I was reading about a survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. of 100 human resource executives, which found 56 percent said they would have normal office hours on Monday, citing the global nature of their businesses. Many people took the day off, turning it into a 4-day weekend. Those that are left in the office wish they weren’t. So how to you get some last-minute pre-holiday productivity? Roll in giant recycling and trash bins and stage a paper-tossing contest between departments. Have employees clean out their filing cabinets, and whoever gets rid of the most paper in weight (adjusted to % based on the # of people in the department) gets a pizza party at lunch and leaves early. Of course, buy everyone pizza and let everyone go early, but you’ll at least get folks to get something accomplished!
People always tell me how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be on television. "Wow, it must be nice to be such a celebrity!" they say. Right. So I’m supposed to appear on the CBS Early Show on June 26, live, to be interviewed about my newest book, Find More Time. I give up a weekend day with my family and make the long trek from Denver to NYC on Sunday. I arrive, fight NYC traffic for 90 minutes, check into my hotel, get something to eat alone (by the way, Sarabeth’s Kitchen www.sarabeth.com has the best tomato soup I’ve ever had; their preserves are fabulous too), and sit down to think about the interview. Phone rings. It’s the PR rep for my publisher. "Your segment’s been bumped," she says. "Huh?" I ask, intelligently. "Oh don’t worry, they’re still going to tape it." So you mean to tell me I flew all the way out here for a live interview that will now be a taped interview, which I could have done in the CBS studio 20 minutes up the road from me? Lovely. I just sent an email out to my list of 10,000 subscribers to watch the show. Now I have to send out another email saying, "never mind." So now I’ve bothered people twice for no reason. "That’s just the way television is," everyone reassures me. Gee, maybe they need to hire me to teach them a time management lesson. So I have to hang out in the green room and watch as the time for my "live" slot comes and goes. Guess what was on? Wallabies. Freaking wallabie. Now of course I don’t ever get a straight answer from the producer as to why I’m bumped. My guess? There was another author on in the same show touting her book (wedding book, totally different than mine). I’m guessing another producer (there a bunch of them) screwed up and double-booked another author on the same show. Communication will go a long way in running a smooth show. A little honesty would go even farther in maintaining relationships. The tape is scheduled to play on July 6…but I’m not counting on it.
Friends, please tune to the CBS Early Show on Monday, June 26, where I’m to be interviewed LIVE about my new book "Find More Time"! It will help me be less nervous in front of 3.2 million people knowing you are all rooting for me.
I read with a mixture of interest and amusement an article referencing a study done by OfficeTeam/ Robert Half International about whether socializing at work around the water cooler is a waste of time. http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=2278
Predictably, workers said no. Predictably, managers said yes. The answer, of course, is YES…and NO. This is a silly study. As with any study, it’s easy to skew the numbers. The answers vary, depending upon the context in which it’s discussed and your point of reference.
Certainly, socializing can be a waste of time. Thirty minutes spent chatting about your aunt Sally’s surgery could qualify as a non-value producing activity. However, not all socializing is a waste of time. Some is needed for bonding…comraderie…team building…relationship. There comes a certain point in the conversation when it crosses your mind, "Okay, I’ve been here long enough. Time to move on." That’s when you should wrap up and not spend another ten minutes winding down. If more people would listen to thier intuition, we wouldn’t have to have time-wasting studies such as these.
I recently participated in the “Microsoft Office System Webcast: A First Look at the 2007 Microsoft Office System” that previewed some of the new features of Microsoft Office 2007.View it at:
I’m excited about the changes I saw.While the move from Office 2000 to Office 2003 brought us mostly cosmetic changes, there is a lot of new, improved functionality in Office 2007.Here are some of my favorites:
·The menu system is replaced by a “ribbon,” which is essentially a customized tool bar with buttons for each command.
·The ribbon opens a series of “command tabs” that are contextual, meaning they only appear when you need them.So you don’t always have your menu bar cluttered up by a bunch of icons that are meaningless at the time.Each application has its own set of command tabs in the ribbon that applies to what that application most commonly does.No more hunting for commands and dialog boxes!
·A “quick access” toolbar is present on the top that allows you to add tabs and customize your application.
·A Microsoft Office logo (very similar to what Mac users see with the Apple) now appears on the left side for commonly used commands.
·In MS Word, a nifty “live preview” feature lets you hover over the fonts and styles to see what a change would do to your text if selected.
·Very similar to adding signatures in Outlook, you can now add “building blocks” across all Office applications, such as footers, strings of text, addresses, etc. Think of it like a library of templates with strings of text you tend to type over and over again, kind of “structural chunks.”AutoText on steroids.
·In MS Outlook, there’s a cool new News Reader that helps you manage and subscribe to RSS news feeds on industry news and information important to you.
