Hasta La Ideas

Glen Stansberry, productivity blogger and the brains behind the LifeRemix network (a network Unclutterer proudly belongs to), authored “80 Ways to Steal Valuable Minutes for Your Work Day” Tuesday for American Express’ OPEN Forum website. The article gives tips and insights from 19 small business and productivity writers and consultants on how to get more done without having to clone yourself.

Some of my favorite tips from the article:

Jonathan Fields, JonathanFields.com
“Exercise – It sounds counter-intuitive. You have to spend time exercising. But, research has shown that exercise boosts cognitive function, creativity, problem solving and productivity. In fact a NASA study showed employees who exercised daily worked at 100% efficiency after 7 hours, while those who didn’t saw a 50% drop, meaning it took them twice as long to accomplish the same thing. So, exercise, in effect, creates time.”

Jonathan Salem Baskin, Dim Bulb
“Finally, a technique I learned in a high school mechanical drafting class was to group like-executed tasks together, so don’t just staple once but try to take care of any immediately obvious stapling needs. If you open your online calendar to add an appointment, check to see if there are others to add before you close it out. The time you don’t spend doing these repetitive tasks will be extra time to focus on the work that matters.”

Jeff Cornwall, The Entrepreneurial Mind
“Too often, entrepreneurs do not prepare their employees before delegating to them. This results in the classic case of ‘it is quicker to do it myself’. By investing the time in simple training, communicating a clear explanation of expectations, and documenting the basic process for them to follow, delegation will quickly become a way to free up time.”

Becky McCray, Small Biz Survival
“Use checklists. Make and use checklists of daily tasks. This saves you time in two ways: you will work more efficiently with a checklist in front of you, and you will spend less time trying to remember what still needs to be done. You can read more of my explanation of a social media marketing checklist here.”

I also enjoyed the obvious, but extremely important tip Glen shares at the end of the article:

Improve your typing speed. Think about how much time you spend in email and other forms of online communication. Improving how fast you type could potentially add bunches of minutes to your day.

You may not agree with all of the tips provided, but you’re sure to garner at least one or two gems from “80 Ways to Steal Valuable Minutes for Your Work Day.” Additionally, I liked the article because it introduced me to other articles, blogs, and writers on productivity.

While many productivity experts religiously follow the “only touch it once” system for document management, I’m more of a “touch it as few times as necessary” system follower. There are simply times when touching a paper only once is unrealistic for me — the mail will arrive while I’m on a phone call or I need to really mull something over before responding.

To handle these touch-more-than-once documents, I have a (gasp!) procrastination bin on my desk. Actually, it’s a basket that hangs from a shelf, but “hanging procrastination basket” just doesn’t have the same catchy name factor as the straightforward “procrastination bin.”

I have certain rules for what can and can’t go into the procrastination bin. The bin isn’t a dumping ground for things I don’t want to do or a spot for papers that need to be filed. It’s a designated area for things that can’t or shouldn’t be dealt with right now.

Qualities that make it okay for a document to go in the procrastination bin:

• It can fit. If the procrastination bin is full, nothing more can go inside of it and the document must be processed immediately. There is no squishing, fancy folding, or clever engineering to fit more inside the bin than what it was designed to contain.
• There are no consequences for procrastinating. If putting off the task will cause me stress, cause someone else frustration, or has a nearly immediate deadline, the document cannot go into the bin.
• Time is scheduled on the calendar for when to do it. When a paper goes into the bin, an entry must be made on the calendar for when to properly process the paper. Nothing can go into the bin and be forgotten.
• Procrastinating might be better than taking care of it right now. There are times when not taking immediate action is actually the best thing to do. The procrastination bin is perfect for these types of documents.
• The bin is small. I purposefully purchased the hanging basket that is made of wide mesh and isn’t very large. It can only be used for papers, and I’m not tempted to use it for items other than paperwork. It has a dedicated purpose and limited functionality.

In addition to the rules I have for the procrastination bin, I also have 30 minutes blocked off on my calendar each month to re-evaluate everything that is in the bin. Even with other dates on the calendar to process each paper, I’ve found that this 30 minutes will often take care of some of the items earlier than planned. I always schedule this 30 minute evaluation to occur right after lunch when my concentration levels are low. I realized that it’s better to use this time in a somewhat productive manner than waste it staring off into space, zoning out.

Today we welcome a guest post and many terrific suggestions from Annabel Candy who regularly blogs about productivity and self improvement at Get In the Hot Spot.

How often do you hear people say they don’t have enough time? Like me, you may have used the “not enough time” excuse as a reason for not following your dream.

