Humor in the workplace is a productive thing, according to Psychologist Maren Rawlings from Swinburne University of Technology. In a recent study, Rawlings “found a direct correlation between the climate of good humor in a workplace and employee satisfaction.” Previous research found a link between job satisfaction and productivity, so the logical leap is that humor is good for productivity. Of course this doesn’t mean we can spend our entire days cracking jokes, but it says to me that we can lighten up and laugh a little. Rawlings also noted “If employers take measures to encourage a positive humor climate in the workplace, they are more likely to retain their staff.” Keeping the staff you have rather than experiencing turnover is clearly more productive than re-hiring and training new folks.
Find creative ways to lighten things up around the office. My assistant told me of a place she used to work where the Sales Director hung a punching bag in the doorway to his office so that his sales reps could take out their frustrations on it. The same Sales Director, when sales were dragging, decided that if sales were dragging, it was time to have sales “in drag”…so the reps came to the office the next day in gender-bending outfits. Everyone laughed and had a great time, and my assistant tells me they hit a sales record that month. It is no big secret that when people are enjoying themselves, they can get more done and stay positive about what they are doing. Have some fun at work. It’s allowed, really!
I found this article at BNET.com very interesting.Separating hours on the job from results has been a boost to productivity in many situations.Outside of the service based or retail environments, should our productivity be based on hours spend on the job, or on what is accomplished?Some companies, like Best Buy, have implemented the Results-Only Work Environment or “ROWE,” and finding success. When I chat with audience members after giving a keynote speech, they tell me about coworkers who spend 10-12 hours a day in the office and get nothing done. That’s because being physically in the office has little to do with productivity.Some people can be there ten hours a day and get virtually nothing done, while others can accomplish great amounts of work in just a few hours.Part of the trick to getting a ROWE culture to work is figuring out how to measure results.Some business results are easier to measure than others, such as number of orders processed, or increase in revenue.In a 2006 article in Business Week, Best Buy reported a 13%-18% increase in orders processed by people who worked out of the office most often.Businesses moving towards the ROWE culture are not only reporting increased productivity, but are also reporting lower employee turnover.As companies work to adjust to the “Gen Why” workers and their styles, it will be interesting to see how many companies move towards this. (C) 2008 Laura Stack. www.TheProductivityPro.com
It happens all the time. You just want to get some brief information to someone but when you call you get sucked into a long conversation. Sometimes you don’t WANT the person to answer their phone – you just want to leave a voicemail. It’s nice to catch up, but what if you just need to pass on some information and get to the next task? Well friends, someone has come up with a solution for this problem! Check out www.slydial.com. It lets you just leave a message – simple as that. It is a free service, and they do offer some premium services for a fee. It is well worth checking out.
While on the subject of voice mail - here’s a quick tip. Before making a call, jot down the bullet points you want to cover. This way you have an outline for the call, or if you do get voice mail you have a simple list of what you need to cover. It will save time and help avoid rambling messages.
I’m the Day-Timers community expert on productivity. So I asked them to put a brief survey on the Day-Timers Web site, asking, “When you think of something that you need to do, what do you usually do?” In this day and age of technology, the surprising answer was overwhelmingly “Write it down.” To date, 55% of respondents chose this option over others. This demonstrates that even with Blackberries, Outlook, cell phones and web based to-do lists, we still need and use paper and planners.
Picture this…you’ve dutifully put all of your information, appointments, phone numbers etc. into your Outlook and synced the information with your handy-dandy Blackberry. All is well. You hop on a plane for a business trip, Blackberry in hand. You’ve arrived at the Miami airport and whipped out your electronic device. The problem is, you forgot to charge it and the battery is dead. What is the client’s phone number? What was your hotel confirmation number…and was that appointment at 2:00 pm or 3:00 pm? The beauty of a paper planner is that paper doesn’t crash. Better yet, it’s much easier to jot down a note on a daily to-do list than pull out your handheld, turn it on, click around, and type a note on that tiny keypad with all those little drop-down boxes.A Day-Timer is a tried and true tool that won’t let you down. Try my own line of Productivity Pro® branded Day-Timer for handheld users.Even if you write things down temporarily, you can always enter the data when you’re back at your computer.Much easier than tapping.And it’s much more organized than having little scraps of paper and sticky notes all over the place because it’s too difficult to use your handheld for data entry.
Don’t get me wrong, I think technology is terrific. I use it on a daily basis, but I won’t be caught anytime soon without my Day-Timer. It only takes one crash or glitch to realize how useful paper can be.
