Interview: How to crush your productivity with Chris Ducker

Posted by Ben Lumley on Aug 18, 2010 in Creating Change, Peak Performance, Productivity | 16 comments

So if you've been here long enough, you'll know that one of the things I get a kick out of is talking to, and sharing ideas with, successful people. I fundamentally believe that in order to achieve any success in life, you not only need to hang out with successful people but you need to learn from them as much as you can. So, as a bit of a change of pace, today I want to share an interview I did with my good friend and successful entreprenuer, Chris Ducker.

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The Success Interviews – Matt Draycott

Posted by Ben Lumley on Jun 30, 2010 in Overcoming Challenges, Productivity, Success | 8 comments

This success interview is with a good friend of mine Matt Draycott who is a successful entrepreneur, lecturer and entertainer with a passion for developing young people's enterprise dreams. I first met Matt at an event in Grimsby, UK where my company was helping him launch a young enterprise project. I was blown away my his presence on stage as well as his passion for young people and enterprise. Matt won the coveted "National Young Enterprise Business Adviser’ award in 2008 and is currently working as a lecturer at Wrexham University, UK where he continues to inspire young people.

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Friday’s Homework – Getting Things Done

Posted by Ben Lumley on Jun 11, 2010 in Productivity | 15 comments

photo credit: schrierc

Welcome to another homework post, I hope you've had a great week. For this week's homework I'm going to go back to using some videos as my last post which included videos was really well received.

The two videos I'd like to share with you today are talks on how to increase your productivity given to the boffins at Google. They are by two of my favourite productivity masters, David Allen and Merlin Mann. So sit back and enjoy and above all, learn.

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The Art of Delegation – Guest Post

Posted by Ben Lumley on Apr 26, 2010 in Productivity | 34 comments

Today's guest post is a video post by Chris Ducker of Virtualbusinesslifestyle.com. Chris is a British entrepreneur who lives out in the Philippines where he heads up his own company, Live2Sell. In my eyes, Chris is the master at being an entrepreneur and this is a great video on how to master the art of delegation. Let me know what you think in the comments.

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Awareness of self and others is at the heart of better communication, personal development and effectiveness

Posted by Ben Lumley on Apr 12, 2010 in Overcoming Challenges, Productivity, Success, Thinking Differently | 29 comments

This is a guest post by Adrian Swinscoe. Adrian has been called a number of things in his time: coach, consultant, teacher, 2nd brain, problem-solver, speaker, trainer, etc. All he says is that he helps his clients grow their business and loves what he does. He writes on different ways that you can grow your business through adding value to your customers, different growth strategies, building a great team and being a better leader on the blog Ideas for Business Growth.

We are all different and that's great. However, understanding how we are different can help us improve how we engage with other people and our effectiveness in the world. This article, I hope, will help you, using a simple model, better understand yourself, your clients, readers, how you respond/react to people and, also, how to engage more effectively with other people. This is no jiggery-pokery and it's not about being or becoming different people. It’s about improving your awareness of self and others to get the most out of the world around you. It’s well known that people have different ways that they prefer to receive information whether written, heard, seen, felt, experienced or otherwise. These different styles in the scientific world are called visual, auditory and kinesthetic styles. I prefer to name them eyes, ears and feelings styles. Everybody will have their own (or two) leading style(s) whether it is eyes, ears or feelings and they will learn or communicate best when things are presented to them in that style. For example: An ‘eyes’ person will remember graphs, illustrations, and “seeing” new things. An ‘ears’ person will remember sounds and will be stimulated by changes in vocal tome, pitch and pacing. A ‘feelings’ person will learn or receive the information best from “hands on” experience and will remember how he or she “felt”. Thus, more impact may be gained from showing things to ‘eyes’ people, providing interesting sounds for ‘ears’ people, and for working alongside ‘feelings’ people.

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Time is not this giant, big, green monster that’s out to get you!

Posted by Ben Lumley on Feb 23, 2010 in Productivity, Thinking Differently | 42 comments

photo credit: Awaya-Legends

This is a guest post by Hulbert Lee. Hulbert enjoys writing about ways to help people go from the bottom of life to the top of life. Visit his blog at FromBottomUp.com.

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Albert Einstein

How often in our 24 hour day period do we spend timing ourselves on finishing a task that involves thinking? If you’re in high school, this might be taking a practice math SAT test in 1 hour. If you’re in college, this might be starting a 10-page political science paper that was assigned a month ago at 10:00 P.M., and suddenly it’s due at 8:00 in the morning. If you’re working as a freelancer, this might be writing 10 articles a day in 10 hours in order to pay a month’s worth of rent. We are encountered by time limits virtually everywhere we go. Some people don’t like that feeling of time’s presence being around them. In fact, I was one of those people. I was scared of time all the time. I remember that I used to be a really bad test taker because I was always worrying about the sound of the clock ticking down. Yes, I was also that obnoxious person in class that would always turn their head around to check the clock to see how much time was left. It was just always something in the back of my mind. Do you also find yourself to be a constant “clock checker”? Maybe these habits have developed from a fear of time – a fear that giving ourselves a time limit puts too much pressure on us to think clearly. Although this may feel like the case sometimes, conquering time doesn’t have to be so scary. But there are a couple of concepts you should know just in case.

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