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

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.

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

Keynote speaker, productivity trainer, author, spokesperson

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!

© 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.

Today I feature an article by guest columnist Rosa Say and her blog Managing With Aloha Coaching.  If you enjoy the article below, I suggest you subscribe to her blog.

If I am hard pressed to recommend one and only one tool as THE most essential one in every manager’s tool kit, there is no question for me what it will be.

It is the very first tool I teach new supervisors (and any struggling manager) to use;
No matter the industry they are in.
No matter the country they are in.

Whether they are new to their positions or seasoned pros.
Whether they have just one employee or thousands.

Whenever it is calm, and they are caught up.
Whenever it is frenetic and crazy, and they can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel.

Pretty much no matter what the circumstances are.
And get this – even more than my beloved Daily 5 Minutes®.

The One Tool that every manager must work with, and work with daily, is this:
A simple list kept easily and best with pencil and an 8×10 sheet of paper folded into three columns.

This is not just any list, but a very special one.

It is the list that will endear every manager to every employee, every boss, every supplier or vendor partner, and every customer.

It is the list that can single-handedly reinvent a manager’s reputation, as it simultaneously functions as that manager’s best training and coaching architect.

At the top of this list is its name, and right beneath that, as the headings of its three columns, are all the instructions managers will need.

This magic manager’s list is called, THE FOLLOW-UP I NEED TO COMPLETE.

Those headings of its three columns are,

1. What I must Do to Honor my Word
2. Who I need to Follow-up with, and By When
3. Why it is so Important to Them, and thus, to Me.

When management is a calling (as it should only be) managers work more for other people than they do for themselves. The work they do for others IS the work they do for themselves, for when they elevate the human condition, improving it as it aches to be improved, they are most fulfilled in the work they are most needed for, discovering that being a manager can be the most satisfying and rewarding work that exists.

When employees cry out to me that their managers “don’t know what they are doing,”
or “are never around when we need them”
or “are too poorly trained; it’s like we have a revolving door of management trainees here”
or “don’t really care about us”
or “always seem to be working on the wrong things at the wrong times”
or “said they’d take care of it, but we all know what that means”
… the complaining and whining goes on and on… nine times out of ten I will discover that the manager they are referring to has lost all credibility due to a horrible lack of follow-through. They may start with the best of intentions in very sincere conversations, but they have no reliable system for finishing well, and they are not held accountable.

On the other hand, the managers with exceptional follow-through are referred to as “the great ones.”

A key point is that great managers don’t necessarily do all the work and tasks involved; what they do is orchestrate them well, and they keep work flowing, moving all road-blocks out of the way, human and otherwise. They work to remove any obstacles or adversity (or excuses and yeah-buts) and they communicate to everyone involved about status and progress consistently and reliably.

If you are a manager, is that what you do?

Let’s talk a bit more about those three columns;

1. What I must Do to Honor my Word

This column is described this way because a conversation with someone is likely to be what will trigger the entry you are making. What did you agree to follow-up on? This column will teach managers to “eat an elephant one bite at a time.” A common reason good intentions will fall apart is because we’ll make promises that are way, way too big for us to keep. Using this list over time, managers learn to work from conversation to next conversation and tear issues, problems, and projects into doable baby steps. Then the following column becomes a simple status-check conversation of “Here’s where we are now, what should we work on as our next steps, and how much time will that need?”

2. Who I need to Follow-up with, and By When

This may seem obvious, but in my investigations of trip-ups that have occurred, I am amazed at how many times a manager did follow up, but never reported back to the person they’d made their commitment to. Their reputation and credibility has gotten marred by a bad assumption that “the results will speak for themselves.” Well, not really, and not always. In fact, the norm is that they seldom do. This column also helps cure avoidance behavior; if you didn’t get something done yet, just honestly say so and make a new agreement. Don’t just hope the other person will forget about it; trust me, they probably won’t, and the next column helps you understand why.

