Productive Catholic » Productivity

Change Your Mindset with the Concrete Goals Tracker

Dean Soto — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:55:02 +0000

Every new year we come up with new things that we would like to change – and that is no surprise. It is also not surprising that most of the goals that we would like to complete fail within the first two weeks. There is a very simple reason for this: big life-changing goals are hard to make into habits. While they may be difficult stick to, your new year resolutions are not impossible to accomplish. However, if you expect to change long-ingrained habits, you need a concrete way to track progress toward your goals.

David Seah is a designer who created the Concrete Goals Tracker. The original purpose of the goals tracker was to allow him to ensure that he was spending time doing the things that truly made his business better. The great thing is, he made an editable version – which means that you can use it for just about anything that you want.

The Concrete Goals Tracker allots points for specific tasks that help to further an overall change that you want to see. For example, since I am freelancing I use the goals tracker to make certain that I am spending the majority of my time doing things that will sustain and grow my business. Although writing blog posts may be fun, it does not pay the bills (or the taxes involved with a business). However, that doesn’t mean that blogging and self-promotion is not important to a business, but they are not as important as signing up new clients.

Just to reiterate, the purpose of the goal tracker is not to be a task management system that you use forever. You will most likely use it for a few weeks to a few months in order to change your mindset and habits toward your goals. For a full explanation of the free template and to actually download it, you can head over to David Seah’s site.

Concrete Goals Tracker [Original Site]

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2010. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: change, changing habits, goals, goals tracker, habits, Productivity, resolution, success

Make Big Changes in 2010 with 43 Things

Dean Soto — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:09:31 +0000

The new year is always a great time to make changes in your life. Whether it is changing your blog design (ahem…), praying a daily rosary, or learning a new skill – there is something about the new year that makes these changes seem reachable. Well, rather than dreaming about what you want to change, why not take advantage of technology offered in the 21st century and hold yourself accountable via social networking?

43 Things

There are a lot of resolution trackers out there, but the best and most social of them is 43 Things. 43 Things not only helps you to track your resolutions, but connects you with others that have the same goals so you can cheer each other on in your journey. You’d be surprised at how many people have the same goals that you do. For example, there were 5 people that wanted to go to Mass more this year, and that’s pretty sweet (hopefully they mean daily)!

Don’t let this new year be as stagnant as the last. Get out there and use tools like 43 Things to help you and your family become extraordinary Catholics!

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2010. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dreams, goals, goals tracking, resolution

Episode #18: The 20/80 Principle

Dean Soto — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:29:28 +0000

What is better, working on a lot of recurring tasks throughout the day that keep you busy for hours on end, or finishing a small task that makes a huge difference? Sounds like a stupid question, but I submit to you that most people choose to do the former every day. We tend to believe that feeling busy means that we are making a difference. However, being busy for business sake is really just being lazy – laziness in the form of not looking for what is really going to make a difference in your day, week, month, or year.

The 20/80 rule (Pareto’s law) helps us to find the little things that make big impacts in our lives. Rather than becoming inundated with a thousand different tasks, by focusing our effotrs on the big wins, you can be more productive and have better results.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 80/20, pareto's law, Productive, projects

Organize Your Next Parish Event Like a Pro with Eventbrite

Dean Soto — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:49:52 +0000

Do you remember how painful the registration for the last retreat you went on was? What about when you were asked by your pastor to make sure that nobody tried to sneak into last year’s Church play? Well, horrendously unorganized retreat registration, and cheapskate parishioners will soon become a thing of the past. Thanks to the power of web 2.0, you can create, organize, and even sell (or not sell) online tickets to your next church function using Eventbrite.

Keep it Clean

Eventbrite is a web application that takes the hassle out of organizing ticket sales for events by giving you – and your participants – the opportunity to get their tickets online. The great thing about that is, if your parish has an up-to-date website that promotes community driven content (i.e. it doesn’t suck and gets more than 50 hits a month), then you can not only advertise your event in the Church bulletin, but also on the web. That means that parishioners won’t just hear about your event one day out of the week, but potentially every day – depending on your parish’s web acumen.

