The Kaizen Gal Podcast

Welcome back to the Kaizen Gal Podcast!

Happy New Year!!!! I am grateful we all made it to 2024 and I am equally excited about what the year has in store for us.

I am passing by to drop a few info:

Why I went AWOL in 2023
What I'll focus on in 2024
What you can expect on the podcast

Want to learn more? Take a seat!

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at info@thekaizengal.com---Don't forget to subscribe ^^

And if you haven't written a 5-star review yet - don't be shy: it's painless and free!

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Welcome to the Kaizen Gal, this is your host MC.

The Kaizen Gal is a podcast about continuous improvement,

no big splash but slowly yet surely building the habits

to make the most out of what you already have

and scale your progress in a sustainable way.

Some people say "Don't work harder, work smarter".

Well I believe you can do both if you balance your time, energy and drive well.

There we go: the last episode of the series Rags to Riches!

I tried to keep it short and sweet this time, a 5-installment series feels right :-D

ContextIn early 2019, I started to think about taking a sabbatical year and buying a car then a house upon my return.

Actually using my budget

Had one for years at that point using Mint but not really paying attention to it
Created a comparative spreadsheet to analyze how my spending had changed over the last 5 years
Looked for areas to make budget cuts
Thoroughly took notes of all my sources of income
Monitored my house expenditure ratio (proportion of my net income dedicated to expenses related to the house - can be done for any other category of expenses)

Then first step: define the scope of your car/house buying process

what is the maximum amount of money I can spare each month to buy a car, considering all my other expenses and savings objectives
Can I rely on an investment vehicle to push my money? If so, what would be the achievable return % I should look for?
When do I want to buy the car?
Do I want to put some money down or do I want to finance?

All these outline your saving framework for the car/house. And combining all of these, I calculated the max budget for the car (gross price, down payment, etc..)

Specifically related to the house

looked at my current situation (share of the cost of housing in my budget)
Compared my cost of housing to my neighborhood's (my cost of housing vs. average)
My standing against the benchmarks/recommendations of specific personal finances ratio: Price to rent ratio, Housing expenditure ratio
Comparing the impact of a 5% down payment vs a 20% down payment on my 1) monthly mortgage payments and 2) Short-term and long-term goals. I did that to assess if the level of effort required to gather 20% was "worth" it for ME.
What would be the price of the house I can afford with my current lifestyle without making sacrifices or altering my savings objectives?

3 things to know and think about

Know where you stand regarding typical personal finances ratios - be honest with yourself! Sure you can lie to yourself but the money taken out of your account each month will be very much real.
Decide where you can afford to go/live - neighborhoods have a huge impact on the affordability of housing. Choose according to your lifestyle.
Reverse engineer cost to budget (from the cost of the house you're interested in, infer the necessary budget to cover that cost) AND budget to cost (from your current budget, infer the potential cost of a house you can afford)

That's it for me today and I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

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Welcome to the Kaizen Gal, this is your host MC.

The Kaizen Gal is a podcast about continuous improvement,

no big splash but slowly yet surely building the habits

to make the most out of what you already have

and scale your progress in a sustainable way.

Some people say "Don't work harder, work smarter".

Well I believe you can do both if you balance your time, energy and drive well.

This is the 4th and second to last episode on the series Rags to Riches. It’s basically the story of habits I built that led me from being broke and in debt to being a homeowner and financially stable in 7 years.

The 1st episode of the series covered how to manage or pay down debt

In the 2nd episode I talked about paying yourself first

And in the 3rd one, I suggested ways to get the most out of the expenses you have make anyway

In this episode I am going to cover something I love to do and that I did not want to compromise in order to save more money. It’s about going at it strategically in order to enjoy it without breaking the bank.

I want to talk about T R A V E L I N G.

Now, I am fully aware that for some people, their financial situation is so dire that traveling is out of the picture. What I want to emphasize before getting started is that traveling does not have to involve going to a different city or country. Sometimes it’s about re-discovering where you live with new eyes, doing the touristy stuff and so on. There’s no one in a better position than you to know what your city or neighborhood has to offer to its inhabitants for free.

How to save money while traveling? Well you have to plan your trip. You know the saying: if you don’t plan for success, you’re planning to fail.

If you travel spontaneously all the time, you’ll for sure overspend spontaneously. Unless you have bottomless pockets, you want to do a minimum of planning.

Because with every trip, there is a plan and there is the budget that sustains said plan. Okay?

Personal examples:

I spent a month between South Korea and Japan, and despite enjoying a $400 Kobe beef meal and buying an outrageously expensive piece of luggage, I still manage to remain under budget. Without having to sleep out on them streets or skip a meal.
Same thing happened in places like Hawaii, Singapore, and so on.

So it is possible to plan for fun, shopping and little or big treats without going overboard. These splurges have to be part of your plan.

