Tips & Insights for Top Performance » Work Environment

Book Review: Exploring Productivity – Ideas From Industry Professionals on Getting More Work Done in the Workplace

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:38:49 +0000

The challenge of staying organized through busy workdays and life is a trial for even the best. There are TONS of books on organization strategies out there with many tips and tricks on how to master chaos and achieve a sense of order in your environment. The challenge is many are filled with concepts to adapt and are more philosophical with prescribed action versus a handbook with steps of HOW to get organized. I found this book, Exploring Productivity… , and like it for its “idiots guide” type approach, making it easy to pick and address an issue versus reading a whole book and feeling overwhelmed with evaluating how you might transform your whole system of operation (which if it gets overwhelming, you will not take any steps to change.) This is a great book to have on the self, easy to read and excellent to reference so that you can address and overcome whatever organizational challenge you may be having THIS week

To order this book, click here.

Christy Geiger, Executive Business Coach & Trainer, Minneapolis, MN

What Are You Tolerating?

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:42:32 +0000

Now is a great time to assess your environment for maximum productivity. An exercise that is great for cleaning up your environment is to visit your tolerations.

What are you tolerating? Take steps today to start to remove those nagging annoyances that subconsciously suck energy from you. Really, it is amazing how much they absorb. You will know exactly how much after you complete this exercise; history shows it is amazing!

First, make a list of 30 things that you are tolerating in your life – this is a brain dump. Any things that nag you, annoy you, and cause you to think, “I really need to get that fixed” or “I really need to do something about __________.” Put anything from the little things to the enormous. i.e. make a brochure, send out promotional mailing, get website, sort a stack of unfilled papers, deal with a chip in the windshield, a broken appliance, a messy car, a bag that is ripped, dust on the side of your stairs, dust, cutter, full e-mail box, squeaky door, etc. These items are the tolerations we hold internally that take up a ton of our energy. Do not stop until you have 30 things.

Once done, pick a few things you are going to get off the list this week. Each week peel more things off. It will go quickly at first as you take care of the 10 minute jobs and then become slower as you take care of the more monumental jobs – but just keep working at a minimum of two things each week. When you are done, the feeling of freedom and space will be an incredible reward!

People do what people do…..

admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:03:57 +0000

“People do what people do” is an adage my husband and I learned several years ago when we were leaders working with a team of volunteers. As young go-getters, we had high expectations and eagerly expected follow-thru from the volunteers’ well intended commitments/promise of action. While some people were great, there were some that surprised us with their lack of follow-thru in different areas, and we began to feel frustrated. Not wanting to feel this way toward people, we stepped back to evaluate what was happening and what we should do or change. (Reading this, you may be on the volunteer side thinking we need to be more lenient or apply more understanding towards others, or if have been in leadership, you may know that is to be expected and/or share in commiserating with the quandary and challenge.)

So, as we reflected on what was happening, we learned the sentiment that “people do what people do,” meaning, if you have a person who has been quick to produce in the past, given a similar context, more than likely he/she will be quick to produce in the future. If a person has been a quick volunteer but backed out a number of times in the past, more than likely you will need extra hands on that task as it is highly possible they might back out again. (I am not suggesting you walk around judging and labeling people without a track record and then putting them in a box based on one or two interactions; I am suggesting that people’s track records generally preceed their behavior).

This has been a principle we have applied in leadership, our personal and professional lives. It helps to remind ourselves of human behavior, manage your expections of others and see them for who they are rather than expecting them to be something different then who they are. It has applied in many situations: volunteerism, work, marriage, kids, and people in general. This little thought was just a quick way to reframe, plan accordingly and manage our expectations. Most people have good intentions and are influenced by their personality, situation, influences, life circumstances, etc., It does not make them bad or wrong, it just is what it is. It is generally true that a person will do what they have done in the past.

This is not to be used to judge or tell someone who they are or what they should do, but to help you plan and manage your expectations of them. Also, it is not telling someone else how they should act, the observation of behavior is simply telling you how they are. That is why it has been said for years, “Actions speak louder than words.”

Does this make a person hopeless to change? Absolutely not; but change comes from within and a persons desire to change; not someone else desire for you to be different then you typically are. This is a personal principle for you to get what you need vs. expecting other to change. Therefore, my encouragement is to reduce your frustration of people acting different then you like, try to see people through how they are and work with them in that light.

