on a Smog-free Day in Beijing

One of the most remarkable parts of my Olympic experience was to see the drastic changes that have taken place in Beijing – many even over the past year. When I arrived in Beijing for the Olympics it was only 13 months since my previous visit, and yet in many ways it was a very different city. These changes show the results that can come from having a clear goal, a deadline and strong motivation.  There were many significant changes to be seen.

Changes in Beijing

• New Airport Terminal – $3.5 billion terminal, bigger than the city currently needs, and complete with a full-time attendant/cleaner in each restroom.

• Trees, Trees and Trees – planted millions of trees, particularly lining important roads

• Lots of fresh paint – almost every apartment building was painted

• Walls around ugly areas – walls were built surrounding construction sights and slum areas

• Beautiful new venues – the Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube set the new standard for architecture in sports venues

• New subways – a number of brand new subways were completed including an airport express subway

• More public washrooms

• Better translations – removed much of the “chinglish” and corrected it with proper English translations

• Line ups – instead of pushing to get on buses, subways etc. people were trained to stand in line

• Reduced spitting and public urination – two habits common in Beijing just a year ago, were drastically reduced

• Traffic limitations to reduce smog – cars were only permitted to drive every second day leading up to and during the Olympics. It took some time for the smog to clear but the reduced traffic was a benefit in itself

Olympic Stadium - aka The Bird's Nest

Certainly Beijing had some advantages in their preparation for the games. With China being a communist country the government could do things that couldn’t be done (as easily) in a free market economy; they forced people to move, used significant levels of cheap labour, and made laws that would never fly in Western countries. For the purpose of this article I’m not going to debate whether these decisions are right or wrong. Instead, we’ll consider that China was simply using the resources at its disposal to reach its goal. So how did China do it?

How China Did It

1. Clear goal – China’s goal was to put on the best show and make a grand re-entrance onto the World’s stage. The Olympic was its showcase. The goal was clear and everyone in the country knew this was the goal.
2. Deadline – The Olympics had a built in deadline for the changes to be completed: 08-08-08, the date of the opening ceremonies. A goal with a deadline is much more powerful than an undated goal. You are more likely to take action and less likely to procrastinate when the deadline is clear.
3. Motivation – Your motivation is the reason behind your goal. It is the core point that will drive you. In China that motivation was national pride and the desire to impress others. It is hard for an outsider to understand the level of national pride that exists amongst the Chinese people. Westerners might think that a reduced level of individual freedom would potentially lower the levels of national pride, but that is not the case. Almost everyone in China was excited about the games and wanted the country to look its best while the world was watching. They wanted to impress others.
4. Massive Action – The amount of work put into making these changes in Beijing was massive. Every resource was put into making the games the showcase to the world that China wanted. Massive action is needed to move towards any goal.

In light of the example of Beijing there are several questions you should ask yourself:

• What is your goal?
• Is it clear?
• Do you and your team have a clear understanding about what you want to go and how you are going to get there?
• What is your deadline?
• Is it firm and written down?
• What is the reason behind your goal?
• Will you allow this to motivate you?
• Are you willing to take massive action?

The start of the month provides a perfect opportunity to set some goals and begin to move towards those goals. This list of questions can serve as starting point (or reminder) towards achievement of your goals. If you follow these steps by setting clear goals, establishing a deadlines, understanding your motivation and taking massive action, you will achieve your goals!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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