Mind Tools Newsletter 42 - 14 February 2006

Bring Balance to Your Life! This newsletter is published by Mind Tools Ltd, of 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, United Kingdom. To contact us, please email us from this page. You have received this newsletter because you have subscribed to our double opt-in newsletter. If you are not already a member and you would like to subscribe, please visit http://mindtools.com/subscribe.htm.

Contents: What's New The Action Priority Matrix Achieving Balance Mind Tools Store Memletics Speed Reading A Final Note

Happy Valentine's Day! And what better way treat yourself and your loved ones than spend a few moments bringing balance in your life?
So in this issue, we talk to Mind Tools Coach Sharon Juden on this sometimes-confusing subject, and get down to the real "nuts and bolts" of what balance is and how you can achieve it - personally and professionally.

Check out Sharon's tips and make today the start of your better-balanced life!

Our featured new tool this week is the Action Priority Matrix, which helps you make the most of your opportunities. It’s simple yet powerful tool that helps you find balance too.

Last issue, we promised you a new tool to help you coach your team members – the GROW model. This helps you coach your team members and improve performance. You'll find a link to the tool in the “What’s New Section” below. This is just one of the new tools we publish each week, for you to peruse at your leisure. Enjoy using them all!

Our final article is a review of the Memletics Effective Speed Reading course. Speed reading is a truly ‘essential skill’ to help us achieve more in life. So we are pleased to find and feature this tool – it certainly gets a “thumbs-up” from us!

So that’s it for another packed issue of the Mind Tools newsletter. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed putting it together for you!

Best wishes to you and yours for a happy and well-balanced Valentine’s Day!

James & Kellie

James & Kellie
MindTools.com
Mind Tools – Essential skills for an excellent career!

To find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded, click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

New tools on the Mind Tools site

• 10th Feb 2006 - Pygmalion Motivation - Motivating high performance with high expectations.
• 7th Feb 2006 - The Action Priority Matrix - Making the most of your opportunities
• 3rd Feb 2006 - Heron's Model - Understanding how to help people more effectively
• 1st Feb 2006 - The GROW Model - Coaching team members to improve performance

Find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded! Click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

New Tool on Mind Tools:

The Action Priority Matrix

Making the very most of your opportunities

by James Manktelow

The "Action Priority Matrix" is a simple diagramming technique that helps you choose which activities to prioritize (and which ones you should drop) if you want to make the most of your time and opportunities.

It’s useful because most of us have many more activities on our “wish lists” – whether these are bright ideas to pursue, exciting opportunities or interesting possibilities – than we have time available. By choosing activities intelligently, you can make the very most of your time and opportunities.

However by choosing badly, you can quickly bog yourself down in low-yield, time-consuming projects that close down opportunities and stop you moving forwards.

How to Use the Tool:
Figure 1 below shows the basic format of the Action Priority Matrix:

The principle behind using the tool is that you score each activity you want to complete on two scales – firstly on the impact the activity will have, and secondly on the effort involved.

By plotting each activity on the Action Priority Matrix using these scores, you can quickly see the projects that give you the greatest returns on your efforts; and adopt the most appropriate approach for that type of activity:

• "Quick Wins" (High Impact, Low Effort): These are the most attractive projects, giving you a good return for relatively little effort. Focus on these as much as you can;
  
  
• "Major Projects" (High Impact, High Effort): While these give good returns, they take a long time to complete – meaning that one “Major Project” can crowd out many “Quick Wins”. If you’re engaging in these, make sure that you complete them quickly and efficiently and that you disengage your effort as soon as you can;
  
  
• "Fill Ins" (Low Impact, Low Effort): Don’t worry too much about doing these – if you’ve got spare time, do them, but drop them if something better comes along; and
  
  
• "Hard Slogs" (Low Impact, High Effort): Avoid these. Not only do they give low returns, they crowd out time which would be better used elsewhere.

Tip 1: Much of the magic of this technique comes from understanding and avoiding this "crowding out" effect.

To draw an Action Priority Matrix, follow these steps:

1. List the activities that you’d like to complete;
   
   
2. Score them on impact (from, say, 0 for no impact to 10 for maximum impact) and on effort involved (from 0, say, for no real effort to 10 for a very major effort);
   
   
3. Plot the activities on the Action Priority Matrix; and
   
   
4. Select or drop activities appropriately.

Tip 2: Use common sense in interpreting the lines separating the four quadrants – after all, there’s only a small difference between a 4.9 impact activity defined as a “hard slog”, and a 5.1 impact task defined as a “major project”. Tip 3: Above we’re suggesting a scale from 0 to 10 for both impact and effort. However there’s nothing stopping you using other scales – for example if you were ranking major projects, you might use $ financial return as the scale on the impact axis, and “man days activity” on the effort axis.

