Day 512. With all the media around us trying to grab our attention, a scarce resource, it may be difficult to stay focused. Beyond this, we are all equal in terms of hours: each day has 24 hours. How do you get to 100% productivity, unleashing your best work, day in, day out? Here’s what is working in my daily life:

• Early morning work. 5AM is a wonderful time. Dawn in summer, darkness in winter, it’s always a very quiet time. I generally grab a good cup of coffee and use this fine hour to produce my best work, in the quietness of the early morning.
• 50-minute chunk. With some training and discipline, you’ll be able to stay focus for almost a full hour. What I experimented as the best is a 50-minute chunk followed by a 10-minute walk, stretch or nap.
• Switch off distraction. Switch your Wi-Fi off while you work on a specific activity, switch off all push notification. The best invention? Airplane mode. Activate the airplane mode on your laptop, tablet and phone, and start working.
• Switch on for a limited time. Dedicate a special 50-minute chunk for email, social networks and any other online activities.
• Appreciate the sound of silence. Get a noise-cancelling headset, switch it on if you happen to live or work in a noisy environment. Use it to isolate yourself from the surrounding noise. If you’ve never tried, I can guarantee this is a unique experience that you will never regret. One caveat: invest in the best possible technology here. Cheap does not last. Look for high end.
• Use inspiring music. My soundtrack is probably not yours, but chose one that inspires and moves you. I love Mozart and Bach, relaxation and lounge music, Brahms lieder and some light operas, but the choice is yours.
• Every day sweat. If you have not read Spark!, do it! There is scientific evidence between physical exercise and brain activity. invest at least 30 minutes of every day to do some physical activities. As the authors of the book say: « Aerobic exercise physically remodels our brains for peak performance ».

Once you get started, produce, produce, produce until you ship. Production without shipping is a waste.

Day 511. It has been proven scientifically that multitasking is less productive than monotasking. This means that if you have multiple activities to undertake, it’s preferable to do them in series, each one after the other, than in parallel, all at the same time switching back and forth. There’s another thing I’ve discovered in terms of the ultimate productivity is to stop any form of noise.

What do I call noise? Loud music, switched on TV, social networks… noise can be heard, seen or felt. You CANNOT produce quality work if you are distracted by noise. The only way is to be razor-sharp focused on what you are producing. Quality comes at the price of 100% focus. Switch off the noise and get back to work, one step at a time.

Day 510. I was listening, while driving, to Seth Godin. The talk titled « Leap First » touched many topics close to my heart and the one that clicked particularly well over the week-end was the notion of « best of the world ». Of course becoming best of the all world is scary, is crazy and is probably not reachable for most of us, but who knows? However, look at the difference between the title and the scary piece above.

In the title I wrote « best of the world », in the scary I wrote « best of the all world ». The difference lies into this single word all. Being the best of the world is becoming the best of your world. You define your world. If you bake bread, do you want to bake the best bread of your neighborhood? Do you want to offer the best value to your customers when it comes to bread? This is a crucial question. Because this is what defines to be the best of the world and potentially be allowed on the path of becoming one of the bests of the all world.

Of course, it will require talent and efforts, but in the end do you want to become the best of the world and be recognized as such? It’s not only a powerful concept, it’s the only way to make work that matters to you and to others.

Day 509. We often hear about the number of useless meetings, of emails, of information, etc. Like entropy, some things then to increase with, what seems, no limit. However, it’s in our decision space to accept and to change those things. In my professional environment, I’ve experienced over the last years, shorter meetings and the decrease of small talk. This has not happened because something is in the air. It has been a conscious decision. Even leadership meetings of business reviews have gone through a serious diet.

This is a clear signal to our various stakeholders that we need to act more and to talk less. Being on a diet is not just about changing the way we eat, it’s also about exercising more or, at least, differently. It’s the same with talking. Talking less means not only taking faster decision, it’s also about acting more, being more in the field, creating more connections. Look at your days, do you spend too much time talking? Reject meeting requests, reduce meeting time, and deliberately connect with one more people every day. Not only your productivity will increase, your happiness and your bottom line will too!

Ready, get set, go!

Day 508. Success is not about succeeding all the time, it’s about failing more. What if we were succeeding every time we start something? We would probably lying. I do not know somebody who did not fail at one point. May be if you are not doing anything you might not fail, true, but you will not succeed either. Success and failure are brother and sister. They cannot live without each other. People who are complaining all the time are generally the one who never failed because they have never done something significant. Is there something wrong with this? Yes, they tend to undermine the actions of others who might try.

