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

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.

© 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.

Today we have a treat: a guest post by my colleague and fellow productivity blogger Mike St. Pierre.  He writes an excellent blog called The Daily Saint.  I highly recommend you check it out and subscribe to his feed.

All teachers can relate to THE FINAL WEEK.  It’s that week when your seniors graduate and then some.  There is usually a parents reception, Baccalaureate celebration and often a sports banquet- all of which occur at night. 

So how do you balance this with seeing the little ones at home or that spouse that misses you?

1. Practice the two night rule.  I discovered years ago that when I am away from my family for two straight evening commitments, I wouldn’t see my kids for nearly three days.  This is difficult because it puts a lot of pressure on my wife and of course the munchkins are climbing the walls.  The two night rule says that you won’t attend two evening commitments in a row on any given week. 
2. No surprises. Most spouses don’t like “calendar surprises” so read #3.
3. Review calendar the week before.  Sitting down with your significant other to discuss the calendar is always a good idea.  Review your meetings and any special events that will pop up.
4. Only attend what you must.  Are you a person that thinks you have to go to everything?  If you are the CEO, you might be right but for the other 99.9% of us, it’s worth stepping back and reflecting on commitments.  You could either not attend an evening commitment or you could trim it back by doing a “pop in”.  I work in a school and it’s impossible to go to every sports event so I check out a quarter or two and show my face. It’s putting forth a good faith effort and everyone appreciates it.
5. Decide to live closer to work.  I realize that this isn’t possible for everyone but it does make a huge difference.  You’ll feel closer to loved ones and at the end of the event it makes a big difference to say on the phone, “Be home in ten minutes,” as opposed to “Pray for me in my hour of traffic”.
6. If all else fails, reward yourself.  If you have a week where you absolutely must attend several grueling evening commitments, pamper yourself with a scheduled personal day.  Better yet, take your family away for a weekend of fun in the sun.  Having the carrot at the end of the stick is a great way to tolerate a killer week.

Look around you, at work and home. Do you feel overjoyed or annoyed? Your environment affects your moods, attitudes, emotions, and energy level. What things sap your energy? You need to figure out ways to reduce, eliminate, or change your environment, so that it lifts you up rather than brings you down. These tidbits might help.

1. Clear the clutter. This requires effort and can be time-consuming, but the real reason people dread clearing clutter is emotional attachment — and because you no idea how to organize what you keep. Focus first on the areas of the home that are most important to your health and vitality, especially the bedroom.

2. Thin out the incoming stream. We all have a constant stream of mail and new possessions coming into our lives. If you don’t develop a regular habit of thinning it out as it walks through the door, it’ll pile up and zap your energy in no time.

3. Create space with the right layout and equipment.  If you get buried in clutter simply because you don’t know where to put things, learn to make creative use of the space you have — including vertical space.

4. Learn to live more simply. Instead of piling on new possessions until you just have to many, stop buying and take a hard look at what you have. Don’t equate material possessions with wealth or happiness, or — worse yet — self worth. 

5. Get rid of it. If you don’t learn how to get rid of things, you’ll be overwhelmed with your possessions. Unworn clothing, unwanted gifts, ancient paperwork — get rid of it.  If you haven’t used it in two years, ditch it.

6. Accentuate the positive. Separate the trash from the treasure. You don’t need to keep unwanted gifts simply because they’re gifts. And don’t be afraid to get rid of things that are dragging you down with emotional baggage: there’s a reason women burn photographs of their old boyfriends. 

7. Keep your office desk organized. No, a clean desk isn’t the sign of a simple mind: it’s the sign of an efficient, energetic mind! The more space there is, the less crowded your energy is. File rather than pile, and gather up those sticky notes!

8. Make a list of the home improvement projects you want to accomplish.  Nagging, incomplete projects not only create clutter, they also drag your mood down because another thing on your to-do list is staring you in the face. Dispatch routine tasks as soon as possible, and work to get the others off your calendar.

Clearing away clutter may seem like too much work, but you need to learn how to do it effectively for your own benefit. Once you cut down on the clutter in your life, you can move on to more productive levels of emotion and energy that put you ahead of the game.

© 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.

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.

© 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.

Are you following your mission in life, or do you feel disconnected from what you want to do, believe in, and value? Are other people defining who you are? The more your time is organized around your values, the more energy you gain from your activities. Here are a few ideas that can help you stay “on flow.”

1. Figure out who you want to be and what you want to do.  Many of us ignore our dreams in the interest of providing for our families, or because we think we don’t deserve them — but all that does is leave us unhappy and listless. If this describes you, spend some time deciding what you want to do and be.

2. Take a good, long look at your career choices. Are you happy? Do you find your work fulfilling? Or are you just going through the motions to pay the bills? If the answer to the last question is “Yes,” reconsider your career.

3. Don’t equate material success with achieving dreams. Money can’t buy happiness. If you have everything you ever wanted and you’re still unhappy, maybe it’s because you’ve sacrificed your dreams for money. Reconsider your options, and figure out how you can make the world a better place.

