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Do We Really Need 32 People at This Meeting?

Posted on 01/16/2013 by ·

"People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything." -- Thomas Sowell, American economist and social theorist. "Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings." ― George Will, American journalist. Meetings may just be the bane of our workplace existence. I don't mean events like professional conferences; those generally represent valuable educational experiences. No, I refer to those self-proliferating time-wasters that bring co-workers together to discuss ways to maximize team productivity, but instead accomplish the exact opposite. They seem to expand as time goes by; and when everyone has to have their say, they can drag on for hours, killing productive momentum. Yet meetings remain absolutely necessary if … [Read more...]

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Scoring Synergy With Outside Sources

Posted on 01/10/2013 by ·

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." -- Napoleon Hill, American motivational guru and author of Think and Grow Rich. "Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success." -- Stephen Covey, author, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People In chemistry, a "synergistic reaction" occurs when two substances interact to generate a greater effect than either would alone. This can have dangerous consequences, as when bleach and ammonia mix to produce chlorine gas. On the other hand, adding specific impurities to a silicon semiconductor can greatly boost its performance. In a situation like this, the whole proves greater than the sum of the parts. This principle can apply to human … [Read more...]

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Start the New Year off Productively with Laura Stack

Posted on 01/04/2013 by ·

Did you know that one of the most popular New Year's Resolutions is to get organized?  Maybe it was one of yours.  How will you  accomplish that goal? We've got just the plan for YOU to take your personal productivity to the next level! We have just a few more spots open for the brand new 2013 STACK ATTACK! This is your perfect opportunity to get all of your "ducks in a row" with a productivity makeover. Spend the day in Laura's home office getting YOUR systems up and running. Learn more about the STACK ATTACK, and sign up today! And in recent news... Laura was featured yesterday on Entrepreneur.com in this article by Stephanie Vozza: Forget Your To-Do List: The 3 Lists Every Entrepreneur Needs … [Read more...]

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How Your Standards Can Slow You Down

Posted on 01/02/2013 by ·

"If you look for perfection, you will never be content." -- Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (Anna Karenina). "I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business." ― Michael J. Fox It’s true that as your experience and skills evolve, you should occasionally push the envelope of your personal constraints. But to paraphrase Clint Eastwood in the film Magnum Force, you've got to know your limitations. And you do have limitations—which also means you can't always do everything just right. It’s important to have high standards for your work; in fact, you need them if you expect to achieve consistent productivity. But be aware of the difference between high standards and impossibly high standards. When your standards for yourself and … [Read more...]

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What The Most Successful People Do On The Weekend

Posted on 01/01/2013 by ·

No matter who you are, no matter what your station in life, we all get the same 1,440 minutes per day in the same seven days per week. It all works out to 168 hours weekly for the young and old, great and small, rich and poor alike. So how can it be that some of us accomplish great things with that seemingly meager amount of time, while others struggle through the week, with barely enough wiggle room to take a deep breath? Well, as it turns out, the super-productive aren't superhuman—just very careful with our most precious natural resource. It all boils down to effective time management; as I often point out, time management is really self-management. Despite our fondest fantasies, we'll never be able to actually manage time itself, or move a snippet from last week to this week, or … [Read more...]

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Goal-Setting Basics

Posted on 12/31/2012 by ·

I fly 125,000+ miles a year traveling to speaking engagements. When meeting my seat mates on planes, they usually ask what I do. When they hear I speak and write on personal productivity, many of them will quip, “Work smarter, not harder.” I will cringe a bit inside, smile, and tell them, “Most professionals are working very hard these days. I’ve long since discarded that philosophy and prefer to live by my own mantra: ‘Motion Beats Meditation.’” Too many people spend time getting ready to be ready, setting up their systems, organizing their work, and figuring out what they need to do—but then they don’t DO the work—to-do lists just keep rolling forward and important projects fall through the cracks. Only results matter. And the first and most critical step in getting results, as I define … [Read more...]

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Look Back on 2012 and Look Forward to 2013

Posted on 12/26/2012 by ·

"Life is divided into three terms---that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future." -- William Wordsworth, British poet. If you're anything like me, you recently looked up and wondered (or said aloud to a friend), "Hey, what the heck happened to 2012?" As we all know from experience, time really does fly when you're having fun. When it also flies at work, that’s a good thing, because you know work fascinates you nearly as much as play. Wonderful news, right? Be careful here: just because you've kept busy and enjoy what you do doesn't mean you've actually accomplished anything lately. To get ahead, we have to leverage our past experiences to gain an advantage in the future. So as you … [Read more...]

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Acknowledgement in All Directions

Posted on 12/21/2012 by ·

My father is a retired USAF Colonel, and I spent many of my childhood years living on the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. Growing up in the military environment, I soon learned that a soldier or sailor (or child) who receives a verbal order from an officer must repeat it immediately, often word for word, to acknowledge that he or she received it accurately. This especially holds true for the Navy, as you may have noticed in war movies like Battleship and Crimson Tide. While this practice may make for some dramatic moments on the silver screen, that's hardly its purpose. The military developed this particular Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for a simple and sobering reason: If a poorly relayed message results in the wrong action taken, the results can literally prove … [Read more...]

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Get Started Already!

Posted on 12/19/2012 by ·

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." -- Agatha Christie, British mystery novelist. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." -- Walt Disney, American animator. No matter how grandiose your plans or how carefully laid your schemes, they're worthless if you never shift gears from meditation into motion. You may have heard the old platitude, “Dreams are just goals without deadlines.” Yes, it’s true we all need to keep ourselves motivated as we work our way through life, but eventually, you've got to get off your duff and get moving. I'm not telling you to leap immediately into action without considering the consequences. I like to say, “Thoughtless action will benefit you no more than action-less thought.” But once you've gathered your resources, considered … [Read more...]

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How Can Partnerships Create Leverage?

Posted on 12/12/2012 by ·

"In this new wave of technology, you can't do it all yourself. You have to form alliances." -- Carlos Slim Helú, Mexican business magnate (and wealthiest person on Earth as of 2012) While individual effort serves as the foundation of all human activities, true accomplishment requires partnership. The trick here lies in figuring out how to cooperate in such a way that 1 + 1 = 3 or more. We call such leverage points synergy, wherein the whole exceeds the sum of its parts. So before you take on a prospective business partner, ask yourself these questions first: 1. How well do our strategic priorities align? Aligning strategy within one organization is hard enough, much less between two. The better your missions match up, the more likely you'll be able to leverage off each other. But don't … [Read more...]

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