Everyone, except a blessed few, struggles with getting organized. Some can instinctively commit themselves to the completion of to-do lists, incorporate errands into agendas, jot down important notes, and declutter regularly. However, many of us fall back on intentions, when it comes to planning and scheduling. Even when efficiency and productivity are on the line, time-management and structuring schedules can be a daunting task.

So what can I do to tweak my habits and become more task oriented? There are various things you can do, but it all begins with putting your life and workspace in order. This way, everything you need is accessible, and everything you don’t need finds its way to the waste bin.

Benjamin Franklin said it best, “For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” Because U.S. workers lose an hour search for items each day and because U.S. executives waste weeks searching through disorganization each year, it’s advantageous to be organized at home and at the office.

Break Down Tasks

Don’t merely make a generic to-do list. Instead, make a list of actions you need to complete, and divide them into sections, listing them by short-term, daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Be sure to include aspirations and other desired activities on that list, such as meal prep. Also, it’s important to not only trim out those frivolous activities but to determine how long the more important tasks will take. Try to be realistic when contemplating how long it will take to complete a task and remember to give yourself a grace period between each responsibility.

Declutter 

Individuals who live organized lives can quickly identify what they need and what they want. Holding on to fewer things offers you space and time to enjoy the things that you own.

Schedule Email Responses 

Rather than check your email at the top of the day and leaving it open throughout the day, schedule a time to check and respond to emails. If you’re responding to emails beyond normal business hours, use Boomerang and similar add-ons to publish and send your emails at appropriate times.

Sleep & Eat Lunch 

Bedtime routines and regular meals are essential. If you’re an individual who likes to squeeze every moment out of each day, consider the fact that if you’re exhausted and unfed, you’re not performing at your best. Energizing oneself through food consumption and rest can be the difference between failure and success. Resist the urge to skip meals or load up on empty calories, instead prepare healthy, easy meals and snacks, such as chicken salads, sliced cucumbers, stir-fry, or seared pan chicken.

Tackle Difficulties First 

Putting off heavy items on your agenda is tempting. After all, if you get the easier things out of the way first, won’t you have more time to commit to your bigger project? No. Procrastination is the death of productivity.

Plan Ahead 

Don’t walk into work blindly, try forecasting your tasks for the upcoming day. Identify what small actions you need to get out of the way, and focus on the most important items on your agenda.

Utilize Tech

Become organized in the digital space. You can do this by gaining access to programs and applications that intend to ease your life and make your world run smoothly. Evernote, Tripit, Dropbox, GroupMe, HabitList, Toodlelo, CoSchedule, Procrasterapp, Venmo, and Keeper are outstanding examples of fabulous apps that enable users to be their better self. Technology can make us more productive, just as it can distract us; but it can be used to save time.

By taking the time to organize your life better, you’ll be better positioned to tackle obstacles. If you have any tips or organization habits that work for you, please be sure to share them. 

Courage, passion, ethics, and resilience are inarguably components of confidence. While some are born with these comprising attributes, many others need the direction and encouragement of our teachers, our parents and our friends, who instill confidence.

Improvisational comedy functions on a theory called “Yes, and,” where members of a troupe build off of one another when they’re on the stage. They have to embrace and escalate zany and uncanny ideas. If they were to say “no,” the action and the laughs would stop, so they accept every challenge with a smile and a “Yes, and.”

For most adults, the inclination to say no is ingrained, particularly when opportunities present themselves, likely because new opportunities require more energy and more work. Yet, an extraordinary person welcomes all new opportunities, due chiefly to the fact that they have the confidence to say yes. They understand that confidence begets productivity, and they understand that each idea they bring to the table could be elevated and built upon with “Yes, and.”

Businesses and business schools around the nation have sought out improv troupe to learn the power of “Yes, and.” It should be understood that if you champion a culture where people are encouraged to develop ideas, people will come to you to you with ideas. They’ll have the confidence to bring ideas to you, and you, in turn, will feel confident about sharing your own ideas.

Please keep the following words in mind:

When you instill confidence, you get it back in return.

So, today, I dare you to be extraordinary.

I dare you to exhibit the PASSION you have for your career, your life.

I dare you to call upon your personal INTEGRITY to do the right thing.

I dare you to find the COURAGE to overcome obstacles

I dare you to be RESILIENT and bounce back from mistakes or disappointments.

And I dare you to acknowledge the CONFIDENCE you have and find a way to instill confidence in someone else.

Just today. Just for today, be extraordinary.

Tomorrow, you can go back to being ordinary.

But I don’t think you will.

