“Ignorance is not bliss. It’s fatal. It’s costly. And it’s for losers. You either get organized, or get crushed.” — Donald Trump, American businessman

One of the Six Keys of workplace competence is Accessibility: your ability to organize the inputs and outputs in your work life, so that you can easily locate data in any medium—whether it’s in paper files, on your computer system, on the company Intranet, or distributed in your team members’ heads. Given the fact that modern workers are constantly bombarded with data and communications, just being able to access information efficiently can enhance productivity to a surprising degree.

At the C-Suite level, Accessibility morphs into Organization…and from a productivity standpoint, it’s more important than ever. Organization means more than just maintaining an efficient schedule and getting your personal workspace shipshape. By the time you reach upper management, you ought to be a virtuoso at that level of accessibility, and you should also have a personal staff to help you keep things accessible. But when you’re overseeing a whole organization, company, or division, your organizational bailiwick expands. At that level, true Organization requires a thorough understanding of not just personal accessibility, but also the systems that define and support your entire team. They need to be as tight and effective as possible, and it’s up to you to ensure that reality — if necessary, by imposing it from the top.

I think this is a perfect example of the kind of big-picture work that a top executive, particularly a CEO or President, is responsible for. It’s about as far from micromanaging as you can get, because it effects everyone in your group. You’ve stepped back even farther than a good hands-off manager, because you’re not worried about individual performance per se; you’re dealing with the “platform” on which all the individual “apps” in your organization run, if you will. You’re tweaking the code, and making everything work better for everybody.

One of your prime responsibilities here is to determine what you need to change in order to maximize Organization, which requires that you spend some time studying the entire range of systems and processes by which information is organized, stored, and transmitted within your organizational structure. Don’t expect this to be a quick process; if you try to rush change, you’re likely to make damaging errors. Ultimately, the changes might take months or years to implement—not only because you have to study things thoroughly first in order to determine what needs to be changed, but also because you have to figure out how to pay for those changes…and then you may have to convince a board of directors, the business owner, or other individuals or groups that you report to that the changes are necessary.

Warning: don’t get lost in the concept of change for change’s sake! The cliché of the new broom that sweeps clean is a popular one, but don’t forget the tinkerer’s Number One rule: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The idea is to tighten up existing systems to maximize efficiency, if at all possible. Replacing systems wholesale is unnecessary and wasteful if all you really need to do is streamline and modernize. What truly matters is productivity, and your employees can’t be productive if you’re reorganizing for no good reason.

Once thing I’d like to emphasize before I sign off is the fact that in order to accomplish this new level of Organization, you absolutely need to get all your lieutenants on board. By the time you’ve studied the situation for a while, you ought to have an almost instinctual understand of not just what needs to be done, but also how the individuals who have to implement your changes will react when you propose those changes. It may be that one of your first tasks will be to restructure decision making within your group, so that the Organization can be pulled off efficiently.

You’re the boss. You can’t let your subordinates control the flow of information and data at their whim, not if you want to Organize your company to achieve maximum productivity. If your managers are used to treating their teams as their own private fiefdoms, you’re going to have to break that stranglehold before you can get anything done.

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Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), shares tips on room organization. (C) 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved

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What’s the first thing you do when you begin your day? What do you literally do when you sit down to begin working?

Many people do the “beverage ritual.” They get all their beverages just right and their snacks all lined up and settled. Maybe they do a little bit of checking on blog postings to see what’s come in and of course visit Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Next they check e-mail and get sucked into that vortex for a couple of hours. Now what time is it? Lunchtime! How do you feel after lunch? Probably pretty low energy. What do you feel like working on? Nothing. At least nothing that requires a very high level of energy and focus.

I would suggest instead that you think very carefully about the leading activity of your day, because it’s going to set you up for success or failure that day. My suggestion is every day, you sit down—as the last thing you do before you leave the office—and ask yourself, “If there were one thing that I could accomplish tomorrow in order for me to feel like it was a productive day, what would that one thing be?”

