52 Shares Ignore the inflated claims of instant miracles in productivity programs and instead create your own plans for gradual improvement that allow you to succeed.
121 Shares The best productivity improvement goals come from a diagnosis of our current system, rather than adopting external standards.
167 Shares This article will shows you how to create your own assessment of your time management skills.
109 Shares Stop feeding your addition to tips, tricks and shortcuts and save your time with a deeper assessment.
101 Shares Don't get stuck with a time management system that can only meet yesterday's time demands. Instead, create one that's evergreen.
257 Shares Are happiness and productivity a function of good time management skills, or do they arise by themselves? Recent research provides a clear answer.
365 Shares The calendar has evolved. In order to really know how to use a calendar today, we need to change our mental model of what a calendar is, and where it sits.
79 Shares Many managers and coaches feel an immediate burden when they review an employee or client’s performance and think to themselves, “They need some better time management skills.” As they review their limited options, they quickly conclude that none of them fits their needs and none of them are likely to work. The fact is, in order to make a lasting difference, they need to go beyond the options that currently exist and create a much larger context for the employee to succeed. Let’s start by looking at the options that you have... More »
202 Shares In my last article here at Stepcase Lifehack,one of the comments I received suggested that there is a fine way to get around the question of having a “sacred’ calendar. Popular books like Getting Things Done and others advocate the use of calendars for appointments, trips and other activities that “must” be performed on a particular date. Unfortunately, the word “must” is imprecise, and likely to be interpreted differently by each person. The principle that they are attempting to reinforce is more clear: don’t populate your calendar with commitments that aren’t firm.... More »
303 Shares While I love Getting Things Done (GTD) as one of the best time management systems around, many of its user struggle to implement its recommendations. The reason? GTD was developed in the 1990′s at a time when email volumes were low, mobile email access was limited, there was no such thing as tweeting and 2 people weren’t forced to do the job of 8. It was invented for a simpler time, and taught users to create lists of tasks tagged by “contexts,” which were mostly determined by a combination of one’s physical... More »
424 Shares Most of us think of time management skills as something that we happen to have, and others desperately need. It’s easy to do so when we believe that a lifetime of learning can be contained in a single lesson that we happen to have learned. But are we as good at managing our time as we think ourselves to be? There are a number of events that happen in our lives that indicate that our current system isn’t working. Some of the indicators may include repeatedly being late to appointments and handing... More »
176 Shares GMail’s latest feature, Priority Inbox, was rolled out this week to much fanfare, amidst claims from Google that it will speed email processing and reduce information overload. The fact that it produces neither result, in spite of the latest secret technology it uses, could help us all learn some important lessons about productive email management. Google says that its internal testing revealed that the tool saves the average person some 6 minutes per day. It’s hard to see how, when you realize that all the tool is doing is reshuffling you Inbox... More »
329 Shares What makes a smartphone “smart?” This may sound like a dumb question, but I have actually been asking it ever since I made a commitment to upgrade my time management system with the purchase of a shiny, new 2011 smartphone in January. Setting aside the question of the costs (which I understand can top US$2,000 per year when internet charges are included,) I am focused on discovering whether or not I can boost my productivity with an intelligent choice. In doing so, I realize that I could end up deciding to maintain... More »
366 Shares About a year ago, I published a question in a Blackberry forum asking how the devices had helped to make professionals more productive. The responses I received were typified by the one that I remember the most: “I am more productive because I can check my email on the train to and from work.” This seemed like a reasonable response at the time. As a person who gets a bit nervous when I have nothing productive to do, I could relate. While I don’t take the train, the value of converting “down... More »
274 Shares Imagine, 1-2 years from now, that a new kind of employee has emerged in your place of work. He’s seen as effective by executives and managers alike, and is famous for the speed at which he returns email. In fact, the new email tracking software that the company has in place then, shows that he has the best average email response rate — he replies to email, on average, a mere “5.73 minutes after receipt.” The numbers also show that he’s able to respond at all hours of the night, on weekends,... More »
