Why do distractions and interruptions tend to disrupt our focus so easily? The answer is at least partly biological. Despite modern myth, the brain isn't a marvel of infinite capacity; we are, after all, only human, with all the limitations that implies. One limitation lies in our capacity to process what's happening in the world around us. We're flooded with so much sensory data at any one time that our brains have to filter out most of it to avoid overload, working with what's left to create a structured reality that we can function within. One result, as Winifred Gallagher points out in her intriguing book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, is that "when you focus, you're spending cognitive currency that should be wisely invested, because the stakes are high." That is, you have … [Read more...]
Productivity Minute Video: Don’t Overload Yourself
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) talks about doing too much. You can't be productive if you're overloaded. (C) 2011 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
Dealing With Distractions and Interruptions: Strategies for Staying Focused on Important Tasks
More than ever, modern workers are bedeviled by distractions and interruptions that pull us away from the key activities of our jobs. If it's not your noisy office-mates, it's the siren song of the Internet, or an over-fascination with email. Therefore, it's imperative that you learn to trim your activities down to the few things that are truly important, so you can actually get your job done and become both the envy of your peers and the apple of your boss's eye. Proper focus requires discipline and mastery to achieve, like any other skill. In this article, I'll help you get started in your quest to wield your focus like a blade, stripping away the things that keep you from getting your work done on time and under budget. Let's start with one of the worse culprits: your … [Read more...]
Business Time Management For Sales People: Freeing Up Your Time to Sell
In sales, there will always be more things to do than time to do them. Working longer isn't going to save you. (I’d bet you’ve never gone to sleep at the end of a long day with everything on your to-do list completed.) To counter this never-ending battle, you’ll need to learn to be more efficient and get your work done in less time. Always keep in mind that it doesn’t matter if you worked a 12-hour day if 10 of those hours didn’t involve tasks that translate into revenue. To free up more time for client acquisition (asking for referrals, calling prospects, networking, etc.), you must decrease time spent on administrivia and increase time spent on the selling function. If you can figure out how to be more productive during the day and achieve greater results in less time, you can leave … [Read more...]
Business Productivity: Four Productive Networking Tips
"It isn't just what you know, and it isn't just who you know. It's actually who you know, who knows you, and what you do for a living." -- Bob Burg, American business writer "Your power is almost directly proportional to the thickness of your Rolodex, and the time you spend maintaining it. Put bluntly, the most potent people I've known have been the best networkers -- they 'know everybody from everywhere' and have just been out to lunch with most of them." -- Tom Peters, American business writer "The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity." -- Keith Ferrazzi, American marketing consultant and author Make no mistake: who you are and what you know, and the facility and flair with which you wield both your talent and knowledge, are key contributors to your success in … [Read more...]
Video from SHRM Talent Management Conference
After speaking at the SHRM Talent Management conference last week, Laura Stack discusses the ways HR professionals are using her best-selling book, SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best. … [Read more...]
Cleaning Out Your Life and Purging Things You Don’t Need
"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." -- Hans Hoffman, American abstract painter "As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness." -- Henry David Thoreau "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." -- Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher We've all heard the lifestyle guru's favorite mantra: "Simply, simply, simplify," after that paragon of simplicity himself, Thoreau. That's actually pretty good advice, and not just for your personal life. Simplifying has its place in the office as well; in fact, it may be more critical there than elsewhere, since it's another part of the grand mosaic that results in … [Read more...]
Productivity Minute Video: Lurking Stressors
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) talks about lurking stressors and how they affect our productivity. (C) 2011 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
The Productive Entrepreneur: Run Your 1-Person Business Like a 3-Person Business
While it's wonderful not to have to worry about the drama or indignities of the typical corporate job, as a "solopreneur," you face certain difficulties that larger businesses don't—not least the fact that you have to wear all the hats at once. Obviously, that's not an impossible task; at last count, there were about 20 million single-person businesses in the USA, accounting for a whopping three-quarters of all businesses. This does not, however, mean that it's easy. If you expect to succeed as an entrepreneur, hard work is a given. Now, we've all heard the business cliché "Work smarter, not harder"—and while that statement does hold a grain of truth, you actually have to do both. True productivity means working hard by working smart, using every business technique you can implement as … [Read more...]
Office Productivity: How to Turn an Unproductive Day Around
"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop." -- Ovid, Roman poet "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." -- Will Rogers, American humorist. "Oh that it were my chief delight/To do the things that I ought!/Then let me try with all my might/To mind what I am taught." Jane Taylor, English poet Inevitably, you'll experience days when time just seems to run away from you, or you hit an invisible wall and can't get past it, or accomplishing anything is like pulling teeth: laborious, slow, and painful. Maybe you're distracted, or you feel a bit under the weather, or you're just mad at the world. Whatever the cause, it adds up to "one of those days" when nothing of value gets done. You don't have to accept that. Here are a few things … [Read more...]
