Posted on Monday, January 17, 2022

Advisor Resources For Financial LIFE Planning

In a recent Forbes post, “The Stuff In Life That Financial Planning CAN’T Prepare You For,” I suggested that we all, and perhaps especially financial advisors, need training in being better humans, and that it makes us better advisors when we do. Here are links to some of these resources and trainings that I have personally benefited from:

Books For Underlying Knowledge

These are books that, I believe, will provide a systematic learning path for better understanding the human elements of decision making in general, and financial decision making, in particular. They are listed in a purposeful order, but I encourage you to jump in wherever your interest takes you:

The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis

This is a great place to start, because Lewis is a master storyteller, and this mini-biography of the lives and work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, the OG behavioral economists, gives you an opportunity to be introduced to the field in an approachable, narrative form.

Misbehaving, Richard Thaler

Of course, it was actually Richard Thaler, the Nobel prize-winning economics professor at the University of Chicago, who coined the term “behavioral economics,” helping merge Kahneman and Tversky’s cognitive and mathematical psychology into “the dismal science,” effectively turning it on its head. Thaler provides an excellent history of this relatively new field that, along with The Undoing Project, might just prepare you for the next recommendation…

Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

This is the Bible of behavioral economics, summarizing the major lessons of Kahneman and Tversky. It’s not a “light read,” but it’s important and powerful.

Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein

This volume, by the aforementioned Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, now provides us with our first real-world example of applied behavioral economics. And apply it they did! In fact, this work has likely influenced your life, in at least some small way, whether you know it or not. For example, if your 401(k) is opt-out rather than opt-in, or if it has an automatic escalation option, you have Nudge to thank for it.

Switch, Chip and Dan Heath

Yet for all of its virtues, a first look at behavioral economics doesn’t feel much less dismal than its predecessor, in part because it makes us feel, as humans, like a big pile of mistaken biases and behavioral patterns. In a few powerful ways, Chip and Dan Heath invite us to see strength where others might see weakness.

Behavioral Finance: The Second Generation, Meir Statman

In fact, if you want a more positive take of behavioral economics and finance, look no further than Meir Statman, the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University’s, look at the 2.0 version. (The link above gives you access to a free PDF of this book via the CFA Institute.)

Drive, Daniel Pink

Now we start to move beyond the more technical to the more applicable, beginning with Daniel Pink’s very readable look at human motivation. Why is this so pertinent for financial advisors? Because we’re in the business of helping people discern, articulate, and activate their motivating priorities in life, of course!

Start with Why, Simon Sinek

Sinek explores the core of motivation–what motivates us, and what motivates others to action–in his breakout book. Or, you can get a pretty good summary via his 18-minute Ted Talk.

The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg

Of course, once we have the motivation, we often need help putting it to work, hence a deep dive on the science of habit formation. As advisors, it’s helpful to understand that people aren’t just financially “dumb”–they (we) are all just creatures of habit.

Atomic Habits, James Clear

Clear picks up where Duhigg leaves off, giving us a roadmap to powerful, positive habit formation. Again, as advisors, we’re in the business of helpful habit formation.

You Are What You Love, James K. A. Smith

If Duhigg and Clear help us evolve from discipline to habit, Smith takes it to another level, through to the final evolutionary stage–welcome ritual. This book definitely falls into the “spiritual” category, as Smith’s philosophy is primarily drawn from a Judeo-Christian worldview, but I do think it is ecumenically applicable.

Books for Practice Management

Now let’s get to work:

There Is No Good Card For This, Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell

The first book I mention is not explicitly oriented toward the practice of financial advising, but it is no less applicable, because the great human unifier is pain. No Good Card is a crash course in how to say you’re sorry and effectively helping people navigate challenges in life. It should be a prerequisite for every financial advisor, because every single one of us will face this tragic privilege in our work.

The Financial Wisdom of Ebeneezer Scrooge, Kahler, Klontz and Klontz

This oddly-named book is a great place to start when you consider the implications of psychology within the context of financial formation. It’s a quick, easy read that sets off a series of lightbulb moments, making it a great client gift as well as an advisor introduction.

Lighting the Torch, George Kinder and Susan Galvin

It’s unfortunate that this book is so hard to get your hands on, because it is an excellent articulation of the Kinder EVOKE® method of life planning, something you’ll see more about in the recommended trainings below.

Facilitating Financial Health, Kahler, Klontz and Klontz

If Scrooge is the prelude, Facilitating Financial Health is the masterclass, a literal textbook for financial advisors, therapists, and executive coaches (and priced as such). The best compliment I can give the book is a comment I got from another advisor to whom I had recommended it: “This should be required reading for every financial advisor.” I agree.

