25 Minutes For Getting Things Done

I got this from Pat Rigsby

Like you, I have a lot of responsibilities. A number of business obligations including lots of phone calls, managing projects, writing, travel and any number of other things that go into building several businesses simultaneously. So below I've shared 4 steps I use and a few other random tips that I think can also help you get more done. Here you go:
Step One: Evaluate - Each night before I go to bed, I evaluate the day that is coming to a close before planning the next day. I wait as late as possible so my mind is clear when I go to bed. I look over the task list I created the evening before and see what I got done.

Did I miss or fail to complete anything important?

Do I need to follow up on anything?

Does anything need to carry over to the next day?

Is there anything that can be eliminated or delegated?

(This takes about 2-3 minutes total.)

Step Two: Plan - As soon as I've reviewed the previous day, I start planning the next day. I check out my Google Calendar and add any commitments listed there to my task list. Then I look at anything from the previous day that needs to be carried over and any task or activity that I know I need to get done the next day.

Once everything is listed, I'll review my goals ( I keep a list of goals and I'd recommend you do too) briefly and then 'star' the top three tasks that aren't just scheduled calls or appointments that I'm committed to. These might be something like writing sales copy or a blog post, creating a module for a program or contacting someone about a project idea.

With the 3 starred items I will block off time on my calendar to get those tasks completed.

(This takes about 2-3 minutes total.)

Step Three: Review - Each morning take 1-2 minutes to review the day ahead. This helps me prepare for the day ahead and get in the right frame of mind. For example:

If I know that I will be writing copy, I'll make sure I have my notes on my desktop to review or any other sales letters I want to review available. Basically, when the time comes to be able to jump right into the task and not spend 15 minutes getting focused.

(Like I said - 1 or 2 minutes maximum for this.)

Step Four: Execute 25 On / 5 Off - My workday is blocked of in 30 minute increments. Most calls are scheduled for 30 minutes and if there is a chance one will take longer, it's scheduled for an hour.

Ideally, calls will be done in 25 minutes so I have 5 minutes to catch up or prep for the next block of time.

For writing, work on projects, etc. - same thing. They get 30 minute blocks of time.

But 30 minutes is actually 25 minutes of uninterrupted work and 5 minutes of either getting out of my chair & stretching / moving or some quick stuff like responding to an email or two. No heavy mental lifting. I'll set the timer for 25 minutes and when the buzzer goes off, set it for another 5.

It's incredible how much you can get done in 25 minutes if you have no interruptions. I can often write an entire blog post or 2 newsletters in that time frame. But that's the key - no interruptions.

No checking email.
No checking Facebook or Twitter.
No unscheduled phone calls.
No surfing the internet.
No interrupting yourself to go get a drink, use the bathroom or anything else that will pull your focus away from the task at hand.

Over time you're going to get a great idea of exactly how much you can get done in this amount of time. Once you have a rough idea of this, that's when things get easy.

Then you can break up the stuff you need to get done into 25 minute blocks and big projects no longer seem overwhelming.

For me, it's almost a contest - a race against time to see how much I can get done in 25 minutes.

Maybe for you making 10 Business of the Week calls takes 1 Block but writing a client email newsletter takes 3 Blocks. Just break it down and schedule it.

This approach has been great for me and I think it will be great for you too.

With that in mind, here are a couple of other tips to get more done:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2134162/Research-shows-trying-lose-weight-alters-brain-hormones-youre-doomed-pile-again.html

This is a great check list I found by Kyle Harrod on how to make Facebook work for you and increase you clients.

Building your Community through Facebook

Building your list of friends - Add all NEW and CURRENT Boot Campers and Clients to your friend list. If you find they do not have Facebook, suggest to them to make a page. Tell them that many campers and clients stay connected through Facebook.

Send the First Message - Send them a message immediately after they ADD YOU as a friend, thanking them for the add. Also suggest to them to follow your page for updated support from other campers, news on schedule, training, nutrition, etc.

Suggest Friends - Once you have them as your friend, suggest them to add other people in camps as friends via Facebook. This is easy: Use the Suggest Friend link at the bottom left corner of the screen and start suggesting.

