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

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) shares how to make mornings easier by planning at night. (c) 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved

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Summer’s over and it’s time to get back to school! This gives you an opportunity to set some goals with your kids.

Many people think of January 1 as the New Year. However, I think the back-to-school season is a much better time to get some perspective on kids’ lives and what we’d like to change in the coming school year.

What are some of the objectives you have, both for yourself and your children? How can you as a parent help them learn to be more productive and help them achieve success? One of the best gifts that you can give your children is the opportunity to grow and to learn. You have to help coach them, counsel them, encourage them, and sometimes discipline them.

Before school begins, take the opportunity to sit down and have a family meeting. What are some things that your family wants to accomplish? What does each child want to accomplish? Maybe you’d like to spend more time together eating as a family. Perhaps you want to go on a vacation this year. Maybe your child wants to be more involved in more activities or try a different sport. Maybe the homework grades weren’t quite as good as they should be.

If you know, for example, that homework skills are sliding, decide to help you child get on top of that! To see a change in that area, what would need to happen? Do you need to get a child a tutor? Do she need to go in early to get extra help from the teacher?

As adults, looking back, what habits did you form that have impacted you as an adult? What formative behaviors will be critical to your children as adults? Did you procrastinate a lot on term papers, and now you find yourself doing that with work assignments?

Encourage your children when you see these behaviors that you know will impact them later. Tell them, “It’s the start of a brand new year. Let’s look at those long-term papers and projects together. Let’s break them down. Let’s create some milestones. How can you be proactive and plan those various deadlines so that when those items are due, you’re going to be stress-free?”

Use this as an opportunity to make a fresh start. Take a deep breath and figure out how you can be a good role model to your children and help them be as productive as they can be.

To find out more about The Productivity Pro®, Inc. or have Laura Stack speak at an upcoming meeting or event, please visit at www.theproductivitypro.com.

Make it a productive day! ™

© 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved.

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Must you do it all yourself? Not necessarily. Laura Stack talks about the value of outsourcing certain tasks to free up more of your time. (c) 2010 Laura Stack www.theproductivitypro.com

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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

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Back to school goal setting for parents and their kids. How can we as parents help our children to be more productive? Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), talks about how we can be proactive and help our children plan for success in school.

(C) 2009 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. http://www.TheProductivityPro.com

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Pledge to work only eight hours on Tuesday, June 2 (versus your normal 10-14) and receive a FREE 10-day eCourse on “How to Leave the Office Earlier,” and be registered to win valuable productivity prizes from Day-Timer®!

June 2nd was designated as National Leave the Office Earlier Day in 2004 by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, bestselling author and a leading authority on productivity and workplace issues.  The annual event, which is officially listed in Chase’s Calendar of Events, is intended to focus workers on improving their personal productivity and asks them to commit to working no more than eight hours on that day.

“The eight-hour workday remains a myth to many working Americans,” says Stack. “But by implementing some simple strategies and tactics, even the most overworked and overstressed people can be more productive and shorten their workday and feel good about it.”

Stack chose June 2 as National Leave the Office Earlier Day because that is her birthday.  “I don’t want to work more than eight hours on my birthday, so that was a good day to commit to leaving on time,” says Stack. 

Visit http://www.theproductivitypro.com/media_kit.htm for a complete media kit and articles for reprint in your ezine, newspaper, or website, as well as a Workplace Flyer to post and a Letter to the Boss.

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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

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Welcome to guest blogger Karen Leland, who interviewed me for an article for Woman’s Day and who authored Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day.

Breaking Out of the Comfort Zone

In my office, on my desk, I have a plain white coffee cup that has written on it in simple black letters, “’Do one thing every day that scares you’—Eleanor Roosevelt.”

