Hello, dear friend!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebration and I trust that you, your friends and family are enjoying the holidays.
I also hope you spent the last few days reflecting on the old year and looking forward to this new one.
My 2017 didn’t end as planned. I had to alter my priorities because of the way things turned out but in all, my family and I are very grateful.
I’ll share more about the events that rounded up the year for us with you (if you’re a member of my tribe) in this new year.
2018 sure looks like a very promising year from my angle. What’s your take on what the new year holds? Who’s ready to take wings and soar this year?

If we must win bigger in 2018, we must face the new year with not just new hopes but also with new plans and new strategies.
Here are some organizing and productivity strategies that’ll guarantee a great year ahead for you and me.
I spent a significant part of my 2017 case-studying great achievers. It’s no secret that great achievers have a set of principles and strategies they apply to their lives that guarantee their success.
These strategies are what make the difference between mere performance and result-oriented efforts.
If our efforts in 2018 will be crowned with huge successes, we have to understand and apply the right principles of great achievement.

I implemented some of these strategies in 2017 and as a result was able to achieve some of my big goals:
*I launched The Organizing Academy which now has a growing membership.
*I signed on the most number of new clients for my virtual coaching services.
*I launched a free mentorship program for young people that started mentoring about 20 youths in just 2 months.
*I was able to re-strategize for the launch of my business, JessylsCharm in Canada this year.
All these while being a mom and an expectant mom.

I can assure you great results if you diligently apply these strategies. I know you desire more and I also reckon that you deserve MORE, hence, my excitement to share these tips with you.

Strategy No 1.
Self-Awareness Development (SAD) 

SAD is the most important form of education because it’s the only type of education guaranteed to produce the highest level of self-acceptance, self-appreciation, and self-advancement.
It’s also guaranteed to produce impactful performance and contribution at different levels of a person’s life: Intra-Personal level, Inter-Personal Level, Group level, Organizational Level and Community Level.

Recently, I had a conversation with a Ph.D. researcher in a very popular and respected field of study. The conversation was about finding fulfillment in one’s work and this Ph.D. researcher honestly admitted that he doesn’t consider himself fulfilled in his choice of a career path. He was sincere enough to tell me that he’s considered quitting his line of study a number of times.
I was taken aback by the conversation as one would think that at that level of academic pursuit, there should be a healthy amount of confidence in a person’s career choice. I mean, why invest that amount of resources only to end up with a feeling of confusion and void?
We live in the world that seems to get us increasingly busy than increasingly productive. It’s therefore easy to forget self-reflection (introspection) or difficult to practice self-observation and hard to listen to feedback. The world we live in and the conventional way we have been thought to operate in it has sort of hindered us from maximizing our potentials, identifying our opportunities, developing our perceptions and improving our judgments. A lot of us are self-admitting wrong things about ourselves because of the lack of SAD
An important tool for SAD is a Self-Assessment tool that allows you ask yourself honest, unbiased and critical questions about your behaviors, habits, goals, attitudes, actions, and goals.
Self-Assessment Tools will help you:
A. review your personality traits or what is called “innate natural preferences” that reflect who we are, how we think, how we operate and how we react to the world around us.
B. Understand your blind spots of organization by studying your organizational history and providing the connections between your mode of operation in the past and your current state of being.
Tools like the OMM Personality Type Profile (PTP) Assessment, the OMM Personal Organization History (POH) Analysis and the OMM Personal Organization (PO) Assessment will provide honest feedback about your characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors, point out your blind spots and help you direct your efforts towards personal and professional development appropriately.
Honest feedback is needful for progress and positive change.

Strategy No 2.
Decision-Making Mastery.

A lot of us suffer from poor decision-making which is a lack of the ability to make quality decisions regularly. Poor decision-making can be caused by a number of reasons such as decision fatigue, poor self-leadership, fear, etc
Because our quality decision-making capacity in a day is limited, it’s important to ensure effective decision making and limit the amount of decision we make by eliminating valueless decision-making processes and prioritizing those with value.
Good Decision Making can be practiced with the following steps:
(1) Identifying one’s needs.
(2) Collecting information beforehand.
(3) Evaluating alternatives.
(4) Automating routine decisions using procedures, patterns, and programs.
(5) Focusing on strategic decisions.
Good decision-makers know how to apply mental models in ensuring quality life choices.
Mental models are your mind’s coupons for making decisions and a framework for how the world works.
They are to your brain what mobile applications are to your smartphone. The more you have, the better equipped you are at making great decisions.
Mental models can help you learn new ideas quickly, identify patterns before anyone else does, shift your perspective, overcome anxiety and improve your quality of life.
SMART people use mental models such as:

Algorithms- These are automated set of rules or a “blueprint” leading a series of steps or actions resulting in the desired outcome. Algorithms are a type of mental model used in the programming of routine decisions.

Compounding- Adding interest to a previously accumulated interest both in tangible and intangible realms. Money is not the only thing that compounds; ideas do as well.

Relativity- The state of observing people, systems, procedures, etc. relatively rather than absolutely. This model can sharpen a person’s awareness and perception skills.

For example, in using the mental model of algorithms, decision-makers program some of their decisions. Programmed decisions typically do not require much consideration or discussion, and can generally be automated to ensure consistency and save time for decision-makers.

There’re over 100 mental models you could start applying to improve the quality of your daily decision making this year.

Strategy No 3.
Crystal Clear Clarity.