Practice Management Articles

I’ve written many, many articles about financial life planning, but here are a few that speak to some of that which I’ve learned from the books above and the trainings that you’ll see outlined below:

Behavioral Economist Richard Thaler’s Message To Advisors, Money

One of my favorite interviews ever was Professor Thaler, the co-author of Nudge and the author of Misbehaving…and the dude who coined the term, “behavioral economics.” I don’t think he’d take my call after winning the Nobel prize.

Riding The Elephant: Mastering Decision Making In Money And Life, Forbes

This article focuses on the big takeaway from Kahneman’s work, Systems 1 and 2, AKA, the Elephant and the Rider.

3 Questions That Will Get Your Finances–And Life–On Track, Money

George Kinder’s legendary “3 Questions” can change your financial planning practice…and your life.

Solving For The Qualitative Deficit In Financial Planning, Forbes

This book summarizes a host of the thought leaders referenced here.

Adopting A “Coach Approach” To Overcome Financial Planning Inaction, Kitces.com

This is a long-form article listing some of the biggest takeaways from my professional coach training (below).

Trainings To Attend

These aren’t the only trainings available, just the ones that I have experienced, personally, and am happy to recommend. Here again, I’ve listed them in an ascending order that I hope will serve you well wherever you are on your vocationally journey:

The Seven Stages of Money Maturity®, Kinder Institute of Life Planning

This two-day training is an excellent introduction to becoming a true practitioner of financial life planning, as taught by George Kinder. And I’d wager you get about four days’ worth of personal and professional impact for the two days it requires.

Fundamentals of True Wealth Planning, Money Quotient

Money Quotient is a true gem in the Pacific Northwest, a community led by Carol Anderson and Amy Mullen that has created teaching and tools that have been helping advisors put the life in financial life planning for many years. I’ve taken their 3-day fundamentals training, not once, not twice, but three times–and I’ve learned something new every time!

EVOKE® Life Planning Training, Kinder Institute of Life Planning

This is the legendary five-day intensive course where Kinder, or one of the other excellent trainers at the Institute, teaches you the entire client-ready EVOKE® method through an experiential intensive. I’ve yet to talk to a trainee, myself included, who didn’t consider it to be truly life changing–and if you stack the two-day with the five-day and the Life Planning Mentorship, you can also acquire the Registered Life Planner® designation, if you choose.

Core Essentials Fast Track Professional Coach Training Program, Coach U

Having dedicated many hours to learning about life planning within the sphere of financial planning, I was inspired a couple years ago to see what the world outside of financial planning had to say about life planning. I decided to drink from the fire house, taking Coach U’s 6-day Essentials class that is a precursor to gaining ICF certification as a professional coach.

As I mentioned, I don’t consider this list to be comprehensive, and therefore, I’d love to hear of any of the books, articles, and trainings that would be on your list!

Posted on Sunday, May 10, 2020

Helpful Perspective From A Rockstar Non-Profit And A Tailwind

Do you ever get so caught up in your own head, in your own stuff, that you lose perspective? I can’t imagine a time that would be more inclined to lead us to insular thinking, self-pity, conspiracy theorizing, and perspective losing than this season we’re trudging through.

So in this week’s Financial LIFE Planning weekly installment, you’ll get some perspective that I hope will give you peace and help you make wise financial, and other, decisions:

An exclusive FLiP video chat with Michael O’Neal, the Executive Director of global non-profit, ONEWORLD Health
A confounding Weekly Market Update with a side of cheese
A reminder about our capacity to overestimate our own capabilities

Oh, and Happy Mothers Day, to mine and all of you moms!

Financial Planning

How to Get More Than You Give

Have you ever noticed that when you give to someone whose needs are greater than yours, you actually feel like you have more? Whether it’s a friend in need of a pick-me-up, an investment of your time at a soup kitchen, or a charitable contribution, this change in perspective is one of three major benefits of giving.

The other two? Well, in addition to our perspective being changed, we experience a biological phenomenon, an endorphin rush. Apparently, we’re biologically wired to feel good when we give. Cool, right? And pragmatically, depending on how (or if) you file your tax return, you may also get a rebate on a portion of your financial gifts…check with your CPA.

This week, I recorded a video chat I had with the Executive Director of ONEWORLD Health, Michael O’Neal, specifically for you! We discussed their unique approach to sustainable development work that has enabled them to survive the COVID-19 crisis–and the success they’ve had cultivating relationships with individuals, families, businesses, and even rock bands, like NEEDTOBREATHE, who alone has raised over $2.3 million for the work their doing.

He also explains why we always get more than we give. Click below to watch the nine-minute excerpt, or top off your coffee and click HERE for the full 23-minute interview.

