.
Given that you’ve gotten you desk under control, now go a step further. Set up your office to enable you to focus on the task at hand, and ignore other less important matters. This might involve neatly arranging papers, file folders, reports and other items, while working at a clear desk, with only the issue hand in front of you.
Remember that simply having too much in your visual field can be an impediment to beginning a task.
When you have only a single project or task at hand, your odds of maintaining clarity and focus increase dramatically. This is even truer if you’re not in your own office or cubicle but at a conference table or at some other location at which you only have the project materials at hand.
Did you see the movie Top Gun, in which Tom Cruise plays a Navy fighter pilot? (“Your ego is writing checks that your body can’t cash.”) Among his many responsibilities in flying some of the nation’s most expensive aircraft is landing those jets safely on aircraft carrier decks.
Months after seeing the movie, I read an article in Smithsonian magazine about how aircraft carrier decks are to be completely clean and clear before a plane lands. “All hands on deck” on an aircraft carrier means that everyone, even senior officers, needs to pick up a push broom and sweep the deck clear. The goal is to leave nothing on the surface of the deck, not even a paper clip, in order to ensure a successful landing. If there is debris on the deck as a plane approaches, or an earlier plane has not left the landing strip, the approaching plane is likely to crash.
Your desk is like the deck of an aircraft carrier. If you take the next pile of stuff you receive and park it in the corner of your desk with the notion that an organizing fairy will leave a nice, neat file under your pillow in the morning, good luck! Nobody’s coming to help you manage your desk. Each new item you pile on will figuratively crash in the smoldering ruins if the accumulations in progress.
Get into the habit of managing your desktop as if it’s important in enhancing your productivity – because it is. Don’t let glut put you in a rut. Cut through the clutter like hot knife through butter. If you only have whatever you’re working on in front of you, and the rest of your desk is clear, you’re bound to have more energy, focus, and direction. You’re in a far better position to take action. The top executives of major corporations know this; that’s why their desks remain clear and uncluttered.
Regards,
Timben
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Manage Your Desk for Performance
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The quality and ambience of your work space is at its best when it demonstrates the quality and ambience of your life, or how you would like your life to be: rearrange your desk, change your life. Find your personal “zone.” The zone is the place and space where you do your best work, where you are in the groove and where your work is exemplary. Procrastination has little chance here, even with you.
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. Though such reasoning is contrary to the advice of time management “experts,” I wholeheartedly endorse it. It is a discipline that yields a marvelous ability to get started in the morning while others find themselves only slowly getting out of the gate.
To create my own “mini-desk workout,” I keep some items on the far end of my desk so that I have to reach to use them. I fight procrastination, and I stretch my muscles!
What about inside your desk? Include frequently needed supplies, but remember: a desk is not a supply cabinet. Maintain a drawer of personal items – your desk is there to support you. Tissues or cough drops are okay. Sorry, your Game Boy is not. Include any needed forms of heavily used items, but leave a 20 percent vacancy. Constantly review what you’re holding and decide to retain or toss it. Near, but not on your desk, go the familiar items such as pictures, plants, and motivators. Also, install any supporting accoutrements, from full-spectrum lighting to ocean wave music, if they support your productivity, efficiency, and creativity (and if your coworkers don’t mind).
To ensure that your desk and work environment support your productivity, invest in yourself. If you need them and can obtain approval from the powers that be, room dividers and sound barriers are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and can improve upon any existing sound barriers. The gentle, rhythmic “white noise” of a small fan’s motor serves as a sound buffer to many of the sounds that may distract you.
Every evening after you’ve cleared your desk, congratulate yourself for what you accomplished that day. Don’t do a number on yourself and beat yourself up for what you didn’t do. Nothing would be accomplished, and you’d be in pain. It’s likely that you’re doing the best you can. If you can do better, you will – maybe not immediately, but soon enough, certainly by the next millennium.
So as previously recommended, do your filing and come up smiling. Use the end of the day, slow periods, or periods of low personal energy to revamp your files, keep your desk orderly, and better prepare yourself for high-octane output when you’re ready to get started again.
