Would you be more productive by taking a day off each week from emails? Some companies have tried to implement no-email days and have received mixed feedback. This story from ABC News tells of co-workers who discovered that they were across the hall from one another rather than across the country. It takes time to adjust, but taking a break from email can actually boost productivity and enhance your business relationships.
While it may seem quicker to dash off an email, taking the time to pick up the phone to contact a client or walk down the hall to see a co-worker personalizes the contact. In this era of “crackberry” communication, it seems like a rare thing to have actual conversations with people. What would your office be like if everyone took the day off from email and just talked to each other, or picked up the phone to contact clients and vendors? Are we so addicted to electronic communication that it would hinder our ability to do our work, or would it be a welcome break and boost to productivity. Give it a shot and tell me what you find!
Have you ever found yourself trying to make plans with a friend, just play with the kids, or do something fun for yourself, only to find your planner so full that “maybe next month” is the best you can do? If so, you probably have that old Ado Annie syndrome…you’re “just a girl who cain’t say no.” We all want to feel like great parents, accomplished at work, and like we’re giving back to the community. It is human nature to want success and to please others. It’s good to feel that way – to be ambitious, to be busy, and to get things done. But how much is too much? “Yes” is a good thing – in moderation.
Productivity doesn’t mean filling every moment of every day with tasks that further some agenda. Prepare yourself for upcoming burnout if your schedule is so full that there isn’t time for family, friends and yes – YOU. Because you are good at what you do, people will always ask for your help and your input. They want you to join another board, sew the costumes for the school play, or write the homeowner’s association newsletter. Just because your calendar has a blank spot, it doesn’t mean you have to say “yes” when someone wants to fill that time.
Look at your priorities and take the time to set boundaries for yourself so that you only take on the tasks and activities you truly can and want to complete. What activities on your task list can you outsource? What can you eliminate completely? You know you’re going to get a call or email soon saying “will you…?” Be prepared. Take a deep breath and say it with me – “No.” See – it wasn’t that hard, was it? Well, it may take some practice, but you CAN do it!
It’s OK to say “no” without guilt and without apology. Give yourself that permission right now. Your time is valuable. You simply have to leave some of it for yourself to enjoy those things in life which bring you pleasure and joy. That’s the kind of time that is the juice which “recharges your battery” so that when you are on task you can be productive. Give yourself the gift of some time. You’re worth it.
(C) 2008 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. www.TheProductivityPro.com
We’ve all been there at some point—you look back on the week or the month—feeling that too much has been left undone. You say to yourself, “Where did the time go?” It’s a common lament. If this sounds like you, it might be useful to try a time log for a week to discover your patterns. Time logs can help uncover wasted time that can be turned into productive time. They can also show you when you tend to be most productive, so you can organize your days to take full advantage of those productive times. You’ll quickly so who is interrupting you the most. You’ll discover your bad habits and see where you let pleasurable activities take over high-priority tasks.
There are numerous logging software tools available for download on the internet. These can be useful for those who spend their entire work day at a desk in front of a computer. If you frequently travel or spend time out of the office, using the old-fashioned pen-and-paper method works well because you can easily slip it into your planner. On my site at http://www.theproductivitypro.com/FreeStuff/Time_Log.doc, you’ll find a simple template with instructions that you can use to log your time. Give it a shot. You might be surprised at what you discover!
Victor Borge, the Danish humorist and musician, was well into a performance when a woman came in late, fighting her way through the rows to her seat near the front. Borge stopped playing and as she proceeded—trampling over people, rustling, and disturbing her way to her seat—he said (much to her chagrin, as all eyes focused on her ill-timed arrival), “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.” After she sat down, he walked over near where she was sitting and said, “Where are you from, Ma’am?” “Fifty-Seventh Street,” she said. “Well, Lady, I’m from Denmark, and I was here on time.”
While Borge might have been trying to get a laugh from his audience, his obvious annoyance speaks to the principle of Preparation in Mark Sanborn’s newest book, The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do, which I’ll discuss in this brief article. In the 16 years I’ve been speaking professionally on the concepts of personal productivity, one of the biggest complaints I hear from leaders who bring me in to speak to their employees on performance is something around “the inability to meet deadlines, always being late, constantly running behind, or being forgetful”—a performance that is hardly remarkable.
