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Better Work Better Life Blog

19 Jun

Posted at 17:04h in Envision Success, Planning Tools, Productivity, Productivity for How You're Wired, Time Management, Tips for Easier Living

Regardless of if you work full-time remote or hybrid there is naturally less structure when you’re not in the office. When working independently it’s important to anticipate diversions and plan for them. Here are some ideas to help you improve your productivity when working remotely or hybrid…and while on vacation or at the beach/shore/coast.

Weekly Planning 

When doing your weekly planning, identify the best times and places to do your work. Block out specific tasks for the place where they are most effectively performed. 

  • Project work, quantitative work, and focused work is best performed where you won’t be interrupted.  
  • Meetings, group work, problem solving and planning is great to do in person when possible.  

Plan Today’s Work 

Organizing your tasks by priority provides additional structure. Knowing what must be done this week and what must be done by the end of the workday keeps the focus on the right tasks.

When working hybrid, some find it beneficial to adjust their task list by changing CRITICAL and HOT to HOME and OFFICE, or add in subsections.

  • Be deliberate and identify what’s possible to do for the day depending on other commitments and amount of time the identified tasks will take. 
  • Add structure by identifying task start times and estimating duration on your “Today’s Work” list. This helps fight the “work expanding to the time available” challenge.

Delineate Work from Non-Work Screen Time

Be ruthless with your online reading time and social media time. Be selective about what you are choosing to spend your time reading and watching.

  • Set specific hours for online reading — that means articles, blog posts, texts, videos, and messages from well-meaning friends. If you stop for a quick read of everything that is sent to you, it will be hard to get enough work done. Experiment with blocking out time at the very beginning of your day, at lunch, or at the end of your day for personal reading.
  • Ask yourself, “what is reading this now keeping me from doing?” This extra nudge is helpful to keep you focused on the work you want to do.
  • Reframe and read without guilt! Build in a system to stop “reading on the ping.” Move what you want to read to a category or flag/label it for later. Then when you get back to it, you can enjoy reading without guilt.

Make and Use a Personal Dashboard  

Creating a tool to manage your own accountability is often helpful. You are doing this for yourself. There is no one to show this to, no one to judge you, and no one to applaud you. At the end of the day, it’s your life and your productivity. 

  • A personal dashboard is a simple tool that will help you monitor patterns for success. Additionally, it cues you to do your important work, builds habits, and helps you achieve your flow conditions.
  • This is especially helpful during times of change (Illness, babies, moves, new responsibilities). Once you’ve integrated the processes into your routine, the dashboard will have served its purpose and you may not need it any more.

Create a Workspace Conducive for Good Work

Most of what is written about working from home is about getting dressed first. I know plenty of effective people who work in their pajamas or exercise clothing all day. For most, what they wear doesn’t affect productivity. The bigger obstacle is not being physically set up for success. Having a workspace that supports good work is key.

Find a Quiet Space — Are you able to have a work conversation without interruption? While it’s great to have your kids close by, sometimes you need to be able to close the door and focus. If you are working in a “public” space, find a backup location designated for times you need quiet.

Create a Video Chat Friendly Zone — Of course, you want a quiet space where you can meet without interruption. And yes, good lighting and background are nice. However, you also want a space conducive to productive meetings. Do you have a supportive chair, enough space on your screen to open the chat and still see colleagues’ faces, room for your coffee or water, and space to take notes?

Have Supplies in Reach — Have pens, pencils, markers, sticky notes, letter pads, files, and your priority task list in reach. While your “office” may be your kitchen island, your dining room table, your back porch, or a comfy chair in your family room, designate a space (a drawer or cabinet close by) for the supplies that help you get your work done.

Set Up Your Technology — Many people say “I’ll do that later” and never get to it. Taking the time (or hiring someone) to get your tech set up makes a huge difference. Working from home shouldn’t be looked upon as temporary. Even if you only work from home one day a week, that’s 20% of your work week. You need it to be effective. 

