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

Here’s a great site to calculate how much time you waste on Twitter!

John discusses an interview he had with Laura Stack The Productivity Pro®, Inc. on her 6-D email approach.

“Imagine this; you are deep in thought, tackling an important project, you are in the zone - then…’ding’…the echoing sound of your email inbox, that’s right, you’ve got mail.  Your thought process screeches to a hault, your mind shifts, you think ‘nah, I’ll check it later’, but what if it’s important?  What if it is crucial information?  Or, what if it’s an amazing discount offer from your favorite online retailer…?  Doesn’t matter, you’ve now lost focus on the task at hand and reach for the mouse.  How many times does this occur throughout your day?  I bet it happens often enough, that if you added up all of the diversion of time wasted you could calculate that into money lost…”

Read more…The 6 D’s to having your inbox make you money

Social networking is all the rage today.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace - the list goes on.  It seems like everyone has one or more of these services, but how many people are thinking about how it can affect them professionally?  And how does it affect your productivity?

In terms of your professional image, there have been many news stories and articles about people getting fired or not getting hired for jobs because of the things they post on their profiles.  In one of my time management seminars, a participant told me she didn’t hire an applicant because she researched his social sites and saw that he “wanted to do as little as possible for as much money as possible.”  If you want to keep your social networking just "between friends," pay close attention to the privacy settings on sites like Facebook and MySpace.  The safest bet is to assume that anything on the internet can be fair game; however, you can minimize your risk by making your profiles private or "friends only."  Be careful what you write and post, even when making comments on others’ pages.  Think about whether you want what you’re about to say in the virtual public record for all time. 

That said, social networking can be a useful tool in developing relationships and marketing yourself.  I’m using LinkedIn to build relationships and network for new business.  I already have over 250 connections and many recommendations.  However, keeping up with your networks can becoming all-consuming and almost addictive.  I know several people who admit to being Twitterholics or check their pages on different sites continually throughout the day, which has far-reaching productivity implications.  If all day you sift through information on websites, read your blog postings, keep up with all your social networks, and wade around in your email in-box, when are you actually going to get your WORK done?  I check my social sites once each day and only after all my key priorities for the day are completed (generally in the afternoon).  I suggest you set some appropriate boundaries around your usage of social networking and then apply some good old-fashioned discipline to make yourself stick to them.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  All rights reserved.

www.TheProductivityPro.com

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

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. 

Make it a productive day!

(C) 2008 Laura Stack.  All rights reserved.  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

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!

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.