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Productivity Resources

SuperCompetent
To be successful in the business world and reach your full potential in life, it's not enough to be simply competent. Our modern, super-competitive world is full of opportunities for the go-getter, but to take advantage of them, it's essential to become "SuperCompetent." The SuperCompetent person is one that companies fight to get, fight to keep, nurture as team players, and see as future leaders in their business growth. Available now from Amazon.com and at better bookstores everywhere.

The Exhaustion Cure. A holistic approach to increasing your get-up and go, from the productivity expert whose previous books showed people how to Find More Time and Leave the Office Earlier. Available now from Amazon.com

Find More Time.  You can't add more hours to the day, but Laura will help you make the most of the time you have and get things done. Available now from Amazon.com.

Leave the Office Earlier, Laura shows you how you CAN get more done than you ever thought possible and still get home to your real life sooner.Available now from Amazon.com.

More of The Productivity Pro's Resources

NEW DVD! "Smart Time Management: 10 Characteristics of Highly Productive People" DVD with mp3 audio version included. In this practical, fast-paced program, time management expert Laura Stack shares insights gathered from some of the most successful people in the world. You'll learn how to stay focused and concentrate, communicate with your team and boss to improve personal productivity, build consistent personal routines, plug productivity leaks in your day, eliminate annoying time wasters, and improve your personal efficiency.
 

Tablets Improve Employee Productivity and Work/Life Balance, Survey Says

Why Efficiency Fanatics Are Wasting Their Time

10 practical ways to improve productivity in your workplace
 

These are all private client engagements with Laura Stack. At this time, Laura does not offer open enrollment seminars to the general public. If you're interested in bringing Laura to your organization to present a training seminar for your employees on the day prior or the day after one of these engagements below, please contact John Stack for special "piggyback" pricing.

September 2011

26::Denver, CO

27::Denver, CO

29::Denver, CO

October 2011

5-9::Coventry, United Kingdom

10::Clinton Township, MI

12::Colorado Springs, CO

17::San Francisco, CA

18::Bakersfield, CA

21::Denver, CO

24-26::Tempe, AZ

November 2011

5::Somerset, NJ

12::Dallas, TX

14::Washington, DC

17::Topeka, KS

18-20::Phoenix, AZ

21::Denver, CO

26-29::Toronto, Canada

December 2011

2::Vail, Colorado

5-7::Key Biscayne, FL

15::Denver, CO

16::Denver, CO

17-18::Denver, CO

January 2012

7::San Francisco, CA

10-11::Orlando, FL

Visit Laura's Calendar On-line for her complete availability.

Tracking Down People For Follow-Ups, Answers, Reminders: Creating An Effective Babysitting System

Modern business protocols often require high levels of teamwork in order to achieve the company's goals. More than ever, workers interact like cogs in a machine, and most of us have to mesh with lots of other cogs in order to get our work done. Fair enough, assuming everything runs smoothly. But as we all know, human beings don't always work together with mechanical efficiency. Occasionally, things get caught up in the metaphorical gears, causing work to slow--or even stop.

This might happen, for instance, if someone doesn't get a piece of information to you when you need it. Similarly, if a supplier can't provide a certain part or computer program, you may be stuck waiting. And if a project needs approval to proceed, and you don't have it, then find yourself at someone else's mercy. If these people don't follow up in a timely fashion, you can forget to keep in touch with them, putting you further behind.

Whatever the cause, these bottlenecks make your workflow uneven at best, and may even cause it to grind to a halt. Clearly, you want to minimize such occurrences; and you can't count on anyone else to keep your workflow machine in good repair, either. So how do you grease the gears? By setting up a reminder system--basically a babysitting mechanism--a schema that helps you get the answers, approvals, and resources you need when you need them. That way, you can always track down all the people you depend on to keep you active, and urge them along as necessary.

Breaking Through Bottlenecks

Have you ever been driving along on the highway and hit a traffic bottleneck, where an accident or construction narrowed several lanes down to one? You can go from zooming along at a steady 60 miles per hour to a near-standstill in seconds. No matter how efficiently everyone drives, your progress inevitably slows down.