After you’ve cleared your desk, apply the same principle to your computer’s desktop, your inbox, the top of your file cabinet, closet shelves, and other areas of your life – your dining-room table, your car’s glove compartment, the trunk of your car, and your health club locker (if not for better organization than at least for your personal hygiene). The fewer things you have in these places, the greater sense of control you have over your environment. Once these flat surfaces are under control, self-starters gain a heightened sense of control over their time.
Regards,
Timben
The quality and ambience of your work space is at its best when it demonstrates the quality and ambience of your life, or how you would like your life to be: rearrange your desk, change your life. Find your personal “zone.” The zone is the place and space where you do your best work, where you are in the groove and where your work is exemplary. Procrastination has little chance here, even with you.
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. Though such reasoning is contrary to the advice of time management “experts,” I wholeheartedly endorse it. It is a discipline that yields a marvelous ability to get started in the morning while others find themselves only slowly getting out of the gate.
To create my own “mini-desk workout,” I keep some items on the far end of my desk so that I have to reach to use them. I fight procrastination, and I stretch my muscles!
What about inside your desk? Include frequently needed supplies, but remember: a desk is not a supply cabinet. Maintain a drawer of personal items – your desk is there to support you. Tissues or cough drops are okay. Sorry, your Game Boy is not. Include any needed forms of heavily used items, but leave a 20 percent vacancy. Constantly review what you’re holding and decide to retain or toss it. Near, but not on your desk, go the familiar items such as pictures, plants, and motivators. Also, install any supporting accoutrements, from full-spectrum lighting to ocean wave music, if they support your productivity, efficiency, and creativity (and if your coworkers don’t mind).
To ensure that your desk and work environment support your productivity, invest in yourself. If you need them and can obtain approval from the powers that be, room dividers and sound barriers are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and can improve upon any existing sound barriers. The gentle, rhythmic “white noise” of a small fan’s motor serves as a sound buffer to many of the sounds that may distract you.
Every evening after you’ve cleared your desk, congratulate yourself for what you accomplished that day. Don’t do a number on yourself and beat yourself up for what you didn’t do. Nothing would be accomplished, and you’d be in pain. It’s likely that you’re doing the best you can. If you can do better, you will – maybe not immediately, but soon enough, certainly by the next millennium.
So as previously recommended, do your filing and come up smiling. Use the end of the day, slow periods, or periods of low personal energy to revamp your files, keep your desk orderly, and better prepare yourself for high-octane output when you’re ready to get started again.
After you’ve cleared your desk, apply the same principle to your computer’s desktop, your inbox, the top of your file cabinet, closet shelves, and other areas of your life – your dining-room table, your car’s glove compartment, the trunk of your car, and your health club locker (if not for better organization than at least for your personal hygiene). The fewer things you have in these places, the greater sense of control you have over your environment. Once these flat surfaces are under control, self-starters gain a heightened sense of control over their time.
Regards,
Timben
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Aspire to Be Organized
Do you think of becoming and staying organized as sheer and utter drudgery? If so, you’re not alone! You don’t see people shooting movies, writing Broadway plays, or producing hard rock albums on the topic (though I might be on to something here…). Yet it’s an unheralded key to being productive. From pack rat to Jack Sprat to Jack Black, when you’re in control of your surroundings, you have a better chance of staying focused, efficient and effective.
Everything you’ve ever filed presumably has future value if only enabling you to cover your ample derriere. People often avoid filing because they don’t see the connection between filing and its future impact on their careers and lives. Simply organizing materials, hard copy or on disk, putting them into smaller file folders, stapling them, or rearranging the order of things often represents a good, pre-emptive move in the battle against procrastination.
File, smile and work in style. For each item that crosses your desk or hard drive, ask these fundamental questions:
What’s the issue behind the document?
What does it represent?
Why did I receive it? (This one is biggie)
Why keep this? (Is it important? If it will be replaced soon, I don’t need it.)
Should I have received this?
How else can this be handled?
Can I delegate it?
Can I file it under “Review in six month?”
Can I shred it with glee?
What will happen if I don’t handle this?
Next, create a folder on your computer “desktop” and establish a physical drawer
(make it a big drawer) where you can temporarily house what you want out of sight. Many people have inbox folder, which they label with months and weeks. It’s a place to park things when you can’t figure out what else to do with them.
