Success in Sweatpants

Well, we’ve had drought and fires here in Texas. What’s next? Floods? Pestilence? I’m just glad that the temperatures have dropped. It’s been about three months of nonstop 3-digit temperatures and it was really getting old. It’s made a huge difference in my energy level and my outlook, and I’m not the only one! So many people I’ve talked to have said the same.

Environment plays a big part in our businesses. Some things we can control ourselves, others (like the weather) not so much. The trick is to stack the deck in favor of highest productivity.

Here’s one way I control my environment. There are times when I just can’t get myself to start working on a project. I’ll do projects around the house, go work with the horses, play with dogs, do the laundry; in other words, I’ll pretty much do anything to keep from knuckling down. My environment offers me far too many preferable options.

This is a problem, since I have a multiple deadlines to meet, and avoiding a project just puts more pressure on me and may have a negative impact on work quality.

When I run into this situation, I go to Starbucks. There are no distractions there, no options to sitting at the computer and working. Put in my ear buds, hit one of my iTunes playlists, and it’s just me and the keyboard.

Our environment can help us or hinder us. The outside temperature may be outside of our control, but there are a lot of aspects of our surroundings that we CAN influence. Stack that deck in your favor!!!