Work Life Balance: Laura Stack talks about ways to maintain your energy after work. Keep up your energy so that you can enjoy your evenings and after-work time with friends, family and yourself. (C) 2009 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. http://www.TheProductivityPro.com
Laura Stack shares ideas on how to boost your productivity during the day by sleeping better at night and provides some tips on how to do it. Watch video below.
(C) 2009 Laura Stack. All right reserved.
http://www.TheProductivityPro.com
When was the last time you had a really relaxing holiday? I don’t mean that peaceful thirty-minute aftermath that follows a successful dinner party or the kids’ gift-opening extravaganza. I mean a holiday that is relaxing, from beginning to end. That includes travel, dinner preparations, and shopping. All it will take is a little organization and advance planning. Here are some tips to get you started.
Plan your travel now. Need to be out of town to see family or friends? If you haven’t already made arrangements, make it a priority. Especially if you plan to fly, the best deals disappear fast. Get online and start shopping around as soon as you know where you need to be and when. Once the arrangements are made, start getting things squared away with work. Whether you need to request time off, reschedule a recurring meeting, or just let your employees know that you’ll be gone, do it as soon as possible. Depending on where you work, getting holiday time off can be competitive. Especially in this case, the early bird tends to get the worm.
Mark your calendar. Sit down with your Day-Timer® and plan backwards. If you want your holiday cards to go out on December 20, when would you need to buy the cards, get the stamps, write the newsletter insert (if you do one), and start addressing in order to make that happen? Think backwards through the entire process and write the individual steps down on the to-do list for each date. Same with your holiday meal, gift shopping, and tree decorating. When would you like to be done, what are all the steps, when would each need to start, and write them down.
Make a budget. Unless you’ve got more money that you know what to do with, it is easy for the holiday season to turn into a financial headache. Ninety-nine percent of that stress can be eliminated by thinking ahead and making a budget. Financial sanity doesn’t come from having a ton of money; it comes from spending it wisely. Decide how much you’re going to spend and stick to it. Letting yourself creep over your budget probably isn’t going to make you a hero in the gift department, but it might cost you a gray hair or two when it comes time to sort out the holiday bills. How many times have you charged expensive items and spent five months paying for them? See if you can break tradition this year by drawing names or just sending cards. Tell the people you’re not buying for that you’ve pared down your gift list out of necessity and ask them not to buy for you as well.
Avoid the shopping marathon. Unless you really do enjoy the “shop ‘till you drop” marathon mall sessions, skip the all-day shopping trips. If you start now (or better yet, six months ago), you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done by picking up an item here and there while you’re running your everyday errands. The secret is to sit down, make a list of the people you need to shop for, and keep it with you. Ideally, your list will include one or two gift options for each person, too. Keep your list with you and cross off a few people every week. Also keep your eye out for stocking stuffers and similar small items. And as for that whole Black Friday thing – if you don’t enjoy it, skip it! Unless shopping is in your blood, the money you’ll save probably isn’t worth the aggravation.
Wrap as you go. Don’t put all of your wrapping off until the last minute. As you pick things up, go ahead and wrap them as soon as you get a chance. Wrap a couple extras for a guest who shows up unexpectedly and gives you a gift. It helps to have a dedicated wrapping area cornered off that is well-stocked with all the essentials – wrapping paper, scissors, gift tags, tape, etc. The easier you make it for yourself, the more likely you are to get it done.
Simplify, simplify. No matter how cool your friends and family might play it, you are NOT the only one who gets stressed out around the holidays. If the stress of preparations is getting out of hand, don’t be afraid to propose a simplified pot-luck dinner instead of a more elaborate affair or a gift exchange instead of shopping for everyone individually. Even if you just try this approach with a small group of friends or extended family, it’ll be at least a small relief for everyone involved. When it comes to reducing you holiday workload, every little bit helps.
Make friends with the Internet. More and more shoppers are finally taking the plunge and skipping the traditional brick and mortar stores completely. Internet shopping has come a long way in the last few years and you might be surprised at how simple it has gotten. You can easily compare prices and can generally find good deals on shipping that will guarantee arrival in plenty of time for the big day.
Play your cards right. Many people take one look at that mound of Christmas cards and can suddenly think of three or four other things that require their immediate attention. We love getting cards but hate the prospect of doing ours. So we procrastinate until December 22 and pull another 2:00 a.m. shift to get them in the mail by Christmas. So, I look at my cards as a process. Breaking the project down into smaller pieces makes it seem more manageable. You can even begin now! The first thing I do is create the labels. Second, I stick them on the envelopes with a return address label and stamp. Next, I write the family newsletter and get it copied onto the special paper. Finally, I set up an assembly line: (a) add a salutation to the card such as “Dearest X Family,” (b) sign our names, (c) enclose the newsletter and a picture, and (d) seal the envelope with a sticker. No licking for me! If you prefer to hand-write your cards, the trick is to write five each day, starting the day after Thanksgiving. Take some with you wherever you go, in case you find some free time: at the doctor’s office, waiting for a meeting to begin, or picking your child up from a lesson.
Cheat. Unless you really enjoy preparing mass quantities of food from scratch, there’s no reason not to take advantage of a short-cut or two. Particularly when it comes to the dessert menu, there are plenty of quick and easy mixes that can help you shave some serious time off of your meal preparation schedule. Just go to the grocery store and find a few easy-to-make offerings or buy something from the deli. For a special touch you can dress your desserts with extra holiday sprinkles or a squiggle of chocolate sauce across the plate for a very restaurant-looking presentation.
