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
Posted on 05/01/2007 by ·
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
Posted on 04/18/2007 by ·
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
Posted on 04/03/2007 by ·
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
Posted on 03/28/2007 by ·
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?
Posted on 03/26/2007 by ·
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
Posted on 03/22/2007 by ·
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...]
Workstation design: creative or unprofessional?
Posted on 03/20/2007 by ·
I'm quoted in the Alabama Press-Register in an article by Kaija Wilkinson called "Express Yourself," discussing productivity in office cublicles or "workstations" as they are called today. She discusses how neat they should be, configuration, use of personal items, and design. Pretty good article. I come across as a bit of a neat freak, so I wanted to provide some additional commentary on why I think it's a good idea to maintain a neat workstation. Order is your ability to sort, filter, and process information effectively. It’s also your ability to FIND what you want, when you want it. It’s how tidy your work areas look, inside and out. I believe a messy office is a career detriment. I can’t tell you how many negative comments I hear, such as, … [Read more...]
Make Productive Use of Driving and Commuting Time
Posted on 03/15/2007 by ·
Travel time can seem like wasted time! I like being a passenger in a car much better than a driver because I can observe the scenery, read a magazine, and catch up on phone calls. As the driver, you can’t do anything (safely) that requires your hands or eyes. You’re strapped into your car seat without much to look at except the bumper in front of you. So there’s nothing you can do, right? Wrong! Try these activities during long commute times: Use the phone. Now I’m one of those people who get aggravated while people are chatting away on their cell phones while driving…generally because they’re not, well, driving. Many people have no idea how slowly they’re going while they’re on the phone. Plus talking on the phone has proven to be unsafe, and many states have passed ordinances … [Read more...]
Employee perks: complaining in first class
Posted on 03/12/2007 by ·
I love sitting in first class on an airplane. By policy, I travel coach to my speaking engagements. Occasionally, I will earn enough upgrade certificates in my mileage program to upgrade myself to first class, even though I’m only paying for a coach ticket. I feel blessed each time I get to sit there and would expect others feel the same way. But today I had a seatmate who complained about everything—the seats, the food, and the lack of choices on the menu. Excuse me? A lack of choices? The people in coach are jealous that you even have food! And this guy’s complaining about sitting in first class. Are you that way? Are you complaining in first class? I give training seminars at an accounting firm in Denver that has received the … [Read more...]
