Beyond Folders : productivity, time management

Be an Energy Star: Tips for Operating at Peak Capacity

Community Manager — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:56:00 GMT

Want to hit the ground running each morning? How about enjoying enhanced productivity, greater energy levels and less stress? Be more energy efficient with these simple steps:

Sleep Smart: Get a full night of shut-eye. Most adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Having trouble catching 40-winks? Read WebMD's Sleep Tips for the 411 on sleep including avoiding alcohol and unplugging distracting lights in your room.

Snack Happy: Don't run on empty: refuel throughout the day with small, healthy snacks such as nuts and hummus and veggies. Read our past post Healthy Office Eating Made Easy for more ideas.

Simple Stretches: Studies show that productivity slumps after 90-minutes and too much sitting leads to muscle fatigue and discomfort. Reboot your productivity by getting the blood flowing with gentle desk stretches: feeling good equals performing well.

Take Breaks: Pace yourself, allowing blocks of downtime to refresh concentration and energy. Break projects into discrete portions and take breathers throughout. A fresh eye will often catch mistakes or allow for a new perspective.

Time Off: Prevent burnout with time off from work. Add a three day weekend to your schedule when you can and be sure to take longer vacation weeks when work allows. Burning the candle at both ends decreases productivity so make time to recharge and refresh.

How do you stay energized throughout the day? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook and Twitter pages.

Top 10 Tips to Reboot Productivity at Work

Community Manager — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:32:00 GMT

Summer's lazy, hazy days are firmly in the rearview mirror. Time to reboot your back-to-business mojo with ten tips to make your September more productive.

1. Reconnect with your colleagues after vacation by updating your boss and co-workers on summertime successes and project statuses.

2. Tackle the tickler list that got short shrift during vacation weeks.

3. Jump on the back-to-school bandwagon by stocking up on organizational tools of every stripe. Folders, files, notebooks, day planners, computers and the like all sport sales stickers come September.

4. Schedule a block of time to prune the paperwork that didn't get filed. Moving piles to files is energizing.

5. Do some goal-setting. September's new-notebooks, fresh-start-energy is the perfect time to strive for an unrealized goal.

6. Take steps to hone focus; noise canceling headphones or technology-free blocks of time can provide needed concentration.

7. Commit to a regimen of simple desk stretches to keep the blood flowing and boost memory and energy levels.

8. Arrive well-rested; early to bed, early to rise, you know the drill.

9. Think positively! Arrive at your desk every day with a smile on your face and some pep in your step; positivity propels productivity.

10. Finally, schedule a fall vacation. You're going to need a break from all that productivity!

Wanted: Creative Thinkers

Community Manager — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:22:00 GMT

What does it take to be a CEO? Brains, business acumen, vision, drive? All good guesses but according to a new study by IBM, creativity is the most important leadership quality for CEOs.

Generating Creativity

At Beyond Folders, we frequently blog about how to enhance critical skills for workplace success. Reading about the IBM study's finding that creativity plays a crucial role in achievement has me wondering; is creativity an innate talent or is it possible to enhance or foster creativity?

According to creative triple-threat Tony Schwartz, an author, entrepreneur and productivity expert, creativity can be trained and strengthened just as you would any muscle. In a recent Huffington Post article 6 Invisible Secrets to Fostering Your Creativity, Schwartz posits that there are six fundamental moves that anyone can take to fuel creativity. The steps include:

Meeting Your Needs. Creativity requires energy. Assess what unmet needs (sleep, diet, job, family dysfunction, etc.) are sapping your energy and take steps to ameliorate those obstacles.

Training Creativity Systematically. Understand what Schwartz and others call the five stages of creative thinking and work to train them: first insight, saturation, incubation, illumination and verification. Schwartz steers readers to Betty Edward's book Drawing on the Artist Within for more insight on the stages of creativity.

Nurturing Your Passion. Place yourself in roles that excite your imagination. Every job has aspects that are enjoyable, challenging and meaningful. Identify steps for spending more time engaged in the aspects of your job that nurture you. Creativity will follow.

Making Your Work Matter. Human beings are inspired when they contribute to something larger than themselves. How can you expend energy at work on contributing to others?

Making the Time. Creative thinking requires open-ended, uninterrupted time, to reflect, meditate or daydream. Schedule this time as you would any other must-do task.

Valuing Renewal. Understand that you are not a machine that can hum along working indefinitely. Schedule breaks - time to rest or move your body - these shifts in consciousness can allow creative breakthroughs.

How do you foster creativity for yourself? Your colleagues or subordinates? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Bradley Eggers

Tackle Your To-Do List with Time-Blocking

Community Manager — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:28:00 GMT

Do you suffer from the "too-much-to-do-and-too-little-time-to-do-it" syndrome? Is your to-do list perpetually unfinished? If these are familiar laments, it's time for time-blocking.

Time-blocking is the process of designating specific blocks of time each day for tackling particular activities or tasks. Commonsense (and a host of studies) shows that checking your e-mail throughout the day is distracting and a poor use of time. Rather, checking e-mail only at designated times, allows for better time management. The same is true for a host of other daily activities: scheduling discrete tasks at specific times optimizes productivity.

