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

It’s only logical that the healthier you are, the more productive you can be.  Think about it – the last time you were ill, how much work did you really get done?  It is so easy today to neglect ourselves because we are “too busy” or “too tired.”  We’re coming up on that busy holiday time of the year where everyone seems harried and has too much to do.  The holiday season doesn’t have to be a drain.  Now is the time to take steps to keep yourself healthy!

1. Get enough sleep!  I know, easier said than done – but it is important!

2. Get your flu shot.  No, it isn’t fun, but neither is the flu. 

3. Don’t neglect your exercise routine.  It is easy during the holiday season to skip over your regular workouts.  Try to stick to your routine, and you’ll feel better!

4. Treat yourself but don’t overindulge.  It’s not easy to say no to pumpkin pie and mom’s specialty side-dishes.  Have some (it’s okay)…in moderation.

5. Say “No.”  There are invitations galore, requests for assistance, volunteer time and all sorts of demands on your time time during the holidays.  Do the things that give you joy and help your community, but again…in moderation.  Don’t neglect yourself and your family for the sake of something “good.”

You can keep up your energy levels throughout the holidays and not end up in burnout on January 1st!  If you haven’t yet, check out my latest book, The Exhaustion Cure.  You’ll find all sorts of ideas on how to stay healthy and energetic!

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

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!

Times are uncertain. The news programs and websites are all gloom and doom, full of distractions with the financial “crisis” and the upcoming elections. How do we stay productive when Chicken Little is screaming “the sky is falling”? Turn it all off, at least for a while.  Stay off the news websites during the work day. Schedule yourself for some time to read up on the candidates, ballot issues and news that is important to you, but outside of that, turn it off. Keeping the TV on and constantly being on news websites is information overload that creates undue stress. What’s going to happen is going to happen and you watching it unfold on CNN is not going to change anything. What we CAN do to help is to stay productive so that our businesses and households are as healthy as they can be. “But, there are things in the news I want to read/see,” you say? Then create a Google alert at www.google.com to search for for news, articles and blogs on the topics you choose sent straight to your inbox. That way you avoid the clutter on the front page of MSNBC or CNN which can distract you from the tasks at hand. I’m not saying it is not important to remain informed about what’s happening in the country and the world. We just need to control the time we spend on news and television. Our productivity boosts when we are healthy and not over-stressed about things we cannot control. So, skip the news tonight and go for a walk with a loved one.

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

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

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?

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

Stop Trying to Be on Time!

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.

Stop being on time!
© 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). Subscribe to her free productivity newsletter at www.TheProductivityPro.com.

Do productive people always have their dream jobs?  No.  Are you more productive when you enjoy what you’re doing and are happy in your work?  Yes. 

So do you find your work fulfilling?  Or are you just going through the motions to pay the bills?  What if you’re in a job that is a springboard to the next one?  That’s fine.  There’s a difference between everyday annoyances and unsettling, deep malcontent.  Life’s too short to keep a job that makes your stomach hurt.  As they say, do what you love, and the money will follow. 

How do you know if you’re in your dream job?
• Make a list of your dreams.  You may have only one; you may have several.  Some may be really big.  Some may be small.  “I want to make jewelry and sell it online.”  “I want to be a meteorologist.”  “I want to start my own pension consulting business.”
• Make a list of your passions.  What do you love?  Singing?  Playing guitar?  Photography?  Is there a dream job in there somewhere?
• Make a list of your core values.  Is it important to you to have ample time to enjoy life?  Is it important to you to be helping others through your work, no matter how many hours of the week it takes??
• Make a list of what you’re naturally good at and love to do.  Teaching people how to play tennis?  Working with animals?  De-cluttering homes and offices?  Cooking French cuisine?  Is there a dream job in there somewhere? 

Now why don’t you do it?  Perhaps you’re afraid you won’t make any money.  Perhaps you’re afraid to leave a high-paying job in search of a more fulfilling one.  Perhaps you’re afraid you’ll fail.  Whatever the reason, fear is a really energy drain.  It will paralyze you, lock you up, and keep you in the status quo.  If you are to find your purpose and experience the flow, you will have to muster the courage to fight it off.

Happiness is not all about money.  You could have a BMW, a home with 4 bathrooms, your kids attend the best schools that money can buy, and your wife looks like a supermodel.  But perhaps you’re still unhappy, and you can’t figure out why.

As Stuart Goldsmith says in his book The Seven Secrets of Success, “Becoming wealthy has little to do with buying a bunch of silly toys.  You have to be a very sad individual if this is the limit of your imagination.  How much champagne can you drink?  How many Rolexes do you need?  How big a wardrobe of clothes will satisfy you? This is all junk.  They are toys—harmless baubles to amuse us for five minutes.  Attaining these toys is not the purpose of a noble life.” He adds, “. . . Happiness comes from leading a worthwhile life and producing something of quality and value.  Sitting around in a mansion and staring at your Porsche will not make you happy.” 

