When you think of a product, what comes to mind? A physical product such as a widget, a chair, a diamond, a written report, a cardboard box? If one is to be productive, one must produce. However, does a product necessarily have to be something that can be held in...
Productivity Tip: Task Timing Experiment
Some people are early birds, some people are night owls, and some people fall somewhere in between… It’s one thing to know what section of the 24 hour day in which you function best overall, but to give yourself a boost in productivity, consider figuring out when you...
Organizing Tip: Bringing Order to Email Writing
Need help bringing order to email composition? That is, the actual composition of the body of an email? Read on for a few quick tips to help you streamline the process: Use the “edit” function. Part of the beauty of email is that it is a mini word processing system in...
Line Up to Clean Up
Once upon a time there was an elementary school teacher who bade her young students to clean the schoolyard of litter at the conclusion of the school’s springtime carnival. Some students were ready to grab garbage bags and run around the schoolyard haphazardly to...
Productivity Tip: Gather Before You Begin
The word productivity typically connotes activity. Sure you can be active, but just how useful is that activity if it does not help you in your attempt to produce something? Or even worse, what if that activity actually lengthens the amount of time it takes you to...
Productivity Tip: Set A Personal Deadline
Sometimes we put our personal projects and tasks on the back burner in lieu of work and school. Have you ever had a personal task that you wanted to get to, but just seemed to drag on? I mean on and on and on? It’s time to put yourself first! Here’s a few ideas to get...
Productivity Tip: Think Backwards To Better Your Future
Want to find “lost” time in a day or streamline your daily schedule? Why not give this a try: think backwards to better your future. It is logical to think “forwards” in time when planning our daily routines. Do one thing at 9am, then another thing at 10am, then...
Productivity Tip: Take Time Out to Tackle Tasks
Ever run into a perpetual cycle of trying to remember tasks: “I’ve got to do A, B, and C, wait, but what was D? I think there was an E as well…what if I forget something?” It’s time to take time out so that you can tackle tasks. Why waste mental energy trying to not...
Productivity Tip: Time To Tidy Up…Efficiently!
Several weeks ago I covered the word “tidy” in The Hidden Power of Words series here on the blog. (You can revisit the entry here, but I’ll quickly recap: the original definition of the word “tidy” meant “timely,” or “opportune.” It was only later on that the meaning...
Productivity Tip: Take a Project Vacation
Have you ever worked on a project, task or to-do where you try your absolute hardest to get it completed, but the more and more you try to complete it, the more difficult it is to accomplish? We take vacations to rest and recharge from work and school, so why not take...