Plan your trip

Choice of the place is yours based on your travel style OR the type of environment you need right now
Do you feel like hanging out at the beach all day? Do you want to party like there’s no tomorrow? In a nutshell: what is the goal of your trop?
Sometimes I don’t care where I sleep because I’ll be out all day. Other times I care because it’s more of a balanced trip where I take my time in the morning lounging around the room or taking in the hotel’s surroundings.
Flight first
Create alerts on various platforms for the destinations you’re thinking even if you don’t have a date yet
If you have dates, add new location alerts but this time matched with the dates
Hotel/accommodation second: hotels.com, booking.com, AirBnb, VRBO, etc.
Transportation: how are you going to move from city to city? Or how much does public transportation typically cost in those places?
“Ask a friend”: about recommendations and tips, people they might know where you’re going to, etc.
Research: CondeNast Traveler, vlogs, blogs, etc..

I have templates of my trip to Hawaii, Japan, etc. If you want me to send them over, let me know at ayoss89@gmail.com ^^

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Welcome to the Kaizen Gal, this is your host MC.

The Kaizen Gal is a podcast about continuous improvement,

no big splash but slowly yet surely building the habits

to make the most out of what you already have

and scale your progress in a sustainable way.

Some people say "Don't work harder, work smarter".

Well I believe you can do both if you balance your time, energy and drive well.

In the first 2 episodes of this 5 part series, I talked about paying yourself first and paying down debt (or like I like to say it “managing debt”).

Today I am shifting gears a little bit and I want to talk about spending. No it’s not sacrilegious to spend money, we have to at some point or the other in order to live BUT we can spend that "doomed-to spent" money in SMART(ER) ways.

Specifically today I am talking about loyalty programs. You see, I am part of numerous fidelity programs. A large number of us are too: reports say that North Americans have an average of 13.5 loyalty cards in their portfolio/wallet.

A quick rundown of how loyalty programs work

Different ways to accumulate points or dollars

Buy goods/services with a linked debit or credit card
Showing the loyalty card when you do a purchase, regardless of the payment card used
Installing a tracking plugin in your browser which partners with different online stores to give you cashback on confirmed transactions
Buy goods/services with a customer account

Different ways to spend or redeem those points/dollars

points to get any good in return
Air Miles (goods, travel credits, gift cards, event tickets, etc.) - 10 million members
Aeroplan - 5 millions (in 2018)
to get more goods/services from the company itself in return
Avis / Enterprise
Scène+, free movies - 10 million members
Pizza Pizza, free food
Starbucks
to get more goods/services from the company’s partners in return
PC Optimum (Shoppers Drug Mart, Maxi’s, Provigo, etc) 18 million
Airlines - There are three major airline alliances: SkyTeam, Star Alliance and Oneworld. Each have different partner airlines that you can earn airline-specific or alliance-specific points.
to get gift cards in return
to get a check in return
metro&moi : 1,2 million
Rakuten, previously known as eBates

How to choose the right one

Level of effort involved to accumulate and redeem,
Speed at which you can accumulate enough to redeem - It plays a big role in maintain and/or leveling up your member status,
Contrast that speed with the timeline and requirement of their points expiry policy
The perks available without purchase required
The loyalty levels and the redemption levels

See how it fits your lifestyle and select the program you want to add, remove or keep in your portfolio.

My own experience

A few goods/services I have gotten from loyalty programs

Free tickets to a NBA game (no points no dollars needed, just a raffle)
Surprise upgrade on a direct flight from Tokyo Japan to Vancouver Canada (I did not ask for anything)
A 65” LG TV, with points
Numerous Starbucks drinks and treats, from birthday offers to points
Over $400 of checks for grocery shopping, with points
Extra hotels nights or upgrades

That's it for me today and I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

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Intro

Welcome to the Kaizen Gal, this is your host MC.

The Kaizen Gal is a podcast about continuous improvement,

no big splash but slowly yet surely building the habits

to make the most out of what you already have

and scale your progress in a sustainable way.

Some people say "Don't work harder, work smarter".

Well I believe you can do both if you balance your time, energy and drive well.

Today’s topic

Before diving into today’s episode, make sure you listen to the previous one on “paying and managing debt” and that you implement or at least understand what I suggested there:

A strict budget!
Negotiating a debt repayment arrangement with the debt collection agency
Actually understanding the billing cycle of credit cards.
Linking my credit card repayment to my budget sheet
Set up an emergency funds
Automate every single bill possible yet deactivate auto-reload

Now, onto today’s episode: PAY YOURSELF FIRST

Everyday transactions

I have accounts with multiple FI for multiple purposes. And I pay $20 in banking fees each month for all these accounts.