You may ask, “Aren’t I postponing my ability to deal with an over accumulation of information? Aren’t I throwing this in with the files I’m going to have to deal with in another three weeks?” No way, Jose and here’s why: When those three weeks roll around and you find the information you filed, the answer may take care of itself. You know it can be sent to the recycle bin or that it is more important than you first thought. Often, you get a definitive answer in a short period of time. You’re reviewing it at a better time. Out of sight, but not out of mind.
Eliminate clutter without shudder. Then when you’re in control of your information and files, you’re able to retrieve items easily and use them, as opposed to having them buried and inaccessible for all eternity. In the meantime, you are not visually bogged down by such things, and you are also more prone to initiate action on the task at hand. Let’s face it, we all know people with dozens – no, make that hundreds – of electronic file folders, housing thousands of e-mail messages. Likewise, we all know people with desks and file cabinets that are packed to the gills with over-stuffed file folders. Is this any way to manage your career? I think not!
One of the familiar laments among those who put off getting organized is, “I have never been food at organizing.” All is forgiven. Start now, and you can do as good of a job as the next person. The only difference between people who are “good at organizing” and people who think they are “not good at organizing” is that people who are organized recognize that it takes some effort to maintain the organization. The people who are “not good at organizing” think they missed out at birth (or is that at conception?) on the “organizing gene”.
Those who are “not good at organizing” further believe that somehow things mysteriously get out of order or become lost. Many people even think that there are forces in the universe operating in opposition to them and conspiring to keep them disorganized. Get it off – you can maintain control of what crosses your desk and how it is handled. And I have news for you – your dog did not eat your homework, and that important document did not just sprout legs and walk away.
Regards,
Timben
Everything you’ve ever filed presumably has future value if only enabling you to cover your ample derriere. People often avoid filing because they don’t see the connection between filing and its future impact on their careers and lives. Simply organizing materials, hard copy or on disk, putting them into smaller file folders, stapling them, or rearranging the order of things often represents a good, pre-emptive move in the battle against procrastination.
File, smile and work in style. For each item that crosses your desk or hard drive, ask these fundamental questions:
What’s the issue behind the document?
What does it represent?
Why did I receive it? (This one is biggie)
Why keep this? (Is it important? If it will be replaced soon, I don’t need it.)
Should I have received this?
How else can this be handled?
Can I delegate it?
Can I file it under “Review in six month?”
Can I shred it with glee?
What will happen if I don’t handle this?
Next, create a folder on your computer “desktop” and establish a physical drawer
(make it a big drawer) where you can temporarily house what you want out of sight. Many people have inbox folder, which they label with months and weeks. It’s a place to park things when you can’t figure out what else to do with them.
You may ask, “Aren’t I postponing my ability to deal with an over accumulation of information? Aren’t I throwing this in with the files I’m going to have to deal with in another three weeks?” No way, Jose and here’s why: When those three weeks roll around and you find the information you filed, the answer may take care of itself. You know it can be sent to the recycle bin or that it is more important than you first thought. Often, you get a definitive answer in a short period of time. You’re reviewing it at a better time. Out of sight, but not out of mind.
Eliminate clutter without shudder. Then when you’re in control of your information and files, you’re able to retrieve items easily and use them, as opposed to having them buried and inaccessible for all eternity. In the meantime, you are not visually bogged down by such things, and you are also more prone to initiate action on the task at hand. Let’s face it, we all know people with dozens – no, make that hundreds – of electronic file folders, housing thousands of e-mail messages. Likewise, we all know people with desks and file cabinets that are packed to the gills with over-stuffed file folders. Is this any way to manage your career? I think not!
One of the familiar laments among those who put off getting organized is, “I have never been food at organizing.” All is forgiven. Start now, and you can do as good of a job as the next person. The only difference between people who are “good at organizing” and people who think they are “not good at organizing” is that people who are organized recognize that it takes some effort to maintain the organization. The people who are “not good at organizing” think they missed out at birth (or is that at conception?) on the “organizing gene”.
