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Is Multitasking Slowing Down Your Progress?

November 17, 2015 by Debra Kasowski Leave a Comment

In the world of competing demands with so little time, no wonder more people are feeling burned out. According to Families and Work Institute, twenty six percent of workers felt they are “often or very often burned out or stressed by their work.” Multitasking was once believed to increase productivity but now research reveals that it can be dangerous and even reduce performance – and slow down your progress. How is that possible?

Switching Gears

You might be thinking you are getting so much more done but what you are really doing is switching gears. In order to switch gears, your brain is continually starting and stopping and restarting again. Recent neuroscience research reveals that the brain doesn’t really multitask. The brain is switching tasks quickly. Momentum is broken.

With so many demands for our attention or “bright shiny objects” (distractions), more people are starting projects and do not follow them through to completion. The clutter and overwhelm begins. There is so much to do. Several things can be occurring: 1) new ideas or projects that come up are more desirable 2) with several things to get done with competing deadlines and a person spreads themselves too thin and gives up because they are completely overwhelmed. A person may think if they attack several things at once that they can get them done and move on to the next thing. Rushing through a project can cause problems.

Focus on One Thing

Focus on doing one thing well. In the book, The One Thing: The Surprising Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, the authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan explains the importance of concentrating on “the one thing” to keep momentum and achieve so much more. When you give your focused attention to one thing you become more efficient and get more done. You may have heard the acronym for the word “FOCUS” – focus on one course until completed. How engaged are you when you are on a conference call and checking your emails? Have you ever sent an email and forgot the attachment because you want to clear your inbox? One thing done with excellence goes much farther than many things delivered with mediocrity.

Find Your Pace

Finding your pace starts with recognizing the difference between moving too quickly and trying to accomplish a great deal in a short period of time versus completing a task or a project of high quality and striving for excellence. If you do things too quickly and without a lot of thought, you increase the risk of errors and miss out on important details which may be costly to your bottom line.

Think about a runner training for a marathon. If the pace is too fast, you may miss the finish line completely as you may run out of steam before you even get to your destination. If your pace is too slow, you may get to your destination but finish line might be packed up and everyone has gone home. When you are finding your pace realize that multitasking can slow you down. How many things can you do while you are running? You cannot run a race and tie your shoe at the same time. If you try you may fall flat on your face.

Slow Down to Speed Up

By slowing down, you allow yourself to be more aware of your environment and situation. Slowing down can allow you to be more present and be in the moment. You can pay attention to trends in your industry and what the competition is doing. You open the doors to innovation and creativity. Allow yourself time to brainstorm new ideas and do your research so you can deliver top quality work and make better decisions. Delegate tasks to others who excel in areas of weakness. Productivity will increase. Performance will also increase because you can become more solution focused and respond to situations that come up versus react to them.

Everyone needs some downtime to recharge and regroup. You can only run at full speed for so long before something happens to slow you down. Stress takes a toll on your mind, body, and spirit. It impacts relationships and your ability to make decisions.

What is multitasking costing you? Why not slow down so you can accelerate your results?

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. She is a contributing writer for Diversity Magazine and Fabulous at 50 magazine. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. www.debrakasowski.com

The Mindset that Will Cost You Your Dreams

November 12, 2014 by Debra Kasowski Leave a Comment

There is one mindset that can cost you your dreams if you give it space. It sneaks up on you and can infiltrate your mind if you let it. You can create it with your imagination and take it anywhere you want. It sabotages any success you may have been achieving.

Can you guess what it is?

It is the “victim” mindset.

The victim mindset develops from comparing yourself to others and feeling that you are not enough. All you see is how great their life is, but you are part of their life 100% of the time.

You look at past setbacks and see your self as a complete failure without looking for the lessons. Therefore, you may even repeat the same mistakes. Maybe you didn’t learn it for the first time so history repeated itself.

Go easy on yourself. We are so quick to criticize ourselves but my guess is that you would not be so hard on your best friend. Maybe you need to be a best friend to yourself. Be a little kinder to yourself – it may even ripple into the rest of your world.

The victim mindset can steal your joy and your happiness. It can destroy friendships.

The people who you are inspired by should not be people you compare yourself to. They are people you should aspire to be like knowing that you too can do the same. There is a proven track record to be won.

I encourage you to strive for your personal best as this is really the only race worth running or fighting for. Every person has their own lane – it can be fast or slow you choose by the choices you make.

I love to inspire others but motivation comes from within. I want to see people rise above the chaos and past hurts. I want people to raise the bar just a bit higher than last year knowing that they can do it – because they are worth it and can achieve it.

I have been there but what I have learned is that you have control over how long you stay in that place. What you focus and bring your attention to, you get more of. So have the “pity party” or the Eeyore moments and let it go! Shift gears – there is so much more for you to accomplish. The victim mindset will just slow you down. Don’t let it. A positive mindset will take you places bigger than your dreams as long as you take action and put in the effort.

Whether you are a professional, executive or entrepreneur, your mindset needs to be “game on”. You do not have the time or luxury for negative self-talk. Talk back to it and put it in its place. Learn from your lessons – that is what life is about. You are here to make an impact. You are here as Gandhi eloquently said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Why? Cause you and your dreams are worth it! You are the one and only – give your best!

Be victorious!

Go ahead and share how your shift your thinking into a positive state of mind!

