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Four Benefits of Overcoming Obstacles: Why Beating the Odds is Good for You

Posted on 08/29/2016 by ·
Four Benefits of Overcoming Obstacles: Why Beating the Odds is Good for You by Laura Stack #productivity

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome." Booker T. Washington, African-American educator and head of the Tuskegee Institute. As much as we're told—and tell ourselves—to reframe challenges as opportunities and to stretch ourselves to reach new goals, on a day-to-day basis, it's hard to keep the faith. We know what we should do, but in the hustle and flow of our jobs, we often forget—especially when we have too much on our plates for more than a few days. But ironically, conquering obstacles can be the experiences that teach us the most, ( … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance, Personal Productivity · Tagged: ,

Maximizing Your Results

Posted on 08/24/2016 by ·
maximizing your results laura stack

[TRANSCRIPT]  Why should you care about being productive? Why do you want to be efficient, organized, use your email correctly, manage your time, set boundaries, say no, and focus on value? It all comes down to achieving maximum results in the minimum amount of time. If you can be more efficient at work and save 60 minutes a day by using the strategies we discussed today, you can get out of the office on time or at least a little earlier and go home to the people that you love. That is what it is all about. It’s not about saving time so you can cram more in. Productivity is about love—loving your job and family with equal passion and not sacrificing one for the other. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: ,

Five Interruptions NOT to Avoid: Why Some Distractions Are Important

Posted on 08/22/2016 by ·
Five Interruptions NOT to Avoid: Why Some Distractions Are Important

"One way to boost our will power and focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us."—Daniel Goleman, American author and psychologist Imagine a completely distraction-free office, where you can focus totally and productively, where no one ever calls you, chats outside your office in the hallway, plays their music too loudly, or pops in for a quick question. Imagine a place where you could spend hours upon hours single-tasking to your heart's content, churning out work by the barrel-load. Wouldn't that be heaven? I’m thinking NO. Oh maybe for a time, but it gets old. Unless you're a solitary worker with no communications with others (a rare occurrence in this era), social interaction remains a must. Although I'm a big believer in warding off most … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , , ,

Change Should Be the Middle Name of Every Business

Posted on 08/17/2016 by ·
Top productivity speaker Laura Stack on Change

[TRANSCRIPT] Change should actually be the middle name of every business. In his latest book, Playing To Win, A.G.’s Lafley talks about the five things that every leader should do to execute strategy and get the company to win. And, ultimately, all five come down to change. The companies that don’t change will go the way of the dinosaurs. No one really agrees on what happened to the dinosaurs; however everyone agrees they are dead. And it has something to do with their inability to change. Think about companies like Motorola, Kodak, Palm, Saab, Atari, Myspace, and Borders. What do they have in common? They are either in steep decline or demise because of their inability to stay relevant, to be flexible, and to change. At some level, even though it’s not always fun, we should be glad and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: , ,

Five Ways to Acceptance: Dealing with Factors Beyond Your Control

Posted on 08/15/2016 by ·
Five Ways to Acceptance: Dealing with Factors Beyond Your Control

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."—Reinhold Neibuhr, American theologian. Like it or not, many of life's circumstances—even within the average corporate office—are beyond our control. The weather, for instance, remains outside humanity's bailiwick; we can try to predict it two or three days out, but in Denver we still can't halt the snowstorms that close the airport right before Christmas or the hailstorms that ruin our roofs. At work, unless you’re the CEO or on the board of directors, we have little control over the decisions of those higher in the organizational hierarchy. We have even less control over the actions of the world at large. But being human, we worry about these … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership & Teamwork · Tagged: , , ,

Success and Life Balance

Posted on 08/10/2016 by ·

[TRANSCRIPT] If you really want to be successful, you have to touch home. You have to pay attention to the people who are right there in front of you. You have to love your work AND love your family equally. How do you have great satisfaction in both, without sacrificing one for the other? I love my career and try to work at my productive best. I’m always asking myself how can I execute, how can I leverage my time, and how can I focus on tasks that are central to my work and get rid of the extraneous things. How can I be disciplined, not procrastinate, focus on things in order of importance, or set boundaries with other people? By being productive in this way, I achieve the greatest results possible in the least amount of time. THEN I can get out of the office on time and go home to the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Life Balance · Tagged: , ,

Five Ways to Use Procrastination to Your Benefit: A Counterintuitive Productivity Method

Posted on 08/08/2016 by ·
Five Ways to Use Procrastination to Your Benefit: A Counterintuitive Productivity Method by Laura Stack

"Procrastination is a way of giving yourself permission not to do a perfect job, because usually a perfect job isn't required."—John Perry, American philosopher and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. In the late Robert Parker's Spenser mysteries, the main character's girlfriend, psychologist Susan Silverman, had an unusual way of ensuring her productivity: she deliberately made herself late for everything. Whether she had to meet a student in need of guidance or prepare for a class, she ignored the time she'd set to begin preparing, literally waiting until the last minute—and beyond—to get to work. Then she accelerated into a whirlwind of efficiency to ensure she arrived in time and turned in her maximum effort. Some people find this actually works for them in real life; … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: ,

Refusing Can Free Up Time

Posted on 08/05/2016 by ·

Learn to say "no" graciously, and make it stick! (C) 2016 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved. www.TheProductivityPro.com Watch Now: … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Podcast · Tagged: , ,

Email Time Saving Tip

Posted on 08/03/2016 by ·

[TRANSCRIPT] So, part of the mindset that you have to get out of is that email have to be living in your inbox in order for you to do something with them. And by the way, you are all looking at me like deer in the headlights. Yes, your email program does this! Most people’s email training was, “Here’s your inbox—go.” If you spend some time understanding how to use the tools that are right in front of you, you’ll save a tremendous amount of time. Okay, back to the demo. After we do this task and mark it complete—oooh that feels good—it comes off your task list. If you ever want to see any of your completed tasks, you can view those. This is something we could easily dig into for a half day. The critical point to remember is you must pull the action out of the email and turn it into a task. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: , ,

Four Reasons Why Work/Life Balance is Still Valid

Posted on 08/01/2016 by ·
Four Reasons Why Work/Life Balance is Still Valid

"Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life."—Dolly Parton, American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Recently I've seen a lot of "RIP Work/Life Balance" claims, arguing that the concept is dying, if not already dead. Some people state outright that you can no longer expect much of a personal life if you ever want to reach the C-Suite. Most, however, just claim there's simply no longer a reasonable difference between work and personal life. Smartphones, Wi-Fi, and related technology have made it possible for work to intrude upon your private life anywhere, anytime… so, they say, you may as well give up on the idea of having any sort of work/life balance. I'll concede that technology has blurred the line between work and personal life, so that work can … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Life Balance · Tagged: , ,