I am curious how other [people] capture their meeting notes to reference later.

The answers that follow are wonderful and shed light on the different ways we all work. A few of the highlights:

HappyDogs: Frequently, we end up mapping out something on the white board, then, since none of us want to rewrite it, we take a photo of it.

AJ: How about a pen that records your writing and puts it into a PDF? A pen that also records (if you want) and co-ordinates the timing of your notes with the voice recording?

I haven’t looked into prices because it’s not available where I live, but the SmartPen looks like a really cool gadget.

http://www.livescribe.com/

rachel_413: What I do for important notes, is I scan them and put them in the computer folder for that particular project, usually in a subfolder called Basis. Although scanning your notes is an extra work step, it gets rid of paper files, and it’s important to have records for other people who work on the project, or may have to follow your trail long after you’ve moved on to other projects or companies.

I will type notes directly into a text file and then save the file in the corresponding client folder. If the notes will need to be referenced at a point when I’m not at my computer, I’ll upload the file to Evernote. If someone is interested in reading my notes, I’ll simply e-mail them. I like the idea of linking the notes somehow to the event that was scheduled on my digital calendar, but I’ve never actually done this. Anyone know how to do this with Google Calendar?

How do you capture meeting notes? Share your ideas in the comments to this post or join in the discussion on the Unclutterer Forums.

To handle these touch-more-than-once documents, I have a (gasp!) procrastination bin on my desk. Actually, it’s a basket that hangs from a shelf, but “hanging procrastination basket” just doesn’t have the same catchy name factor as the straightforward “procrastination bin.”

I have certain rules for what can and can’t go into the procrastination bin. The bin isn’t a dumping ground for things I don’t want to do or a spot for papers that need to be filed. It’s a designated area for things that can’t or shouldn’t be dealt with right now.

Qualities that make it okay for a document to go in the procrastination bin:

• It can fit. If the procrastination bin is full, nothing more can go inside of it and the document must be processed immediately. There is no squishing, fancy folding, or clever engineering to fit more inside the bin than what it was designed to contain.
• There are no consequences for procrastinating. If putting off the task will cause me stress, cause someone else frustration, or has a nearly immediate deadline, the document cannot go into the bin.
• Time is scheduled on the calendar for when to do it. When a paper goes into the bin, an entry must be made on the calendar for when to properly process the paper. Nothing can go into the bin and be forgotten.
• Procrastinating might be better than taking care of it right now. There are times when not taking immediate action is actually the best thing to do. The procrastination bin is perfect for these types of documents.
• The bin is small. I purposefully purchased the hanging basket that is made of wide mesh and isn’t very large. It can only be used for papers, and I’m not tempted to use it for items other than paperwork. It has a dedicated purpose and limited functionality.

In addition to the rules I have for the procrastination bin, I also have 30 minutes blocked off on my calendar each month to re-evaluate everything that is in the bin. Even with other dates on the calendar to process each paper, I’ve found that this 30 minutes will often take care of some of the items earlier than planned. I always schedule this 30 minute evaluation to occur right after lunch when my concentration levels are low. I realized that it’s better to use this time in a somewhat productive manner than waste it staring off into space, zoning out.

For the most part, I’ve kept to the resolutions I created. Unfortunately, I had to take six weeks off from the gym and withdraw from the race I planned to run in April because I kicked a rocking chair and significantly injured my foot. I’m just now getting back into a modified gym routine and can wear regular shoes again.

One of the highlights of my first-quarter resolutions was discovering new recipes for my healthy meal plan. One of the things I did was add the Canyon Ranch Cooks cookbook to my collection. With it, I have successfully made and enjoyed dozens of new recipes. During the doldrums of winter, it was nice to keep mealtime interesting and nutritious. Additionally, simply having more energy has been a wonderful thing.

The theme for my second-quarter resolutions is “Embark on new adventures.” Now that I have the much needed energy I was craving, I’m excited about putting it to use. The following are the resolutions I’ve set for April, May, and June:

• Plant and tend to an herb and vegetable garden.
• Take a knife skills class.
• Go rock climbing.
• Accomplish all 67 tasks on the “Spring Cleaning for the Overachiever” list on pages 189 and 190 of Unclutter Your Life in One Week.
• Go through my entire home and office and play the uncluttering game I’m moving overseas! (Just to be clear, I’m NOT moving overseas, I’m simply playing the game.) Essentially, take on a full-home minimizing project.

