Are you Really More Productive?

I worked for a few years as a thermoformer operator in a plastics factory.

My job was to produce the maximum number of parts in a 12 hour shift while keeping quality within the spec guidelines.

I kept records of "recipes" that I used for setting oven temperatures, water cooler temperatures, cycle speeds and factored in external factors such as room temperature and other variables.

My creativity was used in a semi-scientific process with an end goal in mind. I was pretty good. i was promoted a few times. I was a mentor and teacher to others. But eventually I quit.

I wasn't passionate about plastic.

I returned to the marketing world where my creativity involved writing ads and advertising campaigns and all the other stuff that wasn't as easily measured. Formulas were more theoretical and less concrete.

Now I work in a combination of those worlds, with my position in sales as a Solutions Consultant for a website development company.

There is the creative marketing/sales side and the hard numbers analytics provides via the actual web technology.

DLM has some thoughts on the subject:

Is Your Passion for Productivity Hurting Your Career?

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 11:21 AM PDT

Confession: I’m a productivity junkie. I love the “more with less” mindset. There isn’t a time management technique I haven’t tried.

But, as a career coach, I’ve seen many cases in which passion for productivity has actually been a hindrance to career success

What do I mean? Well, being productive is obviously a good thing. We all need to get stuff done. But an over-emphasis on doing can sometimes cause performance problems in the professional world.

To help you understand what I mean and figure out if your passion for productivity is harming your career, take a look at the statements below. Do any ring true for you? If so, it may be time to focus on doing less—and thinking more.

• You’re dividing your attention.
  Multitasking sounds great in theory but it doesn’t really work. When we attempt to split our attention between tasks, one—or both—will inevitably suffer.
  
  When we multitask at work, we end up making mistakes that ultimately have to be repaired. It’s a time suck and it’s also a poor representation of your capabilities. Multitasking can also be downright rude. People feel disrespected because you’re not giving them—or the work—its due attention.
  
  The real skill to hone in the workplace is concentration. Improve your ability to focus on the task at hand and then smoothly transition that concentration wholly to the next task. Avoid the temptations of multitasking and learn to engage fully in the moment.
  


• You’re rushed.
  The “go, go, go” mantra of corporate America keeps most professionals in a permanent state of urgency. With an ever-growing to-do list, they feel compelled to constantly rush through their work and get to the next thing. In the process, careless errors happen. This mentality also contributes to huge amounts of stress, which can end up damaging your professional relationships and reputation even further.
  
  Never sacrifice accuracy and good work for speed. Moving quickly is not the sign of productivity. The faster you move, the more potential there is for trouble. Slowdown. Pace yourself. Be intentional in your actions.
  


• You’re focusing on quantity over quality.
  All too often, productivity junkies get into a mindset of “more is better.” The more time you put in, the more successful you’ll be. The more you do, the more you’ll achieve. However, this isn’t always the case.
  
  Productivity is not about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things well. It’s
  not about working all the time; it’s about using your work time wisely.
  
  It’s far better to complete just a few important items on your checklist rather than tons of unimportant ones. It’s better to work really productively for a shorter period of time than semi-productively for a longer period of time. In the workplace, it’s always smart to focus on quality over quantity.
  


• You’re doing too much.
  Productivity junkies like me are notorious for biting off more than we can chew. But systems and time management techniques won’t help you if you can’t help yourself. Say “no” once in a while. Set limits. Establish realistic expectations. Stop accepting more and more work just because you want to prove that you’re productive. We get it.
  
  I’ve seen it time and again: Taking on too much inevitably leads to anxiety, stress, missed deadlines, and mistakes. It’s a sure-fire way to perpetuate the negative productivity cycle. Break out of it. Use your passion for productivity in the workplace for good, not evil. Get it under control so it doesn’t accidentally drag your career down as it has for others.

Written on 8/24/2011 by Chrissy Scivicque. Chrissy is a career coach and the founder of EatYourCareer.com. She helps professionals develop strategies and take meaningful action toward achieving career goals. Pick up a copy of Chrissy’s FREE career workbook to find out just how nourishing your career really is and how you can make it even more so.

Photo Credit: orcmid

Saving Money Before 2009

I opened my email today and saw this excellent and very timely tip from the DLM Blog. This weekend my wife and I took a look at our finances together and I urge you to do the same with your housemate, or what ever you call him/her/it.

