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

It’s springtime! For most, that means throwing open the windows and doing some serious spring cleaning. It’s also a great opportunity to catch up on much-needed spring organizing…attacking the organizational backlog that may have piled up over the last few months.

Here are some tips on doing away with the two most pervasive and frustrating forms of clutter: paper clutter and electronic clutter.

Tackling paper clutter

A BusinessWeek article called “The Office of the Future” gives a promising glimpse into the future of office productivity, including the paperless office. The article was originally published in 1975. Anyone out there working in a paperless office yet? Quite the contrary. Most of us are saddled with more paper than ever. So much for the paperless office!

How often have you been on the verge of pulling your hair out because you can’t find a particular piece of paper? How much would it reduce your day-to-day stress level if you didn’t have to look at stacks of unorganized stuff all week? This is a great time of year to grab one pile at a time and get every piece of paper where it belongs.

Some hints to accomplish this task:

You don’t have to do anything. When it comes to cluttered inboxes and crowded desk space, the number one offender are items that you need to handle eventually, but don’t have time to do right now. When you are getting organized, it isn’t the time to get involved in a bunch of individual projects or tasks.

The only things you should actually do on the spot are the ones that can be completed in a few minutes (sign a form, prepare something for the mail, that sort of thing). Everything else can be addressed at a later date. If you can’t do it right away, file it in your tickler file (click here if you don’t have one), or make a note in your planner that indicates what you need to do, when you need to do it, and where you’ll find the information you need.

You don’t have to keep everything. Be realistic. How much of the stuff on your desk is just trash that is continually shuffled from place to place? Don’t look for reasons to keep stuff, look for opportunities to get rid of it.

Do you have a records retention policy in place? If you do, be sure to follow it, keeping what you need and actively purging what you don’t. If you don’t have a policy in place, take some time to decide what needs to be kept and what can be purged regularly. Be ruthless—paper versions of documents you have electronically, reports you’ll never read, notes you’ll never need—most of this can probably go.

You don’t have to read everything. If there was something tremendously valuable in that reading pile of yours, wouldn’t you have gotten to it by now? Instead, there it sits, not only taking up space but also discouraging you from reading the things that matter.

Have you considered just starting fresh? Don’t be afraid to send piles of reading material to the recycle bin if they aren’t worth your time and attention. Then you can keep up with your reading as it comes in. Once you’ve cleared the backlog, you’ll feel refreshed and motivated to keep up with the day-to-day filing and management of paper, which ideally should take place at least once a week.

Tackling electronic clutter

Have your computer files become so messy and scattered that even the handy Search tool struggles to find what you need? It’s very easy to get in a hurry and simply drop an electronic file on your computer’s desktop or toss it in the My Documents folder.

Then you do it again. And again. The next thing you know, you’ve got a sea of icons cluttering up your screen and you have to squint your eyes and hunt for the one you need.

By putting an electronic filing system in place, it will be much easier to know where to save files as your receive or create them. Because tackling an electronic mess can be more intimidating than tackling a physical one, here are three straightforward steps to getting your electronic files in order.

1. Create your system. You want all of your files to live in a single master folder that is broken down into many subfolders. That can be your My Documents folder or anything you like. This centralizes your information and makes backups a breeze.

From there, find a sensible way to categorize your files. Maybe you’ll start out by creating a subfolder for business files and a subfolder for personal files. Then keep drilling down, until you are creating individual folders for projects, clients, or whatever makes sense.

Keep in mind that much of the time you’ll be building your system as you go. With each new file or folder, you’ll have to use your judgment to place the information at the best spot in the hierarchy.

2. Round up those files. This is usually the intimidating part, especially if you have out of control folders full of vaguely-named files. If you can’t stomach tackling the whole mess at once, then do it a bit at a time. With just five minutes of effort, you’ll be amazed at how many files and folders you can have renamed and where they belong. When you have a few minutes to spare, sift through a folder or get through a handful of desktop files. I assure you that each session will be easier than you think!

3. Keep up with it. Once you have a clear desktop and no orphan files running around without homes, it’s just a matter of filing things correctly day by day. It only takes a few seconds to label and file things appropriately as they come up. Don’t give in to the temptation of letting the chips fall where they may and cleaning up later.

