Category Archives: Productivity

How to Organize Your Day

October 21, 2021 Ian McKenzie

Do you ever rush out of the house in the morning, five minutes late, only to realize you left something important behind? Do you find yourself scrambling to complete an endless list of tasks at work before leaving the office for the day? You know these transitional times can be the most disorganized of the day. However, they don’t need to be. With a few simple routines, you can keep your mornings and evenings–not to mention the times between–more organized, less stressful, and more efficient.

Decide What Needs to be Done First

Take out a piece of paper and pen. Make three columns on this paper. Title each column: personal life, job and community.

List everything you need to do this week under each of these headings.

Place an “A” next to everything in each column that is a high priority.
Place a “B” next to everything in each column that is a medium priority.
Place a “C” next to everything in each column that is a low priority.

Next, review everything under “A” and number them according to importance, with 1 being the highest priority. Do the same for columns “B” and “C”. Determine which hours of each day are going to be allocated to each of your headings: personal life, job and community. Within the hours allocated, go to the designated column and start with the item labeled “A1″, then go on to “A2″. When you’ve completed all the “A’s”, go to “B1″ and so on. When the time is up, move on to another column.

Make Trade-Offs

Plan when you’re going to tackle tasks and allow enough time to complete all or part of them. Work on difficult jobs first, or at a time when you’re at peak performance, saving the less stressful tasks for when you have less energy.

The idea here is to slot your tasks into the places where they’ll fit best. Certain tasks will always need to be done at specific times, of course—you can’t eat breakfast the night before—but by scheduling tasks for the times when you’ll be able to do them most efficiently, you’ll save time and frustration.

Get Your Routines in Place

With your task list in hand, develop routines for each part of the day in which you do similar tasks. Your routines should not only cover the tasks listed, but should also outline the order in which they occur. For example, your night-time home routine might look something like this:

Wash dinner dishes.
Set kitchen table for breakfast.
Prepare lunch for tomorrow; put lunch bag in fridge.
Put papers and supplies for work in briefcase.
Check weather for tomorrow.
Choose outfit based on weather forecast.
Get ready for bed.
Set alarm for morning.
Read, then go to sleep.

The idea is to get a sequence of tasks on paper, and to follow the sequence as best you can.

Adjust as Needed

Your self-management plan may not work the first time you try it. There will be times when your self-management process falls apart. As you follow your routines throughout the week, you’ll things you’ve forgotten, or find you can take care of several tasks at the same time

Your routines should be flexible enough to accommodate changes. Sticking to a routine that doesn’t work is as inefficient as not following one. These steps are not static but need to change and grow with you. Make time to review your process and see what changes can be made.

Productivity

How to Manage Your Time with a Journal

April 9, 2021 Ian McKenzie

Do you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? Are you tired of feeling rushed and frazzled?

Better time management can make you feel as though there actually are enough hours in the day to get everything done and better time management can leave you feeling refreshed — less rushed, less frazzled, less stressed. Time management is an executive function; that is, a skill that uses multiple cognitive functions.

A first step to improving your time management ability is to keep a time journal.

Keeping a time management diary can be a valuable tool to help you to see where the bulk of your time is being spent. If you are constantly being interrupted by phone calls or find yourself surfing the net when you should be working, a time management diary can help you to pinpoint areas where you might need to make adjustments.

Once a year, select a typical week or two and gather data on your regular daily routine. Record your activities in half-hour increments, noting the things that impacted the work flow. Take the data, look for areas where you could improve your use of time and develop a specific action plan to bring about the desired improvements

Gather Data:

Keep a daily time log for one week if you have a somewhat routine schedule and for two weeks if your schedule is less predictable. This will provide information for you to improve your use of time.

Select a typical week, (i.e., avoid vacation, sick leave, personal leave, holiday, etc.)
Record activities at least every half hour. Be specific. For example, identify visitors and record duration and topics of conversations. (Be honest. Only you will have access to this information.)
Write a comment on each activity. Did something take longer than usual? Why? Were you interrupted?
At the end of the day note whether this day was typical, busier than usual, or less busy than usual.

