Laura Stack - The Productivity Pro, Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

How do I keep my energy levels high?

(NOTE: We're moving!  The Productivity Pro(R) blog has moved to http://www.theproductivitypro.com/blog/.  We will continue to post here through May as well.  Please change your feed to the new address, or you won't receive posts after May.)

If you want to be like the Energizer Bunny and keep going and going and going all day long, you need to supercharge your metabolism -- the cellular process by which your body converts food calories into energy. This isn't necessarily easy, and it requires an understanding of your own biochemical makeup and metabolism. Here are a few ways you can get started.

1.     Practice the power of eight. Boost your body's metabolism by exercising vigorously, lifting weights, eating 5-6 small, healthy meals a day, keeping yourself hydrated, and cutting back on stimulants.

2.     Keep your glucose level up. If your blood sugar level drops too low, you may end up becoming tired, weak, hungry, nervous, and anxious -- and worse, incoherent. Keep quick energy sources close at hand, just in case.

3.     Get yourself checked for diabetes. If you're constantly hungry, chilly and fatigued, you may be suffering from diabetes -- a metabolic inability to process glucose properly. Go to a doctor and have a blood test done.

4.     Schedule your meals. If you eat irregularly or only when you're hungry, you're likely to destabilize your blood sugar level. Always eat breakfast, never skip a meal, and consider eating numerous small meals instead of three big ones.

5.     Eat high energy foods.  Trim "sleepy" foods, like pasta, bread, bagels, muffins, and cookies, out of your diet where you can. You're better served eating high-energy foods like meat, raisins, Concord grapes, bananas, and broccoli.

6.     Pep up your metabolism. If you've got a ho-hum metabolism, try eating foods that can help speed it up. Spicy foods and green tea have both proven effective at boosting the metabolism; green tea extract offers the most bang for your buck.

7.     Cut the caffeine. Caffeine may give you a quick burst of energy, but you could pay for it later with high blood pressure, insomnia, stress, and addiction. If you can't give up that daily Starbucks run, at least cut back from venti to grande.

8.     Boost your intake of calcium, iron, and magnesium. These three minerals are absolutely essential to bone, blood, and mental function, so you should eat foods that are rich in each. Failing that, take a good multivitamin daily.

The rate of metabolism varies from person to person -- among other things, gender, age, amount of muscle mass, and how much you exercise will all affect your metabolic rate --but that doesn't mean you can't tweak it for maximal performance. Follow these guidelines, and you'll have your metabolism revved up in no time.



© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations.  Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces.  She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004).  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M.  To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401.  Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com <http://www.theproductivitypro.com/>  to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.

Protecting your calendar from others: managing availability

While working with Teresa Gavigan, one of my clients, on her office organization, we talked about the challenge she was having with an overly booked calendar and what to do about it.  She had recently taken over another entire division and was splitting her time between the two groups, which were in two different buildings.  She had ceded her calendar over to her assistant but hadn’t set any boundaries around what meetings to accept and what to decline.  Her assistant was accepting meetings tentatively, which resulted in Teresa often being double and triple booked.  She told me she frequently felt like she was “having a Lucy Ricardo moment” as she dashed over to one meeting, then over to the next, then back to the other, never wanting to let one or the other down. 

After months of running around harried, she decided that was enough, she was the boss, and she didn’t have to be everywhere and be available at everyone’s beck and call.  She decided to reduce the number of meetings she attended by delegating attendance at some and declining others.  She scheduled a regular staff meeting every other week with one group not to exceed one hour and a monthly conference call with the second.  To make up for the reduced group meeting time, she schedules monthly meeting with each of her direct reports to discuss planning items.  All staff members can email or phone her with more immediate concerns.  Additionally, she has a 30-minute “innovation” meeting once a month to discuss a specific topic of future interest to the organization that everyone comes prepared to discuss.  With the boundaries she’s placed on her schedule, the regularly scheduled staff meetings and individual meetings, she feels much more in control and less like a “Lucy.”  What have you done to regain control of your availability?

The Paperless Office? What a Joke!

No matter how technologically savvy we become, we can't seem to eliminate paper. In fact, studies estimate that we generate up to ten times more paper than we did before the advent of the computer! How much of that paper is sitting in stacks on multiple surfaces all over your home and office?  To tame those mountains of paper, try throwing these ideas at them.

1. Consistently purge your files without fear. Before you embark on an overhaul of your filing systems, purge all the old junk first. Why spend time dealing with paper you're just going to toss anyway?

