Jordan McGilvray

Home of the Middle Way Method & Keep-It-Simple Finances

April 15, 2012
by Jordan
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My Current Middle Way Method Productivity System

Over the years as my productivity method has evolved the system I have used has changed.  I have bounced between trying to use various digital systems, to using various planner and notebook systems.  In the course of all of this I have found a use for digital tools as well as paper and pens as parts of my system.

My Current System

  • Google Calendar
  • Disc bound planner
  • Disc bound notebook
  • Pocket notebook / Index Cards

Google Calendar

I use Google Calendar to capture any appointments that are a week or more out.  I only look at the calendar at the month level.  I also set repeating events here, and basically forget about them until I need to add them to my weekly planner.

Disc Bound Planner

My planner is a disc bound planner.  I use Staples’ disc bound system with pages from the D*I*Y Planner system.  I find this system extremely flexible.  My planner has the following sections:

  • Middle Way Method Outline
  • Mission and Vision Statement
  • Weekly Sheets
  • Journal Pages
  • Health Journal
  • Blank Pages

I throw away the weekly pages as each week is finished and I transfer the journal pages to my notebook as I finish them.

Disc Bound Notebook

I use my notebook for long-term notes.  I keep notes about blogging ideas, projects, books I want to read in this notebook.  This is my memory.  It captures thoughts and plans.  This way I forget fewer ideas.

Index Cards / Pocket Notebook

Everyday I look at my planner and write tasks and appointments on a page.  I also write notes in it.  I am using a notebook I found for a couple of dollars.  I have used index cards for this as well.  I like the index cards for their more free form structure, but they get loose fairly often which does not help.

My Planning Process

My planning process is a series of processes:

  1. Creating and maintaining mission and vision statements
  2. Setting and achieving goals
  3. Keeping a journal
  4. Capturing information
  5. Weekly Review
  6. Daily Review
  7. Creating a Custom System

I use the following system weekly and daily to work each of these processes:

Weekly:

  1. Create / Edit / Review Mission and Vision Statements
  2. Review Last Week and Journal using the following prompts:
    • What goals did I achieve?
    • What challenges did I face?
  3. Decide which roles to focus on
  4. Identify physical, mental, spiritual, and social goals for self-improvement
  5. Process notes, and information into the system
  6. Review / Edit / Create projects (Long term, multiphase goals)

Daily:

  1. Review Calendar
  2. Prioritize daily tasks

This system works for me.  It has been the most stable of my systems, lasting through life changes.  It uses some of the advantages of a digital system, and the simplicity of paper based planning.  It also has let me divide my system into distinct levels of focus.  This makes it possible to focus.

I use a couple of rules when working, which I have learned over time:

  • Each Day Pick 3 large tasks and 2 small tasks to carry out.
  • Use a timer to create distinct work / relax time.  I use a 25 minute work followed by 5 minute break.

I still feel that the most important part of my system is the mission and vision statements.  These provide the basis for improvement.  They tell me who I am now, and who I want to become.  If I want I change course at any time so knowing where I am going is helpful.  It provides direction.

I have tried various sizes of moleskin type notebooks.  These can make great tools, I have just come to like the disc bound notebooks better.

March 26, 2012
by Jordan
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Creating Your Personal Brand: Online Branding

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Personal Branding

When we apply the concept of personal branding to the internet, and discuss our online branding, we have a few different tools to help with the process.  We can manipulate social media profiles and pages.  We can choose a unique URL for an online presence and email, and we can control our email name.  All of this allows us to create a brand around who we are, or want to be.  It also means that we need to be responsible in our branding so that we do not lose our jobs, or ruin our chances for getting a promotion or job.

If we have no coherent brand, then we are not sending a message out to the world.  People will find unfiltered information.  What are the steps for successful online branding?

  1. Choose a URL for a website, and email
  2. Choose an online name
  3. Create an email address
  4. Design a website
  5. Design social profile pages

Choosing a URL

Choose your URL carefully.  For personal branding I have seen two types of URL choices.  Some people choose to brand their name for example, www.jordanmcgilvray.net or www.jordanmcgilvray.com.  Other people who want to be in a niche will create a creative URL name like, www.excalibursheath.com.  either of these types of URLs will work.  The name URLs will work best if you want to create a brand around your name.

Choose an online name

Choosing an online name can be tricky.  You can either choose to use your name, initials, or a nickname.  I chose to use jordanjm.  You will find this in some of my usernames for emails, Twitter, and other sites I use.  This is my default name for online use.

