Pet Peeves
One of my pet peeves is people or organisations that “hide” behind email or text messaging to avoid difficult conversations. If I’ve decided I don’t want to work with someone, I pick up the phone, let them know and give them feedback as to why. If I mess up, I also prefer to pick up the phone and explain myself rather than send an email. If someone else has messed up, I prefer to chat with them, let them know that things happen and focus on what we are going to do to fix or rectify the situation. When we …
Interruptions
One of the challenges associated with presenting to your colleagues, clients or even at a conference is the interruption of late arrivals. For some it may be a matter of course or culture, ie everyone is always late to meetings, it could be they went to the wrong venue, lost track of time or were caught in traffic. It’s safe to assume in almost all instances it has NOTHING to do with you. When people are late to my programs, I am always welcoming and if there is any participation coming up, I use that time to check in that …
Optimisation
Optimisation Nelson Mandela once said “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” At the start of the week, it often seems like we have so much to do, but often it just “feels” that way. One easy way to get what needs to be done out of your head is to do a simple brain dump. Take a blank piece of paper (or utilise the task feature in your email program) and simply jot down all the things you need to do. It doesn’t matter if they are business or personal, just get it all out! Once you’ve got it …
Brain Dump
With so many tasks, expectations and deadlines it is easy for things to fall through the proverbial gaps if you don’t have a strategy for collecting, sorting and categorising the importance of tasks to be done. When you don’t have a strategy, or it is very loose, the results can vary, from missing important deadlines, being unprepared for meetings or worse, feeling anxious and stress resulting in grumpiness when you get home or trouble sleeping. Whilst working with a global brand we explored the concept of a brain dump. A brain dump is simply an allocated block of time where …
Is It Really Necessary?
Even though I have been a speaker and trainer in the area of productivity with technology for over twenty years, I’m still surprised by the volume of people who overuse technology just because that can or because it’s “easy”. It’s easy to send of an email and feel like it’s ticking and item off your to do list, but the question I encourage all organisations to discuss is, “Is it really necessary?” Before working with a team within an organisation, I conduct a pre-session survey. I ask a question relating to the percentage of the emails they received daily that …
