This blog post is an answer to a question recently received from a reader, Rose K.

“I work two jobs, but one is on a computer all day. So because of access to the computer at work and not much time to work at home, I conduct my personal business online during my lunch hour. The problem comes in with my organizational system and carrying things back and forth and getting things filed (they are mostly piled until I can get to them.) Any ideas?”


Thank you, Rose, for your question. Yes, I have a few ideas for you.

First, let me add two tips that may help with your overall situation. I’m seeing more here than just an issue with carrying things between work and home and staying organized.

1. It’s really important to have a trusty file system at home in which you can drop things when you’re finished with them (unless you can toss a few).

I know in another e-mail to me you mentioned, “Once I get home [the papers] get shifted - eventually - from my bag , then to a file pile… which I never seem to get time to get rid of.”

So investing some time to get the file system at home organized and squeaky clean will make it a lot easier for you to dispense with papers once you get home and you can avoid letting things pile up. You want it to be SO easy to file that you never create a to be filed pile. The time invested up front will allow you more freedom in the future.

2. Reduce your bill-paying burden… and no, I don’t mean we can make the bills disappear. This is something I’ve recommended to both clients and friends… it’s setting up a special account at your bank just for bill paying where each bill is automatically withdrawn every month by the company billing you.

This is an account that always holds an amount covering all standard (read: not wildly fluctuating) bills that recur every month: electricity, heat, mortgage, rent, water, cable, phone, internet, car insurance, etc…

These are amounts that pretty much stay the same from month to month and as long as the special bank account has the total monthly amount available (and maybe a dash more for cushion), you won’t have to write checks or pay online or watch the calendar ever again. Plus, it will help you get crystal clear about what you’re paying for, when it gets withdrawn, and perhaps will give you a chance to consolidate, if the opportunity presents itself, or cut back if need be.

This could greatly help you reduce the amount of bill paying, paper carrying, and payment planning you might be doing. I’ve been doing this for at least 15 years and I’ve never once regretted setting it up. It has made my life SO much easier because I’m only thinking about one big account and not a dozen little individual bills to pay.

So with these two tips in mind, I’ll try to fulfill your original request for ideas. As you travel between home and work it sounds like you’re carrying a lot of stuff back and forth. So these are three different avenues you can take to stay organized.

Scenario #1
When you’re taking paperwork to and from home, only take what you can work on and complete at work that day. I realize that some issues and circumstances drag on past the first day you try to resolve them, but exclusive of those, try not to be over-zealous by taking everything you have to do when it can’t comfortably fit into one of your lunch hours. This will reduce the amount of things you’re hauling back and forth between home and work.

Or…

Scenario #2
Another approach would be to bring all of your personal papers and files into work that you want to work on for the week and leave them there in a file drawer. If you rarely, if ever, get to work on these papers at home anyway, they could stay safely locked up at work in a file drawer in your desk.

I recommend setting up a “Personal” file (or whatever you want to call it) at work in a desk drawer so you can reach for what you need when you need it. Then when it’s finished, toss it or take it back home and file it.

Also, you may want more than one file because “Personal” might be too big a bucket, so you can separate your papers according to major categories like finances/banking, insurance, health/medical, family (for fun, vacations, RSVPs, etc.), Home, and Bills to Pay. This is where an organized file system at home helps you too, because you can mirror the major file categories you have at home in your files at work.

And you may need other files in addition to or instead of these, but you only need a handful. Fewer is better here. Just be sure you can find what you need when you need it.

Oh, and for all you readers out there who have children, a category for them is handy too, for school, activities, hobbies, etc… Rose told me that she and her husband don’t have kids at home anymore, so that wasn’t part of the list of things she’s carrying back and forth. But for everyone else, it could be a helpful category to have.

Or…

Scenario #3
3. If you’re not comfortable leaving your papers at work, then purchase a portable, expandable file at Office Depot, Staples or other office supply retailer that has multiple dividers or pockets. You can use this to separate your papers according to the major categories already mentioned above.

Put a file name on each section according to the kinds of papers you generally carry back and forth and make it easy to find what you need when you need it. And again, mirroring the major file categories you have at home in this portable file is going to help – not all of them, only the ones you need.

Here are a few samples of what you can purchase to carry your papers between home and work…

I hope that gives you, Rose, and everyone else with a similar question, a few things to consider. I welcome additional questions and comments, so if you want to dig a little deeper into this, feel free to add your thoughts below.

Also, if you want the blueprint to get your papers and files organized, pick up my e-book that focuses only on getting organized. It’s for organizing your office, no matter where it is! Click here for more information or to order.

Today’s blog is an answer to a question I received recently from Sarah B. And since this is a question I get a lot, I wanted to answer it on my blog for others to read and understand how Taskology™ is intended to work.

