Ever heard that phrase? What it’s alluding to is the discipline to tackle the most important item on your to-do list first thing in the morning. I say discipline because it won’t have much effect on your business if you just do it once. But, if you ‘eat that frog’ day after day you’ll see your productivity zoom and you’ll feel really good about yourself.

When you’re in business it’s typical to feel overwhelmed since there’s always so much to do. One way to feel better about your big task list is to divvy it up in to meaningful categories. The ones I recommend are commonly used:
1. Urgent & Important
2. Urgent & Not Important
3. Not Urgent & Not Important
4. Not Urgent and Important

I created a simple Task Prioritization Grid where you can split up your task list and drop each item in to an appropriate category. (I readily admit the doc’s not pretty. Hey, I’m a business coach.) It’s fairly easy to place items in the Urgent & Important category and that’s good because this is the quadrant you want to pay attention to. It’s where your frogs are hanging out.

Now you know what’s next. Eat that frog and start your day off productively and feel lighter from there on. The next morning, eat it again. If you find that you’re making appointments first thing in the morning and that’s causing you to skip eating the frog for days at a time since your day often starts having a life of its own after 10:00 am, then revisit your scheduling process.

Need a little more inspiration? Here’s the short film that helps explain the concept. Do you use another method to ensure you get the most important work done every day? Please share it with me.

What is it about modern life that beseeches us to over commit? Especially when over commitment can easily create lots of stress. I’m trying to move away from telling people I’m ‘busy’ when they ask me how I’m doing as if it’s some badge of honor. It’s not. Instead I think it suggests you’re on a treadmill, which is good 3x a week for 30 minutes, not all the time.

I’m realizing as I grow older and, ahem, wiser, that under commitment is the way to go. Why? Because life throws us unexpected events all the time. How will we handle them if we’re already over committed? We start dropping balls, which creates even more stress.

On the other hand, if we are fortunate enough to not have anything unexpected happening, then we simply have some free time on our hands to do something relaxing or creative. I believe a relaxed mind is much more creative, which is why we spontaneously generate ideas when we’re doing something simple like showering or cutting flowers. If you haven’t come up with any good ideas for your business lately, then you might not be relaxing enough. Hmm.

How will you apply this idea of under commitment if you’re presently way over committed? Gradually. Start extricating yourself from commitments over time. When it comes time to renew one, don’t. When someone asks you to sign up for a new commitment, decline. It’s a habit you need to cultivate or you’ll never be able to leverage the power of under commitment for creativity, relaxation, planning, goal-setting, and so much more that’s only done with consistent free time.

Another magical thing about under commitment is that it gives you much more time to spend with those that are closest to you. This may be what I value most about committing to this change in my life.

I don't need to tell you as a small business owner that I'm having time management issues because you already know that we all have time management issues. I wonder if there was such a problem with managing time 100 years ago in 1910? Somehow I doubt it.

In 2010 it's a big problem. Today I'm going to address one way I'm dealing with this issue and that's a cleaner way of dealing with my email. When I first started this business of coaching small business owners way back in 2008, I was getting about 5 – 10 emails a day and they were mostly emails from newsletters I subscribed to. These days 50 in a day is not that rare an occurrence. Times have changed.

Well, actually time hasn't changed, but my in-box sure has. About 6 weeks ago I had an epiphany – my in-box has to change. So, I came up with my triple in-box system. Here's how it works in a nutshell. I have 3 email addresses that are used for specific purposes like an A, B, C list of tasks with A's being the priority tasks.

Mailbox A – This is my Growth Coach in-box and it is now reserved exclusively for email to and from clients, prospects and partners, my franchise family, my immediate family, and the few newsletters I actually read. This is important and urgent email that I don't want to miss on a daily basis.

Mailbox B – This is one of my two personal email addresses. I use MSN for this one and it is for all email related to my social networking such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. It's less urgent so I check it a few times a day. I also get email here from friends and non-immediate family. I get receipts for internet orders and statements from companies I do business with. This is important, but generally not urgent email.

Mailbox C – This one, which is a Yahoo address, is reserved for all the newsletters I subscribe to. I can let them pile up and it's no big deal. I have tons of storage. I'll go in here most days, but not always. I read a few articles and move on. I also get some email from companies I do business with, but I don't get any billing notices here – those are for Mailbox B. So, this mailbox is for email that's neither urgent nor important.

