Is your time management system too big?

iStock_000008203287XSmall- Bloat

This is Part 3 in a 3 part series. See also Part 1 and Part 2. In the previous posts, we discussed two potential impacts from a poorly designed or implemented time management system: Leak and Creep. Leak was the loss of information from your system, usually due to inadequate tools to capture it. Creep [...]

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Does your time management system keep growing?

Plant Sequence Cutaway

This post is part 2 in a 3 part series (See part 1 here.) In the last post, we discussed 3 potential impacts from a poorly designed or implemented time management system.  (Leak, Creep, and Bloat). Today, I want to talk about “Creep.” Does your time management system keep getting bigger? I mean this literally, [...]

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No Meeting Friday!

iStock_000008537788XSmall - No meeting friday

There was a huge positive response to last week’s tweets about no meetings on Fridays.  So, I thought it was appropriate for us to officially designate Fridays as “No Meeting Fridays.” Many people have been saying that they are booked for so many meetings that they cannot get their work done.  Have you ever finished [...]

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Stop Answering the Phone!

iStock_000001467909XSmall - answer phone

Once upon a time people rushed to answer phones.  For those old enough to remember, you had to get to the phone. At one point we did not have answering machines.  We did not have even have CallerID. So, if you didn’t get to the phone…you did not even know who called. ——- Today is [...]

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What Did You Forget to Pack?

reminder list

On your last trip, what did you forget to pack? You would be amazed what people will forget: Socks Cell phone charger Workout shoes Maybe even their brain! (Some people have admitted to this…) Traveling can be stressful enough, but when you are disorganized and worrying about packing it only adds to your Life Friction. [...]

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The Visible Todo List

The Visible Todo List

Where is your Todo List? And more importantly, when was the last time you looked at it? The idea of a todo list is to capture the things you need to do, so that you can get them off your mind, and you can continue the business at hand. However, all that is worthless if [...]

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Freeze! Nobody move! What is on your desk?

Freeze! Nobody move! What is on your desk?

Freeze! Nobody move! This is an inspection. What is on your desk…right now??? Papers. Post-its? highlighters? Binders from last month? Unfinished sodas? Last year’s magazines? How are you working in that mess? I recommend that you start each day by spending 5 minutes cleaning up your workspace.  It will pay off in spades in terms [...]

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How early are you?

How early are you?

Trick question: When do you show up for the 9AM meeting? If you are like most people in the workplace, you shuffle around and or even get to work at 9AM and then head down the hall to the meeting. What happens?  People are wandering in for a good 5-10 mins.  They make small talk [...]

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Email – Only 5 lines?

Email - Only 5 lines?

If you Twitter a lot… you know that every character counts.  140 is not a lot to say. So, you find yourself omitting words, leaving out spaces, changing before to b4, etc. I wonder how much Twitter is changing our current langauge/communication styles?  Simple words like “very” are replacing fancy words like “extremely.”  Poor words [...]

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What’s on your iPhone?

What's on your iPhone?

Lots of people have been asking me about productivity apps for iPhone and other devices. So, I thought I would share my current iPhone home screen.   I share some app specific tips and thoughts in the near future. Here are some of the apps that I currently use often: – Evernote: If you are not [...]

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