The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

I will be on QVC between January 1 and January 8, 2009, selling my new Productivity Pro(R) branded Day-Timer.  In preparation, I’m conducting a brief survey about the to-do list habits of the typical person.  When you think of something you need to do, what do you usually do?  Please visit the survey on my LinkedIn page and respond to one of five choices.  Thank you for your assistance!

Working long hours and feeling like you aren’t accomplishing enough? Are you ready to learn to be more productive?  Laura Stack is presenting her flagship productivity class at a rare public seminar in Denver on Tuesday, December 9, 2008!

Here is your opportunity to learn from The Productivity Pro® herself.  Get the tools you need to become more productive at work so that you can achieve Maximum Results in Minimum Time® and Leave the Office Earlier®!

Ever had an argument with a colleague about the commas in a sentence like the following?   The battery pack gives you several options:  6 hours, 4 hours, 3 hours and 40 minutes, 2 hours and 45 minutes.  Is that four options or five options?  A comma before the last and makes it clear.   But do you ALWAYS need a comma before that last and?  Answer:  No, the serial comma is optional.  But you’re always safe to use it for clarity sake—as illustrated in the “battery-pack” sentence.

Here are a couple tips to prevent grammar gaffes and save you a few minutes in reaching for a reference book:

• The assure/insure/ensure dilemma:  (All three words mean to give a guarantee—but they aren’t interchangeable.) Use assure only when you’re referring to someone talking or writing.  Use insure only when you’re talking about a monetary payment.  Use ensure for all other situations.
• Myself or me?  Wrong:  For prompt payment, send the invoice to Kerry or myself.  Right:  For prompt payment, send the invoice to Kerry or me.   Never use myself unless I or me is already used in the sentence; it’s used to add emphasis to those words.  (Example:  I told him myself.)
• To Capitalize or Not?   Think “brand name” or generic.  If the word under consideration is the brand name of something, capitalize it.  If not, don’t.  Example:  He works at Universal as a vice president.  He works at my company as a vice president.  Vice President Jim Tuttle works in my department.

Need more help?  Booher’s Rules for Business Grammar: 101 Fast and Easy Ways to Correct the Most Common Errors  (McGraw-Hill) by Dianna Booher provides 101 more entertaining, brief chapters (most 1-2 pages) that focus on the common mistakes heard every day on the job.  The “memory tricks” at the end of each chapter solidify the rule for the next time and the next, saving you valuable look-up time!

(Another tip:  If you want to check for a skills gap in this area first, you can take a free online assessment at www.howsyourgrammar.com.)

With all the US Presidential election behind us, regardless of your political persuasion, let’s talk about the big message of the Obama campaign: change.  If you want to become more productive, you’ll have to be willing to make changes and create new, positive habits and leave old habits behind.  It is easy to become set in our ways and continue doing things the way we’ve always done them because, well, it’s how we’ve always done them.  I’ll take a line from Dr. Phil and ask “How’s that working for you?”  Content, satisfied people are not apt to make changes.  After all, if everything is going along swimmingly, what’s to change?  But people and organizations must continue to change for things to improve.  If your relationship with your significant other never changed, it would never grow stronger over the years.  If organizations didn’t change, the buggy whip industry would have died if it didn’t become the transportation industry.  If the company you work for doesn’t change, you should be very, very worried.

How do we get ourselves in the mindset where we are ready for change?  People are ready for change when the pain of not making a change outweighs the stress of actually taking the action to change.  Some people just naturally are go-getters and constantly seek ways of being more productive while most people need a little more motivation to change.  If you’re the latter, take some time to think about why you want to change.  I talked before about finding your “why.”  Once you’ve done that, it’s time to actually take the steps to make changes.

Don’t try to change EVERYTHING right now.  Pick a couple of things to work on over the next 21 days.  Make a concerted effort each day related to that habit you want to break or create and in just three short weeks, turn around and look at how far you’ve come.  Each time you take a step in the right direction, it will become easier to do more and eventually be as productive as you desire to be.

