Do you spend too much time in meetings?  If so, you are in good company.  One of the  most common complaints of office workers is that their productivity is hampered by too many unproductive meetings.  Ineffective meetings lead to frustration.  They waste the time of the participants and they undermine the effectiveness of the whole…

Some people like to cooperate with others to achieve their goals, while others prefer to chase their dreams on their own.  I find that involving mutually committed partners in my pursuits is intensely rewarding – especially mastermind groups.  I’ve strengthened my friendships, made measurable progress towards my goals, and continue to grow thanks to the support…

Often, I have telephone and online conferences with people in different timezones and need to schedule a convenient time for everyone. Problem is that there are no suitable tools that allow me to change to different time quickly and view the time in different timezones. So we developed a handy little productivity app for…

Nobody likes meetings. Well, not “nobody” – that older guy with the beard that nobody seems to know personally that comes to every meeting? He likes meetings, because he gets a free donut and a nap. But other than him, most people see meetings as way too unproductive and time-consuming to be likable. Necessary, sometimes…

There is not much point in having brilliant ideas if we cannot persuade people of their value. Persuasive debaters can win arguments using the force of their reason and by the skillful deployment of many handy techniques. Here are some general dos and don’ts to help you win arguments together with some sneaky tactics to…

Every once in a while, we are entrusted with the task of presentation. It may be to demo a new product, to present a plan or to explain a new process that you’ve helped create. Whatever the reason and however many presentations you’ve given before, it’s something that not everyone is comfortable doing. Here are some…

The brainstorm is the most popular group creativity exercise. It is quick, easy and it works. But many organizations have become frustrated with brainstorms and have stopped using them. They say brainstorms are old-fashioned and no longer effective. But the real reason for the frustrations is that the brainstorms are not facilitated properly. A well-run…

Too much of today’s personal productivity is stuck in repeating the past A genuine increase in productivity means getting the same, or greater, output with less effort and a smaller use of resources. Yet most personal productivity software still relies on various ways to categorize old-fashioned to-do lists. That focuses on getting more done by improved…

Shannon Kalvar takes the approach of assuming many meetings not only have the habit of drifting fast off point, but are happy doing so. Hence why she’s called this article Three effective ways to anger people in meetings. Instead of allowing this to go on, Shannon suggests three approaches to quickly putting the meeting back on…

Probably the biggest issue with workplace meetings is their length. Almost always, meetings take longer than is necessary. This is particularly true for those daily keep-us-up-to-date meetings. You could try killing meetings all together, or try what John Trosko suggests and hold the meetings that aren’t long and strategic with everyone standing up. Instead of sitting…

After a few years studying the way creative teams work and developing excellent productivity and organizational solutions, Behance have a few tips regarding meetings. Meetings that end without action steps are a waste of our time. When our Action Pads contain no action steps after a meeting, we realize that the meeting should have been a…

Why bother showing up early when you can blame any number of things for “making” you late? There’s traffic, a convenient ally when you need her. A distant cousin to traffic would be a freeway accident, which of course creates traffic. Then there’s the blatantly obvious excuse of sleeping through the alarm…

Why are you late? Time management begins with one of the absolute basics – arrive on time. In his book Copy This!, the founder of Kinko’s (now FedEx Kinko’s) Paul Orfalea recounts that he would make hiring decisions based on key basic modes of operating. One of those is being punctual. I’m sure that Mr…

…or girl. Scott Ginsberg’s story is that one day after an event at college, he decided to keep his name tag on. What he noticed was he was instantly more approachable the rest of the day. Since then Scott has kept the name tag on [for an odd 2400 days], writing a few books on meeting people…

Myth: We need to be at all those meetings and events that have made their way onto our calendars. Reality: We can succeed at work and be happy with a modest number of meetings and activities. Do you say any of these things? I haven’t been home at 6 o’clock in the evening for weeks. We are constantly…