People are much more irritated by lateness than you can know or they will admit; it can dampen everything from promotions and raises to friendships. Late people crowd you, physically and mentally. When people show up late, it undoes your schedule and disrupts your day. Showing up late or sending something in late—no matter how well done—still means a black mark against you.
I consider myself blessed to be close friends with Mark and his wife, Darla. Since we only live a few miles apart, our families frequently enjoy spending time together. At a recent 4th of July barbeque at our home, Mark joked with me about the already-cut-up plates of tomatoes, onions, pickles, and lettuce, wrapped in plastic, and waiting in the refrigerator. I joked back, “Why, I’m just following the principle of Preparation from your book!” Does a simple act of slicing burger fixings in advance make for a better barbeque? I think so. Being unprepared would have meant trying to cut everything up while the burgers got cold. I still would have been “on time,” but I’d be half listening to them and missing pieces of conversation while focusing on my task.
This is the source of many people’s lateness, I believe: they are trying to be on time. On page 17 of The Encore Effect, Mark defines average performance as, “the best of the worst and the worst of the best.” He says further, “These performers are the best of the mediocre middle, neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. The problem is that average performance doesn’t get you noticed.” Simply being on time doesn’t get you noticed, because it’s fairly typical. It just doesn’t stand out. It’s okay…it’s just expected…yawn. Don’t be simply “average”! So don’t be on time: be EARLY.
Mark’s principle of Preparation—planning in reverse—speaks to this concept. I had to chuckle at his story of the fishermen on page 61. It reminded me of cutting up tomatoes before the barbeque. Being prepared means you do things EARLY. Not on time. Early. Done in advance. Proactive. Forward looking. With a long-term focus. We’re not talking ridiculously early here, in a way that inconveniences your host when you arrive for a party. It’s a way of thinking, a way of being, a way you frame your behavior.
The process of finding and seizing “The Crucial 5 Percent” (page 64), applies Preparation to people in this way:
1. “Late” people are perpetually behind on everything.
2. “On time” people arrive or finish a minute or two ahead or behind the goal.
3. “Early” people are remarkable and are prepared for everything.
Imagine how life would be if you were always so prepared that you arrived early everywhere, for everything. You would:
• Get the first choice of many things,
• Gain admiration and respect,
• Are able to relax and not sweat,
• Get good press and publicity, and
• Have a bit time to relax, read, or return a call.
My point is that you can never really be on time…just barely on one side or the other…so you’re never totally trusted, no matter how skilled you are. Being early makes you look remarkable and demonstrates to others you can be depended upon. Being late, however, makes people wonder if you’ll be on time next time.
Mark distinguishes between “routine” and “remarkable” on page 18. I couldn’t agree more and would frame it in this manner:
• Routine “on time” people communicate through their actions, “I might not make the next deadline.” “I’m barely in control.” “I’m not looking beyond the moment.”
• Remarkable “early” people communicate through their actions, “I don’t need deadlines.” “I’m in complete control.” “I look ahead.”
(We won’t discuss late people, since that belabors the obvious.) In trying to be early, don’t go out and simply set your watch five minutes fast to try to fool yourself, because psychologically, you know it is five minutes fast, and make up for it anyway. Keep your clocks on the correct time. Preparation is all about planning. Instead of thinking, “I have to be there at 9:00 AM,” think, “I will plan on arriving at 8:45.” Then work backward. How long should it take you to get there? Add a buffer in case there’s traffic. What time would that require you to drop off the kids at daycare? What time would you have to get them up in order to make that happen? What time do you have to get up to make that happen? And what will you do if you arrive even earlier than 8:45? Be prepared to pay bills, make calls, read a report, or write thank-you notes.
Before you close shop for the day, ask yourself, “What’s coming up next week?” “What can I get out of the way now?” Before you retire for the night, go over the next day. Know exactly where you need to be, what you need to have with you, and have everything laid out. Have clothes selected, school papers signed, lunches made, briefcase packed, and schedule outlined. As Mark says on page 58, “The future we experience depends on the preparations we make today.”
By preparing in this way, you enable yourself to be early. Soon, you won’t have “deadlines,” because they will be unnecessary. Deadlines eliminate all the job of accomplishment as you work for the deadline, not the completion of a project or task. Deadlines were made for people who would not get things done without one. You, on the other hand, are prepared, a remarkable performer, deserving of an Encore performance.
