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The New York Times calls Leave the Office
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The Library Journal, New York, NY named Leave
the Office Earlier one of the "Best Business Books 2004"...
Order this indispensable tool for the overworked
and time challenged at Amazon.com and receive 20% off its retail price.
More of The Productivity Pro's Resources
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Words
of Wisdom |
“We’re drowning in
information and starving for knowledge.” – Rutherford D. Rogers
“Far more crucial
than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.”
– Eric Hoffer
“Everybody gets so
much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”
– Gertrude Stein
"Success is the
progressive realization of worthwhile, predetermined, personal goals." - Paul J.
Meyer
"Genius seems to be the faculty of having faith in everything, and especially
oneself." - Arthur Stringer
"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop." - Ovid
|
Where in the World
is Laura? |
These are all private client engagements with Laura Stack. At this
time, Laura does not offer open enrollment seminars to the general
public. If you're interested in bringing Laura into your
organization for an employee training seminar on the day prior or
the day after one of these engagements below, please contact
John@
TheProductivityPro.com for special "piggyback" pricing.
January
15::Orange, CA
17::Denver, CO
23::Philadelphia, PA
24::Philadelphia, PA
31::Boston, MA
February
1::Denver, CO
11::Las Vegas, NV
12-17::San Francisco, CA
26::Big Sky, MT
28-29::Raleigh, NC
March
5::Philadelphia, PA
6::Philadelphia, PA
10::Atlantic City, NJ
13::Denver, CO
25::Denver, CO
April
2::Parachute, CO
4::Highlands Ranch, CO
8::Denver, CO
25::Myrtle Beach, SC
May
1::Denver, CO
7::Philadelphia, PA
8::Philadelphia, PA
13::Denver, CO
14::Phoenix, AZ
15::San Diego, CA
20::Atlanta, GA
21::NYC, NY
22::Saratoga, NY
28::Kansas City, MO
29::St. Louis, MO
June
11::Denver, CO
13::Highlands Ranch, CO
24::Chicago, IL
July
8::Denver, CO
September
9::Denver, CO
October
24::Niagara Falls, NY
30::Denver, CO
November
13::Nashville, TN
Visit
Laura's
Calendar On-line for her complete availability.
|
|
Feature Article |
Lean and Mean in 2008: Go on a
Low-Information Diet
Pretty much anybody you ask will tell
you they’re pressed for time. There just aren’t enough hours to get
it all done, yadda yadda yadda. So we prioritize, streamline, and
simplify. You can improve your efficiency until you’re blue in the
face, not to mention very tightly wound, but you still aren’t
addressing one of the biggest time and energy wasters in your day:
incoming information. As my 12-year-old daughter, Meagan, would text
on her phone: “TMI” (translation: Too Much Information).
If the 21st century has brought us anything, it is WAY too much
information. You can watch several channels full of cable news 24
hours a day. You can surf the internet on any topic until you can’t
see straight. Most people could heat their home with the amount of
junk mail they receive on a continuous basis. Imagine the time and
productivity lost just sorting though it all!
So why not join me in 2008 and put yourself on a low-information
diet? Make this the year that you say “NO MORE!” to the endless
onslaught of time-wasting, productivity-eating, stress-inducing
STUFF coming at you.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Skip the news. I haven’t regularly watched the news or read a
newspaper in fifteen years. Some people are shocked when they hear
me say that. But I’m shocked when people confess how much time they
waste each day reading their latest blog postings. Think about what
you really gain by being a news junkie. To be honest, most of the
news out there just isn’t the kind of thing that really impacts my
family, my business, or me. And quite frankly, a big chunk of what
gets reported will do little more than make me feel angry or even
depressed. So if your job or your natural sense of curiosity don’t
prohibit it, consider a very low-news diet. Believe me: my selective
ignorance has never caused me a single problem and allows me to
focus my energy and attention.
Never meet in person to give information. What’s the number
one complaint most people have when it comes to office productivity?
Meetings! Why do we do it to ourselves? Do we really leave with the
decisions that made spending the time worthwhile? Or are we just
regurgitating information that’s already been provided elsewhere?