One is my legacy account and I only use it for retirement savings and credit card
One is my parent account: it is the account that receives my paycheck, dispatches the money to all other accounts and pays all of the bills.
One everyday account to handle the things I need to pay for in stores

Retirement

One RRSP - An RRSP is a retirement savings plan that you establish, that we register, and to which you or your spouse or common-law partner contribute. Deductible RRSP contributions can be used to reduce your tax.
One TFSA - The Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) program began in 2009. It is a way for individuals who are 18 and older and who have a valid social insurance number (SIN) to set money aside tax-free throughout their lifetime. Contributions to a TFSA are not deductible for income tax purposes. Any amount contributed as well as any income earned in the account (for example, investment income and capital gains) is generally tax-free, even when it is withdrawn.

Source: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/taxes/savings-and-pension-plans.html

Investments

One very flexible TFSA for emergency funds
One TFSA for aggressive investment

Savings

One savings account for miscalculated tax/bill/credit card payments
One savings account for emergency funds

Without realizing it, combining and revisiting these accounts, I regularly save between 38% and 52% of my net income each month depending on other factors.

Outro

That's it for me today and I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

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Welcome to the Kaizen Gal, this is your host MC.

The Kaizen Gal is a podcast about continuous improvement,

no big splash but slowly yet surely building the habits

to make the most out of what you already have

and scale your progress in a sustainable way.

Some people say "Don't work harder, work smarter".

Well I believe you can do both if you balance your time, energy and drive well.

Context I am starting a 5-part story on how I went from having thousands of $ in debt and being expelled from my apartment to buying a whole house by myself in 6 years. My rags to riches story, except I am not that rich...yet ;-)

First and foremost, I want to give credit to God. Because He makes the impossible happen. We’re just instruments of His works and our lives are a demonstration of His undeserved Grace towards us.

A little background story: we’re in 2015 and I have accumulated close to 10K of rent debt on a 35-38K yearly salary.

Paying down and/or managing debt

-A strict budget! I personally use Mint from Intuit (https://mint.intuit.com/) and an Excel sheet inspired by a combination of the following resources:

Patricia Bright’s Youtube episode about budget: https://youtu.be/CC5dXZYTO1A
Patricia Bright’s budget template, if you want to pay for it: https://www.thebreakresources.com/products/budget-planner
One Big Happy Life One Year Spending plan: https://onebighappylife.com/the-one-year-budget/ (direct link to download: https://onebighappylife.com/one-year-spending-plan-fb-1/)
Steph & Dennis budget planner: https://stephandden.com/resources

-Negotiating a debt repayment arrangement with the debt collection agency: if I paid 4K in 1 month, they’d forgive the other 4K

Key learning: any debt, including a bill, can be negotiated. Don’t be afraid and ask, you’ll lose nothing (but face and pride) but you might gain something out of it (preserve dignity).

-Actually understanding the billing cycle of credit cards. Then setting up alarms to pay it in full each month before the end of the 2-weeks grace period (the first two weeks of your billing cycle). So I’d pay no interest at the end of the cycle even if I had gotten a balance afterwards that 2-weeks sweet spot.

-Linking my credit card repayment to my budget sheet: by updating the balance on my credit card, I’d see how much interest I’d owe, the minimum payment and how to pay it down (based on the frequency of payments or each payment’s amount). Seeing how much interest the bank would be getting out of me at the end of the year was actually an incentive to NOT let it happen.

-Set up an emergency funds to NOT use credit card whenever there’s an emergency

-Automate every single bill possible (mobile, internet, electricity, car insurance, house insurance, etc) AND deactivate auto-reload subscriptions (electric charging card, starbucks card, etc)

That's it for me today and I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com.

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

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Welcome to the Kaizen Gal, this is your host MC. The Kaizen Gal is a podcast about continuous improvement, no big splash but slowly yet surely building the habits to make the most out of what you already have and scale your progress in a sustainable way. Some people say "Don't work harder, work smarter". Well I believe you can do both if you balance your time, energy and drive well.

---- Burning out from going too hard at life as a whole as possible.

My burnout is not at all related to my professional work, but revolves around school.

Rather a combination of me going intensely forward with life changes, including lifestyle, while maintaining high-volume semesters in the midst of changing jobs and a pandemic haven taken a serious toll on my motivation and drive to do anything else than professional work. Professional work has actually become my escape, when I can totally zone out from the shackles of school, thinking about school's impact on my vision for my life, etc.

What did I learn?

I have compulsions. Maybe obsessive compulsions to do things, learn new things, experience. Compulsion to accumulate.

And it all started when I hit my 30s: “now is the time to do the most” I thought. “To catch up” on the things I didn’t have the opportunity, i.e. the means, to do before. The problem is I never stopped and it’s been 3 years now.

Can I prevent it from happening again?

I honestly don’t know because right now I am fighting that compulsion one day at a time.

See, I have Trello boards for everything in life. If I was to show you what’s in the board for career and upskill endeavors, you’d be frightened. I have enough in there to last me a lifetime yet I am only 33 years old and I keep adding things every other day.