If you don‘t agree, remember it is said the best predictor of the future is history. When you study history and new developments, you can see how that is true. As humans, we are always unpredictable and unique; however as humans, we are creatures of habit and behavior. Sometimes we are not even aware of it ourselves, but step back and consider: do people in your life do what they have always done?

Time Estimating: Empty / Fill with the Important

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:01:26 +0000

Many of us make to-do lists. Usually they are long and filled with a variety of tasks. Not only is it essential to prioritize the list of items, but also estimate how much time each task will take. Often when you do this, you find you have two days worth of to dos on your list. One thing that zaps our energy is feeling overwhelmed and getting distracted. When you have long to do lists that are not even reasonable to accomplish, often much less gets done.

If you take your list, budget how much time important tasks will take, you can then plan them into your day better. If you have a 10 minute task, you can plan that for a 15 minute downtime period. If you don’t do this, people usually take 10 minutes just to figure out what they are going to do and then they only have 5 minutes left to do something, which is not enough time, so then nothing gets done (or they start a project and are stressed and then late for the next appointment.)

It also helps you to plan your day to see that you need 2 hours of blocked time to eat your frog (the #1 most important to do). This way you can plan your day to get that big thing off your plate. I guarantee when you get the weight of a large project off your back first thing in the morning, you will be super charged and excited for the rest of your day. Then knowing what you will do, how long it will take you and “budgeting” when you will do it, creates a clear focus and drive for you to accomplish many more things in your day.

Action:
* Take your prioritized list of to dos and write behind each how much time each will take (pad more time then less time)
* Look at your schedule for the day and plan when you will do which tasks. If you have a large tasks, see how you can break it down into parts that fit into your day.
* Write specifically what you will do on the calendar. (i.e. budget 1 hour to write newsletter. Have a 15 minute opening in the AM; plan to write the intro to the newsletter.)

Your Winning Season!

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:38:07 +0000

-Are you winning your game?
-Are you playing at peak performance?
-Do you feel like you are sometimes on the court, but more often on the bench, in the bleachers, or (even worse) at the concession stands?

There is a concept called “pattern language” which means taking language and concepts that are already familiar to you and applying them in a new environment, to quickly and effectively communicate a new concept or message. The Coachville, LLC/Your Winning Season coaching company is using the pattern language of sports in such a way that it will dramatically improve your results in business and in life.

Dave Buck, CEO of Your Winning Season, says: “In my 10 years as a professional coach I have noticed that most people—even those who seem to be successful on the surface—have an awkward feeling that they are falling behind in reaching their goals. Every day, no matter how long or how hard you work, the to-do list just gets longer. It’s like being on a losing team in a season that never ends! By using sports pattern language and seeing yourself as the player-coach of a highly visible sports team, you can dramatically improve your results AND your level of fulfillment.”

When you approach life like you do the preparation for a winning season in sports, you are clearer, focused and prepared to win the games, and ultimately the season. Coachville/Your Winning Season coaching company teaches seven keys to have a winning season in your life and business so you can play your season with CLARITY, FOCUS and a STRATEGY to WIN!

To start thinking as the player-coach of your own game, ask yourself the following:

1. WHAT IS MY GAME? In life we do play a game. Your game is what you are focused on, what you want to win. Maybe your game is an aspiration to be a professional speaker, maybe it is earning a certain income, or maybe it is something else. When you know exactly what game you are playing, you have the CLARITY that is needed in order to really play full out, excel to the next level, and win. Write down the game you are playing and that you intend to win this year. As noted playwright Wilson Mizner said, “In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept destructive criticism. Without 100% dedication, you won’t be able to do this.”

2. WHY ARE YOU PLAYING? Answering this question gives you the focus you need to compel and motivate you to work hard. No athlete is going to spend the time and energy without a clear purpose! Why are you playing? What is it that you want to accomplish by playing this game?

3. ARE YOU WINNING? If yes, great! Keep doing what you are doing. If not, what is happening? Assess and design your strategy for a winning season. For example, an athlete might say “we are losing because we don’t have enough players,” “we are weak,” or “we are not as skilled as the competitor.” But, what is it for you? Write down three things that will be critical for you to start doing so that you can win the games and have a winning season (e.g., more training, team development, networking, more focus/discipline). What will it take for you to be competitive in the game, playing hard and pushing for the win? How can you play full out?

