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Increasing Productivity: Great Personal Productivity Podcasts

Posted on 12/12/2011 by ·

" 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...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity, Tools & Systems · Tagged:

Organizational Skills: Email and Productivity

Posted on 12/06/2011 by ·

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...]

Filed Under: Tools & Systems · Tagged: ,

Time Management Skills and the Extreme Work Week

Posted on 12/05/2011 by ·
Time Management Skills and the Extreme Work Week

Let's face it: despite the management cliché claiming otherwise, you can't just "work smarter" if you expect to compete in the modern workplace. You'll also have to work harder, and probably longer. In today's high-pressure office environment, the real go-getters generally put in half again more hours than their 9-5 co-workers; and in many cases, management expects and requires them to do so. Indeed, some professions now view a 40-hour work week as part-time, at best—which means that if you limit your hours to the traditional number, you also limit your opportunities for advancement. As a result, many white collar professionals end up working a minimum of sixty hours a week in order to meet their job requirements. And that doesn't include drive time, work-related calls and email, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged: ,

Managing Your Time: Are the Boxes on Your Calendar Bursting With Meetings

Posted on 11/30/2011 by ·

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), gives pointers on managing your time and keeping your schedule under control. (C) 2011 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged:

Increasing Productivity: Telecommuting and Your Family and Friends

Posted on 11/21/2011 by ·

In this month's newsletter article, Telecommuting: Creating a Productive Home Working Environment, I discussed some ways of keeping your home office productive. Here are a few more thoughts I'd like to share. Although telecommuting has many advantages, it does have its challenges. One of the greatest lies in getting your family, friends, and neighbors to take your work habits seriously. They may (at least subconsciously) assume that just because you're home all day, you're not really working—and so you can do anything for them at any time. Allowing them to continue to think this way will play havoc with your personal productivity, so nip such tendencies in the bud right away. Let's look at friends and neighbors first. While some may respect your work schedule, others won't think twice … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged:

Managing Your Time: Vacation in the Summer Sun

Posted on 11/15/2011 by ·

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), discusses a vital part of managing your time: the importance of vacation time as it relates to being productive. (C) 2011 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged:

Managing Your Time: Laura’s Latest Book

Posted on 11/09/2011 by ·

Need some guidance on managing your time when there is simply too much to do?   My new book, What to Do When There's Too Much to Do: Reduce Tasks, Increase Results, and Save 90 Minutes a Day (Berrett-Koehler) is already available for pre-order on Amazon, and the pub date isn't officially until July 2! http://amzn.to/tZ7kAP … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance, Personal Productivity · Tagged:

Telecommuting: Creating a Productive Home Working Environment

Posted on 11/05/2011 by ·
Telecommuting: Creating a Productive Home Working Environment

These days, telecommuting (a.k.a. telework) is simpler and more cost-effective than ever before—which means that many office workers can pursue their careers without setting foot in a traditional office, except when absolutely necessary. Although some businesses still resist this option, others have begun to embrace it in a serious way. As overhead and transportation costs continue to rise, and other benefits pile up, there's little doubt that this trend will accelerate. That being the case, you may very well end up working from home at some point, whether you initiate the change or your company does. Thus, it pays to learn how to create the most productive home office environment possible. In this article, I'll outline the basics. Set Up Your Workplace One of the nicest things … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Time Management at Work: Wasted Time?

Posted on 10/26/2011 by ·

How much time is wasted at work in your experience?  I just read a recent article at SmartCompany which talked about a recent study by Ernst & Young.  The study indicates that 18% of time at work could be considered unproductive.  That it a lot of time that could be spent creating value! Some of the items  the 2500 respondents referred to as time wasters are: Internal administration, red tape and meetings Waiting for IT systems Jobs needing to be redone Some time wasters are beyond an employee's control, but some of that wasted time could potentially be used in other ways.  Would love to hear how you handle seemingly unavoidable time wasters in your day. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged:

A Fun Little Tool for Increasing Productivity

Posted on 10/20/2011 by ·

It's frustrating to want to print from a website when the formatting doesn't work. It's inefficient to try to copy and paste into another document to print. I found a useful little tool on the web that makes it easy to print from websites, so I wanted to share it with all of you! Check out PrintFriendly when you need to print from a website. It allows you to see a preview of how your printed page would look, and also allows you to print as a PDF. Just enter in the url you want to print from:               Click "Print Preview" to see what your page will look like, then select Print or PDF and you're all set!                   Increases efficiency, saves ink, and saves time. Very … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management, Tools & Systems · Tagged: , ,