Do you budget your time as well as you do your money?
Regardless of who you are, we only have 24 hours each day. Leading productively means budgeting your time as you would your money. So much time can be lost on activities that add little value. You can reclaim time by asking yourself “Is this the most productive use of my time?” If the answer is NO, then communicate quickly and if necessary provide a bit more detail. Let others know you can’t attend that meeting because you have a client deadline at the end of the day, or you can’t complete a task within the desired timeframe, but you can …
Different Experiences
The past twelve months have forced us to be more present to life in general. Things we have taken for granted we now appreciate a bit more, time with family, friends, exploring your local area and realising how blessed we are to be safe. As we start to come out of hibernation, I’ve been noticing that the kindness and compassion we shared with our community doesn’t seem as strong as it once was. It may be fatigue, or people being keen to simply get on with life many people as back to the pre-COVID busyness. For some COVID has been …
Productivity with Excel doesn’t have to be hard!
When I mention copying and pasting, I metaphorically see those perceiving themselves as “more advanced” with Excel rolling their eyes expecting a lecture reminiscent of a school teacher telling students to click here, then there but never actually understanding what or why they are doing something. Reality is, sometimes with Excel we EXPECT things to be complicated not simple. I’ve lost track of the number of times I have been shown the “long” way of how someone does something, only to show them a couple of quick steps that shaves minutes or even hours off the time it takes to …
Are you attached??
For many, the pandemic and connectivity meant a sense of being more attached to our workplaces given our home life and work life became so intertwined. We adjusted as best we could to the situation we found ourselves in, but for many it created expectations that may not be in our best interests moving forward. Great to see this article from ABC News Australia about disconnecting from workday technology. When expectations aren’t clear, people make assumptions. It’s important moving forward that organisations and teams are clear about workplace boundaries. What are the expectations in your workplace? When working with an …
Is your organization process focused or next step focused?
The manic nature of today’s workplace often impacts on our ability to effectively forward plan. With pinging email and instant messaging, physical and on-line meetings, our attention is often fragmented. Whilst projects and tasks are moved forward, there is often little time left for “real” work to be done leaving workers feeling stressed and overloaded. The challenge in setting up workplaces is to successfully achieve tangible goals rather than working amongst the “busyness” or “noise” of electronic paper shuffling. Often when working with clients, their default position is to focus on dealing with what seems, in the moment, the most …
Why don’t we….
Binge watching means watching multiple programs, usually TV or a streaming service, in rapid succession. Something many might do if you are home sick, staying indoors in the winter or more recently when in lockdown as a result of COVID-19. Find the right show and you can whittle away hours of time in the story arc of the various characters. When it comes to professional development, we do not tend to do a lot of binge watching or learning, other than the traditional two- or three-day style conference with multiple keynote speakers and breakout rooms. However, things could change as …
It was not until I’d had a few virtual meetings that I realised I needed help!
The world changed in March 2020 when COVID-19 meant may organisations sent their teams home to work remotely. To stay connected virtually they relied on platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Go To Meeting or one of the myriad of applications available for video meetings. I had everything ready in my home office and was presenting live when the unthinkable happened…..the doorbell rang….and it rang, and it rang again. Whilst I was mortified, thankfully due to my audio technology, my audience were none the wiser! What it DID teach me was that there were so many little things …
Time Out
I often get my best ideas when I am out walking, exercising or just relaxing. Sometimes this irritates me, because I often want the idea when I need it and get frustrated when it doesn’t come to me straight away. I know that when I take time to step away from what I am doing to do something else, then come back, I often see it with fresh eyes. In 2012, Jason Fried, Co-Founder of what was then 37signals, but is now known as Basecamp Project Management & Team Communication software in an INC article, shared the idea of giving …
There is no magic solution!
Balancing work and life is an ongoing challenge. It’s not something that is miraculously achieved and permanently stays that way. It is about balance; it’s about finding what’s right for YOU. The technology we use needs to be partnered with human interaction. In many instances, we don’t take into account human involvement required to determine how to leverage technology to improve our efficiency. We tend to rely on the technology to do the job for us and then feel frustrated when we struggle to cope, but reality is we just aren’t geared to cope with the volume of data we …
Why don’t we plan more often??
Why is it that we spend more time planning a holiday than planning how we will write a letter or produce a spreadsheet that we, along with others, will rely on for information and decision-making? Many people will create an Excel spreadsheet, enter data and pass it on to someone else. The next person will enter some data in or make changes. Before you know it, mistakes have happened, formulas are incorrect and as a result data is wrong. The common reaction is finger-pointing. But the reality is that in our busy world no one has the time to go …
