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

Technology has given us so many options when it comes to keeping track of our to-do lists—Smartphones, web-based applications, desktop applications, PDAs—but figuring out the best system for you can be a real challenge (and a frustrating one at that). 

Interestingly enough, even with all the technology out there, informal research (mine and others’) still shows that when push comes to shove, most people still fall back on good old-fashioned paper. In fact, a lifehack.org survey shows that not only do most people use a paper to-do list, but that paper is more than twice as popular as any other method listed! 

Why is that?

Because we’re human.

Life doesn’t always happen when you’re sitting in front of your computer. We sit in meetings. We leave the office and go home. We travel. And no matter how attached we are to our Treos and Blackberries or how sophisticated the technology becomes, most people simply don’t like making lists or taking notes while squinting at a tiny screen or getting thumb cramps trying to punch in line after line of text.

The bottom line is that handhelds are great for portability and storing reference information, but they’re just not configured for extensive note-taking. That’s why so many handheld users end up being the most disorganized and messy of us all. Without a paper planner, the inevitable to-do lists and reminders end up scattered all over the place on sticky notes and little scraps of paper. Without a “home” for it all, these notes become disorganized, lost, and useless. 

So what’s the solution? Let’s look at some of the most popular approaches to organizing your to-do lists (and your life) and see if we can come up with a solution that uniquely suits you.

Paper Planners. Interestingly enough, people who use paper planners exclusively are often the most well organized of us all. Paper planners allow you to have your system available at all time, combine your personal and professional lives, see an instant view of your schedule, and keep manageable to-do lists. In the over 100 training seminars and speeches I give ever year, I’ve met countless numbers of people who tell me how they abandoned their trusty paper systems in search of hip “paperless” PDA methods—just to become so disorganized that they reverted back to paper.

However, for all the advantages, there are challenges with using a paper planner only. With hundreds of contacts, it’s often impractical to keep track of everyone on paper. Other workers in your organization can’t check your calendar for availability if you’re not on the system. Your assistant can’t schedule appointments for you easily without worry of double booking. And you can’t access your email from the road on paper.

Desktop software. Desktop computer software—such as like Outlook, Lotus, and GroupWise—is great. It allows you to manage your contacts, calendar, and to-do lists in one place without having to work with a pocket-sized interface. 

In fact, desktop software is absolutely perfect—assuming that you never leave your desk—ever. But you do have to go home. And then when you think of something you need to do at work, you have to make a note. And the scrapping begins. You probably have meetings. If someone says, “Let’s meet again next Thursday. What’s your schedule?” Your very unprofessional response is “Uh, I don’t know. It’s on my calendar back at my desk.” If you appear so out of control, why would anyone trust you with something more important?

Business (and life) has a tendency to happen on its own terms, so it is important to have a system in place for gathering things like notes, appointments, and contact information, at least until you get back to your desk. I always recommend that everyone have some sort of paper system to supplement whatever they are doing electronically. A spiral notebook is disorganized due to the rigid binding: notes, to-do’s, phone numbers, and random information is all mixed together, forcing you to go back and re-read, re-write, and re-organize. You must constantly review old pages to determine what isn’t done. Spiral notebooks become a blur of cross-outs and scribbles due to non-flexibility. That’s why I designed The Productivity Pro® DayTimer® with rings, so the pages could be moved around. You could also print your Outlook calendars and carry them around with you. Or you could sync to a PDA. I personally hate tapping on the screen all the time. Don’t get me wrong—I love my PDA (I use a Mogul by Sprint)—but really only for email, texting, phone calls, and contact management. I prefer to see a big-picture view of my schedule and things to do on my trusty paper system. I just don’t feel creative when I’m not putting pen to paper, and a centralized system beats scraps paper every time!

Web-based applications. As it becomes easier and easier to find an internet connection when you need one, Web-based applications can be a great organizational tool. Whether you use the Web simply to access your calendar or are set up to remotely access your entire PC, it is nice to be able to get what you need from any computer with an internet connection.

Especially if you travel often, using Web-based software comes in handy where traditional desktop software might break down. You don’t need to get to your computer; you just need to get to a computer. 

However, Web-based software has the same problem as desktop software—it isn’t always going to be at your fingertips. That’s why, just like with a desktop application, you’ll still need a paper supplement. 

Handheld devices. By this I basically mean anything that fits in your pocket—a PDA, Treo, Blackberry, Smartphone, whatever. When handhelds started catching on, many were probably thinking that our organization problems were solved. After all, we could finally have the best of both worlds—technology and portability.