To help me achieve these resolutions, I’m going to reference the post “Creating a plan to achieve your 2010 resolutions.” I’m also going to keep up with all of my first-quarter resolutions to maintain the energy levels necessary to help me with these second-quarter goals.

What are your resolutions for April, May, and June? How are your resolutions progressing for 2010? Share your resolution stories in the comments.

How often do you hear people say they don’t have enough time? Like me, you may have used the “not enough time” excuse as a reason for not following your dream.

We all have goals, the problem is making time for them in our busy schedules.

For years, I wanted to write but didn’t. I often used the “not enough time” excuse and thought it was true. I didn’t have time to write because I was running a business and raising kids.

But my life was totally immersed in doing, not being, and the more I did, the more unhappy I became.

Until I decided to do something about it, accept the blame, and prioritize better.

First, I worked out where my time went.

I wrote down everything I did and noticed my days were cluttered. A typical entry would be: 10 minute personal call, 10 minutes planning meals, 20 minute business call, 15 minutes e-mailing.

By lunchtime I often felt so frazzled I just slumped in front of the TV with Dr. Phil and rejoiced that at least I wasn’t as messed up as his guests.

After a week, I made a pie chart showing where my time went, where I could save time, and what I could remove. I recommend doing this as a visual guide to see how your time is spent.

There were 10 main time traps I noted and what I needed to do to control them:

1. The Phone – I don’t have to answer it every time it rings.
2. The Internet – Log in an few times a day for specific purposes only.
3. Housework – Let some things slide. The state of my house is not an indication of my emotional well-being and it doesn’t have to be perfect.
4. Friends and Family – Manage them into times when I want to see them or socialize. Don’t let them encroach.
5. Cooking and Shopping – Streamline them, bulk buy and cook.
6. Sleep – Try cutting out one hour of sleep. I’ll probably function fine and gain an extra hour a day.
7. Commuting to work – Can I cut out the commute and work from home a few days a week?
8. Reading – Reading about writing, travel or starting a business is good unless it takes up time when I could have been doing them.
9. TV – Limit it to the shows I actually enjoy. Never channel hop.
10. Dreaming – At some point I have to stop dreaming about following my passion and start doing it.

Stop yearning for more time and work out how to create it with these four steps:

1. Make a pie chart that reflects your tracked time.
2. Work out which time traps are stopping you from following your dreams.
3. Write a weekly schedule for yourself and stick to it. Make sure you log at least three sessions for following your dream.
4. Schedule times in your calendar for the things you want to do and follow through.

No more “not enough time” excuses needed.

In fact, even when we think we’re in charge of a project, we often are not. When we have to rely on others to supply information, supplies, or support, timelines (and budgets) can quickly be extended. After years of working across multiple professions and with clients, I have identified where projects typically go awry. From page 200 of Unclutter Your Life in One Week:

These are the universal truths for why projects are not completed on time:

• Clients are never as prepared as they say they will be.
• Clients always change their mind.
• People always underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something.

(The word clients in this list can easily be substituted with bosses, co-workers and also you.)

Clients are never as prepared as they say they will be. For most people, working on a project is more fun than planning it. As a result, clients don’t think through the entire process and its results before contacting a vendor. Putting in the research, collecting data, identifying the goal of the project, and envisioning it through to its completion before contacting a vendor will help enormously to preserve a timeline.

Clients always change their mind. I think it’s important for a project to have flexibility, but changing the scope of a project will extend timelines and/or costs. You need to be prepared for these changes and ready for when they happen. You can reduce the impact and costs of these changes simply by having a single decision-making liaison between the client and vendor. If a client or vendor is being contacted by more than one person, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. One person should act as the filter on both ends of a relationship to make sure that only approved changes that relate to the final outcome of the project are communicated.