Nothing drives successful endeavors as fast as clarity. Confused people rarely accomplish anything great. Confusion breeds chaos, fear, doubt, and waste. Clarity breeds confidence, relaxation, and results. Confused people often waste time and other valuable resources. One strategy to apply to your life in the new year should be making sure you’re clear about where you’re at, where you’re headed and how you plan to get there.
Clarity eliminates mental clutter and significantly reduces stress. Mental clutter and stress which are indicators of poor mental health can lead to mental breakdown. Strategy No 1 (Self-Awareness Development) which is being clear about who you are, can considerably have an impact on the application of this strategy. When a person is clear about their strengths, challenges, and opportunities, they can easily determine their life’s purpose, confidently develop a plan and strategically set out to achieve it.
2018 is not the year for breeding confusion, doubts, and fears. It’s the year of developing CLARITY that’s as clear as crystal and building CONFIDENCE that’s as strong as a rock. Who’s ready?

Strategy No 4.
Priority Management.

The prioritization skill is a highly valuable life skill that ensures great achievements. Poor prioritization or the lack of it is the reason for low self-fulfillment and low or no self-actualization.

When people set goals that don’t align with what is of the most value to them at that point in their lives, they may have well-written goals and they may efficiently plan and manage their time but their tasks and activities would hardly result in high-level accomplishments i.e. accomplishments that produce the most satisfaction.

Priorities are simply those things in life that are valued the most or those things in life that bring us the most value at every given time.

A priority could be building a relationship for someone who just started a new family, could be work for a new business owner or studies (work) for a college student.

Prioritization makes us more value-driven, result-oriented, responsible, reliable and effective.

One important step in priority management is understanding when to alter priorities. Just as it is with every other thing in life, our priorities also change; they require review and modification as and when necessary to ensure steady delivery of value and fulfillment.

For example, a new mum should alter her priorities when her toddler goes off to school and a college student must do some priorities modification upon graduation.

There are several other steps necessary for effective priority management; one of which is a cost-benefit analysis. Using a cost-benefit analysis, a person can determine which activities or tasks should be considered most important in their life and at a particular point in time. The benefits attached to prioritized activities should be the things considered to provide the most value in a person’s life. The value could be personal, social, economical, etc.

As strange as it may sound, prioritizing should not begin with a focus on getting more work done. Prioritization should always begin with avoiding/eliminating the tasks which you should not be performing.

Strategy No 5.
Time and Activity Tracking.

In 2018, keeping track of time and activity will be of the essence for those who are aiming high, especially in a world where everyone is so busy and many seem to be time-starved. People are increasingly feeling rushed and seeking balance. This is because most people have no system for keeping track of their precious time and numerous activities. Time, as we all know, is a non-renewable resource and is of the essence in measuring work. The time-is-money mindset is good but the time-is-life mindset gives a better perspective on the importance of time. One sure way to manage time is to understand how time is spent which is where activity tracking comes in. The Weekly Activity Time Tracker (WATT) in The Organizing Mindset Mastery (OMM) is a simple yet effective time logging system for tracking activity versus time. First, WATT helps you IDENTIFY and CATEGORIZE the different activities in your life, then it allows you record how much time you spend on each of those activities daily/weekly and helps you calculate the total amount of time spent on each activity and the total amount of time spent each day on all activities. This way, you get to know without a doubt how your 24HOUR is spent every day. One of my clients called WATT a “powerful personal accountability system”. With WATT, you even get to keep track of everyday activities like personal care (shower time, etc.) and how much time goes in there by reviewing your time logs. Now, how helpful is that?

Do these strategies sound helpful? Willing to give them a try? Feeling inspired and ready to take flight this year?

Join our Facebook group aka my tribe, The Organizing Community (TOC) where we would keep sharing tips like these throughout the year, getting support and enjoying a connection with people who desire an improved lifestyle and are ready to WALK the TALK.

Join TOC here

These and more STRATEGIES are further explained in the Organizing Mindset Mastery (OMM), a course in The Organizing Academy that teaches the basic skills, tools, and systems for daily EFFECTIVENESS.

The OMM also has well-designed tools and a number of resources for helping you boost your productivity.

In the OMM course:

  • You’ll learn the profound principles of effectiveness used by successful people to achieve quality results.

If you taught you knew what really makes the difference between high achievers and average achievers, the OMM will blow your mind.

  • You’ll be empowered with the right tools and skills for improved productivity and increased profitability.

There are newfound principles or what is called the secrets of productivity and success that the OMM will expose you to.

  • You’ll be equipped with the tools, procedures, and systems exceptional Organizing and Productivity Professionals use with their clients.

If you want to stand out in the Organizing and Productivity Industry, you’ve got to up your game and do things differently. The OMM will get you well equipped.

  • You’ll understand the fundamentals of human behavior management and be equipped with the tools to use with clients.

If you are a coach or an aspiring coach, your life and your clients’ life won’t be the same after the OMM.

OMM will be relaunching soon this year. Find out more about OMM here and JOIN the waitlist here to stay updated.

There’s so much winning to be done this year, but we can’t have great wins until we’re willing to do what great winners do. Great winners are wealthy with knowledge, they keep learning.

I, from personal experiences, appreciate the power of knowledge and acknowledge the damage that ignorance can do to anyone and that’s why I’m more than willing to share highly valuable strategies, principles, techniques and success secrets in 2018.

 

Come on board with me. We all deserve great WINS this year.

See you in TOC!

To Organizing, Productivity, and Success!

 

Your Organizing/Productivity Buddy. 

CEO, JessylsCharm. Founder, The Organizing Academy

Jesmine Onyeukwu