·To solve the problem of people putting tasks on their calendar, Outlook now has a nifty “to-do” bar, which displays meetings and tasks for the day, including ones from MS Project and OneNote, all in a single view.Flags actually automatically create a task for you depending on the selected time.Tasks display right on your calendar, so you know when to do it and don’t get them confused with appointments with an actual set time.The calendar has your in-box flags, tasks, meetings…everything all in one place!
·Outlook also has a refined search function, which will save you time locating your messages.
·To save even more time, you no longer have to open attachments in their native application (MS Word, Excel, etc.).You can preview attached files right in the Outlook interface.
·Customizable color categories now apply across all of Office, so you can quickly see all email, tasks, and meetings for a project.
·Upgraded security features let you specify whether an email message can be copied, forwarded, viewed or printed, etc., very similar to setting security settings for PDF or other documents.
·In PowerPoint, I really loved the new design feature that takes a simple bulleted list of text and uses IGX Graphics to convert it automatically into diagrams and figures.
Work Essentials: Today’s software and mobile devices enable new breed of ‘Road Warriors’
By Nina Bondarook
Gini Courter only worked out of her company’s office in Grand Traverse County, Michigan twice during the first half of the year. The balance of her time was spent traveling to provide software training and business solutions to clients of Triad Consulting, the firm she co-founded there 10 years ago.
“I spend 99.9 percent of my work time at client sites, in hotels or at remote locations,” says Courter, Triad’s managing partner. “I’m still adapting. Every time I see a laptop case with a couple of new features, I start to drool.”
She’s among a growing breed of Road Warriors who use today’s technologies to work from ‘any location at any time.’ In fact, Massachusetts-based IDC, a marketing research firm, estimates that by 2009 there will be more than 878 million mobile workers worldwide.
Sales people and repairmen were among the nation’s first mobile workers. But Courter says it’s a trend that’s being driven today by employees across the board who seek the flexibility and “higher quality of life” that a mobile environment can provide.
Businesses, too, are reaping the benefits. Studies show employees who telecommute from home or are mobile can save employers as much as $10,000 per year, depending upon how companies calculate their savings and other factors. For example, some businesses count the rent savings they accrue when employees move off site and smaller office spaces are required for operations. Others calculate the positive impact that happy mobile-enabled employees can have via reductions in absenteeism and employee churn. However launching a mobile initiative can also require additional investment in infrastructure, software, wireless devices and computer support.
At a very minimum, companies who send employees into the field should provide them with a wireless PC and a cell phone, says Lori Quaranta, co-founder of Consetta.com in Seattle, Wash., which provides small- and medium-sized businesses with Web solutions. In order to be truly effective, however, employees also will need a national wireless card that enables them to connect to the Internet from any location, remote access to e-mail via that laptop or some other type of personal digital assistant, and remote access to any database of information they’ll need in their work.
Nokia Corp. is one of the companies banking on the growth of the mobile workforce. In a company white paper, Nokia says it conducted a study in September 2005 that found most employees spend as much as one-third of their time away from their desks, and another third of their time conducting business out of the office.
“The ability to work while you’re on the road is no longer a competitive advantage; it’s a competitive expectation,” says consultant Laura Stack of Denver, Colo., who is ‘The Productivity Pro’ and founder of the company that shares that moniker.
“It’s becoming standard protocol to carry a Blackberry/Treo device so that you’re accessible when you’re away from the office,” says Stack, who averages 10 business trips a month. “But it’s not for everyone. Addictions (to wireless devices) can form fairly quickly for those who don’t insist on privacy or never turn them off. If your significant other says you shouldn’t be bringing your SmartPhone to bed, it’s probably too late for caution. You’re already addicted.”
That, says Courter, is exactly why both employers and employees need to develop written agreements and clear guidelines for mobile work. Not every employee is a good candidate for a mobile job, she says. “Mobile employees need to be self-reliant, self-supervising, task-oriented workers. And they need to know how to use technology to get the job done.”
When they do go on the road, she adds, mobile workers should give themselves 30 days to settle into their new environments before evaluating their performance.
“People are going to have to be disciplined enough to shut off their mobile devices, or they’ll lose the work/life balance they were striving for in the first place,” Quaranta adds. “And don’t forget the human interaction side of things either. Even today, getting on the phone or conducting a face-to-face meeting can be more effective than relying solely on e-mail to communicate.”
Anyone interested in learning more about the growing mobile workforce can find a plethora of information on the Internet – especially on the Web sites of manufacturers that product mobile devices and software. Microsoft Work Essentials, for example, provides in-depth articles by non-Microsoft industry experts, software demos, downloadable templates and webcasts covering topics such as how to use Microsoft Office software on mobile devices, how to collaborate with co-workers when you’re working remotely, how to use instant messaging, and tips for working effectively as part of a virtual team. You can find them at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011543061033.aspx .