So my main thing at the moment is self-reflection: asking God what’s driving that compulsion, and what it is that I am trying to prevent through it?

How am I doing in the meantime?

Overall, I realized that in that compulsion to accumulate and do more,

I have also become anxious of what could derail the fulfillment of the plans my compulsion translates into.
I have decision fatigue. Whenever I am being asked to make a decision that was not planned or foreseen, I tend to retreat. I need time to process all of the scenarios. Yet I also get tired of all that processing.

So for now, I am doing nothing but God-searching. Trying to quiet down my racing thoughts and agitated spirit so I can listen to what He’s been trying to say for 3 years.

That's it for me today and I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com.

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

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In the last and final installment of the series on Time & Priorities Management, I want to cover 2 important topics. Because I think that they can derail your strategic planning and all the useful tips discussed in the previous episodes.

The first topic is managing the unexpected

Like I mentioned in the previous episode, I was caught off by a work offsite trip which derailed my usual planning and routine. Four skills are important in order to manage the unexpected

Managing your emotions -- Unexpected events create stress and can affect our effectiveness. When the unexpected happens, we must first control our impulsive reactions in order to think clearly and stay focused despite the pressure. Being calm and positive does not mean accepting everything without saying a word, on the contrary. It is a matter of being calm in order to understand what is going on and to negotiate according to the unexpected.
Adapting -- Adaptability means showing an open and flexible attitude in changing situations. It is about developing the ability to bounce back from changes and to be flexible. Shifting priorities, turnarounds and multiple demands are and will always be part of our reality. We have the power to decide with what attitude we want to face them.
Be optimistic -- Our perspective is our own and it is up to us to decide how we want to approach:
every situation that arises
unexpected consequences
challenges
efforts required to achieve our desired results or goals
efforts and work we have done
Being assertive -- Knowing how to say no by offering alternative solutions, or saying yes under conditions that take into consideration our needs and limitations.

Which leads me to the second topic is learning to say no

Again in the previous episode I mentioned how I could have just said no. Some of my colleagues said no because the event was announced on too short a notice to plan adequately. And they offered other ways to participate. So it was possible but FOMO prevented me from doing it. When it is absolutely impossible for us to respond favorably to a request, we must respect certain rules in the way we refuse it:

Be positive and focus on what we can do for the requestor, while minimizing the list of what we cannot do
On the contrary, let's give the reasons that prevent us from granting the request (limitations, constraints, existing regulations or procedures, etc.) and try to suggest an alternative solution to the problem
Aim for a win-win agreement by trying to find a solution acceptable to both parties.
Sometimes it happens that the person making a request has the means to satisfy it themselves without realizing it. So refusing and listing the tools at their disposal and how these tools can help them is also an option

That's it for me today and for this week. I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at the address in the description box.

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

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A little interlude to the series on time and priorities management to explain how me being MIA for close to 10 days could have been (and will be) avoided in the future. God willing 🙏🏾

I messed up.

Not a big life-and-death situation mess up but it is worth mentioning

As another testament of how important it is to be organized and plan ahead.

See, what happened is my finals (so the end-of-semester exams). They happened as planned by the school calendar. Which means that I basically had the whole semester, or at least half of it to make a review schedule. Which I had.

What I had not expected was that my employer, yes I work and I study both full-time, announced at the beginning of the month of April that an off-site event would take place in another city. In between 2 final exams.

I was tired juggling all of those different things and because I had been running around basically since January, I did not stick to my plan
I did not manage my energy when I went to the off-site company event
As I was seeing my energy levels fluctuate, and me increasingly not sticking to the plan, I should have adapted

But all in all, you can simply summarize it by your girl was tired okay?

3 ways I am going to address similar situations moving forward

Decide on what to do according to who I want to become. It will sustain you far more than what I want to accomplish in the moment.
Accept FOMO. I cannot be everywhere at the same time.
Specifically for the podcast, on top of the time allocated to researching, writing and recording, plan 90 minutes on Saturday or Sunday to draft for the next week's 2 episodes.

That's it for me today and I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

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Note to self Do not record from your computer EVER again, the sound quality is so bad! Will keep using my phone from now on!

It is necessary to identify the time-wasters in your work rhythm, their causes and effects, and then find ways to counter them. Here are a few ways I find to do just that:

If you must move location, at the office or between places:

When you can, phone or email. Unless you think there will be miscommunication.
Plan trips by grouping the people to be seen or the places to be during the same trip.

Managing Your emails!

Sort them out: priority, secondary, to delegate, to file and to put to the trash or to flag as spam. Most email inboxes allow you to create rules and filters to move incoming emails automatically, use them!
Schedule specific periods of time to read and reply to your emails. Otherwise these micro-interruptions of time and focus can quickly add up.