“An Introduction to Integrity” is the fifth and final post in a series published around the “Dare To Be Extraordinary” address, shared at the independently organized TED event, TEDx Adelphi University. The preceding pieces are “An Introduction to Extraordinary,” “An Introduction to Passion,” “An Introduction to Courage,” “An Introduction to Resilience” and “An Introduction to Integrity.” 

Christine M. Riordan, PhD, is the 10th president of Adelphi University in New York. Her writing focuses on diversity and inclusion, leadership effectiveness, and career success. Follow her on Twitter at @Chris_M_Riordan.

Integrity is yet another attribute of extraordinary individuals. Integrity-abiding individuals prove they can be trusted because their inner values never waver, demonstrating that they’re exemplary because of their unshakable ethics and honesty. Some go above and beyond to display their commitment to integrity, even when it’s contrary to their own self-interest.

For instance, Andy Roddick, the No. 1 seed at the Rome Masters in 2008, identified an inbound mark on the clay made by the ball he’d hit. This led to his victory being overturned. Roddick’s ethics were so thoroughgoing that he was willing to risk a loss in order to do the right thing. The beyond-the-call-of-duty honesty made him recognizable as an upstanding individual. Often, individuals with integrity bring that trait to the workplace, making it a richer and more dependable workplace for everyone.

Extraordinary people ultimately win by making the right and, sometimes, difficult decisions. They win because integrity Is the backbone of character and strength.

“An Introduction to Integrity” is the fifth post in a series published around the “Dare To Be Extraordinary” address, shared at the independently organized TED event, TEDx Adelphi University. The preceding pieces are “An Introduction to Extraordinary,” “An Introduction to Passion,” “An Introduction to Courage,” and “An Introduction to Resilience.” 

Christine M. Riordan, PhD, is the 10th president of Adelphi University in New York. Her writing focuses on diversity and inclusion, leadership effectiveness, and career success. Follow her on Twitter at @Chris_M_Riordan.

Want a challenge in steadfastness?

Naysayers may have frequently told you that the odds are against you or that your plans will never come to fruition. They’ve likely told you to play it safe and to steer clear of certain risk. However, extraordinary people understand how to ignore these voices and how to proclaim self-assigned success. While resilient individuals sometimes suffer disappointments, they rebound. They don’t wallow in said failure, they pull themselves up by their bootstraps and return to the battle with raised fists.

All-time winning NFL coach Don Shula is a terrific example of resilience. He coached pro football for 30+ years and holds the record for most career wins. To date, he’s the only coach to have teams in six SuperBowls. Shula instituted a “24-hour rule,” a policy of looking forward instead of retreating from a loss…

Please read the rest of this piece on LinkedIn Pulse.

“An Introduction to Resilience” is the fourth post in a series published around the “Dare To Be Extraordinary” address, shared at the independently organized TED event, TEDx Adelphi University. The preceding pieces are “An Introduction to Extraordinary,” “An Introduction to Passion,” and “An Introduction to Courage.“

Christine Riordan, Ph.D. is the president of Adelphi University, and she’s renowned for her commitment to diversity, inclusion, leadership development, and team performance.

Courage isn’t easily won, it’s something that one has to fight for; it means coming face-to-face with things that are frightening, things that are outside of normality –and choosing to say yes. It’s easy to feign bravery, but just as easily, we can curl into the fetal position like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz. However, there are instances when our goals are tested, when people need us the most, and that’s when we demonstrate unknown strength. Like the cowardly lion, we tend to find that we had the courage all along when standing against all odds, proving to be extraordinary.

Extraordinary people are stimulated by the notion of risk-taking, they’re drawn to the idea of stepping out and being bold. Even shy people can be extraordinary, finding the courage to step up in front of thousands. The most unlikely people choose to be NBA players, astronauts, television producers, and CEOs. The decision to take risks and make bold choices is often rewarded.

In the face of overwhelming odds, companies have remained successful. Starbucks, for instance, has done this. One of my favorite books happens to be “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for its Life without Losing its Soul.” It tells the story of the company’s executives, and their journey toward continued success despite the threat of risk, public failure, and personal failure after experiencing a 42 percent stock drop following the onset of the recession.

Rather than give up, Schultz, the chairman, returned as the CEO; he closed stores across the U.S. for 3 ½ hours to retrain baristas; he invited people to email him directly, and immediately received 5,000 emails, and he launched Starbucks’ first national advertising campaign. He raised wages and offered healthcare to employees, he compensated loyal customers with rewards cards; and he did it although no one thought it could be done. He warmly laughed in the face of naysayers, because courage had won. Having faith in one’s own intuition is more important than presiding fear or doubt. Fear and anxiety are normal in challenging situations, but Nelson Mandela said it best, when he stated, “courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”

“An Introduction to Courage” is the third post in a series published around the “Dare To Be Extraordinary” address, shared at the independently organized TED event, TEDx Adelphi University. The preceding pieces are “An Introduction to Extraordinary” and “An Introduction to Passion.”