Have you taken your allotted vacation time this year? If not, check out http://search.csmonitor.com/2006/0612/p13s02-wmgn.htm. I’m quoted on my advice for a 10-day vacation, but it’s easy to miss within the article. I’ve always thought one week was too short for a vacation, but two weeks seemed a bit too long, especially if I don’t have my children with me. So I’ve come to enjoy a compromise at 10 days. It’s long enough where I can relax and forget what day it is but short enough where I don’t come back to an overwhelming workload. If you take these 10 days tagged on to Memorial Day weekend, July 4 weekend, or Labor Day weekend, you end up with 2 full weeks and three weekends, which gives you time at the end of your vacation to get organized and back into the swing of things before work.
Following a winning $31.3 million-dollar bid, AirCell, a Colorado-based company that provides wireless services for corporate jets, is now poised to provide wireless service on public airliners as early as 2007. This would be absolutely amazing for personal productivity, allowing you to do the same work you do in the office, on your Blackberry, in the hotel, at Starbucks and in the airport lounge. Bravo! Many people complain about travel, citing a huge productivity drain. Now they won’t have anything to blame, and the excuse will vanish. The real reason for not getting work done will emerge: a good book, a stiff drink, the prospect of a nap. NOW we’ll see where the rubber hits the road…or air waves…on productivity.
Excerpt from Laura’s book Find More Time:
Use your travel time productively. If you were fortunate enough to have ever met the late Art Berg, CSP, CPAE, you have been blessed. This pioneer of using technology in a way that helps people simplify their lives was the founder of the Internet calendaring system I use: www.espeakers.com. Art always told me, “Never waste your time on the plane. The more you get done while you’re traveling, the more time you’ll have available to be with your family you return.” I took his sage advice to heart and now plan on being able to knock out a bunch of work while I’m away from home. I don’t just sleep, rent the movies, or listen to music on the plane—I work. I read business journals, trade magazines, write thank-you letters, complete routine paperwork, review large reports and board materials, or do project and advance planning. If I feel good about what I’ve accomplished, I have the current Oprah magazine handy for pleasure reading. I take my office into the air and to the hotel. In the hotel, I don’t watch television! If you’re a television person at home, discipline yourself to say, “This is my time. Uninterrupted time. There’s no one else to take care of but myself. I’m going to use it to get ahead.”
Don’t Be Left Behind: the Right Computer Skills Can Make All the Difference
Kelly Dodson knows firsthand why companies value the ability to use computers and software. An administrative assistant in Kansas, Dodson used to keep her CEO’s calendar by hand until one day an important meeting slipped through the cracks.
That painful experience compelled her to seek training in the effective use of the company’s scheduling software. And today, she feels she couldn’t do her job as well without it.
As early as 1999, the Progressive Policy Institute estimated that 75 percent of employees use computers in their work, and that figure continues to increase as computers make their way into more and more aspects of individuals’ lives. Since just about every job today is connected to computers and software in some way, employees who lack the ability to use that information successfully are finding themselves increasingly marginalized.
The effects of this evolution for individual workers are real, and they show up most vividly when it comes to the bottom line — research has shown that workers with the right computer skills can earn 20-40 percent more than those without. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Office of Productivity and Technology agrees, emphasizing, “It is not merely the employee having a computer on his desk—but rather having complementary computer skills—that causes wages to increase.”
Commenting on Information Workers’ adoption of technology, Laura Stack, productivity expert and author of Leave the Office Earlier, remarked “The people who succeed are those who take the time to figure it out rather than struggling each time, doing it the hard way, or taking too much time. Employees who self-educate themselves will experience a performance boost from using the full range of available functions.”
That is to say, whether you’re an administrative assistant, auditor or staff attorney, having the right computer skills can make a difference in your career and your paycheck.
So what can you do to get those skills? Dodson was lucky enough to develop them on the job, with support from her very understanding employer. But without basic computer literacy, it can be tough nowadays to get that job in the first place.
The web offers a myriad of courses and programs on a range of technical skills, from basic computer literacy on up to complex programming and IT training.
“Software training is evolving into a just-in-time approach,” says Stack. “Many workers complain about the slow response from the company help desk or lack of available training. It’s more efficient for workers to access self-help online resources, such as Microsoft Work Essentials, to allow them to find answers to problems they are experiencing in real time.”
Microsoft Office Work Essentials is a comprehensive resource with occupation-specific tools in programs such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint. The site has hundreds of free templates, how-to articles, product demonstrations, tip sheets and other resources. Available 24/7 at www.microsoft.com/workessentials, professionals in more than 30 occupations, including auditors, project managers, sales managers, human resources professionals and many more will find tools to help them improve their skills.
“Local computer superstores and community colleges also offer inexpensive courses on many common software packages,” says Stack. “The day I spent at CompUSA learning PowerPoint saved me much time and frustration trying to figure it out myself. Doing a search at www.amazon.com will display a vast array of literature to read on the topic.”
Whatever method you choose, one thing is for certain: educating yourself in today’s computer programs is a sure way to make yourself more appealing to prospective and current employers.