Once you’ve caught up with your paper and electronic filing, you’ll find that keeping up with it is a piece of cake…provided that you are committed to maintaining the effort. Just remember, it is easier to put something in the right place in the first place than it is to play catch up.

Determined to jump out of a workplace productivity rut? Don’t forget to reconnect with your Muse.

Now, the hardnosed businessperson in you might view such a statement with a bit of suspicion. What, you may ask, does “a Muse” have to do with revitalizing your productivity at work? Well…everything, really. Your Muse represents, collectively, all those things that drive your creativity. While you can be productive for a while without any real inspiration, the lack can eventually wear you down into a rut where you’re content to maintain no better than minimum standards. Work becomes boring and pointless…and there goes your productivity.

When you feel the walls closing in, stop and think about why you work in the first place. Ultimately, what do you intend to achieve? Go back and review your goals, both corporate and personal. Think deeply about why those goals matter, and reach out for the motivational triggers that can help you bridge the gap between just going through the motions and achieving results that count. What can inspire you to climb out of your rut, back onto the productive track?

If you can’t see a way directly from Point A to your final destination, then start working toward an intermediate Point B…and then Point C and Point D, as necessary. If you can’t make the necessary inner connection, seek motivation from outside. Ask for feedback from those who matter to you (end users, family, superiors, etc.), glean the nuggets of wisdom from their advice, and implement the necessary repairs. Otherwise, try engaging in a little friendly competition with co-workers. Read motivational works in your field. Have someone whom you respect act as an accountability partner to spur you on.

The point is to give your Muse a nudge (or a kick, if necessary) to wake her up. Once you find what works to get her off her duff, integrate those triggers into your personal productivity programs, so your workplace productivity can rev along in high gear from then on.

Everyone has a productivity personality. It’s the collection of strengths, weaknesses, and day-to-day habits that come together to determine how a person works best.

I’ve written often about how important it is to get a handle on your own personal productivity personality, but it’s important that you don’t stop there. After all, most of us depend on others at some point in our day and the individual work styles and attitudes of those around us can have a huge impact on our own ability to get things done.

That’s why I put together a list of the 12 dysfunctional personal productivity personalities. Hopefully this list will help you smile (rather than cringe) the next time a coworker’s bad habits start to drive you up the wall. I’ve also included some thoughts on how to deal with each of these pesky personalities.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1. Scrappers. The scrapper’s desk look like a modern art exhibit, covered in scraps of paper and sticky notes. They write important notes on whatever is close at hand, whether it’s a fast food receipt or the back of an envelope (a scrapper’s favorite).

Handling the scrapper: You can’t force scrappers to adopt a comprehensive planning system or put all of those little scraps into Outlook or a BlackBerry (although you could try to coach them). What you can do is make sure that items pertaining to your work don’t get lost in the shuffle. Send follow-up e-mails detailing key meeting take-aways, check in before important deadlines, and never fail to follow up on a delegated task.

2. Pilers. Pilers have a lot in common with scrappers, except it is generally much more difficult to navigate your way through the piler’s office. They keep everything and file nothing. There will be boxes on the floor and every inch of desk space will be occupied by stacks of paper, generally piled up to the point that an archeologist could use them to figure out what the piler has been working on for the last five years.

Handling the piler: The best thing you can do for the piler is simple: don’t add anything to the piles. Chances are that any document, book, or report that you put in the piler’s hands is going to end up in heap someplace, where it is probably as good as gone. Never hand your only hard copy over to a piler unless you are ready to kiss it goodbye. Also, be sure to set clear deadlines. Their idea of giving something a high priority is placing it on their (generally largest) “immediate attention” stack. Don’t ask them to do something “right away,” ask them to do it by a specific date.

3. Multi-taskers. Multi-taskers always have a thousand things going on at once and generally take pride in it. They flit from task to task, getting many things started but few things completed. And they often appear frazzled, overwhelmed, and scattered.