9 Year End Tax Tips that may pay for your Holiday Shopping!

Posted: 27 Dec 2008 06:38 AM PST

Christmas has come and gone - well, at least until that credit card bill comes. Before you begin the tradition of fearing the mail carrier and the inevitable sticker shock that awaits, why not take some preemptive measures and make it a little simpler to pay your credit card bill, your mortgage, or simply start that emergency fund that has alluded you.

This is indeed the time of year where planning pays. Consider a couple of year end tax saving strategies for perhaps a larger tax refund or smaller liability, depending upon your situation.

1. Consider sending in some additional money towards your mortgage. The extra interest you pay will be deductible in 2008.
   


2. Clean out your closet or attic and give clothes, old furniture, and books, to a charity like Salvation Army and the local library. Ask for help to determine the value and get a receipt. If you itemize, this can really add up and save you hundreds and perhaps even thousands.
   

   "You may deduct charitable contributions of money or property made to qualified organizations if you itemize your deductions." (IRS Publication 78)
   

3. Make any cash charitable contribution by the end of the year. You can use your credit card therefore making charitable deductions deductible in 2008.
   


4. Make certain you are getting your tax credits. Earned Income credit, Child credits, Education credits, etc. Credits are better than deductions and can save you hundreds. You can even get these credits before you get your W-2 in late January, early February. Many people fail to take them at all!
   


5. Consider an IRA. If you have never invested before, this a great time to start and IRA’s are a great vehicle for tax savings. Traditional IRA’s help with saving taxes today and Roth’s will save you taxes in the future. Here is a good primer on how to start an IRA.
   


6. Consider selling investments that are trading at a loss. For tax purposes, you are better off taking a loss in order to take advantage of either offsetting against gains or ordinary income of up to $3,000.00 a year. Make certain you stay out of the investment for 31 days in order to avoid the Wash Sale Rule.
   


7. Consider paying your state and local taxes by the end of the year so they are deductible in 2008. This is where good year-end planning can really add up.
   


8. If you have a high net worth or just have some cash sitting around, consider gifting some money to your children. The IRS allows you to give up to $12k per year without triggering estate/gift tax liability ($13k in 2009). This makes more and more sense with a Democratic majority and estate tax thresholds decreasing. The smaller your estate, the less you will have to pay in estate taxes.
   


9. Consider changing your withholding. If you are consistently getting money back from the IRS, you may be withholding too much. This freed up cash can help us budget our money better.
   

Remember that a good tax advisor/preparer can really be worth their salt and getting your taxes done early can also create some savings too.

Many CPA’s offer an early bird special if you get them your information in February. This also allows for a better dialogue between you and your tax advisor. I can speak from experience from preparing taxes that the clients that got their information into the office in April did not get the same deductions that the client got in February and March. Simply, this is because there is no time for phone tag when you wait until the last minute.

Written on 12/27/2008 by Bob O'Brien. Bob has been a financial advisor for 14 years and is a Sr. Instructor at Mywealth.com.

Photo Credit: rick

More than a Honey-Do List

Good Monday Morning,

Do you have YOUR list?

How To Make Your To-Do List Work For You

Posted: 04 Sep 2008 08:05 AM CDT

Written on 9/04/2008 by Ali Hale who writes about healthy eating for busy people at her blog, The Office Diet.

Photo Credit: Jayel Aheram

Whether you’re a student, employee, or freelancer, chances are that you’ve come across lots of advice recommending that you use a to-do list. At its simplest, a to-do list is just a series of tasks that you want to get done today – but there are dozens of variations on this theme.

However elaborate your to-do list, it’s utterly useless to you if you ignore it. Anyone – however lazy – can scribble down an ambitious plan for the day, but if yours rarely bares any relation to reality, read on to find out how to make a to-do list work for you.

1. What should go on your to-do list?
   The first question to ask yourself is whether you’re including too much on your to-do list. If a task doesn’t need to be done, and you don’t want to do it, it doesn’t warrant a place on your list. (Feeling that you should do it often isn’t a good enough reason.)
   