Acknowledgment and Motivation - Acknowledge achievements of campers via TAGGED POSTS or through PRIVATE MESSAGE. Use them both because they both have their proʼs and conʼs.

• Big Achievements (TAGGED POSTS)-
Tag them for achievements that are very important to the

• person or people that achieved it. First ask for permission to tag them and then take action. Why is this important? When you tag someone via post, it not only posts on your page but theirs also. This is great because it will be seen by all of their friends. From my experience, this will always sparks conversation on the posts from your friends and theirs.

• Smaller Achievements and Words of Motivation
- Send through Private Message. Taking the time out to send a private message to someone goes a long way and letʼs them know they are important to you and your business.

• Everyday Posts
- Stay connected to the people that are following you. Couple good rules of thumb.

• Personal Post
- 1-2 times per day. This can be something funny or cool that happened to you or something you may have did. This could be something about you or your family or even your pets. Make it personal.

• Fitness Related Post
1-2 times per day. This could be a fitness or nutrition article written by you or someone else or something you found that could be helpful to them.

• Camper or Client Posts
-1-2 times per day - This can be an individual or group accomplishment within your camps.

• Promotion Related
- 1-2 times per day. Donʼt forget to sell on your page. Whatever your current promotion is make sure to post it.

• SECRET TRICKS

Become a Stalker - This may sound crazy but this is what took my Facebook Marketing to whole new level. Stalk your clients pages.

• Anytime you see them talk about ANYTHING to do with your business, fitness, nutrition,accomplishments, etc...Like their comment!

• If you see anyone comment on their post and if this person is local and in your network, add them as a friend. Even the ones that, “Like” their post, add them. Chances are they may be interested in you or your services in the future.

• Use their Friend List - If you notice someone on their friend list that you think could use your services, add them as a friend.

• Look Popular - People will judge you on the number of friends you have. The more friends you have, the more important you will be perceived and it goes the other way around. If you do not have a large friend list then start adding. Add other fitness professional to your list. Add anyone else that you may think would be possibly interested in what you have to say.

• Follow what you Preach - If you preach a positive attitude from your clients refrain from posting negative comments. The brand you build within your camps is the brand you must show via your comments and pictures on your page. Focus on great leadership and they will follow you to the end. 

Video and client testimonial for Bootcamp

“I was looking for something to increase speed, change overall body composition, and to decrease the chance of injury. I am a competitive Roller-Derby player, and wanted to improve all aspects of my sport. I signed up during the off-season to get in shape and prepare me for the season. I have had a great experience. It is such a different approach and Jason has been a big part of it”

Caitlin "Judo No" Preston
Denver Roller Dolls-Mile High Club. #3 Nationals 2009
Caitlin "Judo No" Preston - Denver, CO

Holiday Bootcamp Special

Happy holidays from your favorite Personal Trainer Jwood. I want to thank everyone I have ever put in front of a Kettlebell, taught Z Health to or have helped in any way. Thank you for allowing me to do what I love as a profession; it truly would not be possible without you guys and gals. Remember it’s never too late to make changes in your diet, lifestyle or personal choices.

For your continued support I wanted to give you my “Skinny” on getting lean and offer you a chance to take this invitation only Fitness Kickoff Bootcamp I am doing in the month of January. This one of a kind class is invite only (meaning only the 30 people getting this email will be allowed to take it). There will be very little interference from me, all workouts will be redesigned and the best part is… I will give you the workouts to take home and practice. It will be like I am there with you at home for the hour ( $85 value).

Call 303-231-1300

Tue/Thur 5:30-:6:30 AM Code 313201 10

Mon/Wed 7:00-8:00 PM Code 313201 09

Classes are held at The Anderson Building, 44th and Field: Wheat Ridge, CO

Taken from the Z-Health Website.

The Logical Conclusion

Everything is a Skill
Pavel and the RKC phenomenon have had innumerable, powerful influences on the modern elite training community. By providing simple, effective answers to many of the complex issues of training Pavel has brought a widespread focus to the neurology of strength and flexibility. In technical language this is called “a really good thing!”

I believe that one of the most important concepts that Pavel has revitalized in the RKC educational process is reminding the training community that “everything is a skill”. This single concept (known as the SAID Principle in physiology) is a critical foundational piece of the Z-Health approach to training.