Does the speaker stand there and read the PowerPoint slides he just
emailed to you? Hello? If you already have the slides—you could have
just read them yourself. Phone conferences are even worse: they take
much longer than an in-person meeting, because participants are
checking email and fiddling with their computers. Create a pact with
your team members or department mates to never again have an
in-person meeting or phone conference where you are simply conveying
information. Put it on the intranet or compile it into a single
email that goes out once a week. Keep the high cost of the in-person
meeting at ebay when the purpose is a simple transfer of low-value
information.
Use the phone strategically. What about meetings with people
outside of your office—vendors and clients, for example? How many
times have you spent weeks trying to set up an appointment, only to
have it rescheduled at the last minute? Once the meeting actually
happens, it costs you a huge piece of your day. If you have a thirty
minute meeting that requires an hour’s worth of driving, decide if
the time would be better spent with a phone call. Are you really
getting better information in person? Nine times out of ten these
meetings could be handled in a tiny fraction of the time, if only
they were replaced with a quick phone call. Skip the commute, keep
the gas money, and save yourself a ton of time. You may even find
that your clients view your respect for THEIR time as refreshing and
will appreciate it to no end.
The Mailman Knocks One Hundred Times. The U.S Postal Service
does not come running to your home, ring your bell, and hand you one
piece of mail at a time, multiple times a day. It’s batched and
delivered once. If only we could follow the same principle with
electronic mail. I’m not recommending you only check your in-box
once a day—I believe that’s unrealistic—but you should still try to
cut down. You can’t focus on a task requiring concentration with
your in-box open. I process my e-mail just a handful of times each
day. It’s easy to be in the habit of checking the instant you hear
that little ding, but think about what you’re doing to yourself.
What percentage of incoming email is important? 10 percent? 25
percent? Two percent? If the majority of incoming email is
unimportant and represents information you don’t need (there are
donuts in the cafeteria), why would you stop working on the most
important task of the day to see if one makes the cut? You’re
letting everyone else dictate your day to you by immediately
stopping your productive work and redirecting your attention to an
e-mail that is probably not that important anyway. Then you need to
refocus your attention and try to get back on track with whatever
you were doing. After the 50-200 emails you receive each day, just
think how many times per hour your productive activities must come
to a grinding halt. Maybe—just maybe—you’re doing it, on purpose, as
an excuse to NOT to have to do the hard work you should be doing.
Make the decision NOW. Many decisions are put off because
people are waiting for more information. How much do you need?
Sometimes enough is good enough. You will never be able to analyze
all the in’s and out’s of every decision, and there will always be
more information out there you didn’t consider. Gather enough
information and make the best decision you can with the information
you have. Things can always change. My father always told me to take
initiative and ask forgiveness, not permission. In the early days of
my career, I just handled things for my managers without asking. If
they were gone, I answered for them. Sometimes it was the wrong
answer to be sure, but I’ve always been praised for trying to save
my boss some time and force some movement, rather than being berated
for the wrong action. I wish more people would just get some brass
and DECIDE. Stop getting approvals from a million people to cover
your backside. You’re making everyone around you crazy. Sometimes it
is much more efficient to go with the information you have, make the
WRONG decision, and make adjustments if necessary, than to waste
time being indecisive.
Empower your people. Eric Hoffer, the late American social
philosopher, once said, “Far more crucial than what we know or do
not know is what we do not want to know.” My husband and COO, John,
has asked me several times if I’d like to learn to use the postage
machine in our office. I’ve always staunchly declined. I have
absolutely no desire to learn how to use it. I enjoy being
purposefully ignorant about that machine, since I have no business
running it. When my assistant, Lisa (who sits near me by design),
casually asks me a question on the postal machine, I can honestly
say, “I have no idea. You’ll have to get with someone else.” My
staff needs to learn to be problem solving people and handle
challenges they experience in the areas they’ve been charged to run,
just as I do. They can’t handle my areas of responsibility, and I
refuse to handle theirs—and I unabashedly hold them accountable for
their own results. I’m happy to get them training or pay for
assistance, but you should never do those things personally that can
be done by someone else at a lower pay level. You’ll kill yourself.
Give your people the authority they need to make decisions and get
things done. If you don’t, you’ll find they consistently create more
work for you, not less.
Cut, cut, cut. Don’t lose your focus as the year goes on.
Cut, streamline, and reduce. Cancel magazine subscriptions. Get rid
of the junk you haven’t used in a year. Let all calls you don’t
recognize go to voicemail. Unsubscribe from all newsletters you
haven’t specifically requested. Go out and find things you determine
you need to buy, rather than having salespeople feed you information
about more things you’ll buy but won’t use. If your clients keep
asking you for the same information over and over again, put it on
your website and let new clients know in advance where to find it.
