"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...]
Productivity Minute Video: Get a Move on and Make a Decision
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...]
Productivity Minute Video: Do Things In Order of Importance
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...]
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...]
Increasing Productivity: Productivity Minute Video: Create a Process to Simplify the Task
Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro(R), shares tips on increasing efficiency by creating processes in order to simplify tasks. (C) 2010 Laura Stack, All Rights Reserved … [Read more...]
Increasing Productivity: Five Things to Do at Work Every Day to Boost Productivity
"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." -- Paul J. Meyer, American businessman "There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back." -- Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, authors of Peopleware. "Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible." George Claude Lorimer, American pastor Are you working at your maximum level of productivity? That's a question some people don't like to hear; they get all prickly if you even suggest that they're doing less than their best at all times. But as a productivity expert, I know how easy it is to get overwhelmed by minutiae. It happens to the best of us. I imagine you've probably … [Read more...]