   Make sure the tasks you enter are single ones, ideally taking no more than an hour each. That means that instead of putting “Create website for client” on the list, you break it down into smaller chunks:
   
   
   • Use the mock-up for client’s website to create the home page
     
   • Create the other pages based on home page and enter dummy text
     
   • Resize and reformat the graphics which the client supplied
     
   
   ... etc. If you want to learn more about how to “chunk” down a huge or seemingly impossible task, read Tim Brownson’s excellent (and funny) article Chunky Monkey Builds a Plane.
   
   But don’t try to go into too much detail. If a task takes less than 15-20 minutes, it shouldn’t be on your list.m Eg. “Reply to email from Tom”, “Reply to email from Sue”, “Reply to email from Dave” don’t need to be separate tasks. But nor should you stop everything you’re doing each time an email comes in, in order to reply – you’ll waste a lot of time that way. Just put “Reply to outstanding emails” and do them all together as a batch. (Darren Rowse has a great post on Problogger about how he uses batching to work more effectively.)
   


2. Do you prefer a paper or electronic to-do list?
   Some people like to keep things simple and write a paper to-do list; others take advantage of one of the many software tools out there to keep an online list. There’s pros and cons to both methods and it’s worth experimenting to find out what works for you.
   
   If you spend a lot of time away from your computer (i.e. if you’re a student researching essays in the library), then try using a paper list – this served me well at university! Paper lists also work if you have a small number of tasks to do. For instance, if you work full-time but do a little freelancing in the evenings and weekends. I now use an electronic to-do list, but several friends have recommended the ebook Todoodlist if you do want to use a paper system.
   
   For those who use a to-do list for their whole working day, an electronic version can help to keep things tidy – particularly when tasks need to be altered or postponed. I like the simple interface of Remember the Milk, which allows you to send in tasks by email and delegate tasks to other people. (It’s also free to use.) If you don’t have an always-on internet connection, though, you might prefer to use an offline solution – FruitfulTime’s Task Manager is worth a look.
   


3. Should you assign priorities to tasks?
   Almost every piece of task management software lets you assign priorities to the items on your list. Does this work for you? Some things to consider are:
   
   
   • “Low priority” tasks often get postponed again, and again, and again...
     
   • Should tasks be on your list if they’re unimportant?
     
   • Failing to complete your whole list (including low-priority items) means you’ve overplanned your day – you need to use fewer tasks.
     
   
   Some life coaches, such as Mark Forster, advise against prioritizing items: either a task needs to be done or it doesn’t, and you should be able to complete everything on your list in an average working day.


4. Do you use a “closed” or an “open” to-do list?
   Using a “closed” to-do list means that you write the list at the very start of the day (or even the evening before), and you don’t add tasks onto that list during the course of the day.
   
   An “open” to-do list typically means starting out with a few tasks that need to be done, then jotting down more and more as emails and phone calls come in … and trying to get them done the same day.
   
   The problem with using a “open” list is that it’s very easy for it to get too long. It’s also often an inefficient way to work. When you think of tasks that need to be done during the day:
   
   
   
   • Write them down on tomorrow’s list (unless they’re genuinely super-urgent)
     
   • Look at tomorrow’s list at the end of the day and assess whether the tasks you’ve written down are ones you really need or want to do.
     
   • Shift some of the tasks to later in the week, if they’re not urgent.
     
   
   This process ensures that you don’t end up getting distracted and doing jobs just for the sake of it. Of course, it’s easier to tell yourself, “I’ll get to that tomorrow” than to say it to a boss – so you may need to be a bit flexible if you’re in full-time employment. Even so, plenty of office work (i.e. emails from another department asking you for information) can wait until the next day.
   

I hope that’s given you some pointers – and perhaps some insights into why your to-do lists haven’t worked for you in the past. What’s your experience of to-do lists? Do you find them a useful way to keep track of everything and stay productive, or do they just cause you to feel stressed?

Ali

Before You Get Engaged...

Studies show that money is one of the leading areas of conflict leading to divorce.

Here's a great checklist from the Art of Manliness Blog:

5 Personal Finance Discussions To Have Before Getting Hitched

Posted: 10 Jul 2008 11:59 PM CDT

Photo by mbtrama

When a couple gets married, they’re not only joining lives, they’re joining bank accounts. Each person brings to the relationship different attitudes and ideas about money. One of the keys to a happy and successful marriage is to get on the same page with your spouse about finances.

Here are 5 things that a couple thinking about getting married should consider before getting hitched.