I've been using this system for about 6 weeks now and it's nearly there. I still need to move around a few emails from mailbox A to B, C to B, and so forth, and it will be done. I'm very happy with the results as I'm now getting fewer emails in mailbox A, which makes me calmer and more organized. I'm also better at following up on urgent and important email because I don't get distracted by non-urgent email.

If you're experiencing email overload and it's frazzling your nerves, you may want to try my triple in-box system, or go with at least a double in-box system, which is what I use in the physical world on my desk.

Share your comments on what you think about this system. What system do you use? I look forward to your comments, which will flow in to Mailbox A. That's how important I think you are. For now.

I was poking around LinkedIn Answers a few minutes ago and came across this question: How do you define a great coach. I couldn’t resist answering this question. Here’s what I said.

A great coach is someone who

a. Sees your blind spots. There are reasons you’re not achieving the vision you set for yourself, but you aren’t sure why. A great coach will see what you don’t through spending time in deep conversation with you and by taking you through assessments and experiences.

b. Is passionate about helping others. In their soul they are joyful when a client achieves a breakthrough in their life. At that moment it matters not that they are being compensated financially, but that they have helped the client do something wonderful.

c. Lives with integrity and seeks excellence in their own life. Coaching is serious business and a great coach lives up to the standards she sets for her clients.

d. Is a very good listener. In coaching sessions clients will tell their coach things that reveal much about who they are. Active listening hears and interprets what’s being said and frames that against present and past experiences to provide a mirror to the client that helps them really see themselves. This paves the way to new growth.

e. Holds their clients accountable to their commitments. I ended my LinkedIn answer here, but for my blog readers I’m going to add one more quality that I think is important.

f. Tailors their coaching to the client’s needs. Coaching is very personal. It is definitely a business where one size hardly even fits most. Therefore, a great coach works with each client in a unique and tailored way that helps that client get the best experience possible.

This was a good question to answer. If you have other qualities you believe define a great coach, let me know what they are. I’d love to hear them.

All right, it's January 5th, which means I'm late to establish resolutions for the New Year. Off the top of my head here they are in no particular order:

1. Start exercising

2. Roll out 3 new workshops on Sales Improvement, Marketing Mastery, Work/Life Balance for Education Professionals

3. Blog 3x a week no matter what

4. Create a Facebook company page

5. Raise my income by 3x

6. Get certified as a Guerrilla Marketing Coach

7. Get my son potty-trained and in to preschool (hey, this is the Build and Balance blog)

8. Follow my task management system consistently

9. Follow up on ALL leads within 72 hours

10. Follow through on ALL commitments within the agreed upon timeframe OR don't make the commitment to begin with

11. Become a darned good inbound marketer

All right, there's 11. But here's the deal. I typically don't make resolutions at the beginning of the year. Why? Because I believe in ongoing goal setting all year long. I push my clients to do it, and I do it. Therefore, most of these resolutions were made already.

Also, I don't expect to drop most of them within a few weeks as we often hear people do. OK, maybe the exercise one. (Don't tell my ex-personal trainer!) I just got the highest rating on health for my age from a major life insurance co. so I'm not doing too bad in the health area though I probably am eating too much processed food.

So, my suggestion on all this as a business coach is to forget about adopting resolutions or goals at the beginning of the year only and take it up as an 'all the time' thing and watch your results soar this year.

In case you did make resolutions and would like to learn proven ways to better keep them, I recommend you attend a free seminar in Foster City, CA tomorrow night presented by Leo Hirsch of Positive Outcome Coaching. He's a knowledgeable colleague. I'll be there.

I was listening to KGO Radio in San Francisco during the morning talk show last week and Lucie Arnaz was on. She's the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Anyway, the main subject was her entertainment career, but there was a moment when she and her host were talking about how difficult it is to have a very busy adult life and yet be a parent.

I can relate. This is a constant struggle. Lucie said that she had heard some time back that it's very important to spend 15 minutes of solo time each day with each child. And that it is a method that worked well for her.

She went on to say that it cannot be time while you're on the phone, reading a magazine, or otherwise distracted. It needs to be time dedicated to the child. This tells the child in a clear and regular way that you love and care for them. Over time the impact of this regimen is very significant.