People always underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something. Even though I have timed myself enough to know how long it actually takes me to do something, I still think I work faster than I do. We all think this way. In our minds, we have speed of pumas. Avoid this project pitfall by using the following:

A good rule of thumb is to double everything up to a day. If you think something will take you two hours, plan for it to take four. If you think something will take you eight hours, plan for it to take sixteen. After eight hours, the double rule stops being as accurate. For projects that I estimate will take between one and five days, I just tag on an additional day. If someone says it will take him two weeks to complete a portion of the project, I add three additional days into the schedule.

Your project’s timeline can be preserved or closely achieved with proper planning, organizing, improved communication, and realistic expectations for work completion. Remember the three universal truths for why projects are not completed on time, and do your best to avoid them.

1. Open lines of communication
2. Gather data
3. Identify final outcome and deadline
4. Envision achievement of final outcome
5. Set small milestones on a realistic timeline
6. Do the work
7. Stay in communication with relevant parties
8. Finish project
9. Cleanup, review, and/or reflect

The first step in this process could be opening up lines of communication with your boss, client, or possibly a service provider like an electrician. With a project like a closet cleanup, the communication might simply be motivating yourself or letting your roommate know you’re going to be making a giant, but temporary, mess.

When you’re gathering data in the second step, you’re looking to learn as much as you can about the entire project. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Someone else might be giving you this data or you may need to seek it out yourself. How much clutter lurks in your attic? What is it? How should you handle it?

Steps three, four, five, and six are pretty straightforward — you want to know where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there, and then you need to take the steps to make that happen. Setting small milestones in addition to the overall large goal keeps you on track throughout the entire project.

The seventh step is often forgotten, but vitally important if you’re working with or coordinating others. When you provide status reports to everyone involved in the project you’re managing their expectations of your work and helping them to plan and complete their part of the work.

Step number eight is the best step, and may be worthy of a celebration.

The last step is important for getting you ready for the future. Cleaning up helps objects get returned to their storage space and ready for the next time you or someone else wants to use them. Reviewing the project after it’s completed helps you identify what worked and what didn’t, and reflecting on the entire project motivates you to take on more projects (or fewer) like it in the future. Completing this step, and even writing it down or logging it in some way, also gives you something to reflect on later for a performance review or even in your personal life.

Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Missouri fans aren’t the only ones who want to see Kansas mess up their record in the last five games. Fans of the other ranked teams would be happy to see Kansas take a tumble, and, after watching some of the games this year, I’m pretty certain there are a few referees that would be glad to see Kansas lose, too.

In competitive sports like basketball, a game has to end with a winner and a loser. If you’re on top, it’s because you beat other teams to get there. You make enemies quickly when success after success stacks up beneath you. Other people don’t like to see you succeed when it was at their expense. In fact, other teams and fans watch you in hopes of experiencing schadenfreude.

In our work lives, however, very few things are like competitive sports. If someone does well, it’s usually not at the expense of someone else. Many people can do well at a time. Everyone on a project can be successful. Just because someone receives a promotion today doesn’t mean you won’t ever be promoted. Even though this is the fact, it is easy to lose sight of it. We quickly clutter up our minds with jealousy, envy, and hope for some schadenfreude in our immediate lives.

If you want to be productive and manage your time well at work, you need to let go of the belief that your workplace is a zero-sum game. If a colleague is praised for his or her work — even if you feel it is unwarranted — be genuinely happy for that person and then immediately return to your tasks. Getting caught up in office politics, sabotaging your colleagues, and focusing on anything other than your work is a waste of your time. Engaging in such negative behaviors causes people to believe you can’t be trusted, you’re a bad team member, and you’re only out for yourself. Even if you aren’t outwardly expressing your frustrations, obsessive negative thoughts can decrease your productivity. Believing that someone else’s win is your loss is clutter, it keeps you from being productive, and only damages you professionally in the long-run.

I like the idea of using the Olympics as motivation to complete a difficult project. Olympians train years, decades, and some even their entire lives for mere minutes of Olympic competition. They don’t give up because the obstacle might seem unobtainable; they keep training until they realize their dreams of Olympic glory.

There are only 12 days left until the final Olympic ceremony. What challenging uncluttering project can you conquer before the Olympic flame is extinguished?