4. Don’t let your obligations prevent you from pursuing your dreams. Your dreams didn’t cease to exist the day your kids were born. Sure, you’re here to encourage their dreams and help them attain them, but not to abandon yours in the meantime. Trying to achieve your own dreams sends your kids a healthy message about life and how to live it. 

5. Spend time on what’s most important to you. Put some metrics on your priorities. If family, health, and spirituality are important to you, don’t throw them over in favor of work. Balance your life to reflect what matters to you most.

6. Cultivate faith in a higher power. If you find solace in believing in God, Allah, or Prana, embrace that satisfaction; however, you don’t have to subscribe to a particular faith to be a spiritual person, or to benefit from a daily dose of energy from your spiritual practice of choice. 

7. Avoid people who shatter your dreams. Don’t try to be what people expect you to be, and never, ever listen to people who put down your dreams. Instead, believe in yourself and work hard to attain what you want out of life.

8. Claim your dream.  Stop being all talk and no action. Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Without overanalyzing, act straight from your gut and finish this sentence:  I am a ______________.  Then do what you need to to make that dream a reality.

The key to purpose and energy is flow. Anything short of flow, and you spend lots of energy being restless and irritated. When what you believe and what you do are in alignment, you’ll experience higher satisfaction in everyday life. Stop ignoring your dreams!

© 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.

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.

© 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.

People with high stress levels are more likely to have heart attacks and strokes, respond poorly to flu vaccines, and catch colds more easily than those with low levels of work or interpersonal stress. To sideline stress, you need to learn to shift your perception and the impact of stressful situations. Here are some hints on how to do that.

1. Take a chill pill.  High anxiety can put a damper on your performance levels, so take psychological steps, like prayer, meditation, and positive imagery, to reduce your anxiety level. Or just forgive someone who’s slighted you.

2. Actively counter stress. Your stress won’t go away by itself; you may have to use effective stress management techniques to ease it. A massage, listening to music, and even crying can help you release built-up tension.

3. Seize control in small ways. You can’t control a traffic jam, your company direction, or Mother Nature. Identify things you can and can’t control in your daily life. Once you’ve done this, you can work on the things you have some control over, and let the rest go.

4. Turn off work when you’re on personal time. You can’t let your job take over your life. Re-erect the personal boundaries between home-time and job-time that electronic devices have so recently eliminated, or you’ll be eaten up by stress.

5. Take full advantage of company-sponsored benefit plans. Don’t let a desire to impress your employer keep you from taking advantage of your company benefits. There are valid reason for daily breaks, sick time, vacation, and the rest, and a smart boss will realize they’re instrumental to recharging your batteries.

6. Avoid crises by working ahead of deadlines. Procrastinating can force you to do everything at the last minute, which just ratchets up the stress, sucks away your energy, and adds to the difficulty of getting things done.

7. Lose the Type A Personality. Type A personalities tend to be competitive, aggressive, dominant, ambitious, acquisitive, self-driven, and hardworking. Ultimately, these traits can have effects on your body far beyond energy drain. Seek help before the physical effects overwhelm you.

8. Don’t stew. If you’re stuck somewhere where you can’t get anything done — say, in a line at the bank — it’s better occupy your mind than to stew. Pull out your handheld and answer email, or work on a Sudoku puzzle to keep your mind sharp.

The physical effects of stress are so wide-ranging and common that some experts estimate that almost half of all doctor visits are stress-related. So do what you can to take it easy; in particular, stop trying to control the uncontrollable, and instead focus on what you can control — yourself and your reactions.

© 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.

Even if you’re in a rewarding relationship and have plenty of acquaintances, you can still feel lonely. Research shows that physical exercise, relaxation, and physical health are positively associated with feelings of well-being, but the variable with the strongest association of all is social support. So if you want to boost feelings of psychological well-being and happiness, have lots of friends — and take these tips to heart.

1. Spend time with your friends.  No matter how much you love someone, relying on a significant other as your sole source of friendship is a mistake. Just because you’re in a romantic relationship doesn’t mean you don’t need other friends.

2. Nurture friendships at your workplace. Many people believe you shouldn’t combine work and play, but that can be a mistake. People who have good buddies at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs, and up to 96 percent more likely to be satisfied with their lives.

3. Spend time with people outside your children’s circle. If all your socializing occurs in the bleachers during baseball practice, then your life is seriously out of balance. This can severely deplete your energy, if only subconsciously.

4. Overcome shyness. If you’re so shy that you avoid making conversation with others, you’re hampering your ability to make new friends — and not having friends is detrimental to your mood, energy level, and overall health. Uncover the reasons for your shyness and seek to overcome it. 

5. Stop leaning so heavily on non-humans for company. No matter how shy or Scrooge-like you are, you need relationships with people to maintain your energy levels and stay sane. Dogs, cats, caffeine, and cigarettes just won’t cut it.

6. Get plugged in with others of similar likes. Feeling disconnected from other people is a certain recipe for anomie and low energy levels. Join a club with others who share your skills or experiences.

7. Spend quality time with your children. Instead of over-scheduling your kids with soccer practice and ballet, and running yourself ragged getting them there, sit down with your kids and enjoy them while you can. At the very least, have dinner with them as a family on a regular basis.

