Entries Tagged 'Organization Techniques' ↓

Do you have items in your out box that keeps whispering “Hey, don’t you need to take me somewhere?”

While there is a great likelihood that this little voice is going unheeded, there lurks a problem that actually goes as far as outright productivity sabotage.

Leaving items in your out box awaiting transport is likely having someone else’s in box tapping its feet with anxiety awaiting this information. By following my guidelines and taking just 10 seconds to manage your out box you will reduce chaos and increase your productivity.

It only takes an average of 10 seconds to return one of your files into its respective home in your own work domain, factoring in that the file’s home is even in your file cabinet, nine feet away. The problem is that you now have an hour (or hours) of ‘ten second’ filing to do. You always have 10 seconds, no matter how busy you happen to be; you don’t have hours.

Here’s a very likely scenario:

You are the sales manager who has been working with Gidget, one of your salespeople, on a very large proposal that Gidget will be presenting to the Board of directors of Acme Freight Company.

Yesterday you left the office at 5:15 P.M. At 5:30 Gidget placed the latest draft of the proposal into your in box for you to review tomorrow morning. Well, morning arrived and so did you. You reviewed Gidget’s work on this proposal, however immediately after dropping it into your out box, hell broke loose. Brushfires, crises, emergency meetings, phone calls, etcetera. You didn’t come up for air until the afternoon (even missing lunch!). You returned the proposal to Gidget at 3:30 that afternoon. Gidget was finishing up what she had been working on by 4:00 P.M. Now she was left with her portion of the proposal to complete.

NOTE- When you finally returned your input on the proposal to Gidget, she had four hours of work to do in order to have the proposal readied for her presentation at 8:00 A.M. TOMORROW MORNING! Recognizing that there was this four more hours of work remaining on the proposal, Gidget now gets on the phone—

“George, hi Honey, it’s me. I know that I had said this morning that we would all have dinner together this evening, however something has come up and I won’t be home until close to 9:00 tonight. By the way, is Margaret there? Please hand her the phone. ‘Margaret, I know that I told you last night that I would help you with your school project tonight, however something has come up and I won’t be able to after all. I apologize to you Sweetheart.’”

If you believe, even for a moment, that this is some fantasy that has been created, then we live on two different planets. What has happened is blatant sabotage which you, as Gidget’s sales manager, has done to not only her but to her husband George and to her daughter, Margaret. The justification of-“But I didn’t do this intentionally.” does not go far. (Like this is supposed to make you feel better!)

Question: Do you know what the difference is between voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter?

Answer: NOTHING TO THE GUY WHO’S DEAD!!!

To remedy this from any chance of you being either the “sabotagor” or the “sabotagee”, follow this simple guideline:

Just as you always have 10 seconds to put away a file, you have the minute, even with an emergency looming, to get the proposal to Gidget by 8:15 that morning. Had you done this, Gidget would have had the proposal readied by noon and been home for dinner with her family.

NOTE- This sabotage happens with failure to see what has been placed in your in box as well.

IT IS NOT THE AMOUNT OF WORK THAT GETS US CRAZY;

IT IS THE MIS-MANAGEMENT OF THE WORK OR THE LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE WORK THAT GETS US CRAZY.

Overwhelmed?

Inundated?

Productivity Issues?

Stressing Out?

Chaos bound?

Spending your time trying to “catch up?

Are you operating under the antiquated illusion that the panacea is just a matter of working harder. If this is still a belief that you are maintaining, allow me to give you some sobering information-

YOU CAN NO LONGER WORK HARD ENOUGH TO CATCH UP!

If you’re coming into work at 7:00 A.M., why not come in at 5:00 A.M.? If you’re working until 7:00 P.M., why not stay until 9:00 or 10:00 P.M.? In fact, just bring a cot and pillow to the office and keep a photo of the family nearby so that you don’t forget what they look like.

We have passed the point of “working harder” in the pursuit of staying on top of our work. While software is something that we cannot live without, most folks are under the assumption that it’s just that next piece of software that will get them into a long sought after “proactive” mode. Continue reading →

So you find yourself sitting up at night writing out your infamous ‘To Do’ list. You jotted down twelve items that you want to knock out at work tomorrow. Now tell me, if this new day is a somewhat typical day, how many on your trusty ‘To Do’ list were actually accomplished…two, three, maybe four?

