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What Can You Eliminate?

By Royale on January 5, 2011 in Time

: Image by sindesign via Flickr

As the year is starting to wind down it’s time to think about pairing back and “living lean.” As you go through this month give thought to what you can eliminate to free up more time and energy for work, for family and well… for living.

What can I eliminate? Well, start with eliminating unnecessary tasks, processes, and all around clutter.

Here are some easy tips for “cleaning up” and finding room more productive activities:

Clean your desk/work area. – Do this today. Now. You need a clean and more importantly, welcoming area to work. I can’t produce any amount of work at my desk when it’s messy. Why not clean it up and at least make your work area welcoming if you have to be there, all day.
Eliminate huge to-do lists. – Don’t get bogged down in minutiae by scheduling 36 tasks for one day. Choose your top 3-5 depending on your system and concentrate on those. If you can only get one thing done today, what one thing will make you satisfied with your day? DO THAT, FIRST!
What are you doing that someone else can get done? – Can you let go of control bit and ask for help? What are some things that someone else could get done in half the time with twice the results for just a small amount of compensation?
What can you automate? Have you automated your bills? How about your computer back-up? Do you check your feeds in a feed aggregator like Google Reader or are you still clogging up your inbox with daily emails? Are you visiting each social media site individually or are you using a dashboard like HootSuite or TweetDeck, or even better get email summaries from NutshellMail?
Get rid of junk. – Opt out of all those email newsletters and daily alerts that you never read. Unsubscribe from magazines, newspapers and catalogs that you don’t look at. Aren’t you ordering online anyway? Use a service like catalog choice to help reduce your paper junk.
How many projects are you working on? Are you spread too thin? Too many irons on the fire? How many are really important? How about focusing on income producing activities and cutting the rest? Are you doing one thing well or 10 things with mediocrity?

With all these tips, the key is to really examine what is necessary. What is productive, billable or critical?

Stop and think. What can you eliminate? Not just “stuff,” but processes, tasks, and so on.

Cutting Through the Clutter (blogs.constantcontact.com)
Get Rid Of Clutter – Clutter Solutions (home-organization.suite101.com)
100 Great Tips to Improve Your Life | LifeRemix (liferemix.net)
9 Phases of Organizing with EFT (eftuniverse.com)
Getting Things Done – glorified common sense – - MindMeister Mind Map (mindmeister.com)

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Are You Sabotaging Yourself: Top 5 Strategies to Set Yourself Up for Success

By Royale on October 26, 2010 in Habits

: Image via Wikipedia

You may be sabotaging yourself and not even realize it. I mean really who wants to interfere with their own success and cause more unnecessary stress? Apparently most of us do. Do you say yes to projects or activities that you don’t have time for? Do you plan more in your day than is humanly possible to get done? Do you stop to answer the phone or check email while in the middle of a project? Do you get sidetracked by co-workers, children or incoming information? Do you spend time on activities that are not essential? I have been guilty of most if not all of these productivity saboteurs at one time or another.

So what can you do to set yourself up for success at home or at work?

Stop sabotaging yourself!

My top 5 strategies to keep you on the path to an organized and productive day:

Set your top 3 priorities before you start your day – I cannot hammer this home enough. It is crucial.

Set aside an uninterrupted window of time to focus on your most important tasks( I recommend 60 – 90 minutes) – That means door closed, phone on silent, email checking disabled and IM turned off. At home it may mean children napping or otherwise occupied (pets too.)

Have your list of core concentrations in front of you (mine are posted above my desk) – Don’t have a list of core concentrations? Make that your priority for today. Use this list when deciding what projects or activities to say yes too. If it’s not on that list, the answer is no! That is unless you have an abundance of free time, in which case you wouldn’t be worried about being more organized, now would you? Also use it to set your priorities for the day or week.

Remember to work in blocks and take regular breaks – Fatigue is the number one obstacle to productivity. Your energy and ability to focus are impaired when you don’t take time to recharge throughout your day. As little as a few minutes to stretch, get a drink or step outside can work wonders.

Stop addictive online behaviors – Check email at specified times. Set a limit on time spent on social media, games, statistics/analytics and information intake. Set aside specific times and a set time limit for these activities. Those activities may be a part of your schedule, but they are generally not income producing activities.

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How to Keep Your Printed Documents Organized

By Royale on October 19, 2010 in Uncategorized

Today’s post is a guest post contributed by James Adams, a technology and productivity blogger.

For those who work in a busy office, time-management is one of the most important things one can learn. After all, not being able to manage time effectively can lead to serious issues within an office, from missing meetings to just simply not getting enough work done in a day’s time.

One of the basic tenants of time management is organization. Learning how to organize one’s workstation is crucially important to getting a lot of work done throughout a day, and perhaps the most important aspect of this is keeping one’s printed documents organized at all times. While many people have immense problems learning how to organize their documents correctly, the fact is that once one learns just a few basic strategies, organization practically falls into place and can make the day far more productive.

Here are five great ways to get your documents organized, reduce clutter and be efficient and ultimately feel happier at work.

1. Set Up Your Office Strategically

One of the biggest hurdles for those who struggle with organization is directly related to the setup of the office. While most offices try to keep printers and copiers central to each workstation, others feel as if the dark corner at the back of the office is the best place to put their machines. This inevitably leads to issues, as employees don’t want to have to trek to the back of the building to pick up their printouts every ten minutes. By centralizing your copiers and printers, you’ll be making the situation far easier on your employees, and will ultimately be helping to improve organization throughout the office.