These are just a few examples about how you can deal with less
information. Hope you lose lots of weight on your low-information
diet and make 2008…GREAT!
Make it a productive day! ™
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|
Educational Resources from The Productivity Pro® |
Browse the Productivity Store for a variety of resources to improve your personal and professional productivity.
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|
Letters to the Editor |
(FROM THE EDITOR: Here’s an email
from a client to a reporter, who interviewed her about how my work
had helped her become more productive.)
“For me, getting organized equals reducing stress. By putting things
to bed, I take away the constant recording in my mind of "what do I
need to do," which in turn leads to stress.
I have taken the following classes from Laura over the past 5 years:
• Mastering Personal Productivity,
• Tips and Tricks for Managing Outlook,
• Building Productive Teams, and
• Time Management.
I have gained so many tools, tips and tricks to organize both my
home and office life. Some of my favorite tips that I have applied
are:
1. If it takes less than 3 minutes to do, do it right now.
2. When newsletters, magazines, or other correspondence arrives in
the mail, scan the table of contents, tear out what you want to
read, put it into a reading file, that you carry with you to read
when you are waiting for someone, riding a bus or light rail system,
have down time at work, etc. Discard the rest of the materials to
get it out of your house or office (I recycle my paper)
3. Have a yearly tickler file, set up by months and days, to
organize bills, messages, "To Do's", birthday/anniversary cards,
etc. I have one of these both at work and at home. This helps reduce
clutter and organize your tasks.
4. Move e-mail messages from your inbox to your Outlook calendar or
tasks to set time aside for the task and to avoid revisiting the
same message multiple times.
5. Before you leave the office to head home, plan your next day task
list - only planning for 60% or so of your time, knowing that things
always come up that you did not plan for - which allows you time to
put out the fires and to look back at your day with a feeling of
accomplishment vs. a feeling of what was left on my task list that I
did not get done.
6. Prioritize your task list, both at home and the office - do what
is most important first, vs. doing all of the small not so important
tasks first.
7. Stay focused on the task at hand - try not to multi-task, this is
over-rated. Give 100% and then move onto the next task.
8. Keep an organizer of some type - either a paper planner, a PDA,
or a combination of both. I personally use a Palm 100, which is
inexpensive and provides easy access to my calendar and contacts.
9. Sleep a lot, eat healthy, and get plenty of exercise.
10. Spend quality time with family and friends.
We have been given the honor of being named the “Best Place to Work”
in Denver, by the Denver Business Journal, for three years in a row.
No other organization has done that before in Denver. We have been
privileged to have Laura teach classes at our firm for almost 5
years now. I'm sure that her class content has helped our people
succeed, which in turn has helped our firm succeed as well. So many
of Laura's techniques have helped me stay sane and organized. Laura
is truly the Productivity Pro. Laura has a passion for what she does
and for the programs that she delivers to our firm and to so many
other organizations that she presents too. She is truly a great role
model.”
Mary Dignard
EKS&H
Denver, Colorado
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|
Laura's Blog |
Recent posts:
-Time
Mastery: You Want it When?
-BeMoreProductive.com
is Funny, funny, funny
-Should
You Make New Years Resolutions?
-How
to Systematically Organize and Declutter Any Area
-What
Does the Super Bowl Have to do with Time Management? |
|
Hot Links |
The Top 4 Misapplications of the 80/20 Rule 15 Tips for
Surviving a Task Explosion; Productivity Tip: How Not to Overspend
Your Time On a Task; 22 Tips for Effective Deadlines
Poor Performing Employees Severely Impact Productivity
However, the most significant finding is the difference in employee
productivity. It ranges from a 38% boost from a "poor" to "superior"
performer in an unskilled position to a 98% boost from "poor" to
"superior" in management positions.
To keep organized, mix the old and new
Although electronic time management systems - such as smart
phones or handhelds - allow you to enter your calendar, journal, and
sticky notes all in one place… |
|
Book Laura |
Have Laura speak to your company, conference or organization. How do you know if Laura would be perfect for your next event, meeting, or training? View the "Laura Stack Is Perfect For This Group" fact sheet.
