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

CONCENTRATING ON YOUR WORK: MAINTAIN FOCUS IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF DISTRACTION

1. Modify your office set up.
Is your office set up for maximum productivity or maximum distraction? Turn away from the door. Block your view with a plant or a computer monitor, so that as people walk by, you are not tempted to look up. If you do, you’ll catch the eye of someone wandering by, and they will strike up a conversation.
You can ask for office changes. If you have glass on one side of your office wall, you can ask for blinds to be installed, so you can close them when trying to concentrate. If your cubicle walls are too low or half walls, you can request higher partitions.

If you happen to work right outside of the elevators or in a high-traffic area, people might think that you are the receptionist and always be asking you for directions and information. Perhaps you can request a change in location. When someone leaves one office, you can say, “Hey, how about that office over there?”
Take it upon yourself to figure out how to set up your office for maximum focus.

2. Maximize your productivity.
Make some different choices when scheduling your day, so you can take advantage of the best opportunities to focus.

Block your high-energy periods from your calendar. If you are a morning person and you do your best work from 8:00 until 10:00, block that time off your calendar so people don’t schedule meetings at that time. During that time, do work that requires a high level of concentration, such as number crunching or reading important documents.

Remove your email alerts. In Outlook, go under Tools, Options, Email options, Advanced email options, and uncheck all the boxes under “When new items arrive in my inbox.” Without all those beeps and envelopes in the systems tray and desktop alerts, you might be able to focus.
Even better, turn off all the technology if you are trying to focus. Shut your Outlook down completely so that you are not tempted to look in your Inbox. Turn your Blackberry or cell phone off. Put your Instant Messaging on Do Not Disturb. Forward your phone. Actually create a little bubble around yourself, a window of opportunity for focused time to work.

Then avoid your known distractions or “occupational hobbies,” things that you really enjoy doing while you are at work. Maybe you like to check your blog postings. You like to post on your Facebook page or check LinkedIn. Or you surf the Internet. Whatever your biggest time wasters, close that browser so that you are not tempted to do those things.

Try setting a timer. If you really want to focus, set a timer like a kitchen timer from home that actually makes noise. Set it for 20 minutes and tell yourself, “I’m not going to do another thing except this task until that timer goes off.”

3. Don’t obey your brain.
Your brain may be constantly reminding you to do things that are very low priority. When you think of something you need to do, you might think, “Ooh, don’t forget to call Jennifer for the meeting next week,” and then you obey your mind, call Jennifer, and stop working on a more important project.

Instead, have a place where you can capture random thoughts as they come up. You can use a Day-Timer, a notebook, or Outlook Tasks. When you think of something to do, don’t actually do it. Instead, record it in your capture tool and go right back to what you were working on.

When you finish the first task, you’ll have a list of the other items you thought about. Now you can re-assess priorities and accomplish them in order of importance, rather than the order they popped into your brain.

I hope these three strategies will help you concentrate and be more focused.

To find out more about The Productivity Pro®, Inc. or have Laura Stack speak at an upcoming meeting or event, please visit at www.theproductivitypro.com.
Make it a productive day! ™

© 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved.

SUPERCOMPETENT™ Key #4: ACCOUNTABILITY

This month’s article correlates to the fifth key in my newest book SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best (Wiley), to be released on August 9: ACCOUNTABILITY.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please don’t order my book yet! I’ll soon be announcing a very special BUY day on Amazon and B&N, where ordering will get you hundreds of dollars in free bonus gifts!

Accountability recognizes that “the buck stops here.”

SuperCompetent people mean what they say and say what they mean. They’re authentic, and other people know this and appreciate them for it—and also for their refusal to blame others when unforeseen circumstances trip them up. Their intense focus on their values is borne out in their demeanor and their sense of personal responsibility.

Accountability involves your commitment to yourself and others. It’s about the promises we make to the people who rely on us—and to ourselves. It’s about consistently hitting goals, meeting deadlines, fulfilling promises, and committing to teamwork.

The truly Accountable understand that in almost every circumstance, they’re responsible for who they are and where they are.

