CONCENTRATING ON YOUR WORK: MAINTAIN FOCUS IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF DISTRACTION 1. Modify your office set up. Is your office set up for maximum productivity or maximum distraction? Turn away from the door. Block your view with a plant or a computer monitor, so that as people walk by, you are not tempted to look up. If you do, you’ll catch the eye of someone wandering by, and they will strike up a conversation. You can ask for office changes. If you have glass on one side of your office wall, you can ask for blinds to be installed, so you can close them when trying to concentrate. If your cubicle walls are too low or half walls, you can request higher partitions. If you happen to work right outside of the elevators or in a high-traffic area, people might think that you are the receptionist … [Read more...]
SUPERCOMPETENT Key #4: ACCOUNTABILITY
SUPERCOMPETENT™ Key #4: ACCOUNTABILITY This month’s article correlates to the fifth key in my newest book SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best (Wiley), to be released on August 9: ACCOUNTABILITY. EDITOR’S NOTE: Please don’t order my book yet! I’ll soon be announcing a very special BUY day on Amazon and B&N, where ordering will get you hundreds of dollars in free bonus gifts! Accountability recognizes that "the buck stops here." SuperCompetent people mean what they say and say what they mean. They're authentic, and other people know this and appreciate them for it—and also for their refusal to blame others when unforeseen circumstances trip them up. Their intense focus on their values is borne out in their demeanor and their sense of personal … [Read more...]
Productivity Minute Video: Prevent Crisis By Planning in Advance: Time Management
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) discusses advanced planning. (C) 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved … [Read more...]
An Automatic Time Tracker for Professionals
Looking for a better way to keep track of your time, log hours for various clients, or see where time is being wasted? You'll want to check out Chrometa's Automatic Time Tracker. Chrometa automatically records the time while you work — both on and off the PC. You'll discover previously undocumented billable time, save time on billing reconciliation, and improve personal productivity. Once your time is automatically captured, you can categorize your time quickly and easily by client or project. Use smart alerts to remind you to log time away from the PC such as meetings or phone calls. And easily export the data into Microsoft Excel. If you're serious about boosting your personal productivity, and getting paid for every second you work, Chrometa is THE ideal time management … [Read more...]
Workplace Productivity: Tips for Maximum Enjoyment as an Administrative Assistant
1. Don’t take personalities personally. I have heard many stories from admins whose boss was a grouchy type of person, who say to me, “Oh, he doesn’t like me. We just don’t get along.” When the boss gets a promotion she thought, “I’m going to be left behind.” He said, “Are you kidding? I can’t do anything without you.” Do not think that just because someone is in a bad mood that it reflects on you, or if someone has a crotchety personality that s/he doesn’t like you. Always be your capable, competent, positive self. 2. Change your focus. Focus on the 175 things that you did right today, not the one thing that you did wrong. So many people get upset when they make a little mistake. They made a typo in a letter or sent an email to the wrong person or copied someone they shouldn’t have. … [Read more...]
Local piggybacking training tours with Laura Stack coming to your area
If you or someone in your company or organization occasionally brings in outside speakers for training or meetings, please keep reading. As the economy turns around, we are finding training hasn't yet returned to 2006-2008 levels, budgets are still suppressed, and attendees can't get out of their offices for a full day of training. So after successful pilots in Sioux Falls, SD, and Tampa, FL, we think we've stumbled on a solution: we are playing MATCHMAKER. Rather than flying out to work with a single company, we will help you find someone in your area to split the costs. Here's how it will work. I will book a two-day tour in select cities based upon interest. We will use the same discounted in-state "piggybacking" rates we use for Colorado. Four companies will each get a half-day … [Read more...]
Time Management: Match Your Tasks to Your Energy Level
You can know all the productivity tips in the world, but nothing will work if you don’t have the energy to give 100 percent. Personal energy is a measure of how strong, invigorated, or up to a task you may feel at any moment. If you feel down, your zest ebbs, and you tend to produce mediocre work. So know your own rhythms and plan your work around them. If you tend to have a lot of energy first thing in the morning, then do your most challenging work then. High energy gives you the ability to concentrate well, make critical decisions, perform complex analysis, or do any task requiring creativity or problem solving. When your energy is low, however, these tasks become more difficult, take longer, and often have poor results. So if the afternoons are difficult for you and you experience … [Read more...]
Business Productivity: Technology In the Workplace 2010 Study
Intercall recently published the 2010 study on Technology In the Workplace. The findings of the study make it clear that today's workers are feeling the pinch of tough economic times and increased pressure to do more with less and stay connected to the office even in off hours. Almost half of American workers who use technology at work believe that in this economy they must produce more even though they have fewer resources. Twenty-five percent of American workers feel their job security "is partially dependent on their supervisor seeing they are connected to work even after hours." Even with the increased workloads, Americans do see technology as a key part of productivity in the workplace. Job satisfaction increases when companies provide technology tools to help workers do more in … [Read more...]
Time Management: Gracefully Refusing Requests
What do you do when you have the perfect plan set up for the day, then everything and everyone tries to blow up your plan? Part of that could be your fault. Perhaps you’re responding to e-mails as they're coming in or otherwise wasting time. But the other part is no fault of your own. You need to learn some language, verbiage, and techniques to use when someone asks you to do something not on your plan. If you’re thinking, “This is just not that important right now,” you need to know how to decline gracefully. Certainly there are some things that are worth stopping what we’re doing and handling; however, there lots of things that aren't important and don't qualify to be handled immediately. One of the things you can do is always negotiate a due date with the person as they make a … [Read more...]
Workplace Productivity: Your First To-Do of the Day
What’s the first thing you do when you begin your day? What do you literally do when you sit down to begin working? Many people do the “beverage ritual.” They get all their beverages just right and their snacks all lined up and settled. Maybe they do a little bit of checking on blog postings to see what's come in and of course visit Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Next they check e-mail and get sucked into that vortex for a couple of hours. Now what time is it? Lunchtime! How do you feel after lunch? Probably pretty low energy. What do you feel like working on? Nothing. At least nothing that requires a very high level of energy and focus. I would suggest instead that you think very carefully about the leading activity of your day, because it's going to set you up for success or … [Read more...]