    • Purchase the best internet connection possible. There is no time like the present to make this investment in your productivity. 
    • Get a printer. Is it connected to your devices? Sometimes nothing beats having a piece of paper to lay out in front of you or to read away from your desk. 
    • Create a real workstation with a mouse, keyboard, and second monitor. Buy a connector so you can easily hook your laptop in and out. A second monitor increases productivity exponentially. 
    • Designate a handy place to charge your mouse, headphones, tablet, etc. 

Intentionally structuring your time and space supports good work.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 13 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.

21 May

Posted at 08:56h in Planning Tools, Productivity, Productivity for How You're Wired, Tips for Easier Living

With summer upon us many of us will be changing where we’re working from.  The following are things to consider regardless of where you’re working from.

Working Remotely

Working from home is not new. Many entrepreneurs have been doing it for years. Remote work has been knocking at the door of corporate America for some time. However, COVID brought it mainstream. The global pandemic and the high proportion of workers working out of the office have forced us to rethink how and where we work. 

Moving into the future, one thing we can be sure about is working away from the office, at least part of the time, will be routine. Knowing how to work effectively, regardless of location, is central to the success of today’s workers.

The biggest challenge about working remotely is lack of structure. When we no longer have to wake up at a specific time, commute, attend in–person meetings, network in person, and “go to work,” our time foundation shifts. Personal time and work time blend together. Many people are in work-mode all the time. 

When we leave home and “go to work,” natural guardrails form. By simple proximity, we are not doing home related duties or having personal conversations when we are at “work.”  Yes, we may take a call from a family member or spend a few minutes on a personal task, but we aren’t walking the dog, doing laundry, or letting the repair person in. 

When working from home we spend more time on “home” tasks than anticipated and that means it takes longer to get our work done. To avoid that work/life confusion, consider how to structure your time so there is separation between work and personal tasks.

Working Hybrid – Remote, From Home, and At Work

Productivity in the hybrid work environment focuses on mobility and flexibility. The goal is to work effectively regardless of location. Your office is often in your work bag.  

You already face the challenges of structuring your work time when you’re in the office. Hybrid work brings more complexities because now you also have to consider where you work and when. Building systems to support your productivity is helpful.

Going to work is helpful too. Humans are social animals and we are much healthier with human interaction. While not everyone looks to their work to fill their need for belonging, many do, at least to some degree. 

If we can structure our work and our time effectively, the hybrid model, working remotely or from home for Focus Work time AND going to the office to collaborate and connect, is the best of both worlds. But how do we manage our productivity on the move?

Remote and At Home

You now have much more control over your time. While your meetings are scheduled, everything else is fluid. No one sees your true start times or end times. There is no peer pressure about lunch breaks or coffee breaks. And no one is watching when you are actually producing.

  • You’ve gained time by not commuting. Does this allow you to exercise before you start working or sleep later if that’s what your body needs?
  • You have flexibility when you do your Focus Work. Quiet without interruption is ideal. Is it best to wake early and get a couple of hours in before family activities or regular work interruptions start or better to work in the evening when meetings and emails subside?
  • Can you walk the dog (or just take a walk) at midday for some fresh air and to reenergize?
  • Do you need to tag team with your partner, one working early and the other working late, to be sure there is coverage for the kids?
  • Do you need to plan start times and end times so you have enough structure to get results and know when to stop?

Hybrid

A hybrid situation, where you spend part of your time in the office and part of your time at home, has advantages as well. All the above holds true for your time working out of the office. When we add in a day, or two, or three in the office each week, good things can happen.

  • Time in the office can be energizing. Take advantage of the lift you get when you’re with others, understanding that effectiveness improves with a change of environment and social interaction (even for most introverts). 
  • Child care and family obligations shift. Going to work can provide a much-needed break. The flexibility enables you to be better in each situation.
  • Self-care continues to be important. Taking time for a walking meeting helps with your steps goal. Leaders are on the lookout for ideas to support the new normal. Tell them what you need.
  • Planning start and stop times in the office is helpful to creating routine. These time anchors provide benchmarks to keep you on task and effective.

With proper planning and consideration your summer work can be successfully executed regardless of where you’re working from. 