Time Flies

To begin, make a list and prioritize the tasks and activities in your daily routine. Next establish timelines for how long each task should take. Once you have your to-do list with accompanying timelines it's time to sort the tasks into discrete time-blocks for the day. Tips for effective time-blocking include:

Keep it real: Set realistic time-blocks; in a nine hour work day, realistically eight hours or less will be spent on work. The other time is allocated to transitions and breaks.

Interruption-free zone: Schedule blocks of time when you can be interruption-free each day. Close the office door; turn on your voicemail. Schedule tasks that require deep concentration during this time-block.

Energy check: Identify when your energy levels are high and when they are low. Schedules tasks that require concentration or dedicated blocks of time for when you are high energy and maximize low energy periods by tackling routine tasks that can be done easily.

For more time-blocking tips, set aside time to read Work Smart: Avoid Office Distractions With Time Blocking and Is This a "Morning" Task? - Scheduling Important Activities for the Right Time of Day.

Do you have time-blocking tips or techniques? What is your most productive time-block and why? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

Working Out Summer Vacations

Community Manager — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:37:00 GMT

Summer officially kicked off at the end of June which means summer vacation season is upon us. With two-thirds of all employees planning a summer break from work, coordinating vacation schedules to maximize employee downtime while maintaining productivity is a must. Translation: Not everyone can head to the beach at the same time.

As we've discussed in previous blog posts, time off from work is crucial for morale and reenergizing workers. A smart vacation schedule can prevent an empty-office syndrome in August when productivity grinds to a halt and can also keep employees from feeling overworked while colleagues are off recreating.

Having a transparent vacation policy keeps employers and employees on the same page. Clearly articulating policies and keeping track of days off is key. So is formalizing responsibility for work delegated during absences.

Here are some tips and resources to help coordinate a vacation program. Ideas to consider include:

Figure out the maximum number of people that can be off at one time.
Require vacation time to be booked a set time in advance.
Reward seniority if too many employees want the same weeks off.
When summer is your busy time, consider offering bonuses or incentive programs for working the entire summer.
Schedule vacation blackout dates (days that nobody can take off).
Offer vacation alternatives, such as three day weekends rather than larger blocks of time.

Looking for more assistance in creating comprehensive vacation policies for your work place? Read Developing Vacation and Sick Leave Policies and How to Set a Workplace Vacation Policy.

How does your workplace avoid vacation conflicts? Do you have tips for maintaining productivity during the summer vacation months? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Candie Harris

Wasting Away at Work

Community Manager — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:27:00 GMT

We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.

- Alice Bloch

We have all heard that time is a precious resource that we should not squander. But, in Salary.com's latest Wasting Time at Work Survey, 64% of the full-time workers responding reported wasting one hour or less each day; 22% said they wasted approximately two hours daily; and 14% admitted to wasting three hours or more each workday. The main time-wasters reported were:

Internet use (48%)
Socializing with co-workers (33%)
Conducting personal business (30%)
Personal phone calls (19%)
Long lunches and breaks (15%)

And the primary reasons cited for all this wastefulness were:

Being dissatisfied with a job (48%)
Feeling underpaid (34%)
Waiting for a co-worker to finish something (42%)
Attending work-related meetings or activities (42%)
Doing administrative work (32%)

Acknowledging these stark statistics, the Cyclope-Series Team Blog suggests that employers can curb waste by providing "opportunities for employees to grow personally and professionally." Likewise, employers would do well to recognize the motivating force of "regular praise, respect in the office place, a sense of having a real voice in the business and some level of job security."

For additional guidance, this Wall Street Journal post on Ways to Stop Wasting Time Online compares four online services designed to help distracted computer users stay focused. You can find similar tips in this review of 15 Free Online Time Management Tools. Offering less concrete, but equally valuable, insight is a recent New York Times article - titled Talk Deeply, Be Happy? - that explores the importance of engaging in meaningful conversations.

by Bradley Eggers

Welcome to the Beyond Folders™ Blog

Community Manager — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:05:00 GMT

Beyond Folders™ is a new Community steeped in history. Twenty five years ago, Pendaflex launched the I Hate Filing Club™, delivering information and techniques for organization in the workspace and home. While still providing great ideas and inspiration, Beyond Folders™ goes a step further.

In late 2009 we surveyed our Community members and other professional organizations to ask where they spent time gathering information and inspiration to help make their work and personal organization tasks more productive. We then observed and questioned our members, small business owners and knowledge workers and found several common areas of interest, needs and concerns.

Our communications will be built around these subjects, offering sound advice, ideas and methods to achieve success in these areas. Beyond Folders™ blog contributors are subject matter experts in workplace organization, productivity, communications, time management and more.

Carly Fadako is one of our workplace organizational experts, working daily with our customers to find value added solutions to their organization challenges.

Bradley Eggers is trained and certified to deliver "Lean" processes, studying under Shingijitsu of Japan, Moffit Associates and TBM. He is an expert at implementing Lean and Kaizen as tools that create "TIME" and competitive advantage for companies.

Candie Harris is our marketing and communications guru. She has given over 1000 presentations to audiences of varying size and composition and as VP of Marketing, has been responsible for all aspects of our company communication.

We hope you find our posts interesting, useful and inspirational!
Check them out, and let us know what you think.

Beyond Folders™ will also be on FaceBook and can be followed on Twitter@beyondfolders