Leslie,

I’m very intrigued by your system, but I’m wondering how Outlook based it is. While I have access to Outlook at work, I don’t have access to it when I’m not at work, so the Outlook system isn’t going to work for me. I have an iPhone, so I can use something like Wunderlist or the various other tools (Remember the Milk, Toodledo, etc). Is the system adaptable?

Thanks!!


Thank you for your question, Sarah. To begin with, there are actually two questions above: one is whether Taskology™ is Outlook-based and the other is about how adaptable the system is. I’m going to address each question separately, because they have separate answers.

The answer to the 1st question is that Taskology™ is not so much Outlook-based as it is “system-based.” Taskology™ operates more powerfully as a complete and total electronic system, no matter what e-mail system is being used, although I happen to think that Outlook is the most powerful tool out there. And even though all of the screen shots in the Taskology™ Home Study Program are from Outlook, if you can apply the same strategies to your technology and it works, that would be fine too.

But let’s talk about those other systems. After using many of them, I can see their limitations. While some of these have improved over the years, I chose to use Outlook because the other systems can’t do what Outlook can do. These are systems like Act, Smart Office, and Sales Force (which are CRMs) and Lotus Notes, Palm, Groupwise, Thunderbird, g-Mail and Entourage.

In any case, the kind of system I teach, support and recommend is one where E-mail, Tasks, Calendar, Contacts and Notes are all part of one system – connected and “talking” with each other – where you can move information back and forth between the “modules” with ease, speed and simplicity. Not only that, but you can also easily customize the screens in Outlook. All of these are things you cannot easily do in all the other systems.

Taskology™, when coupled with a system like Outlook, is one that allows you to empty your e-mail Inbox (without putting all of them in folders on the left – nope, that’s not it), as well as build a complete and total e-Task list (with tasks from everywhere, including e-mail) and keep all your other systems (like your Calendar, Contacts, etc.) accurate and up to date with the latest information from your e-mail and elsewhere.

This scenario is optimal as compared to other scenarios I see or hear about regularly. The first scenario is the one we’ve already covered, where someone is using a system similar to Outlook, but it’s limited.

The second scenario is where someone is using a fragmented approach, which begins my answer to the 2nd question of adaptability. This scenario is one where someone is using one app for their tasks (like the ones mentioned in the question above), plus a different app for their calendar (or maybe they’re using a paper planner), and they’re getting their e-mail from g-mail, and their contacts are partially in g-mail and partially on their phone. But nothing communicates or easily transfers any information between the parts.

Now even though I’m making up this random example, it’s based on true accounts I’ve heard from professionals over the years who’ve managed fragmented systems that don’t talk to one another. There’s little power in a set-up like this. It’s not a “system” approach that will support you or your optimal productivity. You’re making it harder on yourself to manage information and be productive and it doesn’t have to be that way.

And while you may have a couple modules connecting and able to transfer data, you’re still operating without a complete system. Additionally, if you can’t synchronize all your data with your smart phone or tablet, then you don’t have all your necessary information at your fingertips.

As a result, you may not have a tight grip on all your tasks and priorities, you’re not likely able to empty your e-mail Inbox with ease, or enjoy having all your critical information where you need it, when you need it. You might even be using two calendars, including a paper calendar… maybe one for work and one at home.

Now I realize that some of these kinds of situations may not be your fault. I know many people may have a computer at work, but don’t have a computer at home or if they have a computer at home, it doesn’t communicate with their computer at work. These are the types of scenarios I address in private 1:1 consulting and in some cases – because I’m not a technology expert – I refer out certain tech questions to help some people solve their specific tech roadblocks. In addition, I won’t even begin to speak to the limitations of your company server, what your home computer can or cannot do, whether or not you can dial into your company’s server from home, how you’re using your laptop, and more.

So let’s answer the 2nd question.

Is Taskology™ adaptable to fragmented systems or set-ups 100%? No.

But is Taskology™ adaptable partially? Can you take the strategies from each Taskology™ chapter and apply them to each part of your individual systems (like Calendar and Tasks) whether they communicate or not? Certainly!

We don’t have to be “all or nothing” about this and I do have a few clients today who use pieces of the system and apply them to their office and work day and make the best of their technology situation. The rest of my clients are able to use and benefit from Taskology™ in its entirety.

And you can apply pieces of the system, too. However, you’d be leaving about 30% of the power of Taskology™ on the table. And the parts that make up the 30% loss will be mainly in e-mail management, which will affect your task management and your time management.

The bottom line is that Taskology™ is not meant for fragmented systems and you’d have a hard time enjoying the maximum impact and benefits of the system without using Outlook or a similar system. This is what I want for you and that’s why I designed the system the way I did.

If you’re using the fragmented approach – a system here, a system there – which is not what I recommend, you won’t be able to use, apply and enjoy all of the benefits of Taskology™. You’ll only get about 70% of the total approach.

Lacking the other 30% will weaken and compromise your work day and therefore weaken your work day productivity and effectiveness, too. Because when all parts aren’t connected and working in tandem, a miss is as good as a mile.

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If you’re interested in maximizing Taskology™ using Outlook, get the system today or grab the individual e-books that will help you with certain aspects of your work day. Click here to see them all: Taskology™ e-books. Either way, you’ll be able to take your productivity to new heights and make your work day a whole lot easier!

When you were young, your parents told you to do a million things, right? I know my parents did. And I was the youngest, so my older sister chimed in a lot too.

I was used to all the “do this” and “do that” going on, but the joke was on me one summer when my parents bought me a T-shirt in Ocean City, MD when I was about 8 or 10. It said, “I never get lost because my parents always tell me where to go.” And I wore it for YEARS, all during which they laughed hysterically because they knew I didn’t know what it meant. (I look back on that and think… that is SO not fair!)

Anyway, when you’re a child it feels like you’re being directed all the time and while most of the directives are for the benefit of safety, they’re also for the benefit of learning and growing. And hopefully, as we grow up we become more “advised” by our parents and less “bossed around.” At least, that’s how I remember my teen years through my college years and beyond.

The advice I heard might have seemed like a broken record at the time, but it also had weight and meaning I had yet to discover. I look back and think, “Hmmm, my parents really did know what they were talking about!” (Imagine that!?)

These days, there are quite a few things both my sister and I recall hearing from our parents that are applicable to life and work today. The bits of advice we heard and the lessons we learned were little recipes for happiness and success, some of which had been passed down through the ages. It reminds me of the line: “What you learned in kindergarten is all you need to know.”

Maybe you heard this one as a child: “Eat your veggies or no dessert.” This one was common. “You won’t get dessert if you don’t finish your vegetables” or “No dessert if you don’t finish your dinner.” At other times I heard, “You can’t go out and play until you finish your chores” or “You can’t watch TV until you’ve finished your homework.”

If you heard these lines too – or some variation – what you likely took away was the message “dessert last,” which meant you needed to do what you had to do in order to do what you really wanted to do.

It’s a good message that reminds us that whatever we really want out of life, we must work for – or put some level of effort forth – first. The key to progress and reaching any goal you’ve set for yourself (or your job, career or business) is to be highly focused on what you need to do first before spending time on the things you really want to do.

If you spend much of your time doing only the things you’d rather do, instead of what you need to do to make progress, then you’ll have wasted one of the only real assets you have these days: time. And most of use can’t afford to waste any time. A lot of that lost time can commonly be lost to things like procrastination, perfectionism and avoidance without really investigating the reasons behind these behaviors.

And then, if that weren’t enough, finding the balance between doing what you have to do and doing what you want to do is where the struggle lies. But finding that balance is also where real happiness begins. It doesn’t have to be 50/50. It can be another ratio that works for you. But that’s the key: it has to work for you.

And you’ll know if the balance isn’t there… if it’s not working. If you’re working too much, you’ll feel out of energy, stressed, frustrated or overwhelmed. If you’re playing too much, when you really need to be working, your job, career or business may be suffering in some way.

To find more of the happiness and success you want, be clear on 3 things:

• You’re balance today. See if you’re out of balance one way or the other.
• Your goals for yourself, your job, your career and/or your business. Do you have too many or too few?
• Your first or next steps to reach each and every goal. Are you trying to achieve too much at once? Or are you suffering from procrastination, avoidance or lack of motivation?

Ultimately, my hope is that you discover your passion and you’re able to turn it into a revenue-generating job, career or business and then “working” each day isn’t a burden. But even if you still hold a day job, I hope it supports a passion you enjoy in the hours when you’re not working.

Either way, focus on first things first – making sure you’re productive and showing good progress – and then enjoy your “dessert,” whatever it may be.

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Ready to find your balance and get clarity on all you’re trying to accomplish? Check out Leslie’s Productive Day Power Hour or get a FREE 1/2 hour strategy session with Leslie to find out more. Apply today.

If you’re like most professionals today you have too much of everything except TIME. One of the heaviest loads to bear these days is e-mail. But even after getting too much to begin with, I find there are groups out there who are self-proclaimed “knowledge junkies” or “e-hoarders,” which is so interesting to me. Since when is more the solution to having too much?

I’ve recently read several articles about the pros and cons of hoarding information and e-mail. First of all, is there really a “pro” side to that? According to a few people’s comments on the subject – yes… surprisingly enough… But of course, I disagree. (No surprise there.)

Are the folks who delight in e-hoarding (minus the true spam) the ones who are afraid they’ll miss out on important breaking news or the latest discoveries? Or do they fear they’ll never find the information again, even though we have more access to information today than ever before in history? Or will they run out of ideas if they don’t collect as much as humanly and electronically possible?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do know that they don’t worry about space for all this e-hoarding because for them, space is not an issue. However, there are other potential pitfalls that can cost you such as…

• Decision-making avoidance
• Wasted time looking for things because the more you keep, the more you have to manage and sift through
• Confusion or overwhelm due to volume
• Lack of focus and being easily distracted
• Time spent (wasted?) on collecting and fancy filing rather than doing and achieving
• Lost opportunities from not appreciating, using or acting on what’s been saved

E-hoarders continue to collect, even though they may not even be able to read everything and still… they never turn the faucet off. How they have enough time to read, sort and process all this information, I don’t know. And how can they actually put it all to good use? I don’t know the answer to that one either.

Well, this I know: I’m here to assist you if you find yourself stuck in e-mail overload and never really wanted to keep that much! You may have suddenly realized you’re in too deep and see that it’s time to make a change. If that’s the case, I’m here to help if you’re most interested in…

• Keeping only what’s useful to you, both now and in the foreseeable future
• Processing your e-mail out of the Inbox so you can clearly separate the useful information and actionable tasks from the junk.
• Knowing that all reference information you need is exactly where it needs to be: organized and categorized in certain places such as an e-file system, in e-mail folders, in Contacts, on the Calendar, on an electronic Task list, etc…
• Freeing up time and space and using each on opportunities, projects and creating progress.
• Being less frustrated, overwhelmed or stressed out by all the information swirling around.
• And managing less and searching less and achieving more and living more.

Keep in mind, I’m not an advocate of deleting every e-mail. I never have been. A lot of my clients have to keep a lot (or all!) of their e-mail for a lot of reasons – mostly legal – and I understand that.

But my concern is for the professionals out there who have no obligation to keep all the information they keep, but are spending time organizing it in e-mail folders because they don’t know what else to do with it.

Another concern is for those who are keeping the flood gates open to even more information than they can ever possibly need, read or use.

And finally, there are a lot of professionals out there just passively leaving everything in the Inbox and that’s not where it belongs. The Inbox is an INbox. It’s not a file cabinet, address book or to-do list.
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If it’s time for you to lighten the load on your e-mail system and learn the secrets to leading your most productive work day, get started with a FREE 30-minute strategy session to determine how you can power up your productivity ASAP. Don’t wait – apply today.

My last post brought forth a wonderful comment from a reader who stood up for paper to-do lists and while I’m a firm believer in electronic task lists, I know there are many professionals who still use, love and rely on paper.

It’s no surprise to me that many people don’t actually get why an electronic task list is such a big deal. For me, task management – and the electronic task list I promote in Microsoft Outlook® – is the heartbeat of my system – Taskology™ – The Science of Getting Things Done. It’s my passion… and I’m passionate about productivity.

For you, I’m sure you’re thinking a list on paper is the same as one that’s typed up, right? Not the one I teach…

And because only my clients see exactly how I teach task management in Outlook using Taskology™ everyone else is in the dark. So let me shed a little light on this so it’s not such a mystery.

First, I have to mention that *I* don’t even like the default screens in Outlook, even though it’s my software of choice. What I *do* like is that I have the flexibility to move things around and that’s exactly what I do. Things come out and better features go in – without complicating it of course. What I teach is simple, logical and easy to use. It’s just not exactly what you see when you click on your Outlook Task list for the first time.

Second, I have to mention that I don’t teach project management. I teach task management. And while most systems, like Outlook, are set up to do both “project” and “task” management, I only teach task management because it’s driven by next action steps. Getting projects done are all part of Taskology™, of course, but we manage it from determining the first or next action step, while keeping final deadlines in mind.

And third, in Taskology™, tasks go on a Task list, not a calendar. A calendar is for scheduled commitments: meetings, appointments, calls, vacations – any personal or business commitment that’s scheduled. This can also include an appointment with yourself, too, if you plan to spend an hour working on something special. Otherwise, tasks go on a Task list.

Here’s my list of the 5 BEST reasons (out of many more, I can assure you) to use an electronic task list over paper. Even if you haven’t seen exactly how I teach what I teach, these alone are enough to make you drop paper like a hot potato and run.


1. You’ll only have one tool to manage for task management.
Paper lists don’t automatically mean you’re using just one tool to manage tasks. This is one of the things that can cause a lot of chaos and confusion. People often use way more than just one paper list including post-it notes, big pads, medium pads, little pads, legal pads, decorative pads, scraps of paper, spiral notebooks, the papers and files on your desk, your memory, your calendar and more. And just last week my client and I had a good laugh over the two lists of notes and reminders we found on her desk – one on a paper towel and the other on a napkin!