1. Gossip and office politics. You are paid to do a job, and that job doesn’t include spending hours of your day talking negatively about or plotting against your co-workers. When you withdraw from these activities, you’ll have more time for your work and people will likely follow your lead.
2. Lack of training on equipment or software. The more you know about the tools you have to do your job, the faster you can do your work. Buy a book, thoroughly read the manual, have a colleague teach you, or take a class so you can navigate your equipment and software as efficiently as possible.
3. Unproductive e-mail exchanges. The moment you suspect information wasn’t conveyed as intended or there is confusion in the communication, pick up the phone and call the recipient or walk to your co-worker’s office. What might take you hours to resolve by e-mail can take mere minutes to solve with verbal communication.

What time-wasting traps do you notice in your office? How do you resolve them? Will making the changes recommended above help you to be more productive in your work? Sound off in the comments.

1. Do you spend less than 60 percent of your day focused on the most valuable work for your job?
2. Do client/supervisor requests often linger unanswered for more than 24 hours?
3. Do you ever feel like you don’t know where to start working on a project?
4. Do you have action items on your to-do list that have been there for more than a week? a month?
5. Have you led a meeting without providing an agenda to its attendees?
6. When you come into work in the morning, does it take you more than 15 minutes to start doing work-related tasks?
7. If something happened to you, and a qualified replacement would need to step in to work for you for awhile, would she be constantly frustrated or have to pick up the phone to have you help her find things she needed?

If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, disorganization and clutter may be negatively affecting your job performance.

Start by opening your calendar and scheduling an hour every day this week to focus on organizing. These hours will not be wasted, as your improved efficiency will quickly make up for the time expenditure. Here are some tips that correlate to the questions above.

The first question: To ensure that you are spending 60 percent or more of your day on your most valuable work, you need to plan each day before you start work. You may not follow your plan exactly, but the act of creating your plan will help you to stay more focused on the important work.

The second question: Even if you’re just sending an e-mail or making a quick phone call saying that it will take another day to get back to someone, contact within 24 hours is essential for good client/supervisor relations. Schedule 15 minutes after lunch and at the end of your work day to process these requests.

The third question: If you work in an office that has a preferred project management software, take a class or online seminar and learn how to effectively use this system. If your office doesn’t have such software already in place, research online project management tools and find the one that works best for you. Then, learn how to use it and take advantage of its features.

The fourth question: When planning your day, schedule 30 minutes to focus on these lingering tasks. Keep scheduling time for these activities until you are able to cross all of them off of your to-do list. Then, make a commitment to never let an action item linger on your to-do list for more than a week (or two, based on your type of work). These lingering items create a great deal of anxiety, and that anxiety can slow you down.

The fifth question: A meeting without an agenda can be a waste of time for everyone involved. Learn how to organize a business meeting so that it’s valuable to you and its attendees.

The sixth question: Before you leave work for the day, make sure your desk and supplies are prepared for tomorrow. You need to be ready to “hit the ground running” immediately when you arrive to work.

The seventh question: If you’re out of the office for any reason (emergency, illness, vacation, sudden promotion), someone should be able to come in and take over your work without much difficulty. Unless you are self-employed (and even then, you may have legal responsibilities to your clients), you do not own your work or the materials used to complete that work. Keeping this simple fact in mind can often help to keep you more diligently organized.

Good luck, and I hope that in a matter of days your organizing efforts begin to show you great rewards.

Here’s how Concentrate works:
Name an activity you complete at your computer that requires focus. This activity might be something like creating presentations, reading PDFs for class, or laying out a newsletter. Once you’ve identified the activity, you can edit the specifics of how you want your computer to function. Determine what applications you’ll use and which ones you definitely won’t, specific websites or documents you’ll need and ones you won’t, your online status, which spaces to use (if you use the multi-desktop program), customize your desktop image, and even launch scripts. You can also set a timer to help keep you focused for a specific period, with sounds and recorded messages that can cheer you on along the way. You can set your preferences to have an icon automatically appear at start up so turning on the activity environment only takes one-click.

You can get 60 hours for free to try the service, and $29 if you choose to purchase it. My favorite part of the program is its incredibly simple user interface. Setting up the preferences takes very little time and effort, and turning on the activity is even easier. A program that is a breeze to use increases the likelihood that I’ll actually use it. And, I’m using Concentrate as I write this.