Handling the multi-tasker: Always use caution when working with a multi-tasker. He or she will rarely admit that they don’t have the capacity to take on another task and can easily become distracted by competing priorities. Always double-check, very directly, with multi-taskers to make sure that they can and will do what is expected in an agreed-upon timeframe.

4. Interrupters. “Gotta minute?” It’s practically the interrupter’s catch phrase. They will constantly show up at your desk, interrupting your day and derailing your train of thought. Their interruptions are sometimes trivial and sometimes relevant, but almost always ill-timed.

Handling the interrupter: You have to be honest on this one. If someone asks if you have a minute, don’t be afraid to tell them you don’t. The more cautiously you guard your own time, the more others will begin thinking twice before asking for it needlessly. A polite response to an interruption is to simply point out that no, you don’t have any time right now but would be happy to meet later in the day if needed. Beyond that, a simple “Do Not Disturb” sign can go a long way – just don’t abuse it.

5. Procrastinators. Some people seem clinically incapable of doing anything before the last possible moment. They start things with just enough time to squeeze them in before the deadline. You’ll also notice that procrastinators tend to put off high-value (often challenging) tasks in favor of more pleasant, less critical ones.

Handling the procrastinator: Don’t let a procrastinator drag your project team down. The best way to get out ahead of a procrastinator is to plan in advance and evaluate results on an ongoing basis, not just when the work is done. If your procrastinator is expected to deliver a weekly progress report, they’ll be more likely to stay on track. Of course, you should probably steer clear immediately before your meeting. That will be crunch time.

6. Socializers. Socializers waste inordinate amounts of time chatting with coworkers and keeping up with the personal lives of everyone at the office. They’re great at planning the company party, but tend to fall short in other ways.

Handling the socializer: Socializers do what they do because they get something out of it – interaction, stress relief, distraction from work, whatever. If you don’t have anything along those lines to offer, they’ll lost interest in you pretty quickly. You just need to be sure not to play along. If you’re in the habit of nodding your head and smiling while others talk your ear off, then you are part of the problem. Politely point out that you are trying to keep your day on track and need to get back to what you were doing.

7. Meeting addicts. Some people apparently just love to call meetings. Maybe they really enjoy the setting and the interaction or maybe it honestly has never occurred to them that it is possible to get things done without putting half the department around a conference table. Either way, the result is a lot of time wasted by everyone involved.

Handling the meeting addict: First of all, don’t be afraid to decline a meeting when it’s appropriate to do so. Simply state that you don’t feel your presence is needed and ask that you be kept in the loop on any important outcomes that might affect your work. Second, don’t be afraid to suggest an alternative to a meeting. When you get the request, simply call the organizer to ask if the matter could be handled by e-mail or conference call. In fact, you might be able to resolve the issue on the spot and save everyone a lot of time and disruption.

8. Crisis creators. We’ve all been there. A lack of planning by one person leads to a crisis for everyone else. Even minor issues are exaggerated into a full-blown disaster and everyone involved ends up feeling stressed and drained as a result. Crisis creators seem to always be fighting fires and coworkers are often dragged into the fray.

Handling the crisis creator: Unfortunately, we often have to step in and help fight fires even if they aren’t our fault. If a certain individual is constantly working in crisis mode, it is important that you don’t play into the drama. Keep a cool head and don’t get overly stressed. Then, once the crisis is resolved, insist on a debriefing meeting to figure out what went wrong. Once crisis creators realize that problems aren’t going to be forgotten once the crisis is over, they’ll be more inclined to stay out of trouble in the first place.

9. E-mailers. They send an e-mail for everything. It doesn’t matter how simple or how complicated an issue is, an e-mail message is the answer. They never use the phone, they never walk across the hall to deliver a ten-word message, and they usually LOVE the “Reply All” button.

Handling the e-mailer: Usually you won’t have much luck influencing the e-mail habits of a colleague, although you can specifically request the recipients do NOT Reply to All but respond to you directly instead. What you CAN do is set clear expectations concerning your own use of e-mail. If you only check your messages a few times each day, tell people that so they don’t expect you to treat Outlook like an instant messaging service. People are generally pragmatic about things and if e-mail isn’t a good way to get a response from you, they’ll stop using it for everything.

