Productivity and You

October 27, 2008 at 7:03 pm (Blogroll, time management)
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Denise with friends

Denise with friends

I’m sitting in my den writing this time because it’s warm and cozy and I’m watching Design on a Dime on HGTV.  I’m about to head out of town to a coach’s retreat at a great little beach down the coast and wanted to write before I left.
Clearing my schedule so I could go on this retreat really brought up a topic that is near and dear to my business.  Helping people to use their time to their advantage.
The reality of life is that there is a finite amount of time for you to work within.  If you do not accomplish what you set out to accomplish today, there is always tomorrow.  Or, is there?
What you, I and everyone else is challenged with is fitting everything we have to do within a specified amount of time.  When I was a stay at home mom I always thought time was endless.  The boys would go out to play and I’d be in the house trying to stay on top of the housework.  When I went back to work I struggled with the whole double/triple schedule that most women have to keep up with when they are moms.  I kept playing with the schedule, always trying to fit more in, until one day I realized I just had to learn how to say ‘no’.
So, today I want to give you a few tips on how to go about managing your schedule, and in essence, managing yourself.  Do you have to get up an hour earlier to get things done that wouldn’t get done if you didn’t?  Are you the main maid, cook, concierge, cheerleader, tear dryer, yard maintenance, corporate mogul?  Well, of course you are.  Whether you are single or married with ten children you have the responsibility of all of the above.
The first tip of the day is to write out the monthly schedule.  If you work a retail schedule that you only have about a two week notice on what your work schedule is.  Take the time to transfer it to your paper calendar schedule (if you don’t use a pda).
Then, start adding in other permanent scheduled events (like bill paying) into your planner/calendar so you don’t forget major events.  Children’s events, concerts etc can be added as you learn about them.
Remember, no matter what you do, you need to take care of your relationships with other people.  Your job may or may not depend on the networking that you do.  Of course, mine does, so I am always adding to my planner those networking events that everyone is asking me to attend.  I keep on going and going like the battery bunny.  So much so my husband asked me last night how did I know about so many restaurants in the area.  Guess I’ve been going a bit much…
Your success in managing the amount of time you spend on any one activity is measured by whether you are finishing those activities.  Sometimes we do not give ourselves enough time to complete a project.  Or in some cases we allow everyone and their fires to direct our lives.  Try the second tip I have for you today.
Your second tip is to eliminate your distractions.  You know you get distracted.  For me, sitting in my den or anywhere in my house is the kids walk through, the phone rings for them, or the realization that when you work at home and you know the laundry needs to be done, the floor mopped, you and me too…become distracted by the other things you need to do.
So this tip is all about setting priorities.  If you work at home, like I do, you know that you have to set work times, house times, family times, errand times.  I write into my planner that I stop work at a specific time.  If I don’t stop working because I’m on a roll with a project, then it is my choice to do that.  If I stop work early because I’m frustrated with how a project is going, again it is my choice, but I know that I can switch modes and clean house for an hour and come back to the project with a fresh perspective.
I have however, worked outside the home, and know the feeling of getting the kids off on the school bus, eating on the run to get to work on time (sometimes by 6 am) and then rushing home to make sure my kids didn’t feel like latchkey kids.  Cooking, cleaning and taking care of family and work without running a calendar/planner can cause stress headaches and anxiety.  Try scheduling these into your planner and not letting them overwhelm you.
Well, take these, see if they fit with you.  As you come across problems, email me at denise@progressiveorganizingsolutions.com   I’d love to hear from you.
Denise

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Productivity,Time Management, or Self Management

October 1, 2008 at 11:58 am (Blogroll, home organization, organizing information, organizing space, productivity, time management)
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Do you feel your productivity needs a boost?  If you’re not completing tasks that are helping you reach your goals then productivity is an issue for you.  What’s behind the lack of productivity could be any number of things, but today time management is what we’re going to focus on.

Time management is really a misnomer.  There is only so much time in any given day.  So the real, the only way to rephrase time management is by saying self management.

Take a look at the distractors in your work day.    If you wake up late is your entire day ruined?  When you are at work do you take long breaks between working on different projects.  Do you have the skill and knowledge to complete the work you are working on?  Do the office cronies come in and distract you by talking about personal issues or asking you to do something at the weekend?

These are all valid distractors at work.  Think about how you would stop them from occurring.

The first one, waking up later than you should, as long as it is not a habit of being late to work should be okay if you still have time to focus in on what needs to be done.  Just remember that “the early bird gets the worm” addage.  If the boss is at work early, and he or she constantly sees that you have his or her work ethics of being there early then they may trust you more to be getting your work done and give you bigger and better projects.

Taking long breaks can break your concentration, but is at times unavoidable.  We do need to restore our energy levels.  I have been reading Life Hacker and found a neat 10 step blog entry on the Top Ten Ways to Stay Energized http://lifehacker.com/5054947/top-10-ways-to-stay-energized.

What you don’t want to do is to stand in the kitchen or at the water cooler and lose all focus.  Certainly go out to lunch instead of staying in even if you brought lunch from home.  If you can go listen to the birds, sit outside to eat and let your brain rejuvenate.  It’s when we refuse to allow our bodies and minds to rejuvenate that we start to lose our edge in whatever we’re doing.  Yes, I guess this means meditation is a good thing.

Know your stuff.  If you’re given a project, a report to write or something similar and you do not know how to get started or how to complete it and you keep putting it off how does that make you look to the boss?  The key here is to use those strategic alliances you have been building with all the networking you’ve been doing.  Call or email someone who does know how to do what you’re seeking to learn.  Is there any harm in asking?  NO!  Is there harm in not getting the project done?  YES!  So ask!