Analyze Your Use of Time:

Working with the data gathered, analyze your current use of time. Ask yourself these questions:

Are there any surprises in my use of time?
Am I spending my time as I think I should be?
Am I wasting time on activities that do not advance me towards my goals?
Is there a balance between the various facets of my life: work, family, play, personal, etc?

Action Plan:

From your analysis, develop specific action plans to bring about the desired improvement in your use of time.

Follow-up:

Six weeks after beginning your time management improvement effort, assess your progress, and determine what work still needs to be done. If you find yourself reverting to time-wasting habits, explore questions like these:

Why am I not spending time the way I want?
Why am I settling for second-best in my priorities?
What changes am I going to make?

Productivity, Uncategorized

Put Things in Their Place to Get Organized

March 9, 2020 Ian McKenzie

One of the oldest organizing adages is often attributed to Ben Franklin, “A place for everything and everything in its place.” Whether Ben was the first to say it is debatable, the truth of the saying is not. The single-most important step you can take when organizing is ensuring you have a place to put everything.

Containers organize things by type: pens and pencils, cosmetics, groceries, tools, etc. They keep food fresh. They are effective for document storage and retrieval. They make clean-up easier. From the office to the home, from the boardroom to the bathroom, containers make organizing easy.

Before you run out and stock up on containers, you need a plan. You need to know the types of things you’re going to store, along with size and shape. You can then determine the type of storage option to use:

Cabinets
Shelves
Drawers and dividers
Bookcases
Magazine racks
File cabinets or drawers
Baskets
Boxes

It’s also helpful to consider the material the container(s) is made of in relation to its use. Wooden file boxes might be impractical for lifting in and out of archive space, while cardboard file boxes might not be sturdy enough for daily use.

Start with a plan

Analysis how you spend your time in the office. List of the tasks you perform there and the functional zones in your office. For example: paperwork, computer work, telephone use and reading. Ideally, these zones should not overlap.

Determine the equipment and material you need for each zone. For example computer work requires a computer and monitor; perhaps a printer or scanner. For paperwork, you will need pen, notebook, etc.

Now, work out how best to assign your office layout to each of the zones. The computer work and paper work could quite easily be side by side or even overlap. Figure out the best arrangement of your office to suit your needs.

You can start organizing your office by keeping the essential items on your desk: your computer, scanner, telephone and in box. First, you need to clean the desk. Clean out each drawer of your desk to increase space for other office supplies. Organize supplies like pens and paper clips in different containers to make them accessible for you whenever you need them.Use trays for organizing papers and storage boxes for your dated files. You may also use a separate drawer for your personal items. For the magazines and catalogs, keep them in magazine boxes.

Sort the Clutter

Go through all the material in your office; or at least, sort through the piles of unorganized material. Ideally, you go through everything. Practically, you may need to get organized in stages. Place boxes on the floor and start sticking items into the boxes. Sort items in a way that makes sense. For example, put filing together, shredding in another box and so on.

Get rid of the old items you no longer need or use: old bills, receipts or other paperwork, outdated software manuals, equipment you’re no longer using or books that you will never read. Recycle those items that can and dispose of those you can’t recycle. Shred confidential papers that don’t need archiving.

Give Every Object a Home

Set up appropriate containers for items. Look at the list above, determine what you need and go to your local office-supply store to stock up.If your space is limited, look up. Many storage options can be mounted on walls or stacked vertically. Also look at space below. Containers can be put available space under furniture or equipment.

Put It Away

Once you’ve gone through you clutter and sorted things into the right containers, assign convenient locations for everything and put everything away. This should be easy if you’ve made the right decisions in advance. Don’t cut corners, you’ll pay a price for that later.

Disorganized people make life difficult by having to always make a decision on where each item should go. Organized people have systems so the correct place for each item is obvious, requiring little thought in processing.

Firefighters talk about “containing” a fire. In the same way, containers can help you control your organization fires.

Productivity, Uncategorized

Learn to Say “No”

November 27, 2019 Ian McKenzie

There was a time when I would say yes to everything. Not because I thought I had the ability to do it all, but because I felt I looked lazy if I wasn’t doing something all the time. I had to learn to say no.