(C) 2008 Laura Stack.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

It’s only logical that the healthier you are, the more productive you can be.  Think about it - the last time you were ill, how much work did you really get done?  It is so easy today to neglect ourselves because we are “too busy” or “too tired.”  We’re coming up on that busy holiday time of the year where everyone seems harried and has too much to do.  The holiday season doesn’t have to be a drain.  Now is the time to take steps to keep yourself healthy!

1. Get enough sleep!  I know, easier said than done - but it is important!

2. Get your flu shot.  No, it isn’t fun, but neither is the flu. 

3. Don’t neglect your exercise routine.  It is easy during the holiday season to skip over your regular workouts.  Try to stick to your routine, and you’ll feel better!

4. Treat yourself but don’t overindulge.  It’s not easy to say no to pumpkin pie and mom’s specialty side-dishes.  Have some (it’s okay)…in moderation.

5. Say “No.”  There are invitations galore, requests for assistance, volunteer time and all sorts of demands on your time time during the holidays.  Do the things that give you joy and help your community, but again…in moderation.  Don’t neglect yourself and your family for the sake of something “good.”

You can keep up your energy levels throughout the holidays and not end up in burnout on January 1st!  If you haven’t yet, check out my latest book, The Exhaustion Cure.  You’ll find all sorts of ideas on how to stay healthy and energetic!

(C) 2008 Laura Stack.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

With the holiday season right around the corner, NOW is a great time to do some purging in the office and at home.  December is a big month for donating used materials, household items and clothing—not only because of the holiday spirit of giving—but because December 31 is the last day of the year to get in your tax-deductible donations!  With this in mind, do you really want to spend your precious holiday time frantically cleaning out your closets, office and basement, instead of spending it with family and friends?

So start now!  Do just a bit at a time so as not to become overwhelmed, but still in time to get it all done well before the end of the year.  Pick one place to start like your office or your bedroom closet, or your kitchen cupboards.  Really take stock of what is there.  If it hasn’t been worn, used or otherwise useful in the past year but is still in good condition it will surely benefit someone else.  Call your local ARC, Salvation Army, DAV or similar organization and find out if they pick up at your home.  This can save you the time and hassle of putting everything in your car and getting it someplace.  They will give you a date and you simply place it all in bags or boxes on your front porch and VOILA!  It’s gone!  Over the next couple of weeks try spending just 15 minutes at a time in each area. You’ll be amazed at how much you get done, how much you find to donate, and how good you’ll feel when you have less clutter, more space and have done something to help another person.  Get it done before the holiday season starts and you’ll have more time to spend with loved ones!

(C) 2008 Laura Stack.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

Humor in the workplace is a productive thing, according to Psychologist Maren Rawlings from Swinburne University of Technology.  In a recent study, Rawlings “found a direct correlation between the climate of good humor in a workplace and employee satisfaction.”  Previous research found a link between job satisfaction and productivity, so the logical leap is that humor is good for productivity.  Of course this doesn’t mean we can spend our entire days cracking jokes, but it says to me that we can lighten up and laugh a little.  Rawlings also noted “If employers take measures to encourage a positive humor climate in the workplace, they are more likely to retain their staff.” Keeping the staff you have rather than experiencing turnover is clearly more productive than re-hiring and training new folks. 

Find creative ways to lighten things up around the office.  My assistant told me of a place she used to work where the Sales Director hung a punching bag in the doorway to his office so that his sales reps could take out their frustrations on it.  The same Sales Director, when sales were dragging, decided that if sales were dragging, it was time to have sales “in drag”…so the reps came to the office the next day in gender-bending outfits.  Everyone laughed and had a great time, and my assistant tells me they hit a sales record that month.  It is no big secret that when people are enjoying themselves, they can get more done and stay positive about what they are doing.  Have some fun at work.  It’s allowed, really!

Times are uncertain. The news programs and websites are all gloom and doom, full of distractions with the financial “crisis” and the upcoming elections. How do we stay productive when Chicken Little is screaming “the sky is falling”? Turn it all off, at least for a while.  Stay off the news websites during the work day. Schedule yourself for some time to read up on the candidates, ballot issues and news that is important to you, but outside of that, turn it off. Keeping the TV on and constantly being on news websites is information overload that creates undue stress. What’s going to happen is going to happen and you watching it unfold on CNN is not going to change anything. What we CAN do to help is to stay productive so that our businesses and households are as healthy as they can be. “But, there are things in the news I want to read/see,” you say? Then create a Google alert at www.google.com to search for for news, articles and blogs on the topics you choose sent straight to your inbox. That way you avoid the clutter on the front page of MSNBC or CNN which can distract you from the tasks at hand. I’m not saying it is not important to remain informed about what’s happening in the country and the world. We just need to control the time we spend on news and television. Our productivity boosts when we are healthy and not over-stressed about things we cannot control. So, skip the news tonight and go for a walk with a loved one.

(C) 2008 Laura Stack. www.TheProductivityPro.com

Why is productivity important?  More importantly, why is productivity important to you?  There is not just one pat answer to this question.  My “why” is likely different than your “why.”  One of the keys to productivity is finding YOUR “why.”  For most people, an external reason like “My boss expects more of me” is not always the most motivating factor.  For me, getting to the heart of why I do what I do is most motivating.  Is the need to be more productive exciting and motivating to you, or does it drain and exhaust you just thinking about it?  If the latter is true for you, perhaps you haven’t gotten clear on why being productive is important.

It all comes down to your personal goals and what you want the picture of your life to look like.  Sure, you may need to be more productive at work to make your boss happy or boost company revenues.  How can you turn it around and make it important to you personally?  If time with your family is what motivates you, make getting things done at work about finishing that project on time so that you can enjoy your weekend free from work stress. If making more money is what drives you, give yourself achievable daily or even hourly goals of what you need to accomplish to make those extra sales.  Search yourself and find what truly motivates you, then try to relate each task to a goal you have set for yourself – not a goal someone else has set for you.  For example, if you are in sales, your organization sets a sales goal for you.  Absolutely do your best to achieve that – but at the same time make it about you.  How many sales do you need to earn the commissions to take that family vacation or buy that fabulous pair of shoes?

It’s only human to be motivated by what feels good.  Use that.  What makes you feel good?  Know that each task you accomplish, however difficult or dull, gets you closer to that great feeling.  Figure out how productivity relates to your personal goals and the quest for it becomes exciting, rather than overwhelming.

(C) 2008 Laura Stack.  All rights reserved.  www.TheProductivityPro.com

I found this article at BNET.com very interesting.  Separating hours on the job from results has been a boost to productivity in many situations.  Outside of the service based or retail environments, should our productivity be based on hours spend on the job, or on what is accomplished?  Some companies, like Best Buy, have implemented the Results-Only Work Environment or “ROWE,” and finding success.  When I chat with audience members after giving a keynote speech, they tell me about coworkers who spend 10-12 hours a day in the office and get nothing done.  That’s because being physically in the office has little to do with productivity.  Some people can be there ten hours a day and get virtually nothing done, while others can accomplish great amounts of work in just a few hours.   Part of the trick to getting a ROWE culture to work is figuring out how to measure results.  Some business results are easier to measure than others, such as number of orders processed, or increase in revenue.  In a 2006 article in Business Week, Best Buy reported a 13%-18% increase in orders processed by people who worked out of the office most often.  Businesses moving towards the ROWE culture are not only reporting increased productivity, but are also reporting lower employee turnover.  As companies work to adjust to the “Gen Why” workers and their styles, it will be interesting to see how many companies move towards this.  (C) 2008 Laura Stack. www.TheProductivityPro.com