3. Why it is so Important to Them, and thus, to Me

This column is a teacher called “Empathy Practice,” one whom all managers need to spend more time with. For us to help people best, we need to see a problem or issue in the way that they see it, and since we can’t usually “walk a day in [their] shoes” the best way to understand their point of view is to key in on why an issue is important to them. I coach managers to work with people without robbing others of the engagement, satisfaction, and growth of doing their work for them – the mantra we speak of is “Do with, not for.” There is a balance to be achieved, that this column helps us understand one person at a time.

Management is a situational art. Coaches like me try to help with certain things, and we can provide tools and tips that shorten the learning curve, however a manager’s best teachers, bar none, are their employees and the other people they work with and are committed to. This is the same reason The Daily Five Minutes® works so well: All you need to know about you can find out from the people you work with side by side, day in and day out.

Managers get trained on the job in the flow of the work they are responsible for. When they follow-through consistently, they excel because they deliver well; they exceed expectations. Their word is believed and trusted.

So take this from me; the 1 best list that every manager must work with says THE FOLLOW-UP I NEED TO COMPLETE at the top, and has those three columns. What they write on it, and how consistently they work through it day by day will determine that manager’s success. Just ask their employees.

11. Keep your calendar up to date.  It’s frustrating when your colleagues are trying to set up appointments, and it appears that you’re open, so they send out a meeting request to a large group.  You respond, “Sorry, I have a conflict on that day/time,” to which they respond by banging their heads on the desk in frustration, asking, “Then WHY didn’t you have it on your calendar?”  Truly, if an organization is going to predictably use shared calendaring to coordinate meetings, you must keep yours current.  It’s fine to use a traditional paper method as well, but if you schedule something on your “other” calendar, make sure to update your electronic one at regular intervals as well.

12. Include travel time in a single appointment and put the actual meeting time in the subject.  If your meeting starts at 11:30, but it’s going to take you thirty minutes to drive there and fifteen minutes to get out of the building to your car, block out your calendar starting at 11:00 (so others can’t schedule with you).  Then write @11:30 in the subject line, so you know the actual meeting time.

13. Do not accept a meeting invitation if the requestor can’t state in one sentence the exact reason you are meeting.  For example:
- To inform our department of changes in the holiday pay policy.
- To sell management on our division’s plan to automate payroll processing.
- To brainstorm the best way to resolve the association’s budget deficit.
- To determine realistic sales goals for each region for next year.
- To discuss the critical skills required for successful performance as a first level supervisor.

14. Send lengthy reading materials at least 48 hours in advance.  Participants express frustration with wasting time in meetings reviewing materials that were just handed out.  They don’t have adequate time to digest the information and formulate questions.  They could have reviewed that document while waiting in the doctor’s office yesterday.  Don’t waste everyone’s time by forcing them to sit there and read together like kindergarteners—their time is much too expensive.

15. If updating a meeting already scheduled, send an update to the existing appointment.  If you have already set up a meeting and invited participants, sending an email about the meeting forces them to either copy and paste the additional information into the meeting or have two meeting blocks for the same event side by side on their calendars, forcing them to open two items to get complete information.  If you need to add information, send out a meeting update.  To contact meeting attendees with a reminder or other message, open the original meeting request, click the Actions menu, and select “New Message to Attendees.” 

16. Avoid meeting request responses.  If you’re sending a meeting request to a large group and don’t need or want responses, in the open new meeting request, on the Actions menu, uncheck the line Request Responses.  To make this the default.  Tools, Options, E-mail Options, Tracking Options, “Delete blank voting and meeting responses after processing.”  Or create a Rule (under Tools, Rules and Alerts, start from a blank rule) to automatically delete messages responses with certain words in the subject line.

17. Schedule time for preparation and action.  Depending on your level of involvement in the meeting, you need time to get ready.  You might need to start your preparation days before if you need to create a report or give a presentation.  When you accept a meeting, immediately go into your calendar and block off at least 15 additional minutes separately for prep time, a bio break, refreshing beverages, and transfer time—and add more as necessary for mental preparation and review.  Don’t walk into the meeting “cold.”  In the same way, block out time at the conclusion of the meeting to review action items, activate them into your time management system if you can’t complete them right then, and get organized.

