Speaker: Laura Stack (SL: LauraStack Ghost) Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker. Where: Sun Campus in Second Life (SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun%20Microsystems%201/141/132/23) When: October 13, 2009 - 9am SLT / PT (check your local time) Topic: Digital Quicksand: Time-Draining Habits in a Web 2.0 World Businesses and individuals worldwide keep finding interesting ways to use social networks and other interactive online media to do some pretty amazing things – from building their brands to getting to know their customers. Like most technology, social networks and other social media tools are great resources but lousy masters. You could spend all day hopping around to different sites, updating your information, and connecting … [Read more...]
Time Management: Laura Stack Article Featured in Productive Magazine
The latest issue of Productive! Magazine features Laura Stack's article "I spend waaaaaay too much time on..." The digital magazine has already exceeded 6,000 downloads. Visit Productive! Magazine online at www.productivemagazine.com for your free digital subscription filled with great articles and tips on being more productive. Laura's featured article talks about time managment, what some of the biggest timewasters are, and how to avoid them. Enjoy! … [Read more...]
Personal Productivity: Why Greensizing is Productive
We all want to do our part to help the environment. But if you can give the Earth a break and increase your productivity at the same time, that’s a real no-brainer! Luckily, a lot of the things you can do to help sustain the planet can help sustain your productivity as well. Read on for tips on how to green-size your life and get more done at the same time. Use less paper. About 80 percent of papers that are filed are never referenced again. What a waste! A good solution? File less. An even better solution? Produce less paper to begin with. That doesn’t mean you have to constantly inconvenience yourself or feel guilty about ever sheet that comes off the printer. It just means you should think twice before you hit “print.” Do you really need a paper copy of that e-mail message or … [Read more...]
Increasing Productivity: I spend waaaaay too much time on…
I asked readers to fill in the blank on our last monthly survey and received some great responses. There were tons of interesting answers, but it didn’t take long to start seeing some patterns. Read on for the seven most common responses (and what you can do about them). 1. E-mail. Let’s face it. E-mail can be a phenomenal productivity tool, but it will eat your day alive if you let it. Lots of people complain that their overflowing inbox is beyond their control, but here are three steps you CAN take to start getting a handle on it right away: Do you keep one eye on your inbox all day long? What does that do to your productivity? If you drop everything and attend to every e-mail that comes in throughout the day, you are derailing your productivity, over and over again. Not … [Read more...]
Time Management: Ten Reasons Tasks Never Move off Your To-Do List (and how to fix it)
I recently surveyed my readers on the eternal question of productivity: Why is it that some things on your to-do list never get done? Some great responses rolled in, ranging from the classic (too many interruptions) to the matter-of-fact (I don’t feel like doing it). But as diverse as the responses were, it didn’t take long to see certain themes emerge. Below are the top ten issues at the heart of the problem and some guidance on how to deal with them. 1. You haven’t made the necessary decisions. Your to-do list should be full of clear, actionable ideas—in other words, things you can actually do. If you have a vague goal, like “Have a sale,” you’ve still got a lot of thinking to do before you can hit the ground running and make real progress. Take a minute to figure out exactly … [Read more...]
Microsoft Email: The Productivity Minute #12: Curing the “Reply to All” Sickness
Don't you hate it when someone sends an email to 15 people asking for input and someone hits "Reply to All" and creates a huge volley of 47 messages later? AAAAAAH! In this episode, Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), gives three better ways to handle email when you need to get ideas from a group of people. (C) 2009 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
Increasing productivity: 55-1/5 Ways to Boost Productivity Today!
Okay, let’s face it. We’re all trying to do more with less.And chances are that you and your company have already made the big, tough decisions needed to streamline operations. But what about the little things?You can still boost both personal and team productivity in lots of smaller ways that are easy to implement and provide immediate results. Read on for quick tips on getting more done. 1. Hit the ground running. Don’t waste the first hour of the day. As soon as you arrive, focus on getting something done before you even think about checking Facebook or dropping in on a coworker. 2. Decline a meeting. Meetings are necessary. Every meeting is not. Don’t automatically accept every meeting invitation you receive, especially if there is no clear agenda or outcome. 3. Close your e-mail. Do … [Read more...]
Workplace efficiency: 100 Awesome Cheat Sheets to Learn and Do Everything in Less Time
Forget multitasking: the real skill you need to compete in the business world and in life is efficiency. The ability to pick up new tricks and hacks quickly but effectively is priceless. This list of 100 awesome cheat sheets can help you to learn and do everything in less time, from working on your blog or designing a web page to losing weight and growing your own herb garden. … [Read more...]
The Productivity Minute #11: How to be Unproductive
If you were actually trying to be unproductive, what would you do? If someone were watching with a video camera from your ceiling, what behaviors would you change. Laura Stack dishes about participants in her time management seminars telling their secrets of how they waste time. And how their images of an unproductive day often resemble their actual days! (C) 2009 Laura Stack. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]