10. Packrats. Packrats have never thrown anything away in their professional lives. They don’t worry about the company’s records retention policy, because they retain everything, no matter what. They are often overwhelmed by their own treasure trove of obsolete documents, but will come in handy if you ever need to take a look at the final report from that project that was cancelled in 1986.

Handling the packrat: Packrats are sometimes highly organized creatures, but are often more worried about the thickness of their project files than they are about what’s inside. Never trust a packrat to manage priorities or to take away the key points from any given interaction. Be direct about what you need from them so you don’t end up with a ton of unnecessary research or extraneous background information. Just the facts, please.

11. Perfectionists. By insisting on doing everything perfectly, perfectionists generally fail to accomplish much at all. They can never finish, because it “can always be better.” They work hard, but complete little. Perfectionists keep meticulous meeting notes, promise the world during planning sessions, and often seem to crack up just as the project is coming together.

Handling the perfectionist: When you are working with a perfectionist, it’s a good idea to plan for frequent touch points throughout the project. Rather than expecting to reconvene at the end, schedule several synch-up meetings along the way. Define the level of expectation and the exact deliverables. This will help keep the perfectionist working in manageable (if imperfect) chunks and also give the person a chance to dazzle you with little presentations throughout the project. Perfectionists just love that.

12. Workaholics. The workaholic works an 80 hour week and never misses an opportunity to remind you of it. Puzzling, though, is the fact that they seem to accomplish less than others working half the hours. The workaholic typically has no boundaries between work and home life.

Handling the workaholic: Remember that to a workaholic, “end of day” does not mean five o’clock. Usually, it means “before tomorrow.” When you are expecting something from a workaholic, keep in mind that you will likely see an e-mail roll in at 10:45 p.m. Also remember that there is no sense of urgency to a workaholic. Since they plan to be working into the evening anyway, they tend to waste time during normal business hours. You can subtlety nudge them in your direction by saying things such as “I’d like to have that by three o’clock so that I can be out the door on time tonight.”

I have no doubt that at least a few of these 12 dysfunctional productivity personalities will have you smiling and thinking of someone you work with. But also keep in mind that each of us has a little of one or more of these personalities in us as well. So as we work to deal better with our chronically troublesome coworkers, we should also be willing to improve on our own little areas of personal dysfunction. Now THAT is productivity improvement!

I’d like to introduce you to Rory Vaden, who has been a friend of mine for many years. He has a novel area of study—he is the world’s only Self-Discipline Strategist.  His first book, Take the Stairs, just released this week, reached the #1 ranking in all categories on Amazon.com as well as Barnes & Noble, and just yesterday, he’s #1 on the USA Today list and #2 on the famed NY Times list.  Rory sent me a review copy of his book, which I really enjoyed, as we somewhat play in the same sandbox (my book Leave the Office Earlier, had an entire chapter called “Discipline”).

I recently connected with him to expand on some of the most interesting concepts presented in the book. 

Laura: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing business today?

 Rory: Procrastination is the most expensive invisible cost in business today. In our research for the book we found a study of 10,000 US employees who were anonymously surveyed and asked the question “in a given 40 hour work week how much time do you spend while on the job on ‘non-job related activities?” The average person self-admitted to wasting 2.09 hours each day! Then we went to the US Department of Labor Bureau of statistics and found that the average American earns $39,795 per year.  Which means, that if we are procrastinating an average amount our procrastination costs employers $10,396 per year, per employee! If we are in sales or we’re a small business owner then that is what it’s costing us. Except no one ever thinks of procrastination as a cost because it doesn’t show up on our P and L or in our checkbook register.

Laura: One of my favorite things in your book is the concept of creative avoidance. What is that and how do we watch out for it? 