Unfortunately, most of us quickly found that however sophisticated an electronic device could become, they still didn’t quite cut it. The task list isn’t user-friendly. Even if you understand categories well enough and can sort your list, the devices max out at usually 15 categories. And nobody wants to scribble with a stylus or furiously thumb-type their way through a meeting or conversation, and you look like a dork. (I gave myself a painful condition called “Blackberry Thumb” from attempting it.) And even if you do get all of the information entered properly, tiny navigation screens and tinier font sizes just don’t quite cut it.

Handheld devices are great when you need to enter a new contact’s information on the fly or check to see if your schedule is open two Thursday’s from now, but they still can’t do the job of simple pen and paper when it comes to writing notes and creating lists.

The Solution—a Hybrid method! It’s getting harder and harder to find people that don’t use some form of electronic organizing tool, but even the most tech-savvy tend to fall back on paper for some tasks. If you’re listening to a voice mail on your phone, what are you doing? Writing down the message. Bingo. You need a paper planner. When you’re talking to the Hertz customer service agent on the phone, and he asks for your Gold number, what are you doing? Trying not to hang up on the person while you mumble, “Uh, hang on, it’s in my…phone.” Bingo. You need a paper planner. You’re sitting in a meeting talking with your biggest client. What are you doing? Typing notes with your thumbs while attempting to listen? I doubt it. Again…you need a paper planner…one place that will consolidate your lists, reference information, and notes.

I became so frustrated watching people struggle with finding an effective way to use their hand-held organizers in the real world that I teamed up with Day-Timers, Inc. to create a paper system that is specifically designed for users of hand-held organizers (although it works just as well for those without handhelds).

The Productivity Pro® DayTimer® planner has monthly calendar tabs but no time slots on the daily pages (you probably keep that sort of information on your computer or handheld). This gives you a large, easy-to-manage writing space for your notes, lists, and those pesky to-dos that always seem to be slipping through the cracks otherwise. (Visit www.daytimer.com/productivity to check out the planner.) It also has tools to help with things like long-range planning and ongoing lists—things that don’t always have an intuitive home within electronic organizers. If you’re more curious exactly how it works, get a sneak peak of the planner directions and features and benefits. It allows instantly-accessible paper that allows you to follow my mantra: if you think it, ink it! ™

Beginning May 10, there will be a 20% coupon off the purchase of a bundle: my smooth black Nappa leather binder, storage case, and one-year of neutral, dated pages and inserts (start date July 2008) at www.daytimer.com/laurastack (click “Laura’s products”). Guys, don’t worry—no frills—I designed this with you in mind. Hopefully this will help you create a time management system that exactly meets your needs. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Make it a productive day! ™

Listen on…

(C) 2009 Laura Stack. www.TheProductivityPro.com

Powered by Podbean.com

Register today for a free webinar on April 7, sponsored by Day-Timer.

Find a system that works for YOU!  Create a completely personalized planning style.

How do you make the best use of paper and electronic planning methods? The simple answer is “it depends.” How do you describe yourself? What are your preferences? What does your work require of you? What are your work and home environments? Do you travel? This webinar will discuss the fundamentals of an organized, effective time management system and help you design one that perfectly meets your needs.

Objectives:

• Understand the advantages and disadvantages of handhelds and paper
• Identify what frustrates you about your current system
• Test to see if you’re more inclined to plan on paper or electronically
• Evaluate your time management methods against key effectiveness criteria
• Learn the essential ingredients in an effective time management system
• Design a system that works most effectively with your personality and work situation
• Create an action plan to implement the changes you need to be more organized

I look forward to seeing you there!  Register today, as the last one sold out in a few days.

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

Like it or not, social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are here to stay – and it isn’t just kid stuff anymore.  In fact, businesses and individuals worldwide keep finding interesting ways to use social networks and other interactive online media to do some pretty amazing things – from building their brands to getting to know their customers. How do you keep it from sabotaging your productivity?

http://www.theproductivitypro.com/newsletters/num115Dec2008.htm visit for full newsletter

Importance of Productivity during Down Times

In the summer of 1900…

• The average life expectancy in the United States was 47.
• A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11, which was an incredible sum because the average American made .22 cents an hour, or about $400 per year.
• Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
• Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.
• Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores.
• There were about 230 reported murders in the US annually.

Amazing what a century will change. Amazing what a few months will change. Growth ends, recession sets in, the stock market stops booming, and companies go bust. The recession is impacting our clients in various ways: we’re hearing of layoffs, hiring freezes, reduced budgets, not rehiring for positions as people leave, go on maternity, etc.

Tough economic times are packing a one-two punch in the workplace.

First, everyone is forced to do more with less (POW!).

