Control Your Environment

At my speeches audience members say to me, "I'm able to handle the tasks in front of me for the day, but if I get one more call or one critical email, everything is just thrown off." That's why it is important to condition your work environment.

Look at your office, your car, your home, and all of the other physical spaces in your life, and ask, "What can I do to make these spaces work for me in the way I work and in the way I live my life?" Take your desk, for example: realize that it must be specifically set up for you. Position your PC monitor in the way that's most comfortable for you. If you need tissues, candy, or certain supplies, then put them on your desk, close at hand.

Look at your desk in new ways. Align it so that it supports the way you work, regardless of how it looks to anyone else. Never mind what the person down the hall thinks! Identify the items you need, and then condition your desk to work for you. Remove piles from the window sills or
cabinets tops and put them into file folders. Gain some clear space!

Life a is Desk. Clear Yours

To prehistoric man, life was a spear. Today life is a desk. Joe Sugarman, in his book, Success Forces, explains that by clearing your desk every evening, you automatically have to choose what to work on the next day. This is a discipline that yields a marvelous sense of breathing space with which to start each day.

To ensure that your desk and office environment supports you, invest in yourself. If you need them, room dividers and sound barriers are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and can improve upon any existing sound barriers.

Use the end of the day and slow periods to keep your desk orderly and better prepare yourself for high octane output when you're ready to get started again.

Every evening, after you've cleared your desk, acknowledge yourself for what you accomplished that day. Don't beat yourself up for what you didn't do. If you can do better, you will, maybe not at once, but soon enough.

A Crucial Skill

The number of potential distractions -- items competing for your time and attention -- is infinite and will become more troublesome in the future, not less. It's vital to learn today how to deal with them in ways that you haven't employed before to regain control over your life and be better prepared to meet the challenges of the future.

Stop Piling, Start Filing

We are all soooo inundated these days! Instead of piling things on your desk, file them in the cabinet! Remove anything you can safely eliminate from your desktop. Items that you use on a daily basis, such as a stapler, a roll of tape, or pen, get to stay on top of your desk.

What you keep on top of your desk is uniquely individual. Your goal is to maintain the optimal number of items on and in your desk; enough so you function efficiently while there, but not so many that clutter inhibits work. Hold onto items you use at least once a week, but don't store those supplies too close by. Recognize that your desk drawers are not for storing supplies per se. You may store a pad of paper, but not pads of paper. You only need one pad at a time, and the general principle is to have the smallest number of a necessary item as you can get by with.

The fewer things you have in vital work spaces, the greater the sense of control you have over your immediate environment. For instance, if you choose to use one of your desk drawers for file folders, then these files should be as thin and potent as you can make them. Once your desk and flat surfaces are under control, you also gain a heightened sense of control over your time. Such a deal!

You may wish to place sentimental and familiar items, such as pictures, plants, and motivators near your desk, but not on it. Install items such as full spectrum lighting or ocean-wave music that support your productivity, efficiency, and creativity, near your work space, not on top of it.

From now on, manage your desktop as if it's one of the most important elements to staying organized, because it is.

Intelligent Design

Items that you use at least twice a day, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, or style handbook, should be within arm's reach or in a nearby drawer. Other items that you use less frequently may be stored in an adjacent drawer, or in a filing cabinet that's not in the way when you're working. Periodically consider different devices, such as computer trays, hanging lamps, and swivel mechanisms that could make you feel more comfortable and be more productive at your desk. Your work day is too important!

Overcoming Procrastination

Here are eight tips on overcoming procrastination derived from my internationally acclaimed book, The 60 Second Self-Starter, published by Adams Media:

1. Realize that wanting to start on a task is different than deciding to.

2. Relate the underlying meaning of your task to something larger.

3. Don't wait until you're "in the mood." True professionals never do.

4. Recognize that unpleasant tasks don't tend to get more pleasant as time passes.

5. Expect some level of breakdown or backsliding. Progress is not always even; two steps forward and one step back is more often the rule than the exception.

6. Choose someone who can serve as a trailblazer and help you get started.

7. Have somebody waiting for your work.

8. Be forthright with yourself and acknowledge when you're procrastinating, and you'll be that much closer to taking action.

Multi-Tasking is a Bad Idea

What happens when you jump between different projects at one time? It may feel dynamic -- after all, you're exerting lots of activity. There's a severe loss of productivity, however, because your brain works on one thing at a time. Multi tasking is fine for computers but not so great for human beings.

Although it may seem like you're working on several things at once, your brain is turning back and forth between the tasks. Switching from task to task is not as productive as staying on one job until it is completed. Studies have been published that indicate the harmful, long term effects of multi-tasking. Practice the art of doing one thing at a time!

Your "Technology Bill of Rights"

Technology puts independent workers in the driver's seat, so to speak. But it can create such dependency, say my pals, Larry Rosen and Michelle Weil, that it may even lead to questioning one's own creativity and capabilities. To keep technology in it's proper perspective, they say to declare your independence.

1. I am the boss, not my technology.
2. Technology is available to help me express my creativity.
3. I decide when to use the tools technology provides.
4. I have the right to choose what technology to use and what to put aside.
5. I can use technology to stay connected, informed, and productive – my way.

6. Technology offers a world of information. I get to choose what information is important to me.
7. Technology will have problems, but I will be prepared to handle them.
8. Technology can work 24-hour days, but I can choose when to begin and when to stop working.
9. Technology never needs to rest, but I do.
10. I can work successfully by enforcing my boundary needs.

Source: Technostress by Larry Rosen Ph.D. and Michelle Weil PhD.

Don't Just Do Something

Don't just do something, sit there: Reading or merely looking out the window in contemplation could be the most important and productive activity you do today. Too often, people throw their time at tasks when they should be exerting more brain power.

The single best way to handle several different projects is to begin working on one thing at a time, until its completion, and then go on to the next project, and then the next, until you are finished.

Take Your Vacations!

Americans schedule an average of 14 vacation days a year, the average Britisher schedules 24. Americans typically don't use 3 of those days, giving back time to their employers.

What we Cannot Control

A reader comments; “I could be more responsible regarding use of my time but certainly there are some things that are out of my control...”

Yes, for one thing your productive work life is finite. You will only be able to work for so many years at such and such a pace. One day that will no longer be possible. The big absolute, of course, is that life is finite and death is guaranteed, so far. If you are in your thirties, you have about 12,000 to 14,000 days and that's it.

Day to day, change is out of your control – it is guaranteed that how you used to do it or what worked yesterday will have less and less value with each passing day. You certainly want some stability in your life particularly in the areas of values and relationships, but don't fear change or close yourself off to it.

Time Wasted on the Job

According to an online survey conducted by AOL and Salary.com, workers waste more than two hours a day on average by surfing the Web, conducting personal business, chatting with co-workers,and just zoning out.

Intelligent Design

Items that you use at least twice a day, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, or style handbook, should be within arm's reach or in a nearby drawer. Other items that you use less frequently may be stored in an adjacent drawer, or in a filing cabinet that's not in the way when you're working.

Periodically consider different devices, such as computer trays, hanging lamps, and swivel mechanisms that could make you feel more comfortable and be more productive at your desk. Your work day is too important!

Time Saving with Computers?

It's a myth to believe that PCs automatically increase productivity. While they can save an enormous amount effort on certain types of tasks, the time you save is not synonymous with increased productivity.

To become more productive, you have to spend the time gained on something worthwhile and rewarding. If you don't, you've squandered the time savings on minutia, trivia, or worse.