Create an email address

Now you have a URL and an online name.  Put them together and what do you get?  That’s right, an email address.  If you chose to use your name as the URL you can also have some fun by using me@your-name.com for your email address because it helps reinforce your brand.

Designing a Website

The next step is designing a website.  Remember that designing a website involves colors and textures.  What you use here defines your brand.  You are going to repeat colors and textures across the social profiles.  Have you designed a logo?  Use it on the header of the website.  Decided what kind of site it will be.  Is it a résumé website?  Is it a blog?  What do you blog about?  Answer these questions, because they will affect your social media site uses.  You want to use the social media to reinforce your standing as an expert.

Social Media

Social media branding is divided between profile creation and topics you share about.

  • Match the topics that you share about to your blog/website topics.  This ensures you have a solid voice on the internet.
  • Match design elements from your website to your social media pages and profiles.  Reuse your logo again and use colors from your website.  It may not look exactly like your site, but people will know it is you when they get there.

Conclusion

Online branding is simpler to do than most people believe.  You can carve out your name, and if you work hard at it can own the Google Search for your name.  This makes sure when you are found online it is a positive experience for everyone involved.

 

March 17, 2012
by Jordan
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Creating Your Personal Brand: Cover Letters and Resumes

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Personal Branding

The aspect of personal branding I want to talk about today is creating resumes and cover letters.  These two tools are a part of what make your brand.  You may want to use your website headers to create your brand, or you may want to just use your logo.  You can add a QR code to your résumé and cover letter.  Branding is about more than adding graphical elements to your résumé.  It is about building a solid message.  You are a marketer for yourself.

Graphical Elements

The graphical elements you may want to add to a résumé or a cover letter are:

  • Your logo
  • Your QR code for your contact or about pages
  • The header from your website or blog

Use graphical elements to good effect, and do not go overboard with them.

Text Elements

Use the text of your résumé and cover letter to help brand yourself.  Remember to create a constant message across all of your marketing documents.

Resume

Your résumé is your main marketing document.  Remember to make sure the message you convey matches the position you are applying for.  Keep your résumé up to date.  LinkedIn is a great resource for this.  It gives you the ability to record as you go.  This is what I call a base resume.  Now when you apply to a job look at the requirements and show in your experience.  I found an article that recommended adding a QR Code, which is a link to your about me page to your résumé.

Graphically branding your résumé is only part of the process of selling yourself.  Show in your resume for each job that you have the skills to do the job.

Cover Letter

You can create a letter head for your cover letter.  I suggest it be similar to the résumé header, so they look like a match.  You can add a QR code, logo, or other branding elements.  Adding a QR code to your contact me page may be something you want to do.  In your cover letter you want to address a few topics:

  • Show them you have researched the company
  • Talk about your educational experience
  • Show how the educational experience prepared you for the job
  • Talk about your experience
  • Show how your experience prepared you for the job.

You can organize each section, which should be no more than a paragraph, in a way that is most relevant to your experience.

Remember branding your résumé and cover letter will take time to accomplish fully.  Be ready for revision, and changes to improve your branding and tools.  Always customize your resumes for the industries you are pursuing.  Customize the cover letter and the résumé for the company and position when you can.

March 9, 2012
by Jordan
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Creating Your Personal Brand: The Business Card

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Personal Branding

My New Business CardOne of the first pieces of personal branding you will need to make, or have made is business cards. Business cards have a long history. Some people feel that they have served their purpose, and that newer technologies are replacing them.  Others believe that the traditional business card will be augmented by newer technologies, like QR Codes.  Whichever way business cards go they are here for the foreseeable future.

History of Business Cards

I found a  history of business cards in outline form.  According to it business cards developed in China in the 1400s.  From there they next made an appearance in France during the reign of Louis XIV.  Also during the same time trade cards and calling cards developed in London.  In the 1830s trade and calling cards became popular in the United States.  Over time the tradition of the calling card has vanished but the business card remained.  In the early 1900s tobacco companies started printing baseball information on the backs of their cards.  These developed into baseball cards.  Today business cards are again evolving as they move to stay relevant.

How to Use Your Card

Use your card in any situation where you want to stay in contact with another person.  Your business card can be from the company which employs you, or it can be a “Personal Business Card”.  Personal business cards can be used by entrepreneurs and job hunters.  Leave a business card with interviewers at job interviews.  It will help to remind them of who you were.  Leave your card with networking partners so they can contact you, or pass it through their network to people who may need your services or give you a job.

