The Productivity Advisor show

The Productivity Advisor

Summary: Helping you to achieve more by doing less

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 How to Improve Productivity | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:03:15

How to Improve Productivity If you want to know how to improve productivity a simple way is to use your diary as a productivity tool. Scheduling time strategically and grouping activities together is a great way to become more efficient and to get more done. A simple way to do this is to utilise your diary and plan days when you are in your office and days when you are out (or half days if this works better for you). ​​ There are two main advantages to scheduling your diary in this way; Firstly you set yourself up for being focussed on the days when you are working from your office (or home office). Simply knowing that you are going to be there enables you to schedule in some of the important work you want to focus on and knowing that you have a half day or day to focus will help you settle down and make progress. You will naturally start becoming more productive.   Secondly, scheduling being out of the office for a day or half a day in one go means you are not having to switch your thinking from focussed to listening. You can relax and pay attention to whoever you are with because you know you have some focus time coming up to work on the things most important to you. This will help you be more productive. This technique sounds so simple, and perhaps obvious, that it may not even sound like a technique. Don’t let that put you off trying it. This technique is very effective because it helps your mind shift to where it needs to be more quickly and easily. The most difficult thing about using this time management tool is the discipline of arranging your time in this way.  There will often be pressure to try and squeeze meetings and activities in when you plan to be in your office. When this happens you need to make a decision if the benefit of what you are being asked to do is worth changing? Can you move your focus/office working time to elsewhere in the week? Whatever you do try not to lose your office/focus time completely. Moving it around now and again is fine and of course it doesn’t have to be the same time each week.   Think of it as protected focussed working space and time.   To make this technique easier to use start slowly and build up. Perhaps you need to start with a half day of office/focussed time?    

 How to Improve Productivity | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:03:15

Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! How to Improve Productivity If you want to know how to improve productivity a simple way is to use your diary as a productivity tool. Scheduling time strategically and grouping activities together is a great way to become more efficient and to get more done. A simple way to do this is to utilise your diary and plan days when you are in your office and days when you are out (or half days if this works better for you). ​​ There are two main advantages to scheduling your diary in this way; Firstly you set yourself up for being focussed on the days when you are working from your office (or home office). Simply knowing that you are going to be there enables you to schedule in some of the important work you want to focus on and knowing that you have a half day or day to focus will help you settle down and make progress. You will naturally start becoming more productive.   Secondly, scheduling being out of the office for a day or half a day in one go means you are not having to switch your thinking from focussed to listening. You can relax and pay attention to whoever you are with because you know you have some focus time coming up to work on the things most important to you. This will help you be more productive. This technique sounds so simple, and perhaps obvious, that it may not even sound like a technique. Don’t let that put you off trying it. This technique is very effective because it helps your mind shift to where it needs to be more quickly and easily. The most difficult thing about using this time management tool is the discipline of arranging your time in this way.  There will often be pressure to try and squeeze meetings and activities in when you plan to be in your office. When this happens you need to make a decision if the benefit of what you are being asked to do is worth changing? Can you move your focus/office working time to elsewhere in the week? Whatever you do try not to lose your office/focus time completely. Moving it around now and again is fine and of course it doesn’t have to be the same time each week.   Think of it as protected focussed working space and time.   To make this technique easier to use start slowly and build up.

 How to Increase Productivity | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:04:16

How to Increase Productivity Do you want to know how to increase productivity? One very simple way is to stop multitasking, but before you do that let me ask you two questions; Doesn’t it feel great to be doing several things at once? Don’t you feel like you are getting more done? Well you may feel like you are getting more done but the science shows you most probably are not. Multitasking does feel good. It switches on the happy receptors in our brain. However, it’s definitely not the most productive or efficient way to work. Infact research shows it's the least effective way to get more done! The problem is to do with “switching time”. That’s the amount of time your brain needs to change tasks. Sometimes this can be seconds, sometimes this can be minutes. One study found that respondents needed 20 minutes to get back into their focussed working after being disturbed by a phone call for example. So while we are busting myths let’s bust the one that says women are better at multitasking than men. They are. That’s because women need less time to “switch” between tasks than men. However, multitasking is still not productive overall. That’s because it’s requires lots of energy. The brain uses more energy than the rest of our body and by changing tasks frequently we are making our brains work very hard. That’s why we are often left feeling strained and tired after extended periods of multitasking. Multitasking can also lead to mistakes and errors How many times have you had to go back over something and correct it because you didn’t give it your full attention first time for example? In an age where we are under increasing pressure to do more and more multitasking seems like a great answer – just do more things at the same time to get everything done. However, if you want to be effective at work, complete more tasks right first time, do your best work and avoid feeling “frazzled” then you need to move away from multitasking and move to single tasking. Single tasking is a great time management technique, helping you to become more productive at work and also be more effective. The hardest thing about this technique is giving up the happy feeling that we get when we multitask. This technique also requires constant vigilance – it’s easy to relapse and before you know it you are checking emails whilst on the phone and not paying attention to either. Here's how to move from multitasking to single tasking; Look at your schedule and see if you can slot in some time for working on one thing at a time – single tasking. Notice how this feels and build on that experience. Monitor your multitasking and aim to reduce it gradually until it’s at a minimum. Be realistic – this is not a technique you can employ overnight.  

 How to Increase Productivity | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:04:16

 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

 Goals in Life | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:04:07

Goals in Life When we think of goals in life we often think of people being successful, achieving things and making progress. The stories we hear about goals often seem like success came overnight, or at the first attempt. For most of us the experience is very different. Failure – it’s the other “F” word isn’t it? One we don’t like to be associated with. Failure makes us think of losers, and no one wants to be a loser do they?   In this episode I want to: Learn about some people we associate with success, who experienced plenty of failure first Encourage you to see failure as part of the journey to success   Famous Failures Let’s think of some famous people who we often think of as successful but who actually encountered failure first. I actually prefer to think of their "failure" as part of their learning journey. • Walt Disney • Steve Jobs • Albert Einstein • Michael Jordan • Sylvester Stallone A bit of an eclectic bunch I know. Here’s some things you might not know about them. • Walt Disney was sacked from one of his early jobs for “lacking imagination”. • Steve Jobs was sacked from Apple because of his unorthodox approach and poor management skills. • Albert Einstein was told he was too dumb to amount to anything. • Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team. • Sylvester Stallone had a speech and facial movement impediment due to complications when he was born. At one stage of his life he was so poor he had to sell his dog. All of these people learned something from these experiences and used this learning to help them succeed with their goals in life. There are many more people that could be on this list. You may have heard the phrase “we only learn when we fail”. One of my favourites is “the man who has never failed has never tried anything”. Psychology Today explains it perfectly in their article called “Failure is Good”. Lessons from Failure It can often be hard reflecting on the things that didn't go as planned because the situation could involve disappointment and that's not nice to think about. However, I would urge you to push past that and try to reflect on your experience a bit more dispassionately. Whilst this is hard initially the more you do it the easier it becomes and then something interesting happens. You start to see failure, not as failure, but as a learning experience. At this point you start to see the benefit in a situation, even if it didn't quite go to plan. By reflecting on events in such a way you gain something from them instead of feeling that you "wasted your time". This is tough to do and takes time and commitment but it's hugely rewarding if you stick with it. Remember working with goals in life is as much about the journey as anything else so make sure the journey is as rewarding and beneficial as the goal.  

 Goals in Life | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:04:07

 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 Goals and Shiny Projects | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:02:41

Achieving Goals Achieving goals takes time, effort and focus. In this episode I want to; Share a way to stay focussed on what is important and avoid what is not. Achieving Goals and Shiny Objects Magpies have a reputation for taking a liking to shiny objects. Do you like shiny objects, or should I say projects? Do you get excited when something new, different or innovative comes along and want to get involved. It's easy to get involved in lots of great projects, that involve working on fantastic things and with fantastic people. Wherever you go people want you to get involved in things. Saying yes to everything is an easy way to being overwhelmed but more importantly it can also lead you away from your goal. Before you know it your time is filled up with other people's projects, urgent things that you are helping out with, things you are volunteering with and much more. All of a sudden you wonder where all your time and energy went and you gradually start to become frustrated that you aren't working on what's important to you. This can lead to resentment which can come out in all sorts of ways. Here's my killer tip to avoid getting distracted. Every time you are asked or tempted to work on something ask yourself the following question; How will doing this get me closer to my goal? It’s so simple but very effective. Using this question will stop you getting sidetracked and moving away from what’s important to you. Just to be clear I’m not suggesting you turn down everything that comes your way, far from it. What I am saying is that you should be clear about how the activity links with your direction of travel. Not everything you say yes to will link directly in with your goals, and nor should it always have to. However, asking this question each time gets you to weigh up the options and make a decision either way and avoids the build up of resentment and frustration.  

 Achieving Goals and Shiny Projects | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:02:41

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

 Achieve Goals and Enjoy the Journey | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:03:58

Want a free program to help you achieve more by doing less? Check it out now! Achieve Goals Working to achieve goals involves choices. Every day you will be making choices and decisions about things to do, things not to do and much more besides. In this episode I want to share; • Why working to achieve goals involves choices • A tip for making the the work to achieve goals more enjoyable Working to Achieve Goals Involves Choices Goals are great at helping us move in a certain direction of travel. Often when working to achieve goals we need to make choices about what we do and what we don’t do. Even making time to work on goals can often mean that we need to stop spending time doing something else, possibly something we enjoy. Here's where people often go wrong when working with goals; They clear out their diary of everything they enjoy to make time to really focus on their goals. Whilst this sounds great it can only realistically be done for a short time. Doing this type of intense goal work and excluding things you enjoy leads to resentment. This will eventually slow or even stop your progress on goals. The best approach is to ensure a balance. Great ideas and breakthroughs often come when not focussing on something. Have you noticed how you often get a valuable insight into something while doing something else - gardening, walking, in the shower etc? It's during these times that are brains get the "space" they need to think about key issues, questions or challenges. People who are most productive take regular breaks and time away from work - if you are working to achieve goals you need to do the same. Sometimes when we work on a goal we realis

 Achieve Goals and Enjoy the Journey | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:03:58

Achieve Goals Working to achieve goals involves choices. Every day you will be making choices and decisions about things to do, things not to do and much more besides. In this episode I want to share; • Why working to achieve goals involves choices • A tip for making the the work to achieve goals more enjoyable Working to Achieve Goals Involves Choices Goals are great at helping us move in a certain direction of travel. Often when working to achieve goals we need to make choices about what we do and what we don’t do. Even making time to work on goals can often mean that we need to stop spending time doing something else, possibly something we enjoy. Here's where people often go wrong when working with goals; They clear out their diary of everything they enjoy to make time to really focus on their goals. Whilst this sounds great it can only realistically be done for a short time. Doing this type of intense goal work and excluding things you enjoy leads to resentment. This will eventually slow or even stop your progress on goals. The best approach is to ensure a balance. Great ideas and breakthroughs often come when not focussing on something. Have you noticed how you often get a valuable insight into something while doing something else - gardening, walking, in the shower etc? It's during these times that are brains get the "space" they need to think about key issues, questions or challenges. People who are most productive take regular breaks and time away from work - if you are working to achieve goals you need to do the same. Sometimes when we work on a goal we realise it's no longer important. The problem many people have is stopping working on the goal when they realise this. They feel they have "wasted" their time. Try and pick up on the signs and stop working when you feel any resistance, resentment or procrastination. Reflect on what the issue is. If the goal isn't important then work on something that is. That's a great result. Rewards Whilst Working to Achieve Goals The danger of working with goals is that you put your focus and attention on the outcome. This is dangerous for a number of reasons; You are postponing your happiness until a later date. Why not enjoy the journey and be happy now? You miss the learning along the way - achieving goals is as much about the journey as the destination. The focus of your goal can be so narrow that anything other than that exact thing can feel like failure. Try to avoid these pitfalls and enjoy the journey along the way. A simple way to enjoy the journey and stay motivated is to enjoy a reward or two while you work towards your goal. Look at some of the key steps in your goal and decide on an appropriate treat or reward for yourself when you achieve the step. This will keep you motivated to keep going.  

 Emails and Devices | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:05:40

Emails and Devices Here’s my number one tip for anyone looking for a simple, quick, easy and effective way to boost their productivity.  It’s devilishly simple but requires nerves of steel to implement initially, although once you get through the first couple of days you will find it very easy to keep going with.   From a productivity point of view there are lots of reasons why checking your email first isn’t a great start to the day.    Here’s a few;   1. Checking your email first means your “agenda” for the day starts to be set by what is in your inbox. These messages are from others, so by doing your emails first you are letting your priorities be set by others. 2. Checking your email first means you aren’t starting work on the most important task/objective you have set for that day. Once you have looked at your emails it’s very difficult to put all that information to one side and focus on what’s really important. It will also be much harder to achieve that ideal state of flow where you are much more productive too. 3. Doing your emails first also sets an expectation that you will deal with emails before anything else, this gives a subtle sign to others about your priorities and also leaves you more likely to suffer from people contacting you with things that are urgent or last minute. It’s the thin edge of the wedge.If you are already feeling panicky that the world will end if you don’t check your emails first thing I suggest easing you into this technique slowly.   Here is how to implement it.   a. Pick a day where you will not do your email first thing. Just try it once for now so you can see how it feels. Be specific about the day – Wednesday is better than next week for example b. If you currently deal with lots of urgent emails set an auto reply message that says you will be checking your emails after 11am and if anything is very urgent to telephone you instead. If you are worried about having lots of phone calls don’t worry too much, I’ve never had one yet since I implemented this technique and that was 5 years ago. c. Be clear about your most important task/objective for the day and get everything you need to start work on it so you are ready. d. When it comes to the day you have set aside to try this technique don’t even open your email folder/service and turn off all notifications, bings, beeps and other sounds that hail an email landing. e. Enjoy the peace and the productivity and work for around 90 minutes f. Spend a few moments thinking about how it felt to work in this new way g. Get your diary out and plan in more sessions of not doing your email first.   This technique is often the hardest for people to start but one of the easiest to continue with because of the huge difference it makes.   Do you have email on your phone, your tablet, your laptop and maybe even your Apple watch?This type of constant connectivity is a killer when it comes to being productive. Being constantly aware of emails coming in and responding to them means you never get to focus on what’s important to you and you also never get any of that valuable thinking and reflecting time.   You may feel I am being unduly hard on emails with these bonus tips. It’s not just me. A recent study concluded that emails may be one of the biggest barriers to UK productivity and all sorts of companies are utilising new ways to communicate as a result.The danger of having email on all your devices is you are always available. This signals to your colleagues and co-workers that it’s OK to contact you anytime because you will always get the message.   To boost your productivity you need to take control of your emails.    Here’s how to implement this; 1. Have email only on certain devices. For example I don’t have email on my phone or my IPAD, it’s only on my c

 Emails and Devices | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:05:40

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

 Strategic Scheduling - Working in Flow and the Importance of Sleep | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:04:22

