Why is it important to be organized?

Maintain a 360-Degree Task Management Dashboard of all your daily activity

Ready to be a Company Star?

This daily custom dashboard document is perhaps the single most important reason why I feel I have done well in my career.  Certainly, I’ve always been organized and kept a clean work environment, but the essence of my organization and productivity started when I began to form the concept of this 360-Degree Task Management Dashboard.  The idea is that everything and everyone you are in charge of should be in front of you at all times - constantly updated and constantly on your mind.  A true view into your work life to ensure you never forget a single thing in your purview.

Dashboard Proposed Table of Contents

• My Critical To-Do’s
• My Short-Term To-Do’s
• My Long-Term To-Do’s
• My Project(s) + Action Plan
• My Future Notes/Ideas
• My Recurring Meetings
• Master Checklist: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly Tasks
• Teammate/Person(s) To-Do’s
• Vendor(s) To-Do’s
• Emergency Team/Vendor Phone Contacts
• Department Roadmap Ideas
• System Access Details

Download a copy of the dashboard template

There are a number of ways you can create a dashboard of your own, however you do it the point is to have a single view into all of your work activities.  Some like to keep a copy in electronic format on a mobile device, others like to initially fill it out on a Word or a Powerpoint document and then print it so that they always have it on them.  Either way, however you do it, having this type of a dashboard updated constantly will ensure maximum performance and efficiency of yourself, your team, your department, your company.  

• Click here to download the powerpoint template.

Football, Business, Life: NFL Coaches & their GameDay Cards

It’s long been said that to study great leadership, one cannot overlook Football Coaches, who are often responsible for many operations of their team.  Including game tactics, play calling, scouting, contracts, coordinating player movement, public relations and managing the many offensive and defensive coordinators.  In a responsible role like this Coaches cannot afford to forget things or lose track of their responsibilities.  In that respect, many of them hold a Game Card during games.  I have noticed this and tend to think of my 360-Degree Task Management Dashboard much the same way.

·        Power of the Game Card: It contains pertinent information for the Coach to ensure they win the game.  There is so much thought and effort that goes into crafting this document that the Coach can tell you instantly what is on there and when certain things need to be executed during the game.  It’s their Gameday bible, much the same way the 360-Degree Task Management Dashboard can be for you.

 

How the design of the dashboard has evolved over the years

It’s no doubt a continuously evolving document, and one I have been working to perfect for close to 10 years.  It has become my daily work bible and one that ensures I never overlook the critical responsibilities of my job.  As mentioned the dashboard can be fully customizable to meet whatever needs you may have. Hopefully you can adopt this process as well and in essence, be well on your way to becoming a Company Star!

Excellent organization techniques at work! **Volume 1**
https://youtu.be/HnwQX62gaes
Published on Mar 31, 2012

Excellent organization techniques at work! **Volume 2**
https://youtu.be/SynjqvvMrGo
Published on Oct 17, 2014

**LATEST** Excellent organization techniques at work! **Volume 3**
https://youtu.be/5CoaU5hmO3o
Published on Aug 8, 2017

And always please remember...

To express interest in the Copyright, book a speaking engagement, or learn more about our services, please visit http://www.risingstarcoaching.com or call (408) 387-2959, email leon@risingstarcoaching.com

Sincerely,

Leon Elperin

Copyright © 2018 by Leon Elperin. Rising Star Coaching.

What habits have you implemented into your daily life? That are now second-nature to you.

Hi guys,

I've thought myself, what I think are valuable habits that are now second nature to me. I don't even have to think about them, they are ingrained into my routines. Some of mine are below, what are some of yours?

1) Placing keys, wallets, glasses, rings and other daily valuables into a single spot in my room, that way I never forget where they are.

2) Setting alarms (via iPhone) for various action items that are time based throughout the day. Some are not really hard-stop timelines, just reminders. i.e. call mom, find that music title, setup a board-game party, write that quora question, etc.

3) Writing everything down: Any action items I have or action items others owe back to me, I write it down. Either my daily calendar, notepad file, or sticky-notes, etc.

a) To see how I do this in practice, see my YouTube video on
"Excellent Organizational techniques at work" at  http://youtu.be/HnwQX62gaes

4) If an important email came in, I color code / "flag" it. Until I get to it and resolve it, it stays that color for easy sorting.

5) Any login details I have or important URLs are saved into a single place on my desktop or off-line hand-written file. That way I can retrieve these crucial pieces of information immediately. I.e. I can always know where the passwords to my unitedairlines account, etc is.

6) Whenever I read a book, I bookmark the quotes, or other great thoughts. After I am done reading the book, I type them up and store for a lifetime of inspirations.