2. Keep Employees on the Same Track

Many offices fall prey to employees that print out documents, only to leave them sitting in the printer for half of the day before they pick them up. This is by far one of the worst organizational caveats, as it is close to impossible to stay organized when random printouts are hogging up the printer. By making it clear to your employees that this is not okay, you can minimize the potential for backup that might be affecting your office.

3. Only print what is Needed

Another issue that plagues many offices throughout the world is the employee that prints out absolutely everything – even emails! The fact is printing out every document that graces the computer screen is simply unnecessary. Not only does it lead to disorganization, it is frankly a huge waste of paper, ink and resources. By having a dialogue with your employees and stating that only necessary documents should be printed, you can put a halt on this issue before it gets out of hand. The more one is allowed to print anything they want, the worse the situation will get.

4. Reduce Stacks

Many people allow piles upon piles of printed documents to take ownership of their workstations, concluding that dealing with them at the end of the week is the best way to go about things. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, and often results in lost time and heavy disorganization. Instead of waiting until the end of the week to deal with stacks, make an effort to not allow them to accumulate at all. If you must use stacks (as this is simply how some people operate), be sure to deal with them before leaving work at the end of each day; otherwise, you’re bound to lose track of important documents.

5. Create a Filing System

One of the most important things you can do to prevent being disorganized is to create an extremely versatile filing system. Just as you wouldn’t place hundreds of documents on your computer’s desktop, you shouldn’t do so with your paper documents. By filing away your documents as soon as you are finished dealing with them, you’ll know exactly where everything is and will not have to deal with piles of random printouts. This is imperative for those who find that they often have to refer back to their documents at a later date, and is a crucial detail that should be learned early on in any career.

James Adams reviews ink supplies at Cartridge Save. He also writes for blogs around the web where he posts about the technology and productivity.

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Try a Location Shift for a Quick Productivity Boost

By Royale on October 14, 2010 in Energy

: Image by Librarian by Day via Flickr

Do you ever find yourself unable to focus, easily distracted and antsy for lack of a better word? Try changing your physical location and work atmosphere. Think like a real estate agent…location, location, location. Some people can work anywhere and under any condition. They are obviously from some foreign planet that I have never been to. Most of the rest of us have days when we just need a change of pace.

Could you approach your employer about the possibility of working from home a couple of days per week? There have been many studies that show that telecommuting actually saves companies money and increases worker productivity levels. If that is not an option for you, how about moving to a conference room or looking for a different office or cubicle location. Sometimes just a change in the noise level, lighting or a window can make an incredible difference.

If you work from home as I do, sometimes the solitude can become smothering. It’s hard to imagine that a work space could be too quiet, but it happens. One of my favorite solutions is to take a morning and work from a favorite coffee shop with free Wi-Fi access. Another option is to try your local library. You obviously can’t conduct business on the phone there, but that might be just what you need if you are having difficulty concentrating on some project work. Often just moving to a different room is enough to bring about a shift in momentum.

Instead of haranguing yourself to buckle down and get it done, try a location shift first. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. What works for me may not work for you, but you’ll never know unless you try. Do you have any great suggestions? Please share.

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Clarify Your Objectives

By Royale on August 31, 2010 in Goals

Many people confuse goals and objectives and in fact it’s true that the terms are often used interchangeably. I prefer to differentiate between the two for my own purposes and those I work with. Goals are usually more general in nature and less tangible. Objectives tend to be more specific and “vision-able.” I think I might have made that word up, but it suits my definition so I’m using creative license here. What I mean by that term, “vision-able” is that you can picture the objective in your mind – see it, hear it, taste it and feel it. I like to think of goals as “big picture” ideas. Objectives are more nitty-gritty.

For example, I want to lose 20 pounds by January 1st is a decent goal. It meets all the S.M.A.R.T. requirements. But it’s sort of “flat.” I will lose 20 pounds so that I can fit into my size “whatever” pants, be healthy and run a 5k by January 1^st is a better objective. You can almost see yourself wearing your smaller pants and feel the exhilaration of running that race. It is more “real” and therefore much more effective for our purposes. I am not knocking goals, but for today let’s focus on clarifying your objectives instead.

Let’s try another example. I intend to start my own business, replace my income and quit my job by June 1^st. Okay.

What does the objective look like?

What type and form of business?
What is the real purpose or intention?
What is the specific amount of income needed?
What will your work schedule look like?
What will your work environment consist of? At home or in office?
Will you have employees?

I intend to start a catering business for parties operating out of my home kitchen by June 1^st. I will employ two part time employees and gross $200,000 annually.

Do you see the difference? This objective is much clearer and more “real” to me. This also makes it much more motivating and actionable.

Take a look at each one of your objectives and make sure it is so clear you can almost reach out and touch it!

This is part of an ongoing discussion on my rules to maximize productivity. To read more see Golden Rules of Productivity.

Actionable Business Planning (thinkup.waldenu.edu)

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Gratefulness is the Key to a Happy Life

By Royale on August 20, 2010 in Mood, Personal Growth, Relationships

“Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.” — Brother David Steindl-Rast

In my office, which is my “private space” where I spend much of my time, I surround myself with reminders of all of the people and things in my life which I am grateful for. It keeps me grounded in the reality of what is important in life and helps to keep me out of the “something more” mentality. If we continue to look for happiness in something or someone else, we will never find it. Reflect this week on what you already have and ask yourself this question.