This can happen in the workplace as well, but you can't allow such bottlenecks to hamper you for long if you expect to maximize your personal productivity. Immediately analyze the cause of any workflow "traffic jam" that occurs. If you find you create the bottleneck yourself through your own behavior or from a breakdown in a process or system, then jump right in and take steps to clear it. Sure, it may require some hard work; but if you can take care of the matter, then do so without hesitation.

However, not all bottlenecks lie within your purview. Dependencies--blockages you have little or no direct control over--may also hinder your progress.

Dependencies occur when you have to wait for others to do their jobs before you can move on to the next step in your own workflow. Sometimes they emerge from below, from end users or subordinates. More often, however, dependencies arise from lateral sources (co-workers at roughly your own level in the corporate hierarchy) or trickle down the chain of command from above.

Like it or not, you often have to depend on others for answers to questions, for approval or sign-off on work already done, for buy-in on projects or strategies, or simply to put work on your plate. Even though you have little control over these bottlenecks, you can't just sit there and wait. So let's look at a few ways you can smooth your workflow and maximize productivity even in the face of such frustrations.

Streamline Your Dependencies

While you can't eliminate all the dependencies constraining your productivity, you can certainly eliminate some of them and make the rest easier to deal with. First of all, always make sure that the lines of communication remain wide open between you and the other person, and do your best to communicate with crystal clarity. Don't beat around the bush, hem and haw, or couch your requirements in vague terms. Provide specific details up front, to limit the possibility of misunderstanding.

Once you've told your dependency exactly what you require and when you need it, work on getting buy-in on both points. This commits the person to action and helps solidify the deadline in their mind, so it has more urgency. In addition, express your willingness to work with them if something comes up that might threaten the integrity of your deadline. In all your dealings, be polite but firm and try not to badger. Just get an estimated completion date to commit to action and move on to the next bottleneck.

If an individual blocks your progress repeatedly, for whatever reason, you have two choices for dealing with the person. If necessary, you can attempt to find a work-around that bypasses them altogether. If you go that route, try to avoid conflict; leave going over their head as a last resort. Otherwise, try the direct approach: simply ask, politely, "What can I do to help get this done?"

When confronted this way, most people respond in one of two ways: either with anger (a reflection of the attitude that caused the bottleneck in the first place) or with complaints about the factors actually causing the bottleneck. In the latter case, immediately offer to pitch in and help them clear the blockage. You may find that you only have to implement a minor procedural change or requisition a new piece of equipment to set things right. So don't hesitate to take a helping hand, if doing so can eliminate further problems for you.

Realize that you can't clear every dependency in your workflow process, especially if you lack direct control over the people involved. Just deal with those you can, accept the ones you can't, and move on. While you don't want to forget about them, you don't want to worry, either.

A Tickle for Your Thoughts

In addition to streamlining your dependencies, you'll need to set up a system to remind you when to follow up with them. You can approach this task in many different ways: for example, you might use a chalkboard or whiteboard to track your follow-ups and reminders, or create a simple Excel spreadsheet that you check periodically. It doesn't matter what method you choose, as long as it keeps you on your toes and "tickles" your brain, providing timely, reliable reminders about specific tasks, goals, and other information you need to see to at specific times.

Many people favor the classic tickler file: a series of individual cards, files, or folders that rotate through a chronological paper filing system. Most paper ticklers use the simple "43 folders" approach. For instructions on how to create one, click here.

You can easily translate the tickler file concept into electronic formats. Spend a little time exploring your email client to discover how it handles reminders and notifications; this should take no more than a few minutes.

If your company uses scheduling or calendar software, you can create reminders very easily. Let's take a look at how to do it in Microsoft Outlook 2010, the most commonly-used software of this type. You can handle the task in several ways, though I consider the following the two easiest methods. First: for appointments or meetings, go into the Appointment or Meeting tab, find the Reminder drop-down list in the Options group, and simply select how soon before the event you want the reminder to appear (e.g., an hour, two hours, a day, etc.). For tasks or emails, go to the Home tab, find the Tags group, and click Follow Up. A drop-down menu appears, offering a number of options, including Add Reminder. Just click it and follow the simple directions. In both cases, a notification pops up on your computer screen at the appropriate time.

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Make it a productive day! ^(TM)

^{If you enjoyed this article, you can register for the August 30, 2011 webinar on exactly how to do this! http://www.theproductivitypro.com/2011webinars.}

(C) Copyright 2011 Laura Stack. All rights reserved.

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