We all have goals, the problem is making time for them in our busy schedules.

For years, I wanted to write but didn’t. I often used the “not enough time” excuse and thought it was true. I didn’t have time to write because I was running a business and raising kids.

But my life was totally immersed in doing, not being, and the more I did, the more unhappy I became.

Until I decided to do something about it, accept the blame, and prioritize better.

First, I worked out where my time went.

I wrote down everything I did and noticed my days were cluttered. A typical entry would be: 10 minute personal call, 10 minutes planning meals, 20 minute business call, 15 minutes e-mailing.

By lunchtime I often felt so frazzled I just slumped in front of the TV with Dr. Phil and rejoiced that at least I wasn’t as messed up as his guests.

After a week, I made a pie chart showing where my time went, where I could save time, and what I could remove. I recommend doing this as a visual guide to see how your time is spent.

There were 10 main time traps I noted and what I needed to do to control them:

1. The Phone – I don’t have to answer it every time it rings.
2. The Internet – Log in an few times a day for specific purposes only.
3. Housework – Let some things slide. The state of my house is not an indication of my emotional well-being and it doesn’t have to be perfect.
4. Friends and Family – Manage them into times when I want to see them or socialize. Don’t let them encroach.
5. Cooking and Shopping – Streamline them, bulk buy and cook.
6. Sleep – Try cutting out one hour of sleep. I’ll probably function fine and gain an extra hour a day.
7. Commuting to work – Can I cut out the commute and work from home a few days a week?
8. Reading – Reading about writing, travel or starting a business is good unless it takes up time when I could have been doing them.
9. TV – Limit it to the shows I actually enjoy. Never channel hop.
10. Dreaming – At some point I have to stop dreaming about following my passion and start doing it.

Stop yearning for more time and work out how to create it with these four steps:

1. Make a pie chart that reflects your tracked time.
2. Work out which time traps are stopping you from following your dreams.
3. Write a weekly schedule for yourself and stick to it. Make sure you log at least three sessions for following your dream.
4. Schedule times in your calendar for the things you want to do and follow through.

No more “not enough time” excuses needed.

Whether you’re taking on a new assignment at work or clearing clutter from your basement, successful projects have basically the same structure:

1. Open lines of communication
2. Gather data
3. Identify final outcome and deadline
4. Envision achievement of final outcome
5. Set small milestones on a realistic timeline
6. Do the work
7. Stay in communication with relevant parties
8. Finish project
9. Cleanup, review, and/or reflect

The first step in this process could be opening up lines of communication with your boss, client, or possibly a service provider like an electrician. With a project like a closet cleanup, the communication might simply be motivating yourself or letting your roommate know you’re going to be making a giant, but temporary, mess.

When you’re gathering data in the second step, you’re looking to learn as much as you can about the entire project. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Someone else might be giving you this data or you may need to seek it out yourself. How much clutter lurks in your attic? What is it? How should you handle it?

Steps three, four, five, and six are pretty straightforward — you want to know where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there, and then you need to take the steps to make that happen. Setting small milestones in addition to the overall large goal keeps you on track throughout the entire project.

The seventh step is often forgotten, but vitally important if you’re working with or coordinating others. When you provide status reports to everyone involved in the project you’re managing their expectations of your work and helping them to plan and complete their part of the work.

Step number eight is the best step, and may be worthy of a celebration.

The last step is important for getting you ready for the future. Cleaning up helps objects get returned to their storage space and ready for the next time you or someone else wants to use them. Reviewing the project after it’s completed helps you identify what worked and what didn’t, and reflecting on the entire project motivates you to take on more projects (or fewer) like it in the future. Completing this step, and even writing it down or logging it in some way, also gives you something to reflect on later for a performance review or even in your personal life.

Back when I was an avid knitter (a.k.a. before parenthood), I participated a few times in the Knitting Olympics. The idea of the Knitting Olympics is that you begin a large project at the start of the actual Olympic opening ceremonies, and you work diligently to finish the garment by the end of the closing ceremonies. Many knitters take on intricate lace shawl or fair isle sweater projects — projects that are really challenging to finish in 16 days.

I like the idea of using the Olympics as motivation to complete a difficult project. Olympians train years, decades, and some even their entire lives for mere minutes of Olympic competition. They don’t give up because the obstacle might seem unobtainable; they keep training until they realize their dreams of Olympic glory.

There are only 12 days left until the final Olympic ceremony. What challenging uncluttering project can you conquer before the Olympic flame is extinguished?