Rory: Creative Avoidance is a new and much more pervasive form of procrastination that is subtly different. Procrastination is consciously choosing not to do something that we know we should be doing. But what most professionals are really struggling from today is unconsciously filling the day with menial work or trivial work where they can be working long hours, in lots of meetings, answering lots of emails but really they are nothing more than busy just being busy.  Distraction is a dangerously deceptive saboteur of our goals. It’s amazing how much time we lose to mindless minutiae that really doesn’t forward our progress to completing anything substantial. One of the key strategies presented in the book is learning how to ignore the small stuff temporarily so you can focus in on the big stuff. The book also works hard to empirically quantify some of the impacts of the various forms of procrastination which helps readers ultimately realize that anything that wastes our time is a waste of our money.

Laura: I’ve heard you mention that there is a perpetual enemy we face in our life that is working against us from taking action. Can you introduce that to us and share with us what the remedy is?

Rory: The Law of Diminishing Intent simply states, “our intention to take action is highest the moment we create that intention but then naturally, over time, that intention slowly starts to fade. Which explains why when you go to the gym on January 5th it is packed and when you go on March 5th it is empty. But most people don’t take action even in those few moments when they are inspired and see a dream for their own life that they want. They never even get started.  I wrestled a long time with the questions “Does that mean they’re bad people? That they just don’t have integrity? That they simply don’t have the will power? Do they not care about success? Do they not care about letting people down? Or is success just not written in the stars for them?” Until I finally realized that “No!” that’s not at all what it means – in fact it’s just the opposite. The reason most people don’t take action is because they care so much about success that they just want to wait to get started until they have the perfect time, the perfect set of resources, the perfect amount of money, etc. What they don’t realize is that perfect time never comes and with each moment that they don’t take action, the likelihood that they ever will decreases exponentially. The strategy is to learn to focus relentlessly on progress meanwhile completely freeing yourself of the demand for perfection.

 Laura: Tell us about your “Take the Stairs tour.” What is it all about?

Rory: We decided with all of the momentum of this book that we should do something more productive then just go around to bookstores and beg 3 friends to come out to get their book signed. So instead we are taking a tour bus across the country to 20 states between Feb 20 and Mar 20 to support Youth Character Education. We are hosting 2.5 hr FREE events in every city where members of the community come to a live event at a local venue (high school auditorium, college, church, etc) WITH their teenagers and I teach all 7 strategies of self-discipline and the Take the Stairs mindset. We then collect a $10 suggested donation at the door and give 100% of the money we raise that night right back to that local school district foundation or some other local youth charity that supports character education. Our plan is to hopefully raise at least $10,000 at each event and over $250k total for the whole tour. Anyone can register; it’s absolutely free (other than the suggested donation), and we are inviting people to come with their teenagers (8th grade and up) so they can do something fun together as a family and learn about the importance of self-discipline together. The complete list of tour locations where they can register and all of the information is available at www.takethestairstour.com

 Anyone wanting to buy the book can do so at www.buytakethestairs.com .

 Rory is a great friend, and I’ve admired his work for many years. No one is better in the field of self-discipline. Rory has taken it to a whole new level with Take the Stairs!

Rory is giving away 4 big bonuses for the first 2000 people who buy the book at www.buytakethestairs.com, so check it out today!

In the high-octane world of modern business, you hear a lot of theories about what it takes to increase employee productivity. Empowerment is one of the philosophies discussed most often, especially as it relates to the corporate team environment. The idea is simple enough: by implementing practices that help employees feel confident, capable, and in control of the outcome of their work, they feel empowered to do that work effectively and without excessive oversight or micromanagement. Ideally, this ensures commitment to the company’s core mission and vision, which results in greater productivity over the long term.

That’s the theory, anyway. But as any scientist will tell you, all that really matters is how well a theory stands up to testing. If it’s a dud, a few experimental runs out in the real world should soon put it to rest.

So: how does the employee empowerment schema fare? As it turns out, empowerment really does work—like gangbusters. Real-world experimentation has repeatedly proven that the best employees are those who “own” their work; that is, those who feel they have a say in how they do their work and are fully engaged in the outcome. Empowered employees aren’t just proud of their work, they’re more productive than their disempowered colleagues. In general, they’re also more satisfied, so they bring in more business by making customers happier, which translates into greater profits. This holds true in both the individual and collective senses. From a hardnosed financial perspective, then, employee empowerment is a good business.

