Microsoft Outlook has all the ingredients to be a powerful planning system.

The key is to know what to use and what to ignore.

I’ve typed some key points to remember below.

Questions? Just contact us. We’ll get you the answers you need.

Outlook serves 3 functions

1. Organizes action reminders using calendar and tasks

2. Organizes information in notes, contacts, email subfolders

3. Sends and receives email

Principles that make Outlook a “trusted system”

1. Don’t leave anything in your head or in unprocessed stacks

2. Make crystal-clear decisions about the next physical action

3. Keep the system clear, current, and complete

Do’s and Don’ts

• Do continue to use paper to “capture” ideas, notes, etc - but always put the action reminders in Outlook
• Do clear your email inbox by converting email into tasks and projects and filing email in subfolders
• Do add all of your active projects to your @Projects list (big, small, personal, professional)
• Do use the notes area in a project to outline the successful outcome and next actions
• Do make clear action decisions when new stuff shows up, don’t wait until it blows up
• Do share tasks with other Outlook users using the “assign task” feature
• Do print or sync your lists to make them portable

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• Don’t rely on an email for an action reminder or project reminder
• Don’t hold back, everything has a place in your system, if it doesn’t create a new list by using categories
• Don’t just create the lists, look at them often, and use them to guide your moment by moment actions
• Don’t expect everything to clear up instantly, we’re on a productivity path and daily progress is key

ClearMind Lesson 10: The ClearMind Habits

In this lesson we introduce the ClearMind Habits. By combining the ClearMind Habits with the ClearMind Tools you will experience a new level of focus, clarity, and productivity.

Habit 1:  The Morning Mind Clear

Habit 2:  The “3C” Lifestyle

Habit 3:  The Weekly Review

The Morning Mind Clear is a quick planning session that will leave you grounded in your values and focused on your goals. This 30 min daily habit will empower you to maintain a clear mind, utilize your productivity tools, and start each day off right.

The Morning Mind Clear is powerful, but it won’t prevent you from being inundated with interruptions, emails, new projects, and meeting requests by lunchtime.

That’s when ClearMind Habit 2 saves the day…        The “3C” Lifestyle.

The 3C Lifestyle keeps you clear, focused, and productive even under chaotic and fast-changing circumstances. Like in our physical health, success in organization and productivity results from a consistent lifestyle rather than from an isolated event.

Habit Three:     The Weekly Review

The Weekly Review serves as a productivity and effectiveness checkup.

Each week you will refine your goals, projects, and actions. You will observe what is working and what is not.

Like the Morning Mind Clear, the work to be done in your Weekly Review will vary based on your personality and specific goals. And once your Weekly Review is designed for your unique needs it should be completed consistently each and every week.

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

ClearMind Lesson 9: The ClearMind Tools

In this lesson you will learn the basic set of tools that will enable you to consistently complete meaningful work.

The ClearMind Tools are…

1)    The Personal Planner

2)    The Clutter-Control System

3)    The Scoreboard

Your personal planner is comprised of 5 elements…

1)    Goals

2)    Projects

3)    Contacts

4)    Calendar

5)    Tasks

You’ll trust this personal planning system for all your commitments and reminders. As the job of “remembering” is turned over to the planner you’ll feel a tremendous boost in your energy, creativity, and focus.

The second ClearMind tool is your Clutter-Control System.

So many of us have way too much “stuff” in our office and in our head.

By “stuff” I mean ambiguous piles of paper, cluttered thinking, half-formed decisions, and vague projects. In fact, you can think of clutter simply as delayed decisions. We’ll convert that annoying and frustrating “stuff” into clear action and organized information.

The third essential ClearMind tool is your Scoreboard. We build a crystal-clear system of accountability and support that is guaranteed to keep you energized, focused, and growing.

With the 3 ClearMind Tools in place you will notice a dramatic increase in your productivity and your success.

“Only with the tools of production in their own hands could the workers ever hope to control their own lives and receive the fruits of their labor.”
Ella R. Bloor

ClearMind Lesson 8: The Formula for Success

The ClearMind formula for success is so simple, you may be tempted to overlook its genius. The formula for success is.

Clear Goal + Straight Path + Focused Power=
The results you want.

Let’s look at a common goal that many of us share - losing weight.

OK, so let’s look at “losing weight” through the ClearMind formula for success.

In this case our “clear goal” is losing weight. Volumes have been written on how to set goals, we won’t recreate those here. I will share a few simple tips that work for me.

1)    Write your goal from beyond completion

2)    State your emotion upon completion

3)    Briefly state what you did to get there

4)    State the difference it has made in your life

I did it! It is now July 4th of 2010. I am thrilled that over the past 6 months I lost 15 pounds. With my own determination and lots of support from family and friends I formed new habits of healthy eating and exercise. I now have vibrant energy at home and at work, and I’m setting an example of healthy living for my children to follow.

If the path isn’t obvious we may need to do some research or ask for help. But, don’t delay until you have a perfect plan. The clear goal allows us to proceed one step at a time, knowing exactly where we’re headed.

Focusing our power means leveraging our money, energy, and time completely on the action at hand. We complete actions by focusing sufficient power until the action is complete.

Completed actions lead to… Completed projects, which lead to… Completed goals, which lead to… The life you want!

“Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings.”
C.D. Jackson

ClearMind Lesson 7: The Strength of Straight Lines

One of the basic principles of geometry states that “The shortest path between two points is a straight line.”

Once we choose a project and the series of actions to accomplish it, all that is left is to walk that path. The strength of straight lines will get us what we want in the most effective and intelligent way possible.

If you want to get a particular result, you don’t add any extra steps. You take the simplest and most direct route. For example, if you want to drive straight from Los Angeles to New York, you wouldn’t drive through Seattle or Miami.

Unfortunately, we tend to add extra steps when we’re trying to get something we want. And many times, those extra steps prevent us from getting what we want.

The ClearMind Habits leverage the strength of straight lines, meaning you hit your goals faster and easier than ever before. Anything you want in life is subject to this principle. Find the most direct route and what you want will be yours.

This seems pretty obvious, right? Why don’t we live our lives like this every day?

The problem is, you’re bombarded with so many distractions every day that the straight line is no longer obvious. And we often let our emotions and moods overrule our wisdom, and send us on a detour.

You may be thinking that you just don’t know what to do to get what you want.

And sometimes that is true. However, more times than not, you already have all the wisdom necessary to get what you want.

For example, most of us know the path to better health…

Eat less and exercise more. We know the straight path, yet we often make a left, a right, or even a u-turn away from what we want.

Most people flit around from goal to goal, adding unnecessary steps, taking detours… and then wondering why they never get what they want.

It may sound like we’re taking all the fun out of life, with our “straight lines” and “no detours.” But remember, we’re talking about getting exactly what you want in life. What could be more fun than that?

“If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.”

Brian Tracy

ClearMind Lesson 6: Clear Vision

In our last lesson we discussed two life-changing choices.
1)  The choice to complete actions that move you toward your goals.

2)  The choice to complete actions that increase your power.

We also posed the question, why would we do otherwise? That brings us to Lesson 6 - the principle of clear vision.

“Effective” and “powerful” actions are relative to the individual and to each individual’s goals. My choices may not be appropriate for you, because you want to be, have, and do different things in life than I do.

But, one thing we do all have in common is the ability, and responsibility, to choose what we want.

You may remember Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland…

Alice has a conversation with a Cheshire Cat that goes something like this…

Alice asks “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where -” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,”

“- so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

It is “common sense” to choose exactly what we want out of life and then complete the actions to get there. However, common sense is often not that common.

Most people go through their lives with goals and projects half-selected or not selected at all. Hoping that if they only “walk long enough” they are sure to stubble upon what they really want.

The reality is, in order to get what you want, you must start with a clear vision.

The problem is, most of us don’t have the tools and training to get clear on this. We’ll talk more about that shortly.

For now, just know that most failure begins and ends at this step.

Most people spend their lives in a state of confusion, running somewhat aimlessly, never knowing exactly where they’re headed. I invite you to engage the tools that will help you to choose significant goals, projects, and actions.

You’ll  maintain clear focus and motivation to create breakthrough results in your life and business.

ClearMind Lesson 5: The 2 Life-Changing Choices

You may consider what you’re about to read simplistic, maybe even unrealistic.

I guarantee you that it is true and one of the most powerful concepts I know.

In the course of your life, you can either walk straight toward the things that you really want, or… You can walk away from the things that you really want.

Further, you can either steadily increase your power, or you can allow it to wither away. These options are not a matter of fate - they are purely a matter of the choices you make every moment of your life.

The two life-changing choices are:

1) Will you complete actions that bring you toward your desired goal or away from your desired goal?
2) Will you complete actions that strengthen your power or weaken your power?

Remember the Reality of Constant Action? You already make these choices every moment of your life. Every moment you are alive you are either moving toward or away from your desired goal. In the same way, every action you take will either strengthen or weaken your power.

When choosing the difficult “strengthening” option is toughest, that is exactly when your power increases… and you become a stronger, more capable person.

As you practice The ClearMind Habits every day, these decisions will become easier and easier… as a result, you will become more and more powerful by the minute.

Why would we ever do otherwise?

We are bombarded with distractions, information, and misinformation that often prevent us from thinking clearly and choosing wisely.

It is easy to forget that we are responsible, and have the ability to choose each and every action. We must never forget that we are creating our own lives in each moment, with each choice that we make.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Viktor E. Frankl