I challenge you when you get to work the next morning, don’t do anything until you sit down and do that one thing. Whether it’s recording a quick two-minute episode of a new video series that you are starting, writing an article, or doing a proposal, pick something that’s going to require a fairly high level of concentration, brain power, problem solving, decision-making, or only have the capacity to do when you’re at your highest energy level.

Most people have the majority of their energy in the morning. If so, do the important task first thing. Can you not even open your Outlook, or your Internet browser, or do anything until that one thing is complete?

When it’s done, check your e-mail as a reward. I promise you that one singular habit will make your day start off on the right track and help you leave at the end of the day feeling like you got the most important thing done.

Please share your tips and tricks on how to get your day started in the most productive manner. I look forward to hearing your ideas!

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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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Everyone has a productivity personality. It’s the collection of strengths, weaknesses, and day-to-day habits that come together to determine how a person works best.

I’ve written often about how important it is to get a handle on your own personal productivity personality, but it’s important that you don’t stop there. After all, most of us depend on others at some point in our day and the individual work styles and attitudes of those around us can have a huge impact on our own ability to get things done.

That’s why I put together a list of the 12 dysfunctional personal productivity personalities. Hopefully this list will help you smile (rather than cringe) the next time a coworker’s bad habits start to drive you up the wall. I’ve also included some thoughts on how to deal with each of these pesky personalities.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1. Scrappers. The scrapper’s desk look like a modern art exhibit, covered in scraps of paper and sticky notes. They write important notes on whatever is close at hand, whether it’s a fast food receipt or the back of an envelope (a scrapper’s favorite).

Handling the scrapper: You can’t force scrappers to adopt a comprehensive planning system or put all of those little scraps into Outlook or a BlackBerry (although you could try to coach them). What you can do is make sure that items pertaining to your work don’t get lost in the shuffle. Send follow-up e-mails detailing key meeting take-aways, check in before important deadlines, and never fail to follow up on a delegated task.

2. Pilers. Pilers have a lot in common with scrappers, except it is generally much more difficult to navigate your way through the piler’s office. They keep everything and file nothing. There will be boxes on the floor and every inch of desk space will be occupied by stacks of paper, generally piled up to the point that an archeologist could use them to figure out what the piler has been working on for the last five years.

Handling the piler: The best thing you can do for the piler is simple: don’t add anything to the piles. Chances are that any document, book, or report that you put in the piler’s hands is going to end up in heap someplace, where it is probably as good as gone. Never hand your only hard copy over to a piler unless you are ready to kiss it goodbye. Also, be sure to set clear deadlines. Their idea of giving something a high priority is placing it on their (generally largest) “immediate attention” stack. Don’t ask them to do something “right away,” ask them to do it by a specific date.

3. Multi-taskers. Multi-taskers always have a thousand things going on at once and generally take pride in it. They flit from task to task, getting many things started but few things completed. And they often appear frazzled, overwhelmed, and scattered.

Handling the multi-tasker: Always use caution when working with a multi-tasker. He or she will rarely admit that they don’t have the capacity to take on another task and can easily become distracted by competing priorities. Always double-check, very directly, with multi-taskers to make sure that they can and will do what is expected in an agreed-upon timeframe.

4. Interrupters. “Gotta minute?” It’s practically the interrupter’s catch phrase. They will constantly show up at your desk, interrupting your day and derailing your train of thought. Their interruptions are sometimes trivial and sometimes relevant, but almost always ill-timed.

Handling the interrupter: You have to be honest on this one. If someone asks if you have a minute, don’t be afraid to tell them you don’t. The more cautiously you guard your own time, the more others will begin thinking twice before asking for it needlessly. A polite response to an interruption is to simply point out that no, you don’t have any time right now but would be happy to meet later in the day if needed. Beyond that, a simple “Do Not Disturb” sign can go a long way – just don’t abuse it.

