Relax Focus Succeed with Karl Palachuk
Andrew Rogerson
in Management and Planning, Money 2.0 radio show with Andrew Rogerson
Karl Palachuk joined me as my second guest on an episode of Money 2.0 on 105.5FM. Karl is the author of ten books and has an extensive background in I.T. Most of his books are I.T. related, however one of his books, Relax Focus Succeed®, is a life balance book.
Karl talks about Relax Focus Succeed®. He explains that before he wrote the book, he was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. He says the disease severely depletes your energy and causes a great deal of physical pain. He says it took him 3 years to get on top of the illness with medication. During that time he was not able to work very much, however after the three years, Karl explains that he had become very successful by any standards.
Karl says he analyzed what it was that he changed in his life to have such an outcome and yet not work insane hours. He wrote Relax Focus Succeed®, born out of his personal experience, which gives tips on how you can balance your life and figure out ways to slow down and get more done.
Karl talks about the other businesses that he runs. He says he trains I.T. consultants on how to run their businesses. He notes that he travels the country and runs product training for companies such as Microsoft and Intel. Karl also runs a book publishing company, where he publishes his own books, as well as other Author’s books from time to time. He also consults with the I.T. company America’s Tech Support.
The “myth of multitasking”
Karl goes on to discuss the myth of “multitasking”. He says it is impossible for anyone to do more than one thing at a time. He says focusing on one thing at a time, and doing that one task really well is by far preferable to doing many things at once poorly. He says in adhering to a policy of focusing, it is necessary to turn off distractions and have policies that prohibit distractions. For an example, Karl says he never answers his phone. He chooses instead to call people back. He says nine times out of ten a phone call is not as important as what he is working on at the moment. He advises that unless you are in the sales business, it is a better way to manage distractions by opting to call people back when you are free. Karl also advises people to turn off pop up messages, such as your email pop ups.
Karl talks about how he helps the I.T. community with Standard Operating Procedures and documentation. He says it is all about getting in the habit of prioritizing. He says in the I.T. industry, they utilize a ticketing system where an issue comes in and you prioritize it to highest to lowest, newest to oldest, which helps workers know how to prioritize workflow. He says he employs the same concept in his publishing business.
Karl finishes the discussion talking about Managed Services, which is essentially outsourced I.T. services. He talks about his business pricing model for Managed Services and some of the automated and remote services that can be employed in this business. He says he is a firm believer in preventive maintenance in Managed Services. He says things just do not break as often with regular maintenance. He adds that downtime is also minimized, which is critical to some businesses, such as health care providers.
Relax, Focus, Succeed
Listeners who are interested in getting a copy of Karl’s Relax Focus Succeed book can visit here or visit Amazon. The book is available for Kindle as well as paperback. There is also a free chapter from his book available on his website on Workaholism.
If you would like to hear my conversation with Karl Palachuk, you are welcome to listen by clicking here. Karl was my second guests in this episode. The conversation begins 27 minutes into the recording.