Simply stated, she suggests that if there is a future action you wish to accomplish (call your mom each Sunday, pick up the dry cleaning, follow up about a job lead) that you add it as a single or recurring event in Google Calendar with an e-mail reminder. In Google Calendar, select “Create Event” in the left-hand column be sure to set the reminder to “E-mail.” It might look like this:

I really appreciate reminders that are pushed into my e-mail account because I have a tendency to forget to check my calendar, especially when I’m traveling. Google Calendar also has a nice feature where you can have your daily calendar e-mailed to you each morning.

I’ve written in the past about how getting adequate sleep is linked to an uncluttered life. If I’m exhausted, I’m less likely to eat well and exercise (also energy related), tackle items on my to-do list, think and work efficiently and clearly, keep up with chores, stay focused, and respond well under stress. One hour of missed sleep can tank my productivity the following day.

Less than a week into 2010, though, and I’ve already had to tweak some of my resolutions. For example, when I was planning how I would achieve my sleep resolutions, I apparently forgot to factor in that I have a baby in the house. Although he has started sleeping through most nights, he’s not sleeping through all nights. I’ve quickly learned that my plan to get eight hours of sleep a night is more likely to happen if I schedule nine hours on the calendar.

Here are my energy resolutions that I’m working to turn into habits during the first quarter of 2010:

• On nights when I work the following morning, begin bedtime routines at 9:00 p.m. (Change into pajamas, pick out clothes for tomorrow, feed pets, wash face, brush teeth, change son into his pajamas, curl up in bed with a book, etc.)
• Lights out at 10:00 p.m.
• Out of bed the first time the alarm clock rings at 7:00 a.m. (No snooze!)
• On Monday evenings, create a healthy meal plan and shopping list for Wednesday through Wednesday. (I currently do this, I went ahead and put this on the list, though, to make it a priority to keep doing it.)
• Grocery shop each Tuesday. (Again, I do this, just wanted to reinforce.)
• When in town, eat out at restaurants three times a week or less. (I’m counting coffee and soda stops in this.)
• Go to gym every day per training schedule for April race.

The point of these resolutions is to improve my sleeping, eating, and exercising routines, which will hopefully give me more energy. By the end of March I’ll report back about if I’ve noticed any improvement in my energy level. I have some intense resolutions planned for the second quarter of 2010, and I’m going to need more energy than I currently have.

How have you decided to structure your resolutions for 2010? What resolutions are on your list? How are they going so far? Remember, if you break a resolution, just start again the next day and tweak any plans that may need it. Good luck!

How many times have you been at dinner with a friend and she puts her phone on the table without any explanation? (I’m not talking about when someone is waiting for an emergency call, but rather when she simply doesn’t want to miss any social call that might happen to come her way.) How many times have you done it? How many times have you been talking with someone and he reaches into his pocket to check his phone to see if he has any messages? (Again, not when he is on call or expecting an important message, but because the person can’t go for five minutes without checking to see what may have filtered in.) Has this been you? Are you obsessed with checking your phone for voice mail, text, and/or e-mail messages?

An addiction to checking your voice mail, text and/or e-mail messages may be cluttering up your life. It also might be interfering with your pursuit of what matters most to you. Even if you’re not addicted, and you just wish these forms of communication took up less time in your life, try the following tips to get message checking under control:

• Determine why you are always checking your messages. What reasons are propelling you to check in all the time? Are these reasons tied to what matters most to you? Or, are they tied to insecurities or simply out of habit?
• If some of your reasons for constantly checking your messages correspond to what matters most to you — maybe your job or your family — can you find a way to make these checks less obtrusive? For instance, can you set a specific ring tone for calls and messages from your technical support team at work? Can you turn off your message notification sounds but leave on an alarm so that you check your messages only at specified intervals?
• If your reasons are tied to insecurities or out of habit, can you leave your phone in your car’s glove box when you go into an event so that you can have access to it if you need it, but that access is just annoying enough that you won’t do it unless there is a reason? Can you ask the person you’re out with to carry your phone for you while you’re together?
• Remember that people survived only a decade ago without constant access to voice mail, text, and e-mail messages. If someone needs to reach you in an emergency, there is almost always a way to do it. Portable communication devices are extremely convenient, but using them shouldn’t be cluttering up the remarkable life you desire or interfering with what matters most to you.

