Displaying All Posts tagged with efficiency

Four Strategies for Increasing Email Productivity

If you want to know what people value most, look at which email subject lines get the fastest replies from them. You’ll find that issues you consider priorities aren’t valued equally by others, and vice versa, which makes one-size-fits-all policies like “check email twice a day” or “turn off email notifications” awkward to implement company-wide.

Regardless of the medium, one person’s communication is another person’s distraction. So how do you get anything done in a culture where expectations for email turnaround are frustratingly vague? How do you deal with your own email overload? Click Here to Read Article …

Popular search terms for this article:

email productivity, Productivity blog Work Awesome

Meetings 101: Always Bring Something to the Table

Mike Vardy 10th February Management Leave a Comment

During family dinners in my household, we’d all bring an item from the kitchen to the table. None was exempt from this ritual. No matter who cooked dinner that night, everyone ended up contributing to the meal because of what they brought to the table. What they brought was incidental–the fact they brought something was what was important.

The same applies in a work environment–especially in meetings. We all have different things we bring to the table. What we bring often depends on the role we have in the organization or the area of expertise we apply every day to our work. None of these are really any different than setting a dinner table – every part of the meal is important.

Click Here to Read Article …

Popular search terms for this article:

bring something to the table, what to bring to a meeting, things to bring to a meeting, meeting 101

Work Unplugged: Going Off The Grid

Mike Vardy 4th February Office Life Leave a Comment

“Inaction speaks louder than words.” – Mike Vardy

I’ve always wanted to quote myself. Call it self-adulation or self-indulgence if you will, but there’s a truth behind it: not making progress on something often can’t be saved by reasoning or excuses. You need to see things through to the end.

Let’s face it…we are getting inundated with email, RSS feeds and other types of information on a daily basis – it seems never ending. Because it is. The web has opened up a floodgate of pertinent and trivial news stories that come at us from all angles, memorandums and tasks arriving in our email inbox at breakneck speed and an endless stream of voice mails begging for us to respond to thanks to that blinking red light on our telephones. I’m feeling overwhelmed just writing about it.

Click Here to Read Article …

Popular search terms for this article:

working off the grid

Full Engagement at Work

Andre Kibbe 22nd January Productivity Leave a Comment

Most of today’s companies still value presence over performance. The amount of time employees spend in the office matters more than what they accomplish during that time. The expectation of putting in long hours, regardless of whether or not it’s warranted, breeds a habit of filling time by creating non-critical activities, drifting into excessive socializing, or getting caught up in trivial office politics. For those of us who actually want to be productive rather than busy, being surrounded by counterproductive behavior can be frustrating.

How do you replace busyness with productivity? One powerful way is by increasing your presence-to-performance ratio.

Click Here to Read Article …

Popular search terms for this article:

engagement at work, what is the benefit of recording productive and nonproductive time, full engagement, engagement activities at work, What is the benefit of recording productive and nonproductive time if at all?, benefits of recording productive and nonproductive time, What is the benefit of recording productive and nonproductive time if at all, benefit of recording productive and nonproductive time, • what is the benefit of recording productive and nonproductive time if at all?, what are the benefits of recording productive and nonproductive time

Begin Your Work Day at the End of It

Andre Kibbe 15th January Productivity Leave a Comment

One of the best ways to get more done every day is to make sure you get your most important task done first, from start to finish, without interruption. Focusing on that one task exclusively can be simple, but not easy. The problem usually isn’t lack of effort, but lack of clarity. How do you decide what’s most important?

Maybe that’s not the right question. Perhaps it’s not how you decide, but when. I’ll suggest that the one of the worst times to decide your top priority for right now is right now. It’s usually more effective to have already made your priority decisions beforehand. If this is true, then the best time to decide what your first task should be in the morning is the day before — ideally at the end of the work day.

Click Here to Read Article …

Popular search terms for this article:

your working day, When at work I Take a bit of time settling in before starting my work tasks each day Jump right in to my work as soon as I arrive at my job each day, Take a bit of time settling in before starting my work tasks each day, how do you start your day at work, *When at work I Take a bit of time settling in before starting my work tasks each day Jump right in to my work as soon as I arrive at my job each day, When at work I Take a bit of time settling in before starting my work tasks each day, When at work ITake a bit of time settling in before starting my work tasks each dayJump right in to my work as soon as I arrive at my job each day

How Not to Become an Overachiever

Mike Vardy 30th December Productivity Leave a Comment

There’s something to be said about being too productive, which my WorkAwesome colleague, Mark Garrison, alluded to in a recent article, I’d say that the old adage “less is more” is the best practical approach to any workplace situation. We’ve all heard the quality usurps quantity time and tie again, yet it seems as if we’re always trying to do more…better. The problem is, you can’t do “more” better if you first don’t learn to do “less” best. The practice of doing more stuff adequately is classic underachievement. You take on so much and even if you manage to pull it off and appease your superiors you know deep down that you’re capable of much better.

Click Here to Read Article …

Popular search terms for this article:

how to become an overachiever, overachiever, how to not be an overachiever

The Value of the Weekend

Mike Vardy 17th December Productivity Leave a Comment

Oh, how we all long for the weekend. There’s a certain buzz in the air once Wednesday passes by (ergo, we’re over the hump) and in the home stretch of what is known as “The Work Week.”

Well, to some of us anyway.

There are, however, those who work hard and play…er…occasionally. The cubicle is not necessarily everyone’s work environment, nor is a 9 to 5 schedule everyone’s to adhere to. Schedules can be static or fluctuate, often depending on the type of work but there is also the likelihood that it is the person themselves that dictates the work day—and work habits.

Click Here to Read Article …

Popular search terms for this article:

importance of weekends

Cut Out the Clutter in Your Workflow

Mark Brodhuber 27th October Productivity Leave a Comment

Working for a company that practically defines the term “Corporate America” for over 5 years, I’ve seen my fair share of ridiculous moments. I’m rarely surprised when I come across a person who appears to go out of their way to work harder, rather than smarter. This, of course, is bad for the company, and even worse for the employee.

Remember back to grade school when we learned, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? This ideology applies to work flows and processes inside the cubicle as well. I’d like to present you with a few actual examples of unnecessary or non-efficient work flow processes that should help you realize the small things you may do daily that can really add up to a lot of wasted time.

Click Here to Read Article …

→Newer Posts

Join Our Mailing List

Categories