That’s a lot of places to look when looking for to-dos and believe me, I’ve seen my clients use all of these at the same time. Again, this is what can causes a lot of chaos and confusion. And my question to you would be, “How can you prioritize all of that?” You can’t really… but we’ll come back to prioritizing in a minute.

Using an electronic Task list will simplify your day and your task management because there’s only one place to look for everything you need to do, have to do, want to do and dream of doing. There will be no lost to-dos, reminders or deadlines because your list (when properly built and used) will be complete, accurate and up-to-the minute.


2. You’ll never have to write or re-write a to-do list on paper ever again.
Most professionals who use paper lists write one every day, every couple of days or several times a day. That’s wasted time right there. Not only that, but when things get crossed out, it can get messy and confusing. I’ve known many clients who’ve missed critical tasks because they were lost on a pad where the to-dos above and below it were crossed out, and with all the scratching out with pens and highlighters, what was between the lines got missed.

Using an electronic task list, you’re either checking tasks off or deleting them entirely, leaving your remaining list easy to see, easy to read, and easy to use.


3. You’ll always have a complete list.
Lists on paper are never complete. I’ve never seen anyone put everything all on one piece of paper or one list. So when you use a paper list, you’ll never have a total picture of everything you need to do because people don’t generally build them that way. And I’m not recommending that you do. It would be a nightmare.

Paper lists are typically going to be missing tasks like phone calls, e-mails actions, and the papers and files you use as reminders that are sitting on your desk. It could also be missing what you’ve written in your meeting notes, what’s in your memory or what’s already on other pads around your desk.

When this happens, you can easily miss a task, deadline or opportunity because it’s not all right in front of you, already planned and prioritized for today or future days.

Using an electronic Task list in the way I teach it in Taskology™ you build the list completely and entirely so you have a “Mission Control” of sorts where you have all the facts, all the tasks and all the power to choose what to do first, second and third. Plus, you get a really good sense of whether or not you’ve bitten off too much to chew! When it’s all in one place, you can really get a good view of everything so you can decide what to do and what not to do – or what to take off your plate.


4. You’ll have complete list of what you want to do and when.
A to-do list written on a paper typically has only the “what” – it’s what you’re going to do, what you plan to do or what you need to do. I’ve never seen anyone add an action date for every to-do listed on paper unless it’s in a planner and in that case, it’s already listed on the date you plan to take action.

If you’re using paper, you probably just write things down as they come out of your head. Doing the almighty “brain drain” is great, but you’re not actually planning when to take action. (Again, you can do this in a planner, but if you don’t get to it, you have to re-write it.)

Anyway, a lot of times, a list on paper straight out of your head is going to be a list for today or this week, but not much farther out. And if there are any big deadlines you have to meet, you may be capturing those, but they’re “due” dates. The list I teach is driven by “do” dates.


5. You’ll have a list you can easily prioritize and reprioritize all day, every day.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, to prioritize all of your tasks using a paper list. This makes it hard to stay on top of your priorities as your day changes, especially when emergencies and issues come up.

When you use an electronic task list, your target dates for action are your first level of priority. I also teach an additional level of priority when I teach Taskology™, but for now let’s just focus on the action date.

Your day will never be static and therefore your task list will never be static. Your Task list has to be flexible and easy to use so it can quickly change it with your ever-changing day. Outlook and Taskology™ allow you to do that very easily because when your day changes, it only takes a second to change the target date of action for a task if you want to move it forward. You don’t lose tasks, forget tasks or risk missing anything later.

Using an electronic task management approach allows you to keep a list of everything, one that’s accurate and up-to-date all the time, when built and used as directed – like a productivity prescription. And the ability to keep track of all of your tasks and quickly reprioritize are big benefits for today’s fast-paced business day.

That’s the question I got from a member of a live audience during a company training I did several years ago. I’ll never forget that question and not just because of her doubtful attitude, but also because I could tell she wasn’t really clear on what productivity was all about.

The truth is that she didn’t actually know what she was capable of. And by the way, I happened to know exactly where she was on the road to peak productivity and I knew she needed help, but she was shutting down and putting the brakes on no matter what.

But without getting organized and without putting simple, yet effective, systems in place for managing tasks, time, e-mail, electronic documents and more, she would have no idea what she was capable of or how much more productive she could really be.

I’ve found over the years that there are a few misconceptions about what greater productivity can really do for you. I’ve read about how some people stand up and defend disorganization, saying “messy is better!” But we all know how I feel about that.

More recently, a colleague of mine sent me a blog post that actually surprised me because I disagreed with most of what this productivity guru said about productivity… how we should toss out all the advice(!) And while I actually like this guy and I’ve even read one of his books (no, it’s not David Allen), the advice I read just got me all fired up.

Below is just one little statement from his post that I HAD to speak to:

“Toss productivity advice out the window. Most of it is well-meaning, but the advice is wrong for a simple reason: it’s meant to squeeze the most productivity out of every day, instead of making your days better.”

Totally not true in my opinion. It’s true that productivity is about completed product. In the manufacturing sense, more completed product out the door is optimal for factories or businesses that produce something tangible.

But that’s not what greater productivity necessarily means for humans in the professional world. Humans are not robots and while it’s nice to reach goals, complete tasks and get things done, there’s a bigger picture in mind. That big picture is about the quality of your work, the quality of your life and the fact that being productive means you get more time for you and the things you really want to do.

In my mind, I wrap productivity up with efficiency and effectiveness too. It’s not just about getting more done. It’s about getting the right things done faster and easier and with all the quality you can give.

So to this nay-sayer I would respond that I don’t tell everyone they have to get more done in their day – squeezing it so hard for all the completed product you can possibly get until you’re wiped out – although many bosses and leaders out there would like that. Instead, I promote being more productive so you can stay organized, stay on top of your game, and confidently pursue tasks and priorities of meaning and quality – both now and in the future – and do them better and more efficiently without any of the frantic, overwhelming feelings one might commonly feel.

Here’s my list outlining why you might want to stick with your plans for greater productivity and not toss it all out the window. I’ve included questions for each so you’ll check in with yourself and reflect on your own level of productivity.

1. You can enjoy more time

Greater productivity is meant to give you more control over your time so you can choose to do something else, whether related to your work or life. When you finish what you have to do, you should have room for what you want to do.


Are you in control of your tasks and time all the time and are you getting to what you really want to do each day?

2. You can do what you want

Greater productivity is meant to help you make sure you’re crystal clear on your priorities and help you hit them instead of losing them, missing deadlines on them and losing opportunities. A complete, electronic Task list can help you here. Relying on paper too much can cause confusion and leave room for error.

Are you always, 100% of the time crystal clear on your priorities and you’re not missing out on anything important to you?

3. You can find what you need

Greater productivity is meant to not only help you simplify, but truly get organized. Simplifying is only one part of the process, commonly thought of as “cleaning out” where there’s a lot of tossing going on. That’s only one part of the process of getting organized.

If you don’t organize what’s left into a simple, cohesive, logical and easy-to-use format, then you haven’t finished the whole process called “getting organized.” And not staying organized can greatly damage your productivity.

Can you find anything you need in your office and in your computer in 5 seconds or less every time?

4. You can move on

Greater productivity is meant to help you finish what you start. It’s not meant to have you start a million things and try to finish them all. It’s about making quality choices of what you’ll do with your time. It’s best to simplify what you start and be able to finish each endeavor in a reasonable amount of time (and hopefully these are your priorities) and not add SO much to your day that you’ll explode from all the pressure.

Disorganized professionals often have a lot of unfinished tasks piled up around them. This makes it hard to start new things and enjoy it because of the burden of unfinished business. Greater productivity can make your days a lot easier and a lot more efficient, allowing you to move on with peace of mind. If you already have too much going on and a lot of incompletes piling up, you could probably use a little productivity boost.

Are you finishing what you start and enjoy moving on? Do you feel on target most of the time or do you feel consistently behind the 8 ball?

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For more tips to tackle your biggest productivity challenges, be sure to read Leslie’s Articles and for personal coaching from Leslie, set up your very own Productive Day Power Hour and get started on your new productive path today.

Do you use an Inbox and Outbox in your office? I work with a lot of clients who do. And I don’t think anyone needs them. At least not anyone who’s seriously interested in staying organized, productive and clutter-free.

I’m all about simplifying. I want everyone to simplify where possible and the Inbox/Outbox on your desk is just one more set of places where you can simplify and boost your productivity at the same time, especially if you’re not using these boxes properly.

How do you know if you’re not using them properly? If you’re accumulating things in your Inbox/Outbox and they don’t move very often, you’ve broken the system of what “in” and “out” are really supposed to mean. All you’ve done is given things a place to stop and stall.

An “In” box is meant to bring things in. These things are not meant to live there. They’re meant to come in and go back out again. Same for the Outbox. Information is meant to go in and then leave your office… not camp out forever.

If you’re using your Inbox and Outbox properly, the good for you. This article is for everyone else out there who’s turned their In and Out boxes into “Accumulation Stations.”

Years ago, I remember working with a busy real estate client who had an Inbox on her desk anchored in place by a stack of papers and files about 5 inches high. As we were working together I realized she was using that “Inbox” for things she didn’t want to make decisions on.

You could be treating your Inbox the same way, where you glance at the information waiting for you, but then put it back in the Inbox… for later. But later never comes does it? And you’ve just created one more thing for your to-do list (“Clear out overflowing Inbox and Outbox”) and you might even have to set aside a chunk of time to go through it, when, instead, you could have addressed things the day they came in, avoided accumulation and now you could be working on your top priorities or out having fun instead.