And yes, if you’re jonesing to put that give-more-than-you-get business to the test right now, it’s easy–click HERE and hit the Donate button. And if you choose to give $50 or more, please let me know, because I’d like to send you a personal thank you.

Weekly Market Update:

After two marginally down weeks, the market had another week in the green, almost confoundingly so:

+2.56% DJIA (30 big U.S. companies)
+3.50% S&P (500 big U.S. companies)
+2.71% EFA (~900 international companies)

The biggest question for most people is, “How!? How is the market going up when the economic news is historically bad?” It’s true: Unemployment this week hit 14.7%–the worst since the Great Depression.

Although clearly indeed of a beard trim–sorry, Mom!–I joined Jill Wagner on Cheddar (an online TV channel) to discuss this seemingly odd phenomenon, and to offer some suggestions for the unemployed, under-employed, self-employed, and gainfully-employed in these challenging times:

Life Planning

Is the wind at your back?

I’m not a “cyclist,” but I do love to ride my bike. Last week, I took a new ride, recommended by my good friend–who is a cyclist–that stretched me a bit, and gave me another healthy dose of perspective.

I love to have a destination, so I set my course for the Bulls Island Ferry, a beautiful spot in Awendaw, SC. The total ride was about 20 miles, and on the way there, I felt like an Olympian, averaging about 18 mph. (“Maybe I can call myself a cyclist,” I was beginning to think.

With head held high, I took in the beautiful view, nodded proudly to the couple that I passed on the last mile, and headed homeward. Only then did I realize that I’d had a meaningful tailwind that I’d now be fighting the entire way home. The wind had been at my back.

And as I was thinking about a contingency plan on mile 15–suffering the embarassment of calling my wife and asking her to pick me up in the middle of nowhere, a length to which I thank the Lord I didn’t (quite) have to go–a question hit me like an easterly wind pounding route 17:

How much of whatever I’ve done well in life was actually just thanks to a solid tailwind? Being born into a great family? In the right zip code? Being on the right team? Having selfless friends? Working with amazing people?

How about you? Is it possible that your successes have been aided by a tailwind? If so, who is deserving of thanks? (In addition to your mother, of course!)

How about now? If you feel like a failure at the moment, is it possible you’re just facing the greatest economic headwind of a generation? Who can you ask for help?

Or if you’re fortunate enough to be cranking through this crisis at top speed, who can you help?

And if you think of the people who’ve been your tailwind, I hope you take a moment–why not now?–to thank them.

The spent lungs and sore butt were worth the perspective…and so was the view:

I hope you have a great Mother’s Day and find a healthy tailwind this week!

Tim

Posted on Monday, December 11, 2017

The Elephant In The Room: How The Financial Industry’s Shunning Of Emotions Fails Its Clients

I don’t think professor Richard Thaler is going to return my calls anymore. Sure, he was gracious enough to give me an interview after his most recent book, Misbehaving, a surprisingly readable history of the field of behavioral economics, was published. But now that he’s won a Nobel Prize, something tells me I’m not on the list for the celebration party.

(Although, if that party hasn’t happened yet, professor, I humbly accept your invitation!)

But I’m still celebrating anyway, because Thaler is a hero of mine and I believe that the realm of behavioral economics–and behavioral science more broadly–can and should reframe the way we look at our interaction with money, personally and institutionally, as well as the business of financial advice.

Behavioral Economics In Action

The Elephant and the Rider

Of course, even if you’re meeting Thaler for the first time, his work likely has already played a role in your life in one or more of the following ways:

Historically, your 401(k) (or equivalent) retirement savings plan has been “opt-in,” meaning you proactively had to make the choice–among many others–to do what we all know is a good idea (save for the future). But our collective penchant for undervaluing that which we can’t enjoy for many years to come led most of us to default to inaction. Thanks largely to Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s observations in the book Nudge, more and more companies are moving to an “opt-out” election, automatically enrolling new employees in the plan with a modest annual contribution.
Better yet, many auto-election clauses gradually increase an employee’s savings election annually. Because most receive some form of cost-of-living pay increase in concert with the auto-election bump, more people are saving more money without even feeling it!
Additional enhancements, like a Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA), help ensure that these “invisible” contributions are automatically invested in an intelligently balanced portfolio or fund instead of the historical default, cash, which ensures a negative real rate return.
Some credit card awards now automatically deposit your “points” in an investment account while some apps, like acorns.com, “round up” your electronic purchases and throw the loose virtual change in a surprisingly sophisticated piggy bank.

No, you’re not likely to unknowingly pave your way to financial independence, but thanks to the work of professor Thaler and others, many are getting a great head start without making a single decision.

What is most shocking to me, however, is the lack of application–or the downright misapplication–of behavioral economics in the financial services industry.