Christine M. Riordan, PhD, is the 10th president of Adelphi University in New York. Her writing focuses on diversity and inclusion, leadership effectiveness, and career success. Follow her on Twitter at @Chris_M_Riordan.​

Passion is an attribute that’s fastened to the tool belt of an extraordinary person. The drive, the interest, and stimulation are essential when building toward something great. When that interest and investment is to be directed toward work, success becomes inevitable. After all, truly extraordinary people are passionate about their work. It’s that zeal and enthusiasm that inspires and motivates colleagues to perform better, to move beyond what’s expected.

While some cynics roll their eyes at the commitment of extraordinary individuals, others will be marked by their nature and dedication. By constantly demonstrating passion through positive behavior, they attract others, pulling them into the belief of winning character and charm.

A friend of mine once shared a story about a camp counselor she had during his youth, an older man who met each person with an identical refrain each morning: “Good morning! It’s a great day to be alive!” Year after year, the man met grumpy demeanor with  a smile, and his obvious passion was something to emulate, something to make any business a success.

Any company that exceeds when it comes to customer service obviously possess passion. Not only this, but these companies recognize that passion is imprinted onto customers after customer expectations are met. Also, a wise business will seek out customers who are unsatisfied. They’ll work to exceed expectations, turning the disgruntled into loyal fans. Fundamentally passionate businesses understand that minds can be changed through demonstrations of passion because customers tend to gravitate toward those who practice the art of passion.

“An Introduction to Passion” is the second post in a series published around the “Dare To Be Extraordinary” address, shared at the independently organized TED event, TEDx Adelphi University. The preceding piece is “An introduction to extraordinary.”

Christine M. Riordan, PhD, is the 10th president of Adelphi University in New York. Her writing focuses on diversity and inclusion, leadership effectiveness, and career success. Follow her on Twitter at @Chris_M_Riordan.​

Embracing your inherent “extraordinary” nature can be difficult.

If it wasn’t, there would be no conversations around the questioning of confidence and esteem, and there would be no short supply of brazen and bold individuals who are fearless and ready to do something that’s outside of the realm of ordinary. The act of embracing “extraordinary,” daring oneself to be something or do something outside of one’s comfort zone can be revolutionary, it can be remarkable.

Consider what the word extraordinary means: special, exceptional, and unique –and that’s just to name a few. That’s a word that’s often applied to heroes, leaders, game changers, entertainers, and political greats. For more than two decades, I’ve conducted research on leaders, and about 8 years ago I found that these leaders and heroes all have five ordinary things in common: passion, integrity, courage, resilience, and confidence.

These five traits can be practiced independently, but as a collection, these items fuel success. Passion is instrumental for work and life. Integrity is essential for trust in personal and professional relationships; courage is necessary for overcoming obstacles; and resilience is the buoyancy, allowing you to bounce back when knocked down. Finally, confidence, the most fortified attribute, is precious and important for acceleration and sustainability.

“An Introduction to Extraordinary” is the first post in a series published around the “Dare To Be Extraordinary” address, shared at the independently organized TED event, TEDx Adelphi University. The pieces that follow are “An Introduction to Extraordinary,” “An Introduction to Passion,” “An Introduction to Courage,” “An Introduction to Resilience,”  “An Introduction to Integrity” and “An Introduction to Confidence.” 

Christine M. Riordan, PhD, is the 10th president of Adelphi University in New York. Her writing focuses on diversity and inclusion, leadership effectiveness, and career success. Follow her on Twitter at @Chris_M_Riordan.

At the end of the evening, I watched as one coach brought his female and male athletes together. Some had won their events, others had placed, and others did not. The young women and men did not win their overall championships, though they came in second and third, respectively.

It was clear they had wanted to do better. The coach rallied his team in the middle of the track, with their arms linked around one another, and talked about their journey through the season. He celebrated their accomplishments as individuals and as a team. After tears, hugs and laughter, the team walked away from this impressive display of coaching excited to train over the summer and head into the next season.

Just as teams and athletes lose and move on, we can learn valuable lessons from how coaches and athletes manage what some might consider failure. Not all teams can be the champions of their sport — there can only be one. Coaches routinely work with athletes to help them manage failure and rebound to be even better.

Here are some of the best tips I have gleaned from sports that can help employees (athletes) and managers (coaches) better manage setbacks and failures.