A high level of self discipline and Accountability can be achieved by consistently practicing the following precepts:

1. Take personal responsibility for handling your time and productivity. Never lay the blame on anyone else. Unless you live in a totalitarian state or are an indentured servant (unlikely), then when it comes to productivity, it’s all up to you. If something or someone gets in your way, it’s your duty to go around.

2. When a process seems unusually long and inefficient, do what you can to make it easier for everyone. Just because something’s been done a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it now. If you find a problem, step forward and fix it if you can—or offer a solution if you can’t.

3. Rather than waste even small amounts of productive time, get right to work. Breaks are necessary, but don’t overindulge in them. Self-discipline is important in any field of endeavor. Without it, deadlines get missed, you feel guilty—and guilt sucks the energy right out of you. Or you get fired. Or both.

4. When you have all the information you need to proceed, make decisions immediately. You have to make critical decisions quickly whenever it’s necessary and you’re empowered to do so. Don’t let worry or social inertia slow you down, because motion beats meditation every time if you have all the data you need.

5. Understand the difference between being busy and being productive. Don’t let little tasks keep you from getting things done. Most of us spend too much time tending to minor issues that other people can handle more cheaply and efficiently, and never have enough time to do all the really important tasks.

The SuperCompetent take charge of their own productivity because, ultimately, they realize that it all comes down to them. They accept the blame when it’s due, not just the credit.

They also do all they can to make things work better for themselves and others, and make every effort to become comfortable with making decisions, without letting the possible negative consequences paralyze them.

Personal responsibility is easy to observe in people who have it. Make sure people can observe it in you.

Make it a productive day! (TM)

(C) Copyright 2009 Laura Stack. All rights reserved.

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) discusses advanced planning. (C) 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved

Looking for a better way to keep track of your time, log hours for various clients, or see where time is being wasted? You’ll want to check out Chrometa’s Automatic Time Tracker.

Chrometa automatically records the time while you work — both on and off the PC. You’ll discover previously undocumented billable time, save time on billing reconciliation, and improve personal productivity.

Once your time is automatically captured, you can categorize your time quickly and easily by client or project. Use smart alerts to remind you to log time away from the PC such as meetings or phone calls. And easily export the data into Microsoft Excel.

If you’re serious about boosting your personal productivity, and getting paid for every second you work, Chrometa is THE ideal time management software for you. You can use it free for 30 days – we highly recommend you download Chrometa’s Time Tracker now, and regain control of your time today.

1. Don’t take personalities personally.
I have heard many stories from admins whose boss was a grouchy type of person, who say to me, “Oh, he doesn’t like me. We just don’t get along.” When the boss gets a promotion she thought, “I’m going to be left behind.” He said, “Are you kidding? I can’t do anything without you.”
Do not think that just because someone is in a bad mood that it reflects on you, or if someone has a crotchety personality that s/he doesn’t like you. Always be your capable, competent, positive self.

2. Change your focus.
Focus on the 175 things that you did right today, not the one thing that you did wrong. So many people get upset when they make a little mistake. They made a typo in a letter or sent an email to the wrong person or copied someone they shouldn’t have.
Mistakes happen. That does not mean that you are a failure. That means you can learn from that one thing. But really focus on all of the ways you do provide value, and that you are an asset to your manager.

3. This is not brain surgery.
Take your job seriously, but take yourself lightly. Ultimately, on your deathbed, you are not going to say, “Oh, gee. I wish I would have spent a little more time typing up that document. Oh, if I had just reviewed that email for another ten minutes, it wouldn’t have gone out with that mistake.”
You can love your career, but you exist beyond what you do for a living. Take pride in what you do, but remember to keep a sense of humor when things that go wrong.

4. I am not just an admin!
Repeat these words to yourself frequently: “I am not just an admin!” When someone asks you, “What do you do for a living?” do not reply, “I’m just an admin.”
You are a valuable member of the team. Your position is important. Admins are the heartbeat of an organization, and much falls apart when you are not around. Look what happens when you take a day off! You are an important contributor, so hold your head high and be proud to be an admin.

5. Practice preventative assertions.
When things go wrong and deadlines aren’t met, go back to the person who missed it after-the-fact and explain what you need in the future.
Say, “It’s important that I receive this information in a timely fashion to make the deadline. This time was rushed, and some mistakes were made. The next time, I need this information from you on this date. How far in advance do you want me to provide it, so you can return it to me on time?”
Set those criteria, so that people know better how to interact with you. Don’t just always be the fall gal or the scapegoat.