Posted on Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Danica Patrick On Finding The Motivation For Financial Responsibility

I recently asked race car driver Danica Patrick if she thinks there is any validity to the adage that more money simply creates more problems, as the near epidemic documented in professional sports would seem to indicate.

I wanted to know whether she has seen this firsthand, and whether it has been a challenge for her.

Danica Patrick (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)

“I can see how some would have difficulty managing the money they earn — especially if they do not have an existing mindset geared towards savings,” Patrick said.

“But for me, more money presents more responsibility,” she added.

We were talking because she’s advocating on behalf of Life Happens, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of life insurance. But to Patrick, it all flows from a mindset about personal responsibility and holistic self-care.

“You have to take care of your body by working out and preparing for the future to make sure that it’s healthy,” she told me.

“Later, you do things to prepare yourself mentally, to make sure that you can handle all situations and have peace of mind and have perspective and know what’s important. So then why wouldn’t you also take that approach with what it takes to operate in the society that we live in–money?”

Good question, Danica. It seems so logical, yet year-after-year, I’ll bet two of the resolutions most often broken are related to maintaining health and finances.

So why do we have so much trouble doing these things that we all seem to agree we should?

Well, for one, we’ve learned through the fields of behavioral economics and finance that knowing what to do isn’t the issue. Knowing what to do is a System 2 process, as Daniel Kahneman teaches us. System 2 is our brain’s intellectual center that processes information.

Doing what we know, however, is a System 1 process. This is our emotional processor, where the will resides. System 1 is notorious for resisting our well-conceived plans, but it can also be a powerful ally, as it’s where resiliency is fueled.

Jonathan Haidt gave us the analogy that System 1 is like an (emotional) Elephant while System 2 is the elephant’s (reflective) Rider. When the two are in conflict, we all know who wins; but when the team is aligned, they are a formidable force.

The Rider is in charge of what to do and how to do it, but the Elephant only cares why.

The big challenge when it comes to getting and staying healthy, physically or financially, is that the vast majority of information out there is System 2 stuff–what and how. Think: “Lose 50 pounds!” or “Make a million dollars!”

But System 1 is the boss, the “decider,” and the source of resolve.

When Patrick decided to become a race car driver, she chose the course her life would take with System 1. Then she used System 2 to chart that course.

When people said she was too small (read: a woman), she appealed to her System 1 to stay the course while plotting with her System 2 how she’d prove them wrong.

When it comes to your health, you know you should get more sleep, watch your diet and exercise, right?

When it comes to your financial life, you know you should spend less than you make, pay your bills and invest for the future, right?

But why?

Well, let’s start with an easy one, the one Danica Patrick is advocating for: life insurance.

Why do you need life insurance?

Well, maybe you don’t. If you’re independently wealthy and/or no one relies on you financially, then you don’t need life insurance. (There are a couple reasons why you might still want it, but they’re outliers and probably don’t apply to you.)

If, on the other hand, you’re like most of us–still on the path to financial independence with people in your life who would suffer financially if you left this Earth tomorrow–you probably do need life insurance.

Patrick saw a twenty-something friend in racing lose his life on the track–that was more than enough motivation.

But perhaps you’ve heard some version of this “why” story, and it didn’t inspire the Elephant to apply for a life insurance policy. It’s likely because the very next thing that happened involved the Elephant getting spooked by all of the “whats” and “hows” of life insurance.

There are so many life insurance companies and so many more life insurance salespeople, all so highly motivated to sell you too many types of policies, that the end result is way too much information.The Rider might enjoy the mental gymnastics, but it simply tires the Elephant out.

So if you recognize the need for life insurance but you’re overwhelmed by the information overload, let me offer a simple life insurance plan that will take care of most:

Multiply your salary by 15 and buy that much 20-year term life insurance.

Why? (Since I’ve argued that is the operative question…) Well, it’s likely your salary that needs to be replaced if you’re gone, and a multiple of 15 should create a sufficient pot of money that, conservatively invested, will replicate your income for a good while.

Why term life? Because if you’re healthy, even though 15 times your income is a big life-changing number, the premiums tend to be small enough that they won’t change your lifestyle. That’s not the case with most forms of permanent life insurance.

And why 20-year term? Because for most, their need for life insurance will expire before they do (thankfully!). For most, 20 years in, the kids are out of the house and retirement is close. If you’re just starting a family, you might want to extend some of your coverage to 30-year term, and if you expect to retire in 10 years, get 10-year term.

And if you still need some additional motivation to get that Elephant moving, a final word from Danica Patrick:

“There are only so many things in life that we can control – do everything you can to position yourself for success by being fit. When you’re taking care of yourself, whether it’s your health or what you eat or your finances, it’s about self-worth. Never doubt that you are worth it and invest in yourself and your future both physically and financially.”

