The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

How healthy are you? How good do you feel? How much energy do you have throughout the day to accomplish the things you want to? Recent studies have shown that we have the potential to dramatically affect productivity by paying closer attention to our health. In other words, when you feel good, you can accomplish more.  You can get on the road to healthier productivity by adopting these tips. 

1. Get adequate sleep each night, so you’re not sleepy during the day. Sacrificing sleep is actually counterproductive, so experiment until you find the amount of sleep that works best for you, and stick with it. Don’t nap during the day, either.

2. Get sufficient exercise. Getting 15-30 minutes of exercise every day is crucial to maintaining your energy level. The less active you are, the less energy you have.

3. Use all your allotted vacation time each year. Don’t put off vacation to make your boss happy; studies show it won’t make you more productive. You need long vacations every year so you can recharge your creative batteries.

4. Pamper yourself on a regular basis. It’s not selfish to treat yourself well, as long as you don’t overdo it. You need to be able to enjoy life in order to be productive at work, so learn how to "do nothing" effectively.

5. Maintain a noise level in your office that’s conducive to productivity. Noisy environments lead to higher stress, which leads to lower productivity. Do everything you can to cut down on the noise, from relocating your office to listening to music on special noise-reduction headphones.

6. Ensure your workspace is comfortable and ergonomically correct. You can’t be productive if your workplace is hurting you. Use ergonomic equipment, and learn techniques to avoid vision problems caused by too much computer use.

7. Practice healthy eating habits. Always eat breakfast, focus on healthy food alternatives, and never go more than six hours without eating. Poor eating habits can make you fuzzyheaded and less productive — and fat.

8. Take a lunch break every day. Consistently working through your lunch hour is not only bad for the employee, it’s bad for the employer. Always eat something at lunch so you can keep your blood sugar at the right level and stay clearheaded.

9. Drink the right amount of water each day. To avoid the negative effects of dehydration, you need to drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day — possibly more. Coffee doesn’t count, and neither do tea or sodas; in fact, they have diuretic effects that will rapidly dehydrate you.

10. Control your environment and rid yourself of things that bring you down. Surround yourself with happiness. Get rid of things that have negative memories attached to them, especially reminders of failed relationships.

Instead of over-eating, working too hard, not exercising enough, and skimping on your sleep, make personal choices that lead to increased productivity. Learn to rest, to laugh, to recreate, and treat your body right, or you’ll live to regret it. The choices you make today will affect how you feel tomorrow.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

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Technology is both a blessing and a curse. It can definitely improve your productivity, but having to deal with email, voicemail, the Internet, Blackberries, PDAs, cell phones, and pagers can make you less productive if you’re not careful. Here are a few suggestions on how tame your technology .

1. Try to reduce "information overload."  Understand that you can have too much information, and find a way to get rid of the excess. Get off mailing lists, learn computer shortcuts, narrow your web searches, cancel subscriptions, and use filtering rules to reduce electronic junk.

2. Use proper netiquette. Among other things, DON’T SHOUT, don’t be sloppy, and keep your messages brief and to the point. Make it easy for other people to respond, and most importantly, don’t waste their time with your email use.

3. Leave effective voicemail messages. Plan your messages ahead of time, and make them brief. Don’t mumble, don’t ramble, watch your tone, and leave more than just your name and number. Above all, avoid playing telephone tag.

4. Use your phone as an effective productivity tool. Unless you’ve got a pressing deadline, pick up the phone when it rings and take care of the issue right then. Get to the point quickly, and stay focused. Plus, use a wireless handset — it lets you handle phone calls anywhere in your home or office.

5. Keep your computer files well organized, so you can find them easily. Use directories and subdirectories effectively, give your project files logical, easy-to- remember names, and always save them where they’re supposed to go.

6. Know the available productivity features of your email program. Keep your inbox clean by reading, replying, and deleting every email ASAP, if possible; otherwise, organize and store important emails in logically-named folders. Learn to use your email program’s Calendar feature, too.

7. Run regular maintenance routines on your computer. This will ensure high performance and help protect your data. Do regular system scans with antivirus software, run complete backups regularly, and purge your old files frequently.

8. Understand the features and purposes of electronic and paper systems. Decide which systems work best for you in specific circumstances, and know when to use each.

9. Eliminate email spam. Use pop-up blockers and email filters, and don’t read or reply to spam at all. If you need to provide personal information online, use an email address you signed up for using fake information.

10. Remember that you control your technology; it doesn’t control you. The most useful tool on your phone, computer, Blackberry, PDA or pager is the OFF button. Do you even know where it is? Remember that you can turn your technology off, and you can respond to it when you’re ready — not when everyone thinks you should.

