Minimize disruptions to your daily schedule
Appointments and errands need not devour the lion’s share of your “free” time if you follow these tips during the work week:
Category: Productivity
Put your focus on what matters
Have you put processes or structures into place so you can accomplish what’s most important every day? Try these three tips:
Stop the stragglers; start the meeting
Years ago, Jon had set up an important team meeting for 10 a.m. At 9:45, he was setting up the room. By 9:50, he was ready to start. By 9:59, no one had arrived. “I had a decision to make,” he says. “What if I started the meeting on time—all by myself?” That’s exactly what he did. That’s why “Just start it” is now his No.1 rule for holding meetings that start on time.
How to say ‘I can’t do it all!’
As workloads expand under the pressure of diminished staff, administrative professionals grapple with how to best absorb all the new work coming their way. One executive admin recently asked, “How should I tell managers we can’t do it all?” Other admin pros weighed in:
The power of just 3 words: “Let’s go see!”
From time to time, people who report to you will bring you problems created by a decision that you made. They may appear exasperated by the pickle you put them in. Your response, in all cases, should be a good-natured invitation for the two of you to go have a look. Use these exact words: “Let’s go see!”
1-Minute Strategies: Aug. ’11
Scroll down a web site one screenful at a time … Keep emotions in check at work with DING … Let social media help you network before a conference … Save people time by telling them how to skip the voice-mail instructions when they call your cell phone.
Next on the meeting agenda: brain food
You may have seen Chef Jamie Oliver’s show “Food Revolution,” in which he transforms school menus. Now Oliver is doing the same thing for employees slogging through long off-site meetings. If you plan off-site meetings or conferences, boost the meeting’s ROI by rethinking food.
Keep the office running like clockwork
Whether your workplace employs scheduling software, day planners for everyone or no formal calendar management at all, a few visual reminders can keep everyone running on time.
Time management done right
More important than getting everything done is getting the right things done. How do you figure out which priorities are most worthy of attention? A structured to-do list is the solution offered by Peter Bregman, Harvard Business Review blogger and author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get The Right Things Done.
Doing a ‘superjob’
Feel like a Jack or Jill of all trades? Pretty soon, the rest of the office may be feeling the same way, if they don’t already. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, we’ve entered the era of the “superjob” …