"Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other."  —Bill Gates, American businessman and philanthropist, founder of Microsoft. What would life be like if the electronics revolution of the past 30 years hadn't happened? Among other things, my mission of teaching you how to achieve “Maximum Results in Minimum Time®” might have drowned in a sea of carbon paper, adding machine tape, fax print-outs, and conference calls. If you don't have a clue what those first few things are, then you can thank thousands of creative techies for that, and count your Millennial blessings! Productivity has skyrocketed in recent years due to technological progress, and there are plenty of ways … [Read more...]

“Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.” —Robert M. Pirsig, American writer and philosopher.. Productive people hate boredom, so they tend to go find things to do when nothing's happening—sometimes even when they ought to be resting. We all know people who eat at their desks, don't take vacations, and never seem to take a coffee-break. We often call them workaholics... but maybe they just find inactivity boring. Even the best-adjusted worker, who dutifully follows her to-do list and takes the breaks she needs to stay energized and happy, sometimes struggles with boredom. Some people call boredom a productivity killer, and with the whole world at our fingertips to distract us, it certainly can be. But I've noticed something interesting: Boredom doesn't always kill … [Read more...]

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." —George Bernard Shaw, British playwright. One of the first productivity concepts we all learn is to avoid perfectionism, and most of us do make the attempt. Even so, it's an insidious habit, one reinforced rather than overridden by many leaders. Often, your managers want you to get things right the first time, ASAP, so they can show impressive results to their managers. But true perfectionism kills efficiency. It slows you down and doesn't conform to reality. You can never plan for everything. While I'm not a big fan of the "good enough for government work" concept, I do believe there's a certain point where you do the best you can with what you have and move on, making tweaks … [Read more...]

"Eat a live frog the first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." —American humorist Mark Twain How do you eat Twain's live frog? Most people assume he meant to choke it down all at once, but on the other hand, we've also learned the only way to eat an elephant is a bite at a time. You get some jarring cognitive dissonance when you take both ideas into account at once, but they do share a point: both the elephant and the frog represent big or unpleasant projects we must make progress on before we can move on to other tasks. Now, just because you think you know how and when to eat your frog doesn't mean you're right. Most of us assume we have a handle on how to structure our to-do lists, but even the best practice doesn't remain a best practice … [Read more...]

"We hold these truths to be self-evident..." —Opening line of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson It should be obvious to anyone that when you're happy, you're more likely to do a better job at work. Clearly, some managers don't care; we've all worked for such people. It's equally obvious you don't have to be happy to be productive. Aside from those of us who work best under pressure, many of us have learned to put our heads down, ignore our discontent, and just push until we finish the work on time. If we couldn't bull through on sheer willpower, few companies would have survived either the Great Depression or the Great Recession. Just because we can do something, however, doesn't mean it's the best way. That's one theme I hope I've driven home repeatedly … [Read more...]

“I've had to be very upfront about the fact that good telecommuting jobs require hard work, like any job.” —Hannah Wright, founder of HowToFindARemoteJob.com. I’ve heard some traditional office workers describe telecommuters as lazy, unprofessional, and unproductive: consider former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's controversial decision to ban telecommuting in February 2013. Millennials, who are better aware of the reality of pervasive Internet, high-tech options, and work-life balance, seem less bothered by telecommuting. Many actively encourage it. Numerous surveys have shown that, in general, workers who telecommute at least a few days a week are more productive. A famous study conducted in 2013 by Nicholas Bloom and one of the owners of Ctrip, a Chinese travel company, demonstrated that … [Read more...]

“There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” – Napoleon Hill, American motivational writer. Time flies when you're having fun—and it also flies when you're so totally focused on something that nothing else interests you, and making steady progress seems almost as easy as breathing. Athletes call it being "in the zone," a term that's percolated down into the working world as well. No matter what you do, you've probably experienced times when, whether working alone or in a group, you got so engrossed in your work that the next time you looked up, hours had passed. You'd lost track of time. While this can have negative repercussions—such as forgetting to eat lunch—it's typically … [Read more...]

“Never wish life were easier. Wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur and speaker. We usually know high performers when we see them, because their stars shine bright in the workplace. How can you tell the difference between a high performer and a high potential performer? The latter have the talent, education, and training to become high performers, but haven't yet proven themselves (often because they're still new). In fact, not all workers with high potential graduate to the high-performer level; conversely, not all high performers are considered high-potential candidates that move into positions of leadership. Of course, not everyone shines right off the bat. (Both Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein were deemed unteachable by elementary school teachers, and today … [Read more...]

“Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” – Mark Twain, American writer and humorist. You've probably had days when you came down with a bad case of the "don't wannas"—a complete lack of interest in doing any of your work tasks, much less the tough ones. But you're an adult now, so you know that expecting the world to automatically provide all the niceties you yearn for is the worst kind of childish dream. It's probably not going to happen, and even if it did, how much would you value your non-accomplishments anyway? Procrastination is a novel concept to no one. We've all put things off many times, for many reasons: because we didn't want to hurt someone, because the task wasn't pleasant, because it was boring or took too long, or … [Read more...]

“Excuses are a time thief. Have a goal, accept responsibility, and take action!” – Dr. Steve Maraboli, speaker and author. Sometimes our biggest time-thieves are right under our noses, but we never think of them as such. Worse, while we know that some tasks keep us busier than we like, we don't view them in terms of debt—at least, not in terms of financial debt. But time debt is a painful reality, as any harried Superparent or mid-level manager can tell you. Still, very few of us take this further to realize that since time is money, time debt may ultimately translate into productivity debt. I've understood this truism subconsciously for many years, but only recently have I seen it formulated as such. Think of it this way: Every minute you do something other than productive work during … [Read more...]