Implementing small changes can make big differences.

Baby steps can lead to bigger goals. That’s the whole idea behind Caroline Arnold’s book “Small Move, Big Change: Using Microresolutions to Transform Your Life Permanently.”

She suggests using “microresolutions” to kickstart change and higher productivity. Here are a few of her recommendations in her own words:

1. Resolve to add new phone numbers to your contact list immediately. Unidentified contact numbers cause you to lose time, deplete your active initiative stores, and raise your stress level. If you resolve to add each new phone number to your contact list immediately, you’ll be able to find contacts quickly and sidestep calls you don’t want to take.
2. Resolve to check your to-do list before checking email at your desk. Immediately answering your emails when you sit down to work may make you feel efficient and productive, but you may inadvertently be putting your most important work goals on the back burner. If you refer to your priority list every time before you dive into email at your desk, you won’t lose sight of what’s most important.
3. Resolve to end one-hour meetings after 50 minutes. Standardizing meetings under your control to 50 minutes will keep you from running late, falling behind in small but important communications, and from having to stay an extra hour just to catch up.
4. Resolve to elevate difficult conversations to the top of your to-do list. Whether it’s a phone call you dread making, anxiety over a decision outcome, or an uncomfortable discussion with an employee, deferring difficult conversations will depress your productivity all day. Getting that conversation behind you early (and when you’re freshest) will enhance your focus and output all day.
5. Resolve not to engage in leisure computing after 11:00 p.m. Sleep is the greatest enhancer of productivity, and most people don’t get enough of it. One way to get more sleep is to avoid slipping mindlessly onto the Internet close to bedtime.

Arnold has done a nice job putting together a solid set of rules, models, and examples to help master the art of instant and sustainable self-improvement. You can learn more about how this English Lit major became a software innovator and managing director at Goldman Sachs by visiting her website.

Have a great week.

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