James Manktelow is co-author of Mind Tools' “Make Time for Success” program, which teaches the 39 essential skills needed for true career effectiveness. Click here to find out more about Make Time for Success.

Interview with Mind Tools Coach Sharon Juden
"Achieving Balance"

Mind Tools Coach Sharon Juden talks to Kellie Fowler and shares her thoughts on exactly what balance is, why it is important, and some tips on to achieve it.

Kellie: Sharon, we hear a great deal about the importance of leading a balanced life. Can you tell us exactly what “balance” means?

Sharon: Balance is very different for different people: One person’s hectic existence is another person’s adrenaline! Some people prefer a slow, methodical approach, whilst their colleague might be pulling out his hair in exasperation.

Before balance can be achieved, you need to know YOUR own needs and preferences in all areas of your life - professional, personal, social, within the community etc.

The key is knowing your VALUES. Your values are what determine the career you choose, your life partner, where you live, how much you earn.

Kellie: Can you tell us a bit more about values and how they affect balance?

Sharon: The easiest way to think about values is to ask “what do I value?” for each area of my life. Too many times people take on the values of others, especially their parents, teachers, peers or other influential people. Often they never question whether these values are actually important to them.

Here’s an example I often give to clients: A young man is advised by his parents to take a solid, safe, 9-5 job with a regular salary and lots of security. The parents are immensely proud of him and he potters along reasonably contentedly for a few years. However, gradually a sense of frustration and even anger starts to creep up on him. Why on earth is he feeling so unfulfilled? He's doing what people said he should do, after all.

When he looks at his own values compared to those of his parents, he soon finds the source of his angst: Security, especially financial, is what motivates his parents; yet, their son finds the security stifling. He would much rather have adventure, variety and a certain amount of risk-taking in his work. Sitting in an office all day is draining the life out of him.

I find this situation with many people I talk to. They are living someone else's dreams - not their own. Because of this, they lose all balance. For example, they might over-compensate in some areas of their life to make up for the misery they have in their work. This is when imbalance can lead to problems such as over-eating, over-drinking and other excesses.

Kellie: So, how can people make sure they are living “their” life, aligned with their own values?

Sharon: You can start by make an inventory of all the things in your life that you absolutely must have, do or be in order to feel happy. If this sounds daunting, break it down to specific areas if you prefer, such as work, personal and social life.

Then list the things you absolutely do not want in your life. It sounds negative, but if you are clear about what you do NOT want, then you can do all you can to avoid it.

Make these 'do not wants' into a positive statement, like this: "I don't want ill-health," can be converted into "I want to live a healthy lifestyle, eating healthily and exercising regularly". This can then be translated into 'Health and Fitness' as a value.

From these two lists, draw up a third list, in order of priority, of what you really do want and need in order to feel fulfilled. This is your hierarchy of values.

Now think about each area of you life in turn in relation to the values list. Are you honoring your values (by what you are doing and NOT doing? If not, that area of you life is out of balance and you need to redress it.

Kellie: For many people, their work life gets out of balance, at least some of the time. What can they do about it?

Sharon: Even people who are in their ‘perfect job’, truly aligned with their values, can find their work life gets our of balance from time to time. It is very easy to get sucked into deadlines, meetings, everything needing to be done by yesterday, and believe that you are responsible for keeping it all going. If that’s what is important to you, that's fine. But if it's not, you will be feeling the pressure. And you need some strategies to deal with it.

You may be aware of Pareto's rule, or the 80/20 rule - the idea here is that 20% of ones tasks account for 80% of the value of ones work.

Do you know which of your activities fall into the top 20% range? Determine which are your most important tasks - the ones most likely to yield success, the ones that give you most fulfillment. Concentrate on those and be firm with yourself, spending less time and effort on the remaining 80% of tasks. This should free up some time and increase your sense of fulfillment, as you see progress being made with less stress.

Of course there are going to be times when your work is under-pressure and taking up more of your time. What is crucial, however, is to avoid getting caught up in the whirlwind of activity. Keep coming back to your priorities and values, and you will soon regain your sense of balance and perspective once the deadline or crisis is over.

Revisit your list of values often – it will help remind you what is important. You need to take a firm stand – with yourself and with others who may be making extra demands on you. If you don't respect yourself and give yourself what you need, how can you expect others to do so?

Kellie: Some great tips for keeping on track Sharon. But what it someone is feeling totally off balance and lost?