Not only does this lead to stress and frustration, it can be quite demoralizing. The truth be told, after a number of such experiences, it is not surprising that a person just stops making the lists altogether.

In its place we just go to work each day reciting the following mantra: “Dear Lord, please just get me through the day.” Not a very pro-active stance, is it? Continue reading →

I’m sure that you have heard the symbolic definition of the word ‘assumption’. This being-’Ass-u-me’ (deeper explanation hopefully not needed). Be that as it may, we have now moved into the era of the ‘Electronic’ assumption.

It seems that the world has taken on the belief that everyone now utilizes devices such as the “Crackberry”, oops, I mean “Blackberry”. Well, that is not the case. I, for one, still use my trusty Franklin book organizer. The last time I checked, it does not have plug-in, synching or battery features. Continue reading →

Calendaring your Pendings*

*Waiting for someone to get back to me; Awaiting a deadline to occur; Awaiting an event to take place

Picture this – you have just sent me an e-mail requesting something of me that you require. Now this is work for me to do (what we refer to as a ‘Turtle’), and what is it for you? If you said “Pending”, you got it.

Your having hit the ‘Send’ button (and being a diligent follower of the ChaosOver system), you immediately went to your ‘Sent’ file and, lo and behold, there at the top of your ‘Sent’ file (actually, according to our program, this should be the ONLY item in your ‘Sent’ file), is the e-mail requesting information from me. Continue reading →

Are you one of those people who continually shift your tasks around doing the things you enjoy most first and putting off the ones you don’t enjoy until later…much later?

Do you avoid completing certain projects until the last minute when your back is up against the wall? Do you keep seeing the same items turning up on your “To Do List” day after day after day?

Are you one of those people who insists you work better under pressure? Then you are probably one of the millions of people in this country who suffer from procrastination and I do mean “suffer”. Continue reading →

Does the idea of having E-mails, of both the ‘Read’ and ‘Unread’ categories, being zero at the end of each and every day seem beyond belief to you? And I am neither speaking about a mass delete nor about having such a massive accumulation that one simply makes still another archival folder and “dumps” them all in, regardless of their status.

In order to reduce the massive amounts of e-mail, the following procedure has worked miracles for many thousands of folks, allowing them to get to that magical number of ‘ZERO’ each and every day this way. Continue reading →

I have come to realize that in this world of cyberspace, there is a need for cyber-etiquette. You make a call and end up in the person’s voice-mail. You take the time to leave a brief, yet detailed, message seeking information that you need.

The person calls you back, saying “Hi, I see that you called me,” And then there is silence. You break the silence by asking “Do you have the answers to my questions?” Their response many times is “Oh, I didn’t bother to listen to your message. I’m just returning your call.” Now it’s up to you to remember what questions you originally asked.

Now that’s VOICE-MAIL EXASPERATION. I’m aware that we live in an age wherein speed and multi-tasking is the norm, yet I consider this to be duly lacking in respect. Continue reading →

I contend that, virtually, each and every day in your work you are either a sabotageur or sabotagee. While you most likely find this accusation to be startling, you are about to understand its relevance and reality.

Imagine that you have been working for a week on a proposal to present to a prospective client. If accepted, this would be the largest contract ever brought into your firm. You have made the final touches on it this evening. Prior to leaving the office you place the proposal in your boss’s in-tray with a note attached asking for her review and blessing. Continue reading →

I contend that the biggest disputes taking place in relationships, both in our business and our personal lives, emanate from the failure to convey information. The most commonly used mea culpa of “I forgot” does not lend itself to forgiveness very often.

One of the world’s greatest pool players of all time is Willie Mosconi. What made Mosconi so adept at the game was not simply that he could shoot a ball into any pocket on the pool table, rather his uncanny ability, as a result of shooting his last shot, to have that little white cue ball in the perfect position for his next shot. In other words, Mosconi was a master of what I call ‘Next Step Mentality’. Continue reading →