Good luck to anyone who is struggling with a message-checking addiction. I have to admit, the first three months I had my iPhone, I was definitely addicted. I got through it, though, by having my husband carry my phone when we were out together. Eventually, I broke the habit and the novelty of constantly checking for messages wore off.

If you check your e-mail every 5 minutes when you’re at work, then you are checking it 12 times an hour. Multiply 12 times an hour by 8 hours a work day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year (assuming you aren’t checking your e-mail while you’re on your two weeks of vacation) and this is how Merlin determined the 24,000 total.

If you’re checking your e-mail 24,000 times a year, what are you sacrificing? What are you not working on during that time? Could you reduce your rate to every 15 minutes (a yearly total of 8,000) and be more productive with other aspects of your job? Could you reduce it to once an hour (2,000)? Three times a day (750)?

How often are you checking e-mail currently? If you don’t know, track your productivity to see how you’re really spending your time at work.

How can you break an e-mail addiction? Start by turning off your notification indicator and setting an alarm for every 15 minutes. Only check your e-mail when the alarm indicates you do so. Every client I’ve worked with has found that they will not face any trouble at work if they only check e-mail on a 15-minute or 30-minute schedule. Most come to find that once an hour is sufficient, but it takes awhile for them to build up confidence to make this change. I try to check my e-mail fewer than 5 times a day (some days I’m more successful than others).

What will you do with your newly discovered time? Simply taking the time to plan your perfect day will help you manage your time more wisely.

It happens every November, and I know it has something to do with the weather. The skies turn gray, the chilly rains fall on D.C., and I wish I were somewhere with snow instead of puddles. I dream of heading to Canada or the Alps and strapping on a pair of skis and taking to the slopes. I’ve never been a big fan of the wet, Mid-Atlantic falls and winters. I’m of the opinion that if it’s going to be cold and blistery, I should at least have snow and skiing to enjoy.

Of course, a week of vacation to someplace truly cold reminds me that my desire to live on a snow-covered mountain is simply wanderlust. It’s nice to visit, but I don’t think I’m ready to experience it six months out of every year.

When wanderlust sets in, though, it’s difficult to ignore. I have to act on it, even if I don’t actually take a vacation. If I don’t, the wanderlust consumes my thoughts and I’m not able to think of much else. Here is how I handle wanderlust in an organized way so that if I do decide to take the vacation, all of my daydreaming was actually profitable:

• Schedule time to plan the vacation. Instead of letting thoughts of wanderlust occupy a constant stream in my mind, I schedule time to plan the vacation on my schedule. If I find myself thinking about the trip when I should be doing something else, I remind myself I have set aside time to deal with it later and get back to focusing on the issue. Then, I only work on the trip during the scheduled time.
• Create a wanderlust scrapbook. When I was younger, this was an actual scrapbook I could glue things into and carry with me. Now, I simply use Evernote and drop in digital files I can access from my phone or laptop.
• Research travel details. When is the best time to travel to the location? What are the ideal places to stay? Where and when can deals be found? How much will the trip cost? What will the place look and feel liek? All of this information goes into the scrapbook or Evernote.
• Save up money for the trip. Even if I don’t end up taking the trip, I still put aside money for it. If I don’t budget the money, taking the trip won’t ever be possible. If I eventually decide to use the money for something else, I at least know exactly what I’m giving up or delaying.

How do you organize things that fill your mind and distract you from other things you should be doing? Do you plan all of your vacations, regardless of if you take them? Do you plan for other things you dream about and want to do? Do you do the same things with worries? How do you keep your mind from wandering when it should be focused?

Conveniently, the tree fell minutes after I had finished my “must complete these tasks or lose my job” items on my to-do list. I had a lot of work left to do in the day, but all of it could wait until the connection was re-established or until I made it to the local coffee shop that has free WiFi.

While I was driving to the coffee shop, I thought about how getting the most important work out of the way first saved me a great deal of frustration. Had I put off the most important work, I would have been angry and stressed and worked into a frenzy about nature simply being nature. Instead, I was more entertained than anything else. A dead tree took out my connection — possibly the best reason ever for losing service.