It’s amazing how useful technological tools can be — but it’s equally amazing just how distracting they can be, especially when they’re not properly used. Instead of responding mindlessly to that hunk of plastic and electronics when it bleeps at you, learn to put it to work for you in an effective and organized manner. Understand what to avoid, what to take advantage of, and just as importantly, where the OFF button is — and how use it.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

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I like a new service by Catalog Choice, in which you decide which catalogs you want to receive.  When you receive a catalog you don’t want, you enter it on your account and select "Decline Catalog."  They contact the merchant on your behalf and request that they no longer send you their catalog. Reduce the number of catalogs you receive in the mail!  One-stop-shop method keeps you from having to unsubscribe to each one individually—a real time saver!

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Nowadays, so many things compete for your attention in the workplace that it can be hard to concentrate on what’s important. If you need to improve your ability to stay on target and focus on the task at hand, implement the tips outlined below.

1. Set up your office for maximum productivity and minimum distractions. You need privacy to concentrate and discuss sensitive issues. Don’t just take what you’re given; reorganize it into a configuration that works best for you.

2. Avoid wasting time by daydreaming. Daydreaming can be a real productivity bandit — but as long as you don’t use it to procrastinate, it can be very helpful. Harness its creative powers, and use it for thinking time that can lead to productive ideas.

3. Remember things more easily. Busy people need good memory skills to help them remember details. Sharpening your memory can be as simple as using good memory tools: always writing things down, keeping running lists, leaving yourself voicemails, etc.

4. Focus on priority projects without getting distracted. Be like a postage stamp: stick to one thing until it gets to its intended destination. Learn to juggle multiple tasks and projects effectively, but don’t flit around from one item to another without completing anything.

5. Focus on one thing at a time. Don’t "multi-task" or attempt to do too many things at once. Start by focusing one on item instead. Don’t interrupt yourself, and prioritize your tasks so you know what needs to be done first.

6. Make lists and record everything you need to do. To keep from dropping the ball, capture every thought using either paper or electronic methods. This pulls what you need to do out of your memory and relieves your brain of the burden of repeatedly thinking about everything you need to remember.

7. Read quickly and maintain concentration. Learn to benefit from new reading techniques designed to boost productivity, and toss whatever’s boring or useless to you. Getting through your reading more quickly frees up time for other priorities.

8. Recognize signs of brain overload. If you have no idea what to do first or where to begin, learn how to get your mind focused again. For example, create structure and deadlines for your work, jealously guard your attention from distractions, or try some deep breathing exercises.

9. Get absorbed in a task. Become fully present-focused. Learn to "get in the zone" and achieve a state of momentum where time seems to fly. Start by mastering your job, ensure no interruptions, and always strive to be in the moment.

10. Concentrate on a task that bores you or doesn’t really interest you. Even tedious tasks must be completed. Get them done early so the rest of the day is more enjoyable, reward yourself for getting the job done, and vary your activities.

You can’t get your work done if you’re distracted. Learn to trim away all the minor things competing for your attention, and fine-tune your concentration to a laser-like focus. You’ll be surprised at how much you get done — and how much time you’ll have to spend on what’s really important.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

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The "faster, cheaper, do more with nothing" approach has created a workplace in which workers are always in high gear. Ironically, this work style usually increases stress while reducing productivity. If you find yourself whizzing along out of control without any idea of how you’re going to make it though the day, use these tips to gently apply the brakes.

1. Determine the sources of your stress. Identify and work to eliminate things that trigger stress reactions and drain your energy. For example, limit your time commitments, stop worrying, and avoid stressful, demanding relationships.

2. Take personal responsibility for your own stress level. Stop believing you have no control over your stress. Ultimately, you’re responsible for how your life turns out. Refocus your attention on positive, proactive experiences, and open your thoughts to opportunities instead of problems.

3. Control your stress and emotions by monitoring your self-talk. By understanding how emotions are created, you can change the stressful feelings you don’t want, instead of just telling yourself, "This shouldn’t bother me."

4. Think positively and maintain a great attitude. Identify your negative thought patterns and root them out. Work through every situation that triggers your stress, and you can eventually become a more positive thinker and keep yourself from stressing out.

5. Manage your stress well, so it doesn’t affect your productivity at work. Some stress is desirable, even necessary — but you have to strike a happy medium with a moderate level of stress in order to stay on an even keel.

6. Feel calm, cool, and collected, rather than hurried, rushed, or tense. There’s not enough time in the universe to do everything you want or need to do. But don’t let that fact prod you to rush around like a maniac. Do what you can, and avoid "time sickness."

7. Maintain a good sense of humor and take things lightly. Laughter’s good medicine in the workplace. Among other things, humor results in increased productivity, better communication, increased morale, and stronger teams.

8. Refuse to let stressful situations or people bother you. Realize that some things exist with or without you and will continue to exist once you’re gone, and stop taking them so personally. Some jobs are just inherently stressful.