Sharon: The tricky thing about losing balance and getting stressed is it tends to creep up on you. And because it's a slow, insidious process, you may be thinking you're doing just fine. Then one day someone comments on how tired you look, or your partner complains that you're being short-tempered and over-critical lately.

There are a wide variety of symptoms: One crucial area for everyone is their health. Have you had a health check recently? Are you eating sensibly at mealtimes or do you snack or starve yourself until you get home? Do you opt for less healthy choices like take-out food or ready-made meals? Lack of attention to your health puts extra strain on your already over-worked body. Make it your top priority to redress any imbalance in this area.

Other symptoms to look out for: What about your tolerance levels - are you regularly impatient with other people, or criticizing them unnecessarily or harshly? Do you feel easily frustrated? Do you get regular headaches? Do you laugh several times a day or have you forgotten what it's like to have a really good laugh?

Whenever someone has lost balance in these ways, it is essential to bring their focus back to what is important and make every effort to live in the moment. This is something that I help many of my clients with. And there are plenty of things you can do for yourself, if ever you feel this way:

• Do whatever you're doing with full concentration, not keeping half a mind on what else needs to be done or what you could have done better.
• When talking to people, give them your full attention and make them feel they're the only person in the room.
  
• When you feel tight take a few minutes to breathe deeply. Concentrate on each breath and stop all the chatter going on in your head. A few minutes spent remembering who you are and why you're doing all this will help you feel more balanced.

Kellie: Great advice Sharon. Now I know you are a busy career woman with a family. Can you tell us how you maintain balance in your own life?

Sharon: Like lots of people I am juggling job, family life, social life and time for me, and it's not easy! To keep balance, I always keep in mind what I want to achieve through all of this.

My family life is one of my highest values, so everything I do and all decisions I make are made ensuring that my family life will not be compromised in any way that I - or they - would find unacceptable. This might mean saying 'no' to certain activities or jobs, but if I am to be true to myself I must follow my values.

I find it useful to reflect back at the end of the day on what I've done and how I feel about it. This can be a bit of a reality check! In retrospect, some things I felt I had to do were not actually the wise things to do for my sanity's sake. In my internal debriefing session I sometimes realize that next time I'm asked to do something or next time I think of reacting a certain way, I need to take a deep breath and think twice! This way I keep myself on track and continually make progress and develop.

When people look back on their lives, most people want to be able to say they were the best person they could possibly have been and lived the best possible life they could have lived. You probably WON’T want to say you worked more hours than anybody else in the office, or that you increased profits but alienated your family and colleagues in the process.

So, here’s my Valentine’s message for your well-balanced life: Be true to your values. Do what’s important and always keep your values top of mind. This is how you will achieve more, feel amazing and get a sense of fulfillment every day!

Sharon Juden is a career and life coach with Mind Tools. You can find out more about Sharon, Mind Tools coaching and even arrange an initial free consultation at http://www.mindtools.com/rs/Coaching.

---

The Mind Tools Store:

• Personal Coaching from Career Excellence Professionals: Find career and life direction, bring your job under control, build self-confidence and put yourself on the path to long term success with a Mind Tools coach. Our coaches give you the focused personal coaching you need to make the very most of your career and life. More >>
  
  
• Make Time for Success: Learn 39 essential personal effectiveness techniques that help you bring your workload under control and maximize your productivity, so that you can make the most of the opportunities open to you. More >>
  
  
• Design Your Life Design the life you want to live. Set the clear, vivid, powerful goals you need to live it to the full. More >>
  
  
• How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You: Learn the 48 simple but essential skills you need to become a top leader in your industry. More >>
  
  
• The Mind Tools E-book: All of the tools on the Mind Tools website in one convenient, easily-downloadable, easily-printable PDF file. We have excluded advertising to enhance clarity and have formatted sections to be easy to read, print and use. More >>

---

Tool Review:
Memletics Speed-Reading
Read Faster and Smarter, and Understand More
Reviewed by Kellie Fowler

Every day we are bombarded with large amounts of information, most of which is written - training materials, letters, project details, memos, emails, research on the Web, etc. Yet, increasing demands on our time and already-busy schedules make it nearly impossible to take in these insurmountable quantities of information and comprehend all that is important so that we can apply it intelligently as we work to move forward in our careers.

Recognizing this, experts have worked for years to develop tools and techniques that can be relied on to increase reading speed. The drawback here is that when speed-reading, one’s level of comprehension may drop, defeating all efforts in this area.

This makes finding the right tool or strategy, one that works for you, the key to speed-reading (and comprehension) success.

In the Memletics Speed-Reading course, I have found that and more.

