According to a recent CareerBuilder study, clutter could be costing you quite a bit! More than a quarter of employers said they are less likely to promote someone who has a messy work space. A large percentage of employers also feel that having paper piles on desks gives them a more negative impression of those workers.

Surpisingly, a third of workers admit to having hoarding tendencies with 13% saying they have files which are more than five years old. If you’re facing challenges with office clutter, we’ve got help for you! Spend an hour with me on my pre-recorded webinar “Organize Your Office and Your Life: Survive Information Overload and Clear the Clutter.” You’ll learn expert tips on keeping the clutter at bay so that you have more time to tackle that to-do list!

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“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” — Hans Hoffman, American abstract painter

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” — Henry David Thoreau
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher

We’ve all heard the lifestyle guru’s favorite mantra: “Simply, simply, simplify,” after that paragon of simplicity himself, Thoreau. That’s actually pretty good advice, and not just for your personal life. Simplifying has its place in the office as well; in fact, it may be more critical there than elsewhere, since it’s another part of the grand mosaic that results in increased workplace productivity.

Why It’s Necessary
Simplifying, purging, de-cluttering, or organizing—whatever you want to call it—can be a daunting task, especially for the packrats among us who fear letting go of anything just in case. But if you don’t purge, things can get clogged up, and your systems are likely to become slow and unwieldy. Something that normally takes five minutes might take ten times as long. Furthermore, it becomes difficult to integrate new items into the system, further impairing your productivity.

So every once in a while, you need to stop working, take a look around, and decide what you can safely get rid of.

Purging can be painful, no doubt about it. It’s easy to second guess yourself, because what if you make a mistake and get rid of something you need? Well, that might happen; but you can’t let yourself fall prey to the paralysis of analysis here, any more than you can with any other aspect of your work life. You have to be draconian about purging, because it will inevitably have more positive effects than negative ones.

And honestly, it doesn’t require any earth-shattering changes in your life. It’s not like you have to get rid of your Blackberry and email, although I do have colleagues who recommend that!

What To Purge
Precisely how you need to simplify your work life is up to you to decide, as it varies from person to person. But certain things that can often use a de-clutter session are found in nearly every organization or workplace. They might include your:

• Desk
• Storage system
• Bookshelves
• Filing system
• Email
• Computer
• File structures of your handhelds

The basic method is very much the same, whether you’re dealing with the electronic or the physical: you go through everything, look closely at each item, and decide whether you need it or not. If not, it should go. If it’s an old contact on your Blackberry or a program you never use on your computer, delete it. If it’s old paper—outdated contracts, meeting notes from 10 years ago, whatever—recycle it. Some things you may even be able to sell. For anything else, either give it to someone who needs it, or throw it away. Incidentally, if you give anything to charity, keep track of it, so you can take it off your taxes.

The Rules
Decisions, decisions. It may seem like an über-pain to purge, but here’s the deal: if you set up a series of hard-and-fast rules for handling your purges, those decisions will become much more automatic. The precise rule set is something you’ll have to formulate on your own, based on your needs, but the experts recommend that you ask yourself these questions:

• Do I really need this?
• Have I used this lately?
• Am I likely to use this anytime soon?
• Will this help me achieve any of my goals?
• Instead of owning this, could I borrow or rent it—or use something else instead?
• Do I have similar or identical items that work better?
• Can someone else get more benefit out of this than I can?
• What’s the worst thing that could happen if I get rid of this?

Once you’ve developed your criteria, it’s a lot easier to decide whether or not to keep something, especially if you hold this overriding guideline in mind: when in doubt, throw it out.

Beyond the Basics
You don’t have to limit yourself to electronics or physical objects during your purging spree; you can also work to clear the deadwood out of your work-flow and managerial systems, and cut fiscal waste where you find it. Needless to say, the purging criteria will have to change to fit the situation.

You can even purge unprofitable projects. The primary consideration in this case is whether the project is ever going to be profitable, or if it’s just sitting there eating up resources better spent elsewhere. Don’t keep the project running just because it’s someone’s baby (even yours) or because you’ve already invested so much in it. It’s never smart to throw good money after bad.