Keep the Promotions Coming

Once someone has registered, you can configure Eventbrite to send them reminder emails as the event gets closer. This is a great way to ensure that your number of registrants equal the number of actual people that show up. Also, on those reminders you can embed a map to the location or even promote future events. The possibilities for getting the word out on what your parish has to offer is endless.

To Pay, or Not to Pay

The best thing about Eventbrite is that it is absolutely free if you schedule an event that is free for participants. However, if you want to charge for entry, that is easy too. Currently, you can charge folks up to $9.95 per ticket, and Eventbrite takes a small percentage of whatever you sell. The cool thing is that you can easily set it up to let participants pay by credit card online – this makes it so easy that it borders on sloth.

Give It a Try

If you have an upcoming event, I highly recommend Eventbrite. It’s way too easy to use, and makes you look oh so professional. Plus, it beats creating and folding black & white pamphlets that nobody ever reads anyway.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Church, event, event planning, organization, organizing, retreat

Episode #13: Leadership and Productivity

Dean Soto — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:18:58 +0000

You and I need to be leaders! What else can I say? Leadership is the single attribute that will grow your career, help everyone around you, and save the world. Why do I say that? I say it because it’s true. Leadership and decision-making is a rare commodity among in the workforce and within the Church. If you don’t believe me, why the heck do you think companies pay thousands of dollars per employee to have them go on weekend retreats where they learn team building and fall back into the arms of someone they “trust”? Leadership is powerful, and the driving force behind any successful venture.

What does leadership have to do with productivity? Everything! A great leader knows all of his/her resources, knows the overall goal, and motivates others to reach those goals together. Learn leadership, and you will succeed in everything that you do.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was going to put a couple of links that gave leadership tips, but after Googling for an hour and seeing that they were all full of crap (pardon my French), I decided to give you my three simple rules of leadership:

Know your weaknesses, and the strengths of others.
Build trust with others around you through authentic relationships.
Make a decision, because nobody else will.

Not very profound, I know, but it’s the truth. Those three rules will make you an effective leader.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: effective leadership, leader, leadership, leading, Productive, Productivity

Episode#9: Don’t Give Up, Like Me!

Dean Soto — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:19:42 +0000

Wow, there are not too many ways to be absolutely unproductive. But the absolute best way to ensure that you don’t progress in your goals is to do what I did last night – give up. Nothing is more certain to kill your dreams, and ensure that you are outside of the will of God than if you give up (unless we are talking about giving up your pride, or something of that nature). To give up is to despair, and if we trust in God, there should be no room for that sort of thinking.

Aside from all that, thank you to all of you that motivate me through your emails and comments. You are truly a gift from God!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: despair, giving up, persevering

The Easiest Way to Find Inspiration

Dean Soto — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:22:26 +0000

I am a shark. If I stop moving, I start to fidget, break out in a cold sweat, and feel as though I am going to die. Okay, not really, but I am very much a do-er, and in order to feel as though I am going in the right direction – I need to be doing something productive. But I am going to be honest with you, in some cases I hit a brick wall when it comes to producing content for this site – and I hate the feeling of not knowing what to say or write with all of my soul. What makes it worse is that the more I try to force something out, the harder the process becomes. Thankfully, after having been doing this for a while, I’ve found a sure fire, but not so easy way to let myself be inspired when I’m facing writer’s block. I’m going to warn you, it’s not profound.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: content, friends, inspiration, success, Writing

Getting It Done Like the Saints: St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Dean Soto — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:21:10 +0000

With the pro-life battle raging in the U.S. legislature, I thought that it be fitting to look at the life of the most popular pro-life saint (they are all pro-life, obviously) from the 20th century. I venture to say that just about everyone who is Catholic and actually practices their faith knows who St. Gianna is. In short, she was a physician that gave up her life in order for her child to come into the world. The great thing about her that I find most attractive – other than the fact that she was very cosmopolitan and a purveyor of the latest fashions of her day – is that she was a working professional.