This is just the beginning of designing your winning season, but it is an important beginning because every game starts with:

CLARITY – the specific game that you are playing,
FOCUS – the reason why you are playing, and
STRATEGY – the things you need to do to stay in the game.

Wayne Gretzky said, “We miss 100% of the shots we don’t take.” Take your shot: if you pick a game, focus on what it takes and work your strategy, you will score. So, know your game, focus and plan, and enjoy a winning season this year!

Important vs. Urgent: Staying out of crisis mode

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:20:25 +0000

It happens to most people I know, including myself! We get swept up with our work and life and before you know it any systems you had set up to help you balance important and urgent tasks that were working, are unintentionally eroded. The systems are gone and have been taken over by the suck of fast paced demands and pulls of the 21st century world we live in.

In Stephen Coveys book, First Things First, begins to explain what is happening. He says, in the book, “consider whether you look at life through a basic paradigm of ‘urgency’ or ‘importance’?” He explores the effects of urgency addiction” and promotes a new perspective, “more than ‘time management’, it’s a generation of personal leadership. More than doing things right, it’s focused on doing the right things.”

What does this mean and how do you do it? There are many things to say about this but to me one of may favorite and first steps to tackle a life that has been consumed by the race of the urgent is to simply stop and get focused. This is a daily habit or practice that is good to do each day, ideally in an AM or PM routine. Here is how you do it:

1) brain dump everything that is on your mind onto a sheet of paper (please do not think that keeping lists in your head is effective, just like a computer will freeze up when to many windows and programs are running, so will your brain)

2) review your personal values (these are your passions, motivators and what makes you uniquely you)

3) review your big picture focus or goal (what are you aspiring to achieve in their period of your life)

4) select the 3 most important things you need to accomplish in order to move forward and remove the heaviest weight that is burdening you (often what weights on us is not what we do – that is what we procrastinate about – what we do is usually quick, insignificant to-do’s). Write these 3 things on a sticky note and post it where you can see it all day.

5) commit to 30 minutes a day to work on one of the items. Ideally an hour first thing in the AM, but protecting some time to really work on the top 3 each day is a great start.

This is the first step in thinking about your life strategically vs. reactionary. There is much more to balancing all parts of your life, living in line with your values, prioritizing, etc. but at times when we get so overloaded it is good to have a simple approach to remove yourself from the beginning of a crisis cycle and get back to putting first things first.

Be strategic!
Christy

Eight Strategies to Beat Afternoon Slumps and Manage Your Energy!

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:42:13 +0000

The reality is that many people experience afternoon slumps. It could be too many carbs eaten at lunch, low blood sugar, or a variety of other reasons. While the cause is important to know, the key right now is to get your blood moving and get your mind and energy motivated. Here are eight simple tips to overcome the afternoon slump.
1. Eat smart. For lunch, eat light: enjoy smoothies, fruit, water, nuts, and proteins instead of heavy carbs that will take more of your body’s energy to digest.
2. Do the hardest project of the day first. If you eat your “frog” in the morning, rather than leaving the most difficult task to do in the afternoon, you will have other less difficult things to work on in the afternoon allowing you to look forward to the afternoon and fly though it.
3. Create an afternoon routine. For example: after lunch, do a 5-minute power walk outside, perform 10 jumping jacks, stop by the restroom, put cold water on your face, and get a big glass of ice water. Then come into your office, clear your desk, do a brain bump of all morning to-do’s, turn on the lights/music, get good air flow with a window/fun, and start working! Routines help our brains connect with what we want to do. Once you develop habits, your brain will automatically shift gears when you do the same activities.
4. Engage your body. Do things that get your body moving and that are “easy.” Stand up, sit on a balance ball instead of a chair; do things that keep your blood and body moving. Stay engaged with movement and let the momentum of movement keep you alert.
5. Give your brain a break. Save the more mindless and active tasks for the afternoon (e.g., errands, phone calls, filing, straightening, sorting). Tasks that require heavy concentration like looking at the computer, reading, or listening can work against your energy making it harder to focus and stay engaged.
6. Change the scenery. If you can, move to a different room. Do things to get extra lighting or air. Sit in a place that is suitable but not cozy (perhaps a natural environment to keep you from getting distracted when your mind is already wandering). Turn on some upbeat music. Let your environment keep you on your toes.
7. Play a game. Give yourself a goal or game to play. For example, if you get a project done or so many calls made, you can reward yourself by going home early, or stopping for a treat on the way home. Introduce some momentum and urgency to the picture to counteract the slowing force of your afternoon low energy.
8. Lastly, don’t fight it. If nothing else is working, take the 10-minute power nap or a 10-minute mediation time (set a timer). This will allow you to rest and then then focus and re-engage in high productivity. If you keep fighting it, you will have a longer period of low productivity.
Track your energy and look for the patterns of what works and what slows you down. Find the things that support you to be the most productive and attentive; try different things. When you find things that work, make them habits. Try to notice what the cause might be, if it is what you are eating for lunch, staying up too late, stress, etc. you will always do better to trouble shoot the root cause.