People love their Blackberries, no doubt.A recent study confirmed this, according to this article on WCBSTV.com.They may be terrific productivity tools for some, but at what cost?The article by Scott Rapoport states “The study of 6,500 traveling executives says 35 percent of them would choose their PDA over their spouse.”Wait a minute – people would choose a communication device over a loved one?If this is true, where have we gone wrong?
It is important to keep track of your business, be connected to your co-workers, clients and employers.Blackberries certainly have made this easier, particularly for those who don’t spend most of their time in the office.With this easy connectivity, are people losing the ability to know when to turn it off?It would seem that technology is not only helping us be more productive, but is also blurring the lines between work time and off time.Is it really more productive to have one foot in the working world and one foot on the home front at the same time?I’m not so sure…
If we are always “available” via Blackberries, email, cell phones and pagers, are we truly focusing on our loved ones when we are allegedly “off” from work? Can we really let loose and play if we’re always poised to answer the next email or text message?Unless your connection to work means life or death, you CAN and should turn off and tune out when the work day is over. Are we working to live, or living to work?
Would you be more productive by taking a day off each week from emails? Some companies have tried to implement no-email days and have received mixed feedback. This story from ABC News tells of co-workers who discovered that they were across the hall from one another rather than across the country. It takes time to adjust, but taking a break from email can actually boost productivity and enhance your business relationships.
While it may seem quicker to dash off an email, taking the time to pick up the phone to contact a client or walk down the hall to see a co-worker personalizes the contact. In this era of “crackberry” communication, it seems like a rare thing to have actual conversations with people. What would your office be like if everyone took the day off from email and just talked to each other, or picked up the phone to contact clients and vendors? Are we so addicted to electronic communication that it would hinder our ability to do our work, or would it be a welcome break and boost to productivity. Give it a shot and tell me what you find!
There are many terrific blogs on the Web that I enjoy reading. However, it’s easy to waste a lot of time book marking each individual blog in your “favorites,” and then visiting each one individually when you have time to do some reading. It can be even worse if you have numerous email subscriptions clogging up your inbox. When you have more than just a few blogs you like to read, make it easy on yourself and try a free, simple solution like Google Reader.
Google Reader allows you to organize your favorite blogs and read them all in one place. When you subscribe to the RSS feed of a blog, instead of opting to receive emails, select Google Reader as your method of delivery. You can organize your feeds into folders much like your favorites or bookmarks in your browser. That way you can quickly scroll through your subscriptions to see which posts you want to take the time to read. You can also elect to share your favorites with others. I’ve found Google Reader to be a big time saver. Give it a try!
We’ve all been there at some point—you look back on the week or the month—feeling that too much has been left undone. You say to yourself, “Where did the time go?” It’s a common lament. If this sounds like you, it might be useful to try a time log for a week to discover your patterns. Time logs can help uncover wasted time that can be turned into productive time. They can also show you when you tend to be most productive, so you can organize your days to take full advantage of those productive times. You’ll quickly so who is interrupting you the most. You’ll discover your bad habits and see where you let pleasurable activities take over high-priority tasks.
There are numerous logging software tools available for download on the internet. These can be useful for those who spend their entire work day at a desk in front of a computer. If you frequently travel or spend time out of the office, using the old-fashioned pen-and-paper method works well because you can easily slip it into your planner. On my site at http://www.theproductivitypro.com/FreeStuff/Time_Log.doc, you’ll find a simple template with instructions that you can use to log your time. Give it a shot. You might be surprised at what you discover!
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!
Victor Borge, the Danish humorist and musician, was well into a performance when a woman came in late, fighting her way through the rows to her seat near the front. Borge stopped playing and as she proceeded—trampling over people, rustling, and disturbing her way to her seat—he said (much to her chagrin, as all eyes focused on her ill-timed arrival), “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.” After she sat down, he walked over near where she was sitting and said, “Where are you from, Ma’am?” “Fifty-Seventh Street,” she said. “Well, Lady, I’m from Denmark, and I was here on time.”
While Borge might have been trying to get a laugh from his audience, his obvious annoyance speaks to the principle of Preparation in Mark Sanborn’s newest book, The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do, which I’ll discuss in this brief article. In the 16 years I’ve been speaking professionally on the concepts of personal productivity, one of the biggest complaints I hear from leaders who bring me in to speak to their employees on performance is something around “the inability to meet deadlines, always being late, constantly running behind, or being forgetful”—a performance that is hardly remarkable.
