Improve My Business

One of the prime deliverables of my consulting business is productivity enhancements.  Although my clients gladly pony up for an 8 hour session of advice, I’m going to share some of the top tips with you, my faithful readers, at absolutely NO CHARGE!  Just because you took the time to click over here to see what I said…

1. Templates are your friends. Some people don’t like to use templates; for me, they’re a time-saver.  I use them for work to give a client an idea of what they may want to say in a procedure; I use them at home when responding to the same requests from different folks at our vacation rental property site; and I use a form of template when I’m recording my away message or setting up vacation settings for my email.  The beauty of templates?  If done correctly, they ensure you don’t forget any of the important info (like how long you’ll be away, what the minimum rental days are, or how to make changes in a document)…
2. Lists are not evil - they can be used for good, also. I know folks who live by lists - way more than I keep - and I know others who think they can keep it all in their head (and they can’t).  I was surprised to hear someone say, “Oh, they’re a LISTKEEPER”, as though they were saying , “Oh, they’re a NOSEPICKER”.  Lists aren’t inherently bad.  Nor are they inherently good.  They just are.  But, if you use the list to ensure that you are doing what you need to be doing, in the proper priority, they can speed up your productivity dramatically.  Something as simple as listing out the chores for a Saturday morning will help to ensure that you are not driving over the same roads multiple times - you can map out your chores efficiently, so you can get to what you really want to be doing instead - whether that’s watching the XXX Olympics or reading the latest novel.
3. Block out your time.  I never try to write a report for a client unless I have 2 hours blocked out on my calendar.  I make sure that I’ve answered all important emails and I’m not expecting a huge influx of phone calls.  I want to focus on the report, and only the report, so I can a) deliver a top-quality product; and b) get it done as efficiently as I can.  I can only be efficient if I devote my entire focus to it.  Just like I’m devoting my entire focus now to this blog post… I’m not doing multiple things, I’m only communicating with you so you hopefully can get a tip or two that will help you be more productive!

If  you like these tips, post a comment and let me know, and I’ll incorporate more of them into future columns.  If not, suggest something different you’d like to hear about!

Technorati Tags: Business, efficiency, goals, managing your time, mcdonald consulting group, organization, Planning, preparation, working smarter

Last week we talked about the importance of cleaning out your mental closet, getting rid of old ideas that had been sitting around collecting dust and taking up space for too long. Today I want to talk about cleaning another aspect of work life that can seriously stress us out and detract from our productivity at work, the in-box. To me an in-box is where you keep all of the projects that you need to work on and usually its full of little things that never seem to get done. Letting things pile up in your in-box will eventually stress you out and can lead to panic and overwhelm at work, and we all know how productive we become once that sets in.

To avoid in-box overload it is important to clean it out every so often, this seems obvious I know, but can be harder then it sounds. Most peoples in-boxes are full of what I call, “when I get around to it,” tasks, meaning they aren’t important enough to make you stop what your doing, and are just important enough to not be shuffled to the trash can. They sit there until that magical day in the future when you have boundless time and nothing to do with it, I’m sorry to say, that day isn’t coming anytime soon. So we have to come up with some other strategy to deal with our in-box and I have two different approaches that I have found to be effective.

The first approach I call the one a day method. Basically you take one item from the bottom of the in-box every day, and do it. Now  it is important to note that you pull from the bottom of the in-box. Doing the new things that come in that are  more urgent doesn’t count towards your one a day goal, it has to be something that has been in your in-box for a while and doesn’t necessarily have to get done right away. By doing this you will start to whittle away at the growing mountain and keep it under control.

Typically the one a day method wont take more then 10 or 15 minutes from your day. The tasks at the bottom of the in-box are usually little things that just sort of sift down to the bottom, they don’t get done because they are minor annoyances that don’t demand attention, not because they are major projects that take a lot of time. These minor annoyances however, if allowed to build up, can turn into a serious mountain that will add serious stress to our work day. So make the commitment to do one of them a day, it wont take long, and help manage the mountain.