It’s quite normal and understandable for people to want a lot of money.  Having a lot of money, especially in a capitalistic society, is equivalent to having plenty.  This is an instinctive, evolutionary drive.  Of course you don’t want to have to walk 20 miles with your Neanderthal club in hand to find a food source.  But in a capitalistic society such as ours that’s brimming with shiny things, this perfectly reasonable drive morphs into greed.  And before you know it, we equate money and things with happiness.     

But it’s not money in and of itself that makes us happy.  It’s the freedom that money provides that opens a big, wide door to the land of happiness.  In other words, if we’re not living hand to mouth, we have the time to pursue what we truly love—whether that’s writing a novel, volunteering full-time for a homeless shelter, or having time to watch the sun set every single evening. 

How much did you spend on your most recently acquired boast-worthy possession?  What if you were to that same amount of money and donate it to a charity that feeds the hungry?  Can you picture the poverty-stricken child whose face lights up when she receives a week’s worth of hot meals?  Which brings you more happiness, the possession, or the child with a full stomach? 

How do you like to make the world a better place?  Helping people overcome illness?  Working with the mentally handicapped?  Teaching people how to exercise? 

If I looked at the way you spend your time, would I be able to tell what’s important in your life?  The majority of people spend far too much time working and not enough time with their loved ones.  Then they arrive home and have no energy left to devote to their spouse or children.  They take the day’s problems out on the people they love—the entire reason they’re working in the first place.  You say your family is important to you.  Can people tell you value them by the way you spend your time?  You say your significant other is the most important thing in the world.  How much time have you spent spending time with them versus spending time working?  You say your spirituality is important, but how much time do you spend praying, reading, meditating, attending services, volunteering, or whatever reflects your beliefs?  Is it merely an outside facade?  Say and do the same thing.  Be congruent.  Or just stop saying it and be yourself.  To be in alignment with your values, what you say and what you do should be the same.

Bottom line: Adjust your career and your life balance so your time reflects what matters to you most.  Put some metrics on your priorities.  Companies measure their results, and you should measure yours.  Spending time with my family is my greatest pleasure in life.  Work is just my hobby.  I only want to be out of town five nights per month.  I want to eat dinner at home 25 days per month.  I want to take six weeks of vacation each year.  I work no more than 45 hours per week, although I could easily work 100.  Keeping track of my behavior each month makes me accountable; I know immediately whether my schedule is meshing with my priorities and my values.  These figures are in front of me as a constant reminder of what I’m trying to accomplish with my life. 

Assess how you’re spending your time.  What are you doing with it?  Watching TV?  Flipping through magazines?  What would you rather be doing?  What are your metrics going to be?  What do you want your epitaph to say?  “He had a well-mowed lawn.”  “There wasn’t one speck of dust in her house.”  “His Porsche was really shiny.” 

Do.  Don’t dream.
© 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.

It’s back to school time!  With three kids in elementary and middle school, this is a New Year of sorts for parents.  Here are some tips to help you stay sane and productive:

Back-to-the-Future. The first step in moving forward with back-to-school resolutions is to take a look back. What were the situations from the previous school year that could use improvement? Did your child often miss the bus? Did they have a hard time making the honor roll or even passing grades? Was everyone too busy to sit down for dinner together? Once you figure out what areas need improvement, it will help set goals for the upcoming year.

Talk to your children. Whether your school-age children are in elementary school or high school, talk to them about areas they would like to see change, both personally and within the family. Their insight into what areas need improvement may differ from their parents.  Discussing the differing goals will help to bring every person in the family on the same page.  Buy-in on goals from all members of the family encourages success.

Small steps. Having a student go from straight C’s to straight A’s may be asking too much. The same is true for wanting to have a family who never eats dinner together suddenly sit down at the table five nights a week. Success comes from breaking each resolution into small but achievable steps. Set up weekly goals for each person in the family in order to overcome barriers and create small achievements. Adding steps each week will insure a slow incremental achievement of the main goal.

Make a plan. Assess each resolution and make a list of what changes need to come in to play to have a successful outcome. A child who has not been known for good grades may need to have a tutor. In order to help avoid detention for being tardy, have a back-up plan for your student to take responsibility for making their lunch and setting out their clothing the night before. Move dinner back to 6:30 instead of 5:30 to make sure everyone is able to be there. Having a list of solutions for the resolutions gives everyone a roadmap about how they will reach success.