Those who are “not good at organizing” further believe that somehow things mysteriously get out of order or become lost. Many people even think that there are forces in the universe operating in opposition to them and conspiring to keep them disorganized. Get it off – you can maintain control of what crosses your desk and how it is handled. And I have news for you – your dog did not eat your homework, and that important document did not just sprout legs and walk away.
Regards,
Timben
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Stake Your Claim on a Task or Goal
There’s a common misperception that a goal you undertake has to be your own, devised by you, set by you, and pursued by you. Oust that thought. Studies have shown that it’s entirely possible for one person to set goals for another and to have the entire process work. In fact, this happens every darn day in sales organizations, where sales managers develop quotas for the sales staff, and it happens as often elsewhere.
The key element here is to have the person for whom the goal is set adopt the goals as his or her own. It’s okay; it’s not stealing. This is welcome news for parents, managers, or anyone else who has responsibility for the performance of others.
On a daily basis, when you claim ownership of the goal to complete a task or project, you organize yourself in ways that support that goal. When a goal is yours, you don’t need as many external motivators, such as deadlines. Besides, for many of the long-term and continuing goals that you set for yourself, waiting until a minute before the deadline would be foolhardy. You can’t accumulate vast sums of cash, lose huge amounts of weight, or finish writing all your reports at the last minute. (Well, not yet, at least…)
Stand Up to the Challenge
If it’s easy for you to slough off the blame, disassociate yourself, and pretend you didn’t have any input – all easily perfected skills – chances are you were never committed to a project in the first place. When you’re willing to take responsibility for the outcome, whether good or bad, the project is yours. If others come along and ask who’s responsible and you tell them that you are, then, for sure, the project is yours.
A wonderful gauge for determining whether or not you are steadfastly committed to your project is to think about a situation in which the goal is taken from you. Suppose you could no longer proceed down your chosen path. Suppose all activity in pursuit of a goal had to cease. Would you be outraged? Would you object? Would you fight for your right? Would you call in the SWAT team? If so, it’s your goal.
Alternatively, if you could take it or leave it, if you wouldn’t be that upset, if it all would be forgotten by the next day, if it won’t keep you awake at night, chances are it’s not your goal. If you haven’t claimed ownership, procrastination is predictable.
If a goal or a simple task or assignment was not originally your creation, perhaps you have some leeway in shaping it. There are plenty of things you can do to make it your own goal. You may choose to begin with some easy entrance point. Perhaps you can tackle the job one section at a time. You might devise other methods for proceeding that enable you to retain some amount of control and sanity.
Regards,
Timben
The key element here is to have the person for whom the goal is set adopt the goals as his or her own. It’s okay; it’s not stealing. This is welcome news for parents, managers, or anyone else who has responsibility for the performance of others.
On a daily basis, when you claim ownership of the goal to complete a task or project, you organize yourself in ways that support that goal. When a goal is yours, you don’t need as many external motivators, such as deadlines. Besides, for many of the long-term and continuing goals that you set for yourself, waiting until a minute before the deadline would be foolhardy. You can’t accumulate vast sums of cash, lose huge amounts of weight, or finish writing all your reports at the last minute. (Well, not yet, at least…)
Stand Up to the Challenge
If it’s easy for you to slough off the blame, disassociate yourself, and pretend you didn’t have any input – all easily perfected skills – chances are you were never committed to a project in the first place. When you’re willing to take responsibility for the outcome, whether good or bad, the project is yours. If others come along and ask who’s responsible and you tell them that you are, then, for sure, the project is yours.
A wonderful gauge for determining whether or not you are steadfastly committed to your project is to think about a situation in which the goal is taken from you. Suppose you could no longer proceed down your chosen path. Suppose all activity in pursuit of a goal had to cease. Would you be outraged? Would you object? Would you fight for your right? Would you call in the SWAT team? If so, it’s your goal.
Alternatively, if you could take it or leave it, if you wouldn’t be that upset, if it all would be forgotten by the next day, if it won’t keep you awake at night, chances are it’s not your goal. If you haven’t claimed ownership, procrastination is predictable.
