33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity

Here are creative rules:

1. Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it.  If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.
2. Daily goals. Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions.  Set targets for each day in advance.  Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
3. Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day.  This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.
4. Peak times. Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and schedule your most important tasks for those times.  Work on minor tasks during your non-peak times.
5. No-comm zones. Allocate uninterruptible blocks of time for solo work where you must concentrate.  Schedule light, interruptible tasks for your open-comm periods and more challenging projects for your no-comm periods.
6. Mini-milestones. When you begin a task, identify the target you must reach before you can stop working.  For example, when working on a book, you could decide not to get up until you’ve written at least 1000 words.  Hit your target no matter what.
7. Timeboxing. Give yourself a fixed time period, like 30 minutes, to make a dent in a task.  Don’t worry about how far you get.  Just put in the time.
8. Batching. Batch similar tasks like phone calls or errands into a single chunk, and knock them off in a single session.
9. Early bird. Get up early in the morning, like at 5am, and go straight to work on your most important task.  You can often get more done before 8am than most people do in a day.
10. Cone of silence. Take a laptop with no network or WiFi access, and go to a place where you can work flat out without distractions, such as a library, park, coffee house, or your own backyard.  Leave your comm gadgets behind.
11. Tempo. Deliberately pick up the pace, and try to move a little faster than usual.  Speak faster.  Walk faster.  Type faster.  Read faster.  Go home sooner.
12. Relaxify. Reduce stress by cultivating a relaxing, clutter-free workspace. 
    
13. Agendas. Provide clear written agendas to meeting participants in advance.  This greatly improves meeting focus and efficiency.  You can use it for phone calls too.
14. Pareto. The Pareto principle is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort.  Focus your energy on that critical 20%, and don’t overengineer the non-critical 80%.
15. Ready-fire-aim. Bust procrastination by taking action immediately after setting a goal, even if the action isn’t perfectly planned.  You can always adjust course along the way.
16. Minuteman. Once you have the information you need to make a decision, start a timer and give yourself just 60 seconds to make the actual decision.  Take a whole minute to vacillate and second-guess yourself all you want, but come out the other end with a clear choice.  Once your decision is made, take some kind of action to set it in motion.
17. Deadline. Set a deadline for task completion, and use it as a focal point to stay on track.
18. Promise. Tell others of your commitments, since they’ll help hold you accountable.
19. Punctuality. Whatever it takes, show up on time.  Arrive early.
20. Gap reading. Use reading to fill in those odd periods like waiting for an appointment, standing in line, or while the coffee is brewing.  If you’re a male, you can even read an article while shaving (preferably with an electric razor).  That’s 365 articles a year.
21. Resonance. Visualize your goal as already accomplished.  Put yourself into a state of actually being there.  Make it real in your mind, and you’ll soon see it in your reality.
22. Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent rewards for achievement.  See a movie, book a professional massage, or spend a day at an amusement park.
23. Quad 2. Separate the truly important tasks from the merely urgent.  Allocate blocks of time to work on the critical Quadrant 2 tasks, those which are important but rarely urgent, such as physical exercise, writing a book, and finding a relationship partner.
24. Continuum. At the end of your workday, identify the first task you’ll work on the next day, and set out the materials in advance.  The next day begin working on that task immediately.
25. Slice and dice. Break complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks.  Focus on completing just one of those tasks.
26. Single-handling. Once you begin a task, stick with it until it’s 100% complete.  Don’t switch tasks in the middle.  When distractions come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.
27. Randomize. Pick a totally random piece of a larger project, and complete it.  Pay one random bill.  Make one phone call.  Write page 42 of your book.
28. Insanely bad. Defeat perfectionism by completing your task in an intentionally terrible fashion, knowing you need never share the results with anyone.  Write a blog post about the taste of salt, design a hideously dysfunctional web site, or create a business plan that guarantees a first-year bankruptcy.  With a truly horrendous first draft, there’s nowhere to go but up.
29. 30 days. Identify a new habit you’d like to form, and commit to sticking with it for just 30 days.  A temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one.
30. Delegate. Convince someone else to do it for you.
31. Cross-pollination. Sign up for martial arts, start a blog, or join an improv group.  You’ll often encounter ideas in one field that can boost your performance in another.
32. Intuition. Go with your gut instinct.  It’s probably right.
33. Optimization. Identify the processes you use most often, and write them down step-by-step.  Refactor them on paper for greater efficiency.  Then implement and test your improved processes.  Sometimes we just can’t see what’s right in front of us until we examine it under a microscope.