7) Always organize my desktop into folders. Photos from my camera immediately get archived. Project assets always have a special folder for immediate retrieval.

8) Whenever I sell items on ebay, craigslist, or Amazon, I always get a good result by posting photos of the item in working condition, as well as all the things the buyer will receive. I also search the Internet for a full description and features of the item and post those as well, along with my contact information and price.

9) Whenever a bill comes, I immediately note the due date, and in my personal daily calendar write down when I need to process bills. I usually process them in bulk, and pick a good common date - Usually 7 days before the bills are due to process them.

10) Whenever I buy something I always ask/keep the receipt. Then usually once every 3-4 days I record the spending into an excel chart. This way I track my spending, and what I have in all my accounts, that way I never have to worry about overdraft fees, etc.

11) I backup my computer files, every 2 weeks on a Sunday.

12) Whenever I see some cool products, that are somewhat good price, I buy it and put it into my "Present Box". Whenever it is someone's birthday, they get a gift from my cool gift box :-) I have some cool S#%$*t there now :-)

Remember it takes a bit of ritual and practice to follow your habits and make them life-long processes, but they are worth it if you are to achieve greatness.  What about you? :-)

- Leon

Would you ever purchase stock in an individual person's future success?

You know guys, I've often wondered how beautiful it would be if there was a stock exchange system for a person's talent with an ability to invest in that person's future potential for success. I mean we all know someone around us that you are sure will make it in this world.  That you are sure has great talent, great potential, and you want to let them know that you believe in them by purchasing some of their stock. It's a concept that has been on my mind for sometime.  Perhaps a suggestion for LinkedIn or Facebook, where they can develop a neat feature to allow people to buy/invest/give-out "success points" to their friends or connections.

We all need someone to believe in us, someone to pick us up when our dream's become stale, someone to say, "You know what buddy, me and my friends think that you are great, that you are on the right path for success, and that you will make it....and you know what...we want to buy 100 shares in your future potential.  But don't let us down, don't ever give-up, don't ever forget that people believe in you and want you to succeed. And remember buddy, that when you make it in this world, we want you to return the favor and invest back in us...invest in our own dreams and success."

Wouldn't that be a perfect way to be accountable to someone...accountable to your very own stockholders?  I myself have been a Project Manager for quite some time and I have found that being accountable to someone (i.e. customers, managers, VPs, etc) is the best form of inspiration to do your best and to succeed and to progress.

I mean how cool would that be? Certainly, you have a friend or a connection that is an aspiring singer, or artist, or mathematician, or piano player, or business entrepreneur, or writer, movie producer, wall street investor, etc, etc..and that you would want to tell them that you believe in their progress and would want to invest in their success.  That you would want them to never quit, never give-up, always strive for growth. I certainly have such friends and I want to invest stock in them...



- Leon

Great Time Tracking App

Hi Guys,

So I was sitting there thinking, I want to find a tool that will allow me to keep total time tracking of the various on-going activities in my daily life such as:

TV watching time
Reading time
Basketball Playing time
Hockey playing time
Eating time
Project A, B, C, or D time
etc
....and then I found a great app to do that:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-time/id316757540?mt=8

Enjoy :-)

- Leon

Why do we often fail to keep promises to ourselves, but succeed in making/keeping promises to others?

Hey guys,

So I think I want to open a topic for discussion, that I think is pretty crucial, in fact, I think it's one of the most important in life.

I often accomplish great tasks and make productive promises at work that I keep and excel in, however when it comes to my own "self" it's a different story....I make smart promises, healthy  and productive - ones that will improve me greatly, even setup processes to catch mess-ups and this and that, but then easily break them....why is that? Do I need to hire someone that will punch me in the face each time I screw up? As funny as it sounds, I know I am not the only one with this issue.  What are some things we can do to try to keep those promises? I mean, it's not just weight loss, it could be promises for reading a book, going to fitness club, learning piano, learning spanish, etc, etc...



Regards,
Leon

Let's rethink how products are presented!

We have all become accustomed to buying/selling products presented with photos and a description.  Surely the next step you would think would be to present products with video? That may be the case and a smart one, however I propose presenting products using Augmented Reality.  I mean, this could be a game changer.  It would differentiate companies interestingly enough, that people will come to use it.

What is Augmented Reality?  It's where a buyer can virtually pickup a product, rotate it, spin it, look at it closer, etc.  The goal is to make it easier and faster for the seller to sell things while proving to the buyer that the product is wonderful.










What do you think? The possibilities are endless - let's do it!!!

Thanks!

Regards,
Leon