If a goal or a simple task or assignment was not originally your creation, perhaps you have some leeway in shaping it. There are plenty of things you can do to make it your own goal. You may choose to begin with some easy entrance point. Perhaps you can tackle the job one section at a time. You might devise other methods for proceeding that enable you to retain some amount of control and sanity.
Regards,
Timben
Friday, May 15, 2009
Rethink Your Priorities and Supporting Goals
Priorities are the handful of things in your life or career that are important to you. Priorities are broad elements of life, and they often become misplaced somewhere within your daily high-wire, somersault-through-flaming-hoops balancing act. In this society and in this era, it is wise to have only a few priorities. If you have too many, you’re not likely to respect each of them. At some point, too many priorities become paradoxical – only a few concerns can be of priority. Goals support priorities.
A single priority may have one or more goals associated with it. For example, if becoming supervisor is a priority in your life, you might set goals to get to work early, contribute as much as possible around the office, and speak to your superiors about any additional tasks that need to be done, and maybe compliment the right people here and there.
The choices confronting most individuals are often similar: career advancement versus a happy home life; income goals versus income needs; and social-, or employment-induced priorities versus individual wants or needs.
A goal is a statement that is specific to what you intend to accomplish, and when. All the goal setting and attainment if your goals don’t support your carefully chosen priorities.
Your goals can change as old ones are accomplished and, of course, if some of your life priorities change. Here are some well-constructed goal statements:
“To work out for thirty-five minutes, three times a week, starting today.”
Underlying priority: Staying fit. And as a side note, notice I said starting today,
Instead of putting it off until tomorrow.
“To recruit four new qualified salespeople by the end of the next quarter.”
Underlying priority: having the optimal size staff on board.
You can use the same procedure as you did for choosing priorities when choosing goals. The major difference is that each goal has to support a priority, and each priority is supported by at least one goal. Here are some poorly set goals. Tell me why (silently).
“To sell as much as I can in the next six month.”
“To complete the study for my client.”
“To be the best employee in the division.”
“To be a more loyal Britney Spears fan.”
Give up? They lack specifies and target dates. Impression in goal setting leads to missed goals. If you frequently find yourself procrastinating, often it’s because your goals are not well defined. Study the most successful people in your industry or profession. You’ll find that the majority are take-charge, confident, action-oriented individuals with clear priorities and supporting goals. In essence, they are self-starters. They know they can’t remain productive if they are not making the effort to determine what represents their next best move. Hmmm, sounds a bit like chess…
Regards,
Timben
A single priority may have one or more goals associated with it. For example, if becoming supervisor is a priority in your life, you might set goals to get to work early, contribute as much as possible around the office, and speak to your superiors about any additional tasks that need to be done, and maybe compliment the right people here and there.
The choices confronting most individuals are often similar: career advancement versus a happy home life; income goals versus income needs; and social-, or employment-induced priorities versus individual wants or needs.
A goal is a statement that is specific to what you intend to accomplish, and when. All the goal setting and attainment if your goals don’t support your carefully chosen priorities.
Your goals can change as old ones are accomplished and, of course, if some of your life priorities change. Here are some well-constructed goal statements:
“To work out for thirty-five minutes, three times a week, starting today.”
Underlying priority: Staying fit. And as a side note, notice I said starting today,
Instead of putting it off until tomorrow.
“To recruit four new qualified salespeople by the end of the next quarter.”
Underlying priority: having the optimal size staff on board.
You can use the same procedure as you did for choosing priorities when choosing goals. The major difference is that each goal has to support a priority, and each priority is supported by at least one goal. Here are some poorly set goals. Tell me why (silently).
“To sell as much as I can in the next six month.”
“To complete the study for my client.”
“To be the best employee in the division.”
“To be a more loyal Britney Spears fan.”
Give up? They lack specifies and target dates. Impression in goal setting leads to missed goals. If you frequently find yourself procrastinating, often it’s because your goals are not well defined. Study the most successful people in your industry or profession. You’ll find that the majority are take-charge, confident, action-oriented individuals with clear priorities and supporting goals. In essence, they are self-starters. They know they can’t remain productive if they are not making the effort to determine what represents their next best move. Hmmm, sounds a bit like chess…
Regards,
Timben
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