Cronies, friends, and family interrupting your train of thought when you’re on a roll and working as hard as you can, can destroy a thought process quicker than anything I know of.  It can stop you dead in your tracks.  Your mind will go off to Fiji with your cronie’s vacation plans or you’ll be stuck in the kitchen with the grandmother who can’t decide if your child should have soup or a sandwich for lunch.

Controlling interruptions is perhaps one of the hardest things to get past.  Previously, I’ve written that if you can, turn off the phone ringer, close your door, hang signs that you’re busy or on a deadline, but the biggest one you need to remember is self-management.  Only you can say to your co-worker, I’m busy.  When grandma calls, and you answer, say to her, I trust your judgment.  She will call less.  Your co-worker will realize he or she should be working too and the boss will see that you don’t waste time.

Well try these things out and let me know how it goes.  I’m always open for ways to help others get organized, be more productive and share them with others.

Denise

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Time Management & You

August 5, 2008 at 3:27 pm (Blogroll, home organization, organizing information, organizing space, productivity, time management)
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It’s the dog days of summer when the August heat saps even the most hardy of our energy levels.  Finding the bottom of our Iced Tea glass empty we shrug and continue to sit as if we have nothing more productive to do than relax.  If we think hard enough we might struggle out of the lawn chair or the hammock that is gently rocking in the sea breeze only to lay back in the same and put off the inevitable.

Yes, I’m there with you.  Summer is taking its’ toll.  I’d rather stay inside than even make the one block trip to the pool where the water is as hot as my shower.  The ocean is calling my name and for the cost of a parking ticket I could certainly go to Wrightsville Beach andtake my chair, towel and sandshoes.  Yep, the sand is too hot to walk on.  I’d sit under the pier and let the water run up over my feet and legs and just enjoy the shade provided by the pier.

For lunch, I’d head upstairs to the Oceanic Restaurant.  I’d watch the people on the beach, thinking wow, they have energy to surf, and walk in the water, because yeah it is too hot to not wear shoes on the sand.

I’m actually gearing up for my summer vacation.  A wonderful beach house down on Sunset Beach.  It takes a miracle to get there, crossing a swing one lane bridge that someone, either in a boat or a car is always damaging.  But to go and stay a few days, ocean breeze, Calabash seafood, shopping at Myrtle Beach South Carolina and tons of time with best friends will make my summer!

So what does all of this have to do with Time Management.

It might be obvious, but it might not.

Schedules, making sure things get done is so crucial to you being able to go do what is important to you that I could talk for hours on it.  Here’s the gist of a long subject.

1.  If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you are wasting time.  Therefore, your time management is lost with the lost item or paperwork.

2.  If you are wasting time, you are losing out on money.  Either money for your company from which they pay you, or lost money from lost sales, lost appointments, lost anything that could have provided you with the means to do what you truly want to do.

Time management is more than making sure you’re on schedule for appointments.  It is the point at which your schedule no longer runs you!  It is what makes being able to take a vacation day or week or even a month (especially if you live in a place, like Europe, where a month’s vacation is the norm) away from your daily grind.

If you are struggling to find time in your daily schedule to get more done, faster and more efficiently then you need to talk to me.  I can help you refine your schedule, the time you spend doing nothing at all and hopefully help you get to the beach!

Well, I’m off to get the rest of my research done and get a few chapters written in my  book, Breaking the Clutter Habit.

See you later!

Denise

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Gear Up, Get Ready, Fire Up Your Motivation

September 21, 2007 at 11:52 pm (Blogroll, home organization, organizing information, organizing space, time management)
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Hello all,

I am hoping you are enjoying the weekend! Personally I am going to enjoy the entire weekend with yard work, house work and writing!

One of my goals is to get published, in both fiction and non-fiction. So now you know a long term goal of mine.

My question for you is: What is your long term goal. I want you to write me with your goals so get busy writing down things you want to accomplish. Write down the short term and the long term. Send me your emails to denise@progressiveorganizingsolutions.com

Remember though that even one goal, whether small or large is the first step to achieving the goal. You have to recognize the goal, write it down to make it solid in your mind (something that is achievable ) and then the second step is to write down the steps to achieve that goal.

1. Write down your goals

2. Write down the steps that it will take to achieve your goals. (start with one)

So why is this the topic of my blog to you today?

BECAUSE! No, really because can be a justifiable reason (as a parent its as good as Because I said so)

Here’s the real reason: For all the bigwigs out there that are making tons of money off of “you” for telling you how to do things, how to achieve great wealth, how to get to the next level, THEY ALL SAY the same thing.

What Brian Tracy, and all the others out there tell us to do is to recognize a goal by writing it down. They then tell us to write down how to do the things (steps) that will make that “dream” or goal come true. They all recognize that none of us get anywhere by sitting on our tush, just thinking about what comes next to make us better at our careers. They also all write their goals down and sometimes, just by doing so set into motion the method for achieving what they think they want.

So for the next question. How does this apply to organizing. Come on now, think hard! If you can think of a goal, if you can write it down, if you can think of a progressive method of achieving it, do you not think that you have achieved an organized method for achieving that goal?

Of course, I might be wrong! But being organized is thinking a problem through (whether that problem is getting organized in your home, your office or somewhere else). We face our “messy” desks every day always thinking there has to be a better system out there.

What if I told you that the best system is one where you build into your schedule the time it takes to put away the things you are working on. Do you think that would be impossible?

A few weeks ago I visited a new client and found that the simplest change in the way they approached a problem, solved the problem. If it were that easy wouldn’t you want to do the same?

My challenge to you this week(end) is to recognize a goal (email it to me or email your list to me) and then take the time to write out a couple of steps that would help you to achieve that goal. If you email me I definitely will email you back! Let’s track it and see how it goes!

For now, have a great weekend and I look forward to your emails.

Denise

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