How To Be More Productive
By Maura Nevel Thomas
Burget Avenue Management Services, Inc.

Let's face it. We all have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. If you're reading Steve's blog, you're probably a successful, well-informed, ambitious person, who often feels like you need another lifetime to accomplish all the things you'd like to do. You are not alone. Part of the reason for this is that we know more than we ever did before, and we can learn just about anything we ever wanted to know by just pulling up a webpage. A guy named Karl Fisch in Centennial, Colorado put together the following information:

The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet. There are about 540,000 words in the English language; about 5 times as many as during Shakespeare's time. More than 3,000 new books are published daily. week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a It is estimated that onelifetime in the 18th century. It is estimated that 1.5 exabytes (1.5 x 1018) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year. That's estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years! The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.

For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. It is predicted that by 2010, this doubling rate will go from every two years, to every 72 hours!

Feeling even more overwhelmed than you were just five minutes ago?! Welcome to the 21st century. We're in the midst of information overload and people don't adapt anywhere nearly as fast as technology changes. One solution is that we can decide to live in our own little cocoon, and refuse to participate in the changing world (know anyone who refuses to get a computer, or a cell phone?) Or, we try to adapt but really in our own lives we end up drowning deeper and deeper until the point where we just barely have our heads above water. This feeling of being constantly overwhelmed is no way to live, and is not conducive to going out and starting the Ripples you are destined to create! So what's a guy, or gal, to do?

First, you need a system. I define a productivity system as an inter-related collection of specific, consecutive activities that you can make a habit, or at the very least, fall back on when you feel like you are starting to drown. Identify your most productive habits, learn new ones, and make a conscious effort to spend more time on the productive habits and less time on the unproductive ones. Ideally, read some books or get some help from a coach or a trainer. These days, even people who are inherently organized need help from someone who lives and breathes this stuff.

Important point to remember: your brain is not designed to hold all of the random details that are necessary in the service of your life. Trying to use your brain to remember that your daughter's soccer game is Tuesday at 4 and your boss is waiting for your expense report and your sister's birthday is next Saturday and you need to return the phone call from the accountant, is not only unproductive, it's stressful. Writing this information on sticky notes and napkins and the back of envelopes is also not productive. Even if you're using a calendar for your appointments, I'll bet you don't have a good system for your "to-do list," those things that aren't necessarily day or time specific but that you either have to, or really want to, get done. So here's a productivity tip for you: learn how to use a PIM (personal information manager). Currently, the most prevalent PIM on the market is Microsoft Outlook. If you're a PC user you're probably already using it for email, and maybe even for contacts, or your calendar. But in my experience, the majority of the people who use Outlook are only using a fraction of its features. Outlook is a very powerful tool for increasing your productivity, and Outlook (or some other PIM) syncing with a handheld device will change your life if you're not doing this already, or if you're only using one or two of the components of these tools. I promise you that you can literally run every detail of your entire life out of Outlook and a handheld, and free your brain up for the things its actually good at like strategic and creative thinking and problem solving.

Admitedly, Outlook is not the most intuitive tool when it comes to productivity. It's pretty easy to figure out how to send and receive an email, but beyond that most people struggle with how to take advantage of the features. And remember, it's the SYSTEM that makes the biggest difference. So below I've listed some ideas to get you started on assembling your system and increasing your use of Outlook, and you can find more on my website at www.burgetave.com.

Cool Feature: Post in this Folder:

Why?

Let's say you're having a communication with someone over email about some subject, and you've created a folder for this topic where you file these emails so you have a record. But then at some point, one of you picks up the phone and you bring some issues to a conclusion verbally. Now your email record is incomplete. "Post in this Folder" is designed to accommodate exactly this situation.

How?

In any window in Outlook, clicking on the "New" button will bring a new item for that window. For example, in the email window, clicking on "New" will bring up a new email. However, in every Outlook window, there is a little drop-down arrow right beside the "New" button. If you click on this drop down arrow, you will see a list of your choices for a "new" item. First, click on the folder that contains the history of the email communication you want to add to. Then click on the drop down arrow beside the "New" button, and select "Post in this Folder." Here you can add a subject and then the content of the conversation. When you click "post," it will appear in the email list above the most recent message you've moved to that folder.

Color-Coding Your Calendar:

Why?

If you have outlined some goals for yourself, such as how many hours you'd like to spend in a week doing "x" (volunteering, exercising, billable hours, etc) than color coding your calendar items is a great way to see where you are out of alignment with your goals. For example, if you've decided to spend four hours each week volunteering, and you've coded the volunteer time on your calendar as blue, a quick glance at a weekly or monthly view will give you a sense of whether or not you're reaching your goals in that area.

How?

First, in a calendar view, go to the "Edit" menu and click on "Label." Jump to the bottom and click on "Edit Labels." Here you can change Microsoft's defaults to the words that work best for you. Resist the urge to color-code everything if it's not an activity you care about measuring. It's ok to have some color and let everything else be white. To color code a calendar event or appointment, open it, and the "Label" field should be sort of in the center, on the right side of the window. Here you can select the appropriate color.

Calendar vs. Tasks:

Why?

Why shouldn't I put my to-do list, or at least some of it, on my calendar? Everyone is tempted to put the things they really want to do today, but don't necessarily have to do today, on today's calendar. And by the way, when I say "HAVE to do today," I mean "if it doesn't get done today then I can no longer do it." Many things feel like you "have" to do them today, but in reality you could still do them tomorrow if they didn't get done today. So resist the urge to put these on your calendar because if you don't get them done today, you could forget to move them to tomorrow and then they will slip through the cracks and never get done. Sometimes this may not matter so much but sometimes this could become a catastrophe.

How?

Only put something on today's calendar if you can no longer do it tomorrow, like meetings and appointments (these are usually things that involve other people). For those things that you really want to get done today, "today's priorities," I keep a very small wet-erase card on the workspace of my desk, and my rule is that it can never have more than five items on it. This is because five is a reasonable amount to expect to be a priority for a day. Anything else is not a priority for right this moment so it goes on my task list, with an appropriate due date, if necessary. After I've completed everything on my "priority" list, I erase them from the card and move to my task list to review all the hundreds of other "to-do's" that are waiting for me (notice I am NOT holding these in my head or on random lists tucked in every corner of my life). The wet-erase card works better than a piece of paper because those little pieces of paper tend to multiply.

Email DOESN'T squeeze into your day like phone calls do

Why?

Most people treat email as one of those things that you just have to accommodate in your day, like the phone ringing or a co-worker stopping by your desk for an impromptu meeting. Here's a newsflash: if email is one of your primary means of communication, you will NEVER get through your inbox by treating email this way. This is why most people have hundreds or thousands of emails in their inbox. Most have been at least glanced at, but not really dealt with, because you're always pouncing on the "new messages." If you are one of these people, I suggest that you are spending too much time being reactive, and not enough time being proactive. Finding the balance between being responsive, but not reactive, will give you a big boost to your productivity.

How?

Set aside time each day, perhaps an hour in the morning, and an hour in the afternoon, to read, respond, and dispatch (delete or file) email. The rest of the time, keep it closed (there are of course, some exceptions to this such as if you are in a highly reactive profession and email is the necessary communication tool).

Maura Thomas is the founder of Burget Avenue Management Services, a productivity training company in Austin, Texas. Burget Ave helps individuals and teams get things done more efficiently and with less stress. Learn more at www.burgetave.com.

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