As I stare down the barrel of another year filled with hope, possibilities, challenges, and change, I think about what living the cup’s motto really means in practice. ?
It’s all too easy to stay in the same routine year after year, doing the same things, thinking the same thoughts, eating the same foods, doing the same job and engaging in the same hobbies. Relatively nothing new learned or risked. No standing on the cliff looking over the edge and thinking, “What am I going to do?” or “What have I done?” or “What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

The feeling of jumping out of your comfort zone so that a free-form anxiety grabs hold in the stomach and won’t let go. A lump in the throat that sits sedated like a cat sleeping on a hot spot where the sun comes in through the window in an otherwise dark and cold room. Then again, there are comfort zones and there are comfort zones. Among the risks that I won’t be taking this year are:

1. Climbing Mount Everest. First of all, it’s cold, really cold. Bone-chilling, long-underwear, ski-pants, parka-jacket, gloves-under-mittens cold. Secondly, there is the altitude, which, as I understand from hearing stories from people who actually are crazy enough to climb Everest, packs a real wallop to the head and stomach causing blinding headaches and constant nausea.

If this were not enough, consider those ice caverns or cracks or whatever they are called that at least once a year (if not more often) some climber falls into, descending to the bottomless pit of frozen blue, never to be seen or heard from again. The other members of the climbing team don’t even try to rescue the guy, but just place a bandana on a stick, plunk it into the ground in memoriam next to the site of their fallen comrade and place a cell phone call back home to the wife.

All this for the chance to freeze to death once you reach the top and are caught in a blinding snowstorm with sub-zero temperatures that descend in the wink of a cloud’s eye. No, thank you.

2. Sky dive. Do I even need to explain this one?

3. Wear a prairie skirt with Birkenstocks and white socks. If you’re reaction to this is why not? Go immediately to your television set and Tivo TLC’s fun fashion makeover show What Not To Wear – all will become abundantly clear.

These are the things I won’t be doing to stretch beyond my comfort zone in 2009, but there are plenty of ways I plan to make scary (good scary) part of my everyday life in the coming year.

Of course, from this vantage point this is an easy plan to make, but in the hurly burly head-long rush into life, I may have a bad day or two and be tempted to say no, even when I ought to say yes, or yes when I should be saying no. No worries. Just in case, I have my coffee cup to remind me to break out of my comfort zone and do one thing every day that scares me.

To Break out of your comfort zone, try the following:

- Say yes to something you have always wanted to do, but been afraid to try for fear of failure, rejection or embarrassment.
- Say no to “a sure thing,” where you have the security of knowing the outcome but no passion for its pursuit.
- Say yes to a creative challenge, even if (at least for the moment) it does not carry a big financial reward.
- Say no to something you really don’t want to do, but are doing anyway out of guilt, fear or shame.

Karen Leland is author of the recently released book Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day and co-founder of Sterling Consulting Group. For questions or comments visit her work-life balance site.

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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.

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With all the US Presidential election behind us, regardless of your political persuasion, let’s talk about the big message of the Obama campaign: change.  If you want to become more productive, you’ll have to be willing to make changes and create new, positive habits and leave old habits behind.  It is easy to become set in our ways and continue doing things the way we’ve always done them because, well, it’s how we’ve always done them.  I’ll take a line from Dr. Phil and ask “How’s that working for you?”  Content, satisfied people are not apt to make changes.  After all, if everything is going along swimmingly, what’s to change?  But people and organizations must continue to change for things to improve.  If your relationship with your significant other never changed, it would never grow stronger over the years.  If organizations didn’t change, the buggy whip industry would have died if it didn’t become the transportation industry.  If the company you work for doesn’t change, you should be very, very worried.

How do we get ourselves in the mindset where we are ready for change?  People are ready for change when the pain of not making a change outweighs the stress of actually taking the action to change.  Some people just naturally are go-getters and constantly seek ways of being more productive while most people need a little more motivation to change.  If you’re the latter, take some time to think about why you want to change.  I talked before about finding your “why.”  Once you’ve done that, it’s time to actually take the steps to make changes.

Don’t try to change EVERYTHING right now.  Pick a couple of things to work on over the next 21 days.  Make a concerted effort each day related to that habit you want to break or create and in just three short weeks, turn around and look at how far you’ve come.  Each time you take a step in the right direction, it will become easier to do more and eventually be as productive as you desire to be.

(C) 2008 Laura Stack.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

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