Across the country, state and federal funding is being cut for education and this has left many communities scrambling to figure out what to do.  I was originally hopeful that less money would prompt a reassessment of the fundamentals of education and encourage schools to really focus on the things that will give kids the tools they need for a successful career and benefit society as a whole. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be what is happening.  The small town where I live voted to raise local taxes to make up some of the difference in funding to try to maintain the status quo as much as possible. I'm not opposed to paying more in taxes if the result is better educated kids but doing … [Read more...]

I recently wrote a review of Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli. It is a good book and well worth the money. Al was gracious enough to do an interview with us about his passion for creating better meetings. You may end up buying a bunch of extra copies to give to give out at the office.  Also check out the Modern Meeting Standard website. Al used to work for Ernst & Young where he spent his working with a bunch of different companies. A good percentage of his time was spent in meetings, so he is in a good place to understand the problems with normal meetings. More importantly, he has some great ideas about how meetings should be used and how they should be … [Read more...]

It is easy to get so caught up in trying to make the best decision that we do nothing.  Next time you find yourself struggling with this, re-read this quote: A person determined never to be wrong won't likely accomplish much. ~ Ken Wisdom Of course that doesn't mean you should try to make bad decisions, but it does mean that lack of action is more harmful than occasionally making a mistake. At the very least, making a mistake means you are doing something and the chances of success when you are actually doing something is much greater than the changes of failure when you are unable to decide what to do next and do nothing. … [Read more...]

I just finished reading The Modern Meeting Standard - Read This Before Our Next Meeting. I was going to wait a few days to review it, but I wanted to tell you about it in time to take advantage of a special free give away. For a limited time you can get Read This Before Our Next Meeting Kindle Edition for free. (Don't forget you can read the Kindle Edition on most cell phones and computers even if you don't have a Kindle.) The book lays out a plan for more effective meetings with the following seven principles: Meet only to support a decision that has already been made. Move fast. End on schedule Limit the number of attendees. Reject the unprepared. Produce committed action … [Read more...]

Marketing isn't really all that complicated.  If you have a decent product, you simply have to let people know what you are selling and some of them will buy right?  Obviously you can be more efficient by focusing your efforts on people who are likely to buy your product.  It wouldn't make too much sense to show financial services ads during Saturday morning cartoons.(Assuming that Saturday morning cartoons still exist.)  Omaha Steaks probably wouldn't want to mail their flyers out to religiously fanatic vegetarians.  If you have two lists, one of people who are deaf and one of people who love to listen to music, which do you think would create more sales for high end … [Read more...]

When you are focused on a problem, issue or task, it stays in the conscious part of you brain. However, there are some problems that you are unlikely to solve until the problem gets the attention of your unconscious mind. How do you let your unconscious mind take a look at your current enigma?  You have to take a break. Mentally demanding work requires taking break to stay efficient. Unfortunately we have a cultural viewpoint that encourages people to see taking a break as a weakness. Nothing can be further from the truth. Taking a short period of time away from your main task requires a discipline.  It takes discipline to know when to start and it takes discipline to get back to … [Read more...]

Asian Efficiency has a nice post on personal outsourcing. The article makes some good points, but it falls into a few common traps. I'd recommend reading the article and then coming back here to read my list of gotchas when it comes to personal outsourcing. 1. Not all of your time is valued the same It is easy to assume that if you make $20 per hour, any task that you can pay someone $10 per hour to complete should be outsourced. My normal rate for consulting is $145 per hour.  If I was to apply this logic, there are very few things I'd do for myself.  But, I have a limited number of hours each month that are worth my $145 rate.  Those are my best and highest performance hours.  Even … [Read more...]

Leo Babauta has written a nice little ebook called Un-Procrastination. If you struggle with procrastination this is a very good resource.  I've seen a lot of stuff written on procrastination that basically says, "I never procrastinate and here is how to be like me."  Leo is a bit more realistic and admits that sometimes he even likes to procrastinate.  In spite of that he has been able to accomplish a tremendous amount of work by following the suggestions in his book. One tip that I think is particularly helpful is to make sure you really want to do something.  I've touched on this idea before in When Procrastination is a Good Thing. Leo also discusses how to deal with the Internet … [Read more...]

Reader question: My job is driving me crazy!  I work in tech support, so I'm mostly getting paid to be there if there are any problems that come up.  This means many days I'm just sitting there dinking around on the internet for 2 or 3 hours at a time.  This might be a dream job for some people, but I feel like I'm losing my skills. I'd look for another job, but I think my place is pretty secure here and I don't want to risk going somewhere else only to get let go in a bad economy.  Do you have any suggestions for me? Brad Those are some good questions.  I've previously talked about figuring out your work zone to help decide when it is time to leave a company and … [Read more...]

What is keeping you from reaching your full potential?  Think of four or five things that are really holding you back.  Better yet, write them down on that scrap of paper sitting on your desk. Did you write them down?  Why not?  Go ahead and do it. I'm not going anywhere. Did you write them down now?  Ok good.  Now, take a look at what you wrote down and divide them into two groups. Things you can control. Things you cannot control. In general I find that people who accomplish very little tend to see all of their obstacles in the second category, while people who achieve things see obstacles in the first category. In other word, successful people understand that they … [Read more...]

1. Go to work When you work from home, your workspace may be just down the hall, but you still need to intentionally go to work when you are ready to start your day. Some people will walk around the block go to work in their home office and then walk around the block to "go home" at the end of the day. It may seem silly, but you will be much more productive by making a concrete breaking point between when you are at work and when you are off. You can still take advantage of a zero commute by breaking your day up and perhaps doing a few equivalent hours of work late in the evening or early in the morning--just be intentional about it. You don't want to get into a situation where your work … [Read more...]

Occasionally I'll get some criticism that I'm too focused on productivity. People say that I need to lighten up, etc.  The problem is that on this site we focus on productivity--not on what to do with the free time that being productive buys you.  Here is a short video about enjoying the fruits of productivity--free time to do things with family. (If you want to more of the other side, you can checkout my personal blog.) The Other Side of Productivity from Productivity501 on Vimeo. It's great to strive for efficiency, but it is also important to make sure that being above average in what you accomplish buys your above average rewards. … [Read more...]

New year's resolutions have a bad name.  They have become somewhat synonymous with "making promises you don't intend to keep" and "setting unrealistic expectations.  Resolutions can be a very helpful tool, but you have to approach them in a smart way. 1. Resolutions should be daily or weekly tasks. Setting a resolution of "getting in shape" is setting yourself up for disappointment.  A resolution of "go to the gym at least twice per week" is better.  A resolution of "do 15 pushups each day" is another good one.  Focus your resolution on the specific actions you will take--not on what you hope to achieve. 2. Set small, specific tasks as resolutions Resolutions need to be … [Read more...]

Matthew Cornell has a great little PDF out called Where the !@#% did my day go? He has offered to let me give a copy away here on Productivity501.  See below for information about the contest. "Where the !@#% did my day go?" is designed to help you adopt a daily planning routine. It assumes that you have some type of task management and calendar system in place, already. From that standpoint, it kind of picks up where other system leaves off--once you've captured what needs done, how do you execute? Here are some of the things I found interesting: Task selection - Matthew has some really good points about how to select tasks so that you feel good about what you've accomplished … [Read more...]