Important vs. Urgent: Getting Out of Crisis Mode

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:06:27 +0000

Steven Covey, in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about one of the traps of people is getting caught in doing the urgent rather than the important. Bottom-line this trap is reacting to life rather than responding. While urgent things will come up, they seem to happen more when you are not planning. Eventually everything will become a crisis. STOP. When you give attention to what is important you will have less urgent things to deal with. There will always be truly urgent things, but these are called emergencies and priorities, not daily urgent tasks. Spend some of your day on this area, but spend more of it on what is important. Make a list and determine what is important for you to do to move forward with your business (or life).

Important things often seem like it will not matter if they get done today or tomorrow and therefore often are perpetually put off until tomorrow or until they become urgent. It is similar to the bad habit many of have in school with projects or homework. The teacher gives important weekly assignments, i.e. pages to read for the week. Students are busy and do not read what is important and let it go until a few days before the test when there is 200 pages of reading, now the assignment becomes urgent. Thus the cycle begins as we create urgent tasks that would not be urgent if we did the important things we need to do each day.

Action:

Recognize the cycle and how much time you spend reacting to the urgent
List what you are trying to accomplish (your goal)
What is important to do today to reach that goal?
What is important this week to reach that goal?
Highlight these things on your to-do list
Block at least one hour in your day to do the important tasks
Force yourself to do the important today and watch how the overflow of urgent tasks decrease off your plate

Get More Time By Managing your Energy

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:29:19 +0000

In the book, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, a new paradigm for time management is presented. The premise focuses on encouraging people to leverage their energy rather than time. We have all known for years, you cannot get more time, no matter what you do you only get 24 hours a day. Loehr says, “The ultimate measure of our lives is not how much time we spend on the planet, but rather how much energy we invest in the time we have.” Focusing on the concept of harnessing your energy to be in FULL ENGAGEMENT will help you to empty your plate and get what you need to accomplish done. A few tips the book emphasizes are:

1) Manage your energy, not your time

What this means is start paying attention to your body. If you notice that you are tired in the afternoon, consider what is contributing to that. Diet? Little sleep? When you are trying to ‘push through’ things when your energy is low, you are ineffective. It takes much longer to accomplish tasks when your focus is off, when you are thinking is not sharp and your energy is dwindling. So, instead of trying to figure out how to get more into your time, notice you energy.

* When do you have the most energy? Do you hardest projects then.

* When do you have the least? Take a break. Schedule a power nap, workout time, filing, or other activities that do not require hard focus.

* Consider what is zapping your energy? Are you doing things that are not in line with your values? Are you procrastinating? Are you not taking breaks? Identify the times that you have energy and times that you don’t. What are you doing differently?

2) Downtime is key for your success

While it would be great to run at 110% all the time, our bodies were not made like that. We require food, rest and relaxation. In today’s society, relaxation is becoming harder for people to really do. Even on vacations, we are checking e-mail and voice mail, we take work along, etc. We really do not allow our working minds to be shut off. In order to relax, we need to shut off for a period of time, this is what Loehr and Schwartz are talking about when they say ‘downtime’. Several highly successful people recommend one day a week that you do NO WORK and have downtime. If you do this, you will have more energy for the other 6 days of the week and will be more productive, then if you keep running all 7 days of the week. You will be less productive on all days and the impact is a haze of feeling not quite as productive as you could be, but unable to figure out where you could possible squeeze another minute of time. Take a day off, no work, no e-mails, no voice mails. Don’t Cheat, it undermines the rest of the week and your ability to charge up energy. Think of it like charging a battery, if you keep unplugging it and using it, you will continually drain what was just charged, therefore after all day of charging with a few interruptions, you will still not be fully charged. Also, when it takes 3x as long to charge something once it is dead then to keep it charged (besides the risk that you might run out of juice mid task), so don’t wait until you are dead, charge yourself weekly with downtime.

