blog.
Capitalizing on Strengths
Do you feel “stuck” in a job? Even before the workday is done, can you hardly wait to get out of the office? If so, you may be in the wrong job.
Feeling stuck may be a sign that you are not using your strengths on the job. If you aren’t using your strengths, resentment builds and frustration ensues. Not only that, you are not being productive on the job – think “deadwood” and you’ll get the idea! Let me explain…
Best Time Efficiency Hacks for the Generations
How do you save time? This depends on who you speak to and their age. Each generation has an affinity for different efficiency tools and techniques.
Overpowering Boredom
Many people experience boredom, but did you know that there are different types of boredom? And that each of us usually experiences a specific “type” of boredom consistent with our personalities?
Types of Clients
Let’s face it. There are clients and then there are clients. The great clients (or customers) are those that are ready, willing, and able to work with experts to achieve organizational efficiencies.
And then there are clients who fall short on anything from initial meeting to following through with an expert’s recommendations – these latter clients are wasting not only the expert’s time, but their own, as well.
As experts in our various fields of work, we have all run into a variety of clients. Here are some of the more common types – if you’re a client, maybe you see yourself in one or more of these descriptions:…
Taming Insomnia to Improve Productivity
There are so many reasons to get a good night’s sleep: you feel better, you look better, you perform better, people like being around you … in short, sleep allows us to be our best self. And the benefits of quality sleep extend beyond feelings - ranging from reducing stress to improving productivity.
Most healthy adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. When we lose even one hour of sleep, we experience fatigue the next day and our ability to function may be as effective as an individual whose blood alcohol level is .08.
Improving Work Performance
How’s your productivity? Does the mere mention of the word stir unease? And what about all those uber-organized work colleagues? How is it that they really seem to be on top of their work and, yet, here you are constantly struggling to keep up?
You may be surprised to learn that there’s no secret to improving work performance. It’s all about being organized. And the best part of all is that it’s a skill that anyone can learn.
The Problem with Problems
Have you ever had one of those days when everything seems to be a problem? Your children are late for school, you miss the bus, and as you arrive at work, you realize that you forgot your meeting notes at home.
On top of that, two of your employees call in sick and before you get a chance to browse your e-mail inbox, your spouse calls asking if you can pick up your son from school because he’s sick. OMG, right?
If you determine that the above scenario qualifies as a problem(s) (i.e., one of “those” days!), you are using what experts call “deficit thinking.” That is, by focusing on problems, our plans of action will be concerned with fixing the problem or correcting the “deficit.” This kind of thinking can be seen not only in our personal lives, but in our organizations, as well.
The Key to Productivity
Do you remember the last time you were faced with a task that you didn’t particularly enjoy? Do you remember what you did? If you completed the task, it’s because you started working on it and didn’t stop until the job was done.
“Starting” is the key to productivity.
Not all Priorities are Created Equal
Many clients ask me how I manage to juggle so many competing priorities—they seem to think that I’m always multi-tasking. My response is that not all priorities are the same and you can only work on one priority at any given time. Let me explain.
Interpersonal Communication and Productivity
Stephen Covey got it right—Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Many of us forget the importance of truly trying to understand the speaker before offering up our comments. Without this understanding, we set ourselves up for ineffective interpersonal communication.
What happens when we don’t understand the message? We jump to conclusions and we misdiagnose. This is like diagnosing symptoms as problems, rather than getting to the root of the symptoms to find the problems. Our tendency to rush to fix what’s on the surface can get us into trouble. This is why communication is so important.
The Little Things ARE Important
When we focus on getting things done, we typically focus on allotting time for the important and time-consuming tasks. If it’s very important and it’s going to take a long time, we must get it done first, right? Yes and no.
In prioritizing, it is easy to forget to take care of work that can be done in a minute or two; regardless of its importance. When we consistently defer doing the little things, they can become big things. And big things can be a lot harder to manage.
Controlling Time
A search on amazon.ca returned 68,588 books relating to time management and a similar search on amazon.com returned 108,557 titles. The prevalence of these resources seems to indicate that we have a problem in understanding how to manage our time.
Psychology Today defines time management as the “ability to plan and control how you spend the hours in your day to effectively accomplish your goals.” In short, if you don’t set goals, you are more likely to have time management problems. But research also shows that even those who set goals can struggle with time.
Perhaps the question that needs to be addressed is not how to manage time, but how individuals need to manage themselves to achieve their goals. If achieving goals is the (pardon the pun) goal.
How are you managing yourself? Does your typical day start with checking e-mail and then tweeting about last night’s party? Do you browse Facebook to catch up on what your hundreds of friends did over the weekend? Or do you review the list you created last night outlining your priorities for today?
Triage—Best Served Regularly
Triage helps us decipher between the important and unimportant and is essential to ensuring we do the right work at the right time and to/for the right person/thing. But be aware: Avoid the trap of triaging work just for the sake of keeping workflow moving.
The Good and Bad of Habits
Habits allow us to not “think” about what we are doing, they’re an automatic response to stimuli. They can be useful when we are engaged in rote or mundane activities like the way we get up in the morning, the way we shower, or the way we clean the house. Because we don’t have to think about these activities, we can do them quickly and free our mind to think about other things such as planning our day.
Crises are Created When the Important is Ignored
I keep coming back to lists. Complete lists. This means writing down all the things that need to be done. Whether things need doing now, next week, next month, or next year, they need to be on your list. Why? Because if they’re not on a list, there is a good chance that you will forget about them. And when that happens, you have a crisis on your hands.
Relax to Gain Power
Productivity is directly proportional to your ability to control stress. That is, the more you are able to control your stress, the greater your productivity. And with greater productivity comes greater power.
It’s not sex. It’s not drinking. It’s stress and it’s soaring.
A recent study shows that six in ten workers in major global economies are experiencing increased workplace stress. China (86%) has the highest rise in workplace stress (source: The Regus Group). The American Institute of Stress reports that 80% of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress. And 42% say their co-workers need such help.
What is causing all this stress?
Brain Dumps - Key to Being Organized
Many of us have participated in a brainstorming exercise at some point in our business careers. In fact, brainstorming seems to be the preferred technique by which organizations generate creative ideas and solutions for problems. However, it may surprise you to learn that brainstorming is no more effective for developing creative ideas than having individuals work on their own.
Kill the Waste Quadrant to Improve Efficiency
The time management matrix isn't new. Stephen Covey introduced it in the 1980s. And I bet that you understand time management skills. So why then is it so difficult to implement these skills? I believe it is because people become overwhelmed by their important and urgent tasks, so they resort to tasks of least resistance - those taks that are not important and not urgent - the "waste" tasks. Let's have a look at the time management matrix to better understand the "waste" quadrant…