Must you do it all yourself? Not necessarily. Laura Stack talks about the value of outsourcing certain tasks to free up more of your time. (c) 2010 Laura Stack www.theproductivitypro.com
Is being tied to technology controlling your time? Do you have to answer every cell phone call right away? Laura Stack talks about the interruptions that technology use brings and how to not be controlled by them. (C) 2010 Laura Stack www.theproductivitypro.com
Availability is driven by Activity.
Just as setting valid priorities and goals is important, so is accepting your responsibility in carrying them out. You have to structure your schedule very carefully to ensure that things get done—because if you don’t, other people will be perfectly happy to structure your schedule for you.
Think about it: how many times have you attended a meeting and asked yourself, “Why am I here?” Often, it’s because someone decided you should be—without bothering to consider if that was best for you and your productivity goals.
You have to be willing to protect your time from everyone who wants a piece of it. Among other things, you must learn to say no when appropriate, to delegate, to cancel unnecessary meetings, to let some tasks go, and to eliminate bottlenecks—whatever’s necessary to take back your time and use it the way you need to.
More importantly, you must learn how to leverage technological productivity tools that can lighten your scheduling load. Webinars, teleconferencing, and services like Jott or GoToMeeting can accelerate productivity and streamline your schedule. So can the effective use of organizers and other paper-based methods. The trick is finding which one works best for you, and that takes some experimentation.
Try these tips to hone your Availability toward SuperCompetence:
1. Refuse requests when appropriate. Learn how to say no graciously. Because you’re good at what you do, you’ll always be fielding requests for help and input. It’s human nature to want to please others, but you can’t do it all. There’s no need to be rude, but there are polite ways to avoid being overworked.
2. Set appropriate boundaries. Learn how to protect your time from others. You’re always going to face what I call the six D’s of Interruptions: Deadlines, Disruptions, Dependencies, Discrepancies, Distractions, and Drop-Ins. You can’t let others use any of these to slow down your productivity.
3. Push a task down to the lowest level of responsibility. Trust others to do their jobs; “delegation” is a popular business buzzword for a reason. Don’t waste your time and productivity on tasks other people can do more cheaply. Hand them off to someone else, and let them do their jobs without micromanagement.
4. Schedule your day realistically according to your key activities. While it’s normal to make an effort to accommodate other people’s needs, your own should come first. Learn to manage your time properly, and take control of your own schedule. Don’t let other people do it for you.
5. Weigh the results of attending any meeting against the results you could produce instead. Meetings can take up your entire day if you let them. Instead of dropping everything to attend a meeting, see if you can send a proxy, attend by phone, or just cancel it altogether.
Availability is a loaded word, at least in business terms. It means so much more than just being there—any decent worker can and should be there for their employers, subordinates, and co-workers when they’re needed. SuperCompetent people need to be keenly aware of time management. After all, time isn’t like money, office supplies, or Brussels sprouts: we’ve each got a very limited amount of it, and we’re not going to get any more.
If you say yes to everything someone asks you to do, you’re going to be so overburdened that you won’t be available to people when they need you, except on those rare occasions when you manage to clear a task off your schedule. You require some flexibility, which means that you not only have to learn how to say no to some requests (or creatively negotiate them somewhat), but you also need to learn how to effectively deal with distractions and diversions—from people demanding your time to “helpful” technology that seems to command all your time.
And stop trying to be such a perfectionist! You don’t have to do everything; the idea is to be SuperCompetent, not SuperHuman. Superman’s a fantasy—and even if he wasn’t, you have to remember that he’s supposed to be an alien from another planet, not a human being. Knowing how to delegate and/or outsource tasks whenever you can, and having the wisdom to do so, is a must.
You’ll also need to learn effective scheduling techniques to make life easier for both you and everyone else, and hone them to maximum effectiveness so things don’t get out of hand. The same is true when it comes to meetings. As I’ve said elsewhere, a task will expand to fill the amount of time available; that’s something called Parkinson’s Law (after naval historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson, if you were wondering). Meetings are a prime example of the tendency for that to happen.
You don’t have to let time-stealers eat into your productivity! Stand up, step up, and take back your time!
Make it a productive day! ™
© Copyright 2010 Laura Stack. All rights reserved.
Announcing a public seminar sponsored by the Colorado Human Resources Association (CHRA) and Jobing.com! On March 5, 2010, attend a half day of training on Advanced Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Outlook: Discover Little-Known Tips and Tricks for Managing Your Workflow (morning session 2003, afternoon session 2007). Are you buried by hundreds (or thousands!) of email messages? Do you spend hours every day in your inbox? If you have a hard time keeping up with your email, attend this training with Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro®, a Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) in Outlook. She will demonstrate ADVANCED Outlook methods with her actual Outlook software and an LCD projector. This is not simple computer training—it is workflow processing—where you’ll learn to use Outlook to get more work done and increase your performance. Even Outlook “power users” will be amazed by how much they learn. To reduce frustration for all, please do NOT attend if you don’t consider yourself an intermediate to advanced user. We will not learn to create folders, schedule meetings, create email, or do any task that is considered a beginner-level skill. For more information or to register, visit https://m360.chra.org/event.aspx?eventID=14604&instance=0. Register as a Prospective Member if you’re a guest.
Monthly productivity webinar: February 22, 2010, 1:00 PM Pacific/2:00 PM Mountain/3:00 PM Central/4:00 PM Eastern. “Organizing the Home Office: Setting up Your Space and Systems for Success.” Are you slowly drowning in a sea of paper? Does the sight of your messy office frustrate you? If you’re disorganized, your daily activities won’t run smoothly, and you won’t operate efficiently. Entrepreneurs are so excited by the “fun” activities of their businesses that they dread doing the important foundational work, like setting up systems. You will learn what you’ll need to succeed in business:
• Purchase the right software, hardware, equipment, and accessories.
• Set up your client files, reference files, subject files, and records.
• Organize electronic information, internet, and research data.
• File and retrieve active work-in-progress.
Only $29 per person! (You can still buy the discounted package of all ten: you’ll get a link to the recording of those that have past. For more information and to register, go to http://www.theproductivitypro.com/s_virtual-webinar.htm
Monthly Microsoft Outlook webinar: February 22, 2010. Inbox/Outbox/Sent Items/Drafts—Remove Attachments, Automatic Formatting, Notes in Messages, “Out Of Office Assistant,” Add Reminders to Flags, Set Reminders for Others, Distribution Lists, Junk Mail List, AutoName, Tag Your Comments, Stationery, Emailing from Another Office Applications, Message Options, Find Related Messages, View Multiple Folders at the Same Time, Resend a Sent Item, Use Sent Items to Set a Reminder, Attach a Previously Sent Item
Outlook version 2003: 9:00 pacific/12:00 eastern
Outlook version 2007: 11:00 pacific/2:00 eastern
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) talks about the productivity killer – procrastination!
(C) 2010 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. http://www.theproductivitypro.com
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