Ripple Spotlight - Maura Nevel Thomas

From time to time I like to highlight specific people who are out there making their own Ripples through their personal and professional contributions. One of these people is my good friend and fellow Rippler Maura Nevel with Burget Avenue Management Services.

I asked Maura to write an article that might just create some Ripples for my readers and she was equal to the challenge! To learn more about Maura and her incredibly valuable services, please check out her website by clicking the link about.
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Part One:

Let’s face it. We all have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. If you’re reading Steve’s blog, you’re probably a successful, well-informed, ambitious person, who often feels like you need another lifetime to accomplish all the things you’d like to do. You are not alone. Part of the reason for this is that we know more than we ever did before, and we can learn just about anything we ever wanted to know by just pulling up a webpage. A guy named Karl Fisch in Centennial, Colorado put together the following information:

The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet. There are about 540,000 words in the English language; about 5 times as many as during Shakespeare’s time. More than 3,000 new books are published daily. week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a It is estimated that onelifetime in the 18th century. It is estimated that 1.5 exabytes (1.5 x 1018) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year. That’s estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years! The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.

For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. It is predicted that by 2010, this doubling rate will go from every two years, to every 72 hours!

Feeling even more overwhelmed than you were just five minutes ago?! Welcome to the 21^st century. We’re in the midst of information overload and people don’t adapt anywhere nearly as fast as technology changes. One solution is that we can decide to live in our own little cocoon, and refuse to participate in the changing world (know anyone who refuses to get a computer, or a cell phone?) Or, we try to adapt but really in our own lives we end up drowning deeper and deeper until the point where we just barely have our heads above water. This feeling of being constantly overwhelmed is no way to live, and is not conducive to going out and starting the Ripples you are destined to create! So what’s a guy, or gal, to do?

First, you need a system. I define a productivity system as an inter-related collection of specific, consecutive activities that you can make a habit, or at the very least, fall back on when you feel like you are starting to drown. Identify your most productive habits, learn new ones, and make a conscious effort to spend more time on the productive habits and less time on the unproductive ones. Ideally, read some books or get some help from a coach or a trainer. These days, even people who are inherently organized need help from someone who lives and breathes this stuff.

Important point to remember: your brain is not designed to hold all of the random details that are necessary in the service of your life. Trying to use your brain to remember that your daughter’s soccer game is Tuesday at 4 and your boss is waiting for your expense report and your sister’s birthday is next Saturday and you need to return the phone call from the accountant, is not only unproductive, it’s stressful. Writing this information on sticky notes and napkins and the back of envelopes is also not productive. Even if you’re using a calendar for your appointments, I’ll bet you don’t have a good system for your “to-do list,” those things that aren’t necessarily day or time specific but that you either have to, or really want to, get done. So here’s a productivity tip for you: learn how to use a PIM (personal information manager). Currently, the most prevalent PIM on the market is Microsoft Outlook. If you’re a PC user you’re probably already using it for email, and maybe even for contacts, or your calendar. But in my experience, the majority of the people who use Outlook are only using a fraction of its features. Outlook is a very powerful tool for increasing your productivity, and Outlook (or some other PIM) syncing with a handheld device will change your life if you’re not doing this already, or if you’re only using one or two of the components of these tools. I promise you that you can literally run every detail of your entire life out of Outlook and a handheld, and free your brain up for the things its actually good at like strategic and creative thinking and problem solving.

Check back later this week for part two!!!