Tag: effectiveness

An Element Of Efficiency: Slowing Down To Speed Up

Carl Setzer

Eienstein Quote.jpg

With all the work I’ve done studying organization and productivity systems, a common element: taking time to thoughtfully consider actions. In today’s day-and-age, it’s easy to get caught up in stimulus:response, on reactive reactions. Or, as the adage goes, “running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off”.

Taking time to:

  • Determine the scope of the problem
  • It’s nature
  • What really is the causality
  • Reviewing our priorities

These are all critical to developing the correct solution for a particular challenge. There are always multiple responses and actions one can take. Knowing which one corrects the situation without creating a worse one requires considering all these elements.

It’s so easy, especially in today’s hyper-sped world, to lose sight of the time necessary. The urge to “do something NOW” is so powerful, and it often creates more damage than solution.

Our progress moves faster when we aren’t spending time repairing damage our inattention to details creates.

Welcome to Wednesday

Carl Setzer

Welcome to today
At the middle of the week
Promise keeps growing

Ah, the middle of the week; bearing it’s challenges. May you continue to go forward, grow and expand in knowledge and wisdom. 

Peace to you all, my friends. 

Time to Awaken

Carl Setzer

Time to awaken
Put my feet upon the floor
Go forth and do things 


Come check out my latest project: Forward Facing, where I explore effectiveness, motivation and harnessing positive energy to create a great life. 

Abandoning All We Are

Carl Setzer4 Comments

Abandon all that we are
So we can become
All that we might be 

I see myself trapped by my past, by the barriers erected from fear, insecurity and doubt. “Grow past them…” I counsel myself. “Push past them. They are but vapor, illusion, less real than the dreams. Dreams create! So I shall focus on them. 


A new productivity tool

Carl Setzer

Just discovered Best Self. After briefly skimming their site, I see a lot of potential with their productivity tools. There’s a journal that intrigues me. 

It’s set up for 13 week goal setting and tracking. I like the way they break down your goals and then build out plans to make them happen. 

Keeping focus in our distraction laden world: truest gold! Yet I chafe at the prices. 

I’ll dig deeper, though. 

The Power Of The Simple “Thank You”

Carl Setzer

I pride myself on thanking people. I see this as basic. Time and time again, though, I hear how rarely it happens.

Really, one of the most basic elements of community building: acknowledging each other. An element of “namaste”, of seeing each other at a deep level, of valuing each other. Appreciating everyone’s unique gifts and contributions.

So often, in the comms world, we focus on solving some problem. Once the solution gets executed, off to the next thing. All the work teams put into the resolution vanishes into vapor.

Perhaps the easiest action to take, and one that reaps rewards in terms of connection, yet so often forgotten.

Want to stand out as a communicator? Well, remember the “thanks”.

Thanks for reading!

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Time to focus

Carl Setzer

A refined focus

Defining what’s important

Time’s competition

Ah, Coffee!

Carl Setzer

Coffee is lovely
It keeps my brain functioning
Keenly important

May’s Last Day

Carl Setzer1 Comment

​This month’s one last day 

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p style=”font-family:’Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans, sans-serif;”>So much potential has passed 

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p style=”font-family:’Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans, sans-serif;”>This day can still be seized 

Working Past Exhaustion: A Recipe For Mistakes

Carl Setzer

Oh, the frustrations of long, long days!

I generally work normal work hours. Sure, at times I’m on my computer on weekends or after hours. But I’d be doing that anyways.

However, I’m taking an evening class right now. The class meets one night a week, so that demand isn’t that much. But after an 8+ hour day, a 3 hour class can get wearying. And the class is mostly sitting in front of a screen, which is what I tend to spend all day doing.

Tonight, by 8:45, I was pretty much toast. I hadn’t noticed it until I saw several dumb mistakes. And those mistakes caused me the aggravation of redoing about a 1/2 hour’s worth of work. Fortunately, it took less time to re-do than to do originally. But that means extra work, needless extra work.

I was clever enough, though, to see that and, after fixing the mistakes I’d made (at least I’m pretty sure I fixed them), I opted to stop.

At times, when effectiveness hits the floor…and punches right on through, any effort at all will be counter-productive. That’s a hard lesson to learn, internalize, and keep in mind regularly. I, too, suffer from the mindset that “if I only worked harder/more/whatever…”.

I know that sometimes the only way to be effective is to stop and rest, get my head back together and then restart.

It’s just living it that’s the challenge.