Do you write or review documents? Keyboard shortcuts can make your life easier, and even if you are already a fan, there may be some you have overlooked. It’s useful to review them every so often to find one or two that will save you lots of time. First, You Might Have to Move the… Continue Reading
One way to avoid general confusion (not to mention social loafing), is to clarify who will do what on a project. I know, this is the most obvious possible thing, but you might be surprised how often even senior people forget to make this happen. When people are working at a distance, on national or… Continue Reading
It might sound counter-intuitive, but taking breaks helps with productivity. If we set aside some time for rest and renewal. For getting away from external demands… This is obviously good for us. It doesn’t have to take a long time, or be far away. Even part of a sunset will do. Just one way to… Continue Reading
When groups of people work together to complete projects, one of the dangers is a pesky phenomenon called “social loafing.” Not Quite Working Together in a Motivated Way Social Loafing. When people are working on a group project, there’s this all-too-human tendency to slack off—to invest less effort than when working alone. In studies, people… Continue Reading
Do you ever notice that multiple messages about something you should be paying attention to start showing up at the same time? A Time for Every Purpose In the past few weeks… I finished The Power of Habit, and decided to tackle my recent slide into staying up late and therefore, not getting enough sleep.… Continue Reading
Habits are simple, but not so simple. According to Charles Duhigg, habits are a) powerful forces in our lives (for good or not good) and b) changeable. Habits have three parts: A cue (like the thought I have when I’m driving somewhere that frozen yogurt might be just the thing right now) A routine (stopping for… Continue Reading
Every once in a while, I write about taking breaks to be more productive. (This is probably because I sometimes forget to take breaks, and then I eventually feel like somebody glued me to my chair.) Not so long ago, I saw an article about a study where the most productive people in a particular… Continue Reading
So, we had this project with a tight timeline. And then the start of it was delayed. However, the end dates did not move, so the timeline was even tighter. On top of that, because of shifting the start date, this project landed right on top of other priorities. Enter a string of long days.… Continue Reading
It’s not so unusual for people in a meeting not to be sure where they are going or how they’re going to get there. Here are two considerations that we should make sure are clear. What are the next steps? Where do they lead? 1. Why are we talking about this? I used to go… Continue Reading
Q: When is procrastination our friend? A: When we work on one useful project while avoiding another. For example, you finish your geometry homework while avoiding writing a book report. (However, you still have to write the book report.) Project as interesting as watching paint dry? Take a pause and keep after it. The rest… Continue Reading