Posted on Monday, July 31, 2017

Solving for the Qualitative Deficit in Financial Planning

“The whole financial planning process is wrong,” says George Kinder, widely recognized as one of the chief educators and influencers in the financial planning profession.

But what exactly does he mean, and how does he justify this bold statement?

First, let’s separate the work of financial planning into two different elements–let’s call the first quantitative analysis and the second qualitative analysis.

Quantitative analysis is the more tangible, numerical and objective. It’s where planners tell clients what they need to do and, perhaps, how to do it. For example:

“Your asset allocation should be 65% in stocks and 35% in bonds.”
“You need $1.5 million of 20-year term life insurance.”
“Have your will updated and consider utilizing a pooled family trust.”

The qualitative work of financial planning is the intangible, non-numerical pursuit of uncovering a client’s more subjective values and goals, and, hopefully, attaching recommendations like those above to the client’s motivational core–their why.

If quantitative work is of the mind, qualitative is of the heart.

Qualitative planning often has been dubbed “financial life planning”–or simply “life planning.” It is defined in Michael Kay’s book, The Business of Life, as the process of:

Posted on Saturday, February 15, 2014

Time Is More Precious Than Money

As the Fed has taught us through the money-printing machine cloaked as quantitative easing, the potential supply of U.S. dollars is limitless. Even for most of us individually, we are capable, to varying degrees, of generating and regenerating money through work, investment and happenstance.

Time, however, is a different story.

Thanks to Emily Rooney for permission to feature her artwork

It brings to mind these lyrics: “Where you invest your love, you invest your life,” croons Marcus Mumford in the song “Awake My Soul” on Mumford & Sons’ debut album, “Sigh No More.”

Sure, musicians are notorious for writing lyrics because they sound self-important, or maybe simply because they rhyme, but Mumford has earned a reputation for lyrical brilliance and offers us something deep and meaningful here to apply in our lives and finances.

No matter how much we strive, delegate and engineer for efficiency, there are only 24 hours in each day. We are unable to manufacture more time, and once a moment has passed, it is beyond retrieval.

Of these 24 hours each day, if we assume that we will sleep, work and commute for approximately 17 of them, that leaves us with a measly seven hours to apply ourselves to loftier pursuits. After an hour at the gym, an hour to eat and another hour to decompress with a book or TV show, we’re down to four hours to personally affect those for whom we are presumably working and staying healthy—the people we love.

Our human capacity to love also has its limits.

While not measurable, we can all acknowledge that our capacity to love, in the four hours each day that we have to invest it, is affected by how we’ve invested the other 20 hours. By the “end” of many days, we are just beginning our four hours, and we are already spent. Even if we wanted to, we have nothing left to give—no love left to invest.

I am a chief offender of misallocating my love.

I often allow the four hours I have to give to my wife, Andrea, and two boys, Kieran (10) and Connor (8), to shrink to three, two or even one. In whatever time is allocated, I often serve leftover love, having over-invested myself throughout the day. Then I steal from their time, interrupting it with “important” emails and calls.

I must acknowledge that these are choices I make.

We have the choice to order our loves, to acknowledge the limited nature of time and our own capacity, and to prioritize our work and life.

It’s entirely appropriate to love our work and the people we serve through it. It’s entirely appropriate to love ourselves and to do what is necessary to be physically, fiscally, psychologically and spiritually healthy. It’s entirely appropriate to love our areas of service and civic duty, and to serve well. Therefore, almost paradoxically, it’s entirely appropriate to spend 83 percent of our daily allotment of time in pursuits other than the direct edification of those we love the most.

But what would our lives look like if we engineered our days to make the very most of the other four hours?

Would we have a different job? Would we live in a different house or part of the country? Would we drive a different car? Would we say “no” to some people more and to other people less? Would we invest our time and money differently?

Would you invest your love differently?

I’m excited to be part of a contingent of financial advisors asking these questions of our clients (and ourselves). We don’t believe that the only way to benefit our clients is through their portfolios, and we believe that asset allocation involves more than mere securities.

This isn’t a particularly new concept. Indeed, the second phase of the six-step financial planning process, as articulated in the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) practice standards, is to “determine a client’s personal and financial goals, needs and priorities.” But thought leaders like Rick Kahler, Ted Klontz, Carol Anderson, George Kinder, Carl Richards and Larry Swedroe are persistently nudging the notoriously left-brained financial realm to reconcile with its creative and intuitive side for the benefit of our clients.

With statistics suggesting that as many as 80% of financial planning recommendations are not implemented by clients, it’s officially time to recognize that personal finance is more personal than it is finance.

