Breaking Those Productivity Rules

Community Manager — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:46:00 GMT

Go ahead, check your e-mail in the morning

Productivity "rules" are great - in a few words, they quickly remind you of what you need to do (or not do!) to have a productive a day. But what about when one of these "always do this" or "never do that" rules don't work for you?

Let's take "never check e-mail in the morning." Great advice that works for many. But if checking your e-mail in the morning doesn't throw you way off course, and you find that once you get a few key e-mails out of the way you are then better able to focus on more important work, that's a successful routine for you - keep doing it, and stop feeling guilty about it.

Now, if the reason you keep trying to embrace this rule is because you do end up lingering in your inbox and wasting time, customize the rule to fit that reality. One way you can do that is by asking "if I were to check e-mail in the morning and make the best, most productive and genuine use of my time, what would that look like?"

For example:

When I check e-mail in the morning...

I check for e-mail only from Bob, Angie, and Mark

I do not open any personal or irrelevant e-mail

I deal only with urgent, deadline-based, or quick action items, and leave the rest

Having these "do's and don'ts" spelled out in black and white can help pull you out of an e-mail trance on those days when you might need a little help to keep you focused. And you can go through this process for any other activities that tend to throw your day off course. Keep these reminders to 3-5 points, visible, and handy (index cards work well), so you can read them every day.

Make productivity rules work for you: they can best help keep you on track to a productive day when you customize them to fit your personality, situation, and the way you work.

Claudine Motto is a Productivity Coach and Professional Organizer in Wellington, Florida. She works with women business owners who want to work smarter and get more done so they can have more time to grow the business that they love, and have more fun doing it. For more tips and information, go to www.vistalnorte.com, connect with her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

Taming Office Interruptions

Community Manager — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:26:00 GMT

"Got a minute?"

How many times during your typical workday do you hear this question or its equivalent in the form of an urgent email or a phone call requiring your immediate attention?

Can That Call Wait? Turn on Your Voicemail!

According to a New York Times article on the chaos of modern office life, you probably hear it more times than you can count. Profiling a scientific study of workplace interruptions, the article cites this finding:

"Each employee spent only 11 minutes on any given project before being interrupted and whisked off to do something else. What's more, each 11-minute project was itself fragmented into even shorter three-minute tasks, like answering e-mail messages, reading a Web page or working on a spreadsheet. And each time a worker was distracted from a task, it would take, on average, 25 minutes to return to that task"

Given this steady stream of interruptions, it is no wonder that many of us feel unproductive and depleted at work. But, we are not powerless. Although we cannot eliminate them, we can take steps to minimize office interruptions so we can accomplish more and stress less.

One way to diminish these distractions is to block off an hour or so each day when you:

Close your door (literally or by telling coworkers that you are unavailable)
Activate voicemail
Silence your smartphone
Ignore your email inbox

You can fortify this no-interruption zone by responding to emails only at designated times. A little communication also goes a long way. If someone comes to your office or calls when you are busy, you can politely, but firmly, say: "I only have five minutes right now. Can we set up another time to talk at greater length?" Another trick of mine is to use more 'quiet' times in the office to work on projects where I need uninterrupted concentration. For example, first thing in the morning or lunchtime both work well for me to focus with minimum interruptions.

For more practical tips on taming office interruptions, take a look at these posts:

As always, feel free to share your tips and tools for minimizing office interruptions with us.

by Candie Harris

Beyond Folders : office interruptions

Breaking Those Productivity Rules

Taming Office Interruptions