Save 15 Minutes in the Morning

Do you often find yourself rushed for time in the morning? Do you spend precious minutes looking for your keys or for that report you want to bring to work?  Most of us contend with daily morning hassles that leave us frazzled even before we’ve walked out the door.

Creating a “launch pad” in your front hallway can make all the difference — and easily shed 15 minutes off your morning routine.

Think of a launch pad as a designated area containing the essential items you always want to take with you when you leave the house.  To create a launch pad, all you need is a small table, a ceramic bowl, and a couple of wall hooks.  The bowl sits atop the table, and in it you keep your wallet, keys, cell phone, (sun)glasses, and any other small essentials (e.g. a makeup bag or work ID tag).  The hooks on the wall are for hanging a coat, hat, umbrella, and bag.  Voilà!  No more hunting for your keys on the way out the door…

Well, sort of…The real trick is making sure to off-load items onto the launch pad when you come in the door the night prior. This takes some amount of practice, but once you get used to hanging your bag on the wall and dropping your keys & wallet in the bowl, it becomes habit. …And, this simple evening habit leads to happier mornings.

Want to take it a step further? Place your cell phone charger next to the bowl on the small table…and always leave with a freshly charged phone in the morning.  Consider placing a waste basket beneath the table and an IN/OUT box on top for sorting mail.  Soon you’ll never forget to mail another letter on your way to work.

Let me know how this works for you. And, please don’t hesitate to share your own tricks for saving time in the morning!

Cheers,

Jen helps dynamic individuals achieve professional success and personal fulfillment. Her personal & career coaching programs are custom-designed to help you meet your unique goals.  Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Smart Money, Forbes.com, Time Out New York, and on The Today Show. To learn more about Jen’s private coaching services or to schedule an introductory session, please contact Jen directly: Phone: 914-617-8283 Email: Jen@JZBcoaching.com Visit Jen on the Web at  www.JZBcoaching.com

It’s National Stress Øut Week

You may think, “What will they come up with next?”  But, considering the challenging and uncertain times we live in, this one hits the mark:

It’s National Stress Øut Week! That’s right.  This week, The Anxiety Disorders Association of America invites every one of us who struggles with stress and anxiety to take a time out and learn more about ways to manage these “gremlins”.

This year, ADAA’s focus is on the benefits of physical activity in reducing stress.  We all know that exercise is good for us, but according to ADAA, studies suggest “a 10-minute walk may be just as good as a 45-minute workout” and “even five minutes of aerobic exercise can stimulate anti-anxiety effects.”

In fact, exercise is a part of every treatment program recommended by ADAA President and CEO Jerilyn Ross, MA, LICSW. “It’s one of the first things I tell patients,” she says. “People may feel powerless in terms of home life, finances, or politics, but they’re in control when they exercise.”

To learn more about National Stress Øut Week and ADAA, visit here.

And, then let’s celebrate!

Jen helps people to set goals and then exceed their own expectations! Her personal & career coaching programs are custom-designed for students and professionals.  Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Smart Money, Forbes.com, Time Out New York, and on The Today Show. To learn more about Jen’s private coaching services, or to schedule an introductory session, please contact Jen directly: Phone:914-617-8283 E-mail: Jen@JZBcoaching.com Visit Jen on the Web at  www.JZBcoaching.com

Quality Results Guaranteed

The trick to doing most anything well is doing it badly first.

My favorite illustration of this comes from the pages of a wonderful (short) book called Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland:

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

Perhaps it is truer to say that the trick to doing most anything well is DOING the thing in the first place. The hurdle lies in moving from contemplation into action…and the best way over the hurdle is practice.  Far too often, we don’t give ourselves permission to practice — to dive in head first, make a mess of things…in essence, create a bunch of ugly pots.

But what if we did?  What if, more often than not, we moved across the great divide between contemplation and action by focusing on doing rather than on doing well?  What if we set our sights on the quantity of practice rather than on the quality of our efforts?

Consider it…What would change for you if you gave yourself more permission to practice?

P.S. Many thanks for the terrific response to last month’s ZoomLetter on Laughter! Friend and veteran television director & producer, Abby Russell, makes it her mission to share the benefits of laughter with others.  Abby is the founder of Comedy Fights Cancer, a non-profit organization that delivers live and taped stand-up comedy to patients in hospitals and care facilities and organizes comedy benefits to raise money for cancer research.  CFC’s mission is to improve patient quality of life through humor. Learn more about this amazing organization at www.comedyfightscancer.org.

Jen helps people to set goals and then exceed their own expectations! Her personal & career coaching programs are custom-designed for students and professionals.  Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Smart Money, Forbes.com, Time Out New York, and on The Today Show. To learn more about Jen’s private coaching services, or to schedule an introductory session, please contact Jen directly: Phone: 914.617.8283 Email: Jen@JZBcoaching.com Visit Jen on the Web at  www.JZBcoaching.com

Fun, Free and Good for Us

It was Milton Berle who said, “I live to laugh, and I laugh to live.”

Few things in this world are more enjoyable, or better for us, than LAUGHTER!

If it weren’t enough that laughter makes us feel better, an article published by staff at the Mayo Clinic attests to the physical benefits of laughter, including the following:

-laughter stimulates organs and increases endorphins (like exercise)
-laughter eases digestion and soothes stomachaches
-laughter improves our immune systems
-laughter is a natural painkiller (with no side-effects)

You can read the full Mayo Clinic article here.

Everyday, we find ourselves bombarded with information about all of the things we “should” do to keep ourselves healthy (including: exercise, get enough sleep, eat fruits and vegetables…drink enough water, but not too much). Perhaps it’s time LAUGHTER got its rightful place at the top of the list. And the more, the better!

With a chuckle,

Jen helps dynamic individuals achieve professional success and personal fulfillment. Her personal & career coaching programs are custom-designed to help you meet your unique goals. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Smart Money, Forbes.com, Time Out New York, and on The Today Show. To learn more about Jen’s private coaching services or to schedule an introductory session, please contact Jen directly: Phone: 914-617-8283 Email: Jen@JZBcoaching.com Visit Jen on the Web at www.JZBcoaching.com

Capture Your Best Ideas!

For most of us, our best thinking happens when we’re least equipped to capture our thoughts — in the car, in the shower, or just as we’re dozing off to sleep.

Often, what stands between imagination and implementation is committing pen to paper.

In countless circumstances, one strategy has enabled me and my clients to capture our thoughts and bring to fruition our most creative ideas:

Post-it Notes. Purchase a 6-pack, and keep one in your car, another on a bathroom shelf, and another on your bedside table. Pair each with a pen. If it turns out that you do your best thinking while exercising or cooking, consider leaving a set in your gym locker and another on the kitchen counter. (No brand loyalty necessary…If sticky notes aren’t your thing, plain pads of paper will do just as well).

Most importantly, resist the temptation in the moment to think, “I’ll remember that,” and instead commit your thoughts to a notepad immediately. Then transfer the contents of those notes to your planner, PDA, to-do list, or cell phone…so you can take action on them.

And, enjoy bringing your best ideas to life!

Jen helps dynamic individuals achieve professional success and personal fulfillment. Her personal & career coaching programs are custom-designed to help you meet your unique goals. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Smart Money, Forbes.com, Time Out New York, and on The Today Show. To learn more about Jen’s private coaching services or to schedule an introductory session, please contact Jen directly: Phone: 914-617-8283 Email: Jen@JZBcoaching.com Visit Jen on the Web at www.JZBcoaching.com