If you enjoyed this post, please let me know on Twitter at @TimMaurer, and if you’d like to receive my weekly post via email, click HERE.

Posted on Thursday, January 9, 2014

In 2014, Accomplish More By Doing Less

Instead of bullying yourself into adopting new practices that are designed to overhaul your life for the better in 2014, consider finding the path to success by simply doing less.

The arctic blast of our fledgling 2014 offers a chilling reminder that the kindred warmth of the holiday season is over.

That’s enough being. It’s time to get back to doing.

“So, how’s it going?”

“Good. Busy. Super busy.”

“Me too. Never been so busy.”

It’s as if there is a self-worth contest sure to be won by the contender most frazzled.

But busyness is no virtue. If anything, it makes us—me included—distracted, forgetful and often late. It diminishes our capacity and saps our creativity.

That’s why we can actually accomplish more by doing less.

But how do we decide which activities absolutely must stay and which might have to go?

Five Minutes to a Leaner You

This quick and simple exercise should give you several top candidates for the chopping block. You need only one piece of paper with a line down the middle (or click HERE for a printable form). On the left side, write LIFE-TAKING, and on the right side, write LIFE-GIVING.

Fill the Life-Taking column with the roles (or tasks within roles) that drain you. They’re onerous chores, not labors of love.

On the Life-Giving side, list the opposite—those practices you can pursue for extended periods of time, wondering where the time has gone. You might be tired after a long day of life-giving activities, but you’re not weary.

I should be clear that this exercise is not a license to shed roles to which you’ve pledged yourself—like being a good parent or spouse—or common duties that appear on no one’s life-giving list—like changing diapers or cleaning dishes. Heck, the president of my company, Drew Tignanelli, washes whatever dishes he finds in the company kitchen sink.

But if the majority of your roles and the duties you’ve accepted are life-taking, I encourage you to consider making some difficult decisions in an effort to improve that ratio. That may mean saying yes to something, but it almost certainly means saying no.

Two caveats:

1) Following through on this exercise may be simple, but it’s not easy. Stakeholders are likely to be disappointed, whether you’re giving up a board seat, book club, church committee or poker night. Your income may also be reduced if you sacrifice an activity that creates income, change jobs or invest in furthering your education.

2) Many activities are not wholly life-taking or life-giving. For example, last year I decided that maintaining a presence on Facebook took more life than it gave. I certainly derived some benefits from being on Facebook, connecting with friends and family, but the net effect was life-taking. (By the way, I dumped FB six months ago and don’t miss it at all.)

Addition by Subtraction

You can cause a monumental shift for the good in your life and work by simply removing life-taking activities. Your performance in life-giving roles has room to flourish, increasing your productivity and satisfaction. Even more surprising, some activities will move from life-taking to neutral—or even life-giving—after your overall burden is lightened.

Hitting the delete button on even one or two life-taking commitments can make you a better partner or parent, boss or employee, friend or family member. And especially for those whose vocations fall under the creative heading, creating more blank space on the canvas is essential to maintaining and improving your art.

Special thanks to Josh Itzoe, a colleague and good friend, for encouraging me to undertake this exercise several years ago.

If you enjoyed this post, please let me know on Twitter at @TimMaurer, and if you’d like to receive my weekly post via email, click HERE.

Posted on Tuesday, December 31, 2013

7 Steps To Creating The Best Personal Task Management System With Trello

I have tried more productivity systems and tools than could possibly be productive. Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits are deservedly legendary, and I’m better for every habit I’m able to employ. David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology was even more helpful for me, especially because it seems to hone the best of Covey’s principles to a more elegant simplicity. But both of their complete proprietary systems proved too much for me to maintain long-term.

After keeping up for a few weeks—even past the 21 days that supposedly cement a new habit—I always failed to maintain the system after a reliably random task turned into a seemingly wasted day followed by a week of piled emails and unfulfilled pledges (and all of the guilt and shame to boot).

Another reason I’ve failed to maintain well-meaning systems is that after the initial novelty wore off, the checklists and to-dos all seemed to become rote and, well, boring. I needed something more visual and engaging to hold my attention.

Then Ryan Carson, the founder of Treehouse, introduced me to Trello (via blogger Leo Babauta). Trello is a highly visual (free) online collaborative project management tool (with access online and on iOS and Android devices), but Carson re-engineered it to become his go-to personal task management system.

I’ve been using it for five months now without fail, synthesizing everything from Covey and Allen that stuck, along with Carson and Babauta’s wisdom, to create the only task management system that’s ever really worked for me. Here’s how it works for me and could work for you:

1) After creating a Trello account, create a new “board” and call it Tasks. Each board is comprised of vertical “lists”—these will function as your task prioritization system. Then, each new “card” you add to a List represents an individual task.

