It’s Friday afternoon, on the 4th of July holiday weekend. I am running out of time to “ship” my blog. I am not answering the phone, watering the flowers or packing my bags for our weekend get away until it is done. Period. I have committed to at least one blog a week, I am half way through the year and I’ve held to that commitment; yet, like a lot of other people I push it to the last minute. But ask anyone that knows me, I get things done. \n\nNike encourages us to “Just do it.” Yet many leaders fail to get it done. They have lost their ability to “ship.” They spend all their time in meetings and no time “shipping,” In his book Linchpin, Seth Godin, ponders the following questions\n• Why do some tactics work better than others? \n• Why are some employees so much more productive than others? \n• Why do some organizations wilt and fade while others thrive.\n\nIn his search for the answers, one of the things he found is that productive and engaged employees working in companies that thrive create solutions and hustle them out the door. Time management is desirable, but disruption management is critical. What does it take to manage disruptions? Self discipline + interpersonal skills. \n\nHere are some tips to help you in manage disruptions and get things done:\n• Eliminate tasks that are stalling devices – you know what they are..can you say EMAIL!\n• Do the “hardest” thing first and get it out of the way, the rest of the day will be breeze.\n• Do not, I repeat do not, multi-task. Do one thing at a time and give each project a time limit. \n• Say it out loud, tell people and have them hold you accountable.\n• Write it out. Plan it. Commit on paper. It helps break down a large project into manageable chunks.\n• When it’s done – it’s done. Move on. \n\nThe discipline of shipping is essential in the long-term path to becoming indispensable Think of “shipping”as the collision between your work and the outside world. You do want people to see and share in your work, right? Otherwise, why do it. The whole purpose of starting is to finish. No question, it is hard. But the best leaders manage the distractions and ship time after time.\n