It’s back to school time! With three kids in elementary and middle school, this is a New Year of sorts for parents. Here are some tips to help you stay sane and productive:
Back-to-the-Future. The first step in moving forward with back-to-school resolutions is to take a look back. What were the situations from the previous school year that could use improvement? Did your child often miss the bus? Did they have a hard time making the honor roll or even passing grades? Was everyone too busy to sit down for dinner together? Once you figure out what areas need improvement, it will help set goals for the upcoming year.
Talk to your children. Whether your school-age children are in elementary school or high school, talk to them about areas they would like to see change, both personally and within the family. Their insight into what areas need improvement may differ from their parents. Discussing the differing goals will help to bring every person in the family on the same page. Buy-in on goals from all members of the family encourages success.
Small steps. Having a student go from straight C’s to straight A’s may be asking too much. The same is true for wanting to have a family who never eats dinner together suddenly sit down at the table five nights a week. Success comes from breaking each resolution into small but achievable steps. Set up weekly goals for each person in the family in order to overcome barriers and create small achievements. Adding steps each week will insure a slow incremental achievement of the main goal.
Make a plan. Assess each resolution and make a list of what changes need to come in to play to have a successful outcome. A child who has not been known for good grades may need to have a tutor. In order to help avoid detention for being tardy, have a back-up plan for your student to take responsibility for making their lunch and setting out their clothing the night before. Move dinner back to 6:30 instead of 5:30 to make sure everyone is able to be there. Having a list of solutions for the resolutions gives everyone a roadmap about how they will reach success.
Coordinate. One of the main challenges with having family resolutions is time. While one parent is working late, another may be taking one of the kids to soccer practice, while the oldest child is at band rehearsal. Posting a calendar with weekly schedules for each person in the household will help everyone keep track of everyone else. This can help the children to know that the parents have early meetings on certain days; so being on time to the bus is a necessity. And parents can keep track of when and where the children’s extracurricular activities are taking place. It is also beneficial to provide each person in the family with a DayTimer planner. This will help keep the kids responsible for their own time and keep everyone organized.
Smile. Stay light-hearted about the changes. You can always start over at anytime. And don’t forget, there’s another chance to create resolutions coming right around the corner.
Today we feature guest columnist Monica Ricci. If you enjoy this article, I recommend you subscribe to her blog’s feed: Monica Ricci’s Your Life: Organized.
Closing The Loops
Several months ago, a thought whizzed through my head and it was “Life is a series of getting things out and putting them away.” This is what I call “closing the loops”. If you think of a loop, maybe you picture a circle or an oval. All smooooth and sexy, the curves…
of a loop will never hurt you and the curvy shape is easy on your eyes. No, there’s nothing about a closed loop that hurts!
Now, contrast a nice smooth, wonderful closed loop with an open loop. Open loops are all those little things unfinished that you left for yourself to deal with “later”. The remnants of breakfast from this morning that you never put into the dishwasher, the stack of mail you never processed, or the shoes you dropped by the front door, the appointment you haven’t written into your calendar yet… They’re all examples of open loops. The bummer about open loops is that rather than being all nice and round, the ends are exposed and they’re barbs! Like snakes with sharp teeth, they bite you as you walk through your house. Mess here. Ow. Stack of papers there. Ow. Crumbs and dirty bowls on the counter. Ow. That’s treacherous stuff and I don’t have to tell you, it sucks the life out of you day after day. So how do you close the loops?
Simple. When you get something out, put it away. When you make sandwich, put away the ingredients before you eat it. When you process the mail, throw out the junk and move action items to the same spot every day. Basically, closing the loops is simply becoming aware of what you’re doing in the moment and choosing to follow through with whatever you start.
Follow through. Finish. Close your loops. It only takes milliseconds and it will make your life, your house, and your outlook a whole lot happier.
The workplace is full of energy drains, even for people who work at home. You get caught up in the routine, and lo and behold, hours have passed — and you’ve expended precious energy without much return. If this sounds like your work life, maybe you ought to try a few of these prescriptions.
