Investigate the link between color and worker productivity, and you'll keep coming across the name of Dr. Nancy Kwallek, Director of the Interior Design program at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Architecture. In a recent study, she had workers do mundane clerical tasks in offices with several different color schemes and discovered that white is absolutely the worst color for productivity—at first. After being exposed to an all-white environment for a while, most workers adjusted just fine. For those who could screen out their environment from the beginning, however, bright colors were more effective, since they seem to stimulate people in general. Those more easily distracted by the environment did better in rooms painted a cooler color, like blue-green. Ultimately, however, … [Read more...]
What color scheme is best for personal productivity: decorating your office for productivity
Find More Time to Socialize: 8 Time-Savers for a Better Social Life
Here's a great article in Fitness Magazine.com on how to make time for your friends and family without getting overscheduled. Oh, wait! I'm quoted in it. :-) Enjoy! … [Read more...]
66 Rules to Boost Personal Productivity — Steve Pavlina
I recommend subscribing to Steve Pavlina's blog. He recently posted two fun articles on 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity volumes 1 and 2 (66 total). His first tip "Nuke it" gives you a flavor of the list. (I call this one "Purposeful Abandonment"---it's an essential productivity tool---always asking yourself, "If I didn't do this at all, would anyone notice?") There isn't really any new thinking here (it's a compilation of common tips in book report style he's titled something different), but it's a good summary. Not all of his tips will work for you, of course, but approach it like a cafeteria: take what you like and leave the rest. … [Read more...]
Do allergies reduce productivity?
Now here's a pharmeceutical company selling non-drowsy allergy medication that came up with the 2007 Reactine Quality of Life Report and the impact allergies have on sufferers of the condition. Highlights from the report include: - Allergic and Unbearable. Three out of four Canadians with allergies say symptoms increase irritability and fatigue, and 55 per cent claim reduced productivity (housework; on-the-job, academia). - It's not in Your Head: And this doesn't come as a surprise to health experts. This season 71 per cent of health professionals agree allergies can regularly or often affect a person's … [Read more...]
Stop Being Late: Time Management for Tardy People
Here's a nice article on 5 Ways to Stop Being Late. Made me start thinking about punctuality. A quiet amusement of mine is to watch the expression of people who arrive late for my time management seminars. Tail between the legs, these people shuffle in sheepishly mumbling something about traffic, while their friends tease, “How can you be late for a time management class?” The number one complaint I receive from managers who hire me to coach their staff on performance is something around “the inability to meet deadlines, is always late, is constantly running behind, or he/she forgot.” There are actually three types of people I see: 1. “Late” people are typically perpetually late, for everything. 2. “On time” … [Read more...]
What To Do With Low Priority Items On Your To-Do List
You already know you should work on the most important things—duh—but are you doing it? The next big question becomes—what should you do with all the lower-priority items? Here are some questions to get you started thinking about what to do with the rest of your list: Can you give it to someone else to do? Your goal is to push the activity to the lowest pay possible without compromising the result. I used to pick up my mail every evening—an important task—and sort it and get it to the right people. Once I relinquished a bit of my obsessive control over the process, trained my assistant Dana how to do it, and resisted the urge to go to the mailbox at the end of the day, I saved about twenty minutes a day. She picks it up on her way into the office, and after several months, there hasn't … [Read more...]
Japanese organization helps men leave the office earlier
An article called "Japanese Housewives Win Right to Share of Ex-Husbands' Pensions" describes a new law now in effect in Japan to allow Japanese women to take half of a man's pension following divorce, women are filing in droves. In response, a new organization was established called Japan Aisaika -- the Devoted Husband Organization -- to urge men to leave the office earlier and change the way they behave at home. The group encourages husbands to stop being such workaholics, pay more attention to their families, and when they retire, become more independent and stop hanging around the house so much, which creates "husband at home stress syndrome" in women who have been used to their workaholic husbands never being home. Finally! A law that … [Read more...]
Self-discipline and time management
When you promise someone you will complete a task by a certain timeframe, do you do it? Or does the deadline slip past once again, with you muttering to yourself, “Stupid! What is wrong with you?” Now you aren’t able to focus on anything, always aware of this dark cloud hanging over your head. Guilt sucks the energy right out of you! Instead, decide today that you are going to be a person of your word. Are you reliable? Can people count on you to do what you say you're going to do? Do you have integrity and keep the deadlines you promise? What's others' perception of you? Do you live out what you affirm? Do you do what you complain about in others? What things do people "jokingly" say about you and your … [Read more...]
How Does Clothing Affect Personal Productivity and Energy?
Not only can Western society’s work ethic be rigid, but so can our clothing. There’s a reason that casual Friday was invented—it’s because we finally followed our intuition that uncomfortable clothing restricts our energy flow! In the 70’s movie Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman dresses up as a woman to get a job. While he’s donning women’s apparel he says something akin to, “Who’s the misogynist bastard who invented high heels?!” In my opinion, high heels and bras are tangible proof of evil. Wearing high heels on a regular basis can cause serious foot problems such as hammertoes, bunions, corns, calluses, Achilles problems, growth of nerve tissue called neuromas, and even stress fractures.[i] And that’s just your feet! High heels also cause knee … [Read more...]
Delegate instead of DO
When I first started my professional speaking business in 1992, I did everything myself. I hired my first employee in 1998, and after six years of flying solo, it was admittedly hard to let go. But I knew if the business was to grow, I was going to have to stop going to the post office, making copies, and getting the copy machine repaired. As you change positions in your company, your level of delegation must shift if you are to have any time to yourself. You must become a leader instead of a doer and get work accomplished through other people. If you try to do too many jobs at once, it’s like spinning china plates on sticks: the longer you keep it up, the greater the odds of a crash. The great philosopher Virgil said long ago, “We are all not capable of … [Read more...]
