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Dealing With Distractions and Interruptions: Strategies for Staying Focused on Important Tasks

Posted on 05/05/2011 by ·
Dealing With Distractions and Interruptions: Strategies for Staying Focused on Important Tasks by Laura Stack #productivity

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...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: , , ,

Business Time Management For Sales People: Freeing Up Your Time to Sell

Posted on 05/03/2011 by ·

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...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity, Tools & Systems · Tagged: ,

Business Productivity: Four Productive Networking Tips

Posted on 04/27/2011 by ·

"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...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity ·

Video from SHRM Talent Management Conference

Posted on 04/20/2011 by ·

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...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged:

Cleaning Out Your Life and Purging Things You Don’t Need

Posted on 04/15/2011 by ·

"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...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity, Tools & Systems · Tagged:

Productivity Minute Video: Lurking Stressors

Posted on 04/11/2011 by ·

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...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity ·

Productivity Minute Video: Get a Move on and Make a Decision

Posted on 04/08/2011 by ·

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) talks about the importance of making decisions so your productivity doesn't get stopped in its tracks. (C) 2011 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged:

Productivity Minute Video: Do Things In Order of Importance

Posted on 04/05/2011 by ·

Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R) gives advice on prioritizing so your most important tasks get done. (C) 2011 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Management · Tagged:

The Productive Entrepreneur: Run Your 1-Person Business Like a 3-Person Business

Posted on 04/05/2011 by ·
The Productive Entrepreneur: Run Your 1-Person Business Like a 3-Person Business by Laura Stack #productivity

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...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Office Productivity: How to Turn an Unproductive Day Around

Posted on 03/24/2011 by ·

"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...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: