The Productivity Advisor

Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   This episode is  titled - Productivity Training. In this episode I discuss what to look for when looking for productivity training. Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why Set Goals?

Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   This episode is  titled Time Management Techniques. In this episode I discuss how we can manage time to achieve more. Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why S

Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   This episode is  titled Time Management Strategies. In this episode I discuss some strategies you can use to improve your time management. Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity  

An internet search for "what is time management" reveals 81 million results, so there is certainly a lot of interest in the subject.   A definition of time management is; Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity.   Let me start by asking you a question.   Is it possible to manage time?             Each of us, no matter who we are, how successful, famous or rich we are gets 24 hours or 1440 minutes in every day. Regardless of how much money, success or fame you have there is nothing you can do to change the amount of time you get.   As such it is impossible to manage time itself.   It may seem that I am being a bit picky but it's an important point.   The problem isn't time itself it's how we use it.   Infact I would go one step further and say it's how we view time that's key.   Reflect for a moment on the last thing you spent money on that you thought was poor value or too expensive - infact you regretted spending the money. How did you feel about that? You probably spent a bit of time thinking about the purchase and feeling cross about wasting money.   Now think of a typical working day. Like most of us you probably have to deal with your fair share of emails and meetings. These two activities take up the most amount of time at work.    Now let me ask you another question?   How angry did you get about the last meeting you attended that was a complete waste of time? How frustrated did you get about the emails you were copied into that were totally irrelevant to you?   How did you feel when these things happened to you? Did you feel resentful about the amount of your time that was wasted? If you are like most of us you were probably frustrated but that was about it and you probably didn't take action to stop the situation happening again.   When we take a look at this logically it doesn't make much sense does it? We will probably have money again - the money we regretted spending wasn't the last money we will ever have. However, we will never have the time again that was wasted.     Have you ever invested any money? Saved any money? Thought about how to get the most value from the money you have?   Have you ever done the same with your time?    No amount of time management training will help us unless we change the way we feel about time. this change in attitude will help us change how we use time and that's where things get really interesting.   If we start to think of time as an asset then we start to think about how to protect it, nurture it and use it wisely. We start to think about how we can best invest our time to get a return on the things that are most important to us.   Time is the most valuable asset we have.             Successful people aren't successful because they did some fancy time management training, or because they use an amazing task system. They aren't successful because they work more hours than everyone else. They are successful because they value their time above everything else and they choose where they spend it wisely.   They invest their time in the things that are most important to them.   In my view, time management should be renamed. It should be called "time investment". This would reflect the fact that time itself cannot be managed, but our appreciation of it's value can be managed and adjusted.  

Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why Set Goals? Achieving Your Goals and Objectives

If we think about someone who has good time management skills we might well think of someone who;   Is on time Is well organised Manages lots of things - they are busy Uses a to do list or program Works hard   All the things indicate that they are good at using time but does it mean they are good at managing time?           There is a growing culture of celebrating busyness.   People that work late, work harder and do more are celebrated. They are thought of as having more commitment to their work but is this perception right?   Using all the time you have available doesn't mean you have good time management skills. Infact I would argue it shows the opposite.   Being busy does not mean that you are productive. Sending emails and attending meetings all day often doesn't achieve that much. It's easy to be busy but not effective, even more so when we are under pressure to be "always on" and available.             In my experience good time management skills are shown by people who; Say no to things - last minute work and meetings for example Take regular breaks including a lunch break Decide what their most important activities/tasks are and do these first Avoid distractions Avoid multi-tasking Leave work on time or early   It's easy on first reading this list to think of the person as lazy. Infact so much in our lives tells us that the secret to success is to work hard and to never give up. Factory workers and manual workers certainly work hard but we don't always associate these types of workers with success do we?   We need to reprogram some of our beliefs about time management.   We need to understand the difference between busyness and productivity.    Time management skills are about changing how we view, value and use our time - they are not just about trying to get more done.  

Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why Set Goals? Achieving Your Goals and Objectives

Achieving Your Goals and Objectives   You may think that some sort of magic is involved in how to achieve your goals and objectives.   In this article I want to share; • Tell you the number 1 tip that will help you achieve your goals • Give you a recommendation for how to achieve your goals     Number 1 Tip for How to Achieve Your Goals and Objectives   You may, like me, have read “The Secret” and other books that talk about visualisation and asking the Universe for things to happen/change. That’s all fine and I believe this absolutely has a place and it's something I use myself.   Visualisation alone won't help you achieve your goals.   So let me tell you the number 1 tip that will help you make progress.   Time No goal will happen without time spent on it.   Visualisation is great to help attract more of what you are doing, but in my experience the universe doesn’t just hand everything to you on a plate without any action by you.   So if you are serious about making progress on your goals you need to find some time to take action.   Given that everyone’s schedule is really busy this is often the biggest challenge that my client’s find when it comes to working on goals.   How to Achieve Your Goals and Objectives Make time for goals and treat that time as sacred - you only give it up in extreme circumstances. Mark it in your diary so you know it's protected. Ensure you can work in a focussed and uninterrupted manner (check out how to be more productivefor lots of advice on this) Ideally try and make it the first thing you do either each day or as regularly as you need to. This means not only will you feel great, you will have made progress on the things most important to you. This makes the habit much easier to continue with. Brian Tracy sums this up perfectly in his book “Eat That Frog”. He describes the most important tasks as “frogs” and says you should eat one first thing each day.

 Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why Set Goals?

 Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why Set Goals?

Productivity is something we often hear about in the context of comparing which countries are more productive than others, but what does this actually mean?   In it's simplest definition productivity is a measure of the volume of output compared to the amount of input. It's all about how many hours people work and what they produce. This is the type of productivity we hear about on the news.   For those of us who aren't running large corporations productivity is a bit simpler. It's about what weachieve versus what we put into something. For small businesses and organisations what we put in is going to involve time (our time, employees time) and money (materials).   That sounds great but how do you actually measure productivity?   Well, let's start with what gets measured now.   In an article on Business.com entitled 14 Tools to Measure Employee Productivity there is a list of apps to keep track of what people are doing. These include apps to look at what tasks people are doing and apps to report back on what they did that day. That sounds pretty good, but here's the problem with that approach;   How do you know if people are working on the most important/productive/effective activities?   Think of the organisations and businesses you have been involved in and then think about what you did day to day?   How easy was it for you to link your activity to the big vision or strategic direction of the organisation? Were you able to see your progress?           Here are some things to be aware of when measuring productivity;   Time does not equal productivity. Being present in the workplace does not mean you are doing anything. Don't forget the highest viewing figures for pornographic material are between 9am and 5pm. Answering emails and attending meetings doesn't mean you are achieving anything, other than answering emails and attending meetings! it is easy to spend lots of time spinning our wheels but going nowhere. To measure productivity we need to know what we are trying to achieve. This is often the most difficult bit as this requires some planning, focus, objectives and goals. It's also hard to keep focussed on where we want to go when we have so many distractions, obstructions and diversions thrown in our way.   If you are still struggling with thinking about how to measure productivity then let's take a look at individual productivity in more detail.   Think of your most recent working day.   What did you do first? Why did you do that first? Was that activity the most important one in terms of what you are trying to achieve? How will you know you have succeeded in relation to what you are trying to achieve?   Let's take a look at a small business owner and see how they are doing in relation to the questions above.   What did they do first thing? Checked and answered emails   Whey did they do that first? Because that's how they normally start their working day   Was that activity the most important one in terms of what they are trying to achieve? They are trying to grow the business and work with some new clients so it doesn't fit with that objective.   How will they know they have succeeded in relation to what they are trying to achieve? Th

 Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why Set Goals? Achieving Your Goals and Objectives

How to Get Things Done   If you search the phrase "how to get things done" you will be met with 406,000,000 results (depending on your search engine of course!). In those results are all sorts of methods, programs, hacks, apps and systems to help you.   The articles promise that you will get more done.   Given that most of us are pretty busy already is the answer to getting things done to get more things done?   ​​   Does working harder achieve more?   Interviews with successful business people show that the opposite is infact true. These people aren't successful because they use a particular system for getting more work done. They aren't successful because they use some snazzy project management program or task app. It's not because they work longer than we do - they don't do 18 hours because that is impossible for anyone to sustain in the long term.   These people aren't successful because they more done than anyone else.    They are successful because they do less of the unimportant stuff and focus on the really important stuff.   They are successful because they look after themselves. They understand that they are the best asset they have for achieving what they want to achieve.   Getting things done for them is about getting the right things done, not trying to get everything done.   You might be reading this and thinking it's irrelevant to you because these people at the top of their game have an army of assistants to help them. Of course they do but that doesn't mean the same principles can't apply to you and I.     The thing that we have in common with successful people is time.   We have the same amount of time as they do each and every day.   Let's look at time for a moment and how we feel about it.   Imagine you booked a training course. You paid £100 to go because the topic sounded really interesting. When you got to the course it was pretty grim. The trainer asked the audience lots of questions but didn't give many answers. They also read from a Powerpoint slide most of the day. At the end you felt the £100 was wasted.   Now let me ask you a question. What are you more angry about - the £100 you wasted or the 7 hours of time that the course took?   We seem to think that time is abundant.   Someone who wastes an hour of our time doesn't incur the same level of anger or resentment as something that wastes £10 of our money, despite the fact that we will probably have another £10 in our lives.   So what is the point?   It's quite simple really.   When we think of how to get things done we need to think about what we are trying to achieve first.   Then we need to look at our time and think about how we can best use our time to achieve the results we want.   Infact it's even simpler!   We should treat time as an asset - not as a commodity.      

Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now!   Do you want to; Make more progress on the things most important to you? Stop becoming overloaded and overwhelmed? Achieve a better balance in your life? Get more things done without working harder or longer?   Fantastic!   You are in exactly the right place :)   Want to read some articles on productivity? Time Management Techniques Time Management Skills What is Time Management   How to Measure Productivity How to Get Things Done Organization Skills Perfect Your Planning Skills Productivity Improvement How to Improve Productivity How to Increase Productivity   Why Set Goals? Achieving Your Goals and Objectives

Productivity Improvement A great way to get a huge productivity improvement is to work when you are at your most productive and one of the most productive states to be in is the state of "flow". In this section we will look at; What flow is and how you can create the conditions for achieving it ​​ Flow Flow is the sensation of being so absorbed in something that you don’t notice time passing.   It’s absorbing, it’s magical, it feels great and it’s very, very addictive. It’s a truly fantastic way to become more productive, more effective and to get more done than ever before. Infact it's my favourite and number one of all the productivity tools I use! Think about our modern working environments. Workspaces are often shared, noisy, full of distractions and our workload is ever increasing with emails poring in all the time from people expecting immediate responses. We are all really busy but not always as productive as we would like to be. No wonder we are exhausted. There never seems to be time to think or to focus. Working in a state of “flow” is as much about creating the right conditions as anything else. Space and time need to be carved out so that you can work on one thing, at a time. Making space and time is often the hardest part, but single tasking and the state of “flow” that comes with it is more than worth the effort. I guarantee once you have experienced it you will want to do it again. To experience flow you need to find a way to work without being disturbed. This might be first thing in the morning, by closing your office door, by wearing headphones or by working from home. The key is to have no interruptions for around 45 minutes. Creating this time often requires some diary management and some boundary/expectation setting with your colleagues. Once you have experienced it you will want more of it because you will have experienced a big chunk of productivity improvement. ​​  Single Tasking Single tasking is also very calming. Once you have created the space and time all you need to do is focus on the task you are working on. You can give it your full attention, your full brain power and the benefit of your full insight and experiences. You will be surprised about how creative, resourceful and productive you will become. How can you set yourself up for success? How can you use single tasking to achieve a state of flow? Want to know more? Check out this great TED talk aboutflow and happiness.