The other method I use is a planned cycle of batch an process. This typically happens when I have a big project on a relatively tight time schedule. I can’t really spare the 10 or 15 minutes here and there to take care of a little task, so my mountain starts to grow. However, I avoid the feeling of overwhelm that is created by the ever growing stack of stuff, by scheduling when I will deal with it, typically after the project is done.

Usually I will spend several hours going through the little stuff in my in-box and getting caught up the day after a big project or deadline. I have found this to have two great benefits. First off, by having it scheduled I know I can just ignore the stuff in my in-box while I am focusing on the project. Second, it provides a nice break from the heavy mental lifting of a major project. Remember that these tasks are typically of the minor annoyance varietal and are stuff you can just chew through without too much thought, which can be a great way to be productive while recovering from some serious mental labor.

So start working on those in-boxes today. The magical day of plenty of time and no work will never come, so there is nothing for it but to just get to it.

Technorati Tags: de-clutter, efficiency, managing your time, organization, organizing, Planning, Time Management, working smarter

Happy first day of Spring!

You know what that means…time for Spring Cleaning. When was the last time you thought about cleaning up around your office? I’m not just talking about straightening your desk and your top drawer; I mean really getting into the dark and dingy crevices that are never seen. Deep in your email box maybe, messages from 2003? What about those old programs and trials you downloaded and used once? Do you have 6 draft versions of the same document? Clean out your cache? Really, it’s better to do it now then when your computer freezes up and you get so frustrated you just delete it all!

Start with your desktop, do you really need all those shortcuts? I’m sure with a bit of thought you can create a file management system that will really make sense to you. A clean computer desktop is just as important as a clean desk-desk top.

Trust me, you’ll feel so much better!

Technorati Tags: de-clutter, organization, organizing

Paperwork is the bane of my existence - coming home from my weekly business trips, I am met with a mountain of mail; magazines that I ’should’ read are piled up next to ones I ‘want to’ read; and the amount of paperwork that kids’ schools generate can be overwhelming at times. [My kids' elementary school used to send home all important notices on Thursdays - a smart move since you knew to have your calendar, etc. handy that day, and you only had to worry about one day's notices - however, many parents would dread the "Thursday folder" more than a trip to the dentist!]

How to tame the paperwork beast? A few simple tips:

1) Sort your mail with a recycling bin beside you. When I sort my pile of mail, I sort into two piles - take action (calendar, pay, respond); and recycling trash. By sorting directly into the recycling bin you can eliminate the step of sort then recycle (take care to rip up the mail first, through your address, and if it’s a credit card application or other sensitive document, you may want to shred first).

2) Keep reading materials, mail to respond to, etc. in a bag with you at all times. I recently was stopped at a railroad crossing in my car, so I turned off the car, dove into my bag, and was able to get through a quick article I had wanted to skim before sending on to a client. By the time the signal arms were raising after the train had passed, I had ripped the article out of a magazine, skimmed it, written a note, and addressed the envelope [I keep post-its in the bag, as well as a pen and envelopes]. It doesn’t sound like much, but I felt ridiculously pleased with myself to have gotten a relevant article into someone else’s hands while ‘wasting’ my time in the car! [And, turning the car off during those 4-6 minutes saved gas and the environment... another bonus.] When I was driving the kids around more, I found that I had more patience if they were running late from practice, or dawdling with their friends, if I could also get something done while waiting…

3) Toss, Toss, Toss. A veteran pack rat like me keeps things ‘just in case’ - however, the impending move of my office has me rethinking that idea. I am culling through my files to toss out info that I also have electronically; I am getting rid of articles that are outdated; or simply saying ‘enough is enough’ and not keeping EVERY reference to a particular subject on file. After all, I only use 8-10 references maximum; why keep 40-50 on file? Pare down your files to keep it manageable.

4) Go electronic. Credit card companies, cell phone companies - the list of folks who are eager for you to receive your statements via email keeps on growing and growing… so consider going electronic and eliminating the paper at the source rather than have to recycle it at your office or house. Who do you do business with that wants to send you statements electronically?

Do your part - streamline your paper handling - and let me know how you make out!

Technorati Tags: organization, paperwork, streamline