Working at Your Best Are you a lark or an owl? Research has shown that no matter your birdlife tendencies our brains are most effective in the morning, no matter your birdlife tendencies. Making the most of this productive period means you can whizz through tasks that can feel heavy and a bit of a slog if you worked on them in the afternoon. Think of it a bit like the difference between swimming with and against the tide – swimming with the tide feels easy and natural swimming against it feels hard work and leaves you feeling tired. Taking a Break The culture of staying in the office later to show commitment can often lead to another “game” – who can take the least breaks. Breaks are often taken as a sign of weakness and anyone who takes them is slacking. When it comes to productivity the opposite is infact true. Taking a break boosts our productivity and changing our environment or situation often gives us the creative idea we were searching for, or the answer to a problem or issue we couldn’t figure out. Taking a break not only boosts productivity it also boost happiness and health – what’s not to like about that? Flow If you haven’t heard of flow it’s an enhanced state of productivity. It’s where time seems to disappear as you get so wrapped up in what you are doing. Tasks seem to whizz by more quickly and easily than you had anticipated. Achieving a state of “flow” is as much about creating the right conditions as anything else. It’s the complete opposite of multitasking. It involves focussing on one thing at a time and giving it your full attention. No emails popping up, no messages, no phone calls, and no interruptions – just 45 or 90 minutes of pure productive pleasure. Flow enables you to achieve more than you thought possible and it also makes you much happier. I should also mention that it’s highly addictive – this enhanced feeling of productivity is the reason I fight past my natural owl tendencies to get into my office first thing in the morning.   Sleep Sleep is often something that just happens. We do it every day and then we do it again the next day. On my search for ways to improve productivity I wondered if there was a way I could improve the quality of my sleep. If I could improve the quality of my sleep perhaps I would need less of it so I hoped it would be a win win result. Bed was a place to relax with the laptop and get lots of work done. I loved being surrounded by papers and plodding through tasks and admin, researching and reading of course. Then I learned about the dangers of being exposed to the light of a computer before bedtime and it’s effect on slip. The laptop went, the television and then the smartphone. At an event I attended I heard a talk about the effects of wi-fi on sleep. That night I went home, switched off the router and slept through the night for the first time in ages. It’s something I have continued with ever since. Sleep is such a important part of what makes us productive and effective. A great resource to learn more about the benefits of sleep is the book Thrive by Arianna Huffington is a great book. Arianna collapsed at work through exhaustion and the book tells the story of her education about sleep and sleep quality. 

 Strategic Scheduling - Scheduling, Urgent vs Important and Flow | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:04:10

Scheduling     Putting things in your diary is a great way to carve outsome space and time for them. As any coach will tell you nailing down acommitment to take action on goals is a key part of the activity when workingwith a client. There’s a formula for coaching called the GROWmodel and the “W” stands for will or way forward. At this stage in thesession the coach will work hard to get the client to commit time and energy tothe activity they want to work on. Great coaches know that the more specificthe client is about when and where they will take action the greater the chanceof success. Making time and space in your diary to work on something greatlyimproves the chances of you doing actually doing it. Universitiesand educational institutes already share the benefits of scheduling withtheir students to help them avoid cramming. Urgent vs. Important   Urgent tasks often feel like they are important, but oftenthey are not. The problem with urgent tasks is that they often demand much ourattention and they often have a looming deadline and a sense of pressure. Theirurgency does not give us the space to do our best work and they also requiremuch moving round of other projects and activities to accommodate them. Urgenttasks come with a heavy price when it comes to being effective and productive.Spending time on urgent activities means there is never time to focus on thestrategic, the planning, the meaty important stuff that means the most to us. Thistool is often referred to as the Eisenhowerdecision matrix – it takes its name from Dwight D. Eisenhower, President ofthe United States. This is a great tool to use when planning where to spendtime and focus. By moving away from urgent tasks we create space to work on thethings that are really important.         Sowing the Seeds to Success   If you are familiar with productivity improvement processesyou may be familiar with something called “set up reduction”. It’s used in allsort of industries to enable production to keep flowing as smoothly as possiblewithout having to stop and get set up for the next batch, line, patient oractivity. One of the simplest ways to employ this technique in our workinglives is to get ready for our working day the day/night before. It’s verysimple to do. Simply clear your desk of anything that doesn’t relate to themost important task you will be working on first. Work on that task first anddo nothing else for 45-90 minutes – no phone calls, emails or distractions. BrianTracy calls this technique “eating frogs”. It’sa memorable way to make sure you get your most important task done first andit’s a fantastic way to feel great for the rest of the day too.    

 Strategic Scheduling - Scheduling, Urgent vs Important and Flow | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:04:10

 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

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