This is where you have to be especially harsh in applying your criteria, because more than just wasted time is involved (and that’s bad enough). If you maintain too many unproductive, unprofitable projects, your bottom line—and potentially, your organization’s survival—is at risk. So cut away the fat and serve up the lean. Once you give unproductive projects the boot, you can focus better on what really needs to be done.

Moving Forward
Don’t hesitate to purge. It may hurt somewhat at first, and you may worry a bit, but if you’re cautious and reasonable about what you keep and throw away, it’ll all work out in the end. Plus, once you’ve put your rules in place, you can use them on a daily basis to decide what to keep and what to toss, and your purging sessions will become much less frequent and intense.

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Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) shares tips on managing all the paper that comes across our desks. (c) 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved

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Top Ten Tips for a More Organized 2011!
By Laura Stack, MBA, CSP

There will always be more things to do than time to do it. Working longer isn’t going to save you. (I’d bet you’ve never gone to sleep at the end of a long day with everything on your to-do list completed.) To counter this never-ending battle, you’ll need to learn to be more efficient and get your work done in less time. If you can figure out how to be more productive during the day and achieve greater results in less time, you can leave the office earlier and get a life.

Learn how to use your software. One of the many ways professionals waste time during the day is with Microsoft Outlook (or whatever email software you use). I estimate people waste 30 minutes to 2 hours a day with incorrect or inefficient information management systems. Sometimes it’s a simple matter of not understanding what Outlook is capable of doing (Journaling, Notes, Customized Contact Forms, Task Tracking, etc.). As a Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) in Outlook, I estimate most people only understand and use 10-20% of Outlook’s capabilities.

The Inbox is not a to-do list. Pull the action from the email and move it to the correct location. Do NOT simply flag the email, which simply leaves it in the inbox.

1. Right-click on the email.

2. Select “Move to Folder” from the short cut menu.

3. Select Tasks from the list if it’s a “to-do” item or Calendar if it has a specific time.

4. Click OK.

5. This will activate a task properties window.

6. Update all of the information accordingly. Use the “Start Date” to indicate when you want the task to appear on your To-Do Bar.

7. Click the “Save and Close” button.

8. Make sure your TaskPad (2003) or To-Do Bar (2007/2010) sorts by Start Date, not Due Date.

File email in your existing folder system. You already have a folder system on your hard drive or a shared drive. Rather than keeping a different list of personal folders in your Outlook, save emails in your existing folders to keep reference items together. Just as you would save a Word document or PowerPoint show, you can save email as a file. While viewing the email:

1. Under the File menu, select Save As.

2. Navigate to the correct folder on your hard or shared drive.

3. Change the file name, if desired.

4. In the Save as Type dropdown menu, select Outlook Message Format (*.msg).

5. Click Save.

6. When you double-click the Outlook icon, the email will open within your Outlook software, just as if it were in the inbox.

Automate manual actions. Use Outlook’s Rules; they help you manage your e-mail messages by performing actions on messages that match a specific set of conditions. After you create a rule, Outlook applies it when a message arrives in your Inbox or when you send a message. Spend some time playing with the Rules Wizard to explore all the cool things you can do, such as forwarding to a list, automatically deleting mail from certain people, printing, moving messages where you’re cc’d into a specified folder, or moving messages with certain words in the subject field to a folder.

1. On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.

2. Click New Rule.

3. Make sure the “Start creating a rule from a template” button is selected.

4. Follow the Wizard.

Keep your notes on your Contacts up to date. Keep notes for every client contact in a contact management system of some sort: ACT, Salesforce.com, Outlook, etc. If you have Outlook, this feature is called the Journal, which is a little-known, powerful feature rarely used by immensely helpful for salespeople to document client history: conversations, phone calls, and meetings. Create a New Journal Entry, tag it to the Contact, type out the contents of the meeting. You can now view a Contact’s Journal entries from years ago. If you share your Journal and Contacts, anyone on your time can see your notes and client activity if you’re out.