3 Reasons Why You Need to Have a Marketing Plan

October 20, 2014 by Debra Kasowski 2 Comments

I remember when I first heard people talking about a marketing funnel and filling your pipeline. It all sounded more like oil pipelines and striking it rich with oil that it did about marketing. I now think of the analogy more like striking it rich due to consistently delivering and serving my market.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Too many business owners are walking around without of plan of action. They are taking stabs in the dark by trying out random marketing tactics once or twice and abandoning them if they do not work. Even if your plan is on a napkin, it is still a plan!

“If you don’t know where you are going,
you’ll end up someplace else.”
― Yogi Berra

It is better to have a plan than no plan at all.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

You can always adjust as you go. After all, you are in charge!

There are 3 why you need to have a marketing plan:

FOCUS – A marketing plan captures what your thinking onto paper or in a document on your computer. It creates a vision for your business and growth. The plan offers big picture thinking as well as smaller more detailed planning. There is nothing stopping you from adding an event or workshop along the way to boost your revenue. Ultimately, the market plan helps you focus on what needs to get done to get the results you want.

DECISION MAKING – By writing out the plan, you can make better decisions and save a great deal of time, money, and resources. You will learn where to allocate your resources or delegate tasks to so that you can get the greatest return on your investment.

PROGRESS & ACCOUNTABILITY – One area that is often over looked in planning is the reflection of how far you have come from where you started. When developing your plan, it is important to build in benchmarks or milestones where you can measure your success and celebrate! These benchmarks or milestones can act as an accountability check or reminder of your goals and next steps. Each step along the way build momentum for the next.

Successful marketing NEEDS a plan and you need to consistently work the plan.

There are many ways to market your business! Start with focusing on 2-3 ways and get really great at them and then try something new! You will discover what works for you often through trial and error, however, you will never know if you are on the right track if you never measure the metrics of your efforts. What ways do you market your business?

What Are You Waiting For?

October 15, 2014 by Debra Kasowski Leave a Comment

My role as a speaker, author, and business, executive and entrepreneurial coach is to help people really get clear on the direction that they want to go. Often, they are faced with a challenge in their immediate time frame. They are trying to figure out ways to move forward to and move through to breakthrough. So many times I find people are waiting. Waiting for opportunities to be brought to them on a silver platter!

Well, sometimes you need to go out there and create your opportunities. You need to start sharing what it is you want to go after. There are people along the way who are willing to help you but if you are not willing to share what it is you are after – how do these people know how to help you?

The other thing is being very focused on what it is you want to achieve. What are things you need to do and be- to get there? How do you need to show up? Think about those things – waiting does not get you anywhere.

By taking persistent action and moving forward toward your goal, you create something to look forward to. The thrill of anticipation will be your motivator. Think about how things could work for you to move forward. Whether it is something in your life that you know there is one thing – that if you did this one thing it would change everything. It would create a shift whether it be in your family life, your personal life or in your business. How do you need to be to make things happen?

The question is “Why Wait?”. Create your opportunities and make the shift inside yourself. Become more aware of the opportunities already around you. There are probably many around you right now and the door is open.

But if you wait too long the door is going to close.

So take the opportunities and grab your silver platter. Make your day happen by creating those opportunities for yourself.

Why wait?

What opportunities are you creating for yourself?

What Is It Costing You Not to Take the Leap?

August 20, 2013 by Debra Kasowski Leave a Comment

It amazes me that so many people say they want to pursue their dreams but money tends to be their biggest obstacle. I often wonder if it is truly an obstacle or an excuse to avoid going after what they really want.

Don’t get me wrong! There have been times that I have said that I didn’t have the money to pursue something but I quickly learned that the more that I focused on scarcity, the more scarce money was.

Courtesy of stockimages/freedigitalphotos.net

The more I focused on abundance, the more abundant my life became.

I know there may be times that you wonder if your business is even going to grow.

You also may think that any money you have coming in must be infused back into your business. You may even be frustrated that you have been implementing and acting on specific tasks but continue to feel stuck. You may even think to yourself, “How am I ever going to get ahead?”

If you’ve ever asked yourself the question, the best advice I could give to you is to hire a coach or a mentor to help hold you accountable for taking specific actions steps that lead to your greatest return on investment .

When you invest in yourself , you are also investing in your business.

The return on your investment can mean making more money, attracting more clients , greater happiness , more joy , and greater confidence . Some results can be measured whereas other results can be felt and shared with others.

What is it costing you to not take a leap of faith ? Set your priorities for your business and spend your time money and resources where it matters .

I have learned from my own business coach and others that many of us would rather choose a life of convenience, and yes that includes the grocery store and prepackaged foods and salads that cost significantly a lot more that if you prepared it yourself .

You need to put your money and your time where you feel it will matter most.

Once I made the decision to grow my business my way with the help of a coach and mentors. The money I needed seem to appear when I needed it. Perhaps I was more conscious of the choices I made about where my money went and used my skills to make the additional money I needed to make things happen.

Are you willing to do what it takes? – Put aside all excuses and just do it!

Imagine creating the life of your dreams by investing in yourself so that you can gain the confidence and the courage to take the next steps in your business to profit and prosper . What does that look like for you ?

Remember you can try and learn everything by yourself or you can have others who have experience and education to help you get ahead. Ask for guidance.

I know many people who invest in a personal trainer to get the physical results they want. Many others invest in a financial planner. Not every small business owner, invests in an advisor, coach, or mentor to help set them up for success but those who do receive infinite returns.

Save your money so you can invest in yourself and business.

Consider getting a part-time job to supplement your work so you can fund your dreams. The situation is temporary but your dream will last forever.

Would you regret not taking action and going after your dream if you knew you could had it if you only took ACTION?

If you are ready to take the next step, find a coach that resonates with you.

Learn more about coaching