Where's Your Dressing Room?

I was recently traveling and had a long layover at an airport. I remembered that I had a coupon for one free visit to an airport club. One of those places you can step out of the hustle and noise of the airport and relax or work. I found the club and went inside. Wow! I could almost immediately feel my tension dropping. After finding a comfortable spot I got to work. My productivity was incredible. More than anything, I felt a new sense of focus and direction when I left the club and headed back into the airport concourse.

Reflecting on the experience, I thought about the idea of the dressing room. The place where performers go to prepare for their act. The great ones know proper preparation is critical to peak performance. Staying too close to the noise and chaos of set up can be distracting. Well-meaning people can also derail your mental focus. Too often I start my daily circus or an "act" without spending enough time in my dressing room. Ultimately, my performance suffers.

What could your dressing room be? A spot at home where you spend a few minutes preparing for your day? How about at work? Could it be a place where you can have a few moments of peace and quiet to prepare for your next act? That few moments of preparation could make all the difference.

The Magic 3 Hours

I had the privilege and opportunity to hear Hyrum Smith speak many times. One of his personal convictions was a philosophy that he called "the magic three hours." He would encourage those in his seminars that said, "I just don't have time to do what I want to do," to consider the 3 hours before going to work or the 3 hours before going to bed. Which 3 hours you consider would depend on whether you are a morning person or an evening person. The concept is to focus on those 3 hours and make them an effective part of your day. Now you may be saying, "I go to work at 8:00 AM. Does that mean that I have to wake up at 5:00 a.m.?" Well, the answer is YES!

The magic 3 hours for me are in the morning (I am usually exhausted and my brain is toast by the evening). I find that I get so much more done when I get up early and have some "uninterrupted time." Uninterrupted time is important-especially with a young family (a blog for another day).

My magic 3 hours include exercise, reading, planning my day, spending time with my wife and daughters before school and work (breakfast, packing lunches and last minute homework, planning dinner), playing the guitar and then getting ready to get out the door for work.

I find that I do better at work when I have had a successful "magic 3 hours." I am more focused, more relaxed and have more energy. I will admit that it takes some time to get accustomed to 5:00 AM. But, if you are consistent and try it for 3 weeks, it becomes a habit and whole lot easier. If you are not a morning person, focus on the late evening. Keep your time clear and make that your magic 3 hours. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Timing is Everything

I picked up a local newspaper Wednesday morning and laughed out loud when I got to the "Life" section. There was an article entitled, Winning Tomatoes-Home cooks make magic with summer specialty. It was complete with a gorgeous picture of homegrown tomatoes. Let's review, class. The date of the article: September 3, 2008. While it was a good read, the timing was less than ideal. Most tomato plants in our area are producing little or no tomatoes, and the ones we can pick are often small, tainted by disease or insects and lack the taste of the ones produced a month or so ago.

Imagine the impact this article would have had back in late July when tomatoes were abundant. Many avid gardeners would have been thrilled to see the article and use the recipes contained within it. Now, the article is merely a tease for next year's growing season.

As humans we often attempt to improve our circus by performing the right act at the wrong time. The act is a failure or at best a limited success because the timing just wasn't the best. Some examples include:

• Exercise: We try to start exercise programs in the evening. Research (and my own personal experience) has shown that morning is the best time.
• Healthy Eating: Many people try to begin healthy eating immediately after a holiday. What a shock to your system. A better solution is to begin moderating DURING the holidays so the transition is not as difficult.
• Managing Others: Instead of dealing with smaller issues in a simple, non-threatening way, we wait until they magnify into much larger ones and create a negative work environment.
• Dealing with Interruptions: How often do we wait until the interruptions have completely derailed our day-and then attempted to do something about it? Imagine the difference if we proactively planned for those interruptions before they stifled our productivity.

The next time you plan your lineup, ask yourself, "Is this the best time to bring these acts into my lineup?" If the answer is "no" try to move them to a more appropriate time. You don't want people laughing at you when your act is less than a success.

Personal Strategic Planning

I recently did a Juggling Elephants training program where in the audience there were a group of strategic planners for the corporation. It was their job to work with executives to create the strategic blueprints for their business and measure the progress in accomplishing specific goals. They had tools and spreadsheets they used to lay out metrics, create milestones and measure movement.

As I was talking about purpose and setting goals one of these strategic planners raised his hand and said that he had created a spreadsheet that he uses for his Personal Strategic Planning. "There's an idea!," I thought. Why not create a "strategic plan" for your personal life? Lay out metrics, create milestones, gather feedback from your "customers" (significant others, co-workers, etc.) and measure advancement towards your personal goals and how you are aligned to your purpose. You could even graph it! What a great visual a personal strategic plan would be to see how well you are progressing towards achieving your dreams.

Good Better or Best

I like the concept of "Good, Better or Best." The idea is that each day we have a lot of "good"choices or acts that we can perform. However, even though something is "good" we sometimes need to forgo those acts for something that is "better" or "best." As I look at how I spend my time I realize that I am busy doing good things but I can do a better job and raise the bar by trying to focus on better or best activities. A few examples:

Several years ago my young family went to Disney World. It was an expensive endeavor not to mention that the weather was hot and the lines were long. At the end of the trip we asked our kids what their favorite part of the trip was and they all agreed that it was the time that we all were together playing in the hotel swimming pool. It was good to be on a trip to Disney World, it was better to be together as a family and it was best when we were simply playing and interacting collectively. Sometimes simple can be best.

I love my cell phone. It is good that I can call someone almost anytime that I want and that I can be reached if I am needed. But sometime it is better if I don't have my cell phone on so that I am not interrupted when I am trying to focus on an important project or best if I don't derail family time with calls about work after hours that 9 out of 10 times could wait until tomorrow.

One more thought. Entertainment is a good thing. I enjoy going to movies, read, play an occasional video game, watch TV and surf the web. But sometime entertainment can get in the way of the better things in life and isn't worth the precious time that we give it-especially when taken to excess. It is important to me to evaluate what I do in my spare time. I am not saying that we should be robots continually working on a task list of meaningful purpose driven acts. What I am saying is that when we select entertainment we should make the best choices and apply some limitations so that we don't spend too much of our time doing things that don't contribute to what ultimately matters most to us.