The Early Years
Early on in my academic studies, I became fascinated with the concept of “everything is a skill.” From my first introduction to Grey’s Anatomy when I was still in elementary school (the actual text, not the TV show) the whole idea of the body’s adaptive abilities fascinated me. I remember being both awed and intrigued by the concept and convinced that there had to be a way to maximize our potential by understanding the underlying principles of how we as humans “work”.

Over the course of time, through education and real-world experience, I became ever more fascinated with this concept as well as convinced that it is the key to maximizing our strength, skill and health simultaneously. Interestingly enough, this same education and experience taught me that “everything is a skill” is RARELY taken to its logical conclusion.

The Concept
Let’s take a look at one way that “everything is a skill” can be translated into physiology. The foundational, underlying concept in human physiology is the SAID Principle. This is an acronym for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. In other words, the SAID Principle states that the body/mind system will become better at doing whatever it does regularly. However, as the modern science of training has evolved, it has become clear that this definition does not go quite far enough. In fact, it leaves out two critical words:

1.Always, and
2.Exactly
In Z-Health® we have altered the classic SAID Principle definition to this:

“The body ALWAYS adapts to EXACTLY what it does.” That should sound a lot like, “everything is a skill!” But what does that really mean and how should it and could it impact on your training? The truth is that an intimate understanding of this concept can radically impact every aspect of your training and your life. In fact, this is such a critical concept that this article is solely designed to get you to ask yourself the one simple question that I ask over and over in our certification courses:

“If the SAID Principle is true (If I believe that everything is a skill)… have I taken that fact to its logical conclusion?”

The Logical Conclusion
If “everything is a skill” is a neurologic truth, then EVERYTHING MATTERS in your training. Anything that you leave to “chance” is a probable source of eventual compensation, pain, injury or impaired performance. What the heck does that mean? Here’s a simple experiment to show you what I’m talking about.

For this to work well, you will need a digital camera. While standing normally, have someone take a full body picture of you from the front and directly from the side. Now, hit the deck! Do 10-15 pushups just as you would normally do them. Now, stand up and take another set of pictures.

Now it’s time to compare. Look at your before and after shots. What do you notice? Is your posture different? Is it better? Is it worse? About 90% of the time, this little experiment makes posture worse! Why? Because at a base level, we forget the SAID Principle definition, “The body ALWAYS adapts to EXACTLY what it does.” If you do your pushups with poor form or poor posture (or just simply pretty good form and pretty good posture) your body will IMMEDIATELY begin an adaptation process to make you better at maintaining that poor posture.

The logical conclusion is that if you perform ANY exercise in less than perfect posture, you are training yourself to have less than perfect posture. If you perform ANY exercise in less than perfect form, you are training to have less than perfect form (and eventually injury). If you perform ANY exercise with excessive tension you are training yourself to be tight, slow and in pain. In Z-Health® we call this the Perfect Rep Principle and it guides everything that we do in training.

The Perfect Rep in Practice
Here’s the hard part – what to do with this information! There are numerous factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic, that can make implementing the Perfect Rep Principle difficult. If you have poor mobility, a lack of precise body control, old injuries, scar tissue, etc., every one of these can make training under this paradigm more difficult. However, here’s an idea to get you started.

Begin with this experiment. This week, for one of your training sessions, either cut all of your loads between 50 and 80% or work completely unloaded. While this may drive you crazy at first, it is important, so stick it out! During the session train each lift as slowly as possible. As you do this, concentrate intensely on feeling your actual form, technique and posture during each part of the lift. Do your best to make each rep of each exercise as perfect as you possibly can. You will want to videotape the session for review. Often, when you do this, you will learn that your intrinsic “feel” of what is happening in an exercise is NOT what is happening in the real world. In fact, many athletes are shocked when they see their training form and posture on video.

In the aftermath of this training session, it is very likely that you will be far more aware of numerous subtle but important weak links in your lifts. Whether it’s an awkward arc on an overhead press, an elbow that just will not lock out, poor neck posture, asymmetric foot positions, or a rounded low back – you now have a target for your training!

