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

Intercall recently published the 2010 study on Technology In the Workplace. The findings of the study make it clear that today’s workers are feeling the pinch of tough economic times and increased pressure to do more with less and stay connected to the office even in off hours.

Almost half of American workers who use technology at work believe that in this economy they must produce more even though they have fewer resources. Twenty-five percent of American workers feel their job security “is partially dependent on their supervisor seeing they are connected to work even after hours.”

Even with the increased workloads, Americans do see technology as a key part of productivity in the workplace. Job satisfaction increases when companies provide technology tools to help workers do more in less time and most workers believe technology does help them be more productive on the job.

Find more on the 2010 Technology In the Workplace study here.

What do you do when you have the perfect plan set up for the day, then everything and everyone tries to blow up your plan?

Part of that could be your fault. Perhaps you’re responding to e-mails as they’re coming in or otherwise wasting time. But the other part is no fault of your own. You need to learn some language, verbiage, and techniques to use when someone asks you to do something not on your plan. If you’re thinking, “This is just not that important right now,” you need to know how to decline gracefully. Certainly there are some things that are worth stopping what we’re doing and handling; however, there lots of things that aren’t important and don’t qualify to be handled immediately.

One of the things you can do is always negotiate a due date with the person as they make a request. I’ve have some people tell me, “I’m an administrative assistant I can’t possibly negotiate or say no.” You don’t have to use the word “no,” but you have to get creative in how you respond. For example, when someone comes in and asks you to do something, when you assume that they need it? You might assume people need their requests handled now, but do they always need it handled immediately? Of course not. It’s your job to find out.

Asking a simple question such as, “Do you need that now, or would Monday be okay?” is perfectly fine. But if you don’t ask, if you don’t take that quick second to check in with a person, you don’t really know what the priority is, so you do it right away. It’s your job to query and negotiate the deadline.

Another idea is to find out at what level of perfection the person may be expecting you to complete that task. Yes, some things need to be perfect. If you have a multi-million dollar contract going out to your biggest customer, go ahead and spend the time to cross every “t” and dot every “i.” But sometimes there are things that just don’t need to be done perfectly. I’ve seen people take hours composing the “perfect” e-mail, and it’s not even going outside the company. You don’t need that level of brain damage for a little internal memo.

Another idea on saying no creatively is to have the other person help you prioritize. You could, for example, keep a running list of tasks and projects that the people you work with and support give you. As people come in your office or email or call you, simply ask what the priority is relative to the other priorities on your plate. Say, “I’m working on this database project that you’ve given me and running these reports. Do want to me to stop work on that and start work on this?” People need to get very specific about their needs. If you have a list of 57 prioritized tasks and this is number 14 on that list, you can be more realistic about a completion date. Have the other person help you determine where items fall, helping them to be realistic. Clearly communicate to others, “Hey I’m only one person. I can only get so many things done. What you want me to attack first?”

How do you make sure that you’re on the same page with the people you work with, so that nobody ends up disappointed, and everybody gets what they need, when they need it? Can you share some tips in gracefully saying “no” or negotiating? I look forward to learning how you handle these situations!

What’s the first thing you do when you begin your day? What do you literally do when you sit down to begin working?

Many people do the “beverage ritual.” They get all their beverages just right and their snacks all lined up and settled. Maybe they do a little bit of checking on blog postings to see what’s come in and of course visit Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Next they check e-mail and get sucked into that vortex for a couple of hours. Now what time is it? Lunchtime! How do you feel after lunch? Probably pretty low energy. What do you feel like working on? Nothing. At least nothing that requires a very high level of energy and focus.

I would suggest instead that you think very carefully about the leading activity of your day, because it’s going to set you up for success or failure that day. My suggestion is every day, you sit down—as the last thing you do before you leave the office—and ask yourself, “If there were one thing that I could accomplish tomorrow in order for me to feel like it was a productive day, what would that one thing be?”

I challenge you when you get to work the next morning, don’t do anything until you sit down and do that one thing. Whether it’s recording a quick two-minute episode of a new video series that you are starting, writing an article, or doing a proposal, pick something that’s going to require a fairly high level of concentration, brain power, problem solving, decision-making, or only have the capacity to do when you’re at your highest energy level.

Most people have the majority of their energy in the morning. If so, do the important task first thing. Can you not even open your Outlook, or your Internet browser, or do anything until that one thing is complete?

When it’s done, check your e-mail as a reward. I promise you that one singular habit will make your day start off on the right track and help you leave at the end of the day feeling like you got the most important thing done.

Please share your tips and tricks on how to get your day started in the most productive manner. I look forward to hearing your ideas!

How do you get more out of your busy day? Most of us have at least one area of disorganization which seems to hold us back from being at our most productive. How do we address those areas? Here is a link to one of the Productivity Minutes on Denver’s Channel 7 News. See here: No Time Like Now To Get Organized.

Laura Stack is now presenting a weekly series, The Productivity Minute, on Denver’s Channel 7 News. Each week she’ll share great tips and tricks on how to be more productive at work and at home.
View her introduction to the series:

Special thanks to The Denver Channel for inviting us to be a part of their show. Be sure to tune in for future episodes!

An important part of being and staying productive is knowing the right time to accomplish a task. This is true not only in the business world, but in our personal lives as well. When we’re working on getting things done, we don’t always know exactly what the best time is for certain things. I ran across this helpful list of 100 tips and tricks for the best times to do things: Time is Money: The Best Times to Do Everything (100 Tricks & Tips).

I hope you find a few tips to help you make the most of your time!