I structure my day by doing the most important tasks first. This means I sit down at my computer and start writing before checking e-mail, Twitter, voice mail, or even comments on Unclutterer. If I’m at my desk at 6:00 a.m., I won’t get to the other tasks until usually 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. These other activities are a reward for getting through the high priority assignments.

When I leave work at the end of the day, I’ll often open up the most important task for the following day and place it at the center of my screen. (I learned this tip from Glen Stansberry, I would like to note.) Then, when I sit down to work in the morning, I can immediately start on what I need to do.

How do you structure your work day? Do you get your most important tasks completed first thing in the morning? Or, do you procrastinate and put off the hard work hoping that maybe it will just go away? Tell us how you structure your work and what works best for you in the comments.

This is from the Wednesday chapter, “Communication Processes” section:

“You might not realize it, but meeting attendees have some control over how quickly a meeting runs and they certainly impact the quality of the discussion.

• Be prepared. Read the agenda at least a day in advance of the meeting. Come to the meeting with relevant materials. Have a pen and pad of paper with you. Turn your BlackBerry to vibrate. Know who else will be at the meeting. Know the goal of the meeting, its location, and its start time. Arrive at the meeting on time.
• Respect others. How many times have you been in a meeting where a presenter has had to repeat information because Gary and Stephanie were focusing on their laptops instead of paying attention the first time something was said? Not only does this type of distraction waste Gary’s and Stephanie’s time, but it also wastes the time of everyone attending the meeting. Focus your attention on who is speaking. Make eye contact. Show that you’re listening. Avoid making snide comments to your neighbor. If you’re having trouble concentrating, write down in excruciating detail everything the speaker is saying. It will give you something to do, and you can review your detailed notes later if you spaced out on what was being said.
• Think before you speak. Before you contribute to a conversation in a meeting, ask yourself: 1) Is this comment helpful and relevant to the topic being discussed right now? (If it’s not, save it for after the meeting.) 2) Will this comment be helpful to everyone in the room or just one individual? (If the comment is only helpful to one person, save everyone else’s time and talk to that specific person after the meeting.) 3) Can I craft my comment so that it takes less than thirty seconds to express? (If you can’t, keep crafting. If you’re not presenting, your comments should be brief.)”

What do you do during meetings to help speed them along? Add your ideas to the comments.

Now, on with the excerpt from the Thursday chapter, “Working While at Work” section of the book:

“… try these strategies for improving your productivity when you don’t really want to work:

• Similar to what you might do when exercising, play music with a fast rhythm.
• If you drink caffeine, consume it in small, frequent amounts instead of just one large cup at the beginning of the day.
• Set time-specific goals in two-, five-, or ten-minute increments. Identify what you want to accomplish in a very short amount of time, and then set a timer and go for it.
• Isolate yourself. Remove the desire to procrastinate by not having any other options but to work.
• Acknowledge that you’re procrastinating. Often, just realizing that you’re putting something off is enough to get you working.
• Challenge a colleague to see who can get the most work done in a set time period.
• Ask someone to help you stay accountable. There are professional motivators who will call you once a day to see how you’re doing, but a trusted and willing friend or coworker can do the same thing for free.
• If the task doesn’t require much though, listen to an audiobook while you work. Agree to only listen to the book when you’re working on the project you don’t want to do. This way, you’ll be interested in hearing more of the story each time you take on the undesirable task.”

Productivity = outputs / inputs (within a time period, quality considered)

He then goes on to claim that stress — both rational and misplaced — impacts the inputs variable in the equation. Stress can help you to be motivated and creative (Only two more hours to get this done, let’s get working!), but it also can make you freak out about small, irrelevant factors in your work (Who keeps putting the hole punch away? Can’t you see I’m using it!).

Buttell goes on to quote a 1999 study by Robert Ostermann, professor of psychology at FDUU’s Teaneck-Hackensack Campus, on the link between stress and productivity:

No one reaches peak performance without being stressed, whether an athlete, an office worker or a manager.

Looking at your average day, how do you manage stress to let it work to your advantage? How do you use stress to influence your inputs variable?