5. Procrastinators. Some people seem clinically incapable of doing anything before the last possible moment. They start things with just enough time to squeeze them in before the deadline. You’ll also notice that procrastinators tend to put off high-value (often challenging) tasks in favor of more pleasant, less critical ones.

Handling the procrastinator: Don’t let a procrastinator drag your project team down. The best way to get out ahead of a procrastinator is to plan in advance and evaluate results on an ongoing basis, not just when the work is done. If your procrastinator is expected to deliver a weekly progress report, they’ll be more likely to stay on track. Of course, you should probably steer clear immediately before your meeting. That will be crunch time.

6. Socializers. Socializers waste inordinate amounts of time chatting with coworkers and keeping up with the personal lives of everyone at the office. They’re great at planning the company party, but tend to fall short in other ways.

Handling the socializer: Socializers do what they do because they get something out of it – interaction, stress relief, distraction from work, whatever. If you don’t have anything along those lines to offer, they’ll lost interest in you pretty quickly. You just need to be sure not to play along. If you’re in the habit of nodding your head and smiling while others talk your ear off, then you are part of the problem. Politely point out that you are trying to keep your day on track and need to get back to what you were doing.

7. Meeting addicts. Some people apparently just love to call meetings. Maybe they really enjoy the setting and the interaction or maybe it honestly has never occurred to them that it is possible to get things done without putting half the department around a conference table. Either way, the result is a lot of time wasted by everyone involved.

Handling the meeting addict: First of all, don’t be afraid to decline a meeting when it’s appropriate to do so. Simply state that you don’t feel your presence is needed and ask that you be kept in the loop on any important outcomes that might affect your work. Second, don’t be afraid to suggest an alternative to a meeting. When you get the request, simply call the organizer to ask if the matter could be handled by e-mail or conference call. In fact, you might be able to resolve the issue on the spot and save everyone a lot of time and disruption.

8. Crisis creators. We’ve all been there. A lack of planning by one person leads to a crisis for everyone else. Even minor issues are exaggerated into a full-blown disaster and everyone involved ends up feeling stressed and drained as a result. Crisis creators seem to always be fighting fires and coworkers are often dragged into the fray.

Handling the crisis creator: Unfortunately, we often have to step in and help fight fires even if they aren’t our fault. If a certain individual is constantly working in crisis mode, it is important that you don’t play into the drama. Keep a cool head and don’t get overly stressed. Then, once the crisis is resolved, insist on a debriefing meeting to figure out what went wrong. Once crisis creators realize that problems aren’t going to be forgotten once the crisis is over, they’ll be more inclined to stay out of trouble in the first place.

9. E-mailers. They send an e-mail for everything. It doesn’t matter how simple or how complicated an issue is, an e-mail message is the answer. They never use the phone, they never walk across the hall to deliver a ten-word message, and they usually LOVE the “Reply All” button.

Handling the e-mailer: Usually you won’t have much luck influencing the e-mail habits of a colleague, although you can specifically request the recipients do NOT Reply to All but respond to you directly instead. What you CAN do is set clear expectations concerning your own use of e-mail. If you only check your messages a few times each day, tell people that so they don’t expect you to treat Outlook like an instant messaging service. People are generally pragmatic about things and if e-mail isn’t a good way to get a response from you, they’ll stop using it for everything.

10. Packrats. Packrats have never thrown anything away in their professional lives. They don’t worry about the company’s records retention policy, because they retain everything, no matter what. They are often overwhelmed by their own treasure trove of obsolete documents, but will come in handy if you ever need to take a look at the final report from that project that was cancelled in 1986.

Handling the packrat: Packrats are sometimes highly organized creatures, but are often more worried about the thickness of their project files than they are about what’s inside. Never trust a packrat to manage priorities or to take away the key points from any given interaction. Be direct about what you need from them so you don’t end up with a ton of unnecessary research or extraneous background information. Just the facts, please.

