If “Be More Effective” is on your list of things to do this year, don’t miss our newest infographic, 10 Secrets for Overcoming Procrastination (opens a PDF). Procrastination is one of the most common ways people block their own productivity. We hope you will find the information useful…and share it with others!

The information featured in this overcoming procrastination infographic is pulled from the popular video, Time Challenged. Time Challenged reminds us that just “wishing for more time” isn’t an effective strategy. The character in the video learns how to identify and avoid behavior that is causing him to waste time, while also discovering ways to prioritize and accomplish tasks.

“It’s easier to just do it myself.” Have you ever heard that said? And be honest: have you ever said it?

It can feel true. Teaching what you know takes time and energy that are hard to spare from the everyday demands of your job. And teaching what you know isn’t part of most people’s job descriptions. So why not just do it (whatever “it” is) yourself, rather than teaching someone else?

There are many reasons – and here are three questions to consider if you’ve been saying “it’s easier to do it myself.” (more…)

Time. As the saying goes, we all get the same amount: 24 hours in each day.

How come some people get so much done and others struggle to make the day’s priorities match up with the available hours?

We’ve identified three common causes, which we call “time leaks.”

1. Focus

You know the experience of focus: you’re immersed in what you’re doing, you look up after what feels like mere moments to discover that far more time has passed, AND you realize you’ve made monumental progress.

The time leak is lack of focus: getting coffee, chatting with colleagues, maybe even distracting yourself with Facebook or Twitter.

Become consciously aware of where your time is going, and you’ll find you can easily plug this time leak to create more focus in your day. (more…)

In The Strategy of Meetings, George David Kieffer writes that the meeting leader must “make the team believe that (1) the group is worth being with; (2) individual members will have an opportunity to influence the outcome; and (3) the cause is one that warrants their attention and effort.”

As a meeting leader, how might you get these messages across? Here are a few ideas:

• Justify the need to call a meeting in the first place. Many valid reasons exist to hold meetings: to inform and discover, build unity, allow a dynamic question-and-answer session, make joint decisions and generate ideas. But there are also plenty of times when assembling a meeting isn’t the best use of everyone’s time; when the work can be accomplished, or the information communicated, just as efficiently (or more efficiently) via phone, email or one-to-one conversation.

• Before assembling a team and calling a meeting, identify the general purpose and specific objectives. For example, for a customer service problem-solving meeting, specific objectives might be: Determine why the customer service department is missing its deadlines 75% of the time; identify and evaluate ways to decrease turnaround time to 48 hours or less; find a solution that can be implemented before the end of the third quarter and assign responsibility for implementing the solution. These sample objectives are results-oriented, emphasizing specific outcomes. (An example of vague objectives for the same meeting might be “Find out how the customer services reps are doing and, if improvement is needed, kick around some ideas for making things better.”). When possible, link meeting objectives to organizational goals.

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Time Management. An interesting concept, and a topic that I’m asked to present fairly often in a workshop format. It occurs to me that what employers are really interested in is productivity. To actually manage time is an oxymoron, as time really can’t be managed in the way we would like to think it could. We’re just not that omnipotent. Helping people manage themselves so that they become more efficient at completing their work in a timely fashion seems to be a much more doable concept.

Time management has always amused me because I happen to excel at procrastination, and yet have memorized and present time management techniques. However, one needs to implement these wonderful tools and techniques in order to “manage the time”. Time continues to pass all around the world without regard or reference as to what we individually are doing at any given moment. Often people claim to just need “more time to get all this done”. Actually there is more time; it just keeps on ticking away.

I find “time management” to be somewhat like dieting. Not all things work for everyone, and the only way they work is if we are willing to be diligent at managing ourselves and accept the responsibility that it takes real effort to actually implement changes in our lives. If you are not pre-destined to be the multitasker of the century, the tips outlined here should help. Accepting that sometimes you may fail even with the best effort also allows you to not give up, but to try again, and maybe re-examine what other changes need to be made to successfully feel the sense of accomplishment. With that being said…. now here´s where we actually explore the possibility of getting more done in less time. (more…)

Most of us complain that there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything we need and want to do. Yet, often we spend hours on activities and conversations that don’t come close to being top priority. One simple way to identify time wasters and focus on balance is to take an inventory of how you spend your time.

A time inventory is a tool to help you see how well what you do every day matches up with your big-picture goals and values. How you take your inventory is up to you (iPad, tablet, computer, journal) but “the key is to be honest and consistent,” says Joan Gurvis of the Center for Creative Leadership. It’s like writing down everything you eat before starting a diet so you have a clear picture of your eating habits.”

Here’s a four-step process to evaluate where the hours go and use that information to gain greater balance:

Track. Keep a log a week or two and jot down what you do for any period of an hour or more. Some themes or categories will emerge: career, family, community, health, self, spiritual pursuits and so on.

Understand. Write down why you did what you did. Do your actions reflect or contradict your values and goals?

Review. At the end of your time tracking, look at your notes and consider how you feel? Do you feel “in balance”? What does your assessment tell you? (more…)

Everyone procrastinates at one time or another. In fact, of all time management problems, this is the one that is most obvious, and it is the one we most readily admit to.

Procrastination comes in many forms. It is doing the urgent rather than the important. It is watching television when you should be exercising. It is lingering over lunch, while things are stacked up back at the office. It is avoiding people rather than facing them when there is a problem. Whatever form it may take, procrastination is something we should strive to overcome.

There are several reasons why we procrastinate: the task is unpleasant, the task appears to be overwhelming, the task requires a decision, or the task is perceived as being of low priority.

To overcome procrastination, we must overcome an inertia that has set in, a tendency to resist taking action. From physics we learn that a body remains at rest until a force is exerted against it. Physics also teaches us that it takes less effort to maintain motion once the initial inertia has been broken. Here are some techniques to help procrastinators get moving and to stay on track. (more…)

The role of leader can be very stressful! Management studies have suggested that these roles include a very wide mix of activities, most of which cannot always be controlled or even predicted. New managers and supervisors – especially supervisors – are almost overwhelmed with the demands of the job. They were probably promoted to be in charge of people, mostly because of their success in a previous role that was focused on developing a particular product or service. Suddenly, they’re faced with being in charge of people, which is much less predictable and has much less control than the supervisor had before. Consequently, the ability to manage time and stress is absolutely critical to the success of the roles of manager and leader.

The two topics of time management and stress management are often addressed together because they are so closely interrelated. (more…)

Multi-tasking.  Deep down, we all know it doesn’t really make us more productive.  Yet it sure can make us feel more productive.  And for some people, and in some corporate cultures, it’s a point of pride to be doing half a dozen things at once.

But there are endless studies on the downside of multi-tasking.  Just Google “task switching” or “switch costs,” and you’ll find pages of reference material describing the high price paid by multi-taskers in lost efficiency and mistakes made.  Not convinced?  Try this quick example called the “Stroop Test”: (more…)