2) Create your lists. My lists are a conglomeration of what I’ve learned from Covey’s 7 Habits and Allen’s GTD. My first list on the left is called “Big Rocks”—the priorities in life that I want to consume the majority of my time. Next is “Today,” the list of items that I hope to accomplish today, followed by “Incoming,” new tasks that have yet to be prioritized. As you might guess, “This Week” houses the tasks I hope to accomplish this week; “Later,” those tasks I’d like to get to eventually but are not yet urgent; “Waiting On,” that which I’ve accomplished but requires action on another’s part; and “Done,” a list of the tasks I’ve accomplished that day.

3) Whether you call it Big Rocks or Big Picture (Carson) or Most Important (Babauta), create a list under that heading with your biggest priorities in life. Mine are Spiritual, Family, Health, Writing/Speaking, Business and Personal. Now, click on your first prioritization category listed; you’ll see an option to “Edit Labels.” I recommend making each of your Big Rocks a specific color, and clicking “Change Label Titles” will allow you to give each color a name corresponding with your Big Rocks. Now, each time you add a new task, you can color code it with an appropriate label.

4) Add tasks. If you’re importing tasks from another system or just want to do a brain dump, add all of your tasks to Incoming and then decide where to put them later. Click “Add a card…” at the bottom of the appropriate list and type a brief description describing the task to be performed. Before you even hit the green “Add” button, hit the drop down in the bottom right corner and that will give you the option to add a label. Once the task is added, a host of new options can be seen by clicking on the card itself. Here you can give the task a longer description, create a checklist within the task, attach a file or give it a due date. Preferring the GTD approach, I keep it simple and trust my daily prioritization ritual.

5) After adding a bunch of new tasks, it’s time to prioritize each one by placing it in the appropriate list. Simply click and drag the card with the task you’d like to prioritize and move it to the appropriate list. If your lists span beyond the edge of your screen, you can simply hover on the screen’s edge and watch the board traverse in that direction, allowing you to place the card in the list of your choosing. You can also grab and drag the screen in any direction you choose.

6) The one essential habit you must form for this—or any other task management system— to work is to perform a review of your tasks board each morning. Ryan Carson recommends taking 19 minutes to start every day organizing your to-dos. “Limiting this to 19 minutes,” he says, “keeps you focused and ensures you don’t spend all your time prioritizing instead of doing.” First, add any meetings or calls on your calendar that day to Today with a precursor (M) for meetings and (C) for calls, along with the time. Then, relocate new Incoming tasks to the appropriate list. Review This Week to determine which tasks should be completed Today. Then, review Later to see which tasks should be bumped up to This Week and scan Waiting On to determine if you need to nudge someone else. Only keep tasks that were completed for a single day in the Done list, purging this list each morning by either moving the task to Waiting On or archiving the task. You can archive individual tasks by clicking on the card’s drop down, or you can “Archive All Cards in This List” by hitting the list’s dropdown in the upper right-hand corner.

7) Now, the fun part—getting things Done. If you spent 19 minutes reviewing your board in the morning, you shouldn’t need to look at any lists except for Today and Done for the remainder of the day. Throughout the course of your day, move completed cards to Done and reprioritize Today, leaving the next action to be performed at the top.

One of the perpetual faux-tasks that leads many of us astray from the completion of actual tasks is our email. As Claire Diaz-Ortiz reminded me this week, “Email isn’t work.” It certainly feels like it, but email is more a conduit leading us to tasks than a task in itself. Your email inbox is also a horrendous task management venue because it distracts us from the next task on our priority list, but we do often send and receive tasks through email, so Trello provides us with an answer:

Hit “Show sidebar” in the top right of your Trello screen; under the Menu header, click on Settings, then click on Email settings. This will allow you to copy and paste a specific email address that will send emailed tasks from your inbox to the board and list of your choosing. (Be sure to create a contact for that email address—something like Trello Tasks—and you won’t have to remember the email address.)

Trello is intended to be an interactive project management solution for groups, but it has become my highly-individualized, personal task management system of choice. The interactive, visual nature of Trello is what attracted me to it and has kept me using it, but the best part about it is that you can create your OWN system within Trello. Once you do, or if you already have, I’d love to hear about it.