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Laura Stack, MBA, CSP
Publisher |
Message from Laura |
Valentine’s Day is Thursday,
February 14th! Commit to leaving the office earlier that day to
spend more time with your sweetheart. Hectic work schedules have
probably ruined more Valentine Day celebrations than we care to
think about. It is easy to schedule business dinners for
February 14th without a second thought…until the day before…when
it finally hits us. More so than expensive jewelry or
chocolates, many people are satisfied with having the undivided
attention of a loved one for the evening. For more tips on how
to make it happen, please
visit my blog.
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Time Tips
and Traps Offered by Subscribers |
››
Be quick about insignificant decisions like, “Should I have
turkey or tuna for lunch?” Flip a coin. You’ll learn to be
quick and definitive when the end result doesn’t matter
much.
››
If possible, keep documents to one page. Too many words
means sometimes people won’t read carefully and may miss
vital information.
››
Learn to use your software correctly. Take the time to
figure it out once and for all rather than struggling each
time you use your word processor, email, or accounting
software.
To be featured in this
column, send your productivity tips to
[email protected]. I will include your
contact information, or you may remain anonymous.
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Laura in the News! |
You Can't Have It All (At The Same Time)
I recently had the privilege of chatting with Laura Stack,
otherwise known as, "The Productivity Pro." The mom of three
is a time management guru.
http://productivityzen.com/
lists Laura’s blog in the top twenty recommended
productivity blogs, based on social rank. A great find for
other productivity resources.
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|
Reprint Information |
All Articles (C)
1999-2008 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. This information
may not be distributed, sold, publicly presented, or used in
any other manner, except as described below.
Permission to
reprint all or part of this article in your magazine, e-zine,
blog, or organization newsletter is hereby GRANTED,
provided:
1. The
ENTIRE credit line below is present,
2. The
website link to
www.TheProductivityPro.com is clickable (LIVE), and
3. You
send a copy, PDF, link, tearsheet, etc. of the work in which
the article is used when published.
This credit line
MUST be reprinted in its entirety to use any articles from
Laura Stack:
© 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 the books Find More Time
(2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004). Her
newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure
(Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008. 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. |
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Subscription and Contact Information |
Phone: 303-471-7401
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.TheProductivityPro.com
Address: 9948 S. Cottoncreek Drive Highlands Ranch, Colorado80130
To subscribe or unsubscribe,
click the link provided on the bottom of a recent
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If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to interested associates so
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Ask the Productivity Pro®
Q: Hi, my name is Sharon.
I still have paperwork/old bills from my college days, which was
something like nearly 25 years ago, and I have shuttled these papers to
every re-location I've made over the years, so you can imagine how many
storage boxes I've had to move over the years... :)
I also work at a job (medical field) where I'm on my feet for 8 hours a
day (sorta like a hospital with no office or place to put your stuff
except for a too skinny locker outside the department) but don't have
time for paperwork. At work we have to print out important information
to free space on the computer. Once I print it out, I chuck it in my
drawer because I'm too busy doing other very important stuff. Other
staff members get time to deal with their paperwork, but if I even try
to do a little bit of paperwork, the work piles up and then someone gets
mad at me because I'm trying to work on paperwork and not doing the
other stuff I should be doing. Now my boss wants me to get that drawer
"cleaned up" and possibly he will be eliminating the drawers for good.
Are 3 ring binders a good idea??? I started using them (but not
faithfully - just for one thing) because there's always a possibility of
a "random audit" which is very important to have these papers because if
you don't, you are in very deep, deep trouble or worse which means one
could be out of a job.
I have searched and searched the internet for something SIMPLE and EASY
and yet I still am baffled because no one really covers stuff like
papers from ex spouses but still have my name on them, you know that
type of thing. I still have yet to find a "basic and simple filing
system/help" without having to go out and buy stuff or buy color coded
files or whatnot.
So you probably can see my frustration and why I beat myself down at
work and at home because I can't get control of the papers. HELP,
please.
Thanks for listening and hope to hear from you.
Sharon
A: Sharon, you can find many articles on paper management in the
archives. But for
fun, let’s ASK THE AUDIENCE! Okay, readers, besides tossing the
25-year-old college papers, what should Sharon do? Submit your answers
to [email protected]. Every submission wins a prize. Answers
will be posted next month.
Submit your questions by
clicking
here. |