2. Create and maintain a filing system that allows you to find papers easily. If you can't find a particular piece of paperwork when you need it, it might as well not exist. Pick a logical filing scheme and follow it religiously.

3. Follow a daily processing system for staying on top of mail and paperwork. Keep track of your incoming mail and other paperwork every day, and use the 6-D system to deal with it: discard, do, delegate, date, drawer, or deter.

4. Handle bills in a timely fashion and keep up with bookkeeping. Limit the number of credit cards and checking accounts you have, and learn to file everything effectively so you know when bills are due. Online payments can help.

5. Know where you put every piece of paper you receive. Keep different types of paperwork in separate files, and think before you put something into a file: is it really worth my time and effort? For example, most store coupons aren't.

6. Handle phone calls and voice mail productively. Avoid phone tag, which does little but add to your daily paper deluge. Answering the phone when it rings can be much more effective. Also, start a phone log to keep track of who you've called and who's called you.

7. Use technology to reduce paper and complete tasks quickly. Utilize computers and related devices to automate what would ordinarily be paper-based tasks: e.g., holiday lists, contact management, word processing, and mass-mailings.

8. Keep important papers up to date and easy to locate. It's especially important to keep track of insurance, medical documents, and wills, and to keep them current at all times. Make a list of all your passwords and bank account numbers too, and make sure your loved ones know where to find that list.

9. Use a calendar system to track family members' schedules. Use ONE calendar that contains ALL your personal, family, and work commitments, so you can track and sync other people's schedules with your own.

10. Organize and keep up with my reading. If you've got too little time to keep up with your reading, cut back on your commitments, and try listening to audio books. Even better, ditch the stuff that's so dull it puts you to sleep.

It pays to spend a little time every day making your bill paying, filing, reading, tracking, and scheduling more manageable. If you don't get control of the paper monster, it'll get control of you. If that happens, you're likely to find yourself drowning in a sea of paper -- not exactly the most dignified way to go!

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

Who’s in Charge: You or Your “Stuff”?

Do you own your possessions, or do your possessions own you? It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the stuff you've accumulated -- everything from toys and clothing, to tools and all the stuff you regularly use that still counts as clutter. If you're tired of all your stuff weighing you down, here are some ideas that may help you regain control.

1. Have a systematic plan to get and stay organized. The key to getting organized is FOCUS. Focus on getting one thing completed before moving to the next area. Act like a postage stamp: stick to one thing until you get there.

2. Eliminate clutter and resist adding more. Don't let your belongings control you. For a start, get rid of unhappy reminders from the past, stop keeping old magazines and newspapers, and don't buy things just because they're on sale.

3. Keep your briefcase, tote, or purse organized and clutter-free. Don't carry stuff around just because you might need it someday: all you'll end up with is a cluttered mess and a backache. Carry only what you need on a daily basis, keep everything tucked into its own slot, and always put things back after using them.

4. Maintain clutter-free drawers and closets. Don't just toss things in drawers and forget them. Make liberal use of file folders, trays, and dividers, and use baby food jars as handy paperclip holders and junk catchers. Closets should be subjected to a thorough cleaning at least twice a year.

5. Organize memorabilia such as photos and keepsakes. Before taking the time to organize an item, determine if it's something you should be keeping in the first place. Don't keep stuff that doesn't have any specific meaning or use to you.

6. Keep kids' toys, clothes, and books organized. Any family with children inevitably fights the battle of the messy monster. Having toys, clothes, and books around is inevitable, but clutter is not. Keep what's used, and get rid of the rest.

7. Set up and maintain your kitchen in an organized fashion. We spend so much time in the kitchen putting groceries away, preparing meals, and doing dishes, it's important to maintain an organized space. Be picky about what you keep, and always have frequently-used items close at hand.

8. Keep your car organized and clean. You don't want to have a two-ton trashcan on wheels. Organize the clutter that stays in the car, and never let anyone get out empty-handed -- make sure your trash leaves the car whenever you do. 

9. Set up an effective "office" space in your home. A home office isn't a luxury these days; it's just about a requirement. Offices can serve as the family computer center, a place to do paperwork, and the occasional work-at-home office.

10. Keep your house neat, and tidy up daily. Cleaning up doesn't require anything fancy. Just make sure everything's in or near when it should be, and regularly put things away so it's easier to maintain a peaceful, productive frame of mind.

If owning too much is a problem for you, get serious about de-cluttering your life. Otherwise all the clutter will weigh you down, putting pressure on your other pillars of productivity. Start organizing and thinning out your possessions a little bit at a time, and eventually you'll get there. You'll be amazed at how good you feel, and how much easier life will be, when all the junk's gone!