Coordinate. One of the main challenges with having family resolutions is time. While one parent is working late, another may be taking one of the kids to soccer practice, while the oldest child is at band rehearsal. Posting a calendar with weekly schedules for each person in the household will help everyone keep track of everyone else. This can help the children to know that the parents have early meetings on certain days; so being on time to the bus is a necessity. And parents can keep track of when and where the children’s extracurricular activities are taking place. It is also beneficial to provide each person in the family with a DayTimer planner. This will help keep the kids responsible for their own time and keep everyone organized.

Smile.  Stay light-hearted about the changes.  You can always start over at anytime.  And don’t forget, there’s another chance to create resolutions coming right around the corner.

© 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 we have a treat: a guest post by my colleague and fellow productivity blogger Mike St. Pierre.  He writes an excellent blog called The Daily Saint.  I highly recommend you check it out and subscribe to his feed.

All teachers can relate to THE FINAL WEEK.  It’s that week when your seniors graduate and then some.  There is usually a parents reception, Baccalaureate celebration and often a sports banquet- all of which occur at night. 

So how do you balance this with seeing the little ones at home or that spouse that misses you?

1. Practice the two night rule.  I discovered years ago that when I am away from my family for two straight evening commitments, I wouldn’t see my kids for nearly three days.  This is difficult because it puts a lot of pressure on my wife and of course the munchkins are climbing the walls.  The two night rule says that you won’t attend two evening commitments in a row on any given week. 
2. No surprises. Most spouses don’t like “calendar surprises” so read #3.
3. Review calendar the week before.  Sitting down with your significant other to discuss the calendar is always a good idea.  Review your meetings and any special events that will pop up.
4. Only attend what you must.  Are you a person that thinks you have to go to everything?  If you are the CEO, you might be right but for the other 99.9% of us, it’s worth stepping back and reflecting on commitments.  You could either not attend an evening commitment or you could trim it back by doing a “pop in”.  I work in a school and it’s impossible to go to every sports event so I check out a quarter or two and show my face. It’s putting forth a good faith effort and everyone appreciates it.
5. Decide to live closer to work.  I realize that this isn’t possible for everyone but it does make a huge difference.  You’ll feel closer to loved ones and at the end of the event it makes a big difference to say on the phone, “Be home in ten minutes,” as opposed to “Pray for me in my hour of traffic”.
6. If all else fails, reward yourself.  If you have a week where you absolutely must attend several grueling evening commitments, pamper yourself with a scheduled personal day.  Better yet, take your family away for a weekend of fun in the sun.  Having the carrot at the end of the stick is a great way to tolerate a killer week.

Look around you, at work and home. Do you feel overjoyed or annoyed? Your environment affects your moods, attitudes, emotions, and energy level. What things sap your energy? You need to figure out ways to reduce, eliminate, or change your environment, so that it lifts you up rather than brings you down. These tidbits might help.

1. Clear the clutter. This requires effort and can be time-consuming, but the real reason people dread clearing clutter is emotional attachment — and because you no idea how to organize what you keep. Focus first on the areas of the home that are most important to your health and vitality, especially the bedroom.

2. Thin out the incoming stream. We all have a constant stream of mail and new possessions coming into our lives. If you don’t develop a regular habit of thinning it out as it walks through the door, it’ll pile up and zap your energy in no time.

3. Create space with the right layout and equipment.  If you get buried in clutter simply because you don’t know where to put things, learn to make creative use of the space you have — including vertical space.

4. Learn to live more simply. Instead of piling on new possessions until you just have to many, stop buying and take a hard look at what you have. Don’t equate material possessions with wealth or happiness, or — worse yet — self worth. 

5. Get rid of it. If you don’t learn how to get rid of things, you’ll be overwhelmed with your possessions. Unworn clothing, unwanted gifts, ancient paperwork — get rid of it.  If you haven’t used it in two years, ditch it.

6. Accentuate the positive. Separate the trash from the treasure. You don’t need to keep unwanted gifts simply because they’re gifts. And don’t be afraid to get rid of things that are dragging you down with emotional baggage: there’s a reason women burn photographs of their old boyfriends. 

7. Keep your office desk organized. No, a clean desk isn’t the sign of a simple mind: it’s the sign of an efficient, energetic mind! The more space there is, the less crowded your energy is. File rather than pile, and gather up those sticky notes!

8. Make a list of the home improvement projects you want to accomplish.  Nagging, incomplete projects not only create clutter, they also drag your mood down because another thing on your to-do list is staring you in the face. Dispatch routine tasks as soon as possible, and work to get the others off your calendar.

Clearing away clutter may seem like too much work, but you need to learn how to do it effectively for your own benefit. Once you cut down on the clutter in your life, you can move on to more productive levels of emotion and energy that put you ahead of the game.

© 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.