View PDF | Print View | Html Version
by: KenrickCleveland
Total views: 1
Word Count: 540

If you know me at all, you know I'm a busy man--from teaching my weekly coaching calls, giving seminars, working up lesson plans for the Persuasion Factor to spending time with my family and friends and working with the religious organization I am involved in. I wish there were more hours in a day. On top of all that, I'm undergoing some personal transitions that require a whole other list of things to do. . . With all this I know the main thing that has kept me on target has been the ability to organize.

With upheaval comes chaos. And I don't much care for chaos, especially if it means there's something that needs to get done but doesn't.

I'm sure you're busy as well. Maybe your tasks are high priority, requiring deadlines and follow ups that simply have to be met. Some of them are probably less important--getting the dry cleaning, getting a car wash, remembering Secretary's Day. One thing that I find invaluable in this high tech world is a pencil and paper and a very easy thing called a list. Yup. The ever faithful 'to do' list. I suppose it could be that I'm just very process oriented. I like a 1-2-3 way of doing things. As I've discussed before, the conscious mind can only hold seven plus or minus two pieces of information at any one time. When we transfer the information that we don't need immediately onto a piece of paper (or into our Blackberries, if you're so inclined), this frees up space to concentrate on the present.

After typing in "to do list" into Google a large variety of online options appeared. I prefer the old-fashioned paper and pen method but why not make the most of your Blackberry if you have one and give one of these a try?

The site www.rememberthemilk.com seemed easy to use and had the added bonus of being completely free. This one works with the iPhone or online. Another free site is http://roughunderbelly.com. If you're someone who likes to be rewarded for doing your tasks, this is a nice one giving charts and graphs of how productive you are as you do what needs to be done.

Another tool I've found a pleasure to work with falls under the heading of brainstorming, creativity and organization. It is a product called Thought Office. I used this years ago and somehow lost track of it (ironic?), even forgetting the name, but its usefulness stuck with me.

When we take small steps to clear up our internal clutter and organize our thoughts, then we're on our way to accomplishing bigger things.

Maybe you're asking, what the heck does this have to do with persuasion?

Well, I've said this before and I'm sure to say it again many times. . . once we can persuade ourselves, whether it be something as involved as stopping smoking or losing weight, or something as "easy" as dropping off that bag of clothes at Goodwill that has been sitting in the trunk of your car for three months, when we create an internal environment where we are saying what we do and doing what we say, we are working with our other than conscious minds to achieve amazing results.

About the Author

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

Add Comment