Second, you have to do it all while dealing with the nagging anxieties that come with an uncertain economy—threats of downsizing, bankruptcies, cost containment, you name it (POW, again!).

So how do we cope—as leaders and as productive employees?

To succeed and keep their doors open, companies must make more money but spend less money and create greater results with fewer resources. You could attempt to cut salaries, benefits, staff, costs, or the quality of your products—all poor options. A better choice? Increase employee productivity. If you have 10 people, and you can get them to improve their productivity by 10%, you just effectively added another staff person without increasing salary expense—a much more attractive response. To do this, your employees need your help.

First of all, get a grip on your personal negative feelings that result from your lack of control. You DO have control over your friends, your love relationships, and your career. You decide for yourself what’s right and what’s wrong, whether you should stay in this weekend or go out, whether to vote Democrat or Republican. You decide who to see, what to wear, what to eat.

However, you have VERY LITTLE control over the government, economic policy, the rise and fall of the stock market, Mother Nature, international events, and even your company direction. Changes can often disrupt your life and force you to change your plans. Often there is little you can do and yet you are overwhelmingly affected by it. Accepting what is means realizing you can’t control certain things and to stop trying. You can sit around and wonder, “Oh, my gosh, how is this going to affect me? What if I’m next to go? How will I pay the bills? I’m going to be a bag lady!” You stew and worry and literally make yourself sick.

These things will happen. They just will. You will get no warning, and nobody will prepare you. And that’s frustrating. Because people will tell you to “reach for the stars—you can achieve whatever you want!” But they don’t mention you might get hit by a comet in the process.

It’s time to accept the things that you cannot change and focus on the things you can. What can you do?

Give yourself a break. Try to stay positive, despite the doom and gloom. Overdosing on pessimistic, overly dramatic news coverage is just going to weigh you down with bad thoughts—not good for those looking to clear their heads and get things done! It’s important to be informed about what is happening in the world, but you definitely don’t want to overdo it.

For months now, we’ve been bombarded with bad economic news every time we turn on the television or pick up a newspaper. No wonder everybody seems to be in a rut. Follow the daily news as much as you need to so that you feel in the loop and understand the issues that affect your industry. Other than that, it might be time to shut off the TV and catch up on some fun reading or spend some more time with family.

Know your job. Seems like this one should be a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed at how often our responsibilities can change and evolve without our even knowing it. Small incremental changes in how employees or departments do business can add up over time, leaving groups of people that work hard, but aren’t contributing to business objectives as effectively as they once did.

For example, in an effort to provide an exceptional level of service, you might find yourself doing work that is below your pay grade. Maybe you end up doing a large portion of the administrative work associated with a project that needs your input. Consider the value of your time!

Make sure that the things that occupy your time are worthy of your talent and expertise and hold your staff to the same standard. With any project, you should be able to look at the time spent, multiply by the pay rate of the ones doing the work, and still feel that your resources were well spent.

If you’ve got a $40,000/year employee stuffing a bunch of envelopes (even just that one time) or a six-figure manager assembling an important presentation page-by-page, then that work becomes awfully expensive!

These examples might seem outrageous to you, but believe me, it happens all the time. Never make the mistake of treating your time like it’s free. Time and other resources are limited, and we need to treat them that way.

As your company and your department are undoubtedly being asked to do more with less, now is the time to step back and take stock of the type of work you’re doing. Many times roles and responsibilities change, but job descriptions do not. As a result, we end up drifting away from core priorities and towards dong work that, while challenging, doesn’t really meet the organization’s immediate needs.

Now might be a good time to step back and ask that all important question: “Why am I (or we) doing this?” If you can’t answer that, or the answer doesn’t make sense, it’s time to purposefully make a change.

Break habits, build systems. Every office that has been around for any length of time has certain unwritten policies and procedures that exist simply because “we’ve always done it that way.” Now is a great opportunity to analyze your existing business practices and find opportunities to break the bad habits that may be bogging your operation down. Take you entire department for example. Do you and your people have a clear idea of your area’s specific responsibilities? Do you have the confidence and determination to say “no” when someone is asking you to do work that is outside your scope of responsibility?

Perhaps over the years your group took on the responsibility of coordinating quarterly meetings with senior managers. It might have made sense for you to be doing the legwork then, but now that the work has become routine, is it really the best use of your talent and resources?

That’s just one specific example, but there are many more out there. Usually, these are the kinds of tasks and responsibilities that make employees want to ask the all-important “Why am I doing this?” question. Rather than spend another day mindlessly plowing though projects that may or may not be a good use of your time, force yourself to take a hard look at what you are doing and why you are doing it.