18. End meetings before the top or bottom of the hour.  If you’re the one scheduling the meeting, don’t use the standard Outlook settings of hour or half hour blocks.  If one meeting is from 1:00 to 2:00, immediately followed by another from 2:00 to 3:00, you will by default be late to your 2:00.  So use either :15 or :45 start and end times, to allow transition time.

19. Limit attendees. Think through who really needs to be there.  Don’t worry about “hurting someone’s feelings” if they aren’t included.  If you simply want to keep a stakeholder or player in the loop, select them as “optional,” instead of “required.”  Always assume that higher-ups have things to do that are much better uses of their time than sitting in your meeting.  Think about how much money people are paid, and ask if your meeting is worth an hour of their pay PLUS what they otherwise could have been doing if they weren’t stuck in your meeting.  Only invite people if they have a direct contribution to make to the meeting objective, and the desired decisions would not be able to be made without them.  If their presence is only required for ten minutes, give them the first ten minutes, and then allow them to graciously depart.  Keeping others who aren’t invited informed can be done with a quick email summary or inclusion on the distribution list of any meeting notes or minutes.

20. Confirm everything.  I’ve often shown up for a meeting and the other person “forgot.” You’d like to think adults are all responsible and will do what they say they will do, but it’s always better to dash off a quick email.  “Looking forward to seeing you on (date) at (time) at (location).  Let me know if something comes up.”  I don’t make people confirm that things are correct; I ask them to let me know if there is a change.  Also make sure you get directions and map it out well in advance of trying to run out the door.  I look at my calendar for the next day before I leave work and make sure I’m ready to roll on everything.

Numbers 1-10 of 30 scheduling tips:

1. Determine if you really need to meet in person.  How many times have you attended a meeting and asked yourself, “Why am I here?”  Hopefully, you’ve started protecting your time from every person who wants a piece of it.  If my clients want to meet in person, I charge a consulting fee.  For telephone calls, no charge.  Ninety percent of the time, a conference call will suffice.  Extra travel time and expenses are involved when meeting in person, so avoid it unless dialogue and brainstorming are required.

2. Have meeting requests and responses go to your delegate, not to you.  Don’t wade through all the responses; that’s why you have an assistant (if you do).  Under Tools, Options, Delegates, select “Send meeting requests and responses only to my delegates, not to me.”  Brilliant.

3. Create a private calendar to post appointments you don’t want others to see.  We are all used to email folders, where we file email.  Most people, however, have never created a calendar folder.  A calendar folder IS a new calendar.  To create one, follow the same drill for creating an email folder (right-click on the Calendar in the folder list and select New Folder).  However, make sure the folder contains “Calendar Items” in the drop-down box.  Give your new calendar a name such as “Kids Summer Schedule” or “Laura’s personal calendar.”  I kept track of my kids summer activities in one, so my husband would know where his schedule was impacted for driving duty.

4. Check your appointments as Private when you don’t want others to read the text.  Yes, you can!  The Private box is a little, tiny box in the bottom right-hand side of your screen (Outlook 2003) when you create a new appointment.  People who share your calendar will still see a block and that you’re unavailable, but they can’t read the appointment text. 

5. Use the Category box to indicate the project, team, or committee.  Every time you schedule an appointment or accept a meeting invitation, indicate what project it’s related to in the Category box.  Use the Master Category List to add your labels.  “Tag” each appointment with one or multiple categories.  Then under the View menu, select Arrange by, Current View, By Category.  Then you can see all meetings, past and present, you had with a certain group, person, project, committee, etc.

6. Can’t find an upcoming meeting with someone you know you scheduled?  Tired of searching your calendar manually to find it?  Instead, get into the habits of using the Contacts box at the bottom left of each appointment, to indicate whom you’re meeting with (can be multiple people).  To find all upcoming meetings with a particular person, go to that Contact’s address card, select the Activities tab, and in the drop-down box, select Upcoming Tasks/Appointments. The people must be loaded in your personal Contacts list (not just your company’s global address book) for this to work.  If a meeting invitation is used, this feature is automatic, and you don’t need to select the names. 