For instance, you can tackle them at the beginning of your shift, before or after your lunch break and at the end of your shift. And during that time, what you open, you process (it’s a key

→ Either way, emergencies will find a way to get to you when needed - trust me!

When you write your emails:

Have a clear subject for your email, even if it’s long, it should give the receiver a feel for the level of urgency with which to approach its content.
Don’t mix up topics, 1 email = 1 topic. Either people don’t read or get confused when there’s too much to process in writing.
Summarize the purpose of the email at the beginning
If any attached document, describe what it contains.
Use lists rather than paragraphs. And not paragraphs as elements of your lists. - it will force you to summarize.
Always end your emails, regardless of what the topic, with a question that requires yes or no or that involves taking action.

Traditional phone or online calls

Group several calls together at convenient times if possible. For example, you can dedicate a block of time in the morning or afternoon, or dedicate a specific day of the week to it.
Prepare your interventions in calls: define the goal, the elements to be discussed and have the necessary documents at hand
If you get impromptu phone calls, try to rebook the full conversation at a more convenient time.

Actual meetings

What I just shared for calls applies for meetings with a couple more specific tips.

Before agreeing to a meeting, find out what the goal of the meeting is, its agenda and who will attend. No goal, no meeting
Start the meeting with topics relevant to the most participants so that people can gradually leave the meeting when their topic of expertise has been discussed.
Mind the time to ensure that all the elements in the agenda are going to be covered.
Don’t multitask while in a meeting and respect people speaking their piece.
Conclude the meeting by listing the main actions agreed upon by all, the responsibilities of each participant involved, the date of the next meeting and thank the participants. Don’t forget to send a recap email as well.

Interruptions from people

When approached by someone with a request, ask the person to schedule an appointment based on availability in your calendar
If you must respond immediately, clearly inform the person of the time you have BEFORE starting the discussion.
Route or redirect requests to the right people
If appropriate, and if possible, delegate to others
To quickly wrap up a long conversation, use phrases such as "before you finish" and summarize the important points made and the actions to be taken

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Guess what? I procrastinated recording today’s episode. Yes, I did what I said not to do. Why you ask? Well I did not have a plan for what the episode was going to be about. Which brings me to the topic of today’s episode: organizing work.

See, had I been more organized, I would have planned for that research and writing time in my agenda. And guess what? It is actually NOT in it. I haven’t adapted how I organize the work required. 5 things to do when you want to organize work:

1- Favour homogeneous work sequences meaning that you should group tasks of the same nature together. ~~ So that your brain does not switch from one workflow or process to another, which avoids the mental friction of having to re-focus and helps to reduce your capacity to be distracted as you are transitioning activities less.

2- And since you’re grouping similar activities together, you also want to alternate these groups of tasks. By changing the nature of the work you’re doing, you avoid monotony and getting bored by tasks that become repetitive in the long run.

3- Take into account your work rhythm and energy levels. Some of us are more energetic and focused in the morning, and others are night owls by choice. Don’t force yourself to stick to a rhythm that is not aligned with your productivity peaks, it will be much harder to stick to it. Some work might be so complex or energy-consuming that it is difficult or taxing to try and complete it in one session, however focused it can be. Be mindful of not pushing and draining your resilience to its limits too early in your workflow.

4- Do only one thing at a time and stick to it ~~ Multi-tasking is a myth. Your brain cannot switch from deep work to deep work that easily. Just like it needs some time to slip into deep sleep, it needs time to really black out your environment and get into THAT zone.

5- Make time for yourself ~~ don’t become so obsessed with productivity that you end up burnt out. Give yourself a moment! Everybody can start a marathon but not everybody can finish one: a race requires a strategy that combines fast pace, moderate pace and recovery pace. Think of your workflow as that race.

The following are areas to explore that will support these 5 things.

Your relationship with yourself and your relationship with time. ~ Basically how do you talk to yourself when things don’t go as you planned? Better even, how gentle are you with yourself? How does your productivity and the outcomes you are or not able to deliver impact your self-esteem? Your identity? How do you see yourself after failure?
Your organization and the tools you use that support it.
Your relationship with others. ~ Learn to say NO with reason, providing potential solution/alternative if you can but most importantly WITHOUT guilt. Your priorities will clash with that of others, and it’s normal. Not everyone will agree. So it's key to not define your relationship with others based on if they approve of you or your choices.
You have the tools that support it, and well these also have to be organized and in line with the work that you need to do.

RHYTHM and TIME matter

We all have our own circadian clock that regulates and influences our sleep, appetite, focus and so on. Our circadian rhythm fluctuates up and down throughout the day. So it is really important that each of us to determine our specific peaks of effectiveness. 2 questions to zero in on these time windows: When and why is my energy at its peak? AND When and why is my energy at its lowest?

The time it takes to execute a task is divided into 4 phases: reflection, material preparation, execution and verification.