What to Include on Your Card

Include on your card your contact information.  If it is a personal business card include links to your websites or blogs which may help you get a job.  Include a logo/picture/QR Code to help people make contact with or remember you.  A personal business card should have your name, and at least three ways I think people can get in touch with you.  If you choose to include a QR code on your business card you have a lot of options to choose from.  My two favorite ones are to make it a vCard, or to make it a link to a contact form from your website.  I tend to like the contact form code because you can use URL shortening to keep the code simple for older phones, which do not have the resolution to work with complex codes.  As these go off the market (next 2 to 5 years) my preference will change.  The idea with the QR code is to help your contact along in connecting with you.

My Business Cards

For my business cards I decided to brand them to my Excalibur’s Sheath website to go along with my work looking for Accounting work.  I made them Jordan McGilvray cards to use in a variety of ways.

Printing Your Business Card

In printing business cards I have used two companies.  I have ordered and seen cards produced by Moo and Vistaprint.

I will willingly work with either of these companies.

Moo

Moo allows you to upload your own designs, or use their designs.  They specialize in great designs, great card-stock and double-sided printing.  You pay for it, as their cards will run you $25 for 50 cards.  In fact, in my order the cost was the only thing which was a negative.

Vistaprint

Vistaprint has a lot of design options.  They offer some designs for shipping only charges.  I seem to always tack on options which leave me paying slightly more.  With Vistaprint you will get 250 cards for that on your first order.  I suggest you look at Vistaprint if you are concerned about your costs.  I have dealt with their customer service and found them helpful and willing to go the extra mile to keep me happy.

Other Options

If you have more money to spend on cards you can find cards printed by letterpress, or printed on other materials like wood or plastic.  Die cut business cards are another option to look for as well.

March 6, 2012
by Jordan
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Creating Your Personal Brand

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Personal Branding

As I have prepared myself for the end of my current employment I have begun to learn about personal branding.  branding is a part of creating your public identity.  A person who has created a personal brand has their résumé, business cards, logo, website/blog, and social media all showing a cohesive picture of who you are.  With all of that said where do we start?  According to Personal Branding 101: How to Discover and Create Your Brand there are specific steps which we can take to create a brand.  The steps are to discover and create your brand.

Discovering Your Brand

Discovering your brand is looking inside yourself.  What are your values, important relationships, what you like to do.  Much of this has to do with discovering and becoming comfortable with yourself.  My posts on creating mission and vision statements will help you start on this path.   According to Personal Branding 101 you have found your brand when your self impression is equal to the impression others have about you.

Creating Your Brand

Creating a brand revolves around creating the uniform appearance for all the tools available to you. The tools at your disposal to use in creating your brand are:

  • Business Card
  • Resume
  • Cover Letter
  • References Document
  • Portfolio
  • Website / Blog
  • LinkedIn Profile
  • Facebook Profile
  • Twitter Profile
  • Video Resume
  • Wardrobe
  • Email Address
  • Logo
  • QR Code(s)

Take the time to tailor each of these items, if your industry uses them to be inline with your personal brand.  Even if your industry does not generally use certain pieces of your branding kit having them ready to go will help you look sharp.  It can be that bit of extra polish.

A personal brand is just like the branding done for products.  Companies work hard to tell you messages.  Make for yourself a set of messages you want to tell the world

March 6, 2012
by Jordan
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Ten Tips For Improved Productivity and Success

Compass and MapI thought about ways to improve productivity and increase your success. Here is my list of ten tips for improved productivity and success.

  1. Keep hesitation to a minimum.
  2. Take your big idea and try it on a smaller scale.
  3. Make failure a stepping stone to success.
  4. Define the scope and goals of your projects.
  5. Have weekly and daily reviews.
  6. Break your projects into specific steps.
  7. Work on your projects every week.
  8. Do one thing at a time.
  9. Do not keep broken habits, routines, and systems.
  10. Schedule Distractions.

Hesitation

Hesitation can be keep us from making some bad choices.  It can keep us safe.  Listen to your inner voice.  It will give you guidance.

Sometimes your fears will hold you back from reaching forward and taking that step into success.  Examine the source of your hesitation.  If it is coming from your inner voice, or intuition then listen.  If it is fear, uncertainty, or doubt then squash it.  Do not let good plans fall apart because of fear.  Sometimes you need to take that step into the unknown.

Take your big idea and try it on a smaller scale.

We dream big dreams and make big plans.  Sometimes the best plan is to take the big dream and to try it out on a small scale.

Make failure a stepping stone to success.

Thomas Edison took thousands of attempts to make an incandescent light-bulb.   Imagine if he had given up, just because he had failed.  Failure will lead to success if you do not give up.

Define the scope and goals of your projects.

