Total Licensing Winter 2007 - (Page 118)

Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 TOTAL LICENSING Become an Expert Procrastinator in 2007 Laura Ashley-Timms, the Licensing Industry’s very own Coach, has teamed up with Total Licensing to challenge you to improve yourself and your business. So read on... and then send in your questions to be answered in our regular ‘Coaching Corner’ feature. A New Year and with it a new oppor tunity to really excel at something. I trust, as a reader of this column, that you have already taken the time to review your last year’s performance and that you have set new goals for 2007. I was racking my brains to think of what would be the ONE SKILL that you could really MASTER this year… something that would be as valuable to you whether you are a Managing Director or a Licensing Assistant. Suddenly it came to me… become an expert PROCRASTINATOR! Let’s be completely honest, we can all procrastinate to some extent, but how good are we really? If I was to push you could you look me in the eye and call yourself an Expert in this field? If not read on, what follows are the top TEN areas that you can focus on this year to really hone your skills! The 10 Steps to Procrastination Expertise So how can you move your average performance of 2006 up a notch this year? Don’t forget YOU have to TAKE ACTION if you want to make changes. So make notes as you go through this article of what you are going to commit to do differently. 1. SET UNINSPIRING AND DEMOTIVATING GOALS This is really fundamental. An expert procrastinator cannot afford to be motivated, so don’t set any goals that would a improve your life b improve your financial security or c inspire you to want to achieve them. Keep all your goals, simple, achievable and mundane. Or even better, don’t bother setting them. If you can manage to follow this simple tip then you will be well on your way to enhancing your procrastination skills. 2. SPEND LOTS OF TIME IN MEETINGS Meetings can be an excellent way to waste time and can make you feel really important too, as your diary fills up and you become more and more unavailable. So make sure your day is full of them. The best type of meetings for really good procrastinators are committee meetings, as you mostly just go around in circles looking for consensus. Volunteer for as many of these as possible. In order to maximise the lengths of meetings: • make sure they are always in big rooms with comfortable chairs • Order lots of tea, coffee and cakes • Don’t create an agenda or have any objectives/outcomes • Don’t offer to chair it • Don’t set a time scale for the meeting If you follow all the above you should be able to really eek out every last procrastination opportunity here. 3. DO ENDLESS INTERNET RESEARCH Internet research is a great secret weapon. I have one client who admitted to spending 8 hours just looking for a new freezer for his garage and then at the end of all this time he didn’t even order one. He had to do the research all over again a month later! Of course he is one of my Procrastinator Gods, so he would be an excellent model for you. To maximise this skill remember not to Power search this can be a disaster if done correctly . A proper Power search may reduce your choice from 400,000 down to 15. How long is that going to take to research? Clearly not long enough, so avoid at all costs. Also remember to keep all searching as aimless fun, don’t try and be specific as this could lead to a faster decision, thereby robbing you of the opportunity for more mindless browsing. 4. AVOID DECISION MAKING At all costs you must follow this golden rule. “Decisions are the stepping stones of progress” Dominic Ashley-Timms , so avoid them if you truly want to achieve procrastination mastery. What is really bizarre is that even bad decisions are good for progress as you still move forward by learning what doesn’t work and they allow you to refine your strategy. So don’t fall into the trap of making bad decisions either, it is best to avoid making decisions completely. 5. TAKE LOTS OF UNNECESSARY LONG BREAKS There are many ways to refine the long break. Smokers have an upper hand here as they have to leave the building and can go for a long walk on a regular basis. One idea is to pretend 118  Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Total Licensing Winter 2007

Total Licensing Winter 2007

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