1. Clearly define success.Dictionaries define failure as a lack of success, but its true definition is personal and subjective. Amanda Scarborough, ESPN softball analyst and coach, stresses that coaches and managers must clearly define what constitutes success, mediocrity and failure. Lack of clarity from the coach about the ultimate goal sends conflicting messages and creates confusion and insecurity. Good coaches tell and show their players what they expect. Amanda also points out that winning the game may not be the only definition of success.

Similarly, business managers must clearly define success, failure and mediocrity and outline specific outcomes and directions. Just as coaches review winning plays and techniques, strong managers provide examples of successful projects and outcomes, and coach their employees to the desired outcomes. John Wooden, the famous basketball coach, once said that the journey (the practice) is better than the end (the game). Wooden’s philosophy was never to stress winning; he believed the outcomes would simply be a result of the team’s collective preparation.

2. Fail fast and move on. In his book “Players First,” University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari stresses the need for players to “fail fast” so they can learn from their mistakes, make corrections and move on. He explains that bouncing back faster leads to success faster. This advice also holds true in the business world. Gail Kelly, the CEO of Australia’s second‐largest bank, explains, “How are you going to learn and how are you going to innovate unless you fail? You need to fail fast, quickly, and then get up and off you go again.” Adapting to a rapidly‐changing world requires the ability to fail fast, make the necessary adjustments and move forward with confidence.

Managers can play a valuable role by helping their employees learn how to bounce back.Even successful companies embrace failures and figure out how to move past them proactively. The history of business has consistently shown the utility of failure a as springboard to success. Grey Advertising actively promotes the idea that one must try and often fail in order to succeed. On its company culture page, Grey highlights the quarterly Heroic Awards, noting that innovation occurs “by embracing the importance of trying, failing, dusting yourself off, and trying again.” The award serves as a strong symbol for employees to know that it is okay to be imperfect and to keep working toward success.

Similarly, in an October 2013 Forbes article, Halah Touryalai profiled the odyssey of the Domino’s pizza chain, which in 2009 put its CEO in a commercial to distinctively acknowledge that Domino’s pizza did not taste good. Patrick Doyle publicly apologized for Domino’s failure to deliver a quality product and promised to improve the recipe. This risky and honest move paid off. Domino’s 2013 revenue was $1.8 billion, it is growing faster than its competitors and opening more locations.

3. Recognize when to rally. Don Shula is the all-time winningest coach in the NFL. Spending 31 years as a pro football coach, he holds the record for most career wins and is the only coach to have had teams in six Super Bowls. Shula had a “24 hour rule,” a policy of looking forward instead of retreating from the loss. He allowed himself, his coaching staff and his players only 24 hours to celebrate a victory or wallow over a defeat. During those 24 hours, Shula encouraged them to feel their emotions of success or failure as deeply as they could. The next day, it was time to put their focus and energy into preparing for their next challenge.

Like the best coaches, managers should routinely stress to employees that everyone makes mistakes, and the sooner they accept this fact, the easier it will be to recover. As Margie Warrell noted in a recent article: “If you’ve made a mistake – whether taking the wrong job, or not delivering the right result, or simply not managing yourself or others as well as you’d have liked – the most important thing is never to let it define you.”

4. Taking yourself out of the game altogether can be costly. Coaches stress that players need to have the courage to take the big shot, to reach for the prize instead of giving in to failure. Research shows that task-focused thinking after failure leads to improved performance. Self-talk that focuses on correcting errors and attaining goals will motivate you to keep trying and move on from a setback. The fear of failure can prevent employees from trying new things and achieving their personal best, so managers can help make it safe for employees to fail by emphasizing that failure does not define them, and by alleviating their self‐doubt by encouraging them to try again. As Michael Jordan said, “I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But, I can’t accept not trying.”

Managers must recognize that in business, as in sports, failure is possible and frequent. What happens afterward is what is important. I offer you these words to live by from coach Tom Krause, the co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”: “There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.”

Christine M. Riordan, PhD, is the 10th president of Adelphi University in New York. Her writing focuses on diversity and inclusion, leadership effectiveness, and career success. Follow her on Twitter at @Chris_M_Riordan.

Team norms exist whether openly stated or not. A good leader should facilitate sessions with his/her team to uncover the existing norms, both positive and negative, that impact team functioning. Establishing a social contract can reinforce positive behaviors while helping teams to overcome dysfunctional ones. Dale Hedrick, President of Hedrick Brothers Construction in south Florida, requires new employees to sign the company’s social contract. He notes that this contract ensures a culture of trust, encouragement, respect, accountability, and achievement.