Give yourself the gift of time. How about purchasing a few months of housekeeping instead of clothes? Purchase a gift certificate to a restaurant so you don’t have to cook. Have the veterinarian groom your dog instead of doing it yourself, being soaked, and making a mess. Buy a book on tape to listen to in the car on the way to work. Purchase a cell phone and eliminate phone tag by forwarding your calls when you leave the office. Have your groceries delivered once a week for a month (less than the cost of a blouse). Hire a teenager to do the major cleaning required before houseguests arrive.
Remember your priorities. Take shortcuts where it really doesn’t matter: buy cookies instead of baking them or barter a task you don’t like for one you do. I know two women who trade chores at holiday time. One hates to bake; the other hates to do crafts. So one woman decorates the other’s home and wraps her presents beautifully; the other does the meal preparation and holiday baking for the other! Cut out as many social engagements as possible if you want more family time—you can’t go to a school musical when it’s more convenient. Kids appreciate happy and relaxed parents more than perfect decorations.
Get moving! However you choose to get a head start on the holiday season, you won’t regret putting in the extra effort early on. Keep yourself motivated by thinking about how nice it will be to cruise through the end of December stress-free and full of holiday spirit. You might make a date with yourself to visit the mall on the last weekend before Christmas—just so you can observe the mayhem you successfully avoided by being so productive!
Make it a productive day! ™
(C) Copyright 2008 Laura Stack. Laura is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc. and the bestselling author of Find More Time and Leave the Office Earlier. She presents keynotes and seminars on time management, information overload, and personal productivity. Contact her at 303-471-7401 or www.TheProductivityPro.com.
It’s only logical that the healthier you are, the more productive you can be. Think about it – the last time you were ill, how much work did you really get done? It is so easy today to neglect ourselves because we are “too busy” or “too tired.” We’re coming up on that busy holiday time of the year where everyone seems harried and has too much to do. The holiday season doesn’t have to be a drain. Now is the time to take steps to keep yourself healthy!
1. Get enough sleep! I know, easier said than done – but it is important!
2. Get your flu shot. No, it isn’t fun, but neither is the flu.
3. Don’t neglect your exercise routine. It is easy during the holiday season to skip over your regular workouts. Try to stick to your routine, and you’ll feel better!
4. Treat yourself but don’t overindulge. It’s not easy to say no to pumpkin pie and mom’s specialty side-dishes. Have some (it’s okay)…in moderation.
5. Say “No.” There are invitations galore, requests for assistance, volunteer time and all sorts of demands on your time time during the holidays. Do the things that give you joy and help your community, but again…in moderation. Don’t neglect yourself and your family for the sake of something “good.”
You can keep up your energy levels throughout the holidays and not end up in burnout on January 1st! If you haven’t yet, check out my latest book, The Exhaustion Cure. You’ll find all sorts of ideas on how to stay healthy and energetic!
(C) 2008 Laura Stack. www.TheProductivityPro.com
Humor in the workplace is a productive thing, according to Psychologist Maren Rawlings from Swinburne University of Technology. In a recent study, Rawlings “found a direct correlation between the climate of good humor in a workplace and employee satisfaction.” Previous research found a link between job satisfaction and productivity, so the logical leap is that humor is good for productivity. Of course this doesn’t mean we can spend our entire days cracking jokes, but it says to me that we can lighten up and laugh a little. Rawlings also noted “If employers take measures to encourage a positive humor climate in the workplace, they are more likely to retain their staff.” Keeping the staff you have rather than experiencing turnover is clearly more productive than re-hiring and training new folks.
Find creative ways to lighten things up around the office. My assistant told me of a place she used to work where the Sales Director hung a punching bag in the doorway to his office so that his sales reps could take out their frustrations on it. The same Sales Director, when sales were dragging, decided that if sales were dragging, it was time to have sales “in drag”…so the reps came to the office the next day in gender-bending outfits. Everyone laughed and had a great time, and my assistant tells me they hit a sales record that month. It is no big secret that when people are enjoying themselves, they can get more done and stay positive about what they are doing. Have some fun at work. It’s allowed, really!
Times are uncertain. The news programs and websites are all gloom and doom, full of distractions with the financial “crisis” and the upcoming elections. How do we stay productive when Chicken Little is screaming “the sky is falling”? Turn it all off, at least for a while. Stay off the news websites during the work day. Schedule yourself for some time to read up on the candidates, ballot issues and news that is important to you, but outside of that, turn it off. Keeping the TV on and constantly being on news websites is information overload that creates undue stress. What’s going to happen is going to happen and you watching it unfold on CNN is not going to change anything. What we CAN do to help is to stay productive so that our businesses and households are as healthy as they can be. “But, there are things in the news I want to read/see,” you say? Then create a Google alert at www.google.com to search for for news, articles and blogs on the topics you choose sent straight to your inbox. That way you avoid the clutter on the front page of MSNBC or CNN which can distract you from the tasks at hand. I’m not saying it is not important to remain informed about what’s happening in the country and the world. We just need to control the time we spend on news and television. Our productivity boosts when we are healthy and not over-stressed about things we cannot control. So, skip the news tonight and go for a walk with a loved one.
(C) 2008 Laura Stack. www.TheProductivityPro.com
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?
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.
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