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

The Top 100 Productivity and Lifehack Blogs

"Having a little trouble getting motivated? From work responsibilities to personal calendars and endless to-do lists, we can all find ourselves stretched in too many directions. To give you a little boost, we've generated a list of the top 100 productivity and lifehack blogs. Here they are, arranged by category, but in no particular order."

Who's the Boss? You or Your Blackberry?

Technology is both a blessing and a curse. It can definitely improve your productivity, but having to deal with email, voicemail, the Internet, Blackberries, PDAs, cell phones, and pagers can make you less productive if you're not careful. Here are a few suggestions on how tame your technology .

1. Try to reduce "information overload."  Understand that you can have too much information, and find a way to get rid of the excess. Get off mailing lists, learn computer shortcuts, narrow your web searches, cancel subscriptions, and use filtering rules to reduce electronic junk.

2. Use proper netiquette. Among other things, DON'T SHOUT, don't be sloppy, and keep your messages brief and to the point. Make it easy for other people to respond, and most importantly, don't waste their time with your email use.

3. Leave effective voicemail messages. Plan your messages ahead of time, and make them brief. Don't mumble, don't ramble, watch your tone, and leave more than just your name and number. Above all, avoid playing telephone tag.

4. Use your phone as an effective productivity tool. Unless you've got a pressing deadline, pick up the phone when it rings and take care of the issue right then. Get to the point quickly, and stay focused. Plus, use a wireless handset -- it lets you handle phone calls anywhere in your home or office.

5. Keep your computer files well organized, so you can find them easily. Use directories and subdirectories effectively, give your project files logical, easy-to- remember names, and always save them where they're supposed to go.

6. Know the available productivity features of your email program. Keep your inbox clean by reading, replying, and deleting every email ASAP, if possible; otherwise, organize and store important emails in logically-named folders. Learn to use your email program's Calendar feature, too.

7. Run regular maintenance routines on your computer. This will ensure high performance and help protect your data. Do regular system scans with antivirus software, run complete backups regularly, and purge your old files frequently.

8. Understand the features and purposes of electronic and paper systems. Decide which systems work best for you in specific circumstances, and know when to use each.

9. Eliminate email spam. Use pop-up blockers and email filters, and don't read or reply to spam at all. If you need to provide personal information online, use an email address you signed up for using fake information.

10. Remember that you control your technology; it doesn't control you. The most useful tool on your phone, computer, Blackberry, PDA or pager is the OFF button. Do you even know where it is? Remember that you can turn your technology off, and you can respond to it when you're ready -- not when everyone thinks you should.

It's amazing how useful technological tools can be -- but it's equally amazing just how distracting they can be, especially when they're not properly used. Instead of responding mindlessly to that hunk of plastic and electronics when it bleeps at you, learn to put it to work for you in an effective and organized manner. Understand what to avoid, what to take advantage of, and just as importantly, where the OFF button is -- and how use it.

© 2008 Laura Stack.  Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, professional speaker, and author who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training company in Denver, Colorado, that caters to high-stress industries. Laura’s newest productivity book, The Exhaustion Cure (Broadway Books), hits bookstores in May 2008.  Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and MolsonCoors.  Contact her at www.TheProductivityPro.com. 

Catalog Choice Lets You Decide What You Want to Receive

I like a new service by Catalog Choice, in which you decide which catalogs you want to receive.  When you receive a catalog you don't want, you enter it on your account and select "Decline Catalog."  They contact the merchant on your behalf and request that they no longer send you their catalog. Reduce the number of catalogs you receive in the mail!  One-stop-shop method keeps you from having to unsubscribe to each one individually---a real time saver!

It's About Time

Its About Time

Pareto is very busy in the sales world.  You know the 80-20 rule.  In this case, it means that only 20% of salespeople spend 80% of their time on selling activities.  Are you in this group?  See if you recognize yourself.  If not, here’s how you can join the group.      

Put your fingers on it fast.  Laura Stack is a professional speaker and author of Leave the Office Earlier® and Find More Time.  She sees several time wasters that cost salespeople valuable selling time.  One of the biggest time wasters is lacking a system to track client history.  The system should include notes on conversations that took place, with whom, and when they took place.  Stack says, “To be truly organized you should be able to have a prospect call you out of the blue and you should be able to immediately refer back to a conversation that took place years ago.”  Without the system, you can’t be effective. You may even frustrate clients who have to repeat themselves and might have to rely on facts that aren’t correct.   Stack uses ACT! to take notes while talking with clients on the phone.  Many salespeople are unaware that Outlook can be used to track history.  The journal feature allows you to take notes and attach those notes to the contact.  Stack adds that you can use a manual folder system if you prefer. What is essential is to have a system to aggregate and retrieve client history. 