7. As a courtesy to your coworkers, send a meeting invitation instead of an email when you’d like to connect.  Rather than emailing colleagues and asking, “What’s your schedule today?  Can we get together for 30 minutes?” take a minute to schedule a meeting invitation.  While in your Calendar, select Actions, New Meeting Request, Scheduling Tab, Add Others, Add from Address Book, and select attendees.  Check their availability on the calendar (this assumes you’ve been granted access to their calendars) and find an open time (or select AutoPick to let Outlook find the next available date/time).  Send the meeting request.  When invitees receive it, they can simply click Accept, and Outlook moves the appointment to their calendars for them.  This saves the recipient time and also saves you from trying to coordinate multiple calendars manually.

8. If someone does send an email wanting to meet, convert it into an appointment.  If your colleagues don’t understand the meeting feature and insist on sending emails for appointments, you can quickly turn an email into a Calendar item.  Right-click on the email, select Move to Folder, and then Calendar.  A new appointment window automatically opens, containing your email and any attachments.  Fill in the date, time, and details, and then Save and Close.  The message is moved from the Inbox into the Calendar automatically.  No more manual copying and pasting!

9. Use labels to quickly “see” the layout of your schedule for the day.  Right-click on any appointment in your calendar.  Select Label.  Select Edit Labels.  Change the text to display the colors as you’d like.  Pick colors consistently with your team (travel, multiple locations, training, personal, vacation, meeting, video conference, etc.) so you can quickly see where team members are working and what they’re doing.

10. Block out time to work.  Sometimes you might want to actually schedule an appointment to WORK.  To protect your time from others, schedule a Task on your Calendar (Outlook 2003).  With the Task Pad view in the Calendar showing, click on a Task you’d like to complete.  Hold the left mouse key down while you drag it to your calendar and release.  An Appointment window will pop up, automatically inserting the task into the text portion of the appointment item.  Fill in the time you want to work on the task on your calendar.  Change the Show Time as field to Tentative, if desired.  Save and close.  The task will still be kept in your Task Pad, but now you’ve blocked out time on your calendar to work on it.  NOTE: Do NOT put things you need to DO on your Calendar (that’s what Tasks are for), because if you don’t complete it, you’ll have to move it manually (not so with Tasks).

© 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.

I’ve worked full-time from my home since 1992 and can’t imagine doing it any other way. Whether you work full time out of your home, occasionally telecommute, catch up on work in the evening, or run a household, you need some sort of dedicated “office” space in your home. Offices can serve as the family computer center, a place to do paperwork, and the occasional work-at-home office.

The first big question is where to locate your home office. Until the last few years, most builders didn’t catch on to the popularity of a built-in home office. If you have a computer, you probably need more than an antique writing desk in the living room. But if you only use your “office” to pay bills, write letters, and return phone calls, you can get away with a corner of the kitchen.

In most homes, extra space is difficult to come by, so you’ll need to get creative. I’ve seen people attempt to use a hallway, part of a bedroom, and even a closet. However, it’s difficult to work while children are running around you, you see your bed and think about napping, or when it’s too cramped. So I’ve always commandeered the “formal” dining room or living room—no one ever used it anyway—so it’s wasted space. Or perhaps you can steal the guest room.

Set yourself up for success. If you are going to be working from your home full-time, use this checklist to ensure you’re set up for success and maximum productivity:
• Where will you set up your home office?
• How will you modify the space to meet your needs?
• Can you lock the door? Can you lock the windows?
• Do you have sufficient lighting for that area?
• What office supplies you will need?
• Where are the electrical sockets located? Will you need additional power sources?
• Do you have enough storage space, such as a file cabinet, bookcases, credenza, closets, etc.?
• Where you will store back-up disks? Is the storage area safe from fire, flooding, etc.?
• If your home office is in the basement, and if the basement tends to get damp, do you have a de-humidifier?
• Do you have a personal computer that you already use at home? Will you need different software or upgrade the RAM? Will others need to stop using it for personal purposes?
• Do you have sufficient office equipment for your home office?
• Do you have a desk? Is it large enough to do office work?
• Do you need to have a modem installed on your home computer?
• Are there sufficient phone jacks in the area you’ve designated for your home office?
• Do you need a separate fax line, Internet line, and business line?
• Do you have voice mail or an answering machine?
• Do you have a smoke detector in your home office area?
• Do you have a fire extinguisher located hear your home office?