1. Speak up when you have too much on your plate. If you’re overworked, you’ll eventually hit a point where your personal energy falls to nil and nothing gets done. Do what you can to streamline your work processes, negotiate deadline extensions, simplify your tasks, and delegate in order to get things done.
2. Be unavailable. That’s right. When someone says, “Do you have a minute?” it’s okay to say, “Not right now.” You don’t have to be rude or impolite, but you do have to be honest. Get over wanting to feel needed, or you’ll have no end of work.
3. Prepare to have a great meeting. As vehicles for communication, meetings can be extremely valuable mechanisms for disseminating vision, crafting strategic plans, and developing responses to challenges and opportunities — so be ready for them. The productivity of any meeting starts before the meeting begins.
4. Create a meeting code of conduct. Chaotic, over-long meetings can leave you frustrated and with minimal energy. The next time you attend a meeting, request the opportunity to lead an exercise aimed at making the meeting more productive and less draining.
5. Schedule your interruptions. If your co-workers are constantly interrupting your flow of work, set up regular check-in times, or block out interruptible times when you can sit down and talk — and make yourself unavailable otherwise.
6. Challenge the status quo. If you find yourself following energy-wasting company rules you see no purpose for, ask why. The answer may simply be “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” If a policy’s senseless and you make enough fuss about it, you may be able to change things.
7. Argue for the tools and equipment you need. There’s no reason you should have to make do with a shared printer down the hall. If you argue intelligently for the tools you require to be more productive, you just might get them.
8. Become more efficient and get things done faster. Find ways to handle repetitive tasks more quickly, and look at how you can eliminate redundancy in your workplace. If you can lower your standards or take shortcuts without hurting your work quality — well, what are you waiting for?
Take a little time to figure out how to keep your typical distractions at bay, and prevent even minor disruptions and disturbances. If you want maintain your energy and get things done, learn to create situations that are suited to concentrated, focused work without interruptions. You can do this by eliminating your excuses, building barriers, creating preventive assertions, and challenging your own thinking.
These days, most of us use handheld technology in all aspects of our daily lives, blurring the boundaries between work and home. Has this made you feel more overworked and less energized? If so, you need to learn how to break free from technology, turn it off regularly, stop letting it control you, and unplug in ways that boost your energy. Let’s chat about your electronic habits, and about how to regain control.
1. Plan your screen time and stick to it. It’s unnatural to focus on a computer or TV screen for hours on end instead of interacting with people. Yet this is precisely what most people do — and the subsequent feelings of social isolation and depression can be quite damaging to your energy level.
2. Put your life first. Don’t let technology eat up your free time; technology exists to simplify your life, not to complicate it. It’s up to you to keep it in check. A good start is to turn off all electronics an hour before bedtime.
3. Keep your electronic in-box empty. Slash through the electronic detritus to maximize your efficiency, and therefore your energy level. If you let your voicemail and email inboxes get overcrowded, important communications might fell through the cracks, straining a friend’s or client’s trust in you.
4. Get your computer organized. Too much computer clutter can drain your energy just by forcing you to hunt for things that should be easy to find. Delete old files, reorganize folders, and give files names that make their contents obvious at a glance.
5. Turn off your technology when you’re on personal time. You can’t recharge your personal energies if you’re always working. Once the workday is over, make yourself electronically scarce.
6. Avoid Obsessive Compulsive Technology Disorder. You don’t need to check your email constantly. Doing so is forces your brain to start/stop/start/stop constantly, which requires a huge amount of mental energy. Instead, turn off the technological distractions so you can get work done.
7. Just say no to instant messaging. Instant messaging is a great way to stay in contact, but too much of it steals time and energy you need for other work. Don’t be afraid to turn on the “DO NOT DISTURB” feature when you want to focus on a task that requires your complete concentration.
8. Match the message to the medium. Use the right means of communication for a particular message. Sometimes email is the most efficient way to communicate with a particular person; sometimes it’s better to pick up the phone.
Electronic devices are supposed to make your life easier, not more stressful. If they’ve begun to dominate your life — including your time off — step back and decide whether all that stress is worth the reward. It may be time to shed some of that technology, or at least to put it back in its place.
Time is your most valuable possession. What tasks do you devote the most energy to every day? You may be working hard to climb the big ladder of success, but you’ll waste a lot of energy (and time) if you discover it’s leaning on the wrong wall. An intense, personal commitment to achieving your goals gives you the vigor you need to move forward every day.