There was also an issue of how to handle things I didn’t want to do; a sense of obligation to every social invitation or event taking place. Perhaps it was a sense of wanting to please people. I didn’t have a “reason” for not wanting to go, so felt obligated. I had to learn to say no.

I’d be lying if I said I never struggle with it today. However, I’ve learned how important it is to preserve time, my most valuable resource. I had to learn to say no.

Top tips for saying “no”

Keep it simple: don’t try and complicate things. Don’t concocted elaborate reasons or excuses. A simple, “thanks for asking, but I’m not able to…” is enough. You don’t need the asker’s permission to say no.

Focus on your goals and priorities: If you have a plan for managing your work and time, it is easier to say no to new activities that don’t fit into your agenda. There’s a saying that goes, “A person who does not have goals is used by someone who does.”

Be assertive and courteous: Try saying something like, “I’m sorry I’m not able to right now, but will let you know when and if I can.” This approach is polite, and puts you in a position of power by taking charge of the exchange, telling people you’ll let them know.

Look for compromises: Perhaps you feel the request is good, but you can’t meet the requirement right now. Look for ways to move the request forward that works for both parties. Be careful that compromising is not just another way to avoid saying “no”.

Leave it open-ended: Sometimes you’re in a position where you can’t say no for sure. A year ago, I was asked to consider becoming president of our Rotary Club for this year. At the time I was asked, I couldn’t say yes due to some unknowns coming in the new year. I said “no” at that moment but told them to ask again early in year. They came back in February and I was able to say yes, as the unknowns had been defined.

IT’S NOT ABOUT SAYING “NO” TO EVERYTHING

Sometimes you need to say “yes” to further your personal goals and priorities. Perhaps you have a goal of becoming a subject-matter expert in a particular topic or area. Getting your name out there might involve extra speaking engagements, or some side-hustle work beyond your regular responsibilities. Then, as you become more aware of what is and isn’t right for you, you can say “no” to those invitations that don’t move your goals forward.

The hidden lesson to all this? As you effectively learn to say “no”, your “yes” becomes far more powerful.

7 Tips, Productivity

7 Tips to Help Overcome Procrastination

November 6, 2019 Ian McKenzie

I was planning to write this post last week, but I put it off.

Okay, now that the obligatory bad joke is out of the way, we can look at another internal time waster, procrastination.

We all put things off. We hope to avoid tasks that are boring, difficult, unpleasant, etc. When faced with something we don’t want to do, we can find a dozen tasks of no consequence to fill our time.

We secretly hope that, by procrastinating, the unpleasant task will shrink and go away. Unfortunately, the reverse is often true; the deferred job just gets bigger and more difficult.

Overcoming procrastination requires strategy. The next time you’re tempted to put off something you don’t want to do, try some of these tips:

Set a deadline – a task without a deadline can be put off indefinitely. Set a date and stick to it.
Set up a reward system – make it commensurate with the task. An afternoon cleaning out the garage is worth dinner out, while a 14 month software roll-out might warrant a tropical vacation.
Arrange for a follow-up – assign someone to be a “nag-buddy”. Give them permission to check in periodically to make sure you’re staying on track.
Do it first – tackle difficult jobs early in the day, when you have the most energy.
Break the task into small pieces – if the whole seems too big to tackle, break it into manageable sub-tasks.
Avoid over-thinking – Doubts will arise for even the most confident of people and doubt can lead to procrastination. Try doubting your doubts.
Do it now – don’t put if off any longer. Sometimes you just have to jump in and get it done.

Procrastination Quotations

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. ~William James
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. ~Don Marquis
There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back. ~Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
You may delay, but time will not. ~Benjamin Franklin
Someday is not a day of the week. ~Author Unknown
Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960
Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. ~Victor Kiam
The best way to get something done is to begin. ~Author Unknown
Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. ~Spanish Proverb
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible. ~George Claude Lorimer
Tomorrow is the only day in the year that appeals to a lazy man. ~Jimmy Lyons
A year from now you may wish you had started today. ~Karen Lamb
Procrastination is the thief of time. ~Edward Young