This is an excerpt from Chapter 13 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.

29 Apr

Posted at 09:45h in Productivity, Productivity for How You're Wired, Stress Management, Tech & Digital Clutter, Time Management, Tips for Easier Living

does email suck the life out of you?

Does email suck the life from you? Do you worry about missing important emails? Do you wish email supported you better? Here are some new ideas that can help! 

Consider Your Email Style?

Different people seem to be fine with different amounts of emails in their inboxes. While there is a correlation between structure preference and email style, it probably has little bearing on what you’re doing now. Do you see yourself in any of these cases?

  • Inbox 10,000+ – If I need something, I will search for it. If I miss something it’s ok. If it’s really important it will come up again.
  • Inbox 500 to 1500 – It’s unmanageable. I don’t kid myself. I know I miss important things and it does cause stress.
  • Inbox 25/100/250 – I can get it under control. Identifying a number I don’t want to get above cues me to spend an hour cleaning up my inbox. Still, there has to be an easier way.
  • Inbox one page – As long as I can see everything in my inbox, I’m good. Once it goes to a second page, it’s time to pause and clean it up.
  • Inbox Zero – All emails are moved into folders for future action. Nothing stays in the inbox. (Use with caution. For most, since there is no automatic cue once an email is moved from the inbox, it is never thought of again.)

Manage Your Inbox Contents

What belongs in your inbox? Some clients prefer to keep everything in their inbox. However, there is a high risk of losing important emails. Some clients are fine with the philosophy “if it’s important, I’ll get it again,” though most prefer a more proactive solution.

Keeping everything in your inbox is like keeping all your trash on your desk. Unlike paper, however, the problem isn’t finding it when you go to look for it — the robust search function helps with that. The problem is that you won’t know to look for something you don’t know you have.

To have confidence in your email system, the only items that should be kept in your inbox are the to-do actionable items. Those emails you MUST do something with. 

If you have read your inbox shouldn’t be a to-do list, I disagree. It’s inefficient to use it any other way. However, this only works if you move everything except actionable emails out of your inbox.

To have control over your inbox, you need to judiciously decide the fate of each email. There are three options: File, Delete, and Action:

  • FILE emails to keep for possible future reference 
  • DELETE emails you don’t need 
  • ACTION emails remain in your inbox

Clear Out Your Inbox

  1. Create a folder/label called Reference Emails or Past Emails or something that resonates with you that will indicate to you where your older emails will reside. 
    1. You will move all emails over two months old into this file.
    2. You’ll want to move over a few hundred at a time. If you move too many at once, you may overload your computer’s resources and lock them up. 
    3. In order to keep this information current, I’m not going to give you specific keystrokes to identify and move a range of emails. Instead, do an internet search on “batch move emails” and include your computer (PC/Mac) and email platform (Outlook/Gmail).
    4. Some clients are more comfortable moving the old emails into files labeled by year. This gives them more of a direction as to where to look when trying to locate something. On the other hand, it gives more places to search. 
  2. You now have two months of email remaining in your inbox. The next step is to process these and remove additional non-actionable email. 
    1. Do a sort by subject —  This will allow you to batch delete or batch file large groups of emails that are not actionable. Look for: 
      1. Projects that have been completed.
      2. Events that have passed. 
    2. Do a search by sender — This will allow you to continue the batch deleting or batch moving process. Look for:
      1. Newsletters you’ll never read.
      2. Ads that are no longer relevant.
      3. Multiple emails of a string and you only need to keep the last one or the ones with attachments.
    3. Set up rules/filters — As you are going through these remaining emails, look for opportunities for similar grouping of emails to bypass your inbox. 
      1. You can tell your email program to route specific emails to specific files without stopping in your inbox. This is helpful for items you don’t need to look at regularly. 
      2. Some use rules or filters for newsletters, forum posts, or the like. Others use them for confirmation emails that don’t need to be looked at yet need to be kept for possible future reference.
      3. To keep things simple, create a file called RULES and direct all emails that you have created a rule for there. It makes searching, scanning, and purging simple. There is no need to overcomplicate this — remember, if it’s not easy, it’s too hard. 
      4. To learn how to use the rules function with your email system, search “how to use rules in Outlook/Gmail.”
  3. You will be left with far fewer emails than you started with. These emails can then be processed into FILE, DELETE, or left in the inbox as an ACTION item.

