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Staying Ahead of the Game: How to Prepare for Your Next Workday

Posted on 11/11/2014 by ·
Staying Ahead of the Game: How to Prepare for Your Next Workday by Laura Stack #productivity

"The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today." --Elbert Hubbard, American writer and artist. You might not be thinking of much more than getting home as you head out the door from work. After a long day in the office, it's nice to get away, reboot the brain, and spend time with those you love. As the old song goes, it’s five o’clock somewhere. I totally get that! However, that doesn't mean you can't spend a little time prior to the end of your workday preparing for the next one. It's logical, it saves times, it's really easy, and it will give you an edge the next day. Here are a few quick suggestions to help get ready for tomorrow, today! 1. Get your workspace in order. As the day starts to wind down, clean up your desk. File any stray papers or receipts … [Read more...]

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Get Back On the Horse: Recovering After a Bad Decision

Posted on 10/28/2014 by ·
Get Back On the Horse: Recovering After a Bad Decision by Laura Stack

"Sometimes you make choices, and sometimes choices make you." -- American writer Gayle Forman. No matter where you stand in the company hierarchy, no matter how well you've done your due diligence, and no matter how careful you are before committing yourself to a course of action, sometimes you're going to crash and burn. Bad decisions are inevitable, and they're rarely obvious except in retrospect. I’ve taken speaking engagements that, looking back, I shouldn’t have agreed to accept. It was a bad decision, and I wish I hadn’t done it. But I learned a lot through the process. Sure, you can minimize the occurrence and impact of mistakes, but short of hiding in your office and refusing to make any decisions at all, you'll never be able to avoid them. Your leaders expect you to make … [Read more...]

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Short, Sweet, and to the Point: Boost Your Productivity By Saying No

Posted on 10/23/2014 by ·
Short, Sweet, and to the Point: Boost Your Productivity By Saying No by Laura Stack #productivity

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Total Transparency: Making an Open Book of Your Worklife

Posted on 10/16/2014 by ·
Total Transparency: Making an Open Book of Your Worklife by Laura Stack #productivity

"Even the oldest trees aren't ashamed to stand naked." -- Marty Rubin, American author. How transparent is your organization? Does every person in every department have a working knowledge of the organization's goals, mission and vision, and core values? Perhaps your organization even practices a more radical transparency, where any employee can check the monthly numbers, read board meeting minutes, and review proposed policy changes. Some companies also provide access to their capital structure and strategy, stress collaborative decision-making—and even make everyone's salary a matter of public record. This type of corporate-level transparency seems to result in a happier, more productive workforce overall—a lesson to take to heart if you happen to be a manager yourself. People are … [Read more...]

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Office

Posted on 09/25/2014 by ·
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Office: Engaging Others with Good Humor at Work by Laura Stack

Engaging Others with Good Humor at Work “Right now, this is a job. If I advance any higher, this would be my career. And if this were my career, I’d have to throw myself in front of a train.” -- Jim Halpert, character on the TV series The Office. Clearly, work is no laughing matter. It's where you spend a good third of your life, focused on the things that really matter so you can out-produce your competitors and flood the bottom line with black ink. Some people forget that work is just a part of life—you’re not supposed to live to work—and they become consumed by it. Yes, you should enjoy your work and even be just as passionate about it as your personal life, but don’t take it so seriously! Some people need to lighten up a bit to avoid a coronary (you know who you are). Humor Has … [Read more...]

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Four Must-Have Travel Apps

Posted on 09/18/2014 by ·
Four Must-Have Travel Apps by Laura Stack #productivity

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it." -- George A. Moore, Irish writer. Unlike some of my colleagues, I've always believed in using travel time to get ahead on my business work. That way, when I get home I don't have to play catch-up; instead, I can spend more time with my friends and family. I'd rather rest from the rat race in my own living room. In my constant search for ways to save time while working, I've investigated or tested dozens of mobile apps that help me complete my work more easily. Most do a good job, but some stand out more than others. Here are four superbly helpful and productive travel apps I urge you to try if you haven't already. (Now that the Wi-Fi is available on some flights, they're more useful than … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: ,

Give Me a Break! Get Your Rest and Protect Yourself From Burnout

Posted on 09/11/2014 by ·
Give Me a Break! Get Your Rest and Protect Yourself From Burnout by Laura Stack #productivity #rest #balance

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time." -- John Lubbock, British scientist and politician. By nature, most of us in the business world feel driven to prove ourselves—by working hard, generating massive productivity, and moving up through the ranks. Before long, it becomes second nature to work long hours with a tight focus on work, often to the exclusion of other things in life. Some of us willingly sacrifice exercise, a decent diet, vacation, weekends, and even family time to get ahead. But what are we getting ahead for? If you really care about your work, you'll want to do what's best and most productive for the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Life Balance, Personal Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Rebooting Your Productivity: How to Recover from a Workflow Crash

Posted on 08/19/2014 by ·
Rebooting Your Productivity: How to Recover from a Workflow Crash by Laura Stack #productivity

Let's say your productivity takes a nosedive. Maybe you've gotten lazy with your planning processes and your to-do lists are out of control. Perhaps you went on vacation, and you just haven’t been able to get on top of your inbox. Maybe you have a looming project due date that you haven’t even been able to think about. Or maybe unexpected changes in your industry have presented new challenges and taken you off your original course. Now what? Every second you're out of the race, you and those depending on you fall farther behind. So leap into action, resolved to restore your productivity in record time. But how do you reboot your productivity? Do what you do when your computer crashes—a hard reboot. A hard reboot always seems to be the last resort. You throw your hands up in the … [Read more...]

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Butting Heads: How to Argue Productively

Posted on 08/05/2014 by ·
Butting Heads: How to Argue Productively by Laura Stack

It’s been said that every person brings joy to others: some when they enter a room and some when they leave it. The latter disagrees just to be disagreeable. But no matter how good natured people are, if you bring any two human beings together, they'll find something to disagree about eventually. The strong personalities inherent in any business endeavor can result in people butting heads at all levels. You might find yourself at odds with a team member, another leader, or with your own superior. When you find yourself at loggerheads with someone for any reason, you’ll want to find the most efficient way to resolve the issue quickly, so you can move forward with the business at hand. Needless to say, I'm not talking about small opinion issues that don't matter in the long run, like what … [Read more...]

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Gearing Up For Success: Preparing for a Quantum Leap in Productivity

Posted on 07/22/2014 by ·
Gearing Up For Success: Preparing for a Quantum Leap in Productivity by Laura Stack #productivity

"Doing is a quantum leap from imagining." -- Barbara Sher, American speaker, author and goal achievement guru. In physics, the term "quantum leap" refers to an electron's sudden jump to a higher energy state without, apparently, passing through the intervening distance. At subatomic scales, things happen that would never happen in our “big” world. Yet, it’s still such a fascinating and attractive notion that people have taken to using the term “quantum leap” when referring to spectacular feats. While it doesn't quite mesh—quantum effects can't really manifest at human scales—it does serve as a useful shorthand for sudden improvement in performance or productivity. But unlike an electron's quantum leap, the productive equivalent leaves clues as to how it happened. Let’s look under … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: ,