Posted on Wednesday, July 31, 2013

10 Reasons To Take A 10-Day Vacation

For only the second time in my adult life, I just completed a vacation of more than seven days—10, to be exact. Corroborating my first experience, I am now convinced that there is a certain magic to the 10-day vacation and have resolved to make them an annual habit. Here’s why:

1. Most importantly, a 10-day vacation gives you the time necessary to surrender, to capitulate, to truly vacate. It wasn’t until fully four days into our Grizwoldian adventure that my wife was able to observe a genuine change in my demeanor. “You just seemed to visibly loosen up in that moment,” she told me. The moment she was referring to was when she, our two boys and I got caught in a torrential downpour in the middle of a bike ride. I wasn’t an overbearing ogre early in the week, but I was still in work mode; a tad too productive, efficient and compliant for vacation. It took me the first four days of vacation to transition from being a hesitant bystander to a willing participant.

2. Travel consumes a lesser percentage of your total vacation time. If you’re going someplace worth going, you’re likely sacrificing a day getting there and another getting back. Whether by plane, train or automobile—and even if the actual travel time is only half-a-day—the stress and logistical maneuvering consume a full two days. That’s almost 30% of the seven-day vacation, but only 20% of a 10-day break.

3. Because travel consumes proportionately less of the 10-day vaca, it also opens the door to a traveling vacation with multiple stops. With the family truckster fully loaded, we drove to Charleston, South Carolina from our home in Baltimore for three days prior to heading northward to Williamsburg, Virginia for another week—a highly improbable feat if you only have seven days to spare. This change in geographic context gave our single vacation the feel of two separate trips, each with their own set of lasting memories.

4. You’re gone long enough that you’re forced to off-load your duties at work. If I take a three or four-day weekend, I rarely even set my email out-of-office notification or update my voicemail message. I’m effectively taking a vacation while still on the clock in my mind. When I take a seven-day vacation, I’m hesitant to completely check-out of my work responsibilities and even feel guilty asking for help. But if I’m going to be missing days in more than two different work weeks, I really have no choice but to arrange for enough back-up help at the office to truly separate myself from the duties I’m hesitant to relinquish.

5. You’re gone long enough that you’re forced to budget financially for the vacation. Heeding Carl Richards’ advice, I don’t take a trip of any length without having budgeted for it. It takes away from the refreshment I seek when I have to wonder how I’m going to pay for the vacation when I get home. The additional time and cost of a 10-day vacation really demand budgeting in advance of your departure. Additionally, I recommend seeing where you stand financially five days in so you can recalibrate if necessary for the second half of your trip.

6. A 10-day vacation leaves sufficient time for the creation of memories through experience and the catharsis of do-nothing relaxation. One of the books I enjoyed over vacation was Laura Vanderkam’s, What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend. I found much of the wisdom therein applied just as well to vacations as to weekends. Vanderkam suggests that we “set anchors”—activities to which we apply some forethought, with the aim of memory creation—and allow relaxation to fill the gaps in between. None of us wants vacation to feel like work, filled with have-to-dos, but these anchors are, in contrast, want-do-dos. For us, a couple anchors were to take a horse-drawn carriage tour of downtown Charleston and to ride our bikes as a family into historic Williamsburg for Colonial-era root beer and ginger cakes.

7. You have the time to actually develop rhythms of life unique to that particular vacation. One of my favorite things to do on vacations is to find new rituals that seem to apply to that particular area and our family’s phase of life. Personally, I try to maintain some semblance of a workout regimen so I don’t feel quite so guilty about over-exposing myself to the local cuisine, so I found a fitness center I could ride my bike to most mornings. Our boys, Kieran and Connor, are at those ages (nine and seven) when they could swim all day if you’d let them, so most nights we went for a night swim to cap off the day. But it takes a few days to explore and find the rhythms that will work in a particular place and time.

8. You get the joy of seeing the week and weekend vacationers leave—while you’re kicked back “working” on reading your second novel by the pool. There is nothing fun about leaving an enjoyable vacation, but when your vacation begins or spills over into the middle of a week, you get to watch other people yell at their kids for slow-playing the departure process while you order a fruity umbrella drink. Those days on which everyone else is travelling and checking in or out are also great days for planning an anchor event (see #6) when you’ll likely have less competition.

9. You can avoid the dreaded vacation hangover. Long weekends can feel torturously short and seven-day vacations often leave you wishing you could go back in time, but by the time a 10-day vacation is over, you’re starting to warm to the idea of getting life and work back to normal. The idea of sleeping in your own bed has increasing appeal, eating out has started to weigh you down, spending money like the Greek parliament has begun to feel self-indulgent and you’re almost anxious to get back to the daily rhythms of work and rest.

10. You come home a better spouse, parent, employee—a better person. A 10-day vacation has the highest probability of providing the rest, relaxation and lifelong memories that we all hope to get, but rarely do, from the highlight of our summers. Conversely, taking fewer days often leaves a residue of dissatisfaction that leaves us perpetually wanting more. So go ahead, tack a few extra days onto your next vacation. We’ll all be better for it.

Tag Archives: Life Planning