The Memletics Speed Reading course is 110-page downloadable course that is different than other like courses in that it makes no unbelievable promises about how many words per minute a user will be able to read upon completion.

In fact, in the course’s introduction, it explains realistic goals and cautions users against thinking that they will ever be able to read 900 or more words a minute and still achieve a high level of comprehension.

That alone made me move forward through the course. You see, as an avid reader and writer, and one who has taken several speed-reading courses, I just don’t believe anyone can read 2,000+ a minute and boast complete (or even close to complete) comprehension.

Using the Memletics "Effective Speed Reading" course, you can learn to read faster without sacrificing comprehension. After all, what’s the point in reading faster if you take in less? That concept has just never made any sense to me.

So let’s take a look at the tools and techniques in the course to increase their reading speed, without losing grasp of what is being read.

In Chapter 2, we learn how to optimize the alphabet to increase our reading speed. Look at this example: “Rsercaeh at Crbidmgae Urvnitesiy fnoud that we can slitl raed wrdos even when the ltteres are mixed up. As lnog as the frist and lsat lrtetes are the same, we can slitl raed the sncetnee. This sohws that aeftr we have lnreat the bcisas of riadneg, we srtat sneeig wrdos as a wlohe, rehtar than a cctiolleon of lrtetes.”

Were you able to make it through this sentence with total comprehension despite the mix-up of letters? Right.

The truth is, according to the Memletics course, that our brains actually convert a combination of letters into a symbol and our brain is able to recognize these symbols even when they are not in the correct order. And, this is one part of how the brain learns to read faster.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

In the following chapter, we learn that vocabulary may be to blame for slowed-reading and how simply improving one’s vocabulary increases reading speed. Luckily, you don’t have to learn all 1,000,000 words in the English Language to increase your reading speed, but some improvements in vocabulary are sure to help.

Likewise, fluency is key to quicker reading, and the course helps you improve this by taking some very easy steps. These include: reading aloud to yourself, reading with others, using speech synthesis programs and, in some cases, such as reading in a language other than your native language, expert training may help.

Next in the course, I learned about skimming, and I found I was already on my way to reading faster. No, I did not test myself. But, I did go back and re-read the material more slowly a second time to check my comprehension and, believe it or not, it was bang-on!

I am impressed with the thoroughness yet simplicity of the tools and strategies in this course. As I learned in the chapter on comprehension (of special interest to me), comprehension hinges on many factors, including previous understanding of the topic, learning and memory skills, motivation and more. This course has certainly done wonders for my comprehension of how to speed-read, and has motivated me to improve more.

There are no magic potions, no silver bullets in this course. What you can expect is strong information backed by sound reasoning, current research and results.

So I am armed with my Memletics Speed Reading course, my ‘test’ book, a timer and a new-found desire to read smarter and faster. I am shall keep up my lessons, and keep on speed reading and comprehending more!

Visit http://www.mindtools.com/rs/MemleticsSpeedReading to find out more about the Memletics speed reading program (look on the left hand menu for speed reading).

---

A Final Note From James

As you read this, the Mind Tools team is already hard at work on the next edition of the newsletter. There are lots of new tools in the pipeline both for the newsletter and our popular “What’s New” section of the Mind Tools website.

Next issue of the newsletter, we are joined by Mind Tools' friend and author Sharon Morgan Drew, who’s guest article will help you get buy-in for your projects and ideas.

2006 is keeping us all busier than ever, but relying on the tools we write about every day, we are keeping focused! We are working diligently to provide you with a one-stop-shop for everything you need to carve out career success. As always, let us know how these tools work for you and if you would like us to cover any tools you do not see yet on our website.

Happy Valentine’s Day once again! And in the true spirit of balance, don’t forget to take some time today for the important people in your life and make everyone’s very special!

Until next time,

James & Kellie

James & Kellie

Click here to email
Mind Tools
Essential Skills for an Excellent Career!

Privacy Policy:
Mind Tools will treat your email address with complete respect and will not circulate it to any third party.

To unsubscribe, please click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email we sent you.

IIf you are not already a member and you would like to subscribe, please visit the mindtools.com site and subscribe using the form on the right hand side bar.

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2006.
If you have enjoyed this issue, please feel free to email it on to your friends and co-workers. If you think they would benefit from the skills we teach, please pass this newsletter on!

Also, you are very welcome to post this issue of the newsletter to your own web site. If you do, you must leave it completely intact, include copyright information, and include both the URL of the mindtools site (http://www.mindtools.com) and the subscription email address for the newsletter (http://www.mindtools.com/subscribe.htm).

---

Where to go from here: