While Evernote zealots would have you believe Evernote is the end-all, be-all for note taking and information organization, it’s not necessary for everyone. I have clients and colleagues ask me about it tools like Evernote quite often: “Leslie, what should I use for note-taking? Should I use OneNote or Evernote or LiveScribe or something else?” And the answer is that it all depends, because what Productive Day stands for is “less is more” and that applies to note taking, especially
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I know… time is short. You’ve got a lot on your plate. Your e-mail is piling up and so are the papers around your desk. So when you get yet another task in front of you or another person who needs your attention, you have a decision to make: Do it now or plan it for later? Too many of you are choosing to “do it now” so you can get it out of your way. I know you think you’re making the right choice – a choice that will be “easier” on you and one that will save you time and
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You have a special system for managing your e-mail, don’t you? It’s true… I know. I’ve seen your system. You’re operating completely from your Inbox and marking e-mails as “unread” – even though you just finished reading them – so you’ll know to come back to it later. Maybe the e-mail has a special issue in there. Maybe it’s holding contact information. Maybe you have to read it in more depth and think about it. Or maybe there’s a to-do in there that has to be
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Why Your E-Document Names Should Give You a Clue When you look at your e-document library, are some of your document names mysterious? Do you have to double-click on them and open ‘em up to see what they really are? If so, you’re wasting precious time out of your day that you could be spending elsewhere. I regularly watch my clients do two things: Double-click on their existing documents in their e-document library (wherever it is) to see what the document really holds because they
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Four Fab Reasons to Keep Your Ideas in One Place Look around your desk right now… Do you see anything that represents a great idea you had today… yesterday… last week or last month? One of the most common questions I get is, “Leslie, what do I do with this? It’s an idea I have about [fill in the blank].” You may have quite a few things around you representing ideas you’d LOVE to act on, either now or later, but don’t have a place to “park” them safely. Here
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Five Ways to Avoid Getting Side-Tracked So You Can Stay Productive There they are, staring at you at the end of the work day: the unfinished (or even untouched ) items on your to-do list. You may have been well-intentioned, but distractions got in your way. When this happens, it’s inevitable you’ll feel bad – and guilty – for not accomplishing what you set out to do. Here are five common distractions that can keep you from finishing your tasks and five ways to avoid them in
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You’re Still Responsible Even If You Can’t Find It, Didn’t Do It, or Forgot All About It Have you stopped looking at the paper accumulating on your desk? Are some of those piles becoming invisible? Are you hoping that if things build up enough you’ll be exempt from making decisions or doing certain tasks because they’ve expired or they’re buried and never to be seen again? Or maybe you know what’s important, because it’s all near the top of the pile, and you’d say you’re
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A client once told me her credenza was the “black hole” of information. She said she never looked “in there.” So, as a result, all of her most-referenced information was all over her desk, her credenza and other surfaces in her office. Is your file system the “black hole” for you too? Do you actually use your file drawers and cabinets or do you avoid them because there’s never really been a good system “in there?” Maybe all of your papers and files are camping out on your
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Why You’re Risking Peak Productivity and Progress by Using Ancient Tools “Following rigid organizational systems and living life driven by a day planner means you're operating with blinders on.” That’s a quote from an article written by Kate Lorenz of CareerBuilder.com, who was reviewing a book written by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman called "A Perfect Mess.” The book “claims to reveal the hidden benefits of being unorganized and cluttered.” Benefits of messy!?
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Why It’s So Costly to Expect E-mail Rules To Do Your Decision-Making for You I work with a lot of clients who use Rules in their e-mail system, but I recently worked with a client who had more Rules than I’d seen in a long time. While Rules seem helpful and efficient by instantly getting e-mails out of your Inbox and into specific folders, Rules can actually back-fire with regard to your time and task management efforts. You can lose much-needed data , miss follow-ups and
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