7 Ways To Be Productive At Work
October 5, 2009
Studies show that more than half the day is "wasted" in non-productive work. Does that surprise you?
Well let’s take a look at your typical work day. How much time do you actually spend on doing productive work (whether you work from home or at the office)?
Before you start work, there is always the coffee making, the chat chatting at the break out area. Then you get back to your desk and start going through your mails. And you may also have a little catch up conversation with the colleague who is sitting next to you.
Then you are ready to work on that proposal. And guess what, you need to look for the documents you were working on. You thought you filed it away carefully but for some reasons you just could not find it. After 20 minutes or so you realised that you have renamed it and filed it in another folder. Finally, you get to start work.
Three minutes into your work and the phone rang or an email arrived and you disengaged from your work to respond to that. Then you needed to rush into a meeting and not everyone was on time. The meeting finally began and went nowhere, with no conclusion or actions items.
Get the picture?
Research shows that this is how office workers spend their typical work day:
- 28%: Unnecessary interruptions (with recovery time)
- 25%: Creating content (productive work)
- 20%: Meetings (may or may not be conclusive with action plan)
- 15%: Searching for information (half the time, search does not yield results)
- 12%: Thinking and reflecting (productive, creative work)
So what do you do?
1. Have a clear objective of what you want to achieve for the day or the next 2 hours and let nothing distract you. If you need to focus and concentrate then turn off the chats (digital or not) and the email alerts.
2. Get a draft copy of your work out in the designated time – even if it is not perfect. Start with a framework and fill in the content as you go along. Keep the momentum going, it is progress against perfection.
3. Do not allow yourself to be interrupted unnecessarily – turn off the emails alerts, online chats and let the answering machine does its work if you are doing creative or productive work. Manage your emails with filters and rules.
4. Take breaks in between chunks of concentrated work time - enjoy your brief coffee break. Do a little stretching, take a deep breath, relax your neck and your shoulders and then come back to more focus work.
5. Keep it simple and clean - your work place, desk and filing needs to be simple and streamlined. Make good use of the trash bin. This un-cluttering will clear you mind for more creative and productive work.
6. Set yourself up for efficient work before hand – get your documents, files, references organized each time before you wrap up work so you do not waste time looking for files and tools the next time you start work.
7. Enjoy your work - that will fuel you to be productive at work.
This is part of what I will be offering in a new program which I will run in mid Oct. If you are interested to check this out, sign up for a free report here. I will be sharing with you what else the program "How To Manage Work Related Stress" will include and how you can take advantage of exclusive bonuses.
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Overwhelmed by Information Overload
October 5, 2009
It is said that information is power. Not so long ago information is scarce and we need to scour the library and hunt down reference material or invest in the Britannica to get the data we want. Information was expensive and was usually outdated.
Now information is abundantly available and very often free, accessible to all and constantly kept up to date. You get loads of information from different authoritative sources from one simple search online. And many would also subscribe to news feeds and alerts for regular updates.
So now you are inundated with information from different sources every day; too much of a good thing and you don’t know what to do with the information overload. And unless and until you make use of the relevant and timely information, that huge amount of feeds and data is not going to be of any benefit to you.
In fact it will overwhelm, distract and stress you out. And on top of that you also get lots of emails and text messages every day. They do not relent but keep you busy and quite frankly drive you crazy.
It is found that information overload costs the US economy about $900 billion a year in lost productivity. That’s a huge amount of waste. So what do you do?
To deal with this sense of overwhelm and work related stress, you need to be selective of the information you allow to enter your inbox and your space. Consider the following for information to serve you well. The need to have the following characteristics:
• Relevance – you don’t want everything under the sun. In fact you only need the most relevant bit that will get the job done. The 20% that will solve 80% of your problem. Less is more. Do not generate unnecessary work related stress. You can be selective in your subscription and the information you pull. The more focus your information the more useful it is.
This is where you may want to consider customized products and services. Let someone else do the research, the filtering and sorting, the rearranging and the design so you get the finished product presented to you streamlined and easy for your consumption.
As far as emails are concerned, you can send unrequested and chain mails straight to the trash.
• Timely – Information you need has to be current and updated. Needs change, trends change, what was true before may not be true now. Make use of RSS feeds and alerts to keep you regularly updated with only the recent and the relevant. Delete after reading. Unless you have an organized way of filing you are better off searching for the information on demand than wasting more looking through your folders and files for information "stored somewhere".
Information is useless until you apply it; you may already have learned many great principles from CDs, books and reports. If you find yourself saying “I already know that, nothing new” then perhaps it is time to check if you really do know it experientially.
We do not need to learn more new principles until we have started applying the gems we have been exposed to. If we are storing information in our head and not letting that change the way we think and work, we will not reap the desired results. Only changes in action will bring about changes in results. It may be worthwhile finding out what is preventing the execution.
To find out what is causing the lack to motivation to take positive action for successful results, you can sign up for a free preview tele call here.
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Stress May Be Invisible But Not Invincible
October 2, 2009
In these tough economic times, workers are stressed at work. They are asked to do more with less time and resources. Orders are low and clients are more picky these days. At the back of their mind, workers are wondering when the axe will fall on them.
And then we have those who are without a job or have been laid off. They too are stressed – they wonder if and how they will find replacement income to foot the bill.
So with or without job, people are anxious and worried. And it is not unusual to come home and be greeted by more issues in the family. Growing teenagers with raging hormones are having dramas. At times angry words are lashed out in the moment and sibling relationships are further strained.
How do you cope as a working mother? Stress is at every corner. You feel tired and wonder how you are going to get through all these. Well, issues are here to stay. To survive and to thrive in these situations you must learn to manage stress and frustrations. Here are a few things to note about stress:
What is stress? It has neither shape nor form, yet it turns up at every corner – if you let it. Stress is not a thing; it is not an external object that you can point it. Instead it is felt within you. It is the reaction you experience when you encounter certain situations.
There does not seem to be a universal absolute definition of what might be considered as stress. The same thing that is stressful to one person may be a source of or challenge to the other. If you find a situation to be stressful then it is. If not then it isn’t. It has to do with your feeling, your internal emotional and physiological reaction, you perceptions.
Stress is fear based. It normal arises when there is perceived threat or danger, due to uncertainty or the unknown. You feel stressful when there is the perceived fear of not being able to handle a situation, of not being enough – not good enough a parent, not cool enough for the boys, not rich enough to take care of them, or not worthy enough of their love and respect.
How do you combat the feelings of fear and anxiety?
Learn to take control of your thoughts – instead of letting your inner conversation take you out unnecessarily, take control and affirm to yourself that you are capable of handling the situation. Say out loud to yourself that you are resourceful and creative and that you will triumph when you are in your best state as your best self.
Know also that you will believe what you want to believe. If you think you have what it takes you will find the confidence and the strength to pull through. If you resign to the external challenge then you will remain in that state of weakness because you will believe what you hold to be true.
Manage your Feelings. Once you get your thoughts under control, your emotions will change accordingly. A confident, conquering mind will be accompanied by hopeful, positive emotions.
Let go of the need to seek approval, to impress or to be accepted. Accept you as you are and acknowledge yourself. You do not need to prove anything to anyone; therefore there needs be no fear of not being "enough". Be your best and do your best and let nobody put you down for being your true self.
Relax, things will always work out somehow. Sometimes, you may just need to take another path.
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