What Do I Do Now?
Let’s say that you just finished the above Perfect Rep exercise and now have a laundry list of weak links that are slowing your progress. The next KEY question you should ask is “What do I do about it?”

Typically, in Z-health, we would direct you to immediately perform an R-PHASE isolated mobility drill for the weak link area and then REPEAT the original exercise. If you did a good job identifying the actual weak link, and mobilizing the joints and tissues of the weak link correctly, you should see an IMMEDIATE improvement in the lift – your speed, strength, form, posture, or other parameters should improve instantly. What you must understand here, however, is that identifying the weak link is the key!

While an actual movement assessment process is the fastest way to identify and fix your weak links, let me share with you one single concept that will help tremendously. To do this, let’s look at a hypothetical RKC who has a right elbow that will simply not fully lock out into full extension.

After testing the elbow under a light load, the immediate, direct approach would be to have him perform a basic series of R-Phase elbow circles emphasizing: a full range of motion, fully locking and unlocking the elbow on each rep, and a slow, controlled speed. Then we would retest the lift. If this did not “fix” the problem, it’s now time for mobilizations of the joints above and below – in this case the shoulder and wrist. Each joint would be actively mobilized in all potential ranges of motion slowly, with control. After each joint was trained, we would retest. In about 70% of the cases, properly performed mobility work as described above will release the elbow. If not, do you give up? No!

Now it’s time for a more in-depth biomechanical approach. To introduce this concept very simply I want you to think of the body as a big X. In other words, when it comes to force transfer, the left lower extremity works in conjunction with the right upper extremity. In this case, we have an RKC who cannot properly lock out his RIGHT elbow. So, if we have tried the direct approach, the next thing we want to focus on is the LEFT leg. Why? In Z-Health we teach a concept that we call opposing joints.

Without going into detail, the simple way to think about this biomechanically is that the hand must be coordinated with the opposite side foot, the elbow with the knee, etc. To take advantage of this biomechanical activity for our RKC, we will move to a very specific series of closed-chain KNEE mobility drills again emphasizing: a full range of motion, fully locking and unlocking the knees on each rep, and a slow, controlled speed. Then, we would retest. Believe it or not, for releasing a non-locking elbow your success rate will have just jumped from 70 to close to 90%!

The moral of this story is that the body is an integrated system and weak links ANYWHERE along the chain can impact on your overall functioning in ways that will astound you.

Putting It All Together
We’ve taken a look at some hyper-critical concepts in this article but we always try to follow Einstein’s advice: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” So, let’s summarize.

1.If you believe, as Pavel states, that “everything is a skill” you have embraced the SAID Principle.
2.The SAID Principle definition states that the body ALWAYS adapts to EXACTLY what it does. This means that if you want to maximize your potential and minimize your compensations and injury potential that EVERYTHING matters in training.
3.The LOGICAL CONCLUSION of this is that if you train in less than perfect form, perfect posture, and balanced tension you will eventually pay a price.
4.To properly implement these concepts you want to embrace the PERFECT REP PRINCIPLE, and understand the principles of mobility training, force transfer and integrated body function as you uncover your weak links. We will try to cover each of these concepts in a bit more depth in future articles.
Remember that the logical conclusion of “everything is a skill” is that everything matters. And it matters every time, with every rep. Train smart.

Just Listen book review

Being a Z- Health Master Trainer part of my job involves helping people make healthy life style changes and improvements in quality of life and without a blue print or tools it makes the job that much harder. Mark Goulston’s Just Listen: Discover the secret to getting thorough to absolutely anyone, provides just those tools. Goulston not only lays out ways to better communicate with people he also brings his personal stories of how the tools worked for him.


Just Listen falls into the read list along with Prochaska’s Changing for Good, Petterson’s Crucial Conversations and Motivational Interviewing in health care for anyone who talks to people and has to problem solve personal and professional problems. Each chapter ends with usable insights and action steps, making it easier for the reader to know the take home parts from each chapter and also acts as a quick reference instead of skimming the whole book. I myself find myself always coming back to the Making people feel felt” chapter in the book time and time again.

Overall the concepts and skills taught in the book are things that just take some practice to get good at and give you immeasurable results in communication and listening