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The Walking Leader: Sunday Afternoon Prep (part 3) by David Guerra

Continuing with the third of the three part series on SUNDAY AFTERNOON PREP.

pens and 3x5 cards

Sunday afternoons are a great time to make your plans and prepare for the coming work week. Let me rephrase that, Sundays are the greatest time of the week to make your plans and prepare for the coming work week. Now, with being said, what do you do on Sunday afternoons to prepare?

Personally, there are several things that I do to prepare. I am going to share them with you over the coming weeks. I will break them down into their own groups to make it easier for me to write about them. Last week, I talked about ensuring you have a functioning writing utensil and paper at all times.

This week, I talk about the third thing I do to prepare for the work week. I spend part of my Sunday afternoons making three lists. Now while everyone has their own unique opinion about list, list making, and list makers there is still a great need for lists.

I make three lists: Urgent & Important, Not Urgent but Important and Filler.

Borrowing from the Four Quadrant used in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen Covey, I like to use the top two quadrants to start my lists for the week.

Urgent & Important

This list includes those items that need to be addressed no matter what. For example, this week I must get my automobile’s annual inspection done before I can even think about going to get tags for the year. I should have no problem getting it the inspection completed, the trick is making time to go and get it done.

Not Urgent but Important

On this list I would put “Pay for vehicle tag” as this week this item is NOT urgent but it is important. If I do not do it this week next week it will move to the Urgent and Important list. The trick to this list is to not allow things to move into the Urgent and Important because you failed to complete them this week. So be careful with items on this list.

Filler

This third and final list is for those items that I can complete when I have some down time or between projects throughout the day. Typically, these are reminders for me to post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. When to write a blog post, what day to do a podcast (I have three podcast) and anything else that I can fit in.

Now these are the three that work for me. Your experience will dictate what list or lists will work for you. No matter what you use there is one thing that cannot be denied writing things down cannot be beat and that’s non-negotiable.

Until next time,
David Guerra

 

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The Walking Leader: Sunday Afternoon Prep (part 2) by David Guerra

Continuing with the second of a three part series on SUNDAY AFTERNOON PREP.

Sunday afternoons are a great time to make your plans and prepare for the coming work week. Let me rephrase that, Sundays are the greatest time of the week to make your plans and prepare for the coming work week. Now, with being said, what do you do on Sunday afternoons to prepare?

Personally, there are several things that I do to prepare. I am going to share them with you over the coming weeks. I will break them down into their own groups to make it easier for me to write about them. Last week, I talked about ensuring that all your devices are charged and in working order.

I touched on briefly on what to do when you find yourself out of power on your laptop or tablet.

This brings me to the what I truly consider the most important thing to do when it comes to Sunday Prep: Have writing utensils and writing material with you at all time.

I have said it countless times before and I will continue to say it: do not get caught without a good pen and paper.

Lamy safari yellow pen

The pen does not have to be anything fancy but what it does have to be is functional. Functional in that it will work every time you need. There is nothing worse than to have an opportunity arise then to fall short in capitalizing on any opportunity all because you do not have a pen. Carry a pen.

As for something to write on, that can be found just about anywhere. However, the best is to have something that you know is solely for writing on and you can carry with you all the time. This is as opposed to tearing off the back of an old envelope or tearing a piece of a paper bag, both of which are more apt to go missing when you need to go back to refer the information you wrote on that piece of paper.

Personally, I carry either a small FIELD NOTES notebook or a small stack of 3″x5″ cards (clipped together with bulldog clip). As for the pen, I rotate between a LAMY fountain pen, Sherpa ball point, and Padrino fountain pen.

Additionally, as a back up I keep a small notebook and Pilot G2 pen in my vehicle (strictly as a backup).

Again, because what works today might not work when you really need it. Take time to ensure that you have a pen and that the pen has plenty of ink. As for the paper, make sure you have plenty of clean (unwritten) paper on hand. Obviously, replace or refill as needed, throughout the week.

Prepare now and later you won’t have to scramble.

Thanks for your time,
David

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Twitter #DareToBe Tweet Chat: Be Better (Tuesday, January 5, 2016)

Every Tuesday evening at 8pm Eastern, the #DareToBe tweetchat takes place on Twitter. The #DareToBe tweetchat is hosted by Editor, Writer, and Communications Executive Andrea Sanchez (@asanchez16).

Every week a different topic. On the evening of January 5, 2015, the topic was BE BETTER. I had the honor of presenting the 10 questions this evening. While I could not capture all the twitter based answers I present to you the questions and  my answers (with a bit of amplification). Please enjoy and if you can, please joins us. Look for the #DareToBe hashtag every Tuesday evening.

Also, I invite you to follow me on twitter: @DaveGuerra.

  • Q1: How do you define “being better?” #DareToBe
    A1. Being Better to me means constant improvement even if it is just a small step it still is something. #DareToBe
  • Q2: What do you think of individuals that say they want to be better? #DareToBe
    A2. Doing is always better than saying. Show me, don’t tell me. #DareToBe
  • Q3: Do you set overly ambitious goals when it comes to being better? How do you tackle them? #DareToBe
    A3. All goals should be overly ambitious. It is breaking it down to manageable parts that makes it happen. Think marathon one mile at a time #DareToBe
  • Q4: Give an example of something that you are better at today than you were 5 years ago. #daretobe
    A4. Communicating my message. 5yrs ago I didn’t even dare think about writing my first book. #DareToBe
  • Q5: What do you presently want to be better at? #DareToBe
    A5. I want to be a better public speaker. My message is just that important. #DareToBe
  • Q6: How can you prevent the “I’m better than everyone else” syndrome in your quest to be better? #DareToBe
    A6. Stay Humble my friends. That’s the only way. #DareToBe
  • Q7: Have you ever said I will be better at “XYZ” only to fall short? Explain what went wrong/right. #DareToBe
    A7. Not enough experience. Shoot for the moon while landing among the stars is still not the moon. Try again but better #DareToBe
  • Q8: How do you cope with wanting to be better at work only to find that leadership is happy the way things are? #DareToBe
    A8. Take the initiative with small steps. They can reject “better” for only so long. Then change must occur. #DareToBe
  • Q9: What encouragement can you give others to be better, specifically those that are satisfied with who they are? #DareToBe
    A9. Being satisfied gets boring after a while. Take a small step out of the comfort zone #DareToBe
  • Q10: Becoming a better person requires ________________. #DareToBe
    A10. Patience…lots and lots of Patience #DareToBe
  • Q11: In 2016 I will dare to be better than last year by _____________. #DareToBe
    A11. by executing my plans and objectives then creating more plans & objectives to execute #DareToBe

If you like this kind of conversation then I do invite you to join us every week on Twitter. Thanks and as always #DareToBe Unique!