There’s an unexpected time waster—the BlackBerry.  It’s hard to use one for taking notes because you can’t type that fast.  Stack sees salespeople taking notes on scraps of paper, place mats and even their hands. That haphazard system makes them more disorganized.  She suggests, “Understand the features and benefits and decide if it’s for you.”  It’s important once you do take notes to enter them into your system as soon as possible so they don’t pile up.

Get to work fast.  Another time waster is when salespeople lack a plan or poorly plan their daily activities.  It starts by having a system to schedule follow up tasks like telephone calls.  If you tell a customer you will call in two weeks, you must follow through.  Some salespeople think they can remember everything they promise. That’s far too taxing. Instead, a technology supplied or manual system works well to keep your promises.  She says, “People will work with someone who is reliable more than someone they like.”  Some inefficient salespeople begin each day thinking, “Who am I supposed to call today?”  Stack says that when you come to work each day you should already know whom you’re supposed to call and what you’re supposed to do.  If you work in inside sales, your planning can be the last task of the previous day.  If you do a lot of driving, a week out is sufficient and more time is required for air travelers.  In addition, at the beginning of each month Stack recommends reviewing activities for the coming month.

Work on selling.  Stack sees many salespeople wasting time on activities that take them away from selling. One activity is constant email checking which she suggests reducing to once per day. She sees salespeople who take notes on spiral notebooks only to waste time flipping back through the notebooks to locate a particular piece of customer information.  She often hears complaints about completing reports that are time wasters. Yet when she asks, “What have you done about it?” she often gets the response, “Nothing.”  Stack reports, “If leadership knew, they would care as it’s directly impacting the profitability of the sales force.” 

You may think you don’t have time to plan your selling.  You really do.  Stack says, “Organization is an enabler. Once it’s in place, it allows you to make more sales. It’s a launching pad to reach more sales revenue.”  Sounds like it’s time to take the leap and join the 20% that are selling more effectively. 

Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals on skills and strategies so they can sell more and be more productive at work.  She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results which is available at www.BestatSelling.com.  She founded her company Best@Selling in 1997.  You can reach her at 972.380.0200 or info@Bestatsellling.com. 

How to systematically organize and declutter any area

It always amuses me how many people get inspired to get organized come the New Year.  It's as if 1/1 somehow had a magical connotation.  What was wrong with 4/16 or 11/8?  For whatever reason—POOF all of a sudden you're ready.  But, hey, at least it's getting done, so bring it on.

What you don't want to happen, however, is a massive shopping trip to buy bins, baskets, gadgets, etc., if you have no plan on how to use them and implement your system.  Your new organizational tools can now create more piles and even more clutter.  Clutter is not always a problem that can be solved by bins.  That can make it even worse.

Here's how I would systematically declutter an area.  Get five sturdy boxes.  Label them:

1.     Put Away—items that are out of place and should be put away

2.     Give Away—items that are in good repair that you no longer want, need, or use.  Give to charity, sell, or swap items

3.     Store—items that are going to be used again in a reasonable amount of time, but you don’t use on a regular basis

4.     Toss—items that are broken, old, worn, or in bad repair

5.     Belongs here—will go back into the room, drawer, closet, or cabinet you’re organizing

THEN (and only then) determine your storage solutions for item 3.

See my website for hundreds of articles on improving your personal productivity.  Better yet, subscribe to my free monthly newsletter.

Then take one item out at a time and put it into the appropriate box.  If you’re going to organize for 1 hour, set an egg timer for 50 minutes.  When it buzzes, use the last few minutes of your organizing session to put items away, put the charity items in the car, throw out the trash, or put boxes into storage.  The time investment made in getting organized will repay you over and over in reduced stress, decreased frustration, and more time to spend with friends and family.

The New York Times has a great article on this called A Clutter Too Deep for Mere Bins and Shelves, which reports on the health effects of disorganization.

Pre-made shopping list

Ever want to buy healthy food at the supermarket, but you didn't have time to look in your recipe books and can't think of what to buy?  Get tired of writing the same basic items---eggs, bread, milk---on your list again and again?  Keep your kitchen well stocked by hanging a pre-printed shopping list on your fridge.  Print a stack of copies at the Self magazine site.  Stick one to your fridge each week and check off things as you run low on various items.  Then use the list to trigger your thoughts on buying healthy foods for lunches and dinners for the week.