Now: before I talk about what you can do to implement employee empowerment in your company, let’s look at what empowerment isn’t. Even when they’re willing to consider the strategy, managers often develop a false idea of what empowerment actually is, and end up shooting themselves in the metaphorical foot when they try to implement. For starters:

• Empowerment isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. Individuals should be fully empowered by management only when they prove that they can do the job and display the proper initiative. On the other hand, the opportunity to become empowered should always be a right.

• Empowerment isn’t always assumed by the employees, no matter what management may think. If your employees aren’t taking the initiative to own their jobs, then they don’t feel empowered to do so. Why? Probably because you haven’t made it clear that they are.

• Empowerment isn’t a bunch of motivational posters or empty slogans that management pays lip service to but doesn’t really follow.

• Empowerment isn’t a blank check to do anything the employee wants. Management must set explicit boundaries within a strategic framework, so that employees know and understand which decisions they can make without management approval.

• Nor is empowerment management by consensus. A business isn’t a democracy. When properly implemented, empowerment gives workers the authority to do their jobs—not the management’s.

What “employee empowerment” boils down to is a philosophy that allows people to make decisions about their work, within certain broad guidelines. Simply put, it lets employees think for themselves. Now, some observers claim that empowerment comes from the employee, and to a certain extent that’s true. However, I believe that true workplace empowerment comes from the employees and management working in tandem. The employee has to be willing to show initiative and take control of their work, yes; but the management team has to be in a position to encourage and allow employee empowerment, or it will never occur.

Which brings me to a critical point: management can have a regrettable tendency to express a commitment to the concept of empowerment, without actually making it an effective part of corporate culture. Many of us have seen productivity initiatives fizzle, because management is somehow under the impression that a few catchy slogans and a coffee mug (or worse, some atrocity like an “empowerment rock”) is enough to actually empower employees to buy into the company’s mission and vision and take ownership of their work. Worse, some companies send their employees to productivity training as a matter of course—and then just as routinely ignore the employee attempts at self-empowerment that productivity teaches. That’s like pouring money down the drain. It’s hard to say why companies would waste resources this way, though it may stem from an unwillingness to give up control to the employees, or from a fear of losing certain privileges. More likely, it’s due to a deep-seated belief that the employees can’t actually do their work properly without constant oversight.

Whatever the case, if you’re washy-washy about empowerment, you’re unlikely to see a significant productivity increase when you try to implement it. Even in these uncertain times, the most you’ll see is employees who do only what they have to in order to get by. Don’t underestimate your employees: they’re keenly aware of what you think of them at all times, and a halfhearted empowerment effort will go over like a lead balloon. The ironic thing here is that employee empowerment isn’t all that difficult or expensive to implement. Delegation of tasks to particular individuals, encouraging employees to focus on specific, reachable (if occasionally difficult) goals, consistent training, and employee coaching are all ways that a manager can effectively empower his or her employees.

All this does take some work on the part of management, of course—and it’s here, unfortunately, that the process breaks down. Too often, managers are unwilling to put in the effort necessary to achieve the level of empowerment that can make productivity take off like a rocket. That’s too bad, because direct involvement and supportive communication on the part of management are two of the foundations of employee empowerment.

First of all, you have to make your employees understand what you’re trying to achieve. You can’t do that by just ordering them to do this or that, without providing an explanation…well, you can, but that’s the military way (as my father the Colonel would say)…and employees aren’t soldiers. They haven’t been through the intensive training that the military uses to break down the individual and rebuild him into the type of soldier they need. So help your employees understand what you’re trying to do. Explain the company’s mission in a simple, straightforward way. It can be as simple as, “We’re trying to make the best tires in the world,” or “We’re world leaders in software technology, and we want to stay that way.” You don’t have to ramble on about “leveraging our core business” and “optimizing quality-driven geo-targeted bandwidth,” or “gap analysis,” even though all that may be integral to your business strategy. Just give it to them straight. They’ll appreciate that.