Managing time-consuming activities is therefore crucial. It is necessary to identify the time-wasters in your work rhythm, their causes and effects, and then find ways to counter them.

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So far, we’ve tackled the basics of time management and how to channel them into your time planning and your prioritization process. Today’s topic is about the killer of all that hard work: PROCRASTINATION.

What is procrastination?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, it is the action of continuously delaying something that must be done, often because it is unpleasant or boring. In my opinion, procrastinating means making choices that give us immediate pleasure or satisfaction yet continually put us in a state of tension and/or stress. Because, when we procrastinate, we don't forget what we know we are supposed to do, we just decide not to do it.

There are several styles of procrastination, each with its motive:

1- Fear of failure or fear of taking on a challenge. This is often due to a lack of confidence when facing a new situation.

2- When you are a perfectionist who believes that there is a chance that the result will not be up to your standards.

In these 2 cases, procrastination can act as a self-preservation mechanism: in fact, you’re protecting your perception of self by avoiding confronting it with a reality that could potentially paint a different picture.

3- Sometimes we lose motivation to do the task at hand in the moment and we think that we’ll get it back later, so we postpone. Except that we often postpone indefinitely.

4- Lastly, certain people think they can only perform under pressure. They tend to wait until it’s almost too late to get the task complete in time in order to get laser-focused on what they need to do.

Regardless of the type, 2 things always happen when people procrastinate:

1) They believe they’re “still” doing something because they overload their agenda by replacing certain tasks with other tasks, sometimes more urgent but most importantly tasks more pleasant to them. Yet these activities nevertheless have less impact or importance than the original ones. 2) They almost always feel a sense of guilt, more or less admitted depending on the person, as long as they do not commit to action.

In my experience, I find that procrastinating eats more mental headspace than just doing the thing. Dodging the mental guilt to remain in denial is just energy-consuming both mentally and physically. My advice to you: the sooner you get onto the dreaded task, the sooner you’ll be free from it!

A few tips that have helped me over the years to gradually kick procrastination to the curb. Tick the ones you’re already doing and assess ways to incorporate the others to your daily workflow.

Subdivide the work to be done into smaller chunks of work. Don't forget to set a deliverable and a deadline for each. Set aside time in your schedule for each chunk and focus only on that. a) Even if you don’t start on time, don’t move it and get to it. b) Don’t forget to apply a correction coefficient to the time allocated to account for the unexpected and/or your cognitive bias.
Complete the most difficult or least interesting tasks first.
Get rid of your mental dead weight! Replace "I have to XYZ" with "I get to XYZ". You’ve already determined the activities that serve your vision and each of them is an opportunity to get closer to it.
Let others (friends, teammates, etc) know about the tasks you have to accomplish, and allow them to hold you accountable.
Focus on starting the task rather than envisioning how strenuous it could potentially be to complete it.
Time yourself and/or challenge yourself to complete the task in a set time.
Think about how good it will feel to accomplish your tasks.
List the benefits of pursuing the task or project.
List the consequences associated with not pursuing it.
Reward yourself once the task is completed.

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Today’s topic is all about PRIORITIZATION

The goal is to show you how you can effectively establish your priorities and stick to them.

I read an article by Michele Romanow (CEO of Clearco) where she explained how she applies “value-based prioritization” which helps her establish a personal list of things she doesn’t do: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-things-i-always-say-michele-romanow/

Keyword: PERSONAL. Going back to the episode about vision and fruition:

You don’t have the same vision as the next person or your acquaintances so you won’t have the same priorities.
Meaning that not everyone will understand but you have to stand your ground and learn to not only say “no” but own your “nos”.
Your vision will make your life, your choices and your decisions gradually simpler because it will drive you to eliminate or de-prioritize what does not serve it.

Before we move on to anything else, you have to accept these 3 statements as facts. Now….let’s get started!

What does PRIORITIZING mean?

It’s about reflecting and analyzing the things that you do, alone or with other people, against the way that they influence your reality, your workflows, your schedule, your relationships, your projects and so on.
You have to be clear on your reasons for prioritizing one thing over another because these reasons will be challenged, sometimes constantly, by your environment. You will need a strong belief in them in order to hold on tightly.
Others, hopefully people who you trust OR people you report to or who report to you, can also help you to refine your prioritization. They may see impacts you don’t.

A few questions to consider when prioritizing:

Do you systematically prioritize requests from your superiors at work? Or from people you have tremendous respect for?
Do you systematically prioritize requests from people you like? Or want to be liked from?
Can you identify people, in your professional and personal lives, to whom you should not say no without providing a solution or an alternative?
Can you pinpoint people who have an impact at your organization or in your life? They don’t necessarily need to have formal power to yield influence.

It goes back to your ability to distinguish what's important from what's urgent.