People are much more irritated by lateness than you can know or they will admit; it can dampen everything from promotions and raises to friendships. Late people crowd you, physically and mentally. When people show up late, it undoes your schedule and disrupts your day. Showing up late or sending something in late—no matter how well done—still means a black mark against you.
I consider myself blessed to be close friends with Mark and his wife, Darla. Since we only live a few miles apart, our families frequently enjoy spending time together. At a recent 4th of July barbeque at our home, Mark joked with me about the already-cut-up plates of tomatoes, onions, pickles, and lettuce, wrapped in plastic, and waiting in the refrigerator. I joked back, “Why, I’m just following the principle of Preparation from your book!” Does a simple act of slicing burger fixings in advance make for a better barbeque? I think so. Being unprepared would have meant trying to cut everything up while the burgers got cold. I still would have been “on time,” but I’d be half listening to them and missing pieces of conversation while focusing on my task.
This is the source of many people’s lateness, I believe: they are trying to be on time. On page 17 of The Encore Effect, Mark defines average performance as, “the best of the worst and the worst of the best.” He says further, “These performers are the best of the mediocre middle, neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. The problem is that average performance doesn’t get you noticed.” Simply being on time doesn’t get you noticed, because it’s fairly typical. It just doesn’t stand out. It’s okay…it’s just expected…yawn. Don’t be simply “average”! So don’t be on time: be EARLY.
Mark’s principle of Preparation—planning in reverse—speaks to this concept. I had to chuckle at his story of the fishermen on page 61. It reminded me of cutting up tomatoes before the barbeque. Being prepared means you do things EARLY. Not on time. Early. Done in advance. Proactive. Forward looking. With a long-term focus. We’re not talking ridiculously early here, in a way that inconveniences your host when you arrive for a party. It’s a way of thinking, a way of being, a way you frame your behavior.
The process of finding and seizing “The Crucial 5 Percent” (page 64), applies Preparation to people in this way:
1. “Late” people are perpetually behind on everything.
2. “On time” people arrive or finish a minute or two ahead or behind the goal.
3. “Early” people are remarkable and are prepared for everything.
Imagine how life would be if you were always so prepared that you arrived early everywhere, for everything. You would:
• Get the first choice of many things,
• Gain admiration and respect,
• Are able to relax and not sweat,
• Get good press and publicity, and
• Have a bit time to relax, read, or return a call.
My point is that you can never really be on time…just barely on one side or the other…so you’re never totally trusted, no matter how skilled you are. Being early makes you look remarkable and demonstrates to others you can be depended upon. Being late, however, makes people wonder if you’ll be on time next time.
Mark distinguishes between “routine” and “remarkable” on page 18. I couldn’t agree more and would frame it in this manner:
• Routine “on time” people communicate through their actions, “I might not make the next deadline.” “I’m barely in control.” “I’m not looking beyond the moment.”
• Remarkable “early” people communicate through their actions, “I don’t need deadlines.” “I’m in complete control.” “I look ahead.”
(We won’t discuss late people, since that belabors the obvious.) In trying to be early, don’t go out and simply set your watch five minutes fast to try to fool yourself, because psychologically, you know it is five minutes fast, and make up for it anyway. Keep your clocks on the correct time. Preparation is all about planning. Instead of thinking, “I have to be there at 9:00 AM,” think, “I will plan on arriving at 8:45.” Then work backward. How long should it take you to get there? Add a buffer in case there’s traffic. What time would that require you to drop off the kids at daycare? What time would you have to get them up in order to make that happen? What time do you have to get up to make that happen? And what will you do if you arrive even earlier than 8:45? Be prepared to pay bills, make calls, read a report, or write thank-you notes.
Before you close shop for the day, ask yourself, “What’s coming up next week?” “What can I get out of the way now?” Before you retire for the night, go over the next day. Know exactly where you need to be, what you need to have with you, and have everything laid out. Have clothes selected, school papers signed, lunches made, briefcase packed, and schedule outlined. As Mark says on page 58, “The future we experience depends on the preparations we make today.”
By preparing in this way, you enable yourself to be early. Soon, you won’t have “deadlines,” because they will be unnecessary. Deadlines eliminate all the job of accomplishment as you work for the deadline, not the completion of a project or task. Deadlines were made for people who would not get things done without one. You, on the other hand, are prepared, a remarkable performer, deserving of an Encore performance.