If you had to pick three tasks or responsibilities that should be the top priorities for your department, what would they be? Once you know, evaluate how much time and energy is dedicated to those things. You might be surprised at how much time we can spend doing things that aren’t even close to the top of that priorities list.

It isn’t always easy to say “no,” but fortunately, that’s where your systems can come in. As you work to create smooth, efficient systems to do work within your department, you can give yourself some ammunition to fend off others in the company that might be inclined to slide work onto your plate where it doesn’t belong. If you don’t have firm policies and procedures in place to identify who should be doing what, it is much more difficult to make the case for “no.”

Analyze your relationships with other departments. Have trouble turning down work coming from other areas of the company? Now is a perfect time to start fresh and rebuild your department’s boundaries. In a frank and honest way, simply explain to others that in light of the current economic situation, your group has taken a critical look at its daily operations and needs to decline certain types of requests in order to build efficiency.

Perhaps you need to apply a little systems thinking and rethink the flow of information. Is there a procedure in place for other business units to request your assistance or input? If there’s not, you’re probably being hit from all angles with requests that may or may not be the best use of your time. Diagram how work moves through your department. Where does it come in from and go out to other departments? Interview your internal customers and find out how you can provide value through reduced services. Can you provide a report monthly instead of quarterly? Can you cancel the weekly project meeting and get everyone to email updates instead? Question travel requests if you feel a conference call will do. One of the best ways to take stock of the situation is to survey your group, ask them what gets in the way of productivity, and to genuinely ask how they would redesign things if they could.

Find the bottom line. Right now, businesses everywhere are taking stock of their must-haves versus their nice-to-haves. From an organizational perspective, which are you?

Economic necessity can force budget cuts and cost containment that might otherwise be unnecessary. One way to prepare yourself for this reality is to make sure you have a good understanding of how you and your people contribute to the company’s bottom line.

Sometimes, it’s easy. If you work in sales, for example, the correlation between what you do every day and the company’s financial success might be very straightforward—my group sells our most profitable product, which makes the company money.

Sometimes that correlation is not so obvious. If you operate in a support role, like Human Resources, you may want to start looking at your various responsibilities and deciding which among them have the greatest influence on the company’s bottom line—either by somehow driving revenue or by controlling expenses. Perhaps you help contribute to developing talent within the company, which clearly has an impact on the overall success of the organization. Employee development always seems to be one of the first things to go during down economic times, but this is not the time to reduce training if you’d like to get more work from fewer people. Or maybe you’re managing clerical or administrative functions that would be expensive to secure elsewhere.
If you can’t draw a line from what you do each day to the financial well-being of the company, then it might be time to do some hard thinking. Your other contributions might be valuable, but in difficult economic times, corporate leadership often becomes must more focused on dollars and cents, for better or for worse.

Where am I going with this? If it isn’t obvious how your contributions benefit the company, be prepared to explain how they do. If you CAN’T explain why certain aspects of what you do are valuable, then it’s time to stop doing them.

At the end of the day, productivity is about more than getting things done. It’s about getting the RIGHT things done and getting them done efficiently.

Make it a productive day! (TM)

(C) Copyright 2008 Laura Stack. All rights reserved.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

Unless you’re in accounting or retail, many businesses slow down dramatically between now and mid-January.  Or maybe your normally-humming business has slowed down to a slow sputter due to the economy.  Take the opportunity to relax a bit and enjoy your family, but also take advantage of the lull by completing some of those projects that have been sitting on the back burner.  You always say, “I’ll get to that someday,” or “I’ll do it when I have more time.”  Well, now’s the day you have more time.  So knock some things out before things pick up again in February.  What could you work on?

·        Purge your filing cabinets of outdated materials you never refer to.

·        Pull all your 2008 tax information.

·        Move old client files to archive boxes in your basement.

·        Clean out your computer files.

·        Finally download, organize, and print your digital photos.

·        Go through your shelves and donate to charity, a retirement home, or your library.

·        Take clothes that don’t fit, you don’t like, or aren’t in style to Goodwill.

·        Organize your pantry and toss expired items.

·        Go through all your bookmarks and delete links no longer of interest.

·        Learn that new software package you bought but never took out.

·        Record a new podcast, youtube video, or product.

·        Write a book proposal or book (my current project), a white paper, or articles.

·        Get rid of items in your crawl space, basement, attic or garage.

·        Give your walls a fresh coat of paint.

·        Train your pet

·        Learn a new sport or start a new hobby.

·        Lose some weight and exercise.

·        Update your electronic press kit on the web (letters, photos, articles, etc.)

·        Sign up for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and learn to expand your network.

·        Begin a new marketing campaign.