1. Review your credit history and debt together

Before you get married, sit down and look over each others’ credit report. One person’s bad credit score is bad for the both of you. You don’t want to find out when you apply for a loan that your lovely wife racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt to pay for a shoe shopping habit while in college. By then it’s too late. Finding out each others’ credit score before you apply for a loan can help you decide whether to leave the person with the crappy score off the loan application so you can get a good rate. If you don’t do this, you’ll end up like this guy:

The guy is kind of a douchebag when he says he wouldn’t have married his wife if he knew her credit report. But the commercial gets across the point that it’s important to know each others’ credit report before getting married. It will help you make decisions when taking out a loan.

2. Discuss financial goals

Find out each others’ financial goals and attitudes about money. Is your wife a spendthrift or a frugal monger? Does she want to save for a down payment on a house or does she want to be a renter? You can preempt money tension down the road by getting your goals and attitudes out in the open from the very beginning of your marriage. If one of you likes to spend and the other likes to save, your marriage isn’t doomed, you’ll just have to come to a compromise. Establish what this compromise is going to be at the beginning of your marriage.

3. Decide whether to have joint or separate accounts

The choice to have joint or separate accounts is entirely up to your personal preference. Each has their benefits and drawbacks. It also doesn’t have to be either/or. Many couples have a joint account for home expenses and maintain separate accounts for personal ones.

If you do decide to open up a joint account, make sure you both are aware of how much is in the account. You don’t want to have pay unnecessary overdraft charges.

4. Draft a budget together

Budgets aren’t sexy. They’re tedious and boring. Creating a budget with someone else makes it even harder because each of you have different priorities on spending money. While you might want to allocate more money for entertainment, she might want more money for groceries.

But creating a budget together is vital. It will help bring your spending habits more in-line with each other. It also makes BOTH of your aware of what’s going on in your finances instead of just one person being in the know.

I recently found a great (and FREE!) spreadsheet program based on the envelope budget system. It’s simple and easy to use. Download it, sit down with your gal, and get to cracking on a budget.

5. Decide who is going to head up the finances

The days of having the man have sole control over a couple’s finances are over. Couples these days often choose who is going to tend to the bills and bank accounts based on who has more of a desire to do it. It always seems that within a couple, one partner has more of a knack and interest in it than the other. If neither of you are inclined to head it up, you can always divvy up the tasks equally. Still, things tend to run smoothest when one person takes on most of the responsibly. But even if one partner does the lion’s share, the other spouse should be kept actively abreast of what is going on and be a part of all major decisions. You don’t want your wife to die and suddenly realize you have no idea what the state of your finances is.

Do you read less or more with the growth of the Net?

I'll answer this first.

I read more. I read books daily.

I read emails quickly.

I spend some time at least once a week checking on the local blogs that are on the right side of this page.

And a tip of the hat to those of you that write at least 5 times a week.

Some of you will be removed from my list due to lack of new material.

But there is also room for more on those lists.

I have undertaken the self imposed discipline to write a least one new post a day on this blog, and at least 3 per day on my Collective Wisdom blog.

There are two keys to this. One, is a new feature that blogger.com has where you can write now and post in the future. For example, it is 10:30 Monday night as I type, but I've decided to wait until 8:30am Tuesday for this to appear.

The other key, is determination to make a promise and follow through with it.

Back to the reading question.... what about you? Feel free to post a comment with your answer.

I'll be checking this blog Tuesday night...

Friday or is it Fried-day?

Starting to drag a little. See, today I did what all the experts tell you do to be more productive and that is start your day earlier!

6:15am the sounds of ROCK 104 fill the bedroom until I can slap the snooze alarm and roll over for another 7 minutes.

I used to get up at this earlier time until the holidays and then I found myself sleeping in until 7 something and getting to work between 8 and 8:30.

Too late I decided and so I was at work before 7:30 this morning. I'll try this again next week. In the meantime, if you see me nodding off, leave me alone.

Reaching goals

As of 2:30pm today, I personally reached our company goal for the week. And we still have 4 more days to go!

There is something reassuring about reaching for and exceeding goals. As a former manager of mine would say, "Don't let our goals hold you back."

Now my plans for the rest of the week are to set up the successes for the rest of the month.

Did you set a goal for yourself for today? for this week? for this month or year? Do it!