9. Control your temper at work and don’t demonstrate anger. Do your part in maintaining low stress levels in your work environment. Watch your anger and find appropriate ways to blow off steam.

10. Flourish in the face of constant changes in your life. Change is a constant in all aspects of life. Don’t get anxious because change is occurring at work; find a way to be "change hardy," so it doesn’t impact you so dramatically.

If you want to get more done in the same amount of time, you’ll need to cut your stress level and steer yourself off the fast track. It’s not easy, but the alternative is engine burnout — with you as the engine — or a flaming wreck somewhere down the road. Start slow, keep working at it, and it’ll happen. As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

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Hectic work schedules have probably ruined more Valentine Day celebrations than we care to think about. It is easy to schedule business dinners for February 14th without a second thought…until the day before…when it finally hits us. More so than expensive jewelry or chocolates, many people are satisfied with having the undivided attention of a loved one for the evening. Laura Stack, Day-Timers Expert on Productivity and author of Leave the Office Earlier, has these tips to help you create an unforgettable Valentine’s Day.

1. Plan before you leave work. Double-check your planner and organize activities for the next day before you leave the office on Valentine’s Day.  Getting tomorrow’s tasks out of your head and on to paper will help you leave work at work, so that you can be fully present with your significant other on this important night.

2. Make any last-minute essential calls on the way home. Make it your goal to complete your work by the time you arrive to meet your Valentine. While you’re on your way home, finish any leftover “business” conversations.  When you see your loved one in person, you will be ready to focus on the romance. If you make a call list before leaving the office, it will help ensure you don’t forget anyone.

3. Get a babysitter. If you have children, and your goal is to give extra attention to your loved one, this is not the evening to let the children tag along. Even if you are not the one who usually makes these arrangements, surprise your loved one by taking the initiative and booking a sitter yourself. This is a busy night for babysitters, so plan ahead by booking at least a week in advance.

4. Find something that relaxes both of you. Since Valentine’s Day falls on a weekday, by the time you are finally together, you will each have dealt with the pressures of work.  So find a way to relax before your special ‘date’ to decompress.  Draw a nice bath for two or get a couples’ massage.  That can set the stage for a perfect Valentine’s night.

5. Be present.  If you spend the evening in, avoid the tendency to multi-task at home. Some people don’t feel productive when they’re not doing four things at once, but all of your attention should be directed to your Valentine.

6. Turn off the phone.  One thing that is sure to ruin the mood on Valentine’s night is a ringing cell phone, especially if the caller ID shows it is a colleague, leaving you curious and distracted. Make it easy on everyone and turn the phone off for the whole night. Your Valentine will love you for it.

www.TheProductivityPro.com

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Discipline is your ability to maintain consistent, productive behavior. To maximize your productivity, you need to learn to do what must be done, and to exercise restraint over your own impulses, emotions, and desires. If you’re self-disciplined, you exhibit consistent focus in your daily work — even when you don’t feel like it. Try these tactics to keep you on track during the day.

1. Know your natural energy cycle and work effectively during peak times. We all have a natural time during the day when we feel up (prime time) and a natural time when we feel down (down time). Knowing both your prime and down times and knowing how to handle them is an important productivity enhancer.

2. Control perfectionism. Realize that some things are good enough as they are. If you suffer from the disease of perfectionism, things may never get done to your satisfaction, so learn to be flexible.

3. Avoid procrastination. Don’t put things off, or wait until the last minute to do them. Otherwise you’ll always have a sense of impending doom hanging over your head, and will end up operating in permanent crisis mode.

4. Force yourself to slow down when necessary. Realize that speed can be counterproductive; some tasks need to be done slowly in order to be done properly. As the saying goes, the only person who ever had his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe! 

5. Determine on your own what you will accomplish each day. Don’t allow others to dictate your schedule, insofar as this is possible. Set rules about the things you choose to do, and the people you choose to interact with.

6. Work productively from your home office and avoid distractions. Working at home comes with its own set of distractions. Be aware of your personal weaknesses, and create rules about what you may and may not do during the day.

7. Handle common, routine tasks on a daily basis so things don’t pile up. Practice clutter control. Taking care of common tasks every day — especially those you don’t really enjoy — will keep them from getting out of hand.

8. Arrive at appointments and meetings on time. In fact, try to be early on a consistent basis. Instead of annoying people with your lateness, reap the benefits of arriving before everyone else.

9. Avoid workaholism. Try not to work more than 40 hours per week, and don’t take work home with you, on vacation, or to bed. It’s fine to be a conscientious employee, but don’t be compulsive about it.

10. Work hard, and "put your nose to the grindstone" every day. It’s not necessary to work ten or twelve hour days, but you should work hard the eight hours you’re in the office.