Try these time management tips on for size.
1. Practice purposeful abandonment. If you have too much on your plate, get rid of anything that doesn’t meet your objectives or have long-term consequences for your work. Your only other option is overwork and flagging energy.
2. Get some help. Don’t try to do everything yourself, especially if you’re running a business. Hire someone to deal with all the repetitive or minor tasks anyone can do, so you can get the important work done.
3. Focus on value. Work when you’re at work: don’t check your eBay listings, surf the Internet, or answer your private email. Otherwise, you’re robbing yourself of your precious, irreplaceable minutes.
4. Outsource to a third party. If you’re overloaded with tasks that someone else can do more cheaply, then by all means hire someone to do them. Specialist websites like Elance.com can be lifesavers in such a situation.
5. Do one thing at a time. Even if you’re good at multitasking, do just one thing at a time. Otherwise, you’re giving each task less than the attention it deserves, and it’ll take you longer to get things done.
6. Be disciplined. When you promise someone you’ll complete a task by a certain timeframe, do you do it? Or does the deadline slip past, with you muttering to yourself, “Stupid. What’s wrong with you?” Guilt sucks the energy right out of you, so avoid it by forcing yourself to get your work done on time.
7. Make some progress. Don’t just maintain the status quo; work to get something done every day. Understand the difference between maintenance and progress, and make sure there’s some forward momentum to at least some of your tasks.
8. Realize that your to-do list is never going to end until you’re dead. You’re not going to get it all done; there will always be more things to do than time to do them in. It’s called life. That’s okay; what would you do with yourself if your to-do list did end?
When you work on a task, your capacity to work on other tasks will slowly decline. When your energy is depleted, you don’t work well until you catch your “second wind” and your energy is replenished. So you must select tasks purposefully, making sure the most important things get the lion’s share of your energy and attention.
(c) 2008 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker 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 firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations. Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004). 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 Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M. To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401. Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.
Unfortunately, not all of our tasks excite us, so spending energy on them feels wasteful. If an activity’s not challenging or offers no reward, motivation is difficult. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could complete your tasks more efficiently, so you’d have energy to spare? Well, I can help you with that.
1. Get your domestic duties done. Develop an evening routine, and make sure everyone in the family takes part. This will help you retain your sanity, happiness, and energy level, and teach other family members to respect others’ boundaries.
2. Enlist help with meals. Cooking dinner every night can be a real grind. Cook more than your family will eat so that you can browse on leftovers some evenings, and teach your children how to cook — they need to learn anyway.
3. Divvy up chores. Every single member of the family should contribute to household chores, as age allows. Try not to make chores gender-specific. Girls should know how to mow the lawn, and boys should know how to cook. These are basic life skills that they’ll need as adults.
4. Communicate clearly. Clear communication is vital, because it’s a time- and energy-saver. Don’t assume that you know what someone means when they’re assigning you a task. Ask questions, clarify, and challenge unrealistic deadlines.
5. Focus on what’s important. Don’t be a perfectionist, and don’t perform menial
tasks that someone else can do more cheaply. Do first what’s due first, try to resolve small items quickly, and don’t spend too much time on low-priority items.
6. Transform your outlook about necessary tasks. If you dread something, you’re likely to put it off — which can be disastrous if that task is absolutely necessary. Do what you can to make it easier, but if you can’t change the situation, then change your mind.
7. Don’t procrastinate. Force yourself to complete your work quickly, even if you hate it or are afraid you’ll have nothing to do later on. The reward is the freedom from the stress that not doing the work was causing you.
8. Work before play. Instead of doing the fun, easy, or trivial tasks first, do the hard ones. After you’re done, you can read a book, take a long hot bath, watch the sunset, or whatever it is you love to do. Having a reward waiting can help you get it done faster, because you have something to look forward to.
Spending energy completing low-value tasks feels like a waste of time, but it’s as necessary to mop the kitchen floor as it is to buy groceries or enjoy quality time with the family. Learn how to do your chores quickly and efficiently, and you can better enjoy the rest of your life.
(C) 2008 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker 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 firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations. Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004). 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 Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M. To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401. Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.