Now if you have 8 kids like that reality TV couple, then this could be quite a daily investment of time for you. Me, I have 2, which means 30 minutes a day. I'm doing this now with my daughter and need to build it in for my son, too. I think it's very doable and certainly worthwhile.

What do you think? Is this too little time? Too much? Too hard? Too easy?

I was at a holiday party last night for my power team, FYbI Network. We usually have networking followed by a 40-minute presentation of interest to small business owners, then end with more networking. Last night was different. It was just about gathering together those people who supported FYbI Network through the year to celebrate the creation of something meaningful.

While I was there talking with other business owners and enjoying egg nog (for the first time in years) I came to realize that balance is attainable. For one thing, my wife was there with me. So there was some balance with my personal and professional life mixing. I was glad she was able to be there and meet my colleagues, clients and partners. Makes my business seem much more real now I'm sure.

The other aspect of the balance was that the event was almost entirely social. When you like the people you work and associate with, then you're not working when you go to an evening function like this. No, you're having fun with friends that you might do business with or refer business to.

I think it boils down to this, for a small business owner mixing business with pleasure is a key way to attain a balanced life. If the two sides of your life can't meet in the middle sometimes, then you probably will struggle with balance.

One thing I realize every week is that time management never stops. Every day life throws new challenges at you that can wreak havoc on your carefully planned day.

I have a few strategies that have helped me to stay on top of a busy day and manage to get a fair amount accomplished. Here they are:

1. Keep up with little stuff regularly so it doesn't pile up. Examples being: your mileage log, entering receipts in to your accounting system, emailing contacts to stay in touch a few times a week, and scanning in new business cards in to your contact management system.

2. Do anything that takes less than 2 minutes right then and there. This comes from David Allen of Getting Things Done fame – a resource I highly recommend. For example, an email comes in from someone wanting to make an appointment with you. You could do it right then and there to respond back with a time you're available. Don't put it off unless there's a good reason. Just do it then in less than 2 minutes.

3. Call people instead of email them. I use the phone a lot – as much as 2,000 minutes a month (and I'm not a tele-coach). I can make a lot of calls while I'm driving around during my workday and I find that it keeps me in touch with my clients and prospects just as effectively, if not more, than email. I save time by calling using my voice-activated dialer on my cell phone and people get to hear my voice instead of read my text.

4. Unsubscribe from what you're not reading. Whether it's in print or on email, if you're not reading it, then let it go. I just unsubscribed to something and came back. Took me 5 seconds and now that's one less email I'll be getting regularly. After Christmas is over I'll be unsubbing to a lot more emails.

That's all for now. Let me know what time-saving tips are working for you.

My wife has a best friend who's getting married in December. There was a luncheon for the bride today down at Santana Row in San Jose. Of course, my wife wanted to go, which meant I would be at home with the kids for the afternoon. I don't do that very often for her.

So, it was my honor to be with the kdis while she went out. What made the afternoon a real treat was that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law came over with their son along with some nice belated birthday gifts. I really do love Godiva chocolate. Always will.

Anyway, the three kids (my two and my nephew) had a great time visiting and I forgot about anything else I needed to do. Perfect activity for a Sunday afternoon. It was a good complement to going out trick or treating with the kids for the first time last night.

I like being Mr. Dad. Good thing, too, since my wife's going out again Wednesday night!

Business owners in their first year (and later) are very susceptible to the apparent need to work, work, work. Forget food. I can eat later. Rest? What's that? Gotta be productive always, right? Otherwise I'll fall behind and my business won't grow.

Only problem with this is that studies show that our immune systems don't work as well when we're overtired and underfed. We're also liable to have a shorter temper when we're tired and something stressful is magnified. Plus you don't look so good. Is this really a formula for consistent growth?

I find that I'm just not at my best when I don't get enough rest and eat poorly. Not being at my best is death for my profession: business coaching and marketing consulting. I must be at my best, which is my excuse for not pushing myself too hard. I know it's counter-productive to do so. Indeed, the harder I push the slower my business might grow.

Sure, I'll get a short-term boost from periods of intense activity, and that's good. But long-term my best ideas will never see the light of day if I'm still awake in the wee hours every night. And that's just not healthy.

Well, it's that time. Need to get my rest.