Paula Rizzo's Blog, page 21

8 Books to Turn Your Productivity Around

Ilove reading! Not just because I enjoy learning about new things or ideas, but because I find it fascinating how a book can seep into your daily mindset.

If I’m really interested in a book I will often find that the concepts within the book will appear all around me. Friends will bring up a issues that relate to key themes in the book or I’ll face a problem at work similar to issues brought up in the book.

It’s for this reason that productivity books can be so good for you. While you may no...

Why You’re Really Not Getting Anything Done

If you are anything like me (and if you’re reading this blog you probably are) then when you first start a new project or set a new goal you throw yourself in headfirst.

We can all get caught up in the moment. Sometimes I’ll even spend more money than I should buying ‘essential’ items that I think I need to finish my project.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all felt that compulsion to buy $200 sneakers the second we decided we need to get back in shape.

However as time goes on, the excitement fades...

3 Reasons The Stories You Tell Matter

I love telling stories. Even if it’s just fiction. Everyday when I walk to work and I see different “characters” on the street. I always make up stories about them.

For instance, the homeless man who hangs out on the corner in front of my office – I’ve named him James. He was a Wall Street hotshot but lost it all because he was greedy. Oh and he lost his family too. His wife left him and took his daughter – the only reason he even went to work everyday.

When you were born, where you grew up,...

5 Minute Fixes to Get to Inbox Zero

Just this week my friend Terri told me about her life-changing experience.

She got to Inbox Zero.

Amazing, right?

You know Terri — I’ve spoken about her before and she and I are starting a new venture together with the launch of our online course Lights Camera Expert.

Anyway — whenever I see the amount of unread emails she has I have an anxiety attack. We’re talking 4 and 5 digit numbers.

Yes, thousands of unread messages.

Finally she had enough and decided to archive all of her messages....

What should you be doing right now?

As you know I am a huge procrastinator. When I have a big deadline looming, that’s normally the exact time I decide cleaning my apartment is super important! Or I’ll spend hours researching a topic to write a post about, instead of just writing it!

The bigger and more demanding a task is, the bigger our reasons for not doing it become. For example, if you want to write a book tidying up your apartment is probably only going to buy you a day or so and then you’re going to have to write that bo...

Want some attention?

Attention — it’s something we’re all after.

Whether or not you want to admit it — it’s the truth.

Think about it.

When you put a picture on Facebook of your fabulous vacation or that amazing dessert you had to splurge on you want someone’s attention right.

I don’t care who you are you’re checking back to your Facebook to see how many likes it got.

It’s totally okay everyone does it.

But how do you get yourself out in front of the right people to build your business, your brand, your book...

Don’t Waste Your Sunday

I love Sundays! There’s so many things you can do with this final day (or first depending on how you look at it) in the week. You can catch up on errands and chores, relax with a bottle of wine and Netflix or get some much-needed sleep. The only problem with Sundays is that they feel really, really short!

It’s fairly normal to get to 9pm and look back and wonder where the day has gone. This can sometimes lead to “Sunday Evening Bum Out”. It can really set you off on the wrong foot for the st...

The 3 Classic Flaws of Productive People

What makes a person organized? If you ask my friends and family they’d say that I was born with stellar time management and organizational skills – but that’s not true! I’m actually a procrastinator and it wasn’t until I became a TV producer that I got my act together because I had no other choice! When your segment is going live – you need to be ready…no procrastinating allowed!

When I started to think about it – I realized this is actually the case of most of the super-organized people I k...

Make These Two Lists Everyday to Boost Productivity

Do you ever sit down to write your daily to do’s and the list just goes on and on? It can be really discouraging. But, just because your list seems never ending, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to finish all your tasks that day.

Ruth Carter, a lawyer I met in a virtual mastermind group for entrepreneurs called ShankMinds, was having just this problem. So I suggested a creative solution to this problem. I told her to make two list per day. A before lunch list and an after lunch list.

Now each...

The Secret to Getting on TV

“How do I get on TV?” It’s probably the question I’ve been asked most often in my career.

If you’re new to this blog — shoutout to all my new followers in China, Japan and the Netherlands now that my book has been published there — I’m thrilled to welcome you. The new readers may not realize that not only am I an author and productivity expert but I’m also a television news producer. That’s my “day job,” and I’ve been doing it for more than 15 years.

I put my producer hat on at the BlogHer16...