Eisenhower said: "I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent". There’s a great article on Mind Tools that elaborates on that: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm

An activity is urgent when it has a short time frame for completion. Question to ask: is there or what is the date or time limit for completing it?
An activity is important because of its weight, it has major consequences for the company you work for or on the results of a project. Question to ask: are there or what are the consequences if I don't do it?

I said it earlier: your priorities will get challenged every day

To not feel like our beautiful list of priorities is being trampled on, let’s meditate on the Pareto principle. The 80/20 rule.

In priorities and time management, it means that it is important to identify, among a great number of tasks or activities, the ones we should tackle first and separate them from the ones we should postpone or eliminate when possible.

In summary:

Prioritize based on impact: value, consequences and results.
Distinguish urgency from importance.
Hone your 20% the best you can.

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I just noticed how tired I sound. Yes, it is 12:30AM. At least, I think I still manage to somewhat English well. Hopefully, you still get value out of this episode!

The first episode of the series about priorities and time management was about the basics:

In a nutshell:

Stop and reflect
Organize
Take action

Today’s topic is specifically about the PLANNING part.

What does PLANNING mean in the first place?

Knowing where you are going
Anticipating obstacles to achieving your goals - don’t be overly optimistic
Prioritizing the tasks to be done
Setting your schedule

The 3 essential elements for planning and organizing your time are :

resources
activities
the result.

→ When you want to achieve a result, the expected result must be clarified in order to define the activities to be carried out and the resources they require.

The resources answer the question WITH WHAT (what it takes to get there)
The activities answer the question HOW (the steps to get there)
The result is the ultimate goal. A result is not the action of completing an activity, it is the visible consequence of the planned activities once they are completed.

PLANNING translates into specific behaviors and actions:

Get the information needed to plan the tasks
Identify the people, material and financial resources required
Develop and plan the steps for completion
Take into account the unpredictable - I talked about how unpredictable should be factored in the time it takes you to complete something
Adequately plan the use of one's time
Determine mechanisms to monitor, assess and control your progress towards completion

Now, you want to spread your planning across 2 timelines: monthly and daily

Monthly planning provides an overview of what you want to accomplish for the month.

It is not fixed and will probably change a lot depending on the daily planning. Don't panic! Even though it changes a lot, monthly planning is useful to :

Negotiate deadlines (whether it's a dinner with friends or a project at work)
distinguish between what is urgent and what is important
postpone what doesn't impact your goals for the month
Daily planning is the list of activities you need to accomplish during the day based on the time required for each task and its priority.

When to make this list? Either in the morning before you start your day, or in the evening when you finish it. It should take 10 to 15 minutes (a little longer at first) but don't plan 100% of your day. Plan about 55% to leave room for unexpected events and emergencies. A few tips when time-blocking:

Group similar activities together
Group and sequence activities that require you to go different places or use the same software
If you’re in the office, group your questions to your colleague or your boss so that you go see them once instead of 5 times throughout the day
Distinguish between real time and process time - You want to apply a correction coefficient. In general we multiply by 1.5.
Take note of the time the tasks you planned took in reality and readjust

In summary

you have to be ruthlessly realistic about the resources you need in order to accomplish your goals.
Whether it is time, other people’s inputs or material, do not be overly optimistic but rather adjust and plan a minimum of 1.5 what you think you’d need.
Don’t forget that other people are not at your disposal either so notify them ahead of time regarding what you’ll need from them and when!

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Today’s topic is time and priorities management.

But actually…I wanted to cover that in 1 episode but I learned so much about it over the years that I am going to break it down into 4 to 5 episodes, including the one you are listening to right.

Look at me, 2 episodes in and I am making a series, AH! Hopefully I can keep that up.

Anywho, the goal of the series is to help you effectively prioritize and adopt consistent time management strategies. I will expand on these strategies but they include:

Learning to reconcile time management with that of your personal or professional environment
Identifying your strengths and weaknesses and build a time management strategy adapted to your personality
Optimizing time and energy management
Maintaining and increase your credibility and control in managing demands and priorities.

Today’s episode is specifically about the basics.

Let’s make sure the foundations are right before trying to build a mansion upon it.

Time management...a lot of people talk about it and in a world that only seems to be getting faster and faster, we all come to wish we had 4 to 5 more hours a day. Do you sometimes feel like success belongs to the fastest?

Maybe that's the problem: each of us wants to accomplish more and more in the 24 hours we have and eventually that causes pressure to spread in a butterfly effect on our environment.

A human being, as efficient as one may be, does not function in a silo. Especially in the 21st century. I don't get up in the morning to plant wheat, harvest it and make bread out of it before 9am. Not to mention the butter, the metal in the oven I use, my coffee, etc.

This means that "somewhere" my desire for accomplishment is putting pressure on someone else's time and priorities.