Create a travel plan. When you do have to fly for business, you’ll usually have a pretty good idea of how much downtime you’ll have during your trip, so set some goals for your travel time before you leave. How long is the flight each way? How long will you be alone in your hotel room in the evening? Know what you want to accomplish during various parts of your trip. It isn’t set in stone—it’s just a guide. When you sit down in your airplane seat, you should know exactly what to do next. Maybe there’s a report you want to read or a proposal you want to write. Be ready to dive right in. Until I can turn on my computer, I generally do light reading as I catch my breath and get settled. I might even do a Sudoku puzzle. Then I get right to it. I never turn on the television in my hotel, since a quiet hotel room is a great place to bang out work.

Embrace the Smartphone. You don’t need to become a full-fledged Crackberry addict to enjoy the benefits of a smartphone. It shouldn’t hijack your life, but it can be a useful tool while you’re riding in a taxi or sitting at the gate. Use your downtime to keep up with email; it’s comforting to know it isn’t piling up while you’re away. A smart phone can also help you stay on top of things back at the office without playing phone tag and leaving voicemails all over the place.

Simplify with a docking station. Do you find yourself transferring files between a desktop computer and your laptop when you need to travel or bring work home? This was one of my biggest frustrations and time-wasters for many years. Unless your work requires some serious computer resources, you can probably stop using the desktop machine altogether. A docking station will allow you to keep your nice big monitor and full-size keyboard, but still be able to pop your computer out of the dock, slip it into your laptop bag, and have all your files in one place. It’s the best of both worlds.

Be determined to complete a task in less time. Sometimes we’re so busy looking for an extra thirty minutes to complete a task we don’t realize it could be done in ten. Make sure you aren’t over-researching, over-analyzing, or just plain over-thinking what you’re trying to do. Some fish will grow to fit the size of their tank, and tasks will do the same thing. If Step One of writing a report is always an hour of banging your head against the blank computer screen, it becomes the norm. Don’t fall into this trap. Evaluate your tasks and challenge yourself to get them done more quickly. If you had to have the report written by the end of the day instead of the end of the week, you would find a way to get it done. Tight deadlines don’t leave much time for banging your head on the computer. When a crisis pops up, rise to the challenge. Apply the same “never say die” attitude to your more routine tasks, and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Focus, focus, focus. Give yourself ten minutes to concentrate on the task at hand. Once you commit your full energy to getting it done, you’ll be amazed at how things start zipping along.

Hold an efficiency meeting. We all know we can be more productive. When I ask salespeople, “What would you need to change about yourself in order to be more productive and increase sales?” everyone knows the answer. When I ask, “What would need to change in the office in order for you to be more productive?” everyone knows the answer. However, most salespeople and their teams rarely take the time to discuss these issues and formulate solutions. If you haven’t had an “efficiency meeting” in a while, get it on your schedule. Vent your frustrations. Try different methods. Blow up a process. Get help when you need it. All of this effort will pay off handsomely in the way of increased client acquisition.

Wishing you a Happy, Prosperous, and Productive 2011!

** To purchase online video tutorials on the above Outlook functions, please visit http://www.theproductivitypro.com/s_outlook-virtual-training-products.htm.

Since 1992, Laura Stack has presented keynotes and seminars that help leaders, teams, and individuals achieve Maximum Result in Minimum Time®. As the President of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., she has implemented productivity-improvement programs at companies such as Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, and Bank of America, as well as government agencies and national associations. She is the bestselling author of four books and has been a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, Xerox, and Office Depot. Laura is the 2011-2012 president of the National Speakers Association and the creator of The Productivity Pro® planner by Day-Timer. To have Laura speak at your next event, visit www.TheProductivityPro.com.

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Are we born organized and productive, or are these learned traits? Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), discusses this question. (C) 2009 Laura Stack. All rights reserved.

