More Little Pearls of Wisdom to Keep You Out of Productivity Peril
It’s time for more Productive Day Proverbs for the busy professional. I hope you enjoy and remember some of these concepts as you speed through your business day. If only I could give out speeding tickets for those of you who try to go too fast through your work day… 
1. All that glitters is not gold
Are you getting caught up in the buzz of what the latest and greatest guru is doing? And what about those Facebook posts, YouTube videos, “how to” tele-classes or Tweets from Twitter? You’ve heard of the bright,shiny object syndrome, right?
Collecting new information is great, but getting things done is greater. Focusing on your progress is just as important, if not more important, than constantly following what others are doing. There has to be a balance of learning and the application of learning.
You’ll lose time and revenue by chasing after the bright, shiny objects all the time if you’ve not done the work you need to do to prioritize them and keep your business moving forward. It’s important to continuously create products, add services and create more opportunities for people to connect and work with you.
Then I got to thinking. What happens to you when you underestimate or overestimate how long it will take to do something at work? What happens when you forget to allow for travel time when you have to go to meetings off-site? What if you procrastinate on something because you think a task will be a long, arduous one, when really, it was only a 5 minute task?
2. A stitch in time saves nine
Invest time each day and each week to keep your systems in tip-top shape by reviewing and processing the new information that appears, when it appears, rather than reviewing it all over again much later. I call this the “pay as you go” program. These systems include your calendar, contacts, tasks, file systems and more. Keeping up now, while things are fresh in your mind,will keep you from paying later – in time, frustration and stress.
3. Make hay while the sun shines
If you let your desk or your inboxes (e-mail, voice mail, and snail mail) build up without identifying great ideas or opportunities, you could be missing out on a lot.
When cut hay doesn’t get bailed while it’s dry and the sun is shining, it can get rained on and then the crop is ruined. Similarly, when your desk or your Inboxes pile up or back up, you might find yourself dumping or deleting sizeable chunks of information that sat for far too long because you didn’t take the time to make a decision and now you just want it all gone.
You might have had some golden opportunities in there, but you didn’t really look, so now you don’t really know. Process information as it comes in – or soon thereafter – and you’ll never miss out on anything.
4. Haste makes waste
Are you skipping over e-mails you don’t think are important right now? I just read an online article from the New York Times about how a guy out in California almost missed out on a $1.3M deal from someone who offered to buy his Internet start-up company through e-mail. He missed it because his e-mail Inbox was completely overloaded and he was entirely too distracted by all the other technology he uses every day. What a waste that would have been!
Take time to read and review your incoming e-mail or risk losing valuable opportunities. Make decisions on the spot about how information is useful to you and then you can move it along, out of your Inbox. I time my clients. It takes 60 seconds (or less) to stop, read and make a decision. I suggest you try this too.
5. The straw that broke the camel’s back
A little, last-minute emergency or issue when you’re over-committed and under-prepared can break your stride in productivity, motivation and success. No issue should break your progress unless your systems were weak to begin with.
Broken progress can be prevented when you have strong systems in place, namely a strong Task list in Outlook! Then you can quickly and easily compare your new emergency with your existing plans for the day and for the week. With a solid Task list in Outlook, you can make informed decisions about what your priorities are and if necessary, you can redistribute tasks for another day or enlist the help of others. A strong, comprehensive Task list will help you avoid forgetfulness, things slipping through the cracks and lost opportunities.