Accumulation Stations will grow if ignored for too long and they can weigh heavy on your mind, even if you don’t think they do. If you avoid reviewing your incoming information, you’re avoiding the decision-making process. If you don’t make decisions on your information, what tasks are you ignoring? What priorities are getting buried? What opportunities are already lost?

Every time I see my clients fall into this trap, I tell them to consider letting the Inbox and Outbox go for several reasons:

1. Changing your environment helps you create more productive thinking, habits and routines.

2. If you define an area – a specific spot on the way to the door – on your desk for outgoing information and you take things out every chance you get, you can just enjoy the open space on your desk without an Outbox.

3. If you define an area – a specific spot – on your desk for things that need decisions, that’s WAY more important than defining a space for incoming information and you’ll be more apt to allow time in your day to make those decisions.

4. When you commit to making decisions as soon as something shows up – or at least within the same day – you won’t lose things, information or opportunities, or hold on to too much “stuff.”

Choose “spots” on your desk for incoming and outgoing information – ones you can commit to and never deviate away from. If others ask where to put things, tell them to put stuff in a certain location on your desk or elsewhere or they can hand it to you if you’re there.

When you’re not in your office, people can put things on your chair or anywhere you direct them to. All you have to do is tell them where. And these are just a few popular choices. You decide what you want to see and do and then stick with it. Use it, trust it, and create a routine around it.

The benefits include your ability to enjoy making decisions faster and free up time to spend on priorities or personal time without feeling walled in by accumulating mail.

Yes… there’s a whole industry out there for Inboxes and Outboxes. But you don’t have to buy into them.

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If you’re interested in learning how to master your information and enjoy the freedom of working without “Accumulation Stations” in your office let me know. Taskology™ can help. Get started today.

Do you use Google Docs to find your e-documents and files? Does it work for you?

I actually don’t believe it’s the solution for one of my clients, who regularly uses it to try to find documents in his computer. I know it’s a great software, so I’m not knocking it at all. I just know it’s not the solution for his particular situation since he recently said to me, “Leslie, I’m not finding things fast” and “I’m lacking the confidence that I have what I need and know where to find it.”

And, by the way, this leads him to keep dozens and dozens of documents open on his computer, minimized at the bottom of his screen. Most are not saved and if anything ever happened to his computer, he could lose them. And even if they were actually saved, he still couldn’t find them in his document library because it’s not organized.

If you’re wondering why he’s a client and still in this predicament, it’s because this is the next step in his training and we’ll be moving forward this fall. While we’ve been working on all the other parts of his productive work day, I’ve been hearing about how this part isn’t working and I wonder if a lot of professionals out there are struggling with the same issues and find that Google Docs can only do so much.

Like my client, you can end up wasting more time on a continuous basis, when you could easily – with a little time invested – just get organized and alleviate then entire process of having to search. The anxiety of not finding what you need can cause lack of confidence and more wasted time – time you could have invested up front to get organized and stay that way with an e-document system you can count on.

Here’s what’s happening with my client…

He runs a search for a specific key word and while the search is instantaneous, it brings up 2,900 e-mails, 1,400 files, and 65 web pages. Ugh. OK, then he adds another key word or two to narrow it down. Then it brings up 275 e-mails, 282 files, etc… Much better, but still… a LOT of information to sift through. And that takes time.

When he’s looking for something recent and can find it at the top of his search list, he says it’s a blessing. But more often than not, he’s looking for something from several months ago – maybe even 6 months ago – and then finding it is impossible in a short amount of time.

So then what does he do? He turns to his colleague, 10 feet away in the same open office area, and asks her for it. Never mind that she was probably in the middle of something else, focusing on one of her own tasks.

He says “she’s amazing.” Well, she is! And not just because I’ve already worked with her. Now her system is air tight and she can find anything he needs anytime he needs it. Unfortunately, he’s now taking up her time to find what he needs.

And what if his colleague is not there or she’s in a meeting or on the phone? Then what? Then he calls someone else – someone who had a hand in creating or sending the document – and who is likely to be able to produce the document for him quickly. Now he’s taking up their time too. And my client tells me that if it’s his lawyer he calls, who charges by the hour, then he’s just cost himself and his company additional money to find that document.

In the end, whenever my client gets the document he asked for, what if it’s actually not the document he wanted? Does he go back to the person and have them look again?

Do you see how much time this is costing and how much of a waste it is when you can just get your library of documents organized from the start and have a system in place that’s simple, logical and easy to use? And then you never have to search for anything ever again. There would be no need! You would just go to your documents list and click on the folder you want and get the document you know is there. Easy-peesy. I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t want that? Maybe you can tell me…

If you’re out there searching endlessly for your e-documents and you’ve had enough, grab a copy of my e-book The Computer Clutter Cure and get started today. Save more time and find exactly what you need when you need it. The time you invest will be far less than the time you’re spending now if you’re experiencing anything close to what my client is experiencing today.