11. Perfectionists. By insisting on doing everything perfectly, perfectionists generally fail to accomplish much at all. They can never finish, because it “can always be better.” They work hard, but complete little. Perfectionists keep meticulous meeting notes, promise the world during planning sessions, and often seem to crack up just as the project is coming together.

Handling the perfectionist: When you are working with a perfectionist, it’s a good idea to plan for frequent touch points throughout the project. Rather than expecting to reconvene at the end, schedule several synch-up meetings along the way. Define the level of expectation and the exact deliverables. This will help keep the perfectionist working in manageable (if imperfect) chunks and also give the person a chance to dazzle you with little presentations throughout the project. Perfectionists just love that.

12. Workaholics. The workaholic works an 80 hour week and never misses an opportunity to remind you of it. Puzzling, though, is the fact that they seem to accomplish less than others working half the hours. The workaholic typically has no boundaries between work and home life.

Handling the workaholic: Remember that to a workaholic, “end of day” does not mean five o’clock. Usually, it means “before tomorrow.” When you are expecting something from a workaholic, keep in mind that you will likely see an e-mail roll in at 10:45 p.m. Also remember that there is no sense of urgency to a workaholic. Since they plan to be working into the evening anyway, they tend to waste time during normal business hours. You can subtlety nudge them in your direction by saying things such as “I’d like to have that by three o’clock so that I can be out the door on time tonight.”

I have no doubt that at least a few of these 12 dysfunctional productivity personalities will have you smiling and thinking of someone you work with. But also keep in mind that each of us has a little of one or more of these personalities in us as well. So as we work to deal better with our chronically troublesome coworkers, we should also be willing to improve on our own little areas of personal dysfunction. Now THAT is productivity improvement!

What dysfunctional personality styles would you add?

Make it a productive day! ™

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

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We all want to do our part to help the environment. But if you can give the Earth a break and increase your productivity at the same time, that’s a real no-brainer!  Luckily, a lot of the things you can do to help sustain the planet can help sustain your productivity as well.  Read on for tips on how to green-size your life and get more done at the same time.

Use less paper.  About 80 percent of papers that are filed are never referenced again.  What a waste! A good solution? File less.  An even better solution?  Produce less paper to begin with.  That doesn’t mean you have to constantly inconvenience yourself or feel guilty about ever sheet that comes off the printer.  It just means you should think twice before you hit “print.” Do you really need a paper copy of that e-mail message or status report?

Why you’ll get more done: The less paper you allow into your day, the less time you’ll spend managing it.  I’m talking about filing things, shuffling them around, and tearing through the heaps to find what you need. Keeping less paper means you’ll have an easier time finding the things that really matter and also eliminate some of the stress that inevitably comes from stacks of paper clutter.     

Give your PC (and yourself) a rest.  When was the last time you gave your PC a break?  Letting it sit with the screensaver on doesn’t count.  I mean actually shutting it down, all the way.  The next time you finish working for the day, turn your computer off (black screen, no blinking lights).  You’ll save energy and let the machine cool down for the night.   

Why you’ll get more done:  Shutting down your PC at the end of the day not only saves electricity, but it can also work wonders for your personal energy level.  It’s easy enough to leave a computer untouched at the office, but I’ll bet your home computer is buzzing away whenever someone is nearby.  This leads to technological burnout.  You’re constantly checking e-mail.  Mindlessly surfing the web.  Compulsively scanning social networking sites.  The next thing you know it’s deep into the night and you never really took time to unwind.  Shutting the computer down means you’ll be less likely to plop down in front of it for “just a minute” and more likely to accomplish things around the house, spend time relaxing with family, or go get some exercise. 

Drive smart.  Does it ever feel like you’re losing time every day running errands or zipping around from appointment to appointment?  If you think ahead, you might be able to consolidate all those quick trips into one or two longer outings, especially if you can batch them together based on where in town you need to go.  Also consider making your regular commute outside of rush hour.  You’ll travel the same distance in a shorter time and pollute less along the way.