Teaming – How to Build a Team

By Philip Lye

Team building takes work but the results are worth it. The essential ingredient is time and patience. If you really want to build a team that will achieve outstanding results you can.

The Hype

Over the years team work has been the flavor of the day with many businesses spending considerable money in trying to achieve a positive and harmonious team structure. Some have found the results they looked for but many have not.

Why is this so?

Team building has a number of foundation building blocks that are essential for a team to function.

Commitment of the Manager or Owner

Some managers and owners get excited about team possibilities only to weary over time where the pressures of business and day to day life grind them down.

Your commitment by way of your action and time are critical to your team’s success.

Time

It takes time to build teams. Trust and respect need to be earnt and there are no short cuts. Make a decision to pay the cost and demonstrate your commitment.

Patience

Life sometimes throws us a curve ball and not all of our plans go according to the script.

Make a commitment to be patient and as long as you see incremental progress realize progress is progress.

Celebrate Success and do not condemn failures

Learn to celebrate your successes as a team as you go along and learn from failure. Failure is a fantastic teacher if you look at it that way. If you own the business or are a manager realize that you are particularly under scrutiny of your team more so when failure occurs.

Your reaction to change and failure will ultimately determine the amount of buy in you achieve from your team.

Learn to Delegate

As business owners we are sometimes afraid to delegate. Start with small things and as your team gets confidence and does the right thing increase the responsibility.

Be quick to learn

Be quick to learn from each other. The most unlikely team member may be sitting on the very edge you have been looking for in your business.

Listen

Many managers and employees are terrible listeners. Learn to hear what people are really saying and don’t devalue their contributions.

Encouragement

It has been reported that children need 7 compliments to counteract 1 negative statement.

The Top 5 Teamwork Tips

Here are five teamwork tips that have given me positive experiences.

1. Leadership:

For a team to work well together there needs to be a person in the leadership position. Someone who will motivate, inspire, and make sure everyone is moving in the right direction.

2. Clarity:

There should be a clear understanding of the purpose of the group. What are the team’s goals? What is the team’s purpose? What are we striving to accomplish? The clearer this is the easier for people to stay on track.

3. Responsibility:

Each member needs to have a clear understanding of what they are responsible for doing. Everyone should know what their job is, when it will be expected, and what the parameters are to work with.

4. Feedback:

This is very important as people begin to share their ideas in the group setting. It should be supportive and whenever possible positive. This will help to create a comfortable environment where the team will take chances and be more creative. Learn how to give and receive negative feedback and criticism in a professional and respectful way. It is amazing what people can accomplish when they believe in themselves and are confident in the group.

5. Diversity:

This is the most important one, it is what makes a team great. Support the differing strengths of your teammates and allow each person to bring their unique qualities to the project. There can be some incredible surprises when we are open to doing things in new and different ways.

Leadership Skills

What does it take to become a Leader?

• Ability to listen • Ability to express ideas clearly in writing

• Ability to understand and interpret ideas clearly – received in both verbally and in writing

• Good teamwork skills •

Has a good interpersonal style to steer team members

• Selects the best course of action by identifying all the alternatives and then makes a logical assumption.

• Efficient use of resources • Having influence to motivate team members to achieve beyond goals

• Innovative and Creative Problem Solving skills

• Identifies and collects information relevant to the problem.

• Uses brainstorming techniques to create a variety of choices. Core personal skills and qualities of a leader

• Good communication skills

• Ability to expresses oneself effectively Ability to communicate in a way that encourages involvement.

Key Interpersonal Skills

• Treats others with respect

• Is considerate of the needs of others Values and encourages contributions of others Ability to Manage Client Relationships

• Develops good relationships with both internal and external customers.

