Productivity Keynote Speaker Leadership, Sales, & Team Productivity Expert
Maximum Results. Minimum Time.®
303-471-7401

You are here: Home / Archives for Performance

Uncomfortable Productivity: Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone for Maximum Effect

Posted on 05/22/2013 by ·

"People who never make mistakes never make anything else either." -- Adrian Savage, Anglo-American business writer. "The comfort zone is the great enemy to creativity; moving beyond it necessitates intuition, which in turn configures new perspectives and conquers fears." -- Dan Stevens, British actor. Comfort may be nice when snuggling into bed, but in the workplace it leads to laziness, complacency, and stagnation. To get ahead (much less retain your current place in the line-up), you need to get on the ball and regularly step outside your Comfort Zone. If you don't make what some of my colleagues call "Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals" and enthusiastically reach for the brass ring as it comes around, you'll soon develop an aversion to risk—a crutch that limits both productivity and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: ,

Increasing Creativity in Your Organization: Six Ways to Spark Innovative Thinking

Posted on 04/24/2013 by ·

"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." -- André Gide, French author (winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947). "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." -- Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and poet. While the business environment requires a certain level of built-in routine in order to maximize productivity, that doesn't mean you can't have creative fun at work. Remember what Peter Drucker taught us: "The business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation." So what does that have to do with creativity? Just this: when you reduce it to its essentials, innovation is creativity. Innovation facilitates the agility and flexibility all organizations require to survive. So … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , ,

How to Determine How Much Work is Enough Each Day: What is the Limit to Your Productivity?

Posted on 04/19/2013 by ·

"Too much work and too much energy kill a man just as effectively as too much assorted vice or too much drink." -- Rudyard Kipling, British author. "Don't smoke too much, drink too much, eat too much, or work too much. We're all on the road to the grave—but there's no need to be in the passing lane." -- Robert Orben, American humorist. Recently, I held a public seminar where one of the participants posed an interesting question to me in the Q&A section: “Laura, how much work is enough? I could work 16 hours a day, but I'm not sure when to stop! What is a good gauge?” What a great question! One of the audience members said (only half-jokingly), "I stop when I finish my to-do list or can't stay awake any longer." In my case, it depends: I work constantly and consistently when I travel … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Rising from the Ashes

Posted on 02/25/2013 by ·

In the modern business world, we sometimes tout failure as a virtue that almost inevitably leads to success. Popular examples include Thomas Edison's 1,000+ unsuccessful attempts to improve the light bulb before hitting on the right solution, and Bill Gates' unsuccessful first business. Experts tell us repeatedly to fail forward, to fail as fast as possible, to dare to fail—because it makes us smarter and better in the long run. So it was refreshing to encounter a Harvard Business School working paper called "Performance Persistence in Entrepreneurship" that takes the opposite perspective.[i] The authors discovered that brand-new entrepreneurs succeeded just about as often as those who had tried before and failed (18% vs. 20%). The most successful entrepreneurs were those who had already … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Look Back on 2012 and Look Forward to 2013

Posted on 12/26/2012 by ·

"Life is divided into three terms---that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future." -- William Wordsworth, British poet. If you're anything like me, you recently looked up and wondered (or said aloud to a friend), "Hey, what the heck happened to 2012?" As we all know from experience, time really does fly when you're having fun. When it also flies at work, that’s a good thing, because you know work fascinates you nearly as much as play. Wonderful news, right? Be careful here: just because you've kept busy and enjoy what you do doesn't mean you've actually accomplished anything lately. To get ahead, we have to leverage our past experiences to gain an advantage in the future. So as you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: ,

Decluttering

Posted on 11/30/2012 by ·

Get rid of 25% of your books, tools, sporting equipment and so on.  You'll have fewer things, but you'll use a higher percentage of what's left. For more productivity tips, follow us on Twitter, and sign up for the weekly Productivity Pro newsletter.   … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: ,

Think Beyond Your Desk: Applying Cross-Functional Thinking to the Workplace

Posted on 11/12/2012 by ·

"No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it." -- H.E. Luccock, former Professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School. In 1988, the great Peter Drucker predicted in a famous article, "The Coming of the New Organization," that most organizations would have embraced cross-functionality within 20 years. In contrast to the purely functional ethic defined by Adam Smith and Frederick Taylor, businesses would more readily coordinate and share tasks across all levels, increasing response time for the customer's benefit. As visionary as he was, Drucker missed the boat here. While most business schools do emphasize the cross-functional approach nowadays, relatively few real-world organizations practice it in any significant way. Indeed, corporate training often teaches the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: ,

Top Ten Things to Do Before Ten to Ensure a Productive Day

Posted on 09/17/2012 by ·

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." -- Benjamin Franklin, U.S. publisher and Founding Father. "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." -- Mark Twain, American humorist.   Whether you achieve full alertness within minutes of waking up or require a caffeine infusion before you can think straight (like me), the early morning hours represent a crucial productivity period. What you accomplish in the first few hours after rising can set the tone for your entire day's productivity at work. New research into sleep habits emphasizes the value of early-morning productivity. According to a recent study in the journal Emotion, early risers … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: ,

Stuck Waiting for Information

Posted on 09/13/2012 by ·

Laura Stack,The Productivity Pro(R) Gives advice on what to do when waiting on someone for information you need to finish a project. (C) 2012 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. https://theproductivitypro.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged:

A Booster Shot for Your Productivity

Posted on 09/12/2012 by ·

"Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite." -- Paul Gauguin, French Post-Impressionist painter. Feeling off track lately? Have you fallen into an unproductive rut you just can't escape? Well, then—you could use a productivity booster shot! By adopting just a few generalized tactics, you can clear up those cloudy productivity skies and let the sunlight of your hard-earned time management skills shine through.   Include in your vaccine these four multi-positive strategies—good habits that boost productivity in a number of ways. Get healthy. Admit it: your productivity takes a nosedive when you feel poorly—whether you've got a touch of the flu, didn't sleep well the night before, or simply don't have … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Performance · Tagged: