I am loath to post a “New Year’s Resolution” article. Instead, I want to give you something to consider for making any type of change easier. Change Management Arc As a time management coach, it is my job to help people change the way they manage their day. Change is hard because it forces us[…]
The Issue – Drive-By Distractions One of the greatest distractions in the workplace occurs when people pass by our office. We often catch their eye and they come in or they just come in one their own accord. Either way we’re the victim of a drive-by distraction. One option is to close the door. However,[…]
Face it. Texting is here to stay. Love it or hate it, it’s just another chapter in the long history of faster, more mobile communication technologies that started with messengers running across the Greek mountains between rulers. Whether we’re using the “old school” flip-phone style of texting or the update-to-date smartphone with its virtual keyboard, nearly everyone is texting, at least to a very small group of people. In fact, the only people I know who aren’t are my parents. That’s because my Mom can’t stay focused long enough on the “how” to make it happen!
It occurred to me while deplaning the other day and watching everyone check their messages – text and voice – that if done properly, texting can actually improve how well we communicate with each other. The reasons lie in the technology’s (perceived) limits of 140-160 characters and in the nature of short-burst opportunities occasioned by its mobility.
Below are the time management suggestions I most often give to my speaking and training audiences. Whenever I deliver these, I implore people to Adopt, Adapt, Reject any or all of them. What I mean is:
We just moved into our next “forever” home. Seems like the only “forever” is the moving part. But that’s not the point of this missive. The point here is to describe THE three characteristics every home office should possess to be highly effective.
The background on this is that I work from home when I’m not on the road. In the last seven years of working from home, my “office” address has changed five times. Thus, I’ve become quite an expert at setting up home offices. Here are the three characteristics I found to be crucial to creating and working effectively in a home office.
My inbound marketing coach, Mike Redbord, at HubSpot recently observed that I was an “average” blogger. The trouble is that he’s right! I post a new blog article about every seven to ten days and most of them are somewhat long…ish, averaging in the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,200 words each. Who’s got that much time anymore?
Mike’s okay with my blogging since we’re going to focus our work more on the static content pages of my web site – with the view of increasing the number of people contacting me to learn more about my non-blogging services. That is, the ones I get paid for! But his words haunted me all weekend and it slowly dawned on me that his message to me and my message to my clients are very similar – small, incremental change aggregates into large benefit.
With that in mind, here’s a short snippet of thought to consider.
Take a mini-breaks throughout the day. That’s the message in this short article on how to better manage your schedule to increase productivity and reduce stress.
Responsiveness is different than responding. Responding is an acknowledgement like “Okay, I’ll get right on that.” Responsiveness is a substantive communication, such as, “I’ve reviewed the materials you sent me and I think we should go forward.” We spend much of our day responding to others, but it’s when we’re truly responsive that we’re being[…]
We are bombarded by interruptions and distractions all day long. They affect our focus and cause us to lose time getting back up to speed. If we can increase our productivity by just six minutes each day, we’ll increase our productivity by 24 hours each year. That’s three days of production this year over last![…]
We entered the workforce well educated, but few entered well skilled. Gaining skills on the subject matter of your job is critically important, but so too are skills for managing how you actually get your work done. Workflow processing and organizational skills focus on the actual completion of your work – how efficiently you accomplish[…]