The Balanced Scorecard in Government

By Brian Ward

The story so far…

Ever since the early nineties when Kaplan and Norton introduced the concept of the Balanced Scorecard, organizations have been quick to adapt the approach. Originally designed with the private sector in mind, where as a result of the work of such powerful leaders as Deming, Crosby, Juran and Senge, cause and effect or systems thinking took hold and paved the way for such thinking at the strategic level, the scorecard promises once and for all to lay the ghost of ‘management by results’, (in favor of ‘management for results’), and abolish ‘command and control’ styles of management.

In many governmental organizations, early pioneers struggled with the adaptation of the concept to their constituencies. As governments are no strangers to performance measurement, and understand the difficulties inherent in measuring the impact of government policy on various stakeholders, it is understandable that any new or innovative approach to measurement will garner cautious attention.

The trick however, learned by many who have attempted to introduce the balanced scorecard approach in government, is to exploit its two main benefits:

ACCOUNTABILITY: It assists your organization to PROVE that it is doing what it said it would do, and achieving what it said it would achieve.

IMPROVEMENT: It assists your organization to IMPROVE, by gaining an ever deeper understanding of the linkages between the outcomes it is achieving, the outcomes it desires and the drivers of those outcomes. Change a driver on your scorecard, and you change the outcomes.

So you balance the demand to PROVE (aka accountability) with the drive to IMPROVE, and in doing so you end up with an accountability framework which supports and enhances continuous improvement. Not bad if you can pull it off.

Basic tips to help you successfully develop and deploy your scorecard

As you examine the experiences of these organizations, keep in mind the senior leadership team need to buy-in fully to the concept of a balanced scorecard. To do that, they need to approach the exercise with their eyes wide open. It’s no walk in the park. If you are such a team, here are some basic tips to help you over the hurdles:

• Don’t expect perfection from day one. Hypothesis testing requires that you face reality. If your initial strategic thinking is flawed, face it squarely and revise it so that your strategy, and your credibility, are enhanced.
• Build your management information systems around the cause-and-effect paradigm of the scorecard. Throw out your tired old performance management systems that attempt to focus attention on the individual performer. We live in an interconnected world, where none of us are so detached that our personal contribution to organizational success can be reliably isolated and measured. Performance appraisal and reward systems that focus on individual performance are notoriously ineffective at improving overall organizational performance.
• Learn from others. See the list of sites below for more information. Understand that strategy is not a spectator sport. Engage your entire organization in developing tactics to support the strategy and feed into the scorecard system.
• Use the correct balanced scorecard framework for your type of business. Not-for-profit models are different than for-profit in the cause-and-effect relationships they seek to explore…don’t get them confused. Check out a text titled Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies, by balanced scorecard expert Paul R. Niven. I highly recommend it.

Why Implement a Balanced Scorecard?

• Increase focus on strategy and results
• Improve organizational performance by measuring what matters
• Align organization strategy with the work people do on a day-to-day basis
• Focus on the drivers of future performance
• Improve communication of the organization’s Vision and Strategy
• Prioritize Projects / Initiatives

SIX TRAITS THAT DIFFERENTIATE LEADERS FROM NONLEADERS

1. Drive. Leaders exhibit a higher effort level. They have a relatively high desire for achievement, they are ambitious, they have a lot of energy, they are tirelessly persistent in their activities and they show initiative
2. Desire to lead. Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others. They demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility
3. Honesty and integrity. Leaders build trusting relationship between themselves and followers by being truthful or nondeceitful and by showing high consistency between word and deed.
4. Self confidence. Followers look to leaders for an absence of self-doubt. Leaders, therefore, need to show self-confidence in order to convince followers of rightness of goals and decisions.
5. Intelligence. Leaders need to be intelligence enough to gather, synthesize and interpret large amounts of information and to be able to create visions, solve problems and make correct decisions
6. Job-relevant knowledge. Effective leaders have high degree of knowledge about the company, industry and technical matters. In-depth knowledge allows leaders to make well-informed decisions and to understand the implications of those decisions.

Not all leaders are manager    nor are all managers leaders

Do you have a negative personality?

By Jerry Langdon, Gannett News Service

Negativity in the workplace must be identified — and solved — if a business is to operate efficiently, according to Gary S. Topchik, author of Managing Workplace Negativity, published this winter.
He lists a variety of personalities that have to be confronted. Among them:

— Locomotives: They steam-roll over people. They are angry and hostile and take out their frustrations on others. Solution: Don’t take it! Tell them how their behavior affects your work, how it makes you feel, and that you need to be communicated to differently. Be assertive.

— Perfectionists: If something isn’t perfect, perfectionists become negative. Their standards aren’t realistic, and even excellent work that is praised by others is unacceptable to the perfectionist. Solution: Don’t take their statements seriously. They are expressing their own inadequacies, not yours. Try to work with them so that they can set realistic expectations for themselves and others.

— Resisters: Any change can cause negativity. Resisters usually don’t openly express their opposition to change. They do it more subtly — saying they think change is good, but then don’t implement change. Extremists may even sabotage if they find a particular change exceptionally threatening. Solution: Try to gradually involve these people in the change. If they are part of the process or come up with some implementing ideas themselves, their resistance may decrease.

— Not-My-Jobbers: These people express their negatively by refusing to do any task, no matter how simple, if they decide it is not part of their job responsibilities. It is often their way of getting back at colleagues, managers or the organization because of their unhappiness with how they are being treated. Solution: Find training and development opportunities for the Not-My-Jobbers. When they feel they are in a dead-end career road, they lose their enthusiasm for work and try to do as little as possible.

— Rumormongers: They take out their negativity toward work by spreading rumors. Rumormongers sense a loss of control over their environments or other people. Rumors help them regain that control. Solution: Give people in the organization the information and facts they need. Doing so gives them little motivation to listen to the rumormongers.

— Pessimists: Pessimists experience the world as an unpleasant place. They are unhappy with the way things are no matter what you try to do for them. Solution: You won’t be able to change their attitude easily. Start by trying to have them adopt some new specific positive habits to take the place of their existing negative ones.

— Criticizers: They disagree with anything that is said. They like to be right, no matter what. They find problems, never opportunities. Solution: Ask them for examples, evidence or their reasoning for disagreeing. Be persistent and don’t give up.

— Crybabies: When crybabies don’t get their way, they behave like children frown, withdraw, go off on a tirade or cry. Solution: Crybabies need a supportive environment and constant encouragement. Also lower their stress and pressure levels.

— Sacrificers: They come in early and stay late, do whatever you ask them to do. But they will complain about their workload and about difficult employees, customers or bosses. Their negativity is brought out by feeling that their hard work is unappreciated. Solution: Give constant positive feedback on how much their hard work and contributions are appreciated. Giving recognition in front of their colleagues, teammates and boss also is helpful.

— Self-Castigators: They get upset with themselves and become negative. They find fault with their work performance, career progress, socioeconomic status, etc. Solution: Use any strategy that will build their self-esteem.

— Scapegoaters: Scapegoaters shift the blame for their mistakes on others, especially when they are in a negative mood. Solution: Give specific examples of how their errors, mistakes or miscalculations were the problem.

— Eggshells: They are very sensitive, and even the slightest comment, if misconstrued, causes them to crack. Solution: When giving critical (and hopefully constructive) feedback, give it slowly, without making it personal, and be sure they understand your point before you move on.

— Micros: They like to focus on the smallest details or mistakes and forget about the big picture. Solution: Have them get into the habit of evaluating the entire project or assignment. Ask them for the main point, the overall goal, the major problems, the main objectives, and so forth.

Most of us find some aspect of our jobs that require us to modify our preferred behavior. Perhaps you’re more assertive at work than you really feel comfortable with or maybe you’re more ‘inclusive’. The point is that we can and do deal with the demands of the workplace by adopting a ‘work’ personality. Most of us do it fairly effortlessly. We accept that the world of work is not about living within our ‘comfort zone’ all of the time and we all have the ability to step outside of our natural behavioral preferences in order to get something done.

Manage Your Mind To Manage Your Time

by Bill Cole, MS, MA

Are you working longer hours but getting less done? Are you being asked to do more in less time? Beginning to feel like a hostage at work? Productivity problems can make you feel incredibly stressed–and then you’re just spinning your wheels. But there is help. You can use your mind. You can soon be winning the mental game of personal productivity. Peak-performing sales professionals work smarter, not harder. They want to achieve to the maximum in business and then go play. Here’s how you can do that too.
1. Start the day being very clear about what you want to accomplish–both personally and professionally.
2. Once a quarter, perform a time analysis on your entire week–both at home and at work.
3. Make a list of the things you should completely avoid doing today–and then don’t do them.
4. Don’t strive for perfection in everything, as perfection doesn’t matter with all tasks.
5. Sweep your mind clear of clutter before you engage your brain on a project.
6. Set boundaries and limits for yourself so you position yourself for balanced time management.
7. Schedule “real-life” personal appointments in your appointment tools in advance, and adhere to them.
8. Ask yourself, “Am I managing my time well enough to allow me freedom to enjoy life after work?”
9. At the end of the day review what you have accomplished, and compliment and reward yourself for good tasks completed.
10. Motivate yourself for good work by promising yourself exercise or a break reward once you achieve a level of excellence in a task.
11. Stay conscious of your time management choices during the day.
12. Compartmentalize your tasks so you focus on one task at a time.
13. Build up mental momentum with each successful task completed so you proudly gain energy as you go through your day.
14. Build variety into your schedule so you have interesting activities to look forward to during less exciting tasks.
15. Create positive tension and an urgency to get things done faster by having more to do than you can actually achieve–but keep your focus in the here and now.
16. Don’t classify too many things as priorities or as urgent–be selective.
17. Know what to say no to and hold to your decisions.
18. Continually ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?”
19. Visualize yourself succeeding before every task.
20. Don’t be continually reactive to your electronic tools–don’t reflexively retrieve them when they come in–collect voicemail and email at specified times to maintain uninterrupted focus.
21. Plan quiet time for thinking, planning and analyzing.
22. Create your own custom “best time management program”–don’t use someone else’s.
23. Ask yourself, “Is what I am doing right now really making a difference?”
24. Do things today that will give you leveraged advancements in your work weeks from now.
25. Systematize regular, repetitious tasks by setting up smarter processes.
26. Build in delegation and support from associates, friends and family to take pressure off yourself.
27. Lower your expectations of perfection and don’t expect 100% completion of your to-do list each day–carry some over for another day.
28. Review your values every quarter so you know what is important to you, and how to plan your time.

Tips for Minimizing Workplace Negativity Seven. Tips for Minimizing Workplace Negativity

By Susan M. Heathfield,
The best way to combat workplace negativity is to keep it from occurring in the first place. These seven tips will help you minimize workplace negativity.
• Provide opportunities for people to make decisions about and control and/or influence their own job. The single most frequent cause of workplace negativity I encounter is traceable to a manager or the organization making a decision about a person’s work without her input. Almost any decision that excludes the input of the person doing the work is perceived as negative.

• Make opportunities available for people to express their opinion about workplace policies and procedures. Recognize the impact of changes in such areas as work hours, pay, benefits, assignment of overtime hours, comp pay, dress codes, office location, job requirements, and working conditions.

These factors are closest to the mind, heart and physical presence of each individual. Changes to these can cause serious negative responses. Provide timely, proactive responses to questions and concerns.

• Treat people as adults with fairness and consistency. Develop and publicize workplace policies and procedures that organize work effectively. Apply them consistently. As an example, each employee has the opportunity to apply for leave time. In granting his request, apply the same factors to his application as you would to any other individual’s.

• Do not create “rules” for all employees, when just a few people are violating the norms. You want to minimize the number of rules directing the behavior of adult people at work. Treat people as adults; they will usually live up to your expectations, and their own expectations.

• Help people feel like members of the in-crowd; each person wants to have the same information as quickly as everyone else. Provide the context for decisions, and communicate effectively and constantly.

If several avenues or directions are under consideration, communicate all that you know, as soon as you know it. Reserve the right to change your mind later, without consequence, when additional factors affect the direction of ultimate decisions.

• Afford people the opportunity to grow and develop. Training, perceived opportunities for promotions, lateral moves for development, and cross-training are visible signs of an organization’s commitment to staff.