One of the biggest problems with new years resolutions is that they are goals with no clear expectations.   If you do not give yourself a scope then you have no way to measure success or hold yourself accountable.

Have weekly and daily reviews.

At the start of your week look at your values and goals and projects.  Decide what you want to accomplish in the week.  At the start of each day prioritize your tasks from your weekly task list.

Break your projects into specific steps.

When you create projects that are big break them into smaller steps.  This way you do not get overwhelmed with a huge project.

Work on your projects every week.

Take the steps for your projects and accomplish them every week.  This keeps you progressing.

Do one thing at a time.

Multitasking has become a favorite ability companies are looking for.  I believe that most people when they try to multitask do things not so well.  It is possible to get more done if you group tasks by some type of context.  Process through all of your activities in order.

Do not keep broken habits, routines, and systems.

Sometimes when lives change habits, routines, and systems need to change.  Your planning system may need a tweak to meet new schedules, or your morning routine.

Schedule Distractions

There are several distraction in our lives; some are television, internet, email, Facebook the list could go on.  You do not need to eliminate them from your life, unless you want to, but schedule time for them.  Scheduling them will allow you to enjoy these things.

March 2, 2012
by Jordan
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Using a Tickler System

The last article I wrote went over how to make a Forty-three Folders Tickler system.  I described how to put it together to make it ready for use.  I want to go over some uses for the system this time.  The tickler system is useful for managing papers.  Think of it as your analog inbox.  Papers come in and go into the system.  This keeps things organized, neat and ready for your use.

Predated papers

Take all predated papers and place them in the system in the month or number folder it will be needed.  If it is needed on July 13 and it is March 21 then put it into the July folder.  When it is July first the paper will be put into the 13 folder.  If it is March 21 and the paper is needed on March 28th then put it directly into the 28 folder.

Analog Holders for Digital Information

It is possible to use a tickler system to track digital or other tasks.  You can put holder pages in the system.  These can be either index cards or full size paper.  Use these holder cards just like you would use the predated papers.  You can also reuse the holders for repeating items.

Other Notes About a Tickler System

Some thoughts from my family’s use of the system:

  • If you use the wrong container or keep it in the wrong place it will fall over and spill.
  • I prefer hanging file folders over manila file folders.
  • A similar system can be used using only index cards for daily and weekly chores.

Hacks on The Tickler System

I found some hacks for the system which you may find useful.  These come from the website 43Folders:

  • Bill reminder - When you have paid a quarterly bill, stick it in the next due month to remind you of the forthcoming payment. –RB 05:50, 11 Apr 2005 (EDT)
  • Recurring events - How to remember birthdays and other annually recurring events: Print out a list of the days in each month (31, 29, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31) in a straight column down the left side of the page. Write the birthdays beside the appropriate days in the list. Put each list in a monthly folder. Offset it (i.e. November birthday list goes in the October folder) so that a birthday during the first week of the month won’t mess you up. Now each month when you dump that list in your inbox you can add the next month’s birthdays to your calendar, and plan on cards, gifts, parties, and so on.
  • Monthly tickler - The 12 Folders plus 31 doesn’t work for me (too complex), but since years I have used a folder with 12 monthly pages – and this works. 18 Jul 2005
  • Bookmarks - I was thinking, sometimes there’s a site that I want to visit at a future date but either always forget or print off the page and stick it in the tickler file (which takes up space and trees). As a solution, why not create a tickler file in your PC’s bookmarks and check it daily for stuff you wanted to look at later. In Opera, I know that you can right-click on a folder of bookmarks and ‘Open all folder items’ … a real timesaver. –Michael Negus 08:54, 28 Jul 2005 (GMT)
  • Web Pages and Electronic 43 Folders - Using the IMAP based email tickler and an IMAP server that supports “extensions” When I see a web page I want to visit later I choose ‘File->send link’ and send it to ‘accountname+1todo.weekend@jalcorn.net’ (assuming I want to look at it over the weekend – my 44th folder). It is delivered directly to my tickler folder.
  • Calendar Mask - Overlay calendar information on the tickler file by ordering the tabs by weekday so that (at a glance) you can tell which folder is for this Saturday, or next Monday. (NOTE: I start my weeks on Monday rather than Sunday, so the first tab on the left is Monday, and the last two on the right are the weekEND.) It requires moving the tabs as you move today’s folder to the back, but big deal. (see photo) — Ross DeMeyere, 23:22, 27 Jan 2006 (GMT)

Good luck with your Tickler system.

© 2005-2012 Jordan McGilvray All Rights Reserved