Strive for the self-control and confidence gained when you enforce your own rules. It may be a pain, but in the end, it gets the job done. Following these tips will help you complete your high priority tasks, without getting sidelined by menial or trivial activities.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

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Order relates to your level of organization: your ability to sort, filter, and process information effectively. It also involves your ability to find what you want when you want it, and how tidy your work area looks — especially to the people who matter.  Here are a few ideas to help you control the paper, email, reading material, and inputs that flow into your office.

1. Realize that some people aren’t born more organized than others. Understand that organization is a skill that can be learned, just like riding a bike. Getting organized is a process of trial, error and persistence, but you can master it if you’re serious about it.

2. Keep a clutter-free work surface. You don’t have to be creative and disorganized, if you’re willing to learn and the pain is bad enough. No matter what you’ve seen on coffee cups, a clean desk is NOT a sign of an empty mind.

3. Know how to organize "pending" items requiring future action. Create a tickler file, an indispensable system that will remind you which papers require your action today, and allow you to forget the rest until their time has come.

4. Maintain orderly and organized files, so you can find essential information when you need it. If you’ve ever taken more than three minutes to find anything you need, then it’s high time to reorganize.

5. Sort, process, and store incoming information quickly and easily. Every piece of paper, email, voicemail, and fax that you get is simply a piece of information. There are only six things that you can do with any piece of information: discard, delegate, do, date, drawer or delete (the 6-D system).

6. Discard information quickly and easily. Don’t be a packrat. If you doubt you’ll ever use or read something, don’t be afraid to toss it.

7. Touch paper only once. Be very decisive, and have a home for each type of information. Sort it using the 6-D System, decide immediately where each item belongs, and put it away.

8. Avoid using sticky notes or scraps of paper to record messages or tasks. Temporary notes should be for temporary things, like writing down a number you’ll use only once, or marking comments in a document. Consolidate your system using phone logs and organizers.

9. Know the contents of every cabinet, drawer, and storage space in your home and office. The only way to do this is to go through every item you own and give away, put away, toss, or store it. This is an effective way to "poison the packrat" and complete projects that have gone undone for too long.

10. Have a systematic plan to stay organized. Staying organized requires ongoing practice and planning. The most effective way to control clutter is to say no — to new tasks, belongings, magazine subscriptions, whatever.

It’s critical that you learn to organize everything associated with your work. Not only does a messy office make it more difficult to find what you need when you need it, it’s a career deterrent: people with messy work areas are less likely to get promoted. Remember, perception is reality these days. Leave your office messy all the time, and your career may stall. And you still won’t be able to find what you’re looking for!

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

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Preparation relates to how well you’ve planned and laid the foundations for your daily activities. The goals you set will focus those activities and provide direction for your life. An established direction, outlined with purposeful thought, ensures your life won’t be governed by whim.  These tips will help you set a direction and stick to it.

1. Abide by a personal mission statement for your life. Much like a corporate mission statement, your personal mission statement defines who you are, what you’re all about, and why you’re on this earth.

2. Track your long-term goals and aspirations. Future goals will give you a sense of purpose. It’s not enough to set your mind to something; you must also plan your time around your goals. With them in mind, you can start logically preparing, instead of just letting things take care of themselves.

3. Create high-quality performance objectives. The greatest enemy of any plan is a lack of action. Goals become just wishful thinking unless you further define them as objectives with specific measurements, and act upon them.

4. Define your specific job responsibilities and related tasks. In order to create effective work objectives, you need to know where you’re expected to invest your time, energy, talents, and company resources. This allows you to schedule your day and prioritize your tasks in a meaningful way.

5. Maintain a list of projects to accomplish. When you’re ready to move an objective into the present and work on it, it’s time to create a project plan. Break larger projects down into concrete steps that you can accomplish one at a time.

6. Conduct weekly, monthly, and yearly reviews of your plans. Regularly reviewing your objectives is the most important aspect of time management; in fact, it’s the foundation of creating the best use of your time each day.

7. Track your tasks, projects, and appointments effectively. Whatever time management system you use, it has to satisfy the "HUG" criterion: it needs to be handy, usable, and garbage-free.

8. Create and prioritize your "to-do" list each day. Once you’ve put together a reasonable to-do list, try to identify the 20% of your activities and behaviors that are the most important to productivity, and concentrate on improving those.

9. Schedule your day realistically. Effective daily planning lets you realize more of your expectations and reduce your personal stress levels. Manage your day successfully, and consistently complete what you’ve planned.

10. Determine the best channel of communication to convey your message prior to sending it. For any given purpose, one medium will be more effective than another. Learn when it’s better to email than to phone, and vice-versa.

Productive people devote a great deal of thought and time to planning their life goals. When you start with your personal mission statement in front of you as a guide, create personal and professional long-term goals, break them down into short-term objectives, create monthly plans, and then daily activities, you have direction and focus. Bottom line: you achieve your long-term objectives by focusing on today.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

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