It is important you do this process in a short period of time. This is a great task to do in one or two chunks this week. To get your inbox under control, you need to reduce the number of emails so when future emails come in, you can process those and maintain the integrity of YOUR system.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 12 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.

11 Apr

Posted at 15:28h in Productivity, Productivity for How You're Wired, Tech & Digital Clutter, Time Management, Tips for Easier Living

5 Concepts To Set Yourself Up For Productivity Success

Sometimes a good task list just isn’t enough. Which of these hacks can you use to move from to–do to done. 

Plan Today’s Work

The simplest technique is to take a sticky note and write down the top three tasks you want to accomplish for the day. Place it where you’ll see it, such as on the lower edge of your monitor or on your cleared-off desk. 

When it’s time to work, look at the note and move into action. You’ll stop wasting time on inconsequential tasks and get to your important work without hesitation.

Why a post-it and not an app? Every time you pick up your phone it’s an opportunity to get distracted and lose productive work time. The sticky note on your monitor takes NO TIME to glance at.

Batch Tasks

Task batching is the act of grouping related tasks together to create an economy of scale. Large operations do it all the time – think production lines or accounting systems. 

You probably do it often without thinking. Do you put one dish in the dishwasher at a time? Do you run one errand at a time? Do you do laundry every day? For most people, it’s more efficient to do tasks like these all at once. Batching work-related tasks is equally efficient.

When we spend our time thinking about what we have to do, remembering where we were in the project, and then building up momentum to get results, we are ramping up. Nothing is more frustrating than going through the ramp up process to get to the meat of a project and then having to stop. 

By batching tasks, you only have to ramp up once. You gather information, assess the situation, make a plan, and move into action once.  

Multitasking vs. Task Switching 

Multitasking isn’t a thing. It doesn’t exist. The brain can only process one thought at a time. What have you been doing? You’ve been task–switching, moving from one mentally demanding activity to another mentally demanding activity. 

You may be a fast “task–switcher,” which means you can quickly move from task to task. But you are simply shifting your focus from one activity to the next and back. In the long run, this takes longer to complete each task. Because, as we’ve just discussed, it takes time to ramp up, remember where we were, and move into productive action.

Sticking with a task through completion is the only way to get it done.

Note: There is a difference between multi-tasking and low cognitive load white-noise activity. Some people need to doodle, color, play phone games, etc. to stay engaged and focused. That is not multi-tasking or task-switching. The white-noise activities don’t challenge your brain, so you are able to focus on the task at hand. This is why you can listen to a book on tape while you are taking a walk. Walking is rote — you do it without thinking. But cross a busy intersection safely and you will have to go back and listen to the part of the book you missed while your brain was keeping you from getting hit by a car. 

Do It Now

Sometimes, during planning, it takes less time to do a task than to plan to do a task. Additionally, if you have an open time slot that wouldn’t be useful for Focus Work, use that time and get those 5-, 10-, or 15-minute tasks done.

If something has been on your task list for weeks and you still haven’t done it, think about how much mental and emotional energy you’ve put into worrying or thinking about the task. Think about how much time you’ve wasted NOT doing the task. Sometimes it’s best just to do it and get it off your list and off your mind.

And sometimes it feels fabulous to spend a few hours clearing out all the little annoying few-minute tasks, getting them off your plate. Clearing out makes room for more important things.

Create Follow-Up Cues

The brain is not wired to arbitrarily remember new things. Neuroscientists say our working memory can hold between five to nine pieces of new information at a time. To remember everything that needs to be done, we need to create cues to help ourselves move into action.

Have you ever put something in front of the door to take with you? As in – you can’t open the door unless you pick up the bag in front of it? If you have something you absolutely MUST NOT forget to bring with you the next day, have you ever put it in the car the night before? These are examples of creating a cue to remember. 