Regardless of whether you work full-time from home or a few times each month, your home office has some common requirements:

Furniture and storage
• A professional office desk and worktable
• Sturdy filing cabinets and drawer space for files. Invest in quality pieces that won’t fall apart.
• An ergonomically correct chair
• Bookcases or shelves to hold binders, trays, phone books, and reference manuals
• Stackable storage units that maximize your space vertically
• Large garbage can
• Supply caddy/accessories
• Stackable trays for “in” and “out” boxes
• A large, standing document sorter with slots for envelopes, fax paper, letterhead, etc., that fits under your desk for easy access.

Computer and peripherals
• A computer with lots of RAM, a large hard drive, and a DVD burner
• External back-up system (like www.godaddy.com or an external drive)
• DSL or cable or satellite Internet connection (no dial-up)
• High-security remote access to your offsite office computer (like www.GoToMyPC.com)
• USB hub such as Linksys 2.0, which has seven easy access ports to plug in your keyboard, iPod, PDA docking station, digital camera, USB flash drive, etc.

Software
• Spam filter, such as www.mcaffe.com
• Internet security and virus protection, such as www.norton.com
• Integrated contact management, such as ACT (my favorite) or Goldmine
• Fax within the computer, such as WinFax Pro
• Postage, such as www.stamps.com, Pitney Bowes Postage Meters, or www.dhl.com
• Accounting, such as QuickBooks Pro for business or Quicken for home only
• Email software, such as Microsoft Outlook
• Calendar, such as Microsoft Outlook, or a paper planner, such as www.daytimer.com/laurastack

Other technology and equipment for people who work at home
• A separate business phone line and fax line if you conduct business from home so your clients don’t get voice mail saying, “You’ve reached the Smith residence.”
• Wireless headset (I use GN Netcom plus receiver lift)
• Cell phone and PDA, which can be separate, but optimally a SmartPhone, which includes PDA and email access
• Pager or text pager (only if you’re required to carry one)
• High-quality laser printer, copy machine, and scanner (separately or all-in-one)
• Telephone with voice mail

Who knows…setting up a clean, organized, productive office space at home might allow you to consider more work-at-home or other home-based business opportunities.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  All rights reserved.  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. 

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These days, most of us use handheld technology in all aspects of our daily lives, blurring the boundaries between work and home. Has this made you feel more overworked and less energized? If so, you need to learn how to break free from technology, turn it off regularly, stop letting it control you, and unplug in ways that boost your energy. Let’s chat about your electronic habits, and about how to regain control.

1. Plan your screen time and stick to it. It’s unnatural to focus on a computer or TV screen for hours on end instead of interacting with people. Yet this is precisely what most people do — and the subsequent feelings of social isolation and depression can be quite damaging to your energy level.

2. Put your life first. Don’t let technology eat up your free time; technology exists to simplify your life, not to complicate it. It’s up to you to keep it in check. A good start is to turn off all electronics an hour before bedtime.

3. Keep your electronic in-box empty. Slash through the electronic detritus to maximize your efficiency, and therefore your energy level. If you let your voicemail and email inboxes get overcrowded, important communications might fell through the cracks, straining a friend’s or client’s trust in you.

4. Get your computer organized. Too much computer clutter can drain your energy just by forcing you to hunt for things that should be easy to find. Delete old files, reorganize folders, and give files names that make their contents obvious at a glance.

5. Turn off your technology when you’re on personal time. You can’t recharge your personal energies if you’re always working. Once the workday is over, make yourself electronically scarce.

6. Avoid Obsessive Compulsive Technology Disorder. You don’t need to check your email constantly. Doing so is forces your brain to start/stop/start/stop constantly, which requires a huge amount of mental energy. Instead, turn off the technological distractions so you can get work done.

7. Just say no to instant messaging.  Instant messaging is a great way to stay in contact, but too much of it steals time and energy you need for other work. Don’t be afraid to turn on the “DO NOT DISTURB” feature when you want to focus on a task that requires your complete concentration.