3) Rituals help to maintain focus

Have you ever heard of “open brain circuits”? It is the concept explaining how our brains work and how we get overwhelmed. When we are overwhelmed or overloaded, we do not operate effectively or efficiently and therefore are no using time to our advantage and inevitably need more time. It is like a computer, when you have to many programs running, you computer starts to slow down. It takes longer to do anything. It is the same with your brain, when you have a lot of open tasks, thoughts and to do’s in your head, all the circuits are open and you just start to ‘run’ slower. This is why Loehr and Schwartz recommend RITUALS for optimizing your energy (and thus your time). When you have rituals, you set up a reoccurring time and pattern for tasks and behavior that need to be done. A common program many coaches use is establishing 10 daily habits. These are daily rituals that support what you have to do anyway, however by linking them together in a set time and pattern, you do not forget them or need to think about them, rather you become on autopilot and can accomplish them quickly and easily. Daily habits or rituals are things you should do daily, take a short amount of time and add to your productivity. Examples might be: make a to-do list, confirm daily appointment, stock forms in car file box, turn on music, pay bills, check mail, clear desk, file client folders, return phone calls, check e-mail, check traffic on web, send updates, drink water, eat fruit, light a candle, feed fish, excreta.

4) Purpose fuels performance

Know what you are doing what you are doing. Often we get caught up in doing tasks because we always have, think we need to or just should. First of all ’shoulds’ are a performance killer. They are things we have on the list to do, but they never quite reach priority status. So, identify why you are doing the task or activity. Why is it important? Why do you care that it gets done? If you have to think about the consequence of what will happen if it doesn’t get done, that is still a purpose. When we just do things without a reason, it is hard to keep those as priorities. Things that we approach in a lackadaisical manner take longer to accomplish, stand to be interrupted, put off, and left ½ done or completed with loose ends. When you work with purpose, you can complete things quickly, staying focused and generating momentum as you go. This will allow you to finish the current objective in less time and actually go on to get other things done in the time you would still be working on a purposeless project.

5) Work in sprints (small bursts of focused energy)

Reality we are all busy. Life is full of interruptions and constant urgent tasks that need to be attended to that we did not plan for. This is reality. So, how to you keep yourself and your whole day from falling victim to a reactionary cycle where you just run from one urgent thing to the next, praying for a minute to last longer? Schedule sprint times where you are 100% focused on one thing. You sprint to accomplish it. In coaching I usually recommend sprints be 30 minute or 50 minute time blocks. You close the door, shut off the phone, have a full drink, e-mail shut off and any other distractions cleared for your sprint time. Know exactly what you want to accomplish in that time, and work only on that. You will be amazed at how much you can get done. Again it creates momentum and the focus lends itself to natural energy that builds. You will get more done in this period often then what you can get done in a whole day of random interruptions and urgent demands. Usually this is a great time to plan to work on what is important (writing, billing, customer service, excreta. Things that if they don’t get done will not kill us now, but will need serious time and attention if neglected).

What is important that you need to do?
What will you plan and to doing right now, that will allow you to harness your energy and gain more time?

Perspective on how to LOVE your job!

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:16:15 +0000

Do you ever have those days where you wish you had a different job or life? I always find the sentiment that “you don’t know how good you have it until you lose it” to be true. We grow complacent to the blessings and rich rewards we have in our lives and work. It is easy to get sucked into complaining and looking at what we do not have or how bad things are rather then looking at what we DO HAVE. In this economy where people are laid off every day, the fact that you have a job is a blessing. The fact that you can work is a gift. I know it feels some relationships, bosses, projects, people, customers, situations can all bring a gray cloud over our desirably sunny day… but it is all how you look at it. Try and look at what you do have and what is good about your life today and be thankful for it.

Below is a fun story I read about a tough day at work… enjoy the levity and remember to be thankful for what you have!

Next time you have a bad day at work think of this guy:
Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won!

Hi Sue,
Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you’ve been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it’s not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It’s a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool.

So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I’ve used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It’s like working in a Jacuzzi.

Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch…

So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit.

Now, since I don’t have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn’t stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically.

Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet.

As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn’t poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut.

So, next time you’re having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be.
Now whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad day?
May you NEVER have a jellyfish bad day!!!!!