The more we create cues the less we have to remember. We are setting ourselves up for success and freeing up our valuable working memory for more important things.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.

19 Mar

Posted at 21:22h in Planning Tools, Productivity for How You're Wired, Tech & Digital Clutter, Time Management

Pings are everywhere. They permeate our workdays and our time off. Interruptions are meant to be disruptive, yet people can’t seem to remember to turn off their audible beeps before going on national television or walking into an important meeting. 

Each time you get a ping, you are also getting a dopamine infusion to your brain. You are addicting yourself to interruptions. Those pings however, are undermining your productivity. That ping is costing you time. Research indicates when you are interrupted, it can take up to 20 minutes for your brain to get back up to speed for the task you were originally working on. In addition to the time cost, that notification could also be affecting your health. In a fascinating study from UC-Irvine, research showed that frequent workplace interruptions cause greater levels of stress and frustration.

I frequently observe clients simply ignoring their dings, pings, and pop-ups. Instead of improving productivity, they are reducing it by giving the user a false sense of security.

If notifications cost time and cause stress, and if we set them to cue us to move into action and then ignore them, resulting in missing an important action or deadline, those pings really are doing more harm than good. 

Are notifications useless? Absolutely not. The question we should be asking is how do we use them to support us?

Use Notifications Prudently and Intentionally

Prudently

  • Start by turning ALL your notifications OFF. All of them. On your phone, your computer, your watch, your laptop, your tablet, everywhere. (Think zero-based budgeting!) 
  • Then ask yourself — which top three sounds really matter? Go back and turn those three on. Turning everything off and then selectively turning some back on will yield excellent results. 
  • If you have a Smart Watch, take it a step further and always keep your phone on silent. You can set your watch to vibrate for important notifications. 

Intentionally

  • Used intentionally, timers and pings can help. Too many pings and you just ignore them. When they occur infrequently, they catch our attention and can support us.
  • Pings can:
    • Cue us to move into action such as check for an important email response, switch tasks, prep for a meeting, start finishing up a project.
    • Cue us to leave or get ready to leave.
    • Cue us to take a break as a motivator to continue working on a hard project.
    • Cue us an ending time is coming.
    • Cue us to be aware of how much time is passing.

Turning off automatic notifications and instead setting intentional reminders is much more efficient. Experiment with the following timer techniques:

  • Voice-activated personal assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant are easy. “Hey Siri, 10-minute timer” and you’re cued. 
  • Browser – type “10–minute timer” into your browser search bar and you’ll get a ping in 10 minutes.
  • Smart Watch and Smart Phone Timer – Whether via an app, voice activated, or by “complications” on your watch, timers are quickly set.
  • Time Timer® – An analog clock shows the passage of time through a patented red disk. As time elapses, the red disk disappears, helping create awareness around the passing of time. This is helpful for phone calls, meetings, and Focus Work. It is marketed to the ADHD community; however, I have seen it help busy people without ADHD equally well. 
  • Any timer that doesn’t automatically turn off – When it really matters, set a timer that requires you to get up out of your chair and walk across the room to turn it off. If you have a strong need to “just finish this one thing,” find a timer that doesn’t automatically turn off. If you work from home, try your stove timer. If you are in the office, try an old-fashioned alarm clock and place it across the room.
  • The Pomodoro Technique is based on using timers to help sequence your work. Think interval training for your work. Coined “Pomodoro” by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, the technique uses a timer to designate work and break times. (It’s called Pomodoro, Italian for tomato, since Cirillo used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to cue himself into action).
    • The original Pomodoro Technique suggests you work 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and repeat 4 times. After the 5th 25-minute work interval you take a 25-minute break.
    • Many of my clients, however, don’t find the 5-minute break long enough. This is another great opportunity to experiment.
      • Do you want a 10-minute break? Try 50 minutes on and 10 minutes off.
      • Do you prefer working to a logical stopping point? What if you’re in flow and don’t want to stop at all? Try setting the timer anyway. It can be motivating to know a break is coming even if you don’t take it.
    • There are numerous apps available for you to try the Pomodoro Technique. Experiment to help you determine your best work time and break time combination.