8. Match the message to the medium. Use the right means of communication for a particular message. Sometimes email is the most efficient way to communicate with a particular person; sometimes it’s better to pick up the phone.

Electronic devices are supposed to make your life easier, not more stressful. If they’ve begun to dominate your life — including your time off — step back and decide whether all that stress is worth the reward. It may be time to shed some of that technology, or at least to put it back in its place.

© 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.

While working with Teresa Gavigan, one of my clients, on her office organization, we talked about the challenge she was having with an overly booked calendar and what to do about it.  She had recently taken over another entire division and was splitting her time between the two groups, which were in two different buildings.  She had ceded her calendar over to her assistant but hadn’t set any boundaries around what meetings to accept and what to decline.  Her assistant was accepting meetings tentatively, which resulted in Teresa often being double and triple booked.  She told me she frequently felt like she was “having a Lucy Ricardo moment” as she dashed over to one meeting, then over to the next, then back to the other, never wanting to let one or the other down. 

After months of running around harried, she decided that was enough, she was the boss, and she didn’t have to be everywhere and be available at everyone’s beck and call.  She decided to reduce the number of meetings she attended by delegating attendance at some and declining others.  She scheduled a regular staff meeting every other week with one group not to exceed one hour and a monthly conference call with the second.  To make up for the reduced group meeting time, she schedules monthly meeting with each of her direct reports to discuss planning items.  All staff members can email or phone her with more immediate concerns.  Additionally, she has a 30-minute “innovation” meeting once a month to discuss a specific topic of future interest to the organization that everyone comes prepared to discuss.  With the boundaries she’s placed on her schedule, the regularly scheduled staff meetings and individual meetings, she feels much more in control and less like a “Lucy.”  What have you done to regain control of your availability?

No matter how technologically savvy we become, we can’t seem to eliminate paper. In fact, studies estimate that we generate up to ten times more paper than we did before the advent of the computer! How much of that paper is sitting in stacks on multiple surfaces all over your home and office?  To tame those mountains of paper, try throwing these ideas at them.

1. Consistently purge your files without fear. Before you embark on an overhaul of your filing systems, purge all the old junk first. Why spend time dealing with paper you’re just going to toss anyway?

2. Create and maintain a filing system that allows you to find papers easily. If you can’t find a particular piece of paperwork when you need it, it might as well not exist. Pick a logical filing scheme and follow it religiously.

3. Follow a daily processing system for staying on top of mail and paperwork. Keep track of your incoming mail and other paperwork every day, and use the 6-D system to deal with it: discard, do, delegate, date, drawer, or deter.

4. Handle bills in a timely fashion and keep up with bookkeeping. Limit the number of credit cards and checking accounts you have, and learn to file everything effectively so you know when bills are due. Online payments can help.

5. Know where you put every piece of paper you receive. Keep different types of paperwork in separate files, and think before you put something into a file: is it really worth my time and effort? For example, most store coupons aren’t.

6. Handle phone calls and voice mail productively. Avoid phone tag, which does little but add to your daily paper deluge. Answering the phone when it rings can be much more effective. Also, start a phone log to keep track of who you’ve called and who’s called you.

7. Use technology to reduce paper and complete tasks quickly. Utilize computers and related devices to automate what would ordinarily be paper-based tasks: e.g., holiday lists, contact management, word processing, and mass-mailings.

8. Keep important papers up to date and easy to locate. It’s especially important to keep track of insurance, medical documents, and wills, and to keep them current at all times. Make a list of all your passwords and bank account numbers too, and make sure your loved ones know where to find that list.

9. Use a calendar system to track family members’ schedules. Use ONE calendar that contains ALL your personal, family, and work commitments, so you can track and sync other people’s schedules with your own.

10. Organize and keep up with my reading. If you’ve got too little time to keep up with your reading, cut back on your commitments, and try listening to audio books. Even better, ditch the stuff that’s so dull it puts you to sleep.

It pays to spend a little time every day making your bill paying, filing, reading, tracking, and scheduling more manageable. If you don’t get control of the paper monster, it’ll get control of you. If that happens, you’re likely to find yourself drowning in a sea of paper — not exactly the most dignified way to go!

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author 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 company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  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, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com.