Tips for Easier Living
Productivity Coaching, Time Management Consulting and Leadership Coaching for business and nonprofits - get your most important work done. Collaborating with leaders and their teams to become more strategic, focused and productive. Leadership and Board Coaching, Strategic Planning Facilitation, Productivity Coaching and Time Management Consulting, Professional Speaker.
Productivity Coach, Productivity Consultant, Leadership Coach, Time Management Coach, Business Consulting, personal productivity, time management, nonprofit, board coach, collaboration, strategic planning, facilitation, change management, leading productive teams, project planning, board development, volunteer engagement, association management, workplace productivity, executive director.
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Tips for Easier Living

22 Oct

Posted at 09:11h in Focus and Prioritize, Tips for Easier Living

If you’ve subscribed to my weekly tips for awhile you’ll know that I try to get away a couple of times a year for a few days of retreat.  I’ve just returned from Kripalu and feel much more clear and focused.  I’m pretty sure that this quiet week of learning and renewal is one of the best things I do to keep myself productive.

With the numerous demands in today’s crazy-busy world, good productivity practices focus on doing the work that matters most.  But, when our minds are full, and bodies exhausted, it’s hard to think clearly enough to know which exactly those things are.  Quite and reflection helps me to identify where in-fact my priorities lay. It helps me identify what my most important work is.

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08 Oct

Posted at 08:24h in Focus and Prioritize, Productivity, Tech & Digital Clutter, Tips for Easier Living

Imagine every email is a phone message you had to return! I suspect that means you are spending your entire work day on the phone and not getting to your important work. If you put your email responses through the same filter as your phone call responses you’ll reduce the volume and focus on the most important messages. 

  • You may think it’s polite to answer each and every email – but it’s not. Email etiquette suggests you only respond when useful.
  • When you see a big list of people who are copied, it’s ok to take people out of the response list if your response isn’t relevant to them.
  • It’s ok to decide that an email string isn’t a top priority and delete it. Remember, only you are in control of how you use and manage your time.

And don’t forget that your email inbox isn’t a storage location. If you don’t need the email anymore, file it, or even better – DELETE it!

01 Oct

Posted at 22:55h in Productivity, Space, Tech & Digital Clutter, Tips for Easier Living

Every once in a while I come across a product that is perfect.

I’ve been carrying the Incipio STOWAWAY® for about the past 6 months. I have had more people comment and get excited about this phone case than anything I’ve owned (that I can remember.) Practically everyone who sees it asks about it and says they want one.

This is a wallet case for my iPhone that holds 3 credit cards (Business Credit Card, Family Credit Card, and Personal Credit Card). It does add a bit of thickness to the case, but that doesn’t bother me. I typically carry my cell phone in my jeans back pocket or in my handbag. The thickness doesn’t affect either of these situations. It is great to have what I need when I need it.

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27 Aug

Posted at 08:46h in Organize to Thrive, Space, Tips for Easier Living

In the Spring I helped a client organize her husband’s home office as a Father’s Day present.  We were given clear instructions to not touch anything “on the desk,” but everything else was fair game.  Her husband is a Neuroscience Professor at an area university.  Of course he had a large library of books. They were in absolutely no order at all.

I was curious how he could find anything.  Why is it that certain people’s brains need order and others don’t?  (more…)

13 Aug

Posted at 08:43h in Productivity, Tech & Digital Clutter, Tips for Easier Living

Yes – actually we now have names for people who keep too much electronic information.  But, there is good news!  Unlike physical clutter where our space fills up and overflows, our computers can handle massive amounts of data.  Bad news is, just like physical clutter, it can negatively affect our quality of life.  Is this you?

  • You’ve missed an important opportunity because the email invitation was hidden among hundreds of unimportant emails
  • You’ve spent hours looking for a document you know you had but couldn’t find
  • Your computer is mired in so much muck that it no longer is the wonderful resource it once was.

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23 Jul

Posted at 08:18h in Focus and Prioritize, Productivity, Time Management, Tips for Easier Living

Do you ever ask yourself how you can better manage your time?

If managing people is making choices about how to maximize their potential, than you can easily say that managing time is making choices about how to maximize its potential as well.

One of the most useful tools I have found to most effectively manage time is Pareto’s Principle.  Pareto was an Italian Economist who in 1906 observed that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population.  From this comes The Pareto Principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 rule.  Simply put, 20% inputs yield 80% output

How does this help you manage your time?

Let’s look at 3 relevant examples:   (more…)