8. Work through relationship problems. Don’t let stressful relationships fester, especially at work. Offer feedback when asked, make your opinions clear, and work to defuse chronic dysfunctional politics.

Loneliness undermines health by altering your cardiac function and disrupting your sleep. The strength of social isolation as a risk factor is comparable to obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and possibly even smoking. The happiest people surround themselves with family and friends, don’t care about keeping up with the Joneses, lose themselves in daily activities, and forgive easily. Become one of them.

© 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.

Studies have proven that lighting, décor, smell, noise level, temperature, ergonomics, and color can all affect how you feel. If your environment’s draining you dry, try these tips for a little refreshment.

1. Make sure your workspace is ergonomically designed.  Constant discomfort is a great way to lose energy fast. Look into the possibility of getting ergonomic tools and furniture for your workplace, so you can stay productive.

2. Avoid RMIs. If you perform the same motions over and over again, you may end up with a repetitive motion injury (RMI) like carpal tunnel syndrome, Blackberry thumb, or bursitis. If you’re having a nagging pain, see your doctor and determine what behaviors might be causing it — and what you can do to avoid it.

3. Create a well-lit office space. Bad lighting can hurt you in several ways. Insufficient light causes eyestrain and headaches, both of which are energy bandits. Plus, fluorescents lack the blue light that apparently sparks greater energy in workers. If you can, work under bright incandescent light or natural sunlight.

4. Strive for a neutral background. A distracting office environment can cause you to waste energy on things that don’t really matter. Your best bet is not to have anything around that your body has to use energy to either pay attention to or to ignore.  

5. Limit your overexposure to electromagnetic radiation. While there’s nothing wrong with a little electromagnetic radiation (after all, that’s what sunlight and radio waves are), it’s a bad idea to get too much of it. Stay at arm’s length away from the screen, and be sure your monitor conforms to Swedish MPRII guidelines. 

6. Avoid eyestrain. Protect your eyes from your computer by taking regular breaks, and by positioning the screen the proper distance away. Irritated, blurry eyes make it difficult to dedicate your energy to worthwhile pursuits, and staring at a computer screen that’s too close to you can quickly give you a headache.

7. Insist on proper ventilation. If you and your co-workers seem to be getting sick a lot, or if you’re constantly having to fight off mold, consider checking your building’s ventilation system: the building itself might be sick.

8. Reduce background noise. Studies show that constant low-level noise in open-style offices increases stress and lowers motivation, and impairs the brain’s cognitive function in the prefrontal cortex. One way around this is to listen to music while you work, especially if you use a set of noise-reducing headphones.

Does your environment boost or bust your energy? If you’re not sure, take a close look and learn how to assess the impact of your environment.  All it takes is a few simple changes to boost your energy to the ceiling.

© 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.

Take a look at yourself. Is your life the same every single day? If you feel like you’re wasting your energy because you’re unchallenged and uninspired, you’re probably right. There’s a good reason the saying “Grow or die” is a something of a cliché, because it verbalizes a deep-rooted truth about human nature: you need to keep to growing intellectually all the days of your life.

If that sounds good to you, then use these tips to help you get growing.

1. Challenge yourself to learn something new every day. A lack of challenges is a real energy killer. How can you be anything but bored if you don’t learn something new occasionally? Human knowledge is so vast and complex that there’s always something new to be learned, so get to it.

2. Exercise your creativity. There’s a reason a zeal to create is often referred to as “creative energy.” Channeling some of your time into creating something –whether it’s a meal, a watercolor, or a poem — can help you unwind.

3. Make a change in your life. If you feel like your life isn’t going anywhere, try something different to shake you out of your doldrums. Even something as minor as changing your route to and from work can help.

4. Challenge yourself to read more. Reading can be relaxing, but it also engages your intellect and keeps you busy. In our culture, reading is a necessary life skill, and that’s more than most forms of entertainment can say.  

5. Do puzzles to sharpen your mind. A lack of mental stimulation can bore and depress you, which can put your energy level in the basement. Just as reading can kick-start your intellectual energy level, so can puzzles — brain teasers, Sudoku, Kakuro, even a good, hard crossword.

6. Push yourself to grow and learn.  Sometimes we get a little apathetic and jaded, thinking we don’t have much to learn. Instead of giving in to apathy, get a mentor.  Developing new personal relationships is a great way to go to the next level.

7. Get involved in a worthy cause. Contributing to the greater good can make you feel good inside, which is a surefire way to increase your personal energy and kick exhaustion to the curb.

8. Make new friends. If you never stray outside your comfort zone, you’ll get bored with life real fast — and there goes your energy. We humans are social animals; we need to relate with other people on a continual basis. Get to know your neighbors, join a reading circle, or get involved with a hobby club.

Your energy level isn’t entirely dependent on your physical condition, or even your emotional and psychological health. One of the biggest energy stealers is a lack of mental and intellectual stimulation. The same dull environment experienced in the same way every day for months on end, can bore you to tears; instead, make a commitment to challenge yourself every day, and learn continuously.

© 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.