Employees Create the Space for Productivity by Reducing Timewasters
Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, is a popular professional speaker known as The Productivity PRO®. She has been featured on CNN and is the author of the best-selling book "Leave the Office Earlier" (2004 Broadway Books), which was highly acclaimed by the New York Times as "the best of the bunch." Laura is national Secretary of the National Speakers Association 2003-2006 and presents keynotes and seminars on personal productivity, time management, and life balance.
Highlands Ranch, CO (PRWEB) October 21, 2004 -- Unimportant meetings, crises
and emergencies, frequent interruptions, unnecessary email volume, excessive
socializing, understaffing and unrealistic expectations, and ineffective
communications are the “time leaks” and “speed bumps” that reduce employee
productivity. In her book, Leave the Office Earlier, the Productivity PRO® Laura
Stack, provides these tips that improve performance results of each and every
employee in the organization:
1. Eliminate the cause of
most problems and avoid crises.
If you delay something long enough, you are
contributing to a future crisis. By procrastinating you often create the next
crisis. The first time it happens, it’s an emergency. The second time, you’re an
accomplice. To avoid this in the future: Create a backup plan. Be proactive.
Determine “Whose crisis is this?” and delegate.
2.
Control and prevent interruptions.
With phone calls, hallway conversations,
emails, and people “stopping by,” it is estimated that even minimal interactions
of 10 minutes each can occur at least three times an hour in a forty-hour work
week or 50% of your time. The balance to controlling interruptions and staying
informed: use an understood signal; establish conditional interruptions; set
aside downtime; schedule regular check-in times; and choose to visit rather than
be visited.
3. Handle drop-in visitors and coworkers
effectively
Be honest; Use verbal tactics and body language; Be assertive;
Place a clock strategically behind you and check it occasionally; Practice the
“slow stroll” to another destination point.
4. Refuse
requests I don’t have time for.
Just say “No” – in a way that is polite and
from the heart. Set boundaries that allow you to not be the bad guy or feel
guilty – and find creative ways to state them (even to your boss). Stick to your
guns. Flex the “no” muscle, create your rules, and make sure others stick to
them.
5. Recognize and eliminate personal shortcomings
that lead to decreased departmental and organizational productivity.
It’s
only when individual people notice, challenge, and implement changes in personal
habits that real productivity growth occurs
systemically.
6. Avoid spending time in irrelevant,
unnecessary meetings.
Help the group stay on track: Require an agenda; Use a
timekeeper to keep the meeting on target; State and stop on time. Eliminate any
discussion that involves only two people. When you schedule a meeting, steer
clear of the “prime times” of productivity.
7.
Eliminate all unnecessary responsibilities or tasks that belong to someone
else.
Maintain a truthful time log of activities over the course of one week.
Which part of each day was most productive? What are the recurring patterns of
inefficiency? Where did the process get bogged down? Where did you
procrastinate? Which activities did not contribute to achieving at least one
stated objective? What percentage of work time is most productive? Then, only do
the essential tasks. Look for activities that should be given to others. Find a
more efficient way to handle the task; or eliminate the task all together.
8. Get rid of everything I don’t need or use and live
simply.
Keep. Toss. Sell or Give away . Getting rid of your junk frees up
valuable physical space, but more important, it frees up mental energy so you
have more time to devote to your family and work.
9.
Delegate properly.
Consider assigning the following types of work: Frequent
and repetitive decisions; Assignments to add variety to routine work; Functions
you dislike; Work that will provide experience for employees; Tasks that someone
else is capable of doing; Activities that will make a person more well rounded;
Tasks that will increase the number of people who can perform the critical
assignments; Opportunities to use and reinforce creative
talents.
10. Keep socializing during work hours to an
appropriate level.
Putting limits around socializing is an important way to
recover time for more important things.
Laura Stack reminds us that
Productivity is not about squeezing more into your days; but clearing space to
enable you to get the same amount of work done in less time and still leave the
office earlier than before.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/10/prweb169943.htm