• Provide appropriate leadership and a strategic framework, including mission, vision, values, and goals. People want to feel as if they are part of something bigger than themselves. If they understand the direction, and their part in making the desired outcomes happen, they can effectively contribute more.

• Provide appropriate rewards and recognition so people feel their contribution is valued. The power of appropriate rewards and recognition for a positive workplace is remarkable. Suffice to say, reward and recognition is one of the most powerful tools an organization can use to buoy staff morale.
Take some time to analyze how well your organization is applying these seven recommendations. They form the foundation for positive staff morale and minimized negativity in your workplace.

Stages of Team Development

Generally, when organizations form teams, these organizations have specific projects or goals in mind. A team is simply a tool that accomplishes a project or goal.

But no matter what the reason teams are formed, they go through four stages, according to a 1965 research paper by Bruce Tuckman of the Naval Medical Research Institute at Bethesda. The following sections describe Tuckman’s four stages.

Stage 1: Forming

During the forming stage, team members not only get to know each other but also familiarize themselves with their task and with other individuals interested in the project, such as supervisors. At the end of the forming stage, team members should know the following:

· The project’s overall mission

· The main phases of the mission

· The resources at their disposal

· A rough project schedule

· Each member’s project responsibilities

· A basic set of team rules

Keep in mind that no one person needs to be responsible for the team. Project management duties can be shared, with different members taking responsibilities for each stage of the project.

Stage 2: Storming

Storming is characterized by competition and conflict within the team as members learn to bend and mold their feelings, ideas, attitudes, and beliefs to suit the team organization. Although conflicts may or may not surface as group issues, they do exist. Questions about who is responsible for what, what the rules are, what the reward system is, and what the evaluation criteria are arise. These questions reflect conflicts over leadership, structure, power, and authority. Because of the discomfort generated during this stage, some members may remain completely silent, while others attempt to dominate. Members have an increased desire for structural clarification and commitment.

In order to progress to the next stage, team members must move from a testing-and-proving mentality to a problem-solving mentality. Listening is the most helpful action team members and the team leader can take to resolve these issues.

Stage 3: Norming

In Tuckman’s norming stage, team relations are characterized by cohesion. (Keep in mind that not all teams reach this stage.) Team members actively acknowledge all members’ contributions, build community, maintain team focus and mission, and work to solve team issues. Members are willing to change their preconceived ideas or opinions on the basis of facts presented by other members, and they actively ask questions of one another. Leadership is shared, and cliques dissolve. As members begin to know and identify with one another, the trust that individuals place in their colleagues fosters cohesion within the team.

During this stage of development, team members begin to experience a sense of group belonging and a feeling of relief as a result of resolving interpersonal conflicts.

Stage 3 is characterized by the flow of data between team members: They share feelings and ideas, solicit and give feedback to one another, and explore actions related to the task. Creativity is high. If this stage of data flow and cohesion is attained by the group members, their interactions are characterized by openness and sharing of information on both a personal and task level. They feel good about being part of an effective group.

The major drawback of the norming stage is that members may begin to fear the inevitable future breakup of the group; they may resist change of any sort.

Stage 4: Performing

Again, the performing stage is not reached by all teams. Those teams that do reach this stage not only enjoy team members who work independently but also support those who can come back together and work interdependently to solve problems. A team is at its most productive during this stage.

Team members are both highly task-oriented and highly people-oriented during this stage. The team is unified: Team identity is complete, team morale is high, and team loyalty is intense. The task function becomes genuine problem solving, leading to optimal solutions and optimum team development. There is support for experimentation in solving problems, and an emphasis on achievement. The overall goal is productivity through problem solving and work.

Adjourning

Teams assembled for specific project or for a finite length of time go through a fifth stage, called adjourning , when the team breaks up. A planned conclusion usually includes recognition for participation and achievement and an opportunity for members to say personal goodbyes. Disbanding a team can create some apprehension, and not all team members handle this well. The termination of the team is a regressive movement from giving up control to the team to giving up inclusion in the team. This last stage focuses on wrapping up activities rather than on task performance