·        Create new promotional literature and support pieces.

·        Update your video with new footage.

·        Read the stack of books that have been on your nightstand or side table for months.

·        Call every single one of your past clients to say hello.

·        Plan your 2009 goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.

·        Map out future projects.

·        Start over.

What else can you do to productively take advantage of these slow times?
(c) 2008 Laura Stack

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.

Social networking is all the rage today.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace – the list goes on.  It seems like everyone has one or more of these services, but how many people are thinking about how it can affect them professionally?  And how does it affect your productivity?

In terms of your professional image, there have been many news stories and articles about people getting fired or not getting hired for jobs because of the things they post on their profiles.  In one of my time management seminars, a participant told me she didn’t hire an applicant because she researched his social sites and saw that he “wanted to do as little as possible for as much money as possible.”  If you want to keep your social networking just "between friends," pay close attention to the privacy settings on sites like Facebook and MySpace.  The safest bet is to assume that anything on the internet can be fair game; however, you can minimize your risk by making your profiles private or "friends only."  Be careful what you write and post, even when making comments on others’ pages.  Think about whether you want what you’re about to say in the virtual public record for all time. 

That said, social networking can be a useful tool in developing relationships and marketing yourself.  I’m using LinkedIn to build relationships and network for new business.  I already have over 250 connections and many recommendations.  However, keeping up with your networks can becoming all-consuming and almost addictive.  I know several people who admit to being Twitterholics or check their pages on different sites continually throughout the day, which has far-reaching productivity implications.  If all day you sift through information on websites, read your blog postings, keep up with all your social networks, and wade around in your email in-box, when are you actually going to get your WORK done?  I check my social sites once each day and only after all my key priorities for the day are completed (generally in the afternoon).  I suggest you set some appropriate boundaries around your usage of social networking and then apply some good old-fashioned discipline to make yourself stick to them.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  All rights reserved.

www.TheProductivityPro.com

Why is productivity important?  More importantly, why is productivity important to you?  There is not just one pat answer to this question.  My “why” is likely different than your “why.”  One of the keys to productivity is finding YOUR “why.”  For most people, an external reason like “My boss expects more of me” is not always the most motivating factor.  For me, getting to the heart of why I do what I do is most motivating.  Is the need to be more productive exciting and motivating to you, or does it drain and exhaust you just thinking about it?  If the latter is true for you, perhaps you haven’t gotten clear on why being productive is important.

It all comes down to your personal goals and what you want the picture of your life to look like.  Sure, you may need to be more productive at work to make your boss happy or boost company revenues.  How can you turn it around and make it important to you personally?  If time with your family is what motivates you, make getting things done at work about finishing that project on time so that you can enjoy your weekend free from work stress. If making more money is what drives you, give yourself achievable daily or even hourly goals of what you need to accomplish to make those extra sales.  Search yourself and find what truly motivates you, then try to relate each task to a goal you have set for yourself – not a goal someone else has set for you.  For example, if you are in sales, your organization sets a sales goal for you.  Absolutely do your best to achieve that – but at the same time make it about you.  How many sales do you need to earn the commissions to take that family vacation or buy that fabulous pair of shoes?

It’s only human to be motivated by what feels good.  Use that.  What makes you feel good?  Know that each task you accomplish, however difficult or dull, gets you closer to that great feeling.  Figure out how productivity relates to your personal goals and the quest for it becomes exciting, rather than overwhelming.

(C) 2008 Laura Stack.  All rights reserved.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

I found this article at BNET.com very interesting.  Separating hours on the job from results has been a boost to productivity in many situations.  Outside of the service based or retail environments, should our productivity be based on hours spend on the job, or on what is accomplished?  Some companies, like Best Buy, have implemented the Results-Only Work Environment or “ROWE,” and finding success.  When I chat with audience members after giving a keynote speech, they tell me about coworkers who spend 10-12 hours a day in the office and get nothing done.  That’s because being physically in the office has little to do with productivity.  Some people can be there ten hours a day and get virtually nothing done, while others can accomplish great amounts of work in just a few hours.   Part of the trick to getting a ROWE culture to work is figuring out how to measure results.  Some business results are easier to measure than others, such as number of orders processed, or increase in revenue.  In a 2006 article in Business Week, Best Buy reported a 13%-18% increase in orders processed by people who worked out of the office most often.  Businesses moving towards the ROWE culture are not only reporting increased productivity, but are also reporting lower employee turnover.  As companies work to adjust to the “Gen Why” workers and their styles, it will be interesting to see how many companies move towards this.  (C) 2008 Laura Stack. www.TheProductivityPro.com