In summary, we are all part of a big supply chain and it is important to manage what is happening at our stage efficiently so as not to break.

Your time is not a commodity

We must know how to fight against the culture of urgency by taking the time to stop and :

analyze your reaction and change your reflexes
take a step back and refocus on the right prioritization techniques
not to let the ambient confusion reach us and confuse us

Time management is a matter of attitude, analysis and behavior. Which translate into the 3 most efficient ways I have found to overcome the main pitfalls of time management:

Reflection
Organization
Action

Managing your time well is first and foremost a question of attitude. It is a state of mind that consists of thinking, analyzing and understanding your tasks, projects and objectives and constantly re-evaluating your planning.

Last takeaways before we end today

Ask yourself these 3 diagnosis questions and really think them through:

Do you take time each day to think about what you are doing or what you are going to do during the day compared to what you are trying to accomplish?

This involves identifying the essential tasks that produce a large part of your results (Pareto principle)

Are you able to reduce recurring interruptions in your work periods? Whether it's from colleagues, family or your phone.

I'm not saying to eliminate them completely, but these interruptions can add up to a lot of time and you want to plan your time according to the ones you cannot avoid.

Are you able to say no without feeling guilty? If so, congratulations.

If not, why not? What compels you say YES to others and NO to your objectives?

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com

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In line with Performance Fatigue and Perspectives,

Today I want to talk about Vision and Fruition.

Because I mentioned about the drive to perform and be productive as to be balanced.

To that effect, you want to embed that balance in your vision for your life

What is a vision?

According to the Harvard Business Review, “vision” is an aspirational picture of future success.

Vision is the ability to see the invisible. Vision is out of reach but not out of sight.

Don’t confuse “vision” with “mission”/PURPOSE (why an organization exists),

“values” (the principles and moral beliefs by which the organization chooses to operate),

or strategy (the decisions about where and how to compete that bring a vision to life).

In summary

You cannot take action if you don't know where you're going

So you need to know the direction the action is bringing you closer to

Hence the importance of having a vision

Without a vision, there's no discipline. No self-control.

Vision is the source of discipline.

Now how to build it?

1- What gets you excited? What is it that you somewhat always find the drive to do even when you're tired?

2- What would you do if you could do anything? Don't think based on your capabilities (skills, experience, etc.) but based on what you feel called to achieve. Vision is out of reach but it is not out of sight. What is it that you see?

3- What is in your zone of genius? What's that thing you're just the best at? That thing that when people think about you, they think about first.

Answering these questions will help you define

your future

the relationships you want to nurture

your time management (your hobbies, your projects, etc)

your energy management

your budget and how you invest

your priorities

--> they will all support and propel each other towards a future state of success; your vision. It will bring clarity to your vision.

It's literally how you combine these elements to define the vision of your future state

You should revisit your vision frequently as a way to motivate yourselves to new levels of performance. I typically do it once a year with strategic reassessments or adjustments at the end of each quarter.

Because vision might become blurry so stopping to clear and clean your lenses is essential!

Your vision cannot be selfish because patting yourself on the back will only get you so far.

You want to build a vision that impacts people; a vision that translates how accountable you see your God-given gifts as, towards the world you and I live in.

Seek to become a person of value.

One last word of advice: be unapologetic about your vision and what it entails.

Not everyone can go with you nor understand or agree with the direction you're taking, the destination you're headed towards

Be considerate, humble and nimble but do not apologize for your true YES in favor of consensus.

That's it for me today and for this week.

I hope you found that episode helpful and insightful.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com

Last but not least leave your a 5-star review anywhere you're listening to this podcast.

Until next time!

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In bondage to your goals? Addicted to productivity?

Here are a few tips your productive self won't like but we all need to be reminded that running on empty is not a lifestyle. The complete opposite actually.

A productive lifestyle also means embedded self-care (mental, social, physical, etc.) into your schedule. It is critical.

The same way we're told that we should pay ourselves first, well when we plan our time, we should plan for ourselves first.

You might be among the people able to push themselves to the limit but hitting the limit does not need to be the ultimate timestamp for rest.

I am often being told that I am "always" busy. That's not entirely true. Most people assume that when I decline invitations it means I am doing something else. While sometimes, I am just staying at home or I am taking myself to the movie or the spa. It was planned. And unless I have a change of mind/heart, I'll stick to my schedule.

If you have questions or topics you'd like me to address, email me at ayoss89@gmail.com

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Hello from Montreal everyone!

This is a quick introduction to my podcast and why it came to be.

I hope to create a community of avid learners; people who strive to balance their hunger for productivity with the necessity of rest and laid-backness.

We are Sunday March 20th, 2022 today and I pray this marks the start of a great journey.

There's no schedule yet for the recordings but 1 episode per week is a good start, as I am getting a hang of what's going on on here.

The Kaizen Gal Podcast: Recent Episodes

Marie-Claire