Managers also have to be willing to give of themselves, in the sense that they have to a) provide assistance that’s appropriate to the problems faced by the employees, b) carry out any requested assistance competently and completely, c) encourage employees, and d) provide information or express concern in a way that neither embarrasses the employee nor causes them to lose face (hence the old saying, “Praise in public, criticize in private”). They should also be willing to correct the employee along the way—again, in a respectful way, if possible. Treating employees the way you want to be treated is essential, because nothing can match motivated people who really care about their jobs and know that you care about them. A recent Global Workforce Study conducted by Towers Watson reveals that employee confidence in their leaders is at low ebb as of mid-2010; therefore, a willingness to make your commitment to empowerment obvious to your employees offers more of an advantage than ever.

And let me be clear: empowering your employees to do their jobs confidently and without excessive oversight isn’t an altruistic move, although your employees may think so. When properly handled, employee empowerment is a win-win situation all around—because in addition to making employees more productive, it also makes you more productive. By tapping into the knowledge and energy of your employees, you not only take advantage of the “many heads are better than one” thesis, you get to focus on your own most profitable tasks—the reason you’re getting paid the big bucks in the first place.

At your level, tasks like marketing, inventing, and hiring top-notch employees are a whole lot more profitable than running around putting out brushfires or doing menial tasks. What’s more productive for you: planning a marketing blitz that could bring in a million bucks, or helping your intern photocopy a report, because you’re not convinced he can do it correctly? The choice is a slam dunk…or it should be. After all, what would you rather do: minimum wage work, or something that’s worth hundreds, and potentially thousands, of dollars an hour for the company?

If your employees seem unwilling to take initiative to empower themselves, find out why. If it’s obvious that they don’t have the training they need to do their work with confidence, then train them! They need to be confident not only that they’re allowed to do the job, but also that they can do the job. That’s another foundation of workplace empowerment.

Uncertainty hampers both empowerment and the productivity that comes with it. Basic education isn’t enough; it’s crucial, but it just prepares a person for their career. New employees need hands-on training, so that they can gain experience in handling the specialized aspects of particular tasks. Your only other option is to toss ‘em out there to sink or swim as best they can. This approach to “empowerment” is inherently wasteful, not just because it limits the development of their personal competency at particular tasks (and thus their productivity), but also because it blows a hole in your team’s productivity levels, too. Even if the individual learns to swim, it’ll take a while; and if they sink, you’re back to square one.

Once an employee has enough training that their ability to do the job is unquestioned, you’ll have to remind them that they are, in fact, empowered to do that job. In other words, start delegating tasks to them, and make them aware that it’s up to them to get the job done. You can’t do everything, and you shouldn’t try—or you’ll end up with that lack of initiative that so many managers complain about. Never let your employees think they have to consult you before they do even the smallest tasks. Just put stuff on their plates and let them get it done. Large products require discussion and the setting of deadlines, as well as steady monitoring, but don’t hover. Size up your team, learn their skill levels and natural talents, and then hand off tasks to the appropriate individuals so that projects can be completed on time.

Recently, I expressed frustration to my office manager, Becca, about the inefficiency of correcting simple typos we found on our website: send an email to our IT guy, provide the link and the correction, and wait. She was taking college courses in IT and had created some simple websites in class. So I asked her if I purchased a web editing software package, would she feel comfortable making the changes. She spent time learning the package, and we specifically discussed her taking the initiative to make changes whenever she saw errors or needed corrections. I am now happily freed of this time-sucking task, and she is enjoying her newfound skills.

Making people responsible for their tasks will stimulate them to succeed, so be sure to set goals and deadlines for your employees. The goals should be reasonable, though they might be a bit difficult to achieve; as a result, the employee will have to stretch, which will result in increased confidence and, ideally, a heightened sense of empowerment. Don’t make the goals excessive; that can lead to frustration, poor productivity, and an erosion of the sense of empowerment. The intelligent manager takes a person’s abilities into account and doesn’t overburden them. On the other hand, a little encouragement can result in a significant increase in productivity; and to some extent, increased productivity and empowerment feed off each other.

Finally, if you want your employees to continue to feel empowered, reward them for their productivity. Otherwise, you’re telling them you don’t appreciate their contributions—and down goes productivity, because what’s the point of working hard? For some, a verbal “pat on the back” will do, and such recognition is the least that you should offer. For most people, though, money’s a prime motivator. A nice bonus or a gift card is always appreciated!