I recently read a blog post about happiness and productivity and while its age is a little older, dating back to 2007, its message will still the test of time and ring true for decades to come. I loved it. It was written by Chief Happiness Officer, Alexander Kjerulf.

What I love about his post is that he’s 100% right. If you’re not happy with what you do, day in and day out, no amount of productivity consulting will help you skyrocket your productivity. But if you love what you do, the sky’s the limit on what you can pursue, do and achieve.

Isn’t it true that when you don’t love what you do you can waste all kinds of time? You might procrastinate, get easily side-tracked and multi-task to keep your day interesting? You can invite interruptions, be careless with time and follow every little distraction… again, to keep it interesting.

But if you love what you do and you’re a clear achiever, but you struggle a little with task, time or e-mail management – or your paper piles are sky high and you can’t find anything – then a productivity improvement system and strategy can absolutely help you. Since you’re already in love with what you do and you’re passionate about your mission, the productivity piece can often be just a roadblock that can easily be removed, given the right guidance.

When you get up in the morning, leaping out of bed because you’re still interested and excited about what you do and what you’ll do that day, you know that whatever is getting in your way – whether that’s lack of productivity or something else – you can fix it. You can conquer it. You can make it disappear because you are serious about your progress and success. It’s a matter of focus and giving your energy to overcoming it and moving on. You know you don’t have to let it stand in your way.

And one final note… in the past 8 years of helping people and teaching them my system for productivity, now called Taskology, I’ve worked with two individuals who, after the consulting/training, discovered that it wasn’t their lack of productivity or disorganization holding them back. It was that they didn’t like what they were doing. One left her job shortly thereafter! It was fascinating to me and I was glad to help reveal the fact that a new direction was needed. The process itself uncovered her unhappiness and once that happened, she was able to move forward to a new position or job that could bring her more happiness and fulfillment.

So how do you know where you stand?

Do a little self-reflection. If you were more organized and more productive, what could you be doing? Besides getting more time for yourself personally to spend with friends, family or doing hobbies, would you be more excited about your work day? Would you be anxious to get started on the next project that’s been waiting for you for months? Or would you still lack motivation and inspiration and feel the drudgery of what you do each day? That is the question.

If you’re completely and utterly thrilled with your job, career or business and you still struggle with disorganization or lack the amount of productivity you know you’re capable of, I can help. Visit the products page or the consulting page of the Productive Day site to find out how.

And if you want to read Alexander Kjerulf’s post, here you go. Enjoy!
Top 10 Reasons Why Happiness at Work is The Ultimate Productivity Booster

Here’s to your productivity and success!

I recently worked with two clients who greatly respect the time of their office visitors and callers, but not their own. This is true for many of my clients. Is this true for you too?

For instance, let’s take my client Bob. When a visitor is standing or sitting in his office, Bob doesn’t pick up the phone out of respect for the visitor and the discussion they’re having. That’s great. But when Bob’s alone and the phone rings, he’s sure not to miss the call.

My client Nancy is not all that different. She has the same regard for visitors and callers and when she’s alone, she, too, picks up the phone without hesitation. And without caller ID, she risks getting stuck with a caller she wasn’t really interested in talking with.

Do you experience the same situations? Do you feel the same away about answering the phone?

Well, if you’re wondering what the problem is, it’s that each of my clients have been missing out on the golden opportunities of time to finish what they started. They may think they’re being efficient by just getting the phone now so they don’t have to return a call later, but at what cost?

They’re not honoring their own tasks and priorities and they’re caving to the priorities of others. When the phone rings, it’s saying, “Answer me! Pay attention to me!” and then you pick it up. It’s just like e-mail. These interruptions are mostly (not always, but mostly) someone else’s agenda. Not yours.

To my clients, here is the hierarchy of what they see as most important:

1. Office visitors
2. Callers
3. Their own time

I know you’re busy. I know there’s a lot going on. And I know you’re waiting for updates from other people. But unless the calls you’re waiting on are bringing in a huge chunk of revenue, it can wait the short span of time for you to get the voice mail and call them back. Your attention on a particular task or project is SO important. I really encourage everyone to finish what they start when possible. And it is possible.

I’m not saying to do this all day, every day. I’m saying when you choose to work on a special project or a weighty task that needs your undivided attention for ½ hour or an hour, ask yourself if it’s really necessary to pick up that phone and interrupt your train of thought.

It’s no different if you had gone to a meeting, weren’t in that day, went to the dentist or you stepped out to get lunch. So before you start working on that next task or project decide ahead of time if you’re going to allow the phone to command that you pick it up. You don’t do it when you have visitors. And aren’t you just as important as they are?