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The Productivity Pro(R), Inc. is delighted to announce that Laura Stack has received the Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) in Outlook 2007 credential.  A Microsoft Business Certification shows employers that you have the technical skills to solve real-world problems by using advanced features of Microsoft Office programs.  Not only did she pass, but the test administrator remarked that Laura’s test results were the closest to a perfect score she had ever seen on the exam. The Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) credential is a globally recognized standard that validates skills with using the 2007 Microsoft Office system and meets the demand for the most up-to-date skills on the latest technologies from Microsoft.  Candidates who successfully complete the program by passing a certification exam prove that they meet globally recognized performance standards and are able to work productively and efficiently.

NOW you can attend Outlook training with Laura Stack from the privacy of your own office!  The Productivity Pro(R), Inc. has an online video library available with ten 1-hour modules taught by Laura Stack, each covering a different aspect of Outlook in-depth.  Each class is accompanied by a detailed workbook with screenshots and step-by-step instructions.  To learn from this NEW MCAS in Outlook, visit http://www.theproductivitypro.com/s_outlook-virtual-training-products.html to receive the passwords.

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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.

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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

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When was the last time you de-cluttered your computer?  Our computer desktops can become just as messy as our physical desks if we let them.  When computers are bogged down with out of date or useless information their performance suffers – and so can yours as you slog through your hard drive trying to find the documents you need.  The recycle bin on your computer is your friend – use it!

Your computer filing system should resemble physical filing system as much as possible in order to easily retrieve documents.  If you’re like many people, when you create documents or download documents from email or the Internet, you allow the document to be filed in the default location and leave it at that.  This can leave your My Documents folder or your Desktop in a state of confusion and disarray. 

Here’s an easy fix: In Windows Explorer, select the My Documents folder.  Under the File menu, select New and then Folder.  The new folder name is highlighted.  Give it a broad umbrella name, such as “Personal” or “Business” or “School.”  Then within each folder, create any number of folders appropriate to your organizational method. For example, under “Personal,” you could have folders named Finances, Kids, Legal, House, Recipes, etc.  Under your “Business” folder you might have folders such as Clients, Projects, Contracts, or Reports. 

Once your folders are set up, save documents in the appropriate place when downloading a file from the Internet or email.  When saving, you can also rename the file to make it easier to find later.  I have found that many files have names that are not easily recognized when searching for it months later.  It is not useful to have folders full of files named “report” or 6238484b.pdf.  Better to take the extra second when downloading to rename it to “August 2008 Bank Statement” or “HP ScanJet Instructions.”  This will save time and headaches down the line.

As for the clutter currently on your computer, set aside some time to go through your files.  Depending on how long it’s been since you’ve been through your hard drive this could take fifteen minutes or an hour or more.  If you have hundreds of files to peruse, break up the task into a few half-hour chunks, so you don’t get overwhelmed and give up.  Take the files you need for future use and place them in the appropriate folders. Delete the files you no longer need.  Believe me, it’s as fulfilling deleting the junk out of your computer as it is clearing the clutter from the garage!

© 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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21. Journal your meeting notes.  Many people don’t know how to use the Journal feature in Outlook or even what it’s for!  If you’ve ever accidentally clicked it, you’ll get a pop-up box that asks you if you’re SURE you want to turn on the Journal.  Most people freak out and click NO.  Next time, click yes.  Open a new Journal entry, type up your meeting notes, put in the day/time of the meeting, indicate in the Contacts field who was at the meeting, and select a Category for the meeting name or project.  When you select that Contact and click the Activities tab, you’ll be able to see the Journal entries (notes) from every meeting you’ve ever had with that person. You can also pull up your Journal entries by Category to review meeting notes as far back as you’d like.  OR give your notes to your assistant, have him type them up in the text field of the original meeting notice, save, and send a message to attendees (under Actions).

22. Avoid meetings on Fridays.  Many departments and teams just decide as an informal policy to schedule meetings Monday-Thursday if at all possible.  Too many people try to take long weekends or duck out early, making scheduling and rescheduling a nightmare on these days, plus you’ll end up with a lot of no-shows.  I try to leave Fridays open for personal appointments.  I find if I put a doctor’s appointment in between business meetings, something always happens to derail one or the other.  It’s hard to get my mind switched between different realms as well.