Social contracts have their roots in social capital theory, which emphasizes information exchange and reciprocity between employees, mutual trust and fairness, and shared values and expectations. DaVita, a leading kidney dialysis company based in Denver, CO, is known for its focus on creating a “village” where teammates care for each other, patients, and the company. Everyone understands the social contract — in a village you watch out for, support, and help each other. The company fosters this family mentality by emphasizing shared values, norms, and identity. Their company chant, echoing the Three Musketeers, is: “One for all, and all for one!” This sense of shared purpose has led to a remarkable growth for the company.

Social contracts can be simple but must reflect the majority of the group’s sentiments. A great set of questions to ask is, “What expectations do team members have of each other? What is working well within the team? What is not working well? What should the team keep doing, start doing, and, as importantly, stop doing?”

In the movie Remember the Titans, Coach Herman Boone takes his high school football team to the battleground of Gettysburg. Having inherited a fractured and divided squad, Coach Boone implores the players to “take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together, right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were.” Coach Boone then establishes the primacy of an important team virtue: “I don’t care if you like each other right now, but you will respect each other.”

In every workplace and on every team, all people have the innate desire to feel appreciated and valued by others. Like Coach Boone, leaders of teams — and team members themselves — should work to foster a culture of value and appreciation.

High performing teams have well-defined goals, systems of accountability, clear roles and responsibilities, and open communication. Just as importantly, teams that foster cohesion with a sense of appreciation and gratitude among the team members maximize performance on a number of dimensions. Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, authors of the Wisdom of Teams, define a high-performing team in part by members’ strong personal commitment to the growth and success of each team member and of the team as a whole.

Research on gratitude and appreciation demonstrates that when employees feel valued, they have high job satisfaction, are willing to work longer hours, engage in productive relationships with co-workers and supervisors, are motivated to do their best, and work towards achieving the company’s goals. Google, which sits atop many best-places-to-work lists, fosters feelings of employee value through an open culture that promotes employee input, routinely rewards and recognizes performance, and encourages personal growth. In a recent interview, CEO Larry Page stated, “My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society.”

And consider the consequences of not fostering a culture of gratitude: A study of over 1,700 employees conducted in 2012 by the American Psychological Association (APA) indicated that more than half of all employees intended to search for new jobs because they felt underappreciated and undervalued.

Several recent articles point out the importance of saying “thank you” and giving specific praise to employees when earned in genuine, honest, and heartfelt ways. Mark Gaston’s blog on How to Give a Meaningful Thank-you is full of great advice such as sharing with employees how their contributions had personal significance for the leader and team.

In addition to these very important gestures of thanks, recent research suggests that a leader can enhance a culture of gratitude in the following ways.

1. Help others develop. Interestingly, the APA study indicated that 70% of employees feel valued at work when they have opportunities for growth and development. While promotion opportunities within companies may sometimes be limited, you can still invest in team members’ professional development through training, assignment to new and interesting projects, participation on task forces, and exposure to new and interesting different areas through cross-training. Employees frequently have skills that extend beyond the position for which the company hired them. Additionally, they typically grow their skills over time. Leveraging these broad skill sets can lead to greater engagement and satisfaction.
2. Involve employees. Team members feel valued when they have an opportunity to take part in decision-making, problem-solving, and to use their skills to benefit the organization. A 2012 study by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) showed the importance of employees’ opportunities to use skills and abilities, with 63% of respondents listing the ability to use their skills as the top driver of their job satisfaction.
3. Support camaraderie and collegiality. I conducted a study many years ago on the positive benefits of friendship in the workplace. Camaraderie in the workplace can lead to greater job satisfaction and commitment to the organization and doing a job well. Leaders should foster collegiality, help to eliminate toxic and dysfunctional team behaviors, and create opportunities for team members other than on work projects. At Google, the games/toys the company provides allow for entertaining and informal interactions among colleagues. These positive and fun feelings carry over when the colleagues work on projects together. The SHRM study in 2012 found employees’ relationships with their co-workers was the second highest factor related to their connection and commitment to the organization. Team leaders may also consider using social contracts, explicit agreements on how team members interact, to help shape positive behaviors within their teams.

Taking the time and effort to create a culture that values and appreciates the diversity and similarity within a team can reap great rewards in terms of performance and satisfaction of the entire team. At the end of the day, this principle is really very simple: we all want to feel valued and appreciated. So, in addition to overt recognition to employees, use a variety of ways to build a culture of gratitude.

Christine M. Riordan, PhD, is the 10th president of Adelphi University in New York. Her writing focuses on diversity and inclusion, leadership effectiveness, and career success. Follow her on Twitter at @Chris_M_Riordan.​