“Taking enough time to renew our strengths and resources is necessary to preserve and enhance the greatest asset we have, ourselves.” — Timi Gustafson, American health writer and dietitian.

“We often hear of people breaking down from overwork, but in nine out of ten times they are really suffering from worry or anxiety.” — Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913), British polymath and Member of Parliament.

“Make a distinction between work and leisure; don’t skip your holidays; take care of your health and well-being…” — Dr. Marianna Virtanen, lead author of “Long Working Hours and Cognitive Function: The Whitehall II Study.”

Say what you will about the slacker generation, most Americans don’t hesitate when it comes to hard work. A willingness to jump in and get the job done has been an integral part of our cultural ethic for centuries, and it remains a foundation upon which we build our lives. Hard work actually means something here. We live in a meritocracy, where ability and effort often matter more than how much money you happened to inherit or the social rank of your family.

But we often overdo it. On average, American workers take fewer holidays and work longer hours than workers in most industrialized nations. This has been especially true in the past few years, as the economy has contracted and both businesses and individual workers have gone into crisis mode.

Remember cartoon character George Jetson, who worked maybe ten hours a week? For about a century now, futurists have predicted that something like that would actually occur as technology advanced. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future: we traded our personal lives for greater productivity. Over and over, new inventions made it easier to produce more in the same amount of time—and so we’ve pushed the envelope until it shredded.

Even places like Britain and Australia (which we often perceive as the last bastions of a laid-back work ethic we secretly admire) are feeling the strain. Their newly ballooning workweeks drive both physical and mental stress that seems startling to the researchers who document it. For example, a recent study of British workers revealed that working too many 11-hour days can increase heart attack risk by more than two-thirds.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? But Americans tend to look at such data, say “Well, duh,” and move on. We work and work, rarely coming up for air…often to the point of exhaustion and bad health. We accept this as necessary, especially with the economy circling the drain. Even as our workweeks lengthen, we crack the whips on ourselves so we can keep our jobs and make the mortgage. American productivity has never been higher… but I believe this represents a false productivity, since it seems unsustainable over the long run.

However, maximizing your productivity at work does not mean you have to grind yourself down to nothing. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I’ve been saying for years—and as I think more and more people are starting to realize.

Consider what happens when you sharpen a pencil too often (assuming you still remember using such old-fashioned technology). You end up with a little two-inch stub, mostly eraser and lead, and you can’t handle it easily. It’s pretty much useless. So…how useful are you when you become like that over-sharpened pencil?

Clearly, you’ve got to take steps not just to recover your productive “length,” if you will, but also to protect your health and perhaps, in the long run, save your life. Reducing existence to little more than the commute to work, an insanely busy day, the commute home, sleep, lather, rinse, and repeat can’t work for long.

The word “recreation” breaks down to “re-creation” for a reason. Step back and “re-create” your life occasionally. Stop going into the office on the weekends. Take a hike (literally). Go to the art gallery. Reconnect with friends and family. Hoist a latte with your old college roommate. Build a ship in a bottle. In short, do something, anything that pushes your mind and body out of the work ruts and into something different, at least briefly.

The world won’t end if you take a break. And by break, I mean everything from trips to the water cooler to lunches to days off and vacations. You need the change of scenery, mentally and physically, to stay sane. You’re not a robot—maybe C3PO and Data the Android never tire—but who wants to emulate them? One has pronounced neurotic tendencies and the other lacks emotions.

We all need occasional breaks to help hone our sharpness. So don’t let your workload overwhelm you. Give yourself some time off so you can recharge your batteries and get your workplace productivity back on track. Your boss (and your body) will thank you.

A few tips from expert Laura Stack to help you enjoy more time with your loved ones on Valentine’s Day.

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, Productivity Expert and author of Leave the Office Earlier, has these tips to help you create an unforgettable Valentine’s Day:

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.

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.

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. Make it all about adult time.  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.

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.

Be present. Focus on your partner. 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.

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.