6. Do not cross your ethical and moral boundaries.
Some admins confided that people have asked them to break the rules. “Oh, I know you’re supposed to send this through Processing, but can you just do it really quick and not send it through there?”
Just respond back, “I don’t want to make a mistake. I need to follow the procedure in this case to ensure that this goes out as it should.”

7. Be assertive.
If you are under the gun and someone’s hovering over your shoulder watching you, and they won’t go away, you are probably feeling a little more nervous because they’re standing there!
Be assertive. Say to them, “I’d get this done much more efficiently if you can come back in 30 minutes.” Speak your mind. Do not be passive and just let everybody take advantage of you. Do not be aggressive and make enemies, but come from the heart in an honest place and state what you need.

8. Manage in advance.
Don’t wait for crisis. Always be looking ahead. Be proactive. What’s happening next week? Is there a meeting coming up that you need to help with documents and copying?
Plan ahead. Is there a trip that’s coming up in a couple of months? What could I do to prepare my manager for that trip long before he or she ever asks me for the information?

9. How can you help your manager be more efficient?
Always exude the attitude, “I am here to help. It is my job to help you be successful.” The more the people you support who are successful, the more you will be successful.
Hopefully these nine tips have given you ideas on great strategies for success as an administrative professional.

To find out more about The Productivity Pro®, Inc. or have Laura Stack speak at an upcoming meeting or event, please visit at www.theproductivitypro.com.
Make it a productive day! ™

If you or someone in your company or organization occasionally brings in outside speakers for training or meetings, please keep reading.

As the economy turns around, we are finding training hasn’t yet returned to 2006-2008 levels, budgets are still suppressed, and attendees can’t get out of their offices for a full day of training. So after successful pilots in Sioux Falls, SD, and Tampa, FL, we think we’ve stumbled on a solution: we are playing MATCHMAKER. Rather than flying out to work with a single company, we will help you find someone in your area to split the costs.

Here’s how it will work. I will book a two-day tour in select cities based upon interest. We will use the same discounted in-state “piggybacking” rates we use for Colorado. Four companies will each get a half-day program and split travel expenses four ways. The tour will look something like this:

Laura flies in the night before.
DAY 1, Company 1, AM session
DAY 1, Company 2, PM session

Drive to nearby city if necessary, spend night.
DAY 2, Company 3, AM session
DAY 2, Company 4, PM session
Fly out

Each company’s share will be $3K plus ¼ the travel expenses. (This is calculated at $6000 per day (discounted rate) x 2 days = $12,000 / 4 = $3,000 per company plus ¼ travel costs per half day of training.)

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Available productivity courses with Laura Stack

We will still design a custom program for you, based on your development needs and specifications!

Click here for a current list of sample productivity training programs.

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At this point, we just need to know if you’d like to be put on the list to be contacted if we have enough participants in your geographical area. There is NO OBLIGATION to express possible interest. Please reply to this message or email our office manager, Becca Fletcher, at Becca@TheProductivityPro.com.

You can know all the productivity tips in the world, but nothing will work if you don’t have the energy to give 100 percent. Personal energy is a measure of how strong, invigorated, or up to a task you may feel at any moment. If you feel down, your zest ebbs, and you tend to produce mediocre work. So know your own rhythms and plan your work around them. If you tend to have a lot of energy first thing in the morning, then do your most challenging work then. High energy gives you the ability to concentrate well, make critical decisions, perform complex analysis, or do any task requiring creativity or problem solving.

When your energy is low, however, these tasks become more difficult, take longer, and often have poor results. So if the afternoons are difficult for you and you experience low energy, choose a healthy way of dealing with it rather than coffee. Pick something that will bring you back to a state of alert productivity. When you feel like you simply cannot start a new task, take a break. Go for a brisk walk, eat some protein, or stand up, stretch, and move your body. Nobody has an unlimited supply of personal energy, so know and honor your patterns and match your tasks to your energy level.

(C) 2010 Laura Stack – All Rights Reserved