Timers and notifications can boost your productivity if you use them prudently and intentionally.  Experiment with these suggestions and watch how much more you get done.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.

05 Mar

Posted at 09:01h in Planning Tools, Procrastination, Productivity for How You're Wired, Time Management

What if you could set yourself up to do your focused, deep, important work successfully?  What does it take for you to get into flow?  Why is it so hard to get started?

Deep focused work carries a fairly heavy cognitive load. To get results, you need to be fully present. That doesn’t just happen. Many productivity pros say it’s critical to do this work at the time your mind is sharpest. But THERE IS SO MUCH MORE! 

As important as it is to understand your body clock, it is equally, if not more important, to identify the conditions YOU need to be successful doing your Focus Work. Being specific and identifying and integrating these conditions will help you get into flow. 

What are Your Conditions for Success?

Timing

  • You don’t have to wake up early! Embrace your body’s natural rhythms and maximize your best times. If you are an early-bird who likes to wake early, great. However, if you’re a night-owl, don’t feel badly about it and don’t push yourself to be someone you’re not. The people who say “to be successful you have to wake up at 5 a.m.” are people who like to wake up at 5 a.m. 
  • If you do your best work at the crack of dawn, or 4 p.m., or 11 p.m., it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you own it and PLAN to do your Focus Work when you can get it done! 

Other Work

Do you need to jump in when your mind is clear and uncluttered, or do you need to clear the decks in order to focus? Consider the following:

  • Loose Ends – Do you need to tie up any loose ends that will take you off task prior to beginning your Focus Work?
  • Email – Are all important emails addressed? Would it be helpful to schedule email time before or after Focus Work to support turning it off during?
  • Social Media – Would it be helpful to schedule social media time before or after Focus Work to support turning it off during?
  • Information and Data – Do you have all the information you anticipate needing so you don’t have to stop as often? Every time you go to the internet to look something up, you are opening yourself up to the temptation to go off task. 

Audio Interruptions

  • Notifications – What if you turned off all notifications, pop–ups, and interruptions on your computer? There are apps that limit web–surfing and social media if needed.
  • Phone – Can you silence your phone or put it on do not disturb? Better yet, can you put it out of reach?

Environment

  • Digital Clutter – Can you close windows, apps, and other distracting technology?
  • Physical Clutter – Would you be less distracted if your workspace was cleared of clutter? 
  • Music – Would you be more attentive if you played music?
  • Location – Do you focus better in an environment where you won’t be easily interrupted, or in settings with background noise and activity?

Self–Care

  • Movement and Meditation
    • Will exercising or meditating before starting your Focus Work result in better outputs? (Test it!)
  • Sleep 
    • Are you rested? How much sleep do you need? Are you getting it?
    • What do you need to do to ensure enough sleep? Schedule bedtime? Limit screen time? Set a reminder that it’s time for lights out?
  • Nutrition and Hydration
    • What foods help you concentrate?
    • What foods give you brain fog?
    • Does coffee help or hurt? How much? With or without sugar?
    • Do you have healthy snacks or chewing gum handy to keep the brain online?

Breaks 

  • Will a walk, nap, or meditation support your outcome?
  • Are you more effective taking a break after a certain amount of time or would it be more effective for you to take a break after reaching a certain target in your work?
  • Is it helpful to schedule breaks using an app so you know you can’t stop working until the outside tool says you can?
  • Would you benefit from an app that tells you to get up and move?

Communication

  • How can you signal to your coworkers you shouldn’t be interrupted? 
    • Can you put a sign on your door or cubical? 
    • Can you wear headphones?
    • Can you inform your colleagues you are doing Focus Work and not to interrupt you unless it is really important?
    • Is there any good reason to NOT show your calendar as busy?


There are many variables to consider. The sooner you learn your personal conditions to do your important focused work, the better chance you have to actually do it!

This is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of my new book Productivity for How You’re Wired available on Amazon. Many templates are included via the time tools link discussed in the book.