Why you’ll get more done:  Driving smarter isn’t just going to save gas, money, and harmful emissions, but it’s also going to save you time.  Planning ahead and spending less time running around or stuck in traffic will do nothing but add precious productive minutes (or hours!) to your day. 

Recycle and declutter.  Don’t you always feel better after getting rid of stuff?  It doesn’t matter if you’re at home or the office, getting rid of clutter is always a liberating experience.  Tackle problem areas one at a time by identifying clutter and dividing it into “storage,” “trash,” and “recycling” piles.  Recycling can mean sending junk to a traditional recycling facility or simply passing items along to those who can make better use of them than you can.  Sites like www.freecycle.org can help you find a good home for your unused stuff and local schools and libraries often have a need for any extra office supplies you may have lying around.

Why you’ll get more done: Getting rid of clutter is just plain good for your state of mind, which is good for overall productivity.   On top of that, getting rid of clutter will have the same effect as getting rid of paper – less junk to sort through, fewer storage hassles, and more space to live and work. 

Travel less.  Lots of companies learned this lesson from the recession, but there’s an environmental impact as well.  Is all of your business travel necessary?  Think about the trips you take, whether they’re across town or across the county.  Would it be possible to get the work done remotely?  Technology allows us to accomplish an awful lot from afar, from conference calls to complete virtual presentations.  If you can manage to stay in town in a few instances where you’d usually pack up the car or hop on an airplane, you’ll be doing Mother Nature and yourself a favor.

Why you’ll get more done: Business trips can eat a lot of time.  Sometimes you’ll literally need to spend days on the road for the sake of engaging in a few hours of productive activity once you’re there.  Sure you can get work done on the go, but it isn’t the same as being close to home base.  Skipping an out-of-town trip or two can free you up to make a serious dent in your workload. 

When you get down to it, greensizing is just a matter of paying a little more attention to the habits that you wouldn’t usually give a second thought. Often, productivity is the same way.  I hope you’ll join me in thinking twice and finding simple ways to conserve not only precious resources but valuable time as well.  The planet will thank you and you’ll get more done.  That’s what I call a win-win.

Make it a productive day! ™

(C) Copyright 2009 Laura Stack.  All rights reserved.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

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Our first virtual Microsoft Outlook webinar series was such a huge success that we’re doing it again! The new series begins May 22, 2009 with Microsoft Certified Specialist Laura Stack.

I’m going to present 10 modules covering various aspects of Outlook, step-by-step. This isn’t just computer training. It’s real-world, reality-based workflow processing that helps you actually be MORE productive with Outlook, instead of wasting hours every day playing with it. I will share my desktop and show my computer screen LIVE using my actual Microsoft Outlook software. This is not PowerPoint! It is a real-time demonstration. Even you Outlook experts will be shocked by what you don’t know you don’t know!

Each webinar is very affordable at $39 per person. If you attend all ten, the price is discounted to $349 per person. If for some reason you miss the class—don’t worry—the recording will be sent to you after each session, so you don’t have to attend “live.” You will also receive a workbook to accompany each webinar, with detailed screen shots, so you can duplicate what I do in the seminar.

We are using www.gotowebinar.com that uses either your phone or VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), so you listen right from your own computer speakers via your Internet connection.

If you want to project the seminar in your conference room, just call us at 303-471-7401 and tell us how many people are attending your meeting, and we’ll manually charge your credit card $39 per person.There are different sessions for 2003 and 2007 users, so please check the times carefully when you register. The 2003 series will be held at 11:00 Pacific/12:00 Mountain/1:00 Central/2:00 eastern. The 2007 series will be held at 1:00 pacific/2:00 mountain/3:00 central/4:00 eastern.

You are welcome to email your specific questions prior to each webinar to Laura@TheProductivityPro.com. We look forward to seeing you online!

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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

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Watch this episode and learn why you have sticky notes all over your office.  Figure out what sticky notes are good for and not good for.  What do you do when you think of something you need to do?

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

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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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