She knew who she was

When most people think of saints, they think of women that give up all of their earthly desires to go and where long habits and lock themselves away in a convent somewhere. Not St. Gianna, she was a head strong woman that knew what God designed her to do. She was a physician, and proud of it. Before she met her husband, her practice was booming because she was damn good at what she did. She knew that God wanted her to practice medicine, and she never backed down from it – even when her fiancé suggested that she stop in order to stay at home with the children.

Passion is everything

So what does this all have to do with productivity and/or business? Everything! I don’t care what methods you use to motivate yourself, you will never be as happy, productive, or fulfilled unless you are doing what you are designed to do by God. That’s right, unless you love doing what you are doing you will always do it less effectively.

Now, I know what you are going to say, “but Dean, doesn’t all work glorify God if we offer it up – even if we hate it?” Of course it does, but we are not called to do work we hate just for the sake of it any less than we are called to rush off to martyrdom imprudently. If we are called to do work we loathe, then by all means we should be doing that because it’s God’s will. But if God is calling you to be an awesome web developer so that He could reach thousands of people through your talents, don’t go and be a musician because your Parish needs a cantor (we have all experienced what happens when people do that, *shudder*).

That being said, here are some resources on how to find your passion:

It’s the only way you can change the world

I truly feel that because St. Gianna followed her passion for medicine, not only will she be known as the pro-life saint, she will be the means of converting medical practitioners that conduct procedures that end life – rather than save it. Through her passion, she changed – and will continue to change – the world.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: finding your passion, medical, passion, Productive, Productivity, Professionals, saint gianna, saints

Episode #7: Barriers to Success – What Barriers?

Dean Soto — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:42:11 +0000

I was going to skip posting today because I was supposed to be finishing up a research paper for a class that I am taking. But I enjoy doing this so much, that I feel as though I am almost letting everyone down when I miss a post. This feeling is what I want to talk about today. It is something that you will only have if you love what you are doing. I’ve written other blogs before, and I’ve worked on other things, but this is one thing that I just find fun and fulfilling.

Why do I feel that way when I am creating content like this? It’s because it is what I was designed for. Sometimes there are barriers that keep us from doing the things that we are passionate about, and often they are not real (or unfounded). On the other hand, sometimes they are very real and we need to find ways to remove those barriers. Anyway, enough with being vague and onto my point.

What keeps us from achieving greatness?

There are three things that I believe keep us from doing what we love: fear, sloth, and impatience. These vices are more prevalent than ever before in our society, and guess who they are plaguing the most – Catholics. If you don’t believe me, I’ll explain why in the video below. It’s not a motivational speech really, but more of an observation of just how horrible we Catholic are at what we do (sorry, but it’s true):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Topics covered:

Fear, and how it holds 3 billion (1.2 Billion, thanks @MikeHaydon for the clarification [still a huge amount, though]) Catholics back.
We want something for nothing.
Even if we start something, we want instant results.
If you don’t work hard, you will fail – every time.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: achievement, achieving, evangelization, greatness, success

List of Lists: 10 Ways to Hack Your Habits

Dean Soto — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:33:38 +0000

I have always been jealous of how many of the saints were able to get a thousand things done in a day, do so on 2-4 hours of sleep, and when they weren’t praying they were able to learn more stuff in a few days than a normal human could in a few years. Of course, they were able to do all of this by the grace of God and through their daily reception of the Eucharist, but for the rest of us who are struggling just to find time to pray one rosary a day – I thought a little cheating might be in order.

Photo by Atilla1000

We are capable of great things. But nowadays, we seem to need a little help in forming the habits that will make us great. Once we develop these habits, we can then harness their power to make us glorious saints. That’s why I thought that I’d give you a cornucopia of tips that will help you do anything from sleep less to learn more quickly. Keep in mind, all of these are just a means to an end, but if you keep your eyes on the prize they should help out a lot:

Sleep Better, and Shorter

Learn Faster

Better Motivation and Simple Living

Work Better, and Smarter

I hope this list helps! Let me know if any of these tips worked for you! If not, you should probably just pray more. Anyway, can’t wait to hear from you!

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: learn, learn faster, learning, lifehacks, Productivity, sleep, sleep less, Work