"My first reading of an e-mail is actually a screening process to determine what needs attention...I'll decide on the spot what to delete and what needs that second reading prior to taking action." -- Junior Morales, poll respondent, Puerto Rico "Depends on the message. If it's spam or FYI, then once is enough. If it's asking specific questions that need thought and/or research to answer, then as often as needed until it's clear how to proceed. " -- Davyd Breeskin, poll respondent, Washington, D.C. Several months ago, I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking how many times a day my followers checked their email. The results were rather eye-opening, and as you may recall, I blogged about them in early October 2011. Because I found those answers so intriguing, I posted a follow-up poll in … [Read more...]
How to Escape a Workplace Productivity Rut
To the casual observer, you might seem like a great performer—you’re keeping up with all your work with perfect consistency and maintaining an empty inbox. But you personally know you’re stuck in a productivity rut—a place where you get your work done, but only at a minimal level, and certainly without flair or inspiration. Your personal return on investment (PROI) in your job is very low, and you feel “stuck.” We've all been there at one time or another, for any of a number of reasons. Basically, you end up going through the motions, doing what you have to in a just-in-time fashion and staying busy without necessarily adding to your organization's bottom line (whether fiduciary or otherwise). Think back to your school days and the kind of grade such a level of effort might earn you … [Read more...]
Managing Your Time: Consider the Value of Your Time
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), shares her thoughts on managing your time, the value of time and why you should protect it. (C) 2011 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
Time Management Skills: Group Productivity Issues
Time management training tends to focus on individual workplace productivity; and while that's all well and good, most of us actually work within team environments. It's not a good idea, therefore, to just ignore the productivity issues affecting your coworkers. Your team workflow process can't function smoothly if the individual parts are broken. Raising awareness of group productivity issues requires little more than circulating an informal survey among your teammates, and then distributing the results. Simply ask something like, "What are your X biggest time management challenges?" You can make "X" any number you like, depending on how much time and resources you have to dedicate to the issue. Needless to say, your team's manager bears the ultimate responsibility for maintaining an … [Read more...]
Top Ten Time Management Traps for 2012
These days, despite technology intended to make life easier, we tend to work harder and have less discretionary time than ever before. Why? After 20 years speaking at conferences and implementing productivity-improvement programs at Fortune 1000 companies, I've come to recognize certain nemeses most of us face repeatedly. While clients do occasionally surprise me with the nature of their time management headaches, about 95% of the time, the traps they find themselves mired in fall into the same familiar handful of categories. So to kick off a productive 2012, let's take a look at the ten biggest time traps faced by the modern worker. I'll discuss the common variations of each, and offer some advice on how to overcome them. Trap #1: Prioritization Setting workplace priorities is by … [Read more...]
Managing Your Time: Challenge the Status Quo
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), talks about getting out of a rut. You don't always have to do things they way they have always been done. (C) 2011 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
Increasing Productivity:How Reflective Thinking Impacts Workplace Productivity
"Reflective thinking requires the continual evaluation of beliefs, assumptions, and hypotheses against existing data and against other plausible interpretations of the data." -- John Dewey, American educator. "Reflective thinking turns experience into insight." -- John C. Maxwell, American author and leadership guru. "By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter." -- Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher. As a savvy SuperCompetent, I suspect you take a few moments occasionally to examine your workflow process, carefully considering what works and what doesn't so you can maximize your productivity going forward. Psychologists call this process "reflective … [Read more...]
Time Management Skills: Are the Boxes on Your Calendar Bursting With Meetings
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), gives pointers on keeping your schedule under control. (C) 2011 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
Increasing Productivity: Great Personal Productivity Podcasts
" Remember self-help tapes? You used to throw them into your car [stereo] or Walkman when you were going on a lengthy trip so you could 'grow on the go' and hope to return home all the better for it... Well, podcasts that discuss various aspects of productivity very well could be the evolution of those self-help tapes." -- Mike Vardy, Stepcase Lifehack. "Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." -- Paul J. Meyer, American motivational speaker. "None of the world's problems will have a solution until the world's individuals become thoroughly self-educated." -- R. Buckminster Fuller, American author, designer, and inventor. From a productivity standpoint, the relentless march of technology allows … [Read more...]
Organizational Skills: Email and Productivity
How often do you read an email before handling it? In other words, how many times do you click on an email before it before it’s gone from your inbox? Please vote in my poll. Thanks! … [Read more...]