23. Always send or request an agenda and include it in the text portion of the appointment or include as an attachment.  A basic agenda should include a statement of purpose (see #13), any logistical considerations, the decisions to be made, a list of the topics to discuss (in priority order), who is responsible for that item, and how long you are allotting for each one.  Ask participants if they have any changes to the agenda items to let you know in advance of the meeting, so you can make adjustments if necessary.  Once you get into the meeting, follow the agenda diligently, so you can ensure all points are covered, decisions are made, and the objective is achieved.

24. Don’t let Outlook pick the length of your meeting.  The default is one hour, so that’s how much time people normally schedule meetings!  Instead, match the length of the meeting to the purpose.  If you’ve done an agenda (see #23), and you’ve determined you’ll only need forty minutes, then schedule for that.  Time will expand to fill the amount of time available.  If you’ve promised folks you’ll be out of there, people tend to work toward that goal.  If there is slack time, more socializing will naturally take place and an hour will definitely get used.  Some people try to build in “buffer” time—don’t cave to this habit.  I purposefully under-schedule and announce the goal at the beginning, so everyone is actively moving forward.

25. For longer meeting, allow enough breaks. Give a break at least one break for every hour and 15 minutes, max.  Let attendees know at the outset what to expect.  If you keep rambling on, and they aren’t sure when they’ll get a bio break, they will just start getting up randomly and sneaking out.  If you clearly state at the beginning, “We will meet from now until 10:00, and then we’ll break until 10:10,” etc.  It is also common courtesy that if you’re meeting over a lunch hour to provide food.

26. Be considerate of those in other time zones.  If you’re in the Pacific Time zone, and some of your meeting participants are calling in from the east, a 2:00 meeting puts them into departure time.  Realize that people may have childcare commitments at the end of the day; an afternoon meeting (or vice versa for early mornings on the west coast) can severely inconvenience folks and reduce the odds of attendance.

27. Strike a balance on when to schedule a meeting.  If you schedule a meeting too far out, you’ll get a bunch of cancellations and requests to reschedule as you get closer—or you’ll just get trumped by someone higher up.  If you wait to schedule a meeting until the last minute, it’s hard to find a block of time when most people are readily available.  So it’s best to schedule around one to three weeks in advance.  Anything sooner than that or further than that is fraught with scheduling challenges and conflicts.

28. Let the meeting leader know as soon as you’re aware of a conflict with a scheduled meeting.  If you have a change in your calendar but don’t want to “rock the boat,” you inconvenience more people the longer you wait.  It takes effort to work schedules around appointments, so as soon as you know, raise the flag.  The chair can determine if they can make it without you or if the meeting should be moved.

29. Display multiple Outlook windows at one time.  Perhaps you want to see your calendar while looking at an email.  While in your Inbox, right-click on your Calendar (either on the Folder List or the icon) and select “Open in New Window.”  Outlook will open your Calendar in a separate window, which you can resize and move to where it’s most convenient for you, while still being able to switch back to the Inbox.  This is especially useful if you have a large monitor or dual monitors.

30. Customize your Calendar to your preferences.  Don’t be satisfied with the standard calendar layouts—make it your own!  For example, you can automatically add holidays to your calendar.  On the Tools menu, click Options, then Calendar Options, and then click Add Holidays.  The weekends are also compressed by default.  If you want to show Saturday and Sunday as separate boxes, right click in the Calendar and select Other Settings.  Uncheck the box that says Compress Weekend Days.  While you’re there, change the default setting for 30-minute time slots to 5, 6, 10, 15, or 60 minute slots (I use 15).  Frequently schedule with people in another time zone?  Avoid confusion by displaying another zone.  Under the Tools menu, select Options.  On the Preferences tab, click Calendar Options, Time Zone, and “Show an additional time zone” check box. Select the desired time zone and OK out of there.

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

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