Our own pursuit of happiness should tell us to do, to at least try. Yes this might fail, so what? As Edison said, he has not really failed 10,000 times while trying to create the incandescent bulb, he has found 10,000 ways that did not work. But those 10,000 failures, let’s call them like that, were necessary for the one success. I personally always remind myself of Edison’s story because it shows that delivering, failing and persisting are the best ways to learn. But once you fail, try again. As I was saying yesterday, what matters is not the end it’s the journey. You do not learn anything by reaching your goal, you learn by working towards your goal. Subtle but profound difference. Because if failure occurs and you do not reach your goal, you still have learned a lot on this journey that lead to failure.

The issue is we are taught to succeed and we are discouraged when we fail. We remember the one that gets the gold medal and forget all the others. We all know the world is not fair. Well if you don’t, you’d better learn this fast. As Abba was singing it, the winner takes it all. But the losers get the same learning and experience. Failure to deliver, failure to show up, failure to try are real failures, because they tell a negative story, a story of somebody who has not even try. Do it, ship it, deliver it, show up, it might fail, and it’s great!

Day 506. The title of this post is a quote from Robin Sharma. It resonated with me this morning on two fronts. First, the « so good ». This is in line with what I think, what I try to do every day and with my post on mediocrity. Mediocrity is a killer, average is horrible. full stop. Second, the song from Frankie Valli « can’t take my eyes off you », that I rediscovered last year in the movie « Jersey Boys ». Remember the lines « You’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off you ».

Find the song, the video, the movie and listen to the song. Let the music walk you through a day full of energy. Yes, it’s a love song, but it was so good it has been sung millions of time, including by artists like Gloria Gaynor. Whatever you do, do it to your best ability and be so good at it, we can’t take our eyes off of you. It requires efforts and dedication, for sure, but it’s the only way to avoid mediocrity.

Each of us has something unique, find it and sharpen your saw every day.

Day 505. As with mediocrity, it seems more and more people, with the never ending crisis that medias relay relentlessly every day, have downsized their dream. They are trying to weather the storm and keep their profile low. The fact is there’s no perfect time to dream big. Dreaming big means imagining a world in which each realizes his/her wildest dream and strives. This is independent of what’s happening outside. In fact, I truly believe there has not been a better time to dream big. The world is in a middle of a vast transformation and there are many opportunities to grab.

Dreaming big is not an end, it’s a beginning. Every day, you need to do your part to make your dream come true. Look at an ant, whatever the distance, it will carry a bigger load than itself and will walk relentlessly. The same applies to all of us. If you do not think you can realize your dreams, all that you have to do is standing still and watching TV. But then do not complain if others are making progress, or showing off, or living a wealthy life. If you are serious about realizing your dreams, then start acting upon them. Describe the path to your dreams, describe each step that you need to make and make them, once at a time. You know the saying: « how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! ». It’s the same with your dreams. Move to them, once step at a time and be prepared for setbacks, because there will be some. So when one happens, regroup, refocus and do the next step again.

Water will dig a hole in a rock one drop at a time. It succeeds because of consistency. Do the same, add your daily step to your routine, and make it a habit. One day, your dream will come true. Not magically, but because your walked the talk. It’s as simple as that. But hey, I said simple, not easy! Go!

Day 504. Mediocrity seems to prevail these days in the world and in many aspects of our lives. Mediocre means average. However, how do we want to succeed in our lives if we aim at average? Mediocre results are nothing to be proud of, they are just average, in the middle of all others. Every step above mediocrity is an important one, because it makes mastery results closer.

Now, there’s no secret: mediocre efforts cannot lead to mastery results. To be a master of one’s craft, one has to work on it every day, relentlessly, even painfully. Even if we cannot all be master, this should be our aim, the purpose of our lives, and the devotion of our hours. All of us has something to contribute to this world. It’s an insult to humanity to accept mediocrity, only mastery should be pursued. Tough to accept, but the only way to develop pride and excellence.

Day 503. This is kind of funny, as Monday in many languages (French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) is the Moon day! The other interesting fact is that even though it’s the first day of the week in many countries, it can be the second in others, due to the fact that in Christian, Jewish and Muslim tradition, Sunday (day of the Sun) is the first day of the week.

Its name and the link to the moon seems to come from the Romans, who named this second day of the week to celebrate the goddess of the Moon. For those whose work week starts on a Monday, this day has acquired a bad reputation. After a two-day break, one needs to back to work. While we